November, we hardly knew ya....

So, as is usually the case in November, Dad has monopolized the computer in order to write his silly little novel (or, as I'm told) to continue the huge novel he started a couple years ago...I have once again fallen behind on my updates...if you're still around, thanks as always for your patience...if you left and then came back, WELCOME BACK!

November was a nice month...did some traveling, and saw a lot of people...I also met some new people...the next few posts will be a delicious mixture of catching you up on my eleventh month, and keeping you up to date on my newest developments...

Just a brief note about my most recent doctor visit, which was technically the nine month visit.

Things went well, and I came in at 17 lbs, 0.5 ounces, my head was 17 7/8 inches around, and I am currently coming in at 28 inches long. I am still a little light, but the doctor isn't too concerned. Mom and Dad are now redoubling their efforts to stuff me up....

SO...in mid-November, Mom was going on a business trip to New Orelans, so since Dad needed to hang out and watch me anyways, he decided to take a trip to Connecticut for the sole purpose of visiting...he'd had enough of rushed trips to Connecticut for weddings, or concerts, where he was always running around, so he decided instead do just plan to come up, and hang out at Da Gramma's place to receive guests, have some pizza for dinner, and relax...he also wanted to give people a chance to see me that hadn't had the chance to, or that hadn't seen me a lot...

This is my Dad's friend, Lynda...he has known her since high school and is one of his oldest friends. Her husband wants to have no less than 200 children, so we're trying to prepare her for the daunting tasks ahead...she was quite happy to have photographic evidence of herself holding a baby, and she actually did a pretty good job of hanging out with me. I think she'll be just fine with 199 more of me...
I think that this is when Mike was pretending to get punched by me...or was actually being punched by me. It's all a little fuzzy at this point...
The back of my adorable "New Sheriff in Town" pajamas, while I play with Auntie Steph and Laura. Martha Goose watches over the proceedings...
Laura was fast enough, and managed to get one of my favorite toy cups on my head...I'm not quite sure why, as I wiggled it off my head pretty quickly. The picture is blurry because of my unphotographable speed.

Yeah...see what I did there...I just made up that word.

This is my Dad's friend Janice...we're pretty sure that, while they are active online friends, they haven't seen one another since Mom and Dad got married about a hundred years ago...everyone was excited to see her again, and while I was thrilled to finally meet her, I was a bit...how do you say, distracted by the spoon that she gave me...it was just so shiny, and I could...see myself in it, and...I just...

Wait, what was I saying?

Here, Da Gramma gives me my first "sink bath" and I had a BLAST....Usually Mom and Dad are in such a hurry to give me a bath, that I don't have much time to play, but this time we had nowhere to be and there was no rush, so I played for awhile. I can't be sure, but I was told that the ceiling, window, and entire floor bore the wraith of my splashing glee..it was a lot of fun though.

Oh, and I guess I got clean, too.

At the end of Dad's portion of the trip, he dropped me off with Gramma Mindy, and hopped a train back home. Then, they went off to the airport and picked Mom up! From there, I got to hang out with Mom's half of the family, and spend the rest of the weekend there!

Photographic evidence of these events have been hard to come by, as Dad is much weirder about taking pictures than Mom is...in lieu of that, please enjoy me resting after a tiring day at Dad's family's place...

Five...count 'em, FIVE Teeth!

Today, we brought our cat Norma to the vet...It was my first time at the vet, and while there were some interesting new scents to while we were there, not much of note happened...

Except that Dad FINALLY caught a look at a new tooth!

You see, up until now, Mom has been the one who has been catching sight of all the new teeth that I seem to be sprouting with alarming regularity...(Though Gramma Mindy swore she saw buds before anyone else...)(

After the first two, we had a bit of a lull, and then two more popped out up top, followed by a fifth up top next to the two in the center.

At one point, I was testing these new suckers out, and was grinding them together, which REALLY gave Dad the heebie jeebies...he proclaimed that I was not to do that again...

I still do it, just not while he's around. :-P

So...we are now at 5! AND the world knows why I was a bit crabby lately...

To celebrate....here's a classic, unreleased picture...

Post Halloween....

Once again, due to my touring commitments, there has been a lag in the blog...but not anymore! I'm back again!

In my last post, we talked about Halloween...I hope you all had a great time, and that you ended up with all treats and no tricks (But let's face it...if you ended up with tricks, it's more than likely because you deserved it...am I right?)

Last time, we discussed my pre-Halloween party at daycare, and some of the cute clothes that I have been wearing to celebrate this most ghoulish of holidays...this time around, a brief glimpse at Halloween night itself!

Mom and Dad knew that this year would be a fairly low-key Halloween...usually they go off to some Halloween parties and hop around town, but with Halloween on a Saturday, they knew it'd be slim pickins for babysitters...

So what did they do? They decided to host their own low-key Halloween party..the goal? Stop on by our apartment on your way to bigger fancier bash, see me in my adddoooorrrable costume, have some snacks, and then be off on your merry way.

Mom and Dad got about half a dozen or so of their friends to swing by, and they had a very good time. Everyone got a kick out of me crawling around in my costume, and tearing apart the house.

Mom and Dad dressed up as Ma & Pa Kent, so that all three of us had a matching set of costumes...it was fun!
Mom got such a kick out of me sucking my thumb, and crawling around and doing baby stuff while wearing my Superman costume...it seemed like such a strange combination, that both her and Dad thought it was the funniest thing ever...

We had plenty of flying games, and people ate Mom's awesome cupcakes, bleu cheese and honey brochettes...she also made a great spiked apple cider...

All of this has been relayed to me by Dad, and while I can't eat any of that stuff now, I look very forward to trying it out, someday!

What a nice Halloween!! I'm so happy that it comes again next year!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Welcome to my first Halloween, everyone! I hope everyone out there has a happy, and safe day! Today is my Dad's favorite holiday, and he has been celebrating throughout the month by watching some of his favorite scary movies, and a few new ones, too. He promises to share them with me, once I'm old enough!

Since it's such a fun holiday to get dressed up for, I have been outfitted in a myriad of adorable Halloween-related clothes! My Gramma Mindy bought me some stuff, and some pictures follow!

I had a few pairs of Halloween jammies, which I loved (Nothing beats a pumpkin on a baby's butt)

Though I enjoyed my jammies, as you can see below, I wasn't always happy...like when Mom is trying to take a picture of me looking cute when I'm not in the mood. Mom and Dad suggested that I put this picture up to show that I am indeed crabby sometimes...we can't all be perfect all the time. Life would get very dull.



I also loved my Jack-O-Lantern shirt, which I got a ton of mileage out of (I am actually wearing it again right now as I do this blog entry) As seen below, I also assisted with laundry (Mainly in an effort to get my Halloween clothes cleaned so I could wear them again)


Last, but not least, is my "boo" striped shirt. This is a lot of fun to wear because stripes make me look adorable, and I do so love the attention.

Right...like I'm not adorable in everything. In this pic, you can get a good preview of the destruction that I have been wreaking, ever since I started crawling. More on that later.



AND I got to wear my first costume.



The suspense is over...I'm dressing up as Superman for my first Halloween! Mom had wanted me to be Superman, because she thought it would be so cute, but both Mom and Dad fell for an astronaut costume. They finally decided on that, but it was sold out. Dad went to a Halloween store, and found just the kind of costume Mom had wanted. Now, Mom and Dad get to dress up as Ma and Pa Kent, and I am Superman! (Technically, I'm Superbaby, but that's just pithy details...)

I also had my first Halloween party at daycare! We all got to dress up, and hang out. The grown-ups had food that they all brought in. They looked they were having as much fun as we were! There were some activities that the adults got to do, which was fun to watch. They had to share funny stories according to the number of M&Ms they pulled out of a bowl (Odd, I know...Dad was smart and only picked two....he told the funny tale of my looooong name, and the funny fact that he got to dress in what he was wearing to the party to work everyday, which was cargo pants and a t-shirt. He wore a Halloween t-shirt from a party that Mom and Dad went to years ago to join in the spirit of Halloween.)

Is this rambling enough yet? Let's get to some pictures!!


There was a second Superman there in addition to me, but I just decided that he was Bizarro Superman, and left it at that.

The daycare also took the older kids around in a parade throughout the office building that we're in, so they could show off their costumes, and safely trick or treat! I can't WAIT to do this when I get older!

I was sad, because Mom couldn't make it to the daycare party. She had to work, so Dad took me in by himself. He looked like he had fun, even though he was nervous about not really knowing anyone.



He also took a lot of pictures for Mom, so she could see what was going on. He also talked to a lot of other people, and it all seemed to go well. The staff did a great job decorating, and setting up. It was a lot of fun to just hang out with them, instead of making them work to watch me.

Although, I did find time to try and get into the toy wall.


I made it all the way to the end of the party with my costume on and had SO much fun...we went to pick Mom up from work, and when she saw me in the costume, she somehow found a way to love me even more.

Or that's what I assume.

I was a bit exhausted from a pretty hardcore event with tons of people around, but I AM pretty used to it thanks to all the weddings and large events my parents take me to. I was exhausted and fell right to sleep last night...

Tonight is our small, low-key Warm Up Halloween party....and I'm sure you'll hear more about that tomorrow.

Safe trick-or-treating to all!

Treats!

I have been trying lots of new food, with varying degrees of success....now that Mom and Dad are part of this fruit and vegetable program (local farmers drop off a big haul of fruits and veggies at her job, and everyone takes some home...it's far too complicated for a baby to understand.) I get to try lots of new stuff!

There are a few pics to accompany these trials and tribulations, but basically I'm working on some new squashes and eggplants, wheat pasta and oatmeal...apple sauce, and other great veggies. Mom insists that I have a more varied palette than Dad (who, as far as I can tell, only ate pizza and hot dogs growing up....he apparently used to have a more varied diet, until he get older and became ridiculous about eating)

On a side note...my southern relatives have taken to calling me "AppleSauce" in reference to my middle name. Charming. I am now prepared for one of the possible nicknames I will have in school. 

I also tried some of those baby puffs that the kids are all raving about....they didn't go down so well with me. I'm not used to eating something so dry, so it kind of gagged me a bit. Dad nearly had a heart attack when I was gagging, since I also wasn't making any other noises.

Yeah, he thought I was choking. I finally made some noise after choking down the puff, but Dad swore them off for awhile. He was a bit terrified. 

As you can plainly see, I am not pleased by the puffs...they're supposed to dissolve quickly, but they didn't dissolve quickly enough for MY tastes.

Dad finally let me have puffs again a couple days ago, and it went much better. I have been testing my thumb and forefinger by picking up the puffs and transferring them to different sections in my high chair. Dad gave me a puff, which I crunched with my two lower teeth (Where the heck are my uppers!? I can't chew food with only the lower half working at full capacity!!) 

I then chewed up and swallowed the puffs....mission accomplished! Dad then gave me another puff, which I promptly spit out, and moved to another section of my highchair.

Baby Tour 2009_Leg_6_Uncle_Steve_Gets_Married!

Sorry there haven't been any new updates recently...it's been a busy few weeks of traveling.  A couple small things to report later on, but first...the big news...

My Uncle Steve got married, and I suddenly got myself an Aunt Amy.

Now, don't get me wrong...I only have one Auntie...that's Auntie Stephanie, but I have to say, Amy has done a heckuva job so far, and it's only been a couple days! (She did get a head start, since she has been dating my uncle for a little while...)

Speaking of Auntie Stephanie...Here is a nice picture of my her and I....I was a bit worn out by this point, so pardon the expression....but you can really tell that my Auntie enjoyed her dance with me. :-)

Our final wedding of the 2009 wedding season was held up in Connecticut, and we drove up on Thursday morning (Actually early afternoon, since I demanded feeding, and of course a nap)

Thursday night was the rehearsal dinner, which I skipped, since it was past my bedtime. Instead, I got to hang out with Gramma Mindy, and have a relaxing evening at home. Mom and Dad had a baby-free evening, and told me that the rehearsal went well, and that dinner was pretty good, too!

On the wedding day, it was a bit hectic....so many people running around was very overwhelming, but luckily we ended up getting ready at the last minute, and getting to the chapel on time. Mom was concerned that I wouldn't deal well with my bowtie, but it ended up being just the thing I needed to keep calm, and to chew on throughout the wedding. Dad's friend Dumas remarked that I have worn as many tuxes in my first ten months, as he had worn in his first 30 years. 

What can I say? I love getting all decked out.

The ceremony was very nice....it was touching, and very sweet. I saw my Dad, and nearly twisted my head off my shoulders to look at him when he walked down the aisle. I barely recognized him after his extreme makeover! I thought he cleaned up well. 

A sidenote...Dad had been growing his absurd beard (and by absurd, I mean absurdly fun to play with) for a year, and his deadline for shaving it had passed, so it was time to shave it off...and he decided to go all out and get a haircut to match.

We actually got a fairly decent picture together at the reception, though as always I was tired, and a bit distracted. God, I hope I don't have mono. 

Anyway....I made some noise during the ceremony, because hey...I'm a baby, and I was excited. Uncle Steve and Dad laughed a little, but they made it through. (I also interrupted my Dad's toast....he called me out, which was funny....everyone laughed!)

The reception was a lot of fun! There was a lot of dancing and socializing, which is always a blast with this family. Mom and Dad danced around with me and sang the Barenaked Ladies' classic "If I had $1,000,000" I couldn't stop laughing, I was having so much fun! Mom and Dad are so goofy. 

I have no chance out there when I get older, do I?

As always, a good number of our relatives were up from Down South (minus a few notable exceptions, since the wedding was on a Friday, and some people couldn't make it...also, my cousin Elise was working on several surgeries to correct a broken wrist, so she had to stay behind....ouch! Feel better, Elise!) They are always fun to see, and love to hold me, play with me, and generally carry me around! I enjoy when people like that kind of stuff, as I am a baby, and those are some of my favorite things.

There were also tons of new friends and family to meet, as always! How many people does my family know!? Sheesh! It was great to see everyone, and we had so much fun!

As the night wore down, I made everyone jealous by switching off into pajamas...Dad let me wear his tophat for the end of the night, and Gramma Mindy was kind enough to take me home so Mom could stay and finish the wedding out with Dad and everyone else.

 I'm told that while I was crying in the car with Gramma Mindy, Mom and Dad danced to the song that closed out their wedding...Weezer's Island in the Sun. Aw...so sweet. :-)

All in all, another great wedding to close out our wedding season! First my Auntie Steph, and then my Uncle Steve! I give THAT a resounding thumbs-up!!

Some of the biggest news yet...

Two weeks ago, I was in Connecticut for my Uncle Steve's wedding...I decided that, instead of letting people focus on Steve and my new aunt, I would throw down the gauntlet...

Now, for weeks I have been getting up to my knees and rocking back and forth....teasing the fact that I would try and crawl, but quickly fooling my parents and everyone else into thinking that I could possibly skip crawling and go right to walking.

No such luck, everyone!

While Mom was out of the room, there were a bunch of people sitting around the dinning room table: Dad, DaGramma, Gramma Mindy, my Uncle Steve, Lynette, Mrs. Dumas....and of course, the tuxedoed Monkey. They were playing with me, and watching me have fun scooting around the table...when I shocked them all my crawling right across the table!

I like to do things dramatically. :-)

Dad called Mom, and of course he pulled out the video camera to capture my second crawling adventure. Lynette was helping by watching my feet and providing back up, and you'll see that I crawl for a couple feet....after pitching forward, I continued using my patented army crawl technique to keep going after various items....the monkey, the soda cans. Everyone seemed to enjoy it as much as I did, which was quite a lot.

At the end of it, I fell forward onto my face, and bonked my chin pretty good. The fun was over for the time being, and Mom took me away to recover.

Since then, I have been crawling a lot more, and pulling myself up to move around my crib in the morning. It's obviously a lot easier to crawl on the carpet, and we have hard wood floors at home. I don't get as much practice as I'd like, but I try to get some at daycare when I can, and at home on our carpeted spots.

I now wiggle and crawl everywhere, so watch out for me!!

Below is Dad's video....he was kind enough to edit out the part where I fall and cry.