A Day in the Life

I decided to photo-journal my entire day yesterday, because I had no idea what would transpire. Here's the situation:

(1) Tim is on campus all day long, but I have the car.
(2) I have no work assignments, and no plans whatsoever.

What do I do?

Wake up, play with Baby, and say goodbye to Husband:

Give Baby breakfast:
Put Baby down for nap #1:

Eat breakfast, get on the computer, and eventually shower and get dressed:

Retrieve Baby from nap #1:

Play at the park:

Return home and feed Baby a delicious lunch of cottage cheese and banana:

Put Baby down for nap #2:

Wash dishes, eat lunch, and read:

Retrieve Baby from nap #2:

Play with toys:

Go to Jamba Juice and use my sweet gift card:

Stroll around Old Town Pasadena and buy small snack containers at the Container Store:

Return home, give Baby a snack, and play some more:

Give Baby a bath and put him to bed:

Get changed, welcome Husband home, tag-team with him, and go to a friend's house until 1 A.M.

The End.

Westerrific!

Howdy. I have nothing to write because it's been rainy and indoorsy and very boring here lately. So here are some January photos of Weston! Wheeeee!

Weston's bathtime has been upgraded from Baby Tub to Big Tub. More water = more splashing = more fun = Mommy and Daddy get extra soaked.

Weston's newest best friend is Stroller. He holds onto the bars and reaches to the other side and walks/stumbles all around the thing. It's like a mini playground for him.
Weston likes to people-watch at the zoo much more than he likes to animal-watch.

Markers are fun because they're the perfect size for wrapping his little paws around (at least until he discovers that the caps are removable, after which markers will become extra super fun for him but not so much for Mommy).

He's fascinated by the camera and usually reaches and grabs desperately at it.

He continues to walk on his own, but only when he feels secure and supervised (wink).

Look out, he's gonna getcha!!! (I think he was on the verge of tears here -- so sad!)

Weston is getting to the age where he's starting to become obsessed with Daddy. He hovers all around him when Tim is home.

And he stares at him. And wants to play. And play. And play. Haha!

Nickname Generator

In honor of Lost's return to the airwaves last night (YAAAAAAAAY whoa), check out Sawyer's Nickname Generator to find out what he would call you. So says Crouching Tiger!

Weston Is Walking!!! BAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

We are seriously SO excited that Weston is starting to walk!! THIS has been my life for the past few months, and I am more than thrilled to say goodbye to the broken-back-bend-over. Yaaaaaay! Anyway, it started with the Smunch taking a little step by himself here and there, and then standing by himself for just a moment. Then he learned to take a couple steps, and now he can pretty much take as many as he wants, as long as the ground is solid and flat and there's nothing in his way and he doesn't have to turn around (haha).

I've been looking forward to this for a long time. Oftentimes other people at Disney World would strike up a conversation about Weston, especially if they were watching me walk him around. They'd say something like, "He's cute!" or "Look at him go!" or something like that. And I'd always say, "Yeah, it'll be nice when I don't have to do this anymore" (referring to the bending-over-helping-him-walk thing). And they'd always say, "Haha, be careful what you wish for!" Hmm. They ALWAYS said that! Well, maybe that's true. Once he's freely mobile, then I'll have to watch him a whole lot more and chase after him every now and then. But ANYTHING will be better than waiting and waiting and waiting for him to be mobile! I will take Free Range Weston over Immobile Whimpery Weston any day. Yay!!!

P.S. He's STILL not crawling. So weird. But, I'll take what I can get.

P.P.S. I hate this video. I look horrible and I sound like a moron. But, I decided to swallow my pride and vanity and just let Weston shine in his glorious achievement. Try not to stare at the jelly belly. I know, it's hard.

P.P.P.S. If you're wondering about that thing in my mouth, it's a magnet. Weston loves the magnets on the fridge, and one of them happened to be on the living room floor, so I grabbed it and used it to lure him to me. Bwah ha ha.

ENJOY!

Word Verification Experiment

Alright, here's the truth: lately I have been completely unable to think of a darn thing to blog about. Does that ever happen to you? Do you experience blogwriter's block sometimes? Sure, things have been happening, but there just seems to be less motivation on my part (perhaps an aftereffect of my attempted New Year's Resolution). For example, our freaking amazing Disney World vacation? Too many photos to go through. My friend Melanie's baby shower? Super fun, but didn't take my camera because I didn't bring my purse because I walked there. My trip to Target the other day? Typical and unremarkable. A visit to the zoo with Weston where a gorilla squatted and tooted right in front of us? Okay, maybe. But only if I were feeling especially classy. ;-)

Therefore, in light of my present writer's block, I'm stealing a fun idea from my friend Chris (aka Best Singer-Songwriter Ever / Fellow D.C. Aficionado / HR Extraordinaire)'s blog. Here's how it goes:

Y'know how on many blogs, you have to type in a "word verification" in order to enter your comment? And y'know how they're always really random, made-up words? Well, give this experiment a try: click to post a comment on this blog, look at the fake "word verification" word, and then in your comment, write a sentence using the fake word as if it were a real word.

Here's an example: "Because I haven't been a good boy this year, Santa left me noshinge for Christmas."

Here's another example (which I wrote on Chris's blog): "When I visited Colombia, I was taken hostage and held coptib for nearly 5 months!"

So give it a try! Think creatively! Get those brainies humming! You can do it!! :-)

There and Back Again*

*10 Teamies** if you get that.
**Teamies are TIM & JEAN points. Start keeping score.

Helloooooooooooooo!!! WOW. I feel like we've been gone for SO LONG. Yet, it's amazing how quickly three weeks of rip-roaring vacation fun flies by. We had a lovely visit to PA and FL, which kicked off with the triumphant return of Tim's younger brother (one of 'em), Chris, who completed a two-year mission to Hungary. We mostly celebrated by asking him how to say things in Hungarian and by playing lots of Mario Kart and Mario Party on the DS. Yaaay.

From December 25 to January 6, the giant (in number) and extremely attractive Anderson Family graced Disney World with our presence. It was so fun!! There was laughing, smiling, talking, walking, waiting, shopping, eating eating eating (yay Disney Dining Plan), barfing, screaming, sleeping, rushing, relaxing, photographing, and more eating. It was everything that a Disney vacation should be.

However, because of my #1 New Year's Resolution (spend less time on the computer), I am unfortunately going to forgo posting 8,000 pictures from our trip, and instead offer this one tiny glimpse into the magic:

L-R: Mark (19), Weston (10 months), held by Tim (27), Brett (12), Jeremy (14), Jean (28), Cinderelly (ancient, as it turns out), Will (N/A), Anne Marie (N/A), Chris (22), Dana (25), Jay (25), Killian (17 months)

This is the whole group at Cinderella's Royal Table at Magic Kingdom (a character breakfast in the castle, complete with swirling, photogenic princesses, and with swords for the boys and magic wands for the girls). It was a hoot.

Some other Weston-related highlights of the trip:

(1) Weston LOVES poles. If there was ever a pole in his vicinity, he would reach for it and cling to it. He was always very well-behaved on the shuttle bus rides at Disney World because he had his precious poles. What a crazy cutie.

(2) Weston LOVES cats. Both my parents and Tim's parents have cats, and whenever they walked by, his eyes would get all wide and he'd wave his arms around and grunt or yell really loudly. It was hilarious!! If one of us happened to be walking him around at the time, he'd immediately start stomping after the cat, which of course sent the cat running. Haha! I think he needs to work on his subtlety.

(3) And finally... he LOVES his cousin Killian, and all his extended family. Both he and Killian would start squealing and smiling and shaking their arms whenever they saw each other. They're so young, but it seems like they're already becoming friends. So adorable.

Anyway, we're back now, and Tim starts classes today. We've been in somewhat of a fog since returning, in part due to the time change and in part to the mounds of laundry to be done, piles of bills to be paid, scores of emails to answer, and all that jazz. Because of my New Year's resolution, I think the 235 unread blog posts in my Google Reader may have to wait a bit, so I apologize if you miss my overly enthusiastic and moderately witty comments. I'll catch up, I promise!! In the meantime, I'll be forced to resort to the good, old fashioned, "asking people what's new in their lives" method.

Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy (belated) New Year! :-)