Egged Ribs, take 1

Adrian began using his Big Green Egg last week while my dad was here. These are photos of the low-heat, slow-cooked ribs he made last Sunday, as well as the indirect-heat setup for cooking (the paver and 2 bricks fit perfectly). The ribs were amazing and I'm sure you'll be enjoying his Egg-cellent cooking soon! (Sorry, couldn't resist.) We are planning on using the Egg to make our Thanksgiving turkey this year.

New Play Yard & Blocks

Thanks for the play yard and building blocks, Lola & Gramps! I like to throw the blocks around inside my play yard. And chew on them.

Veronica Video: Walking

Here is a video we took last Saturday of Veronica walking. The lighting goes from natural light to interior light, so there's a part in the middle where you can't see her face, but you can still see that she is walking! The yelling in the background is my dad. He was visiting and did an AMAZING job tiling the new bathroom (Thanks again, Dad!). I think he was more excited than she was at her walking. It is wonderful to watch. I love how she says "Hi." at the end. Enjoy!

Veronica Walks!

Good Morning Everyone!

Yesterday was the first day that Veronica walked without falling. It was amazing. Now she's unstoppable! I didn't get a chance to take a video, but we'll try this weekend. My dad is here helping with (more) renovations, so he is getting to see it. It's so much fun watching her development. Just the day before yesterday we were trying to get her to walk, but she would take a few steps and fall over, or just drop to her butt and crawl over. But yesterday something changed. It's so much fun having her walk between me and Adrian. I will try to get a video up soon.

Happy Friday!

Adrian's Promotion

Adrian was recently promoted to Senior Associate at his company. I'm so proud of him!

It's all over the internet. Check out the following links (the first two links have photos):

Banker & Tradesman: http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/news139797.html?Type=search

 

DesignBoston: http://www.designboston.org/2010/08/20/cbt-architects-names-new-senior-associates-and-associates/

Boston Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2010/08/23/daily4.html?ana=e_du_pub

BostonSF: http://www.bostonsf.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=1D8A9B478A2B462C906138B93966060E

  

HighProfile: http://blog.high-profile.com/2010/08/19/cbt-personnel-announcements/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+highproblog+%28High-Profile+Monthly+Blog%29

 

Giving Face

Veronica inside the car while we were in Cape Cod this weekend. It took her a few minutes to get used to them, but she LOVED the sand and the sea. When we first put her feet down in the sand, she had this look on her face like she ate something that tasted bad, then she stuck one foot in the air, trying to touch as little sand as possible. However, she was curious about it so she had her head down staring at the sand around her one foot, wiggling her toes. Hilarious! 

We also had her go slowly in the water in Daddy's arms. She enjoyed it, but struck the same Karate Kid pose when we put her feet down in the sand underwater. We caught this on video, which I will upload soon.

And, as you can see in the photo, Veronica has upgraded out of her red infant car seat, into her new Cowmooflauge convertible car seat. I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure she was too big for the infant car seat. She's still facing backwards in the car, but we can turn her around as soon as she turns 1.

One last thing, today at day care during lunch, I taught Veronica how to kick a ball. She LOVES it! She is on the precipice of walking, she can take a few steps before falling over. I won't really consider her having "walked" until she takes a few steps WITHOUT falling at the end or catching herself on something (preferably not with her face). Any day now...

Having fun with Ninong Iboy!!

I can't decide whether or not to cut her hair or let it grow out so I can put it up. What do you think?

Future Oenophile

Veronica at Winchester Wine & Spirits.

Ninong Iboy took this photo. 

11 months old: Veronica Videos

Veronica is now 11 months old. We can't believe how time flies. (Though, it doesn't seem to fly during those middle-of-the-night wake-ups!) Veronica's got 8 teeth now (the four in the front, both top and bottom). We're trying to teach her how to brush them, but she prefers to chew on the toothbrush handle. She also grinds them into each other, the sound of which drives us kinda nuts, but luckily she only does it when that particular tooth is new (which is no surprise).
Veronica LOVES to pretend to talk on the phone. I have no idea where this comes from, as neither Adrian nor I spend much time on the phone, but she loves playing with our cell phones, putting it up to her ear, and just babbling away. She'll put lots of things to her head and start talking, but real cell phones are her favorite. My mom caught this on her Flip while we were in the car:

She's a pro at standing now and on the verge of walking. Sometimes when she's standing, she forgets to balance and just flops down on her rear. She also loves to climb things. Here's a video of her climbing up the stairs (I LOVE the music that happened to be playing, it goes with the video perfectly, very Quentin Tarantino):

We've gotten her to take a few steps, but it's more like falling in that direction than actual walking. One of the toys on her wish list is a push wagon with variable resistance wheels, this is better for beginner walkers so the wagon doesn't run away from them when they push it. Right now she enjoys pushing the laundry basket around when I'm trying to do laundry. I'm working on teaching her how to fold (Daddy needs BIG help in that department). Here she is with the laundry basket:

The move to the house went by fairly smoothly. We had great, hard-working movers and we managed to get everything moved from the condo to the house by 8pm that day. Thanks so much to my mom and stepdad for helping us with the move. We really could not have done it without you guys!
The trick now is to unpack while working full-time and taking care of an infant at night and on the weekends. It's insane! Last weekend I felt like a chicken with its head cut off because I was trying to get 8 million things done during nap times, which only last 30 min (an hour if I'm lucky). Adrian, on the other hand, has 8 million other things to do around the house (like put in a completely new bathroom and kitchen). 
Now that's she's 11 months old, some of you have asked what Veronica wants for her first birthday (coming up on September 7), so I made her a Wish List linked to my Amazon account. She would really prefer a visit from you over a gift, but if you are dying to buy her something, click the following link to go to Veronica's Wish List (actually, it's more like Veronica's Mom's Wish List for Veronica, but you know what I mean.)
All in all, everything's great. Veronica is the happiest baby in the world, she laughs and smiles all the time. She's amazing.

Photos and an Email from Veronica

The photos and the following email was composed by my stepfather (as Veronica), on a day when my mom and he were babysitting a couple of weeks ago while I was on a business trip. Enjoy!

***************************

My afternoon thus far....

Hi y'all,

I had lunch which Lola made me.  Rice and stuff.

Then I sort of had a nap but it was fun to shout now and again just to see them come running into my room looking all worried. Works every time.

After my snooze,  I sat with Gramps and ate some Mum Mum biscuits.  Delish!  He took a couple of my Cheerios on the sly.  Cheeky old geezer.  Does he think  I don't notice?

I told them I hadn't been out all day so we went for a long walk in my stroller.  Gramps was pushing but he's a bit slow.  And I really don't need to stop all the time to look at flowers, pigeons and dogs.  

I especially don't like being looked at by old ladies or stopping to talk to the mail man.  So boring.

Then we had a bit of a photo session and I think I might have a future in movies or at least on Vogue covers.  Whaddya think of my shots?

I helped unload the dishwasher and then showed them how I can turn in circles on my butt.  They thought it was so funny that they took a video of me.  You gotta see that one.  And I showed them how I can bang two bowls together and make a real racket.

Daddy will be home soon and the old guys will probably just collapse and go to bed.  Of course, my Mom is in DC today.  I sort of miss her but, hell, nobody's indispensable.  Hey, wait a minute, where's my milk?

Gotta go now.  

See ya soon.

Rocky

We Have Moved!

We love our condo in Boston, but having Veronica made us want a house in the suburbs.

We've done a bit of renovating and have more to do, but we love our new house and are very excited!

Our new address is:

548 South Border Rd

Winchester, MA 01890

Home phone:

781.721.4448

I will try to post photos soon!