Okay, so we've been a little absent lately on the blogging scene. Last Saturday we arrived home from our ten day vacation to NJ. We had such a great time but unfortunately Vin started teething or something of the sort torwards the end of the trip. He has been getting up every two hours at night and hardly napping at all during the day. By the end of the week we were all ready for another vacation. Fortunately, Vin slepted for 9 hours Friday and Saturday night and we're hoping for the same tonight. AND we are moving into our new place 8/5 and so far I have just one box packed. The good news there is that we have until 8/31 to be out of our current place so there is no real hurry...

Here are some pictures from our vacation...

Oh yeah, and Vin started rolling from his belly to his back during the trip

Mom flew in from FL for Jenn's baby shower. We had a lovely Mother/Daughter lunch on Friday






This is in Aunt Deb's pool and was also Vin's first time in a pool. He did not like it at first.


Warming up to the idea a bit. Maybe it took him awhile to get used to the glare coming off of his Dad's chest



Cousin Ed and his boys: Matthew and Peter



Ed and Peter playing silly pool games

BABY SHOWER DAY!!!



Uncle Ed and Peter




Grandmom Mitchell & Vin


The beautiful pregnant Jenn


Mommy and Daddy to be!


Vin supposed to be napping was smiling at anyone who would stop by to give him attention



Uncle John sneaking in a visit with Vin during "nap time"


Lori and Christina


Cousin Ashley babysitting


Grandmom Mitchell, Dia, and Great Nana Melton



Great Aunt Debbie entertaining Vin with bells.



Jenn and her Mom


Great Nana

Grandmom Mitchell

BEACH TIME!!!
We spent Monday - Saturday down in Wildwood, NJ.

Great Grandmom Allchin and Vin watching the waves. This was Vin's actual first time on the beach but he was asleep the entire time.


Trying on Dad's hat



This is when we first arrived on the beach. He just sat and watched the waves in awe and then watched us scramble to set up all of his beach crap.

Vin looking down at the ocean water

Dipping his toes in. We didn't get a good picture here but he screamed. I guess the water was a little cold.





I just love this shirt



Lifeguards on duty



Watching the cars go by with Great Grandmom Allchin


Hanging out with Great Granpop Allchin

Family Picture

4th of July!

This year we enjoyed fireworks at Aunt Missi's house. Vin stayed up late for the show but made us pay for it today.

Watching the show with Dad

And now with Mom

Cousin Savannah and Vin

Lighting sparklers with the nieces

Aunt Missi and Vin saying hello

Mr. Jody and Vin

Cousin Lexine

Accepting tummy time but still not loving it.


Out like a compact florescent light after a very fun Gymboree class.


Being adorable at bedtime. He made it very hard for us to leave the room.

First Tantrum

The Diez threw his first tantrum today. The cause - - plums. He hates them & I’ve been trying to get him to take them. I had a “good” idea, I tricked him by giving him sweet potatoes to start with. He loves sweet potatoes so when he opened up wide I snuck a spoonful of plums. When the taste hit his mouth he squealed, arched his back, and threw his head back so far he almost flipped backwards out of his bumbo seat. I was pretty surprised by his reaction. I actually said “no” to him. It was my first reaction and I felt bad but he stopped his little fit and looked at me quizzically as if to say “What is this NO you speak of mama?”

Check out this side by side of Ja and Vin. I think they look identical from the nose down.

6/27/07

Just a random picture from our play time this morning. He is getting more fun by the day. I discovered he now loves it when I play the guitar for him. I normally wait until he naps to practice or I would play but he wouldn't pay attention, but this morning he thought it was fantastic. What a kind critic.

In other unimpressive news, Jason comes home tonight from his business trip! He's only been gone for a little bit but it feels like an eternity.

Oh, and we are moving yet again. We decided to not renew the lease on our house (for just so many reasons). We considered buying but the real estate market out here is scary right now, and while we think we will be here at least another 2 years that's still not long enough to recover closing cost, commissions, etc. Most houses in Pittsburgh have appreciated less than 3% a year during the housing boom where other areas (like back East) were seeing increase of 15%+. Not sure why I'm rambling on about this. Anyway, not being satisified with the houses available for rent we decided to go back to apartment living. We found an apartment community that is just our speed. While we aren't really excited about the work of moving we are very excited about the place.

"Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music." Ronald Reagan

Vin's 4 month apptmnt

Vin's had his 4 month appointment on Friday. He weighed in at 14lbs 8 oz and was 26 1/2 inches tall. He did such a great job charming the nurses and doctor, that is until the shot tray made it's appearance. Poor little guy, his entire body jolted when the first shot hit him and by the second one he was screaming. He only cried for a minute but then was clingy the rest of the day. He had a slight fever that night but felt much better by Saturday morning. Ja and I enjoyed the cuddle time since these days it's rare to be able to hold him without him squirming around and wanting to play.

The pediatrician encouraged me to start giving him fruits and veggies since he's been doing so well with cereal. So I made my first batch of baby food. I started with plum puree and his reaction was priceless. He shuddered and grimaced after every bite. I guess the plums were a little tart. This morning I mixed them with a bit of cereal and this was received better, but still not enthusiastically. I wish we took video of those first few bites, but I'm sure this is not the last time we'll see this kind of reaction.

Here's what he's been up to recently: grabbing at toes and feet, has developed an adorable Ernie laugh, has begun babbling, grabs at Mom's hair or necklaces with a death grip, loves kicking water everywhere during bath time, is tolerating tummy time, bringing everything he can get his hands on up to his mouth (fortunately this is not very many things since his hands still don't cooperate with him very well), NOT rolling either direction.

On Sunday we left him in the church nursery for the first time. I think we had a harder time with it than he did. When we came to pick him up he was doing great and loving all the attention he was getting from the nursery workers. Good job Vin!

I Try...

Good video to watch if you're bored and want to kill a few minutes at work. It's a video of Vin fumbling with his toy. He's still trying to learn how to make his hands work, and often gets frustrated with them.
http://s149.photobucket.com/albums/s72/jdangello1998/?action=view&current=Itry.flv

Happy Father's Day Jello!

We (and by "we" I mean me - Vin didn't participate much this year) started out by serving Ja breakfast in bed. Then we went to our church's early service which starts at 8:00 a.m. Early, but it works out well with Vin. Plus the early service is held on the rooftop of the church which was pretty cool. During service Vin let out a very loud and juicy burp. It was during a prayer so it was well heard by all. Ja and I (as well as several around us) got a good laugh out of it. Anyway, next week we are going to be dropping him off at the nursery.

Later we discovered the greatest thing ever, a drive in theatre that plays new releases! This is very thrilling for us because we've been pining to see some of the new releases out there but can't go since our idea of fun IS NOT taking a baby to a movie theatre. Anyway, we went to see Knocked Up which was a bit raw but cute. We didn't get home until midnight so Ja was hurting on Monday.

Oh, and this has nothing to do with Father's Day but Vin learned how to turn on and off his Ocean's Wonder Aquarium crib toy. At about 4:30 this morning we heard it going on and off and when we looked at him in the monitor he was kicking it with his foot. He would let it play for a bit and then reach up and kick it off and then back on again. All the while, talking and cooing at it. Adorable, but guess what's getting the volume turned down today? Yep, the Ocean Wonder Aquarium toy.

WSJ - Life With Father: What Kids Get From Time With Dad

Thought this was a good article and appropriate for the upcoming celebration of Dads.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB118178455437034753-lMyQjAxMDE3ODExNTcxODU0Wj.html

Trip to NJ

Vin experienced his first plane ride on Wednesday and he was an AWESOME little traveler. We took a quick trip to NJ to visit Autumn, her little girl - Ada, (who were in from LA visiting Autumn's parents) Momma and Papa Gum. The original plan was to fly in Wednesday morning and back out again that evening. However, the weather had different plans and my flight home was delayed so our visit ended up being a sleepover. I'm so glad since it gave us more time to spend together and we had so much fun. Vin didn't sleep very well but still did splendidly on the flight home even with our almost hour wait on the tarmac.

Ada was such a doll baby! I can't believe how much she's changed since we last saw her in December. To top off our wonderful visit I got to witness a few key milestones for her. First she started to pull herself up from her belly to a sitting position, THEN she took her first crawl forward.

Fortunately for Ada's Dad, Autumn was video tapping Ada at the time she decided to conquer this exciting task, so it's all on tape.

Vin and Ada checking each other out

Ada playing with Vin's feet

Autumn and Vin

GETTING READY FOR BATH TIME!

Ada saying hello

Stretching out their arms

Curling up their legs

They were eating up the all the attention

Ada showing off her cute little foot

Momma and Papa Gum,

It was so nice to spend time with you both. Thank you so much for the delicious meals and for all of your hospitality!! We hope to see you again soon. :)

I got a pool float for Vin and wanted to test it out in the tub. Vin LOVED it! He thought it was just great that he could kick his feet and move around.

Here is a new outfit Momom and PopPop Mitchell sent. I think he looks adorable in it and was a big hit with the girls at his Gymboree class today.

Video of Vin Doing Nothing!

http://s149.photobucket.com/albums/s72/jdangello1998/?action=view&current=Vin.flv

Will Ferrell's Landlord

Okay, so I had to share this one. This is Will Ferrell's daughter.

http://www.funnyordie.com/v1/view_video.php?viewkey=3efbc24c7d2583be6925

Video: Eating Cereal

Here is a "thrilling" video of Vin eating cereal. We started giving him cereal a few days ago and the process has been interesting. He generally seems to enjoy it, but certainly not when he's tired or truly hungry.

http://s149.photobucket.com/albums/s72/jdangello1998/?action=view&current=Eating.flv

Diesel Ferberizing

I asked to put up this posting, as i have a penchant for the controversial. The editor-in-chief kindly allowed it.

So, about 2 weeks ago Vin had a tough night. The kind where you'd have to wake up every hour just to put his paci back in his mouth. This brought about a family meeting where we discussed options. One - we are not going to play paci games. Two - he wasn't sleeping/napping very well. We decided to give the Ferber method a try. This is the method spoofed in the movie Meet the Fockers. Also known as the Cry-It-Out method. For wikipedia fans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferber_method

One - paci games:
After consulting w/ several books (DaVinci Code, Halequin Romance Novels, The Bleak House, etc. - not very helpful), and our own sensibilities, we determined that the kid no longer needed to be attached to the paci. So, we fought the good fight and had this problem licked in one very LONG week. He now generally refuses to even take a paci, but will accept one if we are in a restaurant or the like. Nice! Most importantly, he no longer needs a paci to fall asleep which means when he wakes in the middle of the night he puts himself back to sleep.

Two - sleeping/napping
While the Diesel was sleeping relatively well at night, we were struggling to get him to take solid naps during the day. Here was the ritual: 1 - paci in; 2 - swaddled; 3 - rugsucker proxy white noise 2 inches from his ears; 4 - constant mach 1 swinging. This worked well and he would sleep for approx 2-3 hrs at a time. As you can see from the above, this was not easily pulled off - especially if we weren't at home for any reason. This began another epic battle wherein our nerves (mostly Dia's as this was a nap time struggle) were shot and our kid cranky. He would sometimes lay in his crib sobbing, wimpering or generally complaining until he went off to restful bliss. However, we can happily say that Diez now naps in his crib sans the paci and swaddle. Shewee! A tip of the hat to Dia for all of her determination in this one.

The result of this was longer nightly sleeps (10-12 hrs at a shot) and, for some reason, a much happier kid.

You stay classy webloggers-
Jello