My brother brought his iPad . . . which I am still perplexed and enamored by, having spent very little time actually holding one. I don't think I'm exactly the target audience, since I would probably use it for looking at blogs. :) But I think Bo wishes he was the target audience . . . he really loved that thing.
Baby and iPad. What a world he is growing up in. Can you imagine him going to school in his flying car? Projecting his homework in a hologram in the middle of the room?
And on that note, a compilation of Bo's funny faces:
Uncle Ryan was dying to take pictures of Bo . . . and Bo decided he was entering a new phase of sucking on his bottom lip. Seriously. Every picture he looks like a pursed-lip fat kid. What a weird little week-long phase. I could't get grins out of him the entire time . . . of course. Isn't that how it goes? But we still like the pics. Our sweet friend Jenna sent us these overalls when she found out we were pregnant, and Matt has always wanted to put him in the overalls, without a shirt, so I complied.
In late August we had the privilege of three visitors - Matt's brother John Eric and his wife, Courtney, and my brother Ryan. John Eric and Courtney came up for the weekend and we showed them highlights of our little town . . . rock skipping at the beach, our favorite breakfast place, afternoon kayaking, and a healthy dose of a not-quite-himself Bo. Bo may have been prone to spontaneous melt downs the entire weekend, but we still enjoyed their visit! There was a lot of dental talk, a lot of business talk, and a lot of baby talk. I was thrilled to have a resident baby expert in the house. And Bo got a large stack of his cousins' clothes . . . so nice to have baby boys in the family!
Skyping with the cousins, who stayed home with Gigi and Pop.
Unfortunately, I was preoccupied with keeping Bo from screaming and did not get a picture of all of us. And just to be fair, I did not get any pictures of my brother, either! He is a great photographer and spent a lot of time behind the camera while he got to know his nephew.
Putting the Bob to work.
So, visitors, it's always nice to have you. Karibu tena, come again!
Bo was really hamming it up for this week's photos, a trick which I think he learned from his buddy Kyalo, a new friend from Kenya who we visited up in Boston over Labor Day. Kyalo is so smiley for pictures. Bo wore his Kenya shirt for Kyalo, too.
Mid-chuckle. Blurry legs because he's always on the go!
This is the face he gives Matt when Daddy gets home from work and then Daddy can't possibly believe that the little guy could have possibly been fussing all afternoon. Or, as has been the case this week, the face Bo gives Mommy when she gets home from work that totally contradicts Daddy's story of a screeching, no-napping baby. Bo knows how to work the system.
Really though, I have to announce that the last two times I've put Bo down for a sleep in his crib, I laid him down awake and he went to sleep on his own. Without so much as a whimper. Once last night before bed and then today for a nap. This is something I did not think was possible. It's too early to tell, but maybe we're on to something here . . .
We've had a little trouble staying on track with the power out last week and Labor Day travels and going back to work (part time) this week, but this picture was taken around 19 weeks. :) But I will say I took him to the doctor for his 4 month checkup/shots at 19 weeks, and he weighed in at 14 lbs even and is now 26.5" long (50th and 90th percentiles), for those who are keeping track (the grandmas). He is in 6+ month clothes for the most part, but he's skinny enough that he can wear smaller shorts. Basically all of his footed pj's are too tight lengthwise but baggy in the belly. We love him.
Maybe you forgot about Irene already.
Irene? Who's Irene?
I know, that is SUCH a weird video.
You know, the storm of "hype"? The one that blasted up the East coast and plunged us into the 19th century?
In the days preceding the storm, our news ran warnings 24/7, complete with scary Jaws-like soundtrack to accompany the equally menacing "HURRICANE IRENE" title that filled the screen after every commercial break. Really, I think Long Island News 12 is to blame for my apprehension. We didn't go crazy with preparations; I bought bottled water and batteries (from a very depleted stock at our grocery store) and some non-perishables. We anticipated our power would go out, and just in case a tree fell on the house, we slept in the living room.
And we had an emergency pack, just in case.
We were with the baby when the power went off around 4:30 Sunday morning. Sunday, the height of the storm, passed uneventfully as we played Scrabble and ate the ice cream from our freezer. Thankfully no large trees fell around our house, just branches, and our basement hardly leaked. We did lose our storm door.
That evening we drove around our area. So MANY trees and branches down, often delicately balanced on power lines. The roads were often blocked by fallen trees. We spotted this house a couple miles from where we live . . .
We made the rounds on a few of our friends and were invited for dinner by Evie and Jon, who live one town over and managed to keep their power and cable. Before we knew it, three other families from our small group ended up there as well. Evie fed us all! A hurricane party.
The 'powerless' ate there Monday night as well and took showers. . . it was so sweet of them to have so many of us poor souls over to give us a hot meal.
Our house runs on well water, so when our power went out, the water did as well. We managed for a day on what was stored in the pipes. After that went, we hung on for a couple more days using water we'd stored in pots, pitchers, and the bathtub. The weather was gorgeous, so we sat outside all day.
Bo by headlamp.
By Tuesday, I emptied the fridge and freezer, we were out of water, and I was out of patience with the dark evenings. We stayed at the house of the people I nanny for, since they were out of town. They had power and had shared their house key with friends for showering. We waited for them to come shower in the morning, but their power had come on in the night. I hoped that ours had come on, too . . . but it hadn't. Wednesday we stayed with our friends Jeff and Amy. Their neighbor across the street had lost a tree that completely blocked the road.
Thursday evening as we settled in for another night at their place, we got word that our power was back on.
LOVED seeing those lights. Did NOT love the aftermath of a water system that has sat dormant for five days . . . but by midnight Matt had flushed all of the pipes and we had water again, even if it wasn't flowing exactly clear. After five days, we were back up and running in our own home.
Now honestly, I was not a fan of the situation. It was very hard to be constantly on the move, especially with a baby and a dog. BUT . . . In looking for the positives, there were many. We saw the Body of Christ in action, people extending their homes, sharing food, inviting others in without a second thought. It was sweet to gather together and talk and laugh and share stories. I'm so thankful for the friends we've made on Long Island. Matt was able to be home a lot that week because the power was out at offices he was to visit, and his attending was gracious. We read, talked, Matt studied, and we enjoyed being outside and away from the technology that so often occupies us. School was postponed two days and all of the kids on our street were out on their bikes. We talked with our neighbors every day, as opposed to the weeks we can go without seeing them. We reflected on our friends who serve in parts of the world with spotty electricity, or none at all, and those who have never had the luxury of running water or light at the other end of the switch. Our home was standing in tact, our possessions and family safe.
That was (the abbreviated version of) our experience with the storm.
We're getting prepared for Hurricane Irene's visit to Long Island over the next 24 hours. I expect we'll be fine, but without power for a bit. Hopefully not the 10 days it took to recover from the storm in 1985. Most of the homes around us are older and the power lines are swinging in the breeze - and tangled in tree limbs - so yeah, I think we'll lose some power. Sigh.
So since tomorrow is one long Scrabble game, I'll update today! My brother was visiting us for a few days and takes great pics. It's nice to have some of Bo and me - and Matt and Bo - since usually it's just Bo by his lonesome. Matt worked late one night and had the next day off so we headed East for a drive. The boys wanted to try for some fresh raspberries, and even though a recent storm had stripped the fields, we tried anyway. It was worth the couple handfuls we drummed up just being outside in the perfect weather. Ryan lives in Houston and was really loving the 75 degree days!
Matt has recently discovered the Bjorn, and I'm not complaining. I always feel like the baby heavy on my shoulders when I wear that thing. Bo looks very cute strapped to his daddy. :)
Good helping, Bo!
There was an earthquake here that day . . . ripples from the quake in Virginia. We were on the road and didn't feel it, but our neighbor said her whole house shook. We're really stacking up the natural phenomenons.
