Walkin' Boy!!!

Newsflash:
**Joe took his first unassisted steps at 12:45 this afternoon!!!**
He took 3 steps to Mama who was overjoyed!

Cousins

Cousins Kaiya & Joe

Joe's latest: another tooth! Top-left front tooth arrived on Tuesday.
He's standing without holding onto things, hands-free squatting down to pick up his toys and crawling like crazy after our cat Ophelia. I don't think it will be long before he's walking on his own.My baby is growing up so fast. I can't believe he'll be a year old next month. 

Joseph and The Purple Balloon

July 4th, 2006

No family plans this Independence Day, just a bit of shopping. During our travels, we decided we should stop and get a bite to eat for lunch. We decided to go to Joe's Pizza & Pasta.

Our meal was delicious and uneventful until our waitress handed Joe this purple balloon. It was a lovely balloon and even had his name on it.

Now, Joe has had a few helium balloons in the past, but none had made quite the impression this balloon made.

We went home and he played with his balloon throughout the day. He loved pulling it down to the ground and bouncing it around on the walls and on his face and head. He would let it sail up to the ceiling and stare after it for a long time before flapping his arms and shreiking for me to give him his balloon.

Dinner time arrived and Matt left Joe's balloon in the livingroom and brought Joe into the bedroom for me to give him his bottle. I layed Joe down and he started yelling "aaaa daaa daa daaa gaaa gaaa aaaa daaa daaa daaa". Matt said "he wants his balloon". More "aaa daaa daaa daaaa aaaa gaaa gaaa maaa daaa daaa daaa"! I think he was cursing at Matt. He was trying to say "what the heck are you doing? That's my balloon! Give me my balloon! Mom, did you see what he did? Why'd he take my balloon?" Oh he just went on and on and then started crying. He was just yelling like he had experienced the biggest injustice ever! He wasn't crying sad, he was crying MAD! Oh my goodness, it was scary! I could feel his teenage years rushing at me! Eventually he drank is bottle and settled down for the night, but we hope that wasn't a preview of what the coming years will bring. Matt wants to clobber that waitress for giving Joe the balloon lol.

When Matt & I awoke in the morning, the balloon had sunk to the floor. We quickly sent it to Balloon Heaven before Joe woke up. He seems to have forgotten about it.

I wonder whether the next balloon will be different.

First Father's Day Weekend

We had a wonderful Father's Day weekend here at the Romasco house. My dad came from Florida for a business trip and we had a great visit (a foodfest weekend).

Friday night Dad took us out to Red Lobster for an early birthday celebration for me. I had my favorite dish there - (the shrimp & lobster Caesar salad). We hadn't been there since I was pregnant, so I really enjoyed it.

Saturday we went to yes, India Palace for lunch. Believe me, you cannot come visit us without being dragged to India Palace. Actually, everyone who's had a meal there has enjoyed it. Even some Indian food phobics have been converted to "we should go back to that Indian place...."

Saturday night we went to Roy's Place for dinner. It's a local sandwich joint with about 300 sandwiches on the menu. We were joined by my Uncle Lee & Aunt Dottie. Great food and great conversation.

Sunday we got up bright & early to bring Dad to the airport :(

Afterwards, we headed to Home Depot to buy some light fixtures for the basement. It wasn't open when we arrived, so we waited in the car until it opened. We selected the fixtures we wanted, but they only had 1 in stock. They said that the Germantown store had 24 in stock, so we went out to breakfast at IHOP and then up to the Germantown Home Depot. We got what we needed and Matt installed them right away. The basement is really shaping up nicely, but our carpet installation was postponed from last Friday to the 22nd. I can't wait for Joe to have room to crawl again! We brought him to church on Sunday night and he was just a whirling dervish. He would not hold still no matter what we tried, and he was making lots of noise too. Of course he'd had an awfully busy few days. Today he's back to his usual sweet self. Thank goodness...we're exhausted!
I hope all fathers had a wonderful day.

Coming to see Joe :-)

I'll be up in the DC area the week of June 12 on biz, and will spend Friday and Sat night at Jennifer and Matts. Joe is SUCH a good-looking li'l guy. I can hardly wait to see him, of course. And Lee and Dottie will join us Saturday night for dinner.

Come Out Come Out Wherever You Are!

Alright everyone, where are you? Am I blogging to myself? I've had a few people request that I keep putting pics of Joe up, but I'd like to see some posts. What's happening with you all? I want to know! Don't be shy. You could at least leave a little note to let us know you've stopped by.

Joseph just had his 9 mos. checkup. He is a tiny boy, here are his stats:
Birth - length: 19 3/4" weight: 6 lbs., 4 oz.
2 Weeks - length: 20 1/4" weight: 6 lbs., 11 oz.
2 mos. - length: 21 3/4" weight: 10 lbs.
4 mos. - length: 24" weight: 12 lbs., 8 oz.
6 mos. - length: 25 7/8" weight: 14 lbs., 7 oz.
9 mos. - length: 27" weight: 16 lbs., 4 oz. (gained exactly 10 lbs. since birth)

Joe Goes Mobile

Well, as you can see Joe is quite mobile these days. He's standing up in all of these pictures. He pulls himself up on every stick of furniture we have and he crawls like the wind! He's a little hurricane ripping through the house! He's no longer happy to sit and be hugged, he just wants to go go go.

The basement is still a wreck, so his crawling space has been cut by two-thirds. Last weekend Matt ripped out the basement carpet and has begun painting the trim in the room. All of the walls will be painted white. We're having some trouble getting carpeting. Hopefully, we'll select something soon
and the installation won't take too long.

Dad will be here Father's Day weekend and I'd like to have a decent place for him to stay. We haven't seen him since Joe was teeny tiny.

The upheaval of the basement is causing a lot of small problems. Joe is currently restricted to the living room and goes absolutely stir crazy by evening. We've been trying to get him out of the house a lot to keep him happy. The living room is just too small for a boy ready to explore the world.
 

Well, we finally bit the bullet

We finally bit the bullet and purchased some furniture to transform our junky basement into a true Family Room. Joe just does not have enough room to crawl around upstairs. He absolutely loves being able to crawl from one end of the basement to the other. Unfortunately, we had to do away with the Guest Room in the process of creating a Family Room. The Guest Room is now the Storage Room. However, we did purchase a very nice elevated queen size Aerobed for people to use when they stay at our house. It should arrive in a week or so. Unfortunately for my dad, he's coming for a visit in the middle of this upheaval.

Right now things are in limbo. Tomorrow I need to contact a charitable organization to see if they will pick up some of the old basement furniture and other items we're clearing out. As soon as those items are gone we'll tear up the basement carpet and paint the paneling white. Next, we'll have new carpeting installed. Hopefully, this can all be accomplished quickly. The furniture has a scheduled delivery date of July 3rd!

Joe's latest: Yippee! Finally a beautiful little pearl is shining in Joe's mouth! His first tooth broke through on May 25th. He's getting very brave when he's cruising around the furniture. He likes to let go and he barely ever holds on with both hands.

Pictures:

1.) The sofa style we selected

2.) Cushions show leather color we selected

3.) The recliner style we selected

4.) The loveseat style we selected

Happy Mother's Day

Okay, so here we go with the obligatory messy kid pics. These were taken by me this morning after Joe's brunch of cereal and beef w/carrots. Boy, he really went to town with that beef w/carrots! He's been wrestling the spoon away from us lately and flinging the food all around. He also enjoys taking the cup of food and spilling it all over his tray so that he can fingerpaint with it. It's such a mess, but he's having fun and after all, he IS a baby.
Yesterday was Mother's Day, a completely fabricated "holiday". I must admit, I was sucked in. Hey, we moms have to take what we can get! I had a wonderful day. I received many thoughtful cards and Matt & Joe gave me some lovely "mums for the mum" (chrysanthimums), a sweet card, and 3 Lindt candybars. Yummm. We went to......
drumroll please...........India Palace for lunch! As always, it was delicious. Joe behaved himself and we had a good time. Afterwards, we went for a short drive and stopped by Butler's Orchard. The orchard was closed, but we browsed in the little shop for a few minutes. It was good to get out of the house. Later I went
to the 5:00 Folk Mass at St. Martin's. It was a good mass with Fr. Javier officiating. He's a great speaker.
We spoke with our mothers and they both had good days too. I hope all mothers who are reading this enjoyed their Mother's Day.
I begin my physical therapy this evening for the bulging disk in my c-spine. I think traction will do the trick and am looking forward to getting my healing underway.
Joe is such a busy boy he's tiring out his old mom & dad. He wants to stand up all the time. He's no longer happy just sitting in a bouncy seat or being held and cuddled. He never got into crawling. He crawls until he gets to a piece of furniture and then pulls himself up to stand. What adventures we have in store, I can't wait to see what's next!  

After Easter Update

Joe's Godmother Mary Anne Hays celebrated her birthday on April 19th - happy birthday Mary Anne!

We had a very nice time at Mom's over the Easter weekend. It was such a busy few days for Joseph. He's used to just hanging out at home with his little quiet family. We had a terrific time seeing Julia, Anthony & Kaiya. They brought their new puppy Bella with them. Mom's dog Honey did not like a new poochie sniffing around. They sure made a racket! I think by Sunday afternoon they were finally getting used to one another.

We really enjoyed it when Matt's sister Dawn stopped by on Saturday. She brought along Kyle and his girlfriend (well, really Kyle brought her - he's driving now). They all seemed to be doing great and I'm so happy that Joe finally got to meet his aunt Dawn. That's her, below holding him in the striped shirt.

Sunday the Easter Bunny had come and brought goodies for all of the kids. They were so excited! Anthony & Kaiya were all hopped up on sugar by 9am. They did behave themselves though. We had our big meal around noon. My deviled eggs were a hit with everyone (except Anthony who was afraid to try them). We left Mom's in the afternoon and went to 5:00 Mass at St. Martin's. Joe was very fussy. Matt had to take him to the back of the church a few times during the service. Needless to say, we slept like logs Sunday night.

Joe's latest milestone: Last Thursday (April 13th) I went to get him out of his room following his nap and he was STANDING in his crib, holding on for dear life waiting for me to come get him! He's still working on the crawling thing. Who knows, maybe he'll skip that all together. I hope not, I'm not ready for a walking boy! 

Welcome everyone! Glad to see you've stopped by. Now it's time for you to post! Don't be shy! C'mon everyone - what are your Easter plans?
Matt, Joe and I will be heading down to my mom's house Fredericksburg, VA to celebrate Easter, Mom & Dan's birthdays and Matt's sister Dawn's birthday (today! Happy Birthday Dawn and Mark!) Hopefully, Joseph will meet his Aunt Dawn and Cousin Kyle for the first time on Saturday. We will also have the chance to see Aunt Julia and Cousins Anthony & Kaiya. I'm in charge of making the deviled eggs - I'm pretty sure I can handle that. Last time we went down to Fredericksburg I forgot all of my breastpump stuff (don't ask me how I managed to do that) and we had to turn around and leave -grrrr. I'm making a list and checking it twice this time! I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and that you all are touched by many of God's blessings.

Easter Time!

Joe I know you're going to hate this when you're older, but for now I just couldn't resist! Happy Easter everyone!
Love, Jennifer

Today at the Park

<--Today Joe and I went to the park behind our house. This picture is of Joe hating the swings.









Later, Daddy came home for lunch and stopped by the park to rescue him.-->











Eventually, Joe began to get the hang of it and enjoyed swinging with Daddy.

Links I love

www.freecycle.org
Freecycle is an email list where people give away things that they no longer need for free. Sign-up for a list in your area for free. Keep an eye on the list and you never know what you might receive for free! You can also get rid of things you no longer want. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

www.craigslist.org
Local community classifieds and forums - a place to find jobs, housing, goods & services, social activities, a girlfriend or boyfriend, advice, community information, and just about anything else -- all for free, and in a relatively non-commercial environment.

www.allrecipes.com
Well, the name says it all.

www.blingo.com

<--click here!

Blingo is a Google-powered search engine with a twist. Each search on Blingo is also a chance to win a prize. Click my button above, register and search Blingo as you would Google. Only your first 10 searches in a given day qualify for a prize chance. In short, just use Blingo like you would a normal search engine. If one of us wins, we all win! Here's what they're giving away this month:
Apple iPod, 30GB digital music and video playeror $299 Visa Gift Card, your choice
Sony PlayStation Portable video game systemor $249 Visa Gift Card, your choice
Apple iPod Nano, 1GB digital music playeror $149 Visa Gift Card, your choice
$100 and $25 Visa Gift Cards
$10 iTunes Gift Certificate or Blingo Movie Ticket Certificate, your choice. The movie certificate is good for one adult admission at one of the many participating theaters across the US (find one near you).

<-- CLICK HERE!
INSTANT PROFITZ- This is a great site to make extra $ if you're an organized individual. In order to reap the benefits, you need to keep track of what you've signed up for. Make sure you note how to cancel your offer and when the free trial period ends. As long as you stay on top of it there are all kinds of different little offers to try and you can make a LOT of $ on this site. Email me if you'd like to know which offers I have found to be hassle free.

www.imdb.com
The world's biggest movie database. Who was that actor in that movie? What else was he in? When was that movie made? Have I seen this movie before or should I rent it? Where's this guy from? Is that actress married? It's all there, along with movie trailers, showtimes for current movies and more.

- clickable -
FUSION CASH- much like Instant Profitz, but somewhat less confusing.

I'll be adding more later and hope you'll add some of your favorites too!

Joseph at 7 Months

Peeking out of baby prison. Joe spends a lot of time in his crib. It's not unusual for us to hear the music from his Ocean Wonders Aquarium from his room before we hear him. He just loves music.



Hey, a visitor! When we go to get him out of his crib he gives a big grin. He cannot wait for kisses and hugs.

Don't worry, it's not so bad in here. He loves to roll around and play in his crib. He's now in the earliest stages of learning to crawl. When he's not goofing off, he's up on his hands and knees rocking back and forth.






On second thought, get me out of here, I'm ready to play! He just loves attention and no toy is better than Mama or Dada. He's not talking yet, but does babble "mamamama" and "dadadada". 

Welcome to Romasco World!

Welcome to Romasco World! We thought it would be nice to have a spot for the family to get together online. This forum will allow us to keep in touch and post frequent updates for one another.