Amore e formaggio: The February Archives

The February Archives

February 27, 2005:

Tonight was the Oscars telecast, and even though we hadn't seen most of the nominated films, we had a friendly "Predict the Winners" contest. Chris ended up correctly guessing 15 of the winners while Renée guessed 8. Chris's prize? Being featured on the website tonight. Looks like that Masters' Degree in film has finally paid off.
Josh had an rude surprise for us this morning. He was cuddling with us in bed when we noticed a peculiar, unpleasant odor. As it turned out, Josh had -- unbeknownst to us -- made quite a large poopoo while we were sleeping. And later in the day, he unleashed another nasty dookie while eating his breakfast -- and this one squirted out of his diaper! Of course, all of this activity pleased our little guy greatly, though his parents were somewhat less enthusiastic.
The yucky weather put a damper on Chris's plans to do yardwork today. We still managed to be productive, however, cleaning up the house and getting rid of some old clothes. We even hooked up the Playstation to the home theater system so that we could watch a couple of episodes of Wonderfalls. Overall, not a bad day.

February 26, 2005:

Today we dropped Josh off at the Conyers Carusos' for a few hours so we could go on a date. Josh wore a new outfit which looked just a wee bit familiar. After handing him over to a happy Nana, we headed to Stonecrest to see Hitch. Overall, we enjoyed the movie - we could have lived without the speeches at the beginning and end, but otherwise it was very funny.
Afterward, we stopped by Yankee Candle to pick up tarts, then Bath & Body Works so Renée could finally spend a gift card she got for Christmas. We are now a much better smelling household.
We returned to the Carusos' for a tasty dinner of Ritz chicken and broccoli with squeeze cheese. Dessert was tasty chocolate pudding/fillo shell thingies with whipped cream. Yum!
Back home tonight, after Josh was fed and had drifted off to sleep, we settled in with some smoothies and watched a show we'd never seen before: It Takes A Thief on the Discovery Channel. Basically, an ex-burglar breaks into someone's house, then comes back and helps them burglar-proof. Pretty cool.
We then watched a much less useful show: Distraction on Comedy Central. This a show where contestants attempt to answer trivia questions while being distracted in bizarre ways. For instance, tonight they had to play leapfrog with nudists. Another time, they had to pee to set off buzzers so they could answer the questions. Educational television indeed.

February 25, 2005:

We had a very nice family outing this afternoon. After Chris got home from work, we all headed out to the library, where we had not been since September. Josh seemed duly impressed by all of the books, and he helped pick out a couple to bring home, including a bilingual touch-and-feel book about kittens. Renée also found a few things to read, and Chris checked out an audiobook for the car. There's a Dr. Seuss event occurring next week that Josh might attend -- check back here for more information.
Following our library visit, we took a stroll around the Mountain Park Park. Josh was fascinated by a dog that looked just like Twinkie, and Chris and Renée enjoyed the nice weather and the time spent outside the house. There were lots of other babies there as well, but Josh out-cuted them by far. We had a great time and will definitely visit the park again as a family.
A 10"x13" portrait of Josh that Chris had ordered came in today. Hooray! Our baby is so adorable -- we could wallpaper our house with pictures of him and never tire of staring at them.
The portrait wasn't the only exciting thing to come in the mail today. Renée also got a Real Simple magazine and a free sample of Ensure. Sadly, our replacement remote control for the new home theater system has yet to arrive, so we still cannot access any of the special features on our DVDs. Hang tight, Wonderfalls -- we'll watch you soon!

February 24, 2005:

Happy five month birthday, Josh! It's hard to believe that not too long ago, our big boy was living here.
Josh decided to celebrate his birthday by having a messy morning. First, he finally let out that poop that he had been holding in for several days. As soon as Renée picked him up after his diaper change, Josh blurped out a big spit up all over the place, hitting himself, Mommy, and the floor (which Twinkie so kindly cleaned). Later in the day Josh had another spitup which required both mommy and baby to change clothes. Such a sweet boy -- always sharing his love in inventive ways.
Chris got his ring back today! Now it actually fits and is in no danger of falling off. The pink stand-in ring has been retired with dignity, and someday Chris will pass it down to Josh as a manly heirloom.
If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, you will see that our links bar has undergone a slight redesign. Now Chris, Renée, and Josh each have their own pages, and everything else has been consolidated into the Etc. page. Go check them out -- you might learn something new about your favorite people.

February 23, 2005:

A semi-productive day today. The weather was great again, so Renée and Josh met up with another Atlanta Momma and her baby for a walk. Josh seemed to be jealous of the other guy's wheels, staring at the other stroller the whole time.
Upon returning home, Renée dropped Josh off with Chris and headed to the gargantuan consignment sale at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds. It was quite crowded and there were tons of stuff (sadly, no jumperoo). Josh now has a few more cute outfits, big boy socks, and a bath seat. He also has a new doggy puppet, which Renée is using at this moment, entertaining Josh with one hand while typing with the other. And you think you multitask at work!
While the boys were home alone, they traipsed about in the ivy-covered back yard, seeking level ground on which to place a future swing set. Josh enjoyed this jungle adventure, and was especially amused by the wild Twinkie in her natural habitat, frolicking around with small tree limbs.
Chris is finally getting his wedding ring resized, so for the past few days he has been wearing a stand-in. The interim ring is made from a ribbon scrap, and Chris must really love his wife, because it's pink and he still wears it in public.
The American Idol results show was tonight. We went 1 for 4 on our predictions, but were not sad to see any of the losers go.

February 22, 2005:

It was a beautiful day out today. We took a short walk as a family before Chris left for work. The mysterious plant on the front left corner of our house is making lots of little white flowers.
Renée's mom stopped by to drop off the diaper bag we left at the Tingles' a few days ago. Josh entertained her by overcoming his stage fright enough to roll over in pursuit of his Poppity Pop Truck. Josh also spent much of the day attempting to fit his feet in his mouth. Our little boy now has some soggy socks.
Tonight, Josh and Renée visited Chris at Staples, but were thwarted in their attempts to speak to him by an unpleasant little man going on and on about office chairs. They then went to Media Play because Renée wanted a Sesame Street trash can she'd seen there for two bucks. Alas, mommy and baby were foiled again, as it had already been snapped up.
More American Idol tonight. We love Nadia, but are pretty lukewarm on everyone else. Prediction: Sarah Mather rightfully goes home; Janay, our hometown girl, sadly joins her.

February 21, 2005:

Not much happened yesterday. Josh was a bit cranky, which made Renée a bit cranky, which was solved by Chris's bringing home Taco Bell and an Icee.
Today Chris was kind enough to watch Josh for an hour before going to work, giving Renée some much needed alone time. She took the opportunity to get a Starbucks coffee treat and do some browsing at Media Play. Josh and Chris, meanwhile, had some manly bonding over a Star Wars DVD.
Josh continues to revel in his newfound mobility - today he went down for a nap on his back, and when we checked later he had flipped onto his tummy. He seemed pleased by this.
The evening was a bit scary - several bad storms passed through, bringing lightning, hail, and high winds. At one point Renée, Josh, and Twinkie were all cowering downstairs because it sounded like a tornado was about to hit the house. Luckily, both home and Staples were unscathed.
We taped American Idol, but when we tried to watch it, we discovered that our satellite had problems keeping the signal during the bad weather. From what we did see, we both like Bo Bice and Anwar. Renée still likes Scott Savol. Prediction for Wednesday: Nikko and the guy with dreadlocks go home.

February 19, 2005:

Tonight we went over to the Tingles' house to have dinner and to show off Josh's new tricks. Dinner was tasty, but Josh didn't want to hold up his end of the deal. He rolled from his back to his side but just couldn't seem to get all the way over to his tummy. Alas. In his defense, he was awfully sleepy, and that flipping stuff is very hard work. He started to get a little cranky, so we brought him home and gave him his rice cereal. Now he's happily sleeping with a full belly.
David called tonight and talked to Chris for a long time. He's going to try to come and visit at the end of March, and we may even try to take in a baseball game at Turner Field. It could be Josh's very first Braves game, and that's a milestone worthy of recognition.
Speaking of milestones, Josh was attempting to reach another one today: sitting up unassisted. He was against the back of the couch and kept leaning forward so that he was sitting up with no support! He stayed like this for a few seconds before toppling over. Somebody help -- our baby's growing up too fast!

February 18, 2005:

All sorts of stuff to report tonight. We took a family outing to Target today, where we purchased lots of exciting things, including the elusive Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, some rubber duckie decorations for our hall bathroom, a Berry Blast Icee, and (last but certainly not least) a high chair for Josh! We got the wooden Eddie Bauer high chair that we had been looking at for a long time, and he seems to be doing okay with it so far, although the tray makes him look very small.
Chris took advantage of the nice weather and was productive out in the yard. He raked up some of the leaves in the front and purchased a Weed Eater in an attempt to tame the ivy in the back. More on this as we see how well these jobs progress.
Josh continues to roll over with ease. Today he was in the Pack N Play, merrily flopping from back to front to back again as Renée watched. Later this evening, Renée and Chris were pretending to be Muppets and putting on a show for Josh, who was on his back in the crib. Josh, ever the inquisitive one, flipped onto his tummy so he could get a better look at Mommy and Daddy, the human puppets. What a fun little boy!

February 17, 2005:

Super excitement! Tonight Josh finally rolled over from his back to his tummy! He first did it this afternoon while Chris was at work, so Renée got to witness the very first performance of this new trick. After Chris got home, Josh then showed off his rolling skills again, rolling and scooting his way across the blanket. It was very thrilling and we are so proud of our mobile little man. Look out world -- Josh is coming!
Other than that, not a whole lot happened today. Everyone was very sleepy today: Josh, just because he's a baby; Chris, because he had to get up early for work; and Renée, because Chris's snoring last night was especially bad due to a cold. Several times in the night she woke up thinking that Twinkie was hacking to death, only to realize it was just her dear hubby.
This afternoon Chris (with Josh strapped to him) caught up on last night's American Idol episode. We are all glad to see that some of our favorites have made it through to the next round. Next week the fun begins, as we get to begin voting for the contestants. Many busy signals await us.

February 16, 2005:

Sorry for the lack of update yesterday. We couldn't think of a single thing that was worth mentioning.
Not so today. Josh and Renée met up with some of the other mothers and babies from the Atlanta Mommies message board for a walk at the Mountain Park Park (no, really, that's what it's called). The weather held out long enough for them to walk for 45 minutes and get some good socializing time. Next week there may be another gathering at Discover Mills and another opportunity for Josh to show off his adorableness.
The walking tuckered out our little one, though. So much so that when Chris came home for his lunch break, Josh slept through the whole visit. And then by the time Chris got home after work, Josh was already asleep. So daddy/baby time was limited today, but Josh was courteous enough to wake up shortly after midnight to let Daddy change his diaper. No poopoo, thankfully. Big smiles on all involved parties.
Today we received an exciting present from the west coast. Dustin, Chris's FSU buddy, sent Josh a very cool t-shirt from Skywalker Ranch. Pictures of Josh in his new attire are sure to be forthcoming, since he was too sleepy tonight to model it.
Since our old guestbook was lousy, we've started a new one. You can sign it by following the link at the bottom of the page. Please do -- we crave your attention.

February 14, 2005:

Happy Valentine's Day, all! Even though we did most of our celebrating over the past few days, that didn't mean the day was free of excitement. Josh and Renée took a trip to Publix today, where Josh got to cruise around the store in the Baby Bjorn. He was cooed over by everyone who saw him, as is only fitting for a baby of his cuteness.
We watched the 7th Heaven musical episode tonight, which was absolutely horrendous. Whoever had the brilliant idea to stage a musical starring an entirely tone-deaf cast should be flung off a cliff -- or possibly made president of the network. It was so bad that it was actually watchable -- not good, but watchable. We also taped 24 for Chris, who will probably watch it tomorrow with Josh strapped to him. It's quite the recipe for quality male bonding.
For dinner tonight, we had a big pizza that Chris's parents gave us last night. It actually made enough to feed us, unlike our typical Tombstone pizzas. It's very exciting to have a meal that actually produces leftovers.
At the request of some of his coworkers, Chris had a screening of Zeke tonight at Staples. It went over very well, and everybody said that they were going to watch their cats a little more closely when they got home.

I'm one pricey box of candy, but worth every penny.

February 13, 2005:

Happy Valentine's Day Observed! Josh went to visit Chris's parents so that we could have a nice, romantic lunch at the Olive Garden. Bad idea. First, they told us that there would be a 35-40 minute wait. As it turned out, we only had to wait 15 minutes, which would have been good, except that we were at Babies R Us (where we picked up a cute pair of shoes for Josh) when our beeper went off. We had to hotfoot it back to make sure that our table wasn't given away.
Once we got inside, the ambience was, shall we say, a bit noisy. Dishes clanking, loud talking -- not too well suited for conversation. Our waitress was asking if we were ready for dessert when we were only a few bites into our meal, and she dropped Chris's credit card on the ground and didn't even notice. Worst of all was when Renée said, "Happy fifth Valentine's Day together" and Chris responded by accidentally biting through his lip. Romantic, eh? The food, though, was delicious, and it was nice to enjoy a meal without trying to balance a squirming baby on our laps.
We then returned to the Carusos' house to watch embarrassing videos of Chris and to read Josh's Valentine's Day present, a very cute book called Food for Thought featuring fruits and vegetables carved into animals, faces, and other things.
On the way home, we stopped off at Baskin Robbins and had yummy ice cream treats. Josh wanted to have some for himself, but he's still a bit too young. He was kind enough to share his rice cereal with Twinkie, though.

February 12, 2005:

Yesterday's Piedmont Park outing was cancelled as expected, so instead Renée and Josh picked Chris up on his lunch break. We all went to Boston Market for a tasty feast of meatloaf, corn, and mashed potatoes. Halfway through the meal Josh, displaying lightning quick precision and his father's love of starches, stuck his hand into Chris's mashed potatoes. He was most pleased with himself.
That evening, after Josh had some quality tummy time on his special "just-like-Daddy's" blanket, we all settled in for a Scooby Doo Valentine's Day special followed by Clueless, which put Chris right to sleep.
Today, we trekked to Sam's Club for yet another bulk buying extravaganza. We used up most of our Christmas gift card. Among other things, Josh got another gazillion pack of diapers, and we got a pack of paper towels that will likely last us until the end of the year.
Dinner tonight was at Renée's parents' house, where Mike joined us all for stew, banana pudding, and a game of chicken track. Josh topped off the evening by finally ejecting the poop he'd been holding in since Tuesday. What a gooey, stinky little man!
Upon returning home, Chris and Renée exchanged Valentine's gifts. (Chris has to work Monday, so we are observing the holiday a bit early.) Chris got Renée the excellent-but-cancelled-after-4-episodes show Wonderfalls on DVD, monkey toe socks and dark chocolate kisses; Renée gave him Chinatown, Homer Simpson lounge pants and a Reese's peanut butter heart. Silly cards and bad poetry were also shared.

February 10, 2005:

Courtney visited today! She frolicked with Josh, played fetch with Twinkie (the most attention Twinkie's gotten in months), and watched the video game channel with Chris. Oh, and paid a little attention to Renée too. We do love seeing our Athens pals - though it may not be long before Courtney is no longer among them. This is her last semester of law school and she is currently fielding job offers from around the state.
Other than the visit, it was a pretty slow day. Renée and some other mommies from the Atlanta message boards were planning an outing to Piedmont Park tomorrow, but it looks like it might be cancelled due to chilly weather and wind. Too bad.
Renée's Valentine's Day present arrived today, and Chris's present is also complete. We are ready to celebrate in style with our own little heartthrob!

February 9, 2005:

Happy day! Josh's portraits were ready today! Renée and Josh headed out to the mall to pick up the pictures (which are, of course, absolutely adorable). Renée also had a mango Julius from Orange Julius. Sad to say, it tasted like the mangoes were something less than ripe. Still, a mediocre Julius is better than no Julius at all.
We got an interesting snack on our last shopping trip. It's called a grapple (pronounced grape-l) and looks like an apple, but tastes sweet like a grape. They're pretty odd, yet still tasty and worth a try for any adventurous people out there.
On the subject of delightful treats, Josh is thoroughly enjoying his new oatmeal cereal. He gobbled up two bowls today and was quite happy doing it. Our little guy is growing up so fast -- soon he'll be up to Twizzlers and Mountain Dew! He's getting so big that he's already outgrowing his 3-6 month outfits, forcing us to dress him in 6-9 month outfits. At this rate, when he's in fourth grade he'll be wearing the clothes of a college freshman! What will the other kids have to say about that?!?
The whole family had a nice cuddle on the couch tonight as we ate pizza and watched American Idol. We're so domestic.
There's a new contest where you can win a new Cadillac by making a five-second-long movie. If anyone has any extraordinary ides for a five-second film, email us. Chris sure could use a new Cadillac. Nothing against the 16-year-old Accord, but it would be nice to have a car made in this millenium.

February 8, 2005:

Not much to report today. Josh had a nice bath this morning and then went out with Renée to get some oatmeal cereal to add to his solid food repertoire. He fell asleep before getting to try any, though.
No back-to-belly flips yet, but tonight Josh pretended that he was a clock and made a full 360-degree rotation on his blanket, which was pretty cool in its own right.
We went a little can crazy today, eating Chunky soup for lunch and Hormel chili for dinner. Throw in a few potato chips and dinner rolls, and you've got quite the balanced diet.
That's about it. As we said, it was a slow day. It's raining pretty hard right now, so Twinkie will probably decide that this is the time when she needs to go out. Sheesh.

February 7, 2005:

Josh's ever-increasing mobility knows no bounds. Today he entertained his parents for almost an hour by trying to roll from his back to his tummy. He came very close several times but kept getting his feet tangled up with each other. Any day now he's going to flip, and you can be sure that you'll hear about it on this website first.
We've been looking everywhere for the new Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper so that Renée can give it a try, but so far we've had no success. If anyone has any idea where we might be able to locate some, let us know.
Chris's car is in desperate need of a wash after he picked an unfortunate parking spot. Apparently, the light pole in front of the car was home to a large family of birds suffering from some form of intestinal distress, because now the hood of the car looks like some sort of Rorshach test. Ah, the joys of nature.
As you may have noticed, the page has been archived. Now the entire year of 2004 is on a single page. How sad is that?

February 6, 2005:

Lots of excitement today. We had a visitor for the Superbowl: Kevin came over to meet Josh for the first time. Josh seemed to enjoy the new face, and Twinkie was especially pleased to have someone actually pay some attention to her.
As for the game itself, the Patriots won their third Superbowl in four years. Yay! The commercials were subpar, though the episode of The Simpsons that followed the game was very amusing.
We celebrated the game by ordering one of the new Dippin' Strips pizzas from Pizza Hut along with some wings. It was a tasty treat and a fun addition to the evening.
We also watched an interesting bit of counterprogramming today: the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet. It basically consisted of a bunch of puppies frolicking in an enclosed area decorated like a football field. Every so often one of them would have an accident on the field, and a referee would jump in, say "Puppy Foul," and proceed to clean up the mess. This went on with no variation for three hours. Needless to say, we were enthralled.
This morning Josh thought it would be funny to poop on the changing table in the middle of a diaper change. Daddy was something less than amused.

February 5, 2005:

We got up early this morning to go to the aforementioned consignment sale. It was well worth the loss of sleep as Josh now has a Braves outfit, a sleepytime Cookie Monster, and a little white suit (brand-new, complete with vest, tie, and goony hat) all for a whopping $6.50. The suit is a few sizes too big so perhaps he can wear it for Nick and Jenni's wedding, or maybe his next professional photo shoot. :-)
On the way home, we stopped at a garage sale where Renée picked up some old Woman's Day magazines from the 1960's, a peanut tin for her collection, and a cornbread pan. Grand total: $2.50. What a thrifty morning.
We continued our productive day by taking turns watching Josh so that we could each head out and do some Valentine's Day shopping. No last minute scavenging this year!
Our evening was less successful - we tried to make a roast, which came out kind of tough and bled all over the countertop. At least Twinkie enjoyed cleanup duty.

February 4, 2005:

We've been a sleepy bunch of people around here lately. We had planned to update the webpage yesterday, but the whole family began cuddling, and the next thing we knew, everyone was asleep.
Oh well. It wasn't a very eventful day anyway. We did some grocery shopping and watched some of the new Baby Einstein movies. Baby MacDonald is a bit slow for Josh, but Baby Beethoven is a bona fide hit.
Tonight was a nice night at home. We had a very tasty meal of Cheesy Broccoli Chicken with Rice and then settled down to watch Mary Poppins. I guess we settled too well, though, because Josh promptly fell asleep. Not long afterward, Renée drifted away. A few minutes later, Chris nodded off. And let's not even talk about Twinkie, who is soundly snoring in our bed. Who knew that attempting to watch a movie was such an exhausting activity?
Tomorrow we're hitting a big consignment sale to try to pick up some inexpensive stuff for Josh. Wish us luck!

February 2, 2005:

Josh got all sorts of cool new stuff today. The most exciting thing was an Exersaucer that we borrowed from Chris's mom's friend Karen. Now Josh can stand up as much as he likes with fun toys to entertain him. We put him in it earlier tonight and he loved it, as the picture shows. Karen also let us borrow a bunch of Baby Einstein videos. Josh was entranced by the Baby Mozart one that we watched, and oddly enough, so were we.
Josh also received a new burp rag that Hannah sewed for him. It is very soft and fleecey and has yet to be sullied by his curdy spit up, so that is good.
Less fortunate was Chris, who was attempting to empty the Diaper Genie this evening and was suddenly attacked by a rogue poopy diaper. It jumped right out of its little bag and rolled across the floor, where Chris eventually captured it. Luckily, there was no leakage in spite of the fact that the diaper was filled to the brim with gooey mess and was the size of a small bowling ball. Chris and the rug in the nursery are both very thankful for this bit of luck.

February 1, 2005:

Josh was up to his old tricks tonight, scooting and rolling over on the floor. This time, though, Chris was around to see it! How exciting!
In another thrilling developmental milestone, Josh had his first solid food tonight! He had several spoonfuls of rice cereal and seemed to enjoy it very much, opening his mouth wide and leaning forward in anticipation of the next bite. However, he could have just been very hungry -- he tried to devour his toys as well!
Josh wasn't the only one who was eating well tonight. Chris and Renée ate a delightful homemade lasagna while watching American Idol. We then watched Big Fish, which we had tried to watch on January 29th only to be foiled by WINTER STORM 2005. This time there were no interruptions and we were able to successfully finish the movie. Renée was very disturbed to learn that the large man playing the father was Albert Finney, AKA Daddy Warbucks. Time has not been especially kind to him.

Sign Guestbook | View Guestbook

The Archives

2004
January-September

2003
December | November | October | September

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws