Amore e formaggio: The June Archives

The June Archives

June 30, 2005:

Very busy day for us today. It got off to an early start as Renée left the house at 6:30am to meet another mommy at Mountain Park Park for a morning walk. Trouble was, the other mom didn't show up! Her child was apparently acting up, so Renée was stood up. Very sad.
Later, Josh and Chris went to the Little Gym. Josh got to ride on the parachute again and showed how good at crawling he is by manuevering a tricky obstacle course. Is there anything this little one can't do?
Josh showed off his artist within today. Taking a suggestion from a book about games for babies, we let him fingerpaint with his lunch. The color palette was composed of the green concoction of Green Beans, Rice and Corn combined with the brown Apples and Chicken mixture. Concentrating fiercely, Josh smeared the two foods across his canvas of white paper. The resulting masterpiece now resides on our fridge.
Excitement came in the mail today. Three weeks after we sent them a letter (see the June 7th entry for more), the Edy's ice cream company responded, writing us a note thanking us for our kind words and enclosing two coupons for $.75 off a carton of Dibs. Huzzah! Our gushing has paid off! Now if only Publix responds as well, we'll have all the encouragement we need to go on a massive letter-writing campaign.
Since Renée was denied her morning walk, we took a family trip to Mountain Park Park. Josh was very cute on the playground, going down the slides on Daddy's lap and swinging contentedly on the baby swings. Fortunately, there were no annoying big kids in the playground this afternoon, so Josh didn't have to worry about being trampled by a stupid teenager. What a relief.

June 29, 2005:

Renée and Josh went to another Potluck Playgroup this morning, bringing some homemade fruit salad to the gathering of mommies and babies. There were even some other Josh-aged babies for him to play with instead of just a bunch of toddlers. Josh amused everyone around with his impression of a lion, roaring happily as he tried to free a toy that was stuck in the corner. He sure does enjoy using his voice.
Chris brought home a delightful treat after work today: humongous burritos from Moe's. We had wanted to go to Moe's yesterday, but we ended up missing the turn and going past it, unable to turn around in the traffic. So today's dinner was extra special, thanks to our previously frustrated efforts. Mmmm mmmm good!
After dinner, we enjoyed a nice family walk with Josh in the backpack carrier. He seems to enjoy his vantage point from Daddy's shoulder level, and it keeps him far above any mean dogs that might want to bark at him. Afterwards, Mommy and Daddy wanted to take a nap, but it was not to be; Josh, energized by his outdoors excursion, was as hyper as ever. Where's a large, padded, babyproofed room when you need one?

June 28, 2005:

Well, we hadn't mentioned poop on the website in a while, so Josh decided to take action. Today he had a monster poo that gushed out of his diaper and down his legs while he was in the Jumperoo. It got on the Jumperoo, Mommy, the changing table, the bathtub.....actually, it clogged the bathtub so that Daddy got to join in the poopy fun on his lunch break. Whoopee! Earlier in the day, Josh had two leaky wet diapers as well. It seems the era of size 3 Cruisers has ended. On to size 4!!
In more baby-related hilarity, tonight's episode of The Simpsons was about babyproofing. This involved Homer stapling couch cushions all over the house. Sort of like those nap mats we've got draped everywhere....
Chris picked up some mint Dibs tonight. We are pleased to report that they are just as tasty as the Nestle Crunch variety. Edy's has yet to respond to our lovely, flattering letter. For shame.

June 27, 2005:

Josh had his nine-month doctor's appointment today. While he did not have to get any shots at this visit, they did prick his big toe to check his iron levels. Josh, brave boy that he is, took it all in stride. He did not cry at all, even when the nurse squeezed his toe to force the blood out. Instead, he just stared at his foot, especially after the nurse put a Daffy Duck band-aid on it. This fascinated Josh so much that he actually wore it for about three minutes before yanking it off. That's our tough boy!
He's growing up so big and strong! The doctor didn't tell us what percentile Josh was in, but here are his main statistics: height, 28.75"; weight, 19lbs 4oz; and head circumference, 19". This pretty much confirms what we already knew -- Josh is a tall, slender dude with a huge noggin!
Today was our shopping day at Publix -- and good thing too, because all we had left in our fridge was some yogurt and ketchup, and that's not a very filling meal. Josh thoroughly enjoyed driving his truck around the store, stopping every so often to shriek joyously. We have one happy baby. One very loud happy baby.

June 26, 2005:

Well, we can add one more animal to the list of wildlife creatures that inhabit our yard. Today we looked out the window to see a huge hawk sitting on our back deck. We attempted to get a picture, but it soared away, flapping its massive wings. A pretty impressive sight, to be sure.
Josh continued his expansion into the world of finger food, trying the cherry-flavored fruit puffs this evening. He made a ghastly face and a little hacking noise but continued to eat the puffs anyway. What does that mean? Does he like them or not? We're not entirely sure, but as long as he's putting them in his mouth, we'll keep setting them in front of him.
We had the rare pleasure of watching a movie tonight: Spellbound, a documentary following eight children as they prepare for and compete in the national finals of the 1999 Scripps-Howard Spelling Bee. A good movie, though we were a little terrified by some of the parents featured, especially the one who compared the experience of watching her daughter lose the spelling bee to having a miscarriage. Maybe it's just us, but that struck us as pretty darn disturbing. Don't worry, Josh -- your parents promise to be sane when you get older.

June 25, 2005:

Hooray - Chris had a Saturday off!! He spent the morning bonding with Josh while Renée went yard saling. Today's haul: a backpack carrier for Josh, three Pez, a book, two toy cars, and a bag of diapers. All for $14!
Josh and Daddy gave the backpack carrier a test run. It proved much more comfortable than the Baby Bjorn, with the added bonus of little feet massaging (okay, jabbing) Daddy's lower back.
After her bargain shopping, Renée got her hair cut for the first time in about five months. Meanwhile, on the home front, Chris read Josh a book called Skeleton Hiccups. Josh found Daddy's impression of skeleton hiccups to be most hilarious.
In the afternoon, we ate Tuna Helper and watched the Braves play. Renée made scrum-diddily-umptious brownies. Then, Josh astonished us by pushing a chair aside to let Twinkie into his play area - it might not sound astonishing, but it seemed like quite a large deductive leap for a nine-month-old. We are duly impressed.
We watched the VeggieTales video from the library today as well. It entertained the whole family: Mommy and Daddy enjoyed the clever lyrics, while Josh laughed at the bouncing tomato. Fine family fun!
Tonight, Renée went to a Moms' Night In at the home of another Lilburn Mom. The ladies pigged out on junk food and watched Hitch. They then worked off the calories in said junk food by pushing one of the moms' cars up the driveway, as it would not start. Aside from the unresponsive car, a good time was had by all.

June 24, 2005:

Happy nine-month birthday, Josh! His latest trick is his mastery of finger food. Just a couple of days ago, he suddenly learned how to pick up his own food and put it in his mouth. Now he can gobble down veggie puffs, Froot Loops, and even the occasional bit of macaroni and cheese. These are very exciting times.
We celebrated the day by going on an outing. The first stop was to the library to return that lousy Dora video as well as Chris's overdue audiobook. We picked up a few more things, including a VeggieTales video for Josh. Hopefully the video will amuse him as much as it does Chris.
Next, we went to Kroger to purchase some snacks for Chris to bring to work, Kool-Aid packets, and brownie mix for Renée's Mommy's Night In tomorrow. We also stumbled across some cheese rolls, which Renée really wanted. Chris thought they were merely okay, but she loved them, feasting upon their cheesy goodness.
Josh has always been a pretty good sleeper, though the addition of crawling to his repertoire did cause him to stay up extra late for a few weeks. Lately, however, he's been falling asleep at his usual time, between 8:30 and 9:30, so we thought we were in the clear. That's when Josh decided to try out a new tactic. On Thursday night, Josh woke up at 2:30am and would not go back to sleep. In fact, he was hyper, dancing around in his crib like a crazed monkey. Chris, meanwhile, was about as far from hyper as you can get. After about an hour of frolic, Josh finally tired and went back to sleep, allowing his exhausted parents to go to bed as well. Babies sure do keep you on your toes.

June 23, 2005:

Today it was Daddy's turn to take Josh to the Little Gym. We got to play with the big parachute, with the babies riding in the middle as the parents spun the parachute in a circle. Josh also impressed his teacher by hanging from the bar all by himself -- he's so strong!
Chris got the chance to prove his manliness yesterday by installing some new tubing for the ice maker on our fridge. This involved much time spent trying to turn a 1/4" hole into a 3/8" hole using a variety of ineffectual tools. Eventually Chris succeeded and we now have ice and water. Terrifically exciting!
On the way back from Lowe's, Chris stopped at Krispy Kreme to pick up some donuts. We gorged on the scrumptious goodness but did manage to restrain ourselves somewhat: we only ate ten out of the twelve donuts on the first day.
Renée picked up some new DVDs for Josh from the library today, and we are sad to state that not all Dora the Explorer videos are created equal. The new video, Dora's Fairytale Adventure is far inferior to Dora's Pirate Adventure. There are no catchy songs, Boots spends the whole episode asleep, and Swiper doesn't even show up! We are sorely disappointed.
We finally have some pictures from the Potluck Playgroup of last week. Here's one of Josh playing with his friend Sarah. Quite the ladies' man, our little boy.

June 21, 2005:

Josh was in a pretty good mood for most of the day. This was quite nice, especially after the ordeal of Evil Josh yesterday. Josh must know when to give his parents a break.
Since Josh is just about nine months old, we decided to go ahead and let him try his first meat this evening. He had some Chicken and Apples (which Chris thought tasted disgusting, though it did not bother Renée as much) with his dinner and ate the whole serving that we gave him, even if he did make unpleasant faces the whole time. He's such a trouper.
Chris and Josh came up with a new game tonight. Chris tossed one of Josh's soft baseballs up in the air and then let it land right on his head. This alone was not enough to make Josh laugh, but whenever Chris let out an exaggerated cry of injury, Josh literally fell down laughing. Such an advanced child -- not yet nine months old and already taking great pleasure in the misfortune of others.

June 20, 2005:

An unwelcome visitor showed up in our house today. Remember Evil Josh? He was back with a vengeance for much of the day, frustrating Mommy with his super-crankiness and even biting her on the knee. Fortunately, Happy Josh showed up towards the end of the evening after a nice two-hour-long nap. What a relief!
Once again, Publix has provided us with a yumtastic dinner. Tonight we ate Mango Chicken, prepared with a recipe from one of their Sunday circulars. It basically consisted of chicken with mango, broccoli and swiss cheese on top, and it was very tasty. It was also very easy to make, although Chris did complicate things by attempting to preheat his skillet as the recipe suggested. Much smoke and foul odors ensued.
There was a little mango left over after making our dinner, so Renée was eating some out of a bowl and gave Josh a little nibble. Much to our pleasure, Josh liked the mango! It's the perfect fruit to share with a baby, all soft and mushy straight out of the jar. Renée continued to share with Josh until it was all gone. Our little boy is so brave, trying these strange and interesting foods. He must get that from his mother.

June 19, 2005:

Happy Father's Day! Josh and Chris showed off the last part of Chris's present: a Darth Vader t-shirt for Chris with a matching onesie for Josh that says "Who's Your Daddy". The Star Wars-clad couple made quite the cute pair, generating many an "Awwww" from everyone who saw them.
We spent the afternoon at the Tingles' today for the second part of our Father's Day fiesta. Renée gave her dad a Blast From The Past board game with trivia questions from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s to give everyone a fair chance (Chris won, gaining his final token by correctly guessing that Mao Zedong was dead in the 1980s). We then watched a intentionally corny movie called The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, a spoof of all the cheesy 1950s B-movie sci-fi flicks. It was terrible in a wonderful way -- or was it wonderful in a terrible way?
Last night when we updated the site, we didn't have any pictures of Josh in the pool, so we just used one of our other adorable pictures. But now we have many pictures from yesterday's frolic, so have a gander at a few:

June 18, 2005:

After many months of wishing, we finally have a new refrigerator! The nice folks from H.H. Gregg brought it by this afternoon, taking away the old, scary one. At last: a fridge that has a functioning light and shelves that are not growing things!
Once we had put all of our food back in the fridge, we drove over to Nana and Papa's house for an early Father's Day cookout. For the second straight day, Josh got to show off his swimming skills. He also lounged in a baby float, drifting around the pool while leaning back with his feet crossed in front of him. He had a great time and stayed in the water until his feet resembled a pair of prunes.
When we got home, we had our own little Father's Day celebration. Renée and Josh gave Chris a Star Wars video game, a Baby Blues book, and one other surprise item. You will have to wait until tomorrow to hear about that one -- it's an item that deserves to be shown rather than just told.

June 17, 2005:

It was a day full of activity for us -- lots of stuff to keep us busy. Josh's pictures were available for us to pick up from Target today, so Renée, Hannah and Josh went to retrieve them. As you can see, they came out adorably. Our little guy is so photogenic!
Chris had to work this morning, so on his lunch break he headed over to Target to meet the family. We all dined on Taco Bell from the food court, which was a delightful midday treat. Josh tried a drop from Chris's Mountain Dew Code Red Icee, and he was not pleased at all. He made a face like he had just smelled one of his poopy diapers. Then again, that was basically Chris's reaction to Code Red the first time he tried it as well. Guess it's an acquired taste.
After Chris came home, we put on our swimsuits and went to brave the crowds at the Mountain Park Aquatic Center. There were a ton of kids there, but we still managed to fit in some quality pool time. Josh swam like a little pro, even going under the big waterfall with Daddy. Chris, Renée and Hannah all slid down the waterslides, and we also spent some time in the whirlpool track. It was quite fun, even if Chris accidentally sat on a little boy in the whirlpool. Whoops!
To top off the afternoon, we finished up our outing with some tasty ice cream from Bruster's. Hannah and Renée each got a dish of Banana Cream Pie ice cream, while Chris had a waffle cone with Peanut Butter Cream. All ice cream was quickly consumed and enjoyed.
Meanwhile, Kate, Nana and Papa attended UGA orientation today. The highlight of the trip was souvenir shopping at the UGA Bookstore, where they bought Josh a stuffed cow complete with a shirt reading "Somebody at UGA Loves Me." One of these days we'll have to take Kate to Athens to show her around -- preferably on a day when Snelling is serving Chicken Supreme with Rice. Yum!

June 16, 2005:

It's Thursday, and that means one thing in the Caruso world: The Little Gym! Josh and Mommy had a great time today, playing on the inflated air mat and doing "whooptie-doos." They played with bubbles, bells, and balls as well. Josh was rewarded with a butterfly stamp on his foot.
Grandma and Janice stopped by for a visit early in the day, bringing two more play mats for the living room. Soon we'll be able to build Josh a whole obstacle course! Twinkie got a little attention as well.
This evening, Papa, Kate, and Hannah came over. Hannah is spending the night so that she doesn't have to go to Kate's UGA orientation tomorrow. Josh is thrilled to have one more person in the house to chase after him as speeds toward the stairs. Enjoy Athens, Kate! Visit the Creamery!

Daddy says she's my ah-nt, Mommy says she's my ant!

June 15, 2005:

More Mommy/Josh outing excitement today, while Daddy got to go on his own excursion. Renée and Josh went to a Potluck Playgroup at the house of one of the other Lilburn Moms. They brought Renée's delicious chili dip, though most of the food went uneaten as the moms were busy tending to the children. No matter -- that means more leftovers for us! Josh played well with the other babies and generally behaved himself -- except when it was time for him to have his diaper changed. Then it took another mom to help hold him down. All in all, both mommy and baby had a fun time.
Meanwhile, Chris seized the chance to take in a movie: Batman Begins. He enjoyed the film quite a bit, in spite of the fact that a man in the corner of the theater had what sounded like the hiccups for the last 90 minutes of the movie. Also, Chris was so excited about the rare movie-going opportunity that he gorged himself on theater food, eating Twizzlers and popcorn and Mountain Dew right on the heels of a large lunch of mall Chinese food. His stomach has still not forgiven him some nine hours later.

June 14, 2005:

Today Josh and Renée met up with some of the other mommies and babies from the Lilburn Moms group at a strawberry farm in Loganville. Renée did most of the actual picking while Josh supervised from his stroller. Then it was off to Chick-Fil-A for lunch, though by this time Josh was all tuckered out and just wanted to cuddle up with his mommy. All of the mothers of older babies thought this display of infant love was adorable. After lunch, Mommy and Josh returned home with some cute pictures and enough strawberries for a month of smoothies.
Last week at Publix, Josh got to ride in the cool shopping cart truck, steering merrily down the aisles. Unfortunately, we had left our camera at home. So this week, in anticipation of this fantastic photo opportunity, we brought our camera to Publix. Alas, all of the shopping cart trucks were gone and Josh was forced to ride in a standard shopping cart. Quite sad.
Speaking of sad, it will be an unhappy day when we have to return the Dora the Explorer DVD to the library. Not only does Josh love watching it, but Chris and Renée have also grown quite fond of it, singing along to classic tunes such as "Isa, Turn the Wheel!", "Swiper, No Swiping!" and the mournful, melodic "We Cannot Do Our Play Without Our Pirate Costumes".

June 12, 2005:

Bleh! What a bleak, dreary day -- rain all day long with scattered moments of sunshine. When you're staring at the sun and getting poured on at the same time, you know you're in Georgia.
Renée and Josh braved the weather to head to Media Play to do some Father's Day shopping. Renée set the little guy down so she could look at a book, and Josh wasted no time in getting a book of his own: The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. Think he's trying to send us a hint?
Afterward, Mommy and baby came to visit Daddy at Staples, where he was quite busy with the Digital Camera Extravaganza. This Extravaganza consisted of a table full of (what else?) digital cameras and their many accoutrements. During the four hours in which he manned this table, Chris managed to sell a total of two items, amounting to a whopping $16. Huzzah! Extravaganza!
Chris was able to wrench himself away from this fantastic sale long enough to have lunch with the family at Philly Connection. The food was delicious as always, but the high chair was a tad sticky, so Josh spent most of the meal in Chris's lap, stopping every so often to walk across the table to Renée. What a charmed life he leads.

June 11, 2005:

There's been a lack of updates lately, but no worries: we're all fine here. We've had some things getting in the way of our nightly updating, such as late nights at work for Chris and the family's tendency to pass out. Luckily, we're back now.
On Thursday, Chris had the morning off from Staples, so he took Josh to his Little Gym class. Chris, who has a much higher tolerance for cheesiness than does Renée, enjoyed himself greatly, as did our little guy. Flips, rolls and tumbles abounded.
As Josh's mobility increases, the need to babyproof the house becomes more and more apparent. We tried to tackle this problem but encountered some difficulty. Our baby gate will work everywhere in the house except at the top of the stairs, where it is most crucially needed. Our corner covers (designed to prevent Josh from banging his head on sharp corners) have an adhesive so weak that Josh can just pull them right off. This is going to be more difficult whan we thought....
Josh has some exciting new things, courtesy of Grandma. First, he has some large nap mats that are currently functioning as temporary walls to block off potentially dangerous areas. Second, he received a set of large foam squares with the letters of the alphabet on them. These squares have interlocking sides, so that they can be put together to form a block, a tunnel, or a house. Josh has had much fun playing with these in all their different configurations.
We visited Nana, Papa, Aunt Kate and Aunt Hannah tonight and gorged on Chinese food, freeze pops, and three kinds of ice cream. Yummy yummy!

June 7, 2005:

Over the past three days, we watched The Aviator. Normally a three hour movie, this was drawn out by interruptions from Josh and our temperamental DVD player.
We have also been enjoying a new ice cream treat: Edy's Dibs. These are little nuggets of vanilla ice cream with a chocolatey, crunchy shell. We like them so much that we wrote a gushy letter to the Edy's company, in the hopes that they will send us free stuff or coupons. If this works, we are prepared to gush to the makers of Pampers, Twizzlers, and Oreos as well.
Yesterday we had another wading pool afternoon, but today it was not to be. The gray, windy weather scared us inside, where Chris cooked up a fabulous batch of twice-baked potatoes. There are happy tummies in the Caruso household this week!

June 5, 2005:

All manner of family fun today. Yesterday we were feeling low on snackage, so Chris ran to Ingles to pick up lots of tasty goodness. One of the items was a pack of ready-to-back chocolate chunk cookies, which we made today. Josh served as the official helper, breaking the cookies apart and pulling off any chocolate chips that he thought were unnecessary. Thanks to the efforts of our little kitchen aide, the cookies turned out wonderfully.
Later, we enjoyed another of our Ingles treats: Brownies N' Cream ice cream. In the spirit of family fun day, we even spooned some out onto Josh's high chair. He had a great time smooshing it around everywhere and rubbing it into his clothes, but he did manage to get a little bit into his mouth. Pretty exciting stuff for an infant.
This afternoon, for the first time all week, the sun made an appearance. Jumping at the opportunity, we filled up our wading pool on the back deck and all hopped in for a little soak. After getting used to the moderately chilly water, Josh loved splashing around in the pool and terrifying his parents by almost face-planting in the water. There are also some inflatable basketballs and a goal, but the goal kept mysteriously deflating, making it pretty tough to make a basket.
In case anyone had any doubts that Josh was his daddy's boy, this story should assuage all concerns. Tonight Josh figured out how to climb from the floor to the landing at the bottom of the stairs. What, you may ask, persuaded him to make that proverbial giant leap? The answer: he was heading for a bag of Cheetos that was sitting on the stairs.

June 3, 2005:

We had a very busy morning -- our own personal Dora the Explorer episode with three distinct phases. First, we went to Vecoma, where Nick and Jenni will be having their wedding in August. It's a terrific location and should provide many great pictures.
Next, we journeyed down the road to Krispy Kreme to celebrate free donut day! We bought two donuts, got two more for free, and washed them down with a chocolate milk. Josh even tasted the apple filling from one of Chris's donuts and seemed to like it. Delicious!
Finally, our most exciting adventure: the Yellow River Game Ranch. It was a grey, overcast day (most of our pictures look like they were taken in the middle of the night), but luckily it didn't rain. Otherwise we would have missed out on a fantastic visit! There were tons of animals who would walk right up to us -- deer, peacocks, donkeys, and even a duck with an afro. Chris and Renée fed the animals, and Josh laughed at a baby goat. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and highly recommend it to everyone.

June 2, 2005:

Happy anniversary to us! Five years ago today, Chris and Renée decided to date each other. This momentous ICQ conversation marked the first step in a long series of events culminating in the arrival in our little guy. We're pretty proud of how well we've done with ourselves. To celebrate, Chris brought home a yummy ice cream cake, with which we happily spoiled our appetites.
Josh began his classes at the Little Gym this afternoon. At all of eight months old, he's the senior member of the class. Today they played with the parachute, which excited Josh so thoroughly that he promptly fell upon a five-month-old. Whoops!
The Joshman continues to think that his bedtime is 11:30 rather than the 8:30 that he stuck to for a while. Everything is so new and amazing to him that he can't stand to miss it for a moment. Great for him, a tad tiring for us.
Weather permitting, we're going to try to make it to the Yellow River Game Ranch tomorrow. Everybody's feeling pretty well these days, so hopefully we won't have to cancel like we did last week. It's been raining all week long, but it looks like it might clear up in time for our excursion. We'll cross our fingers.

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