Watch Your Toes

Simon is teething, and if he can reach it, he's going to bite it. He was playing on the floor near the couch this morning, and I made the mistake of dangling a toe too close to his chompers. My toe must have looked mighty tasty, because he bit it HARD. I think my suprised yell of pain will discourage any further canabalism on his part. He reminds me of Sunny from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.



Christmas pictures are coming soon . . .

Playing With Mommy

Helpful Sister

Gilly has fun helping take care of Simon, and I think Simon likes it too.

A Look of Concern

Simon is thinking "this is not going to end well."

Sleepy Simon

Poor guy . . . so tired, but so hungry.

Still Surprised

Simon still looks surprised about something. Maybe someday he'll let us know what it is.

Christmas Tree

We got our tree a few days ago. It gets redecorated every day, since Gilly removes most of the low-hanging ornaments each morning to play with them. Don't worry, all ornaments that could be weaponized are up high, out of Gilly-range.

She is currently behind me as I type this, playing with two small wooden moose ornaments ("mommy moose" and "daddy moose"), and a large clay santa claus. Oh, and a duck. They appear to be going for a ride on a toboggan (also an ornament).

It's hard to see in the picture below (a little blurry), but she is holding one of the moose. The two moose are definitely her favorite . . . hmm, you'd never guess what her Pops' favorite photography subject is.

"I can shut the door"

Food! (and other random stuff)

Simon has officially advanced to solid foods, and he is LOVING it. I know, not exactly a shocker :)

The addition of solid food to his diet should help him maintain his figure.






Gilly demonstrating feats of strength in preparation for the upcoming Festivus.






Clearly, we're not giving him enough solid food . . . he has to suck nutrients from his socks.






Gilly has made some friends in the neighborhood. She and Elizabeth ("Libbyeth") are having a Playdough play-date, catching up on neighborhood gossip.






Nobody escapes when Gilly wants to play "dress-up."



The indignities of being Gilly's little brother. Fortunately for Simon, it's only bunny ears and a hat. Eventually it will progress to dresses and costume jewelry.

Squirrels

Got a squirrel problem? The little monsters eating your insulation? Nibbling on your cellar door? ( that one was for you mom :) )

Cook 'em up in your favorite Squirrel Recipe (click).

Thing One and Thing Two

Sitting Up!

I'll Eat You Up!

Gilly went trick-or-treating for the first time tonight. She was dressed up as Max from the children's story "Where The Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak, in a costume that Lyn made FROM SCRATCH! Gilly is so lucky to have such an amazing and crafty mom. Lyn even made the buttons herself (from "sculpey dough"). Have I mentioned how amazing my wife is? Ok, I'm a little biased.

Gilly had fun, but was a little too shy to say "trick or treat" (she did, however, say "thank you" each time she got candy). We mostly stuck to the graduate student housing area, but we also ventured a very short distance down the road to see our friends Pete and Joi. She enjoyed showing them her "polka dots" (M&M's) . . . most of which she actually grabbed from the candy bowl at our house.

I couldn't get her to recite Max's line, "I'll eat you up!," even though Lyn reports she was saying it during the day, along with "Daddy take you to Halloween tonight."

P.S. Lyn made the bag too. I'm tellin' ya, she's AWESOME.

23 Degrees Fahrenheit

That was the temp when I woke up this morning, and I was not impressed. Could be worse, I suppose. The wind chill on Mt. Washington this afternoon was 6 degress. It's funny, by the time February rolls around, 23 degrees Fahrenheit will feel downright balmy.

Although I'm complaining a little bit right now, I really do like winter, and it's fun to see the kids all bundled up. (you'll notice Simon still has that perpetual look of shock on his face . . . too funny)

When Reptiles Attack

Gilly demonstrating bravery under pressure. Notice how she averts her gaze to avoid eye contact with the vicious lizards.



EDIT: Lyn has just informed me that alligators and crodiles are not lizards, but crocodilians. (Hey, I'm not a zoologist . . . well, neither is Lyn . . .)

Entertaining Simon

It's hard to hear over Gilly's voice, but if you listen you can hear Simon cracking up. He thinks his sister is absolutely hilarious (so do we).

Tattoo

Gilly displaying some body art. Don't worry, it's washable, not permanent. The piercings, however, will be more difficult to undo. (juuuust kidding)

*chomp*

A Conversation on the Couch

Downtime in Lab

My lab superhero costume:

Hostess Cupcake

Credits go to Jon B. for the photo, and Sara B. for knitting the hat . . . what a team!

Limey

No scurvy here!

Gilly kept bugging me to let her have a bite of my lime. I think she found it a bit sour.



(No, she isn't wearing any pants. We often find her in various states of undress. Welcome to the Schmucker nudist colony.)

Yuck

Last night just after dinner, Gilly started making some gagging sounds.

Me: "Gilly, are you ok?"

Gilly: more gagging sounds (obviously breathing though, so she wasn't choking)

Me: "Gilly, are you ok?"

Gilly: a little burp, some chewing

Me: "Gilly?"

Gilly: "yummy yummy!"

Two Years Old

Gilly turned two on Saturday. Grammy Suzi took us to the Lancaster Fair on Saturday morning. We didn't stick around to hear the Oak Ridge Boys, but Gilly enjoyed seeing all the animals. It was hard to tell which animals were her favorite, but she seemed very fond of the miniature Zebu bull, and had fun sharing some grain with a baby goat. Pops was showing some of his pictures too, so we stopped and visited for a little while.

After that we went to Grammy Kathy's for pizza (she loooves pizza) and birthday cake (and who doesn't like chocolate cake!?).

Here is a short clip of Gilly and her cake.



She was a very tired little girl at the end of the day!

World Famous Legs

These have to be the worlds most squeezable legs.

Our Big Girl

Gilly prefers to sit in the big chairs at the table now, instead of sitting in her highchair.

She looks so tiny!

Video Clips

Gilly chatting on the phone



Simon enduring Gilly's affection



Simon talking, Gilly reluctant to let him have the spotlight

Morning Story Time

Graduate Student Humor

A fellow grad student in the lab just sent this video to me. There are days when I agree with Marge's comment at the end of the clip :)

Wife Carrying Championship

Yup, it's real . . . the 8th Annual North American Wife Carrying Championship (click). There's a pretty funny video at the bottom of the page.

The winning team gets their wife's weight in beer.

Little Monster

Gilly was misbehaving yesterday, so I sent her to her room for a short "rest" (a.k.a. "timeout"). She emerged a few minutes later wearing this:



She has an amazing ability to drive you crazy, and then crack you up just a few minutes later. That's our Gillymonster.

We're Back

Sorry for yet another gap in posting. Hopefully we haven't lost any loyal Gilly and Simon fans ;)


Giving CG some tips on how to beg for table scraps:




Future farmer? Naturalist?




Yeah, he's that big:




The Entertainment returned for a visit:

Smiley Boy

Chunky Monkey had his checkup yesterday. He's at 15lb, 5oz, putting him solidly in the 95th percentile for weight.

Clearly he is very happy about his achievement.

Gilly in the City

We had a fun time in Massachusetts this weekend. While Lyn and Simon were at a baby shower on Saturday, Gilly and I went to the beach on Cape Cod with Aunt Judy. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the beach, since I was spending most of my time keeping Gilly from drowning. It's hard to hold a nearly-two-year old up out of the water with one hand and snap pictures with the other. She LOVED the water, and had lots of fun "swimmin." I now have a better appreciation for how fast she can move. She could dash from the beach towel to the edge of the water almost before I could get to my feet. She has no fear, no sense of water depth, and no swimming ability. Danger is her middle name.

On Sunday Lyn and Simon hung out with Aunt Judy while Gilly and I went to the New England Aquarium in Boston. I did manage to get some pictures there, but they aren't spectacular. It was pretty dark inside, and again, managing a high-energy Gilly and taking pictures without her getting into mischief was a challenge. Her favorite was the penguin exhibit, where we spent most of our time, but she also enjoyed the giant ocean tank and spotted the seaturtles ("turtles"), sharks, and rays ("flyin'").

After the aquarium we went to Boston Common and the Public Garden where we went on a Swan Boat ride. It was very hot and humid, and Gilly was tired, so this wasn't a big hit. Gilly quacked at some ducks, but soon said "all done, get down." It was hard to convince her that jumping out of the boat was a bad idea.

We met some friends for lunch in the park after our boat ride, then rode the green line on the T (Gilly: "train, noisy") back to our car. It was a fun weekend, and I think she'll sleep well tonight.


Gilly peering into the giant ocean tank:




Her favorite, the penguins:




Playing in the children's area:






Face-to-face with a seaturtle (for some reason, she thought the turtle was hilarious . . . she laughed every time it swam by):




Feeding the birds:




Admiring some of the flowers at the Public Garden:




All smiles:

Juice Bubbles

Move

We finished moving last weekend, and our DSL service hasn't been activated yet, hence the lack of posts on the blog (I'm posting from work right now).

We didn't move far, just a different unit at the graduate student housing complex. Dartmouth is tearing down our old unit to make way for a new, pricier, unit.

We have an additional bedroom in the new place, and a more open living area. Gilly seems to like the space, running around like the Tazmanian Devil. She also likes the huge playground out front, with lots of toys strewn about, swings, slides, etc. There are lots of kids in our new "neighborhood," and Gilly already has a new friend.

Simon is doing well, still gaining a steady pound per week (14.5 pounds a few days ago). He's started smiling, and even giggling a little. I'll post pictures as soon as we can get back online.

Blog Appearance

Nothing is wrong with your computer, I'm just fiddling around with the blog template. I'm using a very simple template for now, so it will load faster on a slower connection.

Big Boy

If Simon keeps this up, he's going to need a brassiere (or a Mansierre for you Seinfeld fans).

Dreaming

What does a baby boy who has gained a pound per week over the last month dream of?

Eating, of course.

Hugs

Gilly is either giving Simon a hug, or trying to get him to tap out.

Tutoring

Gilly decided Simon needed some help with his language development.

First, the basics: the alphabet.

Chunky Monkey

We've been told that the target weight for a baby at two weeks is to get back to their birth weight. They tend to lose weight at first, and I'm convinced it's from all that meconium they poop out (I think there could be a market for this stuff as organic roofing tar).

We were pleasantly surprised when Gilly managed to get back to her birth weight at two weeks. It was a challenge getting her to eat during those first days at home, since she preferred to sleep rather than eat. Simon is a different story altogether. He was looking for something to eat as soon as he was delivered, and has been eating constantly since then. It was no surprise that he was 1.5 pounds over his birthweight at his two week checkup.

He is now affectionately known as "Chunky Monkey."

Chasing Bubbles

We went to a barbeque this afternoon and Gilly had TONS of fun playing with the kids from the neighborhood. It was neat to see her be so independent . . . she took off to play with the other kids without giving us a second thought.

She especially like chasing the bubbles.