Sunday, June 24, 2007

Real Crawling!

DHV got into forwards locomotion yesterday with some goal-oriented crawling! HusbandKV was at work missing out on the action, so we did a crawl session right after breakfast this morning. Put your consumer electronics somewhere safe!

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Father's Day Weekend

HusbandKV's first Father's Day as a father! We started it off with the last shift at HUP, ever. Now only six (hooray) 12 hour (boo) shifts at the CHOPer until residency is over. The last overnight took a toll on the new father. Here he lures DHV into bed with some Snoopies for a family nap. DHV obliged for 30 seconds and then went downstairs to work on backwards crawling.
Saturday morning we met our Pediatron Sarah and her husband Brendan, super fellow and flagship member of the never-ending postgraduate medical training support group, for brunch. No photographic documentation of this event exists, primarily because DKV was distracted by the threat of sanctions being handed out for an incident report he filed at the hospital last week.

That night we ate some calzones and pizza (hooray for dairy) with Eric and Courtney. DHV laid the charm on and showed CR his nesting boxes.
Sunday we took off for H-field. We met up with fellow HMHS alum and intrepid corporate litigator Danielle Rose. Photo documentation of this event does exist, but somehow corrupts the blog when uploaded (as absolute power is wont to do). Don't worry, we'll get some real digital proof at the Pilot Pen tournament in August.

After completing some menial tasks in preparation for Cousin Ida's trip east (with Uncle "I'm a neat-freak" Pete and Aunt Ella), the DVs settled in for some backyard grillin' and relaxin'. DHV splashed his heart out, DKV worked on getting some swarth onto the upper arms, and DRV Jr. admired his progeny.
Check out that lawn!
DHV got so tired from all that splashing that he cuddled up to his father - a miracle!
Then he recharged on some watermelon, a feat made possible by those 8 monstrous teeth. Go DHV!

Friday, June 15, 2007

The Journey of 1000 Miles

When discussing primitive locomotion, the tertiary axiom is, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

The secondary axiom is, "You have to crawl before you walk."

DHV demonstrates the primary axiom, "Crawling done in any direction is better than none."



No shoes were harmed in the making of this educational video.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Doctors, doctors everywhere

DHV had his 9 month doctor's appointment this morning. He weighs in at a whopping 20lbs, 10 oz and is 28 1/3 inches long. That puts him smack in the 50th percentile in both height and weight but his noggin still ranks in the 90th. The boy's got brains! Maybe he'll put them to good use and follow in the footsteps of DKV and ERV one day.

Here he is practicing making a phone call to a consultant:
And then hanging up in disgust:
The rest of the visit was uneventful. The pediatron thought the little guy looked great and reassured Mommy that everything he's doing is perfectly normal. The big news is that we got permission to let DHV try some dairy again so we'll be starting him out with some yogurt later today. This could open up a whole new culinary world for the boy!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

DHV starts with the talking

Here's some fascinating video of the boy.
I'll sum it up if you don't like watching videos.
DHV: Mama
SHV: Can you say dada?
DHV: Mama mama mmmmmm. Smiles in self satisfaction.
DHV (to self): Why does this ring smell like B.O.?
DHV (to self): Who's making my legs go back and forth like that?

I'll work on making my own laughter more presentable in the future.

Monday, June 11, 2007

DHV Gets a New House!

Last week we packed up and headed to CT for the much-anticipated closing on our new house. We crashed with the ever-hospitable Luce family one last time the night before the closing. DHV took over Caroline's jumperoo and did some furious bouncing while she looked on. That girl is such a good sport!

She quickly tired of his babyish antics and walked (yes, walked!) away. Here's the kind of mess that Mommy V has to look forward to once DHV starts feeding himself. Yikes!

The next morning DHV made himself at home in the lawyer's office, spreading his toys all over the floor, banging them against the wall, and generally wreaking havoc. He also attracted a lot of attention from the office staff. Not much work was getting done there that morning!

After signing a few hundred documents we picked up some sandwiches and had a picnic in our new yard. Check out that swingset! DHV is gonna be rockin' and rollin' once we attach a baby swing to that thing and set up the kiddie pool out there.

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Video Documentation

Aunt ERV has been clamoring for documentation of our toothbrushing activity here in the 19103. DHV is sprouting teeth at a rate not mentioned in all of our parenting books. He has 8 and is working on number 9. As you will see, brushing is no easy task. Luckily these teeth are the disposable kind.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Remembering Memorial Day

DHV had an active Memorial Day weekend; tonight WifeHV put the laptop in my lap (duh!) and issued a publish-or-die directive.

First, Matt and Stacey (in Philly for a wedding) stopped by for some bacon and eggs and enjoyed DHV's company - no photos since they've gotten so much screen time lately. Later that day, intrepid pediatric hematologist/oncologist Anu Narla (of Oakland A's infamy) flew in from Boston for another wedding. She was up late the night before saving cancer babies but fortified herself with caffeine and met us in Rittenhouse Square. With her finely honed pediatric skilz, it only took one look for her to diagnose DHV as "cute" and "probably not cancerous." Seeing that he was healthy, she tested his reflexes with this lopsided game of cell phone keepaway.DHV got back at our super-swarthy friend by gnawing/drooling on her leg. He has such a way with the ladies!
Sunday we drove to Princeton for a grillout at Profesori Camerlenghi's abode. He was nice enough to host us after finishing his 2-volume, 5000 page dissertation, and before his defense just two days later. Even with all that on his plate, he rocked us with a wide array of European cheeses (some stinky, some not, all delicious; poor non-dairy diet WifeHV), fresh corn, and butter-fortified burgers. DHV demonstrated his amazing camera-blurring speed while entertaining NMC with some lap-bouncing.
The first load of briquets was not match-light. We'll just chalk that up to a combination of Nick's post-dissertation fatigue, a little English as a second language confusion, and maybe a touch of color-blindness. The second load of briquets was match-light, but was so old that it forgot how to light. That's why you invite some V's to your grillout; we had that baby burning HOT after some backyard twig supplementation.
Oh, look, here's that Matt Leonard entertaining DHV- that MLL SJM couple is good for some quality babysitting. Stacey is pointing out some twigs for Matt to gather to help out with the burninating.
Really, it was all just a rouse to get her hands on the little guy. Luckily for DHV, he doesn't have long hair - I bet it would have ended up in some sort of French braid!
It was cooler in P-ton than in the Filthadelphia, but the heat still wore HusbandKV out; an empty bottle of Morimoto's Hazelnut Ale makes a nice Memorial Day pillow.Not photographed in all the action were fellow Trumbullians Jenny DaSilva and Dan McLaughlin, shortly headed to The Hague for a year. Completing the circle of the weekend, Dan and Anu went to same high school. Also not photographed was a visit to Haddonfield where some shrub pruning, carjack-facilitated fence removing, and railroad tie moving/caber tossing took place. Such was the intensity of manwork that HusbandKV showered down in H-field's fancy shower.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Striving for Milestones

In response to recent inquiries about what DHV has been up to, we felt the need to document the significant progress he's making on the never-ending road of developmental milestones. Although he's not yet crawling, he has begun to get on all fours and rock back and forth. Here he is demonstrating that move as he watches a pigeon march by in the park.

DHV has also begun to stand (and smack the table excitedly) when positioned properly at the coffee table, as seen here.

Finally, he's working hard at pulling up. His favorite place to practice this is on the daddy gym.

DHV also had a very social Memorial Day weekend, which will hopefully be documented here by HusbandKV shortly. HusbandKV's blogging activities have been temporarily slowed down by his return to work but should return to full speed before long.