Us with Kee, Kim & Bella.

Today Aeneas is two months old. The last week has been very exciting. Our friends Kee, Kim and Bella came to visit us for a whole week and we had lots of fun. Bella is nearly seven months old and even when she's teething she's full of smiles and giggles. She gave us lots to look forward to -like sitting-up, playing with toys, eating solid food and passing solid poop... isn't growing up great? It is hard to believe that Bella is only 5 months ahead of us. She's practically a different animal.

Aeneas has also been metamorphosizing before our eyes. Over the past week he has started to smile at us reliably. By that I mean that if he's in a decent mood and we make enough faces at him, he will smile and laugh. We thought he was pretty cute before. Now we're sure that he's the cutest thing we've ever seen.

He also seems to be somewhat aware of his hands. He still flails them wildly most of the time. For instance, while he's nursing it often seems like he's trying to have a boxing match with my breast. He punches and dodges while simultaneously sucking as hard as he can. This process is not always pleasant. But, occasionally he looks very concentrated and moves his hands toward his mouth slowly. We're hopeful that he'll get control of his hands soon because the pacifier is tiresome.

Aeneas' first Christmas was also our first Christmas away from either of our families. We had a very relaxing day and made an attempt to start some of our own traditions - such as making green chile pizza for dinner. Aeneas got some nice books and an iDog. It is a little, electronic, dog-shaped toy that dances and shines light patterns when you "feed" it music. We have named him Tiki

Uncle Kee is full of Babies!

Here's a photo with Grandma Susan that didn't get published last week.

First kiss by a hot babe -and an older girl at that! Bella Hope Zublin Robles Reyes arrived in the mail for Aeneas' first Xmas.

Ok, to be fair we thought since we posted quite a few photos where Aeneas is angelic we should post one of his...less photogenic shots.

Our Pediatrician told us to expect baby acne sometime between four and six weeks and as if on cue we woke up the morning he turned four weeks and he was as pimply as a high school boy on steroids. Almost exactly two weeks later they all but disappeared.

The other oddity about this photograph is that it is actually a picture of Aeneas being held upside down. Notice he has something almost like a neck! Since he spent the last four weeks or so of Emily's pregnancy engaged we figure he's accustomed to the position. And indeed he does seem somewhat amused by it.

Is is the Alien?

Is it a Tumor?

Is it Mini-Me?

No! It's Aeneas! 

Mother, Baby, Grandpa, Poinsetta

Dog germs are good for babies, right?

Grandpa Darrell gets blogged!

No! Don't feed the baby to the Crocodile!

This beautiful sling was handmade in Bolivia by a group of women who work with Etta Projects. We've gotten a lot of comments on it.

The Crocodile is part of the Australian Exhibit at the National Aquarium here in Baltimore.
We went down there with Emily's parents over the Thanksgiving Holiday.

It's been a little while. Blogger has had some problems when we put up more than one post in a day, which leads to us skipping posting.

Here's a picture of Aeneas with Uncle Carl. You'll note a fair resemblance between the two.

The Turner Clan down at the Harbor.

  

Mother and Child in the Morning.

 

Granddad Bill. You've been blogged. 

 

He's out. 

 

Happy, Yuppy Baby. 

 

Saturday morning Papa time. 

 

Happy Birthday Papa!!! 

 

It's papa's birthday and election day! Aeneas says: "Yay for Nancy Pelosi!" Cayenne says: "No more Santorum!" Jared says: "Did I really just get an electric toothbrush for my birthday?" 

 

I bet you think he's cute with his eyes open, don't you? You're all glad he's woken up I bet. Well, it's not cute when he squeaks all night, sleeps all day and then wants to wake up again once we want to sleep! 

1st Bath. This boy apparently doesn't like to be naked and in the sink! But he does have some healthy lungs.

 

This is what Aeneas looks like when he's happy. Why is he so happy? Because his 1st bath is over! 

 

That's right. He's super cute AND he's wearing a pumpkin hat. 

 

Look! An Autumn treasure! 

 

Baby's first doctor's visit. He lost an ounce in 4 days. They tell us that's normal for breast-fed babies. His brown fat is getting used up to keep him warm - this fat contains the protein UCP-1 which uncouples the process of oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria so that mitochondria make heat instead of ATP. I learned something in medical school! 

 

The tree outside our house. This is probably as good as B-more is gonna get. Beautiful Autumn Foliage and temps in the upper 60's. 

  

 

It's a little hard to make out on the web transfer, but this is a note from John Suarataino (sp?) a carpenter who worked on our house in November of 1941. The note gives his name & address as well as a nice short note "Congratulations to You & Good Luck". We found it today as we were converting a closet space into a spot for a new subsized washer & dryer. 

 

Every picture of us has Jared kissing me. He can't keep is hands or lips off me. 

Cayenne gets his first look at Baby Aeneas. We're not really sure what to make of Cayenne's reaction to Aeneas. He is very interested. We actually thought he wouldn't care that much. He's a pretty mellow dog. He gets excited about food and he gets excited about his fetch ball. People aren't really his thing. But this baby...the baby noises make him near frantic. It doesn't appear to be jealousy, it's more just like... interest. Whenever we've let him get close to Jack he licks him pretty obsessively, so we pull the baby back and Cayenne gets a little nuts. We can't tell if he's just excited and he can somehow tell that we love the little baby and so he should, too. Or, if he thinks Aeneas is more like a squirrell we've brought into the house to fatten up for Thanksgiving. He likes his stuffed animals alot. But, if they have a squeaky noise, he doesn't rest until the noise is dead. To be on the safe side, we decided we won't let Cayenne babysit for a while.