July Beach Holiday

Click HERE for album and short video

Sean models a windbreaker we borrowed from the Johnson's

Dave poses with the latest baby Gator- Morgan Maria - born just before one Saturday. Mom, baby and family are doing great!

Sean discovers the ocean! Cool! It works just like the bathtub!

Mom and Sean hanging out in Galveston. Sunglasses aren't just for breakfast anymore!

There Once was a Puffin

Thanks to Keri!

There Once Was a Puffin

Oh, there once was a Puffin
Just the shape of a muffin,
And he lived on an island
In the bright blue sea!

He ate little fishes,
That were most delicious,
And he had them for supper
And he had them for tea.

But this poor little Puffin,
He couldn't play nothin',
For he hadn't anybody
To play with at all.

So he sat on his island,
And he cried for awhile, and
He felt very lonely,
And he felt very small.

Then along came the fishes,
And they said, "If you wishes,
You can have us for playmates,
Instead of for tea!"

So they now play together,
In all sorts of weather,
And the Puffin eats pancakes,
Like you and like me.

by Florence Page Jaques

Church Directory Photo

Puffin - the other white meat

TAKE THE PUFFIN POLL! ------>

Now the liberal hordes attack puffin connoisseurs! Daniel, a scion of the left wing media, has posted a diatribe against puffin lovers! It is absolutely natural for one to love a living puffing in nature and to also enjoy its fishy, succulent, flesh off the grill! Next "they" will come out against seal clubbing or whaling! What is this politically correct world coming too?

I encourage you to call your senators and congressmen to protest this demonization of puffin consumption. Even if Trent Lott comes out against talk radio saying it "needs to be dealt with" please continue your vitriolic calls until the rights of puffin consumers are secured!

RECIPE: Bacon larded puffin in milk sauce
RECIPE: Puffin in milk sauce

Puffin preparation poetry from Theoretical Pet Cookery:

Last night I cooked a puffin
But I buggered up the stuffin'.

New Buddy and Crib Remodel

On Tuesday my newest buddy, Isaac Heider, was born to proud parents Carol and Clinton. He may rival me for cuteness (I know his mother threw down the challenge yesterday!) We went to visit the newest Heider last night at Hermann Hospital - he was a cutie.

Sean in play saucer

What is this cup thing? It looks like fun!

Uh-oh. It looks like Sean is getting a little big for his crib - must be time for a re-model.

Sean in his new tricked out lowered crib. Click HERE to see video and a picture sequence of Sean taking his first victim in the re-done crib

Sean is 1/2 A Year Old!

Sean turned 6-months old yesterday! He went for his 6-month check-up and everything is fine. His stats are:

Length 90%
Weight 20%
Head Circumference 20%

Sean is doing well and has been very active. He finds clever ways to get himself around but has demonstrated no real crawling skills yet. He has been eating tons of rice cereal and this week will move on to food number two - pureed carrots! Some of our numerous books insist on veggies first, others on fruits first - so, we picked a sweetish veggie. (maybe we should have settled on a Swedish veggie, like rutabagas?) He is more or less tracking the skills he should have, however his new fascination with dropping things is getting old after two days!

The Wheatley/Pastalaniec annual vacation is starting to come together. We will be in Scandinavia for two weeks with stops in Norway, Sweden and Iceland (a new country for all of us! Watch out puffins!) By the end of the trip Sean will have 4 countries and 2 states on his traveling credentials. We will all be staying with Eric's gracious family in Oslo and Sweden. The Pasta's will be taking a side trip to Trondheim and Bergen to ride the Hurtigruten ferry and see some fjords.

Friday we took Dziadziu out for his birthday at On The Border - not a bad chain tex-mex place. Except - no changing station in the men's restroom. In a restaurant in Pearland? That opened this year?

This week Dave tried out www.tirerack.com to get new tires - it worked out well. The last time I needed tires for my sport edition G35 (what? It has the word "sport" in the name and is a discounted program car? sold!), Discount Tires only had 2 that fit on the Gulf Coast and they were very poor tires. Only took 2 days for tirerack to deliver 2 Bridgstone Potenzas. I went to NTB to have them installed today and have the brakes checked. Current status? My brakes are specific to my edition of the G35 and they are still looking (something about double-piston v. single-piston? over my head.) I walked home.

Ok, now for the long awaited picture update!

Barley wants to go for a run! I don't think she would like being strapped in.

Sean has always enjoyed bath time - meaning he found it interesting and not scary. He is now finally relaxing enough to really have a good time.

Putting Sean in bed after he wakes up on the weekends is good for 1-2 hours more sleep for mom and dad. (Somebody needs to tell dad that short hair may be good for preventing hardhat-head, but not for bed-head!)

Barbara's birthday and Sean still steals the focus of the cameras

Sean gets time with Grandpa before he heads to Russia

Same for Nana. Check out my new sleep duds!

Bye Nana!

Quick Patriotic Post

We have definitely hit a weight plateau.

Maybe pictures tomorrow? It has been a busy couple of weeks. Sean now has teeth! One and then another appeared in the bottom front about 2 weeks ago. Relatively painless, compared with Monday night. Sunday Grandpa and Nana came to spend some time before leaving for vacation today. Monday night Barbara and I went on a date for her birthday - dinner at Ouisie's Table and then wine at the Wine Rack. That night Sean had approximately 1.5 million teeth begin to come in. Being a normal human he reacted by screaming and crying most of the night. at 3:30am I gave up and called in "baby derailment" to work via email. So far "only" some back bottom teeth can be found.

Last night Nick, Heather and Elissa came over for the 4th and steak grilling.

Today Grandpa and Nana headed out for Russia!

Keep on Truckin'

Over the past couple of days Sean has greatly improved in mobility. He is no longer safe alone in any elevated location! The next step change will be crawling while NOT sucking on his thumb at the same time! He can flip over, turnaround and then head for the edge of the bed in nothing flat.

Mom and Sean

Sean's big baby stroller arrived on Friday - the Bob Revolution. He has already logged 10 miles in it - 4 miles walking on Saturday and 6 miles running with Dad and then Mom. The Bob has shocks and a front wheel that can turn or be locked straight for running. We have a Schwinn running stroller on the way which has bigger wheels and is much lighter. If the Bob works out for running (so far so good) we may send the Schwinn back.

For those that don't see Sean in person, his hair does not look like this in real life. He is growing more and more really blond hair, which with a camera flash shows up as really thick dark brown hair?!?

Dziadziu, Grandma and Joanne came over this week to visit before Grandma and Joanne left for vacation with the Hofbauer sisters in Florida. Above, after pasta dinner for the rest of us, Sean gets ready for rice cereal.

Weekend in Nacogdoches

This weekend we went to Nacogdoches for Pat Carroll's wedding. The Carrolls are long time (40 years) friends of the Boyces. For some reason all pictures had Sean in them, not the happy newlyweds. This was not my fault! It was great to meet so many of the Carrolls. They are a fun bunch. Hopefully we'll get to spend more time with them soon.

We drove up Saturday morning and checked into the historic Fredonia. We stayed in our room in the "terrace" building long enough to feed a hungry baby and get a new room in the main building - the "terrace" room was awful - smelled of mildew. The new room was much better.

The wedding and reception were at "Millard's Crossing" - a cool collection of historic area buildings and homes moved to the site. After the wedding most of the Boyces gathered in our new hotel room to gel and socialize. Sean did not go to bed until 12:30am - he apparently likes to stay up on Saturday nights. Sunday morning was breakfast at the Carrolls', then back to Houston.

Baby Jail! Now that I can roll over I keep getting caught in corners of my crib! I have a protective bumper now, but it still makes me cranky.

Me and Grandpa at the wedding.

How does this thing work?

Yesterday while taking a bath I captured a floating fish-toy with my feet and brought it up to taste - my dad thought I looked just like an otter with a sea urchin.

I can do this in my sleep!

After yesterday's exciting roll-over advancement I walked into Sean's room this morning to find him back on his front - not very comfortable looking!

Today he just flipped all day long - as long as no one was watching him.

Rockin' and Rollin'

Sean rolled over back-side to front-side for the first time today. This evening, while lounging on his parent's bed, he figured it out. For the past two weeks he has been stymied by turning over except for the arm trapped under his body. Today he figured out how to use his legs to lift his rear and free his arm. After doing it once he repeated it 3 more times over the course of the evening. The last time he then pushed himself forward 2 feet to get to a toy, mainly pushing with his legs to push his face and body forward (no carpet burn!)

Chaste Sean reaches for toys

Sean gets his feet wet

Is this the hot tub?

High Chair & Food!

Long time no pictures! On Tuesday (a short week ago) Sean ate solid food for the first time. It was only his second time in his new high chair. After a fairly quiet week, we headed to the Hill Country for the Danskin Triathlon. Barbara competed as 1/3 of a relay as the swimmer - Aunt Joanne did the run/walk and Amy did the bike.

On Sunday while Amy and Barbara were competing Dave and Jason hung out with the kids (Sean, 4 year old Rebbecca and 2 year old Michael) - sorry no pics. Rebbecca played hard with Sean and Sean loved it. He laughed and giggled repeatedly for the first time ever.

The Pasta's started shopping hard for a running stroller. We test drove many - maybe in the next week or so we will get one.

We managed to hit 4 tex-mex restaurants in 5 nights. Ranked in order of price v. quality: 1) Barton Springs Grill - good prices and nice kitchy recreation of restaurants on Barton Springs Rd. in Austin; 2) Chuy's - the good old fashion favorite, the original on Barton Springs; 3) Cantina Laredo - rather pricey, good atmosphere, and table side made guacamole; 4) Pappasito's - still expensive mediochre tex-mex.

Bumbos are fun!

My own high chair!

Is this for eating or playing?

Aunt Joanne! I like the high chair!!!

Rice cereal is good!

Can I smile and eat solid food at the same time?