Stella News

My Family's Thanksgiving

2010-11-28T14:22:00.000-08:00

As with every year, we went down to Duck for the long holiday weekend. As also per usual, Ms. Peggy came as a babysitter and all of the adults went out to dinner. What was not usual is that my Godfather, Uncle Eliot joined us for the weekend and the meal. I think that he enjoyed it, I know that I did. We actually made our own TG meal on Friday, Daddy cooked a Turducken, and Aunt Beth cooked the rest. It was all very good, inspired really, glad that we have lots of leftovers.

My Brother's Newly Mobile Fall

2010-11-28T14:18:00.001-08:00

As you can see, it's fall around the Vetrovec household. The latter picture shows Baby Whit as he is helping M&D clean up Meme's yard in exchange for some babysitting. The first picture is BW demonstrating his newly found mobility, albeit backwards. He tends to end up underneath things with his head sticking out. At least he's easier to retrieve in that fashion. He's not usually happy about it.

My Inappropriate Brother

2010-11-28T14:14:00.001-08:00

I've been compiling this file on him for a bit over a month now. In that time period, he's proven that he is delightfully tacky, yet unrefined, by going to Hooters twice including flirting with the waitress one time. Also, he was immediately drawn to one of Daddy's big boy magazines that he found on the bathroom floor. For shame BW, that's Tara Reid, you can do better than that.

My Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

Well, disingenuous as per usual, it's actually not my pumpkin patch, but rather that of Daddy's partner Jim in Caroline County. We took the cousins and arrived just as the hayride was taking off. It was not my first, although I must say I was not terrified of it as I was this time last year. It was Baby Whit's first time, but he handled it pretty well, just sat in Daddy's lap for most of it. They had a deal going on for $20 for 50 lbs of pumpkin. Seemed too good to pass up, so I just kept going back to the field for more. Apparently 3 pumpkins and 2 gourds can add up to 50 lbs pretty quick. Needless to say, we came home with quite a haul, so did EmmyChar. We're letting them season on our front porch for the time being, but M&D say that soon we will carve them and roast the seeds. Exciting times. I'll be sure to post a picture of that. Also, I have pictures of last weekend with the cousins, but I'll have to post them later, Google is telling me that image uploads are currently disabled for maintenance. What do you get for free these days?

My Tubby Brother Time

2010-10-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

Well, it wasn't in the tubby ducky, but for the first time, M&D asked if Baby Whit and I wanted to take a tubby together. We both thought that was a grand idea. Daddy filled up the tubby with water and bubbles and away we went. I had a great time, Baby Whit kept slipping on the slippery tub and falling over, Daddy had to be quick on the draw to keep him above water. But as you can see from our happy smiles, it all worked out and we had a nice time.

My Brother's Baptism

2010-09-26T17:31:00.001-07:00

Please pardon the extremely goofy picture of Daddy, it was taken with his phone by Big G who is normally a great photog, but must have been thrown off his game dealing with a phone with 4 megapixels versus the 40 that Big G's camera has. Anyway, just like me a couple of years ago, Pastor Pat baptized Baby Whit this morning to a congregation at Centenary that was made up of at least 10% of our family and friends. Afterwards, we had a lot of people over to our house for soup, fellowship and cocktails, mmmm! I'm glad to know that Baby Whit had no chance at limbo at this point.

My Daddy's Relay and my Ayla Rhoadsie

2010-09-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure that I have mentioned my Daddy's relay that he does every year, but if not let me recap. Every year Daddy engages in a crazy 211 mile running relay that begins in southwest Virginia, and finishes in Asheville, NC. Per the website, it gains and loses a total of more than 36000 feet of elevation in the interim. If you hadn't guessed it yet, I think that my Daddy is crazy. On the plus side of crazy however is that Asheville resides an equidistant 6 hours driving time from Richmond and Cincinnati. Thus ensuring that our friends the Rhoadses will come see us. We had a ball in the mountains with my friend Ayla. I hear that M&D had a pretty good time with her parents Dan and Marni after Baby Whit and I went to bed. We're already making plans for a reprise on Memorial Day weekend, looking forward to it.

My Family Portrait

2010-09-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

At long last today, I finally started back to school. Far be it from me to abhor school like some other children, Reveille makes it so much fun that I can't wait to get up and go. My teachers this year are Miss Katie and Miss Anne. They asked that I bring in a family picture to put on the bulletin board. That way if I am feeling sad and missing them, they can point to them and they will be near. Fat chance of that, M&D don't really come into my mind while I am at school. Anyway, we had Big G over Sunday night for dinner in exchange for some portrait photography. These are some of the better ones, dang it's hard to get everyone to smile and look straight ahead at one time. It must have been night night time for Mommy, she had trouble keeping her eyes open.

My Cajun Cousins

2010-09-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

I know I have written about my cousins before, but not these cousins. For the first time, I got to meet my Louisiana cousins Elise, Lila and Bennett. Not sure that they are Cajun, but the alliteration seemed to work for a title. Anyway, they came up to see me, all the way from near the Red Stick. It called for an occasion to get the whole family together, so you can see several different incantations. On the far right, you can see me, Baby Whit, and my Cajun Cousins all sitting on a rock at Maymont, what a nice day. Middle is me with almost all of my cousins, except for Ellie and Emmy who couldn't make it. Far left is Mommy's whole family on her Pop's side. Lots of family this weekend, as Aunt Brooke says, "Family time is fun time!" I agree.

My Penance II

2010-08-23T18:07:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've served penance, in truth, I've been a pretty good girl recently, I guess it's self flagellation from liberal guilt kicking in, because I feel bad about the hegemonistic and imperialistic ways of this country. Just kidding, I guess I've been listening to too many of Daddy's political rants again. We had Bebe the dog come over, and again I borrowed her crate. The middle one is a structure that we can't discern the use of in the park next to our house, but it works for a cage. And the last one is just me showcasing my pretty Mommy and cute brother.

My Brother's First Real Meal

2010-08-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

About three weeks ago, M&D decided that it was time for BW to start going a bit longer in between nursing, and thus the introduction of solid foods! Here we are having the first real meal, yummy rice cereal mixed with breast milk, mmm, mmm, good! Sarcasm aside, BW seems to have gotten the hang of it and we have moved on to oatmeal, carrots, peas and bananas. I hope that he turns out to be as good of an eater as me.

My Moo Resurgence

2010-08-23T17:58:00.001-07:00

No you're not seeing double here. What you're seeing is that I saved some of my favorite outfits (that I hadn't destroyed) for my little brother to come along. I must say, that while I was a bit chunkier (Thanks Jenny Craig!) at the time of this picture, I think that the resemblance is fairly uncanny. And just like Madonna, we both seemed to have struck the same pose.

My Belated Beach Post 2

2010-07-31T17:52:00.001-07:00

Trivia bit for you: I always abbreviate M&D and never stopped to think about it. This week I learned a new fact, although that happens often for me. The middle symbol is known as an ampersand and it is actually the Latin script symbol for "et al" these days we mostly use it as "and" but it really means "and others". Anyway, Jeopardy moment done and all, on to your regularly scheduled programming: M&D decided that they needed some time away with the other adults, so Miss Peggy came twice and let them go out to dinner. These first two are from all of the grownups and there various outings to Elizabeth's and Blue Point. The other one is a present that Big G brought me, my very own circus tent. Sadly, Daddy mandated that we leave it behind in the owners closet to be a special beach treat. Maybe I'll convince him to bring it home the next time.

My Belated Beach Post

2010-07-31T17:42:00.001-07:00

So, my constant readers may remember that I posted at least once from the beach, something about a drunk and ornery Meme, but I digress. It's taken me a while because I didn't get the pictures right away, but Big G brought over a CD with all of his greatest hits on it for me. I've gone through and picked out a few that I thought my readers might like. In no particular order, Baby Whit on somebodies lap doing a close up, my cousins and me riding the raft, my showing that I am completely impervious to noticing even the worst sand wedgie, and Uncle David and Daddy showing off how tough they are on the beach. There's more to come, so I won't expund too much on this.

My Baby Brother's Reign of Queens

2010-07-31T17:28:00.001-07:00

I had to rename this particular reign of queens for two reasons, first off, I wasn't there, more on that later, and secondly, there have been so many of them that I don't even remember which one I'd be on anyway, and Daddy is way too lazy to go back to find his last posting on the subject. So anyway, a couple of weekends ago, M&D went to Colonial Beach to challenge the annual triathlon. I went to Meme's for the night. They did however take Baby Whit, and the male Vetrovec heir was quite the hit, but I don't really understand why. Daddy told me that was a conversation we wouldn't be having for quite some time. Just for some introductions, the first one is my Aunt Nicole, second is Scott, third is Daddy, the main attraction for the weekend, and the fourth is Alex. BW tells me that he had an absolutely fabulous and simply divine weekend.

My Guido Brother

2010-07-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

This is my guido brother Baby Whit. I guess I need to give you some background on this. We finally joined a pool. M&D have started taking us to Planet Granite, which Daddy has told me ad nauseum, is where he grew up swimming. Anyway, as we packed off toward the pool the other evening, I happened to catch Baby Whit in his swim attire, with his jersey unzipped, I felt like he was bringing some Jersey to Planet Granite. Hence when I started calling him Guido. I'm glad Baby Whit didn't start his own blog, it leaves him unable to defend himself.

My Dancing Brother

2010-07-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

This is baby Whit bouncing on Mommy's lap as she was talking on the phone. I guess he wasn't getting paid enough attention, so he went about trying to entertain himself. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. A video must be worth a bunch more because I just don't have much to add to this.

My Other Beachy Cousins

2010-07-13T18:34:00.001-07:00

Sorry that I didn't write much from the beach. I was having such a good time that I could barely stop to think, much less take the time to write. So between that and my daily 3 to 4 hour nap, I'm just now recovered enough to return to my readers. Pretty much the highlight of each day was my bath with my cousins. Needless to say that there were many pictures snapped of us, but only a couple that are fit for the web, you never know what creepy people might be lurking out there. But I'm back, all my pale skin intact thanks to 50 SPF. I think I've finally been able to get the sand out of all my unmentionables, and sadly we won't be back to Meme's beach house for a while as it's rented out through the end of September. Back to life for me!

My Beach Post

2010-06-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the beach. As you may have seen from my Facebook profile, I love my new bathing suit. What could be better than being a ballerina? So let me give you the run down; Daddy's on the computer instead of the beach, Mommy's on the beach, Aunt Beth is cooking and yelling for others to come near at their own peril, Uncle Dave has switched from beer to bourbon, and it's only 6.30, and Meme's drunk and ornery and working on her 4th glass of champagne or prosecca, I don't know which bottle they are on now. I'm having the greatest time with my cousins, they are paying me gobs of attention and I have spent equal time beaching and napping because I get so worn out playing with them. Baby Whit has been napping and eating regularly, not so much different than his Richmond schedule. More to report later...

My Beachy Cousin

2010-06-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

This is my cousin Juddy. We spent a weekend down at Myrtle Beach together a couple of weekends back. Mommy took me down when Daddy had some philanthropic obligation, we went down to Pop's beach house. I had a great time playing with all of my family. Here's my very cute cousin who I spent a lot of time with that weekend. There just weren't that many little people for me to hang with, so I'm glad he was there to keep me company.

My Baby Movie

2010-06-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

This is my baby brother Whit. He didn't think anyone was paying attention to him the other night, and I was secretly recording him. I can't see why people make such a fuss about him. It's not like he really does anything except kick on the floor.

My Mobile (Advanced) Brother

2010-06-03T18:29:00.001-07:00

So this is my newly mobile brother Baby Whit, safely sequestered on his back. I wish I could show you pictures of his first crawl, but unfortunately, no one witnessed it, and therefore no photographic evidence. The evidence obtained was circumstantial at best, but Mommy believes that it happened. Mommy left Baby Whit on his belly, happily kicking away, while she stepped into another room to do something. When she came back a couple of minutes later, he had moved off his blanket, around the corner of the ottoman, and was unhappily face down in the Lincoln Logs I had left on the floor (which Mommy had told me to clean up, but I didn't). So apparently, at slightly less than 3 months, Baby Whit can crawl when he really wants to.

My Tent Revival

2010-06-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

With my title, I might have extended a bit into hyperbole. Really, it was just a normal Sunday morning at church with a few special additions. There was going to be a picnic afterwards, and there was a bell choir, to which I was invited to come up and shake my shakers with the music (in fairness, Mommy told me I was going to get to ring the bells, I'm too young for the old "bait and switch"). As you can see from my video, what I might not have in rhythm, I make up for in enthusiasm. After church, we opened the doors up to the public and invited them in for a picnic. Someone off the street repaid the favor of a free lunch with stealing Mommy's iPhone out of her diaper bag in the nursery. Bad man, Daddy says that we apparently need to hand out some WWJD? bracelets on E. Grace St because somebody is not living up to his creed. I don't really get it, but I did what I normally do, I nod my head in agreement with Daddy because it's just easier that way when he's on a rant. We also managed to snap a picture of Baby Whit at the picnic, why couldn't they steal him instead?

My Many Faces of Stella

2010-05-12T14:13:00.001-07:00

Over time, I've had many professional pictures taken. Baby Whit has not had any and Mommy was feeling a bit of inequity about that. So Mommy gathered up all of my modeling poses and hung them on the wall outside my big girl room. Aren't I cute?

My Reign of Queens 6

2010-05-02T13:21:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've had a reign of queens, but fortunately Scott and Alan came over recently to dispel that stretch. They brought over a very late baby gift dinner. You may be thinking that Baby Whit is only 7 weeks old, how late could it be? Well, it was promised to M&D when I was born and it just got delivered. It was worth the wait though, the best lasagna that you'll ever have. Thanks guys, sorry you won't be joining us at the beach this weekend.

My Salad Days

2010-05-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

Actually, these pictures were taken a couple of days apart, but there was a very distinct difference in temperatures. I decided to surprise Daddy as he came home from work the other day with my best rabbit impression. So on an 80 degree day, I put on my bunny hat, my pink mittens and grabbed some rabbit food to nibble on. Daddy was sure surprised when he got home that afternoon. The other picture came from a rainy, cool walk M&D insisted that we take. Rather than stay indoors, they decide to risk the wrath of child protective services by taking us out in the cold rain. At least Daddy wrapped up Baby Whit well before going out.

My Lewis Ginter

2010-05-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks back, I wrote that I went to EmmyChar's because M&D had a wedding. It was at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, but I can't imagine that it was nearly as much fun at night considering all that we got to do at the children's garden that day. Between wagon rides, pinwheel gardens and flowers, even Baby Whit was all smiles. I hope Mommy and Angie take us again soon.

My New Band

2010-05-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

M&D had their supper club last night over at my friend Mia's house. The theme was Happy Hour, and I guess that it was apt, because everybody seemed to be pretty happy. I know I was, Mia broke out the harmonica and we went to work. Mommy taught me this week how to shake my booty, so I was relegated to showing Mia how to do it. Above are featured a couple of videos that Chad captured of us dancing and serenading each other with the harmonica. Show business, here we come!

My Updates

2010-04-20T16:37:00.001-07:00

One randomly snapped shot from recently is Daddy holding Baby Whit in the Baby Bjorn. Daddy seems to like to water the plants with Baby Whit strapped to his chest, Baby Whit seems to like it too. In other news, I went to the dentist today for the first time. Less scary than I was led to believe. Apparently I got Daddy's teeth which is a huge relief. Everything was great, plenty of spacing and nothing to be done differently. Daddy says it sounds like most of his visits. The last piece of this post is an explanation. Daddy has been asked by numerous people what kind of stuffed creature is in the picture with Baby Whit, since it was the one sent out as his baby announcement. It's a bunny, think Easter people!

My Will Henry

2010-04-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

Daddy had friends Tania and Richard over for dinner the other night and my friend Will Henry came with them. Daddy managed to snap a cute shot of all of us wanting to play with Baby Whit on his blanket during the adult dinner. The other picture is of Baby Whit playing with the only toy I've seen him acknowledge thus far. That's Sophie the Giraffe and she is French, she was also a present from Will Henry.

My Visiting Friends

2010-04-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

I've had lots of friends come to visit me recently. They all seem to be bringing M&D dinner and they all seem to want to hold Baby Whit, though I can't figure out why, he doesn't really do anything. These first two pictures are Greg, Missy and Princess. They are getting married in June in North Carolina. Daddy says they are getting married there because it's the only state that it's legal for Greg to marry Princess the Dog. I think he's joking, but I don't really get it. My number one visitor has been Uncle Eliot though. I think I've seen him 5 times in the six weeks since Baby Whit was born. I wasn't present for this picture though. It was at a wedding last weekend that Baby Whit had to go to while I got to visit my EmmyChar.

My Pet Rats

2010-04-20T15:44:00.000-07:00

Mommy and Daddy will not entertain my repeated entreaties to get a dog. So, when you live in Church Hill, you have to your own pets, if your parents won't get you one, as they come. Now these are not actually my rats, but they were living with us, that is until M&D found out about them and decided that they had to go. So Uncle Eliot sent some of his questionably legal subcontractors over to remove them. Along with them, they had to remove all of the insulation in our crawlspace that they had been calling home. Here is a picture of the mountain o' fiberglass that resided for a couple of days outside our porch. Mean Daddy wouldn't let me play in it or even say goodbye to my vermin friends.

My Special Stella Time

2010-04-07T17:25:00.000-07:00

Mommy seems to go out of her way these days to take me to see fun things. Last week, my friend Mia came over to play, then Mommy told me that we were going to the zoo. I love Mia, and I love animals, so it was the perfect Friday that I didn't have school. You can see us playing with the giraffes. Thanks Mommy.

My Boiled Brother

2010-04-07T17:20:00.001-07:00

You might think that I mean to say that he is spoiled because of all of the attention he gets, but I did mean to say boiled. Not that we really boiled him, but he seems to have a spit-up problem. A copiously voluminous spit-up problem. It happened one afternoon, all over Mommy, Whit, the floor, you get the picture. Having lacked the foresight to bring a tubby for Whit, my clever parents used what they had available, that being the lobster pot they had used on the critters the night before, to bathe him. As you can see, he cleaned up pretty well, but I wasn't going to let him have a bath if I didn't get one, I just used the big girl tub instead of the lobster pot.

My Easter and Mogas 2

2010-04-07T17:15:00.001-07:00

There was lots of fun to be had all the way around. EmmyChar collected lots of sea creatures, starfish and seahorses, maybe I'll post a picture of them later. We took walks on the beach, I drank milk, Whit drank milk, the adults drank wine. Everybody was happy.

My Easter and Mogas 1

2010-04-07T17:09:00.000-07:00

As we do every year just about (I've now made 3) we headed down to Duck for the long Easter weekend. To my surprise this year, my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Nick came too. Daddy keeps telling me that they are my Great Aunt and Great Uncle, and I just say, Daddy, I know they're great, why do you keep telling me that? Daddy forgot the camera, as he sometimes does, fortunately, Big G and Uncle Nick were there with their shutterbug passions to pick up the slack. There was lots of entertainment for me, I mean, Aunt Nancy pushed me and Char to the playground for an hour, what could be better? Whit got it some good relative time too, he was getting passed around like a hockey puck. Not that I know much about hockey.

My Gratuitous Baby Shots

2010-03-23T16:37:00.001-07:00

In the past when I've done gratuitous baby shots, they've been of me. I shall unselfishly share my posting space to do some of Baby Whit too, though I may have to make up for it with some of me in the future. As you can see here, I have some very happy looking, if sleep deprived, parents. Just some stats updates for all you baby junkies out there, we all went to see the very cute Dr. McKenna yesterday (though Baby Whit doesn't think he's nearly as cute as I do) and all his vitals turned out great. One and a half weeks ago, he had weighed in at 6 lbs 2 oz. As of yesterday, he was us to 6 lbs 14.5 oz. Go Baby Whit, or maybe I should say, Grow Baby Whit.

My Outings

2010-03-23T16:32:00.001-07:00

I think that Aunt Beth is worried about me being lonely, she seems to be making a concerted effort to make certain that I am cared for. Last Saturday morning, she just showed up at our house for a cup of coffee in the morning. Unannounced, she offered to take me over to her house to play for the day. As you can see here, I took her up on it unabashedly. See above, my cousin Char, one half of EmmyChar, pushing me in the swing.

Well, it turned out to be quite a day. After my nap, M&D took me out for another outing. You can see from the middle picture that Daddy packaged me into my backpack carrier and we went down the street to the Irish Festival. Daddy snapped a picture of the two of us with his phone in the mirror on the way out the door. Daddy said it was no mean feat hauling all thirty lbs of me all over Church Hill, but we still had a great time.

My First Days as a Big Sister

2010-03-23T16:04:00.000-07:00

So I am now getting used to being a big sister. It's taken some time and some work. I've had to take a gigantic leap forward in my concept of sharing. At first it was all I could do to share my M&D with Baby Whit. But now I've gotten better about sharing other things. I share my time as you can see me sitting with him in the rocking chair. But my biggest step was sharing my prized possession. As my constant readers may know, Night Night Bear is the king of all other things in my domain. I sleep with him every night, without fail. In fact last night, there was a crisis as I was going to bed, he was no where to be found. M&D searched high and low, and in the process, Baby Whit spit up all over himself, but I needed to be mollified before anything could be done about that. Fortunately, after about 15 minutes, Daddy had the foresight to look under the sink in their bathroom to find my NNB. Pacified, I went directly to sleep, M&D cleaned and bathed Baby Whit and promptly opened a bottle of wine. But I digress, as you can see from the above picture, I briefly loaned NNB to Baby Whit, before Indian Giver taking him back.

My Crash Diet Revisited

2010-03-12T09:33:00.000-08:00

Some of you may remember that I lost a little too much weight in the first week of my life and my parents had to spend an anxious weekend trying to teach me to nurse and having to go in for daily weight checks. History does seem to repeat itself and my baby brother Whit seems to have broken through. He realized early on that we really shouldn't try to emulate the waifish, rail-thin models that grace all of the media in our lives. Whit was born at 6'8, and as of yesterday's weigh in was right around 6 lbs for a total weight loss of 7.7%. 10% loss is the danger zone. This morning he went in for his weigh in, and was up to 6 lbs 3 oz, a gain of nearly 70 grams for you metric system users. Solidly out of the red zone, Whit was given dispensation of a two week reprieve before he has to go back and get checked out again. I'm glad, I was worried about him.

My Rio Trip Revisited

2010-03-12T09:27:00.000-08:00

For my lucky few long time readers, you may remember my trip to Rio a couple of years back, if not, feel free to visit here. Well as you might notice from our family shot here, baby Whit looks noticeably tanner than the rest of the pale family. I thought they may have to serve him with the same trip under the blue french fry warmer that I was threatened with back then. But per his most recent bilirubin test, he is really not jaundiced and should normalize on his own. I guess we both lucked out.

My Baby Brother

2010-03-12T09:21:00.001-08:00

So I have been anticipating a baby brother for quite some time now. With little fanfare, George Whitfield, my little brother Whit, arrived on Monday night at 8.59 weighing in at a grand 6 lbs 8 oz. You might remember I topped that slightly at 6 lbs 11 oz, but it's close. While I like him, I've been less than impressed. I can't play with him much, and he doesn't seem to do much other than cry and take up Mommy's time that is usually reserved for me. Daddy's trying to step in and fill the void, but sometimes you just need you some Mommy. I am warming up to him and have held him a couple of times, but the novelty wears off within about a minute each time. Since he seems to be what our time is centered around, I guess that's what I will be writing about mostly.

My Boots

2010-02-11T16:52:00.000-08:00

All of this snow has given me the prime opportunity to exercise one of my current favorite items, my boots. In the first picture, one that Daddy was a little reluctant to let me put on the internet, is me in a diaper and boots. The previous night at dinner, I had cleverly put my cups in my boots. Anyway, according to the weatherman, I might not get much use out of my boots anytime soon, but Mommy says there is still plenty of winter left, I'll still probably get my chance.

My Second Birthday

2010-01-24T16:36:00.000-08:00

M&D put together the finest Elmo regalia for my second birthday party. All of my bestest friends were in attendance, except those that were sick or out of town. Aunt Beth made me the greatest Elmo cake and cupcakes. We even have a few made without almond extract for my cousin Turner, but he wasn't able to be there. I haven't quite adjusted to my new age. I'm really not trying to lie and understate my age, I just haven't gotten used to saying that I'm two yet. Thanks for all in attendance for helping me to ring in my second birthday.

My Jutson, Reprised and Unredacted

2010-01-24T16:31:00.001-08:00

Since I now know Judson's correct spelling, I figured I would post with the latest on him. The latest news, as seen here, is that he's pretty cute. His parents, Brooke and Andy, came over for dinner the other night and brought him. He's a chunk at 7 months old. We had fun chilling in our jammies while our 'rents talked and ate. I had a birthday recently, and he would have been there at my party, but he was too sick to come. Feel better soon cousin Juddy.

My Post Christmas

2010-01-24T16:24:00.001-08:00

Well, I might be getting a bit old to be posting pictures of myself in a diaper. But this picture is so cute and so mysterious (I have no idea what I was doing) that I just had to you use it. I think it was snapped on a lazy morning between Xmas and NYE that M&D were home that they maybe normally would have been at work. The other picture are people I know, but don't get to see very often. They are Mommy's friends Mary and Jenny, they live respectively in NYC and Vermont. You may recall that I went to Jenny's wedding some time ago, feel free to search this site for My Dirty Dancing if you don't, it's worth a rehash. Anyway, they are high school friends, but still come home from time to time to visit me, and family. Jenny's expecting a bear to be born in May. We don't know what kind yet, but I'm betting boy. You heard it here first.

My First (Sentient) Christmas

2010-01-06T17:24:00.000-08:00

Well, as my etymologist wordsmithing friends are well aware, I'm, as usual, being a bit disingenuous about this being my first Christmas. It's technically my second, but it's really my first that I had any clue what was going on. So in order, we have my Uncle Lee reading books to me on Christmas Eve. Then we have Mommy helping me through my stocking. Then we have Daddy after we managed to get the plastic packaging off Mrs. Potato Head. What an interesting, exciting holiday. I tracked Santa on the NORAD tracker online. I saw lots of family, and everybody bestowed gifts upon me. I wish Christmas could come all the time.

My Snow Day

2010-01-06T17:20:00.001-08:00

Some of my long time readers may remember my first snow day from last March. What you won't remember is how cute I looked in my snow suit. Do you know the reason why you don't remember, strangely, it has nothing to do with the quantity of eggnog you've consumed over the last three weeks. Rather, it has to do with the little know fact that Daddy ate the camera chip, accidentally of course, but still rendered it unusable during the transfer from the camera to the computer to download the pictures from my first snow day. I was relegated to writing about it without pictures. Anyway, recently we got almost half my body length in snow. I'd say I had lots of fun in it, but truth be told, try having a good time when you are up to your waist in snow and then write me and tell me how it was.

My EmmyChar

2009-12-13T11:05:00.001-08:00

I love my girl cousins. So much so, that I have combined them into one single lovable entity which I love to say often with vigor EmmyChar! Big G took us to the Commonwealth Club to see Santa (man that guy gets around) and to have a big breakfast. We got all resplendent in our favorite finery and went. Silly Daddy was running in the rain, he missed a great time. Thanks Big G.

My Holiday LIght Tour

2009-12-13T11:01:00.001-08:00

Emily and Charlotte came to stay with us the other night. It was the night of the Grand Illumination. Daddy's office has a deck overlooking the square where it takes place, so we trekked downtown with about a gazillion other people to see the lighting. Fortunately we weren't on the ground with the rest of the gp, but we were close enough to hear the countdown, and then it all lit up. It's tough to see, but I snapped an aerial picture of all the lighted critters.

My Almost Christmas Card

2009-12-13T10:53:00.000-08:00

Daddy says that when you lose at poker, you should never show what you had in your hand. Since this is Christmas cards, not poker, I don't mind showing my hand. Every year M&D send out a goofy Xmas card, last year it began including a goofy picture of me snapped during the year. That is continuing this year, and this is the runner up. The determination is made predicating a non-posed picture, dovetailing with that, I crawled into the dryer of my own accord the other day and the camera just happened to be handy. I think that almost everyone who reads this blog is on the receiving end of M&D's Xmas card, Pontius will just have to ask Daddy about it at the gym.

My Supper Club Redux

2009-11-28T13:22:00.001-08:00

I told you that I would update one of my previous posts with additional pictures. Fortunately, my friend Mia came through in the clutch. She sent along an email this week with a couple of pictures that had been taken with her camera. I'm sure you don't need any help identifying my lovely parents Elvis and Priscilla. The other pictures is my ladybug friend Mia, and her mommy who went as a deviled egg if you can't tell. Her daddy Chad went as some kind of cowboy. I heard Daddy whisper something about wondering where Chad came up with a pair of pass-less chaps, maybe I misheard, but I didn't really understand. I'm currently at the beach, but haven't taken any pictures. If I get any, I'll have further updates.

My Charlies Angels

2009-11-16T16:36:00.001-08:00

Unfortunately this picture came out a tad blurred, I guess we were just cruising so fast that Daddy's camera couldn't keep up. I originally was going to term this title as My Hells Angels, but since it was me, and my beautiful friend Geri, I thought Charlie's Angels was more appropriate. Lucy Lee and Cameron Diaz, eat your heart out! Anyway, we had Geri and her parents over for dinner last night, and we had a great time playing as they talked about their adult things. We get to revisit this scene Friday night inclusive of my twin friends Josie and Riley when we all gather at Geri's. Probably will be more pictures then.

My Supper Club

2009-11-16T16:27:00.000-08:00

Saturday night we went to Jonny and Miranda's house for our regular supper club. Theirs was a holiday theme, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's all rolled into one. Everyone dressed up in some fashion (M&D went as Elvis and Priscilla, somebody has pictures, if I get them, I'll share). The meal was TG, and there was a white elephant gift exchange that had specifically asked us to raid our regift closet. As you can see, maybe Uncle Eliot shouldn't dress up like that. But he did put on regular clothes so that I could snuggle with him. The food was great, the company was excellent and we came home with a grow your own Christmas tree kit, can't wait until 15 years from now when we can harvest it.

My Wintergreen Weekend

2009-11-16T16:16:00.000-08:00

Several weekends ago, Mommy's Daddy, my Pop, wanted to gather the family together for his birthday. Pop and DeeDee have a place in Wintergreen, and so does Uncle Nick, so we were able to accommodate everyone to have a bed. I had a great time with my rowdy boy cousins. James and I played hide and go seek in the corner cupboard together. Mommy showed off what a stud she is by holding me, James, Turner, and the baby brother that I have growing in her tummy. And while we were out to lunch, someone nice offered to snap a picture of all of us, I guess they didn't know how complicated that would be. Every weekend should be like this.

My Sick Monkey Halloween

2009-11-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

This title may seem confusing, but all of these things were true. Now unfortunately, I'm still sick, but Halloween is over and I'm not wearing my monkey costume any more. How come it seems it's always the bad things that linger on? I did look very cute in my monkey costume, if you could get past my sick looking eyes and the voluminous amount of snot that perpetually ran down my nose. The cousins invited me to the party that they were going to in their neighborhood. I managed to enjoy even if I didn't feel tops, hope nobody else got sick from me.

My Second Wedding

2009-11-02T17:22:00.000-08:00

My first wedding actually occurred a year and a half ago. My second wedding took place a couple of weekends ago. I would like to say, that if it wasn't for me, Kim and Richie might never have gotten married. For those that don't know, M&D had a roommate (long story) that lived with them until about 2 years ago. He showed no signs of moving out, so Mommy told him that she was pregnant with me, and that he had to go. Moving out made him commit to Kim and led to this. They must realize this, and I was invited to the wedding. I dressed up pretty, and M&D got spiffed up too. We had a beautiful day over at Maymont. Thanks Kim and Uncle Richie, hope you had a good honeymoon.

My Gathering

2009-10-20T18:32:00.001-07:00

Daddy tells me this title has a Highlander type of flavor to it. I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about. I'm just trying to write about my friends Josie and Riley who came for dinner the other night. This is a couple of a pictures of us sitting around the dining room table and enjoying a lovely supper. Their Mommy Abby Lynn brought them over to commune with me, but their Daddy Erik was supposedly on the sauce on a bachelor party weekend, whatever that means.

My Punk Phase

2009-10-20T18:20:00.001-07:00

Daddy has told me all about growing up in the 80's. Seems like a weird time, but as they say, everything old is new again. I just wanted to do a quick post showcasing a couple of my Madonna and Cyndi Lauper-esque poses. In these frames, I'm both breakdancing, and I have a spike in my hair. Ah my salad days.

My Little Teapot

2009-09-28T16:08:00.000-07:00

I know it's a little dark, but it seems that all of my recent pictures are being snapped with Daddy's nifty new iPhone (which I'm not allowed to touch). There's no flash with it, so unless you're in direct light, things are a little dim. Anyway, this is me showcasing my newest toy. Mommy told me the other day that if I was good for her errands, she would buy me a teapot at Tarjeh. It sings, it counts, it makes pouring noises, and all done in a delightful British upper-crust accent. Would you like some more (now say again in your head with a QE II accent)?

My Jutson

2009-09-28T16:00:00.001-07:00

You may think that this is a typo post about my cousin Judson, and you would kinda be correct in that assessment. Mommy has finally given me free reign to do this post, it's a long time in coming. You may remember that my cousin JuDson was born in July. About that time, an interesting discourse erupted in our household. M&D were back and forth on my impending cousin's name spelling. Mommy said it was JuTson, and that they were going to call him Jutty, and Daddy said that was idiotic and they were calling him Judson after his grandfather. Not to be told she was wrong, Mommy ordered a very cute LL Bean towel in her perceived name, and then was forced to tell Aunt Brooke it was on backorder once she realized her error. Mommy ordered the correct spelling, and now I have my very own JuTson towel, with ears. As you can tell, I love it!

My Ayla Week

2009-09-13T16:42:00.001-07:00

This maybe a multiple posting. I came away with a lot of pictures and would like to show case a few of them. I'll start from the beginning. My regular readers may remember that we flew out to Cincinnati in April to go visit the Rhoadses and their relatively new baby Ayla. Well, they returned the favor and flew her to spend almost a week at the beach with us. Most of these pictures were centered around the disasterous first night bath that Daddy and Dan tried to give to Ayla and me in the big tub. Long story short, Daddy turned on the jets in the tubby when water didn't cover them and it caused quite a ruckus. I look happy here, but lets just say that I forgave Daddy quicker than Ayla did.

Enough for now, my typing fingers are worn, more pics and stories to come from the week...

My Reading Room

2009-09-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

I have recently discovered a new love. Much to M&D's delight, books have become the favorite object of my desire. BOOKIES!, always said with an exclamation point is the newest addition to my vocabulary, and one of the most used. Mommy was letting me play solo in my room the other day and when she came in to check on me, I had moved my princess chair over in front of my library, and was sitting in it, reading and smoking a pipe. Well, maybe I exaggerate a little, but not too much. My favorite novelist is Sandra Boynton, and my current two favorite tomes are The Barnyard Dance and The Bellybutton Book. Destined to be on the list of great classics I imagine.

My River Day

2009-09-13T16:31:00.000-07:00

Let me apologize for my recent absence. I know I do it from time to time, but I always come back. I've had lots of things to write about recently, but I've been so busy doing those things that I haven't been able to write about them. So I guess I should start chronologically. Several weeks back, friends Jason and Laura invite me, and by default M&D, out to their play-place on the river. We frolicked in the water and the sun most of the day, then we pulled the boat out. Other than Jason who was driving, I spent more time on the boat than anyone else. It was a good day and I got McDonalds on the way home and fell asleep in the car. It doesn't get much better than that.

My Reign of Pools and Monkeys

2009-08-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

Too many pictures taken for just one post. Also at the pool with me was clearly a shirtless Daddy, looking good in one picture, need to work on those abs in the other picture, but a Kapuchin Monkey. Aunt Nicole's friends Dan and Bobbi have spent the last 15 years fostering baby monkeys until they get old enough to get to the zoo. They brought their latest baby with them for all to admire, especially me who was enamored of the monkey. I asked Daddy if I could have a monkey of my own, and he told me to ask him again in 15 years. I can wait.

My Reign of Queens 5

2009-08-27T16:37:00.001-07:00

So Larry, also known as my Aunt Nicole, invited us to come down to his Rivah house he rented for the last week. We went down Friday night for the party on Saturday. We were supposed to stay in the guest house, but due to a late night battle with a hornets nest, we ended up sleeping in the main quarters. Anyway, Aunt Nicole always does these things up right. She had three different party outfits, all of which matched the decorations. The most alluring is seen in the middle here. I was most impressed by the pool over looking the Rivah. This is me and Daddy by the pool, and me and Uncle Alan who was nice enough to get in the pool with me.

My Dog and Pony(tail) Show

2009-08-27T16:25:00.001-07:00

I told you that I would get up some pictures of Babe the dog from when she came to stay with us. It was a Friday morning, much like any other, except there was a dog in my bedroom, and Mommy put my hair up in pig tails, or dog tails as the case may be. I miss Babe and wish she would come to live with us all the time, Daddy is not really under the impression that she misses me though.

My Gardening

2009-08-19T18:51:00.001-07:00

A lot of the time, I just want to be big and do what M&D do. I try to help with household chores, I know how to work a broom, though I must confess that I am still slightly terrified of the vacuum. Anyway, the other morning I decided that I should do some gardening. I don't really know how to do it, but I have watched Mommy do it, and I know the first part is that I have to put on her gardening clogs. Mission accomplished, now what Mommy?

My Penance

2009-08-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

I had to tell Daddy to quit being so juvenile. Every time I told him what the title of my post was going to be, he started giggling. Finally Mommy told him to grow up and told me she'd explain it all to me in a few years. Parents are so weird. Anyway, I didn't really do anything wrong, therefore nothing to atone for. Bebe the Dog is staying with us again this week and I am so thrilled to have her. She tolerates me, and she doesn't seem to mind at all when I play in her crate which I have done multiple times this week. She leaves Friday, I'll have to get some cute pictures of her then.

My Volunteerism

2009-08-10T15:34:00.001-07:00

I neglected to mention in the previous post that Daddy and I volunteered for Mommy's Tri. The even boasted of having an all male support crew, but I made it all male and one little girl. Daddy and stood at the run chute for 3.5 hours directing the runners where to turn to start the race and where to turn to finish the race. Daddy had to take the obligatory self shot of us. He's wearing his volunteer shirt that says Triathlete Chics Are Hot! Maybe I can be a hot triathlete chic some day. As you can see, volunteering wore me out, so I settled out for a nap in my stroller covered by Mommy's Pink Power towel. A good time by all was had. A shout out to all the sisters out there (500 or so) who did the tri. You go girls! But especially, GO Mommy GO!

My Mommy's Tri

2009-08-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

Mommy did her third triathlon in a year this past Sunday. She did the all girl Pink Power Tri that was put on at the Midlothian YMCA. It was very exciting to go and be in the thick of things and watch everyone go by. The results are not yet posted, but Mommy thinks she did pretty well, better times than her other tris, but is not sure where she placed comparatively.

My Height Chart

2009-08-06T15:25:00.001-07:00

Not much to say about this except that Mommy got me a height chart some time ago. Every so often, she marks my progress. So far it's been one year and 18 months. In the last six months, I'm proud to say that I've added 5 lbs and 2.7 inches. Go me!

My War Wounds II

2009-08-06T15:21:00.000-07:00

So I had my 18 month appointment today with the cute Dr. McKenna. He wasn't looking quite as cute after two shots and a blood drawing where they had to search around under the skin on my arm to find a vain. But I got bandaids so it's cool. The vitals, I'm 25 lbs, and 32.7 inches long. Putting me solidly in the 75th percentile. M&D are proud but want to know who my parents are who had such a big girl?

My Daddy's Crazy Sport

2009-07-28T15:34:00.001-07:00

Daddy has taken to riding mountain bikes on Sundays recently with a couple of his friends. Normally he does ok at it, but this week had crashed. He said he fell over into a ravine, but at least there was a nice cushy log there to break his fall. What I'm showcasing here is a lovely array of colors on his kidney, it actually continues further on down, but for the sake of PG pictures, I'll keep it to just this shot. Why does Daddy want to go off and hurt himself like that?

My Safari

2009-07-28T15:30:00.001-07:00

Meme Too and Dave took me to Jurassic Park last weekend. A friend's son was having a birthday party and it was fully dinosaur themed, including one to ride on. I got sent home with my cool hat and loads of other dinosaur paraphrenalia. Mommy said that she would never be keeping up with the Jones' Birthday Parties. Not really sure what she meant by that, but I certainly had a ball. M&D said they just sat on the floor and sulked and pined for me the whole 3 hours that I was gone. Not sure if I believe that.

My Family Gathering

2009-07-28T15:22:00.000-07:00

My Great Aunt Martha came into town from Baton Rouge last weekend. M&D cooked a turkey and put together a whole Sunday evening spread for all of the family on Mommy's side to come over for. Unfortunately, I did not manage to get a picture of me with Aunt Martha, but I am writing about her to make up for it. She's the grandmother of Elise, Lila and Bennett, my second cousins once removed (or something) in Mandeville Louisiana. You can learn all about them from their own blog linked on my front page Parnell Family. I did manage to snap a few good shots, Mommy, holding my new cousin Judson, and James and me snuggling in my chair. We had a great time and ate every ounce of the turkey. I'm glad that Aunt Martha came to visit, I wish we got to catch up more often. M&D have promised to take me to New Orleans for the Stella Shouting Contest at some point, maybe I can see her on her home turf there.

My Reign of Queens 4

2009-07-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

You may remember my orignal reign of queens from Colonial Beach a year ago. Well Scott and Alan invited me, M&D, and a gaggle of their other friends down again this year. The exception is that this year, M&D participated in the triathlon. Saturday morning, they woke up before me to go start the swim in the muddy Potomac, and eventually ran by the house so that I could snap pictures of them. They later reconvened with all the other boys to cheer everyone else on. We had a great time hooting, hollering, and carrying on. I'm already looking forward to next year, but I want to have a Go M&D GO! sign all prepared.

My Turks Flashback

2009-07-16T15:41:00.001-07:00

I had such a good time in Turks that it is time to revisit, if only on my blog. Aunt Beth had set up for us to have family pictures done, hence all the khaki, white and black. But these are some of my favorites of the ones we came home with. Nothing much more to say to showcase these other than look at the beautiful sand, the blue water and all the sweaty Vetrovecs, myself included.

My Absence

2009-07-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

Would you believe the number of emails that I have gotten from my constant readers? Who knew that my eight readers were so faithful? Anyway, chalk it up to laziness, or the arrival of my cousin Judson, or even global warming (if you are sure the science is "settled") and you can ascribe that reason to my not writing recently. Mostly, it's because I've had a lot going on, unfortunately I don't have many pictures to show. These are a few from my 4th of July week at the beach, my Mogie, who I don't think has been featured before was down there with my step sister Annie. There's more to come, I recently received some professional Turks pictures I want to showcase. I just spent another Reign of Queens weekend, but stupid Daddy forgot the camera, so we need to get some of those queens to put down their scepters and pass along the pictures and I can put that up. This will have to suffice for the moment. More soon, I promise.

My New Puppy

2009-06-21T11:37:00.001-07:00

As my constant readers know, I can be a bit disingenuous about what is really mine. The puppy is not really mine for keepsies, but for the next week she is. Meet Babei (pronounced Bah-Bay) she is the dog of a coworker of Mommy's. Originally she lived with a Chinese couple, but they had to give her up due to space constraints, hence the name, but she won't answer to anything else, so it stuck. Anyway, they're at the beach for a week and Mommy volunteered us to keep the doggy. She's very nice to me and doesn't ignore me the way other doggies who have stayed with me have. She is fascinated by me eating and guards my high chair like it's made out of pepperoni. I have learned to keep her attention rapt by pushing the occasional piece of food off onto the floor. She came to stay with us yesterday, so Daddy has had his hands full.

My Father's Day

2009-06-21T10:26:00.001-07:00

Mommy went off and left us... well, kinda, not really, but I'm considering a career in country music and that seemed like a good opening riff. Really, Mommy drove to NoVa yesterday for her friend Alexis' engagement party. She didn't get home until early afternoon, so in addition to Father's Day, it was also Daddy Day. Daddy didn't put on a shirt for roughly 24 hours, so I figured I could make it a Pantless Sunday. As of now, it's 2.00 and I've yet to put them on, Mommy might change that though. But that's how Daddy rolls.

My Belated Wintergreen Weekend

2009-06-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago, we made a trip to Wintergreen for the weekend to stay at Aunt Nancy and Uncle Nick's place. It was a base of operations so that M&D could work on their house in Charlottesville with the tenants changing over. The Saturday that we were there just happened to coincide with Daddy's friend Woody putting on a mountain bike race. Now Daddy didn't bike, but we certainly made an appearance for post-race cocktails at the sponsoring bar afterwards. Woody's friend Leigh was quite the shutterbug and snapped a lot of pictures of me, and here's one that they sent to me.

My Friend Geri

2009-06-21T10:11:00.001-07:00

I made a new friend the other night. M&D had some friends over that they had lost touch with the last couple of years. Antonio and Vera came over to my house for dinner, and much to my pleasure they brought their little girl Geri who is about a year older than me. Now you know that I always like the big girls and you can see that she was very nice to me. She's very pretty, lucky her that her M&D are both from Italy. I look forward to seeing her again soon and I think we already have a play date on the calendar in a couple of weeks.

My Final Turks

2009-06-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

These pictures are all from our last day on the island. Meme and Big G rented a little car for me to get pushed around in. I wish they had done it earlier in the week, that was my favorite activity all week, being strolled around in my sweet ride, especially with my cousins in tow. I just figured that I would showcase a few other pictures of everyone tanned at the end of the week. There could be more to come, Julie, our activity director, also known as Aunt Beth had scheduled us to have an hour of family fun photo time that turned out to be anything but. All I'll say is that it was hot, sweaty and sticky and Daddy was grumpy. But some good pictures came out of it, and we bought a CD with them on it. If I see them and deem them blog worthy, I'll do a flashback post at some point in the future with a few on them. All in all, great trip, thanks Big G!

My Turks 5

2009-06-06T16:37:00.000-07:00

The next night I got to go out for dinner with the whole family. We went to a Japanese style steak house where they grill on a top right in front of you. Eric was our cook, featured in the middle. He swore he was Japanese, but sounded a little more islandey to my ears. Anyway, he flipped pieces of chicken into everyone's mouth, and most were able to catch it. Then he asked Aunt Beth to come up and flip a whole chicken breast to him while he was on his knees. Amazingly he caught. That's what this picture is of, but unfortunately, I didn't snap the catch. Finally I was exhausted by the night's activities, so much so, M&D didn't even bother dressing me for bed. So embarrassingly, here I am asleep, holding Night Night Bear, in all my WalMart-Baby glory.

My Turks 4

2009-06-06T16:31:00.001-07:00

I guess M&D felt a little guilty about not taking me out to dinner. The next night we went out, just the three of us. We went out to Barefoot on the Beach, and I had the chicken, it was like I was a real person, that meal would have filled up Daddy. To show my gratitude for being treated like a princess for dinner, it was drinks and kisses all around.

My Turks 3

2009-06-06T16:25:00.000-07:00

I am well aware of the fact that none of these pictures features me. That's because I was not present, nor even invited for that matter. I may sound a little indignant, but I'm really not, I'm just playing. I understand that big people need some breakaway time now and again. Daddy annexed my camera and packaged me off to kids group for the early evening. All the adults then had dinner together. These pictures were all taken at the bar post dinner, looks like everyone had a good time. And, it wouldn't be vacation without M&D taking a self shot, congrats guys, this one is fairly good.

My Turks 2

2009-06-06T16:11:00.000-07:00

Do you know where Turks and Caicos got its name? Well, I don't either, but I think I know where it got half its name. Turks was named after the island cactus which is called a Turks Head cactus. It has a round bulbous head rising out of the top of it, and I guess that it looked to someone at some point like a Turk wearing a fez, hence the name. At least that's what the label on the beer Daddy was drinking there said. Here's more pictures of us by the pool, they're similar, but basically this post was a chance to show off arcane knowledge garnered during frivolous pursuits and to feature Aunt Beth showing some leg, whoo hoo!

My Turks 1

2009-06-06T16:05:00.001-07:00

I finally took a lot of pictures that I can write about. We just got back from a week in Turks and Caicos, which is an island of the Bahamas, but doesn't fly their flag, but instead is a part of the British West Indies (you happy Big G?) Any way, I'll just do a series of posts in the order that the pictures were snapped. The one of me on the bed is me having some pretzels right after I put my suit on and Mommy lubed me up with sunscreen. I thought I wasn't supposed to eat an hour before swimming, but Daddy says that's a myth. The other picture is of my taking my first swim in one of the many pools at the resort. Emily was kind enough to play with me, Daddy's in the background lounging on a float.

My Cousin Ellie

2009-05-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

I don't get to see my cousin Ellie very often. She lives in a galaxy far, far away called Blacksburg. M&D have never had occasion to take me there because, well, Go Hoos! But I like her, she's a big girl to me and came to spend a week with Aunt Jane and Uncle Joe who are her grandparents. She came over to visit me the other day. We chilled out and sat in my chair. We shared snacktraps and sippy cups, which is kind of a baby thing, you may not understand. Anyway, she has big, pretty blue eyes and I want to look just like her when I grow up. Look forward to seeing her again.

Recent update, I went to the doctor last week and weighed in at 23.6 lbs and 30 inches long. I'm a big girl now, and big girls don't cry, according to Fergie, Daddy wishes!

Also, heading out to Turks and Caicos tomorrow morning for a vacation with the Vetrovec Clan. Very excited about that. I think I'll probably have a lot of pictures and things to say when I return, if Daddy doesn't leave the camera there again, stupid Daddy!

My Raincoat

2009-05-21T15:47:00.001-07:00

It's been raining a lot here recently. This means that my raincoat is always hung up somewhere. I love it. I want to wear it all the time, rain or no. Any time M&D make the mistake of leaving it anywhere except the front door, I want to put it on. So that's what I did the other day. I then decided that I wanted to get in the shower. Which I did as well. Daddy wouldn't turn the water on. He said you can't wear a raincoat in the shower, it defeats the purpose, he said it as a joke, but I didn't really get it. Maybe when I'm older he'll tell me. Sorry this is all underlined, I can't figure out how to make it stop. Apparently it is linking to a close up of one of my pictures. If you click this, you can see my tongue and where it's healing from me biting it the other night. It's not very pretty so you may not want to do that.

My Lily Birthday

2009-05-10T07:25:00.001-07:00

My friend Lily turned 2 yesterday. She's such a big girl, I want to be just like her in 8 months. She invited all the girls over to a party at her house. She had all kinds of nifty toys to play with. Even a car. She told me, Hop In, we'll go for a ride, but it was a little small for both of us. We also cooked up a storm on her stove top with Carter. So much fun! To top it all off, her mommy Tara had made her a Dora cake. I was so jealous, it looked just like Dora. Thanks for letting me play with all of your toys Lily. I'll have to have you over soon so you can try mine out.

My Toiletries

2009-05-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't received any pictures from Aunt Beth yet, so I can't do any more than talk about my weekend at Casa de la Smith. To tide you over until I get those, here's a video for all of you toddler lovers out there. Daddy grabbed a short clip of me after I finished brushing my teeth. I'm very attached to my bathroom implements. This is just me with two of my favorite items, Daddy's toothbrush (that I use these days) and my bottle of baby shampoo that I am drawn to anytime I go into the bathroom. Enjoy.

My New Orleans

2009-05-02T09:59:00.001-07:00

Well, as I sometimes am, I'm being a little bit disingenuous about what's mine. While I am a world traveler, I have not yet made the trip to New Orleans. M&D love it and have promised to take me there at some point for the Stella Shouting Contest in the corner (think Streetcar Named Desire). But for the moment, I'm having an even better time staying with my cousins in Richmond. They're keeping me busy. I'm sure I'll have more pictures to put up when I get them off Aunt Beth's camera. But Mommy wanted me to know that she was thinking about me, they went to dinner at Stella! the other night. They said it was exceptional, what else would it be with a name like that? Daddy snapped this picture of Mommy being sassy under the sign and sent it to me, so I decided to write about it. Looking forward to future in New Orleans, but have fun there for me M&D!

My Ayla

2009-05-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late in getting this up, but things have been so busy for me. Last weekend M&D flew me out to Cincinnati to go visit friends Dan and Marni and their new baby, and my new best friend, Ayla. We did lots of baby friendly activities, these are a couple of pictures I snapped of us at the zoo and us going to the park. It was a lot of activity for me, and as you can see, I just sacked out for a little while. It was so great to see everyone and meet Miss Ayla. They're booked to come out and see us in September for almost a full week at the beach. I can't wait to see everyone again and teach Ayla everything I've learned over the intervening 4 months!

My Belated Easter

2009-04-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

When we got back from the beach, Mommy took me over to Willow Oaks for their Easter celebration. I got to meet the Easter Bunny in person, I wasn't frightened at all which is strange because that's one big rabbit. Some of my cousins were there and I had a grand time playing out with James with his parents and Pop and Dee Dee looking on. Every day should be a holiday.

My Belated Beach

2009-04-19T16:55:00.001-07:00

The weekend following my trip to Boston, we packaged up the car and headed down to the Outer Banks for Easter with Daddy's family. My constant readers out there know that I used to go there a lot, but hadn't been in 6 months, almost half of my life to date. I was glad to get back. My cousins Emily and Charlotte were very nice to play with me and pay me lots of attention. Mommy took us all for a walk one day on the beach. Speaking of walking, that weekend was where I cemented my own walking skills more than a couple of steps at a time. But just because I'm a big girl these days doesn't mean that I can't curl up with Daddy for a nap every now and again.

My Belated Boston

2009-04-19T16:49:00.001-07:00

It's been two weeks since I jetted off to Boston to spend the weekend and meet my new friend Graham. Here is a picture of my Aunt Lisagor holding her sleeping baby who was born in February, and then she snapped one of my whole family with Mommy holding him. We had a nice time and nice visits. We caught up with many people we know, Kristina who used to work with Daddy and JP who went to college with Daddy and had a little girl Skylar in December. Unfortunately, Daddy didn't bring the camera with us to either of those visits so these are the only pictures I have to put up. Somehow we also missed getting a picture with Graham's daddy Todd. It was a fun trip, and I've been remiss in getting these up, but since we are going to Cincinnati to go meet Ayla this weekend, I knew I had to before too much piled up.

My First Walk

2009-04-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

I know I promised not to do videos as my only form of media, but as previously stated, it lends itself better to action than do still frames. This wasn't actually my first walk, it was the first one that Daddy managed to capture on video. Back story, we had friends Erin and Noah over for dinner on Wednesday night which is when I was coaxed into walking for the camera. That's why it sounds like multiple voices cheering in the background. Again, it's not a very long clip so don't think you're tying up your whole day to watch it, unless of course you are on dial up.

There should be some more regular posts from me over the next couple of days. We got down to the beach last night. So there should be lots of pictures taken, lots of stories to tell, and of course I promised Boston pictures that I still haven't delivered on. I'll take a break from playing with my cousins later to add more, maybe even video!

My New Thing

2009-04-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

I'm trying something new today. You see, Big G went on a trip for some conference, and the takeaway gift was a Flip Video recorder. It's about the size of a small digital camera, has a built in, non removable hard drive, and can store exactly one hour of video and sound. Big G gave it to me as a present because I am getting ready to walk and stills just don't quite do that justice. Don't get me wrong, Big G loves a camera, but inanimate objects do not really lend themselves to beauty on the silver screen. Anyway, I'm doing a test run here, Daddy took a short video (30 seconds) of me sitting in my garden and I thought I'd try it out. For all you purists, don't get up in arms, I'm not changing my format, just doing the occasional enhancement. I mean, I'm fourteen months old now, a girl's gotta grow up at some point. I'll be back on later with pictures (yes stills) of our trip to Boston this weekend. For those that this is new technology to, I'm pretty sure if you just click or maybe double click on the big VCR-esque arrow, it will play right into the inset of your screen if you have the correct javascript enabling.