Masseys in Minnesota

This week brought two very special visitors...Casey and Moana Massey, all the way from Montana. I didn't think that anyone could be more excited about their arrival than I was. As it turns out, Luca put up some stiff competition in that department - Moana is without a doubt his new favorite person and everything she did was met with big-eyed devotion from the little fella.



No visit is long enough and we were sad to say goodbye, but loved every minute of Massey time and are already plotting Moana and Luca's next reunion...

Memorial Day Weekend

We enjoyed a leisurely long weekend. The weather was perfect and our backyard has at last become an adequately welcoming location for a bbq. We took advantage of the chance to celebrate T's freedom from school work and spent most of the weekend outside.


(Remember to click "HD" or "HQ" in the lower right for High-Def / High-Quality)

T is an MBA

Congratulations to our graduate! Yesterday we attended T's commencement ceremony and he is now officially on the MBA squad.



(Despite the look on Luca's face, I think he enjoyed the excitement.)

Luca at 10 Months

At 10 months, our smidge has sprouted a mouthful of teeth. He now has four up top and two on the bottom, and he puts them to daily use crunching up every cheerio, chunk of cheese, and bite of broccoli that he can find.

He's on the cusp of crawling, and though it's not official forward movement he is bidding farewell to the stationary stage.



This weekend was my first mother's day, which was a treat. T & I both remarked that it's as if I've gained an extra birthday. We went to Broders Pasta Bar for their special mother's day brunch, then straight to the Apple store where I became the proud and devoted owner of an iphone. Luca was well-behaved and sweet all day, which isn't much of a deviation from the usual for him, but it was especially appreciated on my first mother's day.

Pop-Pop

Colonel Vernon J. Henderson, aka Pop-Pop to us, passed away this week after a full and remarkable life. We will miss him terribly, but are glad for Luca that he was able to meet his great grandfather last month in San Diego. The twinge of red in Luca's hair may very well have come from his Henderson genes, and if he finds himself breaking the sound barrier in a fighter jet later in life or riding motorcycles into his ninth decade, there will be no question as to where the adrenaline hound in him originated.

While Pop-Pop was undeniably sick when we visited him, I take solace in the fact that his mind remained incredibly sharp until the end. Luca and Pop-Pop hit it off immediately until Luca, sucking away at his pacifier, looked up with a smile at his great grandfather and tried to pull the oxygen tube out of his nose. Pop-Pop quickly replied with a laugh, "Listen kid, I won't pull your plug if you don't pull mine." Minutes later Pop-Pop picked up my IPhone and navigated it like a teenager would while postulating as to the future of computing, and just last month he joined facebook! I will be forever amazed at Pop-Pop's fearlessness and curiosity, and I hope these traits did indeed pass from him through my mom and on to little Luca.

Big Spring Weekend

Luca attended his first Twins game this weekend and there's no doubt about it, he's a fan. He was in heaven with all the new faces and sounds, and did a lot of excited squawking. We lasted for about three innings, or 1 bottle and a handful of cheerios if you measure by food consumed.



In even bigger news, this weekend Aunt Nic graduated from Waldorf College. Grandma Marie flew in from California, Aunt Alecia & Uncle Mark trekked in from New York, and we all drove down to Forest City, Iowa to celebrate Nic's accomplishment. Congratulations, Nicole!

Kiss me, I'm Italian.

T's school year is winding down, which means it's time for the annual Follies night. After months of covert planning & practice, last Friday the Carlson School MBAers convened to poke fun at themselves and each other via skits and songs. Last year I missed it and the opportunity (once in a lifetime, I'm told) to see my husband perform in leather pants. I wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.



T was every bit the rockstar of the evening, even without the leather pants. Luca also made two special appearances, both of which showed off some classic Italian traits: an eye for the ladies, and an ability to grow facial hair.





Our little Italian not only made his bigscreen debut this weekend; he also received his first kiss. Actually, kisses - from sweet little Annie Grossman. I can't blame her for finding him irresistible.

He's Baaaack...

We enjoyed a mostly quiet week. Spring made a welcome appearance, and we were lucky to have our first Pepitos dinner with Evie Backer, plus Sunday dinner with Papa. And to our great relief, Luca has recovered his pre-illness personality and appetite.

 

What day is it? What's that in my hair?

This weekend, in the middle of an otherwise lovely visit from Omi, we were treated to a new experience: the rite-of-passage ER trip. It went something like this:

Friday p.m.: Luca suddenly turns into Lobster Red Luca. We pretend nothing is happening, and go to Chiang Mai Thai for dinner.

Later Friday p.m.: We realize our parental error when we get home and find that Luca's temperature is setting personal worst records. A terror-stricken call is placed to the on-call nurse line and out come the infant Tylenol drops.

Saturday a.m.: On the advice of the on-call nurse, we get an appointment with the pediatrician. She diagnoses Luca with a virus and an ear infection and prescribes antibiotics. He's fixed!

Saturday p.m.: He is not fixed. He's a lobster again. Even his eyeballs have turned lobster. We take his temperature and are terrified to find that it is over 105. Another discussion with the on-call nurse verifies that we need to head to the ER without delay. So that's what we did.





As you can see in the pictures, once the triage nurse gave our brave little smidge a dose of the aptly-named Motrin Elixir, he started to snap back to his usual self. We weren't quite out of the woods yet, but today he appears to be at about 75% and getting better all the time. Unfortunately, because of all the hullaballoo, we have very little photographic evidence that Omi was here to help us through it all, so you'll just have to take our word for it.

Luca at 9 months

This weekend the three of us took a walk to run some errands, and headed in the same direction that T & I went 9 months ago, the night before Luca arrived. This time, we bypassed the ice cream parlor and went for the toy store instead. Isn't it amazing what a difference 9 months makes? He's now been out as long as he was in...and in another 9 months, Luca will probably be talking us into both the ice cream and a toy, if he likes dessert as much as he likes everything else.

Since we last discussed his self-feeding skills, Luca has had a complete breakthrough which came about after we watched Lily Ward eating pasta on Riona's blog. Feeding our little Italian one of his native foods had never occured to us, but all of a sudden it made perfect sense. So at the next opportunity, we set a bowl of rotini in front of him and boy did he ever know what to do with it. Now he's grabbing up cheerios, puffs, broccoli, and bananas - and even snatching the noodles out of our soup bowls.



All of this chowing down has not translated into a bigger boy, though. In fact, our doctor told us this week that Luca is on the "skinny kid" trajectory. He weighed in at 19.5 lbs (just 1.25 lbs more than at 6 months) and is 28 inches long. The doctor isn't worried at all and said just to keep doing what we're doing because Luca is developing normally in every way.

Of course, we don't think there's anything normal about our favorite little man. This month he has figured out how to clap and wave at the right times and is very enthusiastic about it. He's a social baby; in the grocery store, he hollers from his post in the cart to all the passerby to get their attention. For now his conversation is limited mostly to "baaah! blaaah! pthththth," but when he says it, he means every word!

A Week of Welcome (and Unwelcome) Surprises...

• It was great to see Patty Boots earlier this week when she dropped by unexpectedly on a visit from Birmingham, UK

And here's a little Luca fix. As A will surely point out next week, Luca has just recently figured out how to clap (actually, he shakes his hands back and forth and they occasionally come into contact with each other, but we think his intent is clear). I tried to capture this new trick on camera the other day and witnessed an unexpected, and frankly quite offensive, reaction to my guitar playing. Slow-mo for dramatic, monstrous effect...

Road Warriors

For T's final spring break as a grad student, we opted to reprise last year's trip to California. Of course, there was one small-but-mighty change: the little bump that we brought along in 2008 is now a nearly 9-month-old Luca!

The week was action packed, and though our trips to California are never long enough we certainly did our best to get a lot into this one. We started with a visit to the Mazzoccos in San Jose, then headed to San Francisco for a lunch visit with Bette and Jason and some quality time with Luca's friend AJM and her parents. Then it was back to San Jose before driving down to Newport Beach for quiet, family time and to San Diego to visit with PopPop & Herta. Luca was an excellent travel companion, whether observing the view from the backseat of our rental PT Cruiser, or sitting in our laps on the plane.



T brought a new hobby home with him, thanks to a tip from Jason. He's hooked on Google SketchUp and spent most of Saturday with a measuring tape and his laptop in hand. The result is this handy model of our front rooms which we are using to dream up new furniture configurations and paint colors. Next project for the junior architect: the back yard.

Great Grandma Rhoda

Last Saturday my Grams passed away. She lived a long, fascinating life and leaves a big hole behind. I'll miss our phone chats and her funny voicemails.



Unfortunately, Luca never had the opportunity to meet his great-grandma Rhoda, but luckily she was such a character that we have many stories to tell him in the coming years. I hope that he inherits some of her determination and longevity. He very nearly shared her birthday, and had he been born one day later and as a girl, there's no way she would have let us off the hook. He would have had to be named Rhoda.

Our Double Life

Months before Luca saw daylight, we signed him up for daycare. We were delighted with ourselves for being so decisive, and felt even better about getting in line when we found out that the first spot wouldn't open until February. Signing up baby-to-be was a piece of cake.

The only conundrum was what do to in the meantime? Since T is in school and my employers were game, we decided to split childcare. We envisioned me having Luca in the morning, and T having him in the afternoon. Reality has required a more fluid approach and a lot more baby time in my office, but it's worked well enough that when the spot opened in February we took a pass.

Since I started back to work, Luca has strolled the halls of Carlson and has attended more meetings than I can count. As it turns out, having a baby is a real icebreaker, especially a vocal one like Luca. He looks around a table and squawks at whoever talked last. And around the office, he's earned the nickname "Baby Prozac." Now he's just got to get on the payroll...

Luca at 8 Months

At 8 months, Luca is a chatty, content little bundle. He hasn't yet produced any recognizable words but he laughs and babbles all day long. That seems to be where all his energy is going because so far, he has shown little inclination toward self-propelled movement. Even intensive training in T's crawling boot camp hasn't gotten any results.

Though he occasionally exhibits some stranger danger, Luca is a friendly baby and just this week learned to wave "hello." He particularly likes other kids, whether in photos or in real life. As a matter of fact, photo birth announcements and Valentine's Day cards now double as his favorite toy/snack.

He also still eats like a champ, and has graduated to finger foods. Granted, only one of every ten cereal puffs ends up in his mouth...but he'll get the hang of it eventually.