Happy 2010

That's it for us this year... I hope you all have a fun and safe New Year's Eve. And I'll leave you with a shot from Jen... so many metaphors here, I'll let you pick your own.
Peace, All!

Last Glance

Two more quick images from the holidays...

Eamon, modeling one of his gifts from the Grandparents Grunzinger (which he was supposed to wear to La Junta, but promptly tossed his cookies on five minutes after this.. he's good like that). (More modeling coming as soon as I have kiddo and Ray in the same state.) Oh, and showing off his newfound pulling-up-in-the-crib skills (that tent and the vertical bars? slow him down).
Yup, Born 2 Ride, Baby!
And I did get this on my cameraphone after all... the glint by Mike's mouth is the spoon he's entertaining Eamon with. Kiddo loves his cousins.

Baumgartner Christmas 09

Despite Ray's schedule, we did get to do one family Christmas- and, fortunately, even overlapped with my brother Steve's family. With this many pilots around, that's decent.

I'll warn you now, there are a lot of photos- most of them hiding behind this link.

Monday Purple

Yup... Vikings get Monday night football this week. Things I never knew until Ray entered my life...
Shh, Mom.. we're trying to watch football! Hopefully Brett was good for Santa this year..

11 months

Our little boy turns 11 months old today. It's been quite a big month- not much in the way of teething, but a lot in the way of getting mobile and taking on the world. I'll try get some vitals up in a day or so, when we're done holidaying. But for now...




...it's been an awesome 11 months. He has changed a lot about how we look at the world. I like his viewpoint.  Again, I hope you all have found this much simple joy this week.
(if not, we've got a dowel we can send to you...)

Merry Christmas...

.. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa, whatever the appropriate expression, Happy Holidays.

I stink at Christmas cards, so I offer this as a expression of our good wishes to you and yours:

Music: Christmas Can Can by Straight No Chaser 
(Thanks for that, Laura and Brad!)

I hope it's a sufficient alternative. We did "Lafayette/Grunzinger Christmas" early, since Ray had a trip this week. La Junta/Baumgartner Xmas to come.

While Eamon did receive presents from us and the various Grunzingers, he most appreciated the boxes (Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa G!). I hope you all find as much joy this holiday season as a 10-month-old boy finds in an empty cardboard box. Which is to say: a lot.

Merry Christmas!

Laura, Ray, and Eamon

He sees you when you're sleeping...

Wishing a happy holiday to everyone!!
(binky thanks to an attempt to distract kiddo from the hat, not a new habit)
Hope you all have a great holiday - there'll be more from us here (your Christmas card? coming tomorrow...), but just in case we miss you over the next few days.

Edited to Add: I totally skipped the "go sit on Santa's lap" thing this year - it seemed like unfair torture. The daycare did it anyway...He was just taken from his favorite teacher... but he doesn't look so happy about the man in the big red suit, does he? On the other hand, this has potential to be amusing when he's 20.

Hmmm...

Santa's a little concerned that he might be expected to fill this....

Hope you were all this good this year!

Found the drawer..

Apparently, Eamon is also joining the ranks of humans in this house who object to how everyone else organizes things.

DOOM!

So, last week, this happened...


Yeah, he thinks this is great. He can make it up about four steps if he concentrates, but usually he stops, forgets that there's nothing behind him, and tries to put his foot down on thin air, resulting in a step or two slide downward.

Not sure what's happening...

...perhaps E is trying to explain the Vikings' stats to Marco?
Or perhaps he's just putting him on notice in general.
Sigh. I figure out how to get this high, and they just keep climbing higher.

Turtle Not Required For Modesty

Bath time is suddenly getting fun. Lots of splashing. Can't wait until he figures out how to make the turtle squirt water....

(we interrupt the merrymaking below...

...for this announcement: my last Ph.D. paper is FINALLY OUT. Published, and done! Yay! Okay, continue the merrymaking.)

Just two wild and crazy kids on the town!

The daycare's gift to us for the holidays was a Saturday night of care. Which meant that we got to go get oysters and have an adult dinner. I think we forgot what that is like. Turns out, it was pretty darn fun.

Yup, it's Sunday.

The game is on the radio (or phone, in our case) that's not stopping us.

Friday Cute

This is old, and I stalled because I was waffling about torturing you all with the video instead... but I decided to offer this up as a dose of cute for your Friday enjoyment. Last time that we were at Lessingers', Eamon was teething and having trouble sleeping, so he got to come play with the big kids.

Meaning, he got to come play drums with Ray.

Look at that smile. Teething or not, that is one happy little boy.

Detante?

Perhaps it's the Christmas spirit, perhaps it's just added habitat... but the tree seems to have brought them closer.
(Marco wins the camouflage contest.)

Chicago Trip Report - Part 3

Sadly, Ray's one goal was to go to the top of the (formerly Sears, now Willis) Tower.

As Ray said, we've seen the inside of clouds, thanks. We're saving that for another trip.
Ray and I were amused by the fact that black is the new black in Chicago (okay, always has been, to my knowledge). Here's a local rebelling.
And here's Ray's response - not sure how he found a blue umbrella in this town. But he was easy to find, that's for sure.

Chicago Trip Report - Part 2

More fun in Chicago - I mentioned the gorgeous architecture.  We could see a lot of it from our hotel room the first night (Mom, skip this pic).

Apparently this one was in a movie - the spiral parking garage at Marina Towers.

Closer-up.
I saw my favorite when I was headed to dinner, and sent Ray and Eamon to get pics for me:

Learning at Daddy Day Care

Ray and Mike ran a daycare at our place this weekend while Ann, Erin, and I got to run away to CU's Holiday Festival (which was awesome, as always). It's always a bit of a risk letting Eamon hang out with Ava. Like the Lessinger kids, she generally has something to teach him. And teach him, she did.

Hmm, that looks like fun. I wonder if I could get up there?

Mobile...and Spirited!

For this week's Viking support.... I offer something scary. This is a few weeks old, and now very common. But this is one of the first times Eamon managed to get himself pulled up on his own. (Sorry, can't fix the weird color.)



Go, Vikings! and Go, Eamon!

Chicago Trip Report - Part 1

I had to go to Chicago for work - Ray and Eamon were kind enough to come along. We had a great time, and were amazed by how beautiful some of the buildings downtown are. We also headed to Shedd Aquarium. (More)

Fenced.. Out?

Hmm, what's this?

Hey, can you help me? I want to get over this... fence... thing..
Maybe you people out there can help me? What in the world is this, on the other side? It's big, and green, and it smells good, but those tall people who feed me and take my stinky diapers won't let me play with it. How much fun is that?
**sigh**

Conquering Warrior

I have conquered the mighty tree, and now I will carry it home. It is my prize.

(Yes, Ray succeeded in overcoming the Baumgartner procrastination and we have our tree up and decorated - done before December. Amazing.)

Obligatory Sunday Purple

Go Vikings!
(The cheering squad is separated this week...hope it doesn't affect the the team's play.)

Thanksgiving 2009

Eamon had a lot of fun at my parents' for Thanksgiving. He found out about stairs in the safest way possible - in a house with, well, one stair. (Ray continues to find our insistence on using the terms "upstairs" and "downstairs" very odd.)
He got to watch little balls spin around, always a favorite pasttime.
And maybe he was giving Ray tips...
Of course, there was food. So very much food, and so very good.