Serious disease

Victor has a terrible condition known as "wiggleworminthepantsitis." It causes wild flapping of the arms and legs, and occasionally the blowing of spit bubbles. People around the victims of this disease are often inspired to make silly monkey noises and sympathetic arm flaps of their own; this is normal when witnessing a flare up of wiggleworminthepantsitis. There is no known cure. However, it is hilarious.

Packing

My mom just left yesterday, and thank goodness she was here--she got us off to a great start with our packing, in addition to her usual delightful presence! I was left with Victor today, and it was a lot harder to get things done. He did take a long nap, though, so I got a few boxes packed up. Up to a count of 11 for boxes of books alone! (Not just today's work, today I only got 4 boxes). Mr. Victor seems unfazed by the move for the most part, he just hates the sound of the tape dispenser.

Have I mentioned his "Victor kisses"? He opens his mouth wide and latches onto your chin (or jawbone, or occasionally the nose) then sucks and/or licks and/or bites in a very sloppy kind of way. If you're really lucky, he also grabs onto your hair on either side to keep things steady! So sloppy, and yet so cute ;)

Here's a picture of Victor helping his mommy pack. Good thing he folds up for easy storage!

Back on the beach

Made it back to California after three weeks on the east coast! We had a lot of fun, but it's nice to be back home. For the moment, at least ;) The trip back was a bit harder. Both planes were full, but at least I had my mom to help keep Victor entertained. The first flight to Denver had a lot of screaming babies on it, so poor Victor kept getting woken up and he got fussy himself until they finally settled down about an hour and a half into the flight. This flight started at 7 p.m. eastern. Our second flight was supposed to leave at 10 p.m. Mountain, but got delayed two hours!! Oooooh that was hard. Everyone was tired. At least Victor slept a little on the floor of the airport, and crashed hard on top of my legs for the two hour flight to San Diego, but man. We didn't get back to our apartment until about 5 a.m. eastern time. Thank goodness Damian was there to take care of us! Victor's sleep schedule was all messed up that night, but ever since then he's been crashing hard and sleeping long, so I think he's making up for it now. And maybe having another growth spurt.

He's been changing so much! He's getting more hair on top of his head, finally. He rolls over all the time (mostly back to front) and has actually started sleeping on his side! His right side, actually, which is the side I spend most of my time sleeping on, which is funny. The first time I thought he had started rolling over and fell asleep halfway through, so I rolled him back to his back and he let out this pathetic little cry in his sleep. But later I realized that he's been doing it on purpose, and he does it all the time now. He's getting so big--he no longer looks so tiny in Damian's arms. He definitely missed Damian the last week while we've been gone. When he saw his daddy again, he had a huge smile on his face despite his tiredness! And Damian is the one that can actually get Victor to laugh in a sustained way without resorting to tickling, just making faces at him and playing with him. Other people (including me) can only get one or two "ha's" out of him at a time, usually with tickling. Baby laughs are sooooo wonderful!!

The picture is of Victor playing with his cousin Vito. Fun times! :)

rolling babies gather no moss

So yesterday Victor accomplished the big roll from back to front! He likes that one much better than the front to back roll, even considering that he doesn't like being on his tummy as much as his back. He's been practicing his rolling all yesterday and today and is getting pretty good at it. My dad even caught him going from back to front to back again!

Oh yeah, so we're in Ohio now. Victor and I stayed with Damian's mom Carrie until Friday morning, when we went down to Cicero, NY. (Victor had lots of fun sleeping on top of his grandparents!) He was a great baby all through the rehearsal and the wedding even with all the friends and relatives who wanted to hold him! Friday at the rehearsal dinner it was extremely loud in the restaurant, but Victor managed to fall asleep and we put him down on the dinner table for a brief rest. Saturday he sat on my lap for the outdoor wedding ceremony and was very good--hardly a peep out of him! Then back inside the restaurant he fell asleep again and took a nap first on the table with the seating assignments, then later on top of friend Kristin and Opa Jurgen. He got to meet so many people who all loved him!

Saturday night my parents drove out to the wedding site, and Sunday morning Damian, Victor and I went home with them. We've been in Ohio ever since, seeing people and getting ready for my grandfather's funeral on Saturday. Busy busy times!

Water baby II

He's bending over because he's trying to suck all the water out of the towel around him.

Water baby

At this point we turned him around so he faced the seat so he could suck on that and still remain somewhat upright.

Family fun

So now we're in the North Country in New York instead of North County in San Diego. Victor was a fantastic little traveler, despite a delay that landed us in a hotel in Newark over night. Even other passengers remarked on how quiet he was! One benefit of the delay was that our plane was not full on the leg from San Diego to Newark, so Damian and I got three seats to ourselves and could spread Victor out on the seat between us. Our morning flight to Burlington, VT, was not full either, but we had another delay--an hour and a half of sitting on the tarmac for a 45 minute flight, hooray! It was worth it, though. We've been having a wonderful time with Damian's parents Carrie and Jurgen, enjoying their hospitality and the clean Adirondack environment. With trees!! And grass!! And allergies, I forgot about the allergies. Victor has been enjoying all the attention, and Damian and I have been busy relaxing.

Victor got to spend some time in the pool! Carrie found a little floaty for babies, and even though it's a bit too big for him we've been having fun pushing him around in the water. Victor likes it too! He kicks his little legs around and tries to lick the floaty, the towels holding him upright, and the water, then spits most of it back up. It also tires him out!! I'm going to post some video of him in the pool, but first, a picture of Victor sleeping in the airport :)