my father-in-law sent me this cartoon, and i thought it was funny. enjoy:



only a week left to go here in michigan. it's bittersweet...

today my mom and i went to the mall. it was chock full of families. i have no idea what people on rainy summer days before malls. rex (as per usual) was a gem.

tonight rex met his great grandma hall. he fell asleep in her arms tonight, and she was very proud that she hasn't lost "the touch" :)

rex is fortunate enough to be meeting three of his four great grandmas on this trip (and he was able to attend his fourth great-grandma's funeral).

i am exhausted. goodnight!

on a non-baby related note...

i was sad to hear that kodak is no longer going to make kodachrome film. there have been such beautiful saturated images made using it. check out this slideshow on cnet showing some gorgeous ones.

i'm starting to get a bit homesick. everyone has shown us tremendous hospitality, but i do miss being in my own home, with my stuff (and rex's stuff), being able to walk around in my undies if need be, and being able to be "off duty" socially.

i bought rex this awesome Hawaiian shirt onesie:

unfortunately he had an explosive poop today and it is very, very soiled. (fear not: it is soaking and will be "good as new" again soon)

i am reading the book "babyproofing your marriage" and am really enjoying it. i love the quotes and anecdotes because they definitely reinforce that everyone goes through similar types of emotions and that keeping our marriage strong while taking on this whole parenting thing is do-able. i'm also starting a couple of other mommy-lit books, i was a really good mom before i had kids" and "it sucked and then i cried". my friend wendy leant me the second one. have any of you moms out there read any of these, or similar books (like "sippy cups are not for chardonnay" or "i'm too sexy for my volvo" or "the milk diaries")? i could use some good recommendations.

if you're craving more rex action, here's one of the recent videos that i put up on that awesome video site, youtube. rex just recently got interested in holding a set of toy keys. i'm still fascinated by the way he throws them around:

okay, one more post for tonight...
one of the great things about being here and having help with rex is that we've gone out to see a couple of movies. we *never* see movies -- we didn't even before rex came along -- so this is a big deal.
(spoilers ahead for both 'up' and 'star trek')
we saw 'up!' in 3D (loved it, although the sad beginning was really, really unexpected and made me cry) and 'star trek' (very fun, and now i've got a crush on either chris pine or zachary quinto or both). i kept joking (during it, which probably bugged steve) that it was very much the same movie as my beloved 'star wars'. certainly, i wasn't the only one to notice this, and there's a very astute summary of the similarities of 'star wars', 'star trek', 'the matrix' and 'harry potter' here.

the cartoon in this week's babycenter newsletter sums it up *perfectly*:

hooray! rex has learned how to smile!



it's all over now: any control that i had over my emotions about this little one are gone, gone, gone. he's definitely the cutest baby that has ever lived (sorry, friends with kids!).

we've been in michigan about a month at this point, and it's been fantastic to see everyone. rex has been getting all kinds of grandparent love, and we've been able to visit with friends and family without the typical rushrushrush.

this past week was a little bittersweet, as my paternal grandmother, who lived in ohio, passed away two days before we were scheduled to drive down to ohio for the weekend. she was suffering from alzheimer's disease and had deteriorated physically quite a bit as well, so she is in a better place... and also on a positive note, i was grateful that we didn't have to fly in and out in a hurry, and could spend a few days with my dad and his family.

we'll be here a couple more weeks, so hopefully i'll remember to update this more often while we're here taking advantage of all of the help!