Darren's a Swinger.

Yep it's true. Darren went to the park today and experienced the swings for the first time. Let's just say it was love at first swing. He also went down the slide on my lap - fun for me, not so much for him.





Subliminal message: Buy our house.

Hotdiggidy-dog!

We all know about Darren's love for hot dogs (exhibit A - his halloween costume). Well tonight Grandma and Grandpa took Darren to his mecca - Barkers Hot Dogs which originated in Buffalo. Darren loved being the center of attention at the restaurant and tried his hardest to get a hold of my hot dog. Fortunately, he was unsuccessful.

Ladies Man

Darren has quite the selection of women to choose from these days. This weekend he played with Hailey, his newest gal pal. She wore her valentine pajamas because she is so in love with Darren...take a number.

Amy Comes to Town

Amy came to visit this past weekend to meet Darren and boy did he love her. She taught him about eskimo kisses and told him all about his future love, Mia Claire Gudgeon. It was great having Amy in town - even if she did laugh at my excitement over the snow flurries.

7 months!

Imagine, if you will, a '7 Months Old' sign. Yes, I'm a bit late in posting pics because things have been so busy. This has been a big month for Darren - including getting his first two teeth! They are now poking through - I guess we won't see him without teeth again until he turns 90 years old...putting me at 121 and Gary at...well, much older.

Vacation?

Gary and I have started contemplating vacation spots for a getaway this spring/ summer - we're now thinking Costa Rica. Gary is really drawn to the abundance of monkeys throughout the country - he's particularly intrigued by the one below.

Christmas in NYC

For Christmas we headed back up to NYC to visit the Spanos. The minute we got there, Darren started rolling from back to front - something he had been attempting to do for a while. I guess NYC really is the place where anything can happen.

When Good Toys Go Bad.

I love that Darren gets hours of enjoyment out of all of his toys but am starting to worry because Gary finds them just as amusing. The other morning, Gary took one of Darren's toys that suctions to his high chair and stuck it on top of his head for fun. Turns out the joke was on him - two days later he still has a hickey from the toy on top of his head.


*Note - no heads were hurt in the following reenactment.

Date Night.

Friday night was my office holiday party and with the grandparents out of town and Aunt Cari and Uncle Danny baby sitting the following night (Gary's office holiday party), Erica and Darryl offered out their services. Julia seemed to like the fact that she could play with Darren and he couldn't play back. Looks like Darren might be into aggressive women.




Hmmmm...Erica looks really comfortable with another baby. Could it be time for another?

6 months. 1 year divided by 2. 26 weeks.

Any way you look at it, it's seriously unbelievable that Darren is already 6 months old. Darren is now too busy to pose with his "month" signs. Instead, he finds playing with his new toys to be way more important. He also enjoys eating his sign. He gets that from his puppy sister Cloey - who will literally eat anything (exhibit A - she is gnawing on her paw in the background).








A side note - TV is so bad that Snoop Dog now has his own reality show. To make matters worse, it's the best thing on right now.

Eight Crazy Nights.

Tonight Darren celebrated the first night of Hannukah. He put his hand on his hip as he impatiently waited to receive his first gift.











He finally gets his present (from Aunt Jo-Anne) and puts his new shirt directly into his mouth - ummmm...thanks for the yummy outfit!

This weekend, Darren got to meet one of my oldest friends. Darren loved Erica and Mike - and after hearing how Erica gave me a parakeet for my Bat Mitzvah, Darren is now hoping Erica gives him one for his Bar Mitzvah.

Thanksgiving!

Darren spent his first Thanksgiving with his Atlanta family. After we stuffed ourselves, we headed over to Lori's house to eat even more. Below, Lori practices giving birth. For her sake, let's hope Baby Owens isn't the size of Darren at 5 months.

Tasty hands.

Darren's best friend Ryan invited him over to play Saturday night. While Erica and I have enjoyed many play dates over the past 5 months, this was the first time Darren and Ryan really interacted with eachother. Ryan reached his hand over to Darren and they held hands for a while before Darren decided that Ryan's hand tasted just as good as his own.

5 Months!

It's hard to believe but Darren turned 5 months old on Saturday. He celebrated by showing off his new sitting moves and sharing his birthday with his favorite Aunt Cari. Darren didn't get cake, but he did eat rice cereal and was none the wiser.

Back to NYC.

This weekend we headed back to New York to visit Randy and the rest of the family - Darren loves visiting his uncles and grandparents.

Happy Halloweenie.

(I know - I'm very clever)
Darren dressed up like a Hebrew National hotdog and went trick-or-treating. His neighbors loved him and he came home with lots of yummy candy - score for me.