As I mentioned before, we had a little party at our place on Thursday.  We invited all the cousins, and great grandma, and all of the cousin's children.  It was a little zoo-ey, but Albert handled himself very well.  He's such a good baby, we're a little spoiled.

What's daddy doin?

Sorry Ann.  It's the Daegele side - you have a genetic inability to tell a story without using your hands, and this time you got caught. (and Meg made me post it).

Albert, meet Andrew.

Who's the center of attention?

And loving every minute of it.

And the cousins playing together...  (Davey was really good with Albert).

Til Albert gets tired, then it's time to go see Momma.

And playing copycat.

More still to come, stay tuned!

After Albert met everyone, we went up on the river.  He seemed to enjoy everything - the boat, the wind, the water...  except his life jacket.

Here's the three of us in the boat...

Albert and Grandpa on the sandbar.

Mmmm.  Yummy sand...

Or maybe not...

Yucky sand!

 It's ok, momma will take care of it.

 Let's go float!

My floatie comes fully equipped with teething toys

3 generations of eldest male Sturhahns.

3 people looking at the camera, one at the quatro-pus.

Floating away!

Giddy-up!

Hi mom!

Loving the wind in my hair...

Not too sure about the sun.

Aw, I wanted to drive.

Moooommmm!  Seriously?

Brrrrr.

Fun times in the river!

And I'm done.  Goodbye all!

We had a little bit of an adventure after the sandbar and had to get towed in.  Apparently something went wrong with the fuel line in the boat, and we had to change the fuel filter and pull some shenanigans with pouring gas in the filter to get it started again.  The poor people who towed us in ran over a dike on our way back and probably chewed up their propeller.  They also sort of ran us into some wooden pilings on the way in...  but everyone arrived safely, and I think everyone's pride was more wounded than either of the boats.  After we got into shore, we had all of my cousins over at the house for dinner.  (They were all waiting for us patiently when we pulled into the driveway.  Well, as patiently as youy can wait without any alcohol being served.)  More on that in a bit...

Well, as many of you know, Meg, Albert and I came to Quincy on Wednesday to spend the 4th of July weekend.  We were very interested to see how Albert would react to his grandparents (whom he's only met one other time), the dogs, his cousin Davey, and the Mighty Mississippi.  I'm happy to report that phase 1, the meeting with the dogs and Davey went well.

Albert spent a fair amount of time trying to chase the dogs and taste them.  (Everything has to go in the mouth).  Unfortunately, they're a little to fast...

Almost got this one...

Maybe it would be best if you didn't scream every time you got close to one...

And the first meeting with Davey went well too.  He's pretty acclimated to grandma and grandpa at this point as well.

We took little buddy down to the park today after I got off work.  He really enjoys the water, I really wonder what he's going to be like when we take him to Quincy later this week.  We're really looking forward to the trip - we think Albert's going to love the dogs, and everyone else is going to love Albert.  Anyway, here's little dude.

And playing in the fountain:

Last but not least, crawling along the "river":

Just remember, he learned to crawl about a week ago.  That's all I have to say about this.

 And the follow up:

Last week I was making peanut butter cookies and Albert was helping...

hey mama, what's up?

very serious about my stirring...

 It's so tasty I have to try it!!

and a very special ingredient...yummy drool!

After a hard day of cookie-making...bottoms up!  Yummy yummy wine!!

down to the last drop

wait!  It's getting away from me...!

oops- busted....hey guys...

 

 

 

Last weekend, a friend of mine from both work and my MBA program got married.  Congratulations, Neerav!

It was the first Indian wedding I had ever been invited too, and knowing that I like to take pictures, Neerav told me I could have free reign on Friday and Saturday.  I think I took around 600 total, but I'll spare you all the details.    It was a very colorful wedding, and a lot of the pictures from Friday really show it.  I tried to get pictures of all of our MBA friends as well with their significant others (it was nice meeting you all too).  Anyway, here's the first cut, enjoy!

Slideshow (recommended)

Thumbnails

Oh, and if you want prints/high resolution images, just let me know!

well, for today....!

This was today- Albert had crawled all the way from the play mat to the powder room...all the while moaning "Mmmmmm" like he was really ticked off about something!  It was so funny!!

I emptied out a box today that my mom had sent me ages ago- Albert discovered it waiting to go out to recycling and decided it made a fantastic toy.  He pushed himself up so he was literally standing behind it and pushed it until he proceeded to fall on his face.  Then we discovered that this box could also be used as a fast car.

Just trying to play video catch up...it's been a while.  This is a little video of Albert last week keeping me thoroughly entertained (notice the washcloth that had migrated with us from the highchair to the play mat.  It had originally been hanging from his mouth which is what i was reaching to the camera to capture)!  Ah, well, this but little crawl will suffice!

Albert advanced from the marine crawl to actual crawling on all fours last Sunday just as I was getting ready for work.  Chris is fabulous at calling me all night long to let me know what they are up to, and to let Albert hear my voice when he's getting a bit upset.  Apparently the poor little guy gets super excited to hear my voice but super confused when it's coming from this little black thing.  Here is Albert sort of crawling/scooching towards my voice!!

I got up today at 6 AM like normal, which was rough since I only went to bed at 3, but it's worth it because both Momma and Daddy were home today.  I decided that I would wake Momma up by standing up in my crib, grinning like a madman and screeching.  I was successful, although I think I nearly gave Momma a heart attack because my crib was still at its highest level and over half my body was above the guardrail.  But anyway, we went to church, and it was a pretty good day.  Momma kept calling it Daddy's day, but I'm pretty sure it was still my day.

I'm getting to be pretty big and getting to do lots of big boy stuff, and I'm also learning how to get Momma and Daddy to give me what I want.  For example, if I cry while they're trying to eat, I sometimes get banana chunks!

Afterward, I got to play with the washcloth like normal.  The trick to this one is to grab it when momma tries to clean my face.  Sometimes she doesn't try hard to get it back and I get to keep it for a while.

Fum good washcwof...

And sometimes I wonder about daddy...  He just holds this big black thing in front of his face and it clicks a bunch. 

Maybe he's tasting it from behind there...  Wonder what it tastes like... I can't believe you're playing with the camera and not letting me taste it daddy...  That's bad form...

Oh well, I guess there are worse things...  But I just have to let you know exactly what I think of that.

 Don't worry though, I have a plan and I will prevail.  I just need to work out a few of the details.

At first, I just wanted a quiet place to think.  I thought I might try the laundry room, because Momma says that's a place Daddy never goes.

Turns out that hiding there wasn't such a great idea.   Somehow they still managed to find me...

I thought I'd try hiding in the drier, but the lint was a little scary.

But actually, it's not quite so bad.  I think the drier is pretty cool.

But of course, Daddy found me again.

Oh well, I'm signing off til next time.  See ya later!

This weekend I went to the wedding of a friend from work and my MBA program, Neerav Shah.  It was my first time attending an Indian wedding, and it was a lot of fun.  Neerav let me bring my camera to some of the events and I took a few pictures, which I'm sure I'll post some of later.  But in the meantime, here's the three of us getting ready and going to the reception.

 Albert was a really good baby the whole time.  He made a lot of friends, and danced a bit.  We were excited to learn that he not only tolerated the loud music, but the louder it got, the more he bounced around.  He should be a lot of fun at Caitlin's wedding in August. 

Here's the baby conked out after dancing.

On Friday I brought my camera to work so that I could leave for New Jersey and Neerav's wedding right after work.  While I was there, we took a couple of pictures in Meg's break room.  It's hard to get Albert to pay attention to the camera at the hospital - he's very interested in the Sloan Kettering screensaver.  (And who can blame him?  It involves moving colors!)

This week Meg had a training class two days during the day, and we had to find babysitters.  Luckily, two of her friends, Katie and Avery, volunteered to watch Albert during the day.  (Thanks a ton!)  We had a little bit of stranger anxiety at first, but that was soon overcome with smiles and bananas.

 Here's Katie feeding Albert in the morning (before I went to work).

Meg says he looks like Albert (big Albert).

Getting instructions from the TV.

Then off to save the animals in the jungle.

With some products, after you get it home you realize that it just wasn't worth what you paid.  We've all had the experience of some product (such as my vacuum cleaner) that looked really good in the box, but didn't last long after you got it home.  But sometimes, there's those products that do what they're supposed to and more.  Our scale is one of those products.  It not only weighs our bags before we go to the airport, but we never guessed it would also double as an exercise machine.

What was that?

 "Oh look, a distraction!"

Ok, I'm done.

Albert is really enjoying his new highchair.  He loves solid food - he's even eating squash without fruit mixed in now and loving it.  For a six (and a half) month old, he's a very clean eater.  Probably 90% of the food makes it into his mouth rather than his bib, shirt, nose, etc.  Crackers are a slightly different story, but I digress.

I call this one "FEED ME!"

After he eats, he likes to eat the washcloth.  I suppose if you're not a big fan of sippy cups it's a way to get water...

And here's Albert fed and watered:

Should I be happy that he's strong enough to hold a glass bottle?

Glad that he wasn't eating the pizza too?

Worried that he's going to be an alcoholic?

Or just resign myself to the fact that no one even noticed I was in the picture too?

...  Fum good sandaw...