Will Smiles

Will smiles a lot now. Usually he has this big, open-mouth, squenched-eye smile that looks more like a nice hearty laugh, only there's no sound, but I wasn't able to capture that with my camera - yet. I'll keep trying. Anyway, here's a series of pictures of him smiling and just generally being cute.

Sorry ...

It's just not so easy to blog these days.

Things are going well in the Rothnie household. Will is giving me an overnight feeding schedule that is liveable. I'm only getting up to nurse him twice a night now, instead of three times. And he's gotten quick about it, so I'm usually back in bed in about a half hour. Of course, I can't stay up past 9 for the schedule to work and give me enough sleep, but that's okay. Mark doesn't mind going to bed that early either, since he gets up at 5 every morning.

Gwennan is getting used to having a baby brother around. She gives him a kiss before bed every night and likes to check him out when he's awake. "He's got eyes open!"

Gwennan is in the throes of two-year-old-dom and challenging Mommy and Daddy as often as possible. At the same time, she still does some super cute, funny, and sometimes sweet things.
This morning she was playing with her Elmo doll and her "baby" Elmo doll. (The second one is about 3 inches tall.) She put them in my glider rocker chair and put baby Elmo up to "mama" Elmo and said, "He eating the boob!" She's pretty observant, I guess.

Gwennan is also getting better and better at talking. Lately she's been working on her present progressive verb tense:
"I running!"
"I dancing!"
But my favorite is "having":
"She having a pink shirt on!"
"I no having a pink shirt on!"

And if you hear her say, "I don't watch a movie," what she's actually saying is "I'm going to watch a movie." She hasn't mastered her "g" sound yet. It usually comes out "d", thus if you ask her name, she'll tell you it's "Dennan."

Finally, here's a couple of videos for your viewing pleasure.

The first is a video of Will for those who haven't seen him in person yet. He's pretty cute, if you ask me.



Next is a video of Gwennan and Will. Elmo and Cookie Monster wanted to see him.

William Wyatt Rothnie

Born July 9, 2008, 3:15 PM. 8 lbs, 5 oz. 19 inches.
All photos by Mark Rothnie.

Dead Dogs and Cats

So, being the history buff/geek that I am, I am currently reading through Page Smith's A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution. It's an excellent read, but I came across a strange excerpt the other day that continues to capture my attention. It's about the everyday common Englishman's reaction to the resolution of the First Continental Congress:

When the hangman and two sheriffs appeared in the Royal Exchange to burn publicly copies of the journal called Crisis, which espoused, among other things, the cause of the colonists, the fire was immediately extinguished by the crowd, and the officers were pelted with dead dogs and cats.

So here's my question: Were there just dead dogs and cats randomly lying about, or, when someone's dog or cat died, did they hold on to them, say in a box by the front door, just in case they needed to pelt someone with them? This has me in a quandary.

More Gwennan Videos for your Entertainment

Will is due in 18 days, and we're anxiously anticipating his arrival. I'm ready to quit sharing my body and be able to bend over again, but the trade-off is feedings every 3 hours and sleep deprivation. Am I (are we) really ready? Who knows.

Anyway, following are three videos of the Gwennanator being her cute Gwennan self.

First is G and Daddy having a little parade in the living room, using funnels as horns. Daddy is such fun.


Here Gwennan is playing with her magnetic letters and singing the alphabet song. You can occasionally hear her say, "Now I've sung my ..." and then she starts all over again.


Finally we have a VERY excited Gwennan playing on the "choo train" at Marietta Square. We usually stroll over there after a dinner at Marietta Pizza Company and let her crawl around on it with the other kids. She LOVES it.

A conversation with Gwennan

Okay, this video is kinda slow, but I'm trying to make sure I have a record of Gwennan talking at this stage. It's so adorable, and she's talking so much these days! She'll repeat nearly anything you say. So be careful when you're around her! ;o)



Scroll down to see more videos from the past few weeks ...

Gwennan and the "Birthday Cake"

Gwennan brought me a "birthday cake" the other morning. She even sang the song!