A visit from Grandma and Grandpa Barker

Grandma and Grandpa have come down on the west coast train for a couple weeks to visit the growing boy (and Jenn and Matt). So far they have gone to a taping of Bill Maher, we've taught them Carcassonne, we've visited Huntington and we've shopped... oh we've shopped :)
As the pictures below clearly show, Bronson is very happy. He quite enoys all the attention - when he wakes up to feed in the middle of the night, his head swivels looking for company in the living room... he's disappointed to only find a sleepy mom. I think we're going to have a tough time when they leave next Thursday.
In Bronson news, he now has 2 teeth and he's enjoying carrots! He's talking alot, very vocal and is definetly noticing more and more around him. He is now amazed to see Curious George on our throw pillow. He also loves my Spongebob pj pants, keeps trying to grab the little character off of them.

Me & my dad

I love my dad. Don't go back to work - stay here and read me another chapter of the Hobbit.

Happy Valentines Day!

We all had a good Valentines day down in CA. Bronson and I met dad for lunch and took a big walk through the set of Numb3rs filming on campus today. FYI Agent Epps (Don) gets the biggest trailer :) We also visited the turtle pond and B took a close look at the turtles.

For Valentines day I made Matthew a bobble head of himself (yes the idea came from Dwight on 'the Office') and Matt made me some roses (they're beautiful). We gave packages of Valentines Nerds (the candy) to the other 1st year grad students from Bronson :)

And Bronson... well for his Valentine he got a tooth! It has finally emerged through the skin, but I tell ya it was a hairy couple days to get this far. B also tried Bananas for the first time today. As this picture clearly shows - he was thrilled.

Live action Matthew bobblehead - its head really bobs in time with derivations!

A trip to the beach

Last night the three of us went over to one of the astro prof's houses for dinner with their family. Re'em, Mayaanna and their 4 sons hosted us to some awesome Indian food. After dinner we played Space-opoly with Re'em and one son while the others went to bed.

We woke late this Saturday morning to a beautiful day and decided to go to the beach. It took only 25-30 minutes to drive to Santa Monica and park. We walked the boardwalk and visited Venice beach and Muscle beach, then ate lunch on a huge, rather empty fair sand beach. It was a good time for all; Bronson enjoyed seeing all the people, I enjoyed the beach and Matthew enjoyed all the odd things we saw at Venice beach. One Sideshow spokesman advertised that he had two headed cows, turtles, pigs, chickens, raccoon...etc etc. We weren't about to pay to see if he was truthful or not.

The beach and the day was lovely, the drive home took ~40 minutes. Now we're tired and a tad red. I've thrown together a beer crust pizza and we're ending the day watching a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica. It's true, Matthew's getting nerdier and nerdier and taking me with him :)

Matthew & B at Venice Beach

A candid picture of muscle beach (behind Bronson), where Arnold S. was first discovered

Either mom's not photogenic, or dad can't take pictures, but B is so cute with his glasses I had to include it :]

Pears and lounging

This evening Bronson tried pears for the first time. This went over SIGNIFICANTLY better than rice meal, he really seemed to enjoy them.

He's a big big boy

Bronson had his 5 month doctors check up yesterday. Things were going well, smiles to the nurse, playing with mom on the table... until Dr. Schlundt started to talk to him, then his face went all red and he just started screaming and crying. Dr. Schlundt had to hide in the corner of the room and avoid eye contact for the rest of the visit while Bronson clung to mom and gave him the evil eye.

Anyhow, the results are in, the boy is still growing steady, remains in the 92nd percentile for height and head circumference, and the 95th for weight; he weighs in at a whopping 19lbs and 12.5 oz. now.

In other news Bronson has decided that rolling over isn't so bad and is now a rolling maniac. He still only rolls from his back to his belly, but he's doing it alot.

Hmm... what to do for the camera today?

Sit up....

... and over!

First Solid food

Yesterday was Bronson's 5 month birthday, and although we were trying in general to push first solids out to 6 months, Bronson has been wanting them for some weeks now. So, on his birthday Bronson got his first exciting taste of big boy food... mmm rice meal. He ate more than 7 spoonfuls and was fairly neat about it, however a little confused about the whole thing.

In adult news, this has been quite a games weekend for us... on Friday night David and Sarah brought supper over and we played a neat game called Illuminati. Saturday afternoon Ben and Katherine came over from next door and we played a close game of Settlers using the seafarers expansion and the layout where territory is randomly discovered as you come upon it. [Thank you uncle Gary!] It was good fun.

This afternoon we have a soccer game, then I plan to do some painting. Matthew has gotten a job as a TA for a grad level Physics course (which he's actually taking himself). It's quite an honour to be asked to TA a course you're taking, although it takes ~ 8 hours a week of marking assignments, it brings in a nice chunk of money which helps. And yes, he does have to mark his own assignment - but I challenge you to show me a more honest man than Matthew. Since it's just a Pass/Fail course, it's not really a big deal anyways.