Happy 9 month birthday!

As of today, Vera has been out of the belly as long as she was in the belly. We have enjoyed the past 9 months significantly more than the previous, I must say. Here are a few pics from the past month. Highlights include a visit from Iona, a weekend of hiking (on my birthday), and Halloween.

Rocktober

Fall '08

The weather has been beautiful for the past couple weeks and we are trying to take advantage of it. We took the whole family down to visit George, Mary, and Diana, (and Dodger visited Kosmos, whom she terrorized the entire stay) in Connecticut last weekend. We had a great walk in their woods, a nice tour of the Yale campus and New Haven, apple picking and some terrific meals and visiting with the Richersons. Also this post, we took Vera on her first corn maze, county fair, and pumpkin patch.

In other news, we are thrilled to welcome another cousin for Vera into the family - William Higley Spencer was born on October 14th! We can't wait to meet him. Visit Dave's website for pics: http://www.dspencer.net

Fall '08

Real Quick...

I changed our You Tube to be a little more private - to keep out all the wackos. Here is our new account - sorry if you have to re-subscribe!

http://www.youtube.com/user/VeraVision1

We Move to Boston and Vera grows!

So, we're settled in here in New England. We really like our place and our neighborhood, and so far, John's work has not been too demanding- hours-wise. We enjoyed about 2 weeks getting to know Boston a little better before John started work, and now we are officially back to the grind.

Vera is great - I think she is perfect and don't want her to grow any more. Any suggestions? She is just a little happy camper, as I hope the pictures outline.

We just got back from a couple days in NYC to meet Laura on her way back from Brazil, and for Vera to meet her new cousin, Mason. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera on the trip, and so it is not documented here. Check in with Mason's blog for a couple pictures of Vera pulling Mason's hair.

In other news, I have stolen the idea of putting Vera on You Tube from Amelia Theatre- check it out for a few great videos of Vera giggling, and a narrated tour of our apartment:

http://www.youtube.com/user/HPantazis

Okay, that's all for now.

Summer Vacation

View Album

Get your own

So, apologies for the delay in pics - we have been gallivanting about for the past several weeks. We all spent a couple weeks in Iowa City hanging out with the grandparents and the IC clan, then went up to Madison to see Claire and Joost, then to Chicago to see Maria and Dave, Faith, Mark and boys, and Justin. We then head back to Geneseo just in time to move out of our old place. We had Labor Day weekend free (before we had to move our stuff into our new Boston Digs) - so we went up through the Adirondacks, camped for a night, then got to Burlington, Vermont to stay with a friend (Lacey and Chris - friend from my semester at sea), and go to the wedding of a couple John knows from Boston (Jen and James).

It was a great few weeks - Vera was a sport through everything, as she usually is. She is starting to eat more solid foods, and sits up like a champ, although the crawling isn't quite happening yet (thank god, because that would make moving in a lot more difficult).

Now we are settling in in Boston - our place in the South End is really nice. We are getting to know the neighborhood a little better and I think it will be great. We can't wait to have some visitors!

Also, I got a cellular telephone! You know, the kind that doesn't need cords? My new number is 617-645-6289. Talk soon!

July Thus Far

Summer Lovin'

We've had an eventful past couple weeks - starting with a visit from Mark, Faith and boys to our neck of the woods, and ending with a road trip to NYC for Jon Parrott's wedding and a couple days hauling Vera and stroller around the city with my mom. It was hard work, but great to get some quality time with Gramma. In between we have been trying to stay cool by going to John's Judge's pool, the lake, and of course, the Geneseo Airshow - which is the other kind of staying cool, as in hip.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Baby K, Vera's cousin, who is due any day now. We just have a few more weeks here in Western NY, and then we will be vacationing in and around Iowa, then moving to Boston by September. We can't believe the year here is almost up!

Vera has been developing on schedule - we just felt her first little tooth make its appearance yesterday, she drank water out of a straw today (and then spit it up shortly after), and is sitting up on her own for several seconds! Pretty amazing.

Oh, and John turns 27 tomorrow! We will celebrate by grilling linked meat and eating pie.

We just got back from a 2 week visit to Iowa City - it was full of summer fun - and I mean full. So, apologies to all the people we thought we'd have time to see, but didn't. Sincere apologies.

Before heading home to Iowa, John, Vera, Dodger and I drove to NYC via Pennsylvania to visit John's Yia Yia, aunt and cousins. Then we headed in to "the city" for baby K's shower. After meeting up with Laura, we left John and headed for Iowa, with an overnight in Columbus with the aunties. We arrived safe and sound the next evening in time for dinner on the screened-in porch on the farm.

The time in Iowa was fairly chaotic - with family coming and going at all times. David, Lindsay, and Amelia made it home early enough to overlap with Laura about a day, so we had our entire immediate family together for just long enough to take a family picture (not on my camera). Faith, Mark, Spencer and John were also around for much of the fun. We had multiple excellent meals, lawn games, canoing in Decorah, BBQ's on various decks, a visit to the beach of Lake Darling, and more. Unfortunately, our camera ran out of juice about half way through the visit, so the various events are not documented thoroughly.

2 Weeks in Heaven (no, it's Iowa)