Aunt Sarah and Uncle Andy

Aunt Sarah and Uncle Andy came to visit.  We didn't have time to go to the museum, so we went and got donuts and visited the secret, special back room of the library that gives you a sneak peak of the dinosaurs.

Here is a weird fact.  You can't take pictures in the library, but you can take pictures in the museum.  Seems like that is backwards, right?  Don't tell Andrew Carnegie, or his endowment, but we took a picture in the library of the museum.  Suckas!!!  (if you happen to be reading this from the offices of the Carnegie Museums [cough, KRSG, cough] please don't tell.)

No, that isn't a supermodel posing with my son, it's my sister.  And a dinosaur.

We took a picture in the bathroom too. 

All Holiday Traffic Stops Here (Christmas part 3)

NJDOT forgot to pick up their sign that they had parked in front of the Raufer house before the holiday.  How could they have known that this small house would be host to over 50 people on Christmas day?  Who would have guessed that dozens of cars would park on this street and walk to the house that their sign was parked directly in front of?  Rumor has it, one of the aunts called to have it removed, but they didn't remove it.  So to make the best out of every situation, Aunt June did this:

Merry Christmas New Jersey!

And here are some pictures of  Attison's Grandma making him laugh after the excitement of Christmas day. 

A Raufer Christmas (Christmas part 2)

Christmas day at Grandma Raufer's house is a sight to behold.  I suppose when you have 11 children, a gaggle of grandchildren, half a dozen great grandchildren and all of them are ridiculously hospitable, you tend to have a full house on holidays. You also know how to hold a baby.

The matriarch...

Carolyn is starting to get a reputation as being the pied piper of family gatherings...

 Who would like to take a bet as to whether or not these people are related...

Cousin Pickachu made a list of all the ways he and Attison are going to cause a ruckus someday...

Cousin Peanut sang Attison a lullaby

To round out the evening, we all taught Attison how to make silly faces.

Thingamabob videos!

It's the B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me.  I'll stand alone with the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E!  Is there another song that is sung to that tune?  Or is Fisher Price sneakily putting bible songs into the subconscious of children across America?  If that is the case, I'm totally ok with it.

Videos of Attison and the thingamabob.  (FYI - this thing has a name, I just don't know, or care, what it is).

photos and videos...whatwhat!!

Presents!

Quilt made by Aunt Sherry
Bumpkins diaper from Grandma Beulah

And for your viewing pleasure, here are two videos of Attison not rolling over.  He can do it, but only when no one is looking.

Thank God for Anne

Ann Lamott -Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year
November 22

"I wish he could take longer naps in the afternoon.  He falls asleep and I feel I could die of love when I watch him, and I think to myself that he is what angels look like.  Then I doze off, too, and it's like heavens  but sometimes only twenty minutes later he wakes up and begins to make his gritchy rodent noises, scanning the room wildly.  I look blearily over at him in the bassinet, and think, with great hostility, Oh, God, he's raising his loathsome reptilian head again.

When I go over to the bassinet to pick him up, though, he looks up at me like I'm Coco the clown - he beams, and makes raspberries and does frantic bicycle kicks like he's doing his baby aerobics. Then I feel I can go on."

Attison went through a growth spurt this week, so he ate every hour, slept for 15 minute stints and SCREAMED for me whenever we weren't slowly rocking him in my arms. Sometimes I think that he is a demon sent to deprive me of my sleep and life and to remind me that I'm not really that important, just an avenue for others to get to the baby.  But most of the time I just look at him, fall in love, and feel my heart grow like the Grinch who stole Christmas, only my heart wasn't a little back turd to begin with, it was more normal sized.

I love this book by Ann Lamott. She wrote it as a journal and then had it published, so it is very honest, raw with emotion and so, so true.

Play time with a thingamabob

Here is Attison playing on his thingamabob.  He waves his arms and kicks his feet and looks at himself in the mirror.  The keyboard plays individual notes and every so often will automatically play a whole song. 

Developmentally, he isn't aware yet that he has control over his flailing limbs and can't connect the sounds and movements of the toys to his own movements.  This is good entertainment for him for up to 10 minutes and I have learned to block out the sound.  He will coo and make other noises when "playing" with this thing, until his coos turn to shouts and eventually into cries, indicating the end of thingamabob time.