Key-Ring Circus

O’s new thing is to take our keys to try them in random keyholes. Her inquisitiveness and persistence makes leaving places like my office a chore, but on the flipside, her hobby does buy us some time to complete some chores child-free.

Sitting Belle

Olivia has a deep-seated love for deep seats. On this day, she perched herself atop one of my office’s outdated couches.

Decade of Decadence

March Twenty-Third marks the dawn of my fourth decade of life, the dusk of my previous three. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines decadence as “a period of decline.” How true. I woke up this day a little achier, a tad grayer, and a bit wrinklier. Fortunately, I had a plateful of cupcakes and a lapful of Cupcake to keep me youthful when my (barely) younger wife decided to bury me about my agedness with a tombstone candle.

Our Resourceful Daughter

After a particularly messy meal – Indian buffet – Olivia decided to take things into her own hands. Literally. Well, maybe the literalness holds when I state that she decided to take her hands into her own things, in this case, her glass of water. She had never done this before. We had to capture this First. It’s right up there with First Words and First Steps.

Rain Forest, Rain

These are from a recent dinner at the Rainforest Café. Okay, not really. We actually took these shots during our long, Gump-like journey into the Caribbean National Forest, El Yunque, on our last full day in Puerto Rico.

Snack Trap

Forget the infant feeding container. Olivia is the human Snack Trap. The girl can snack with the best of them. Apparently, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree (or stay on the ground for long – one of us would pounce on it).

myPod

Olivia has become quite possessive in recent days, but it’s not the “everything is mine” mentality (not yet, thankfully). Rather she’s taken to naming objects in a possessive form. For example, it’s not just milk anymore. It’s Leela’s (the name she calls herself) milk. Daddy’s book and mommy’s shoes are other common utterances. Here she’s listening to Leela’s music.

Sleeping Cutie

The Caribbean’s sun and gentle breezes made naptime all the more enticing.

Dairy Queen

Our hotel in Puerto Rico had an ice cream shop in it. We knew we were in for a treat when she’d wake up asking for ice cream for breakfast.

Sunny Disposition

Olivia is an optimist. She sees things with glasses half on, not half off.

Swimsuit Issues

Olivia, modeling Speedo’s latest body armor/turtle inspiration, found it difficult traversing both land and water on account of the suit’s bulkiness. This picture was taken at the pool of our hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Slide Rules

If at first you don’t succeed at getting your child to go down the slide, don’t wait around for her. Gently nudge – I mean encourage – her along. She’ll scream – I mean beam – at you afterwards.

Pasta Famiglia

Beni and Olivia reach the bend in the world’s largest piece of elbow macaroni.

Little O

I’ve heard that NASCAR is trying to diversify their sport, but this is just ridiculous. The girl can’t even ride a tricycle yet.

Ice Capades/Ice Ice Baby

Remember the Batman TV series that ran in the 1960s? Adam West, Burt Ward, Julie Newmar, Cesar Romero, Eartha Kitt, and the like…well, they were central characters of a show prone to tight costumes, onomatopoeia, and double titles (e.g., Instant Freeze/Rats Like Cheese). My two-for-one effort is an ode to the Dynamic Duo. The show’s Wikipedia entry reports that critics of the series contended that the titles helped hide generally low-quality stunts and frequently missed punches. I’ll be the first to admit that I use titles to cover up my lowbrow stunts and frequently missed punchlines.

Apologies for the non sequitur. Enjoy Miss Freeze.