What Ber does during naptime...

What Ber has been up to...

Bouncing

Playing

Pooping

Eating

Sleeping

Exploring

And here's some evidence for a few of the above claims:

Some more of Ber

Another video...

I promise I will start using some more creativity here--if only to better showcase the leading actor. He's starting to wise up to my exploitations and frankly, refuses to work with such banal directing. I believe his words were, as I'm sure those of you who speak his language understood from the film, "You're killin me, Smalls!" Fortunately, tomorrow is a new day. I'm going to have a chat with his agent, Mr. P, and hopefully we can work something out. In the meantime, enjoy what will likely be one of the last videos in the "Ber on a Rug in front of the Desk" series.

Nearly Mobile...

Here is Cutie-Ber trying to crawl... still can't quite do it! Love and Kisses from Texas!

Ber, Lately

Ber is experimenting with sounds now... I had to be inconspicuous with the camera (if he can see it well, he gets too curious to keep doing the cute things I always try to record!), so sorry for the less than stellar focus! haha! Oh, and don't mind my husky voice--I have a cold. YES! blech.

I have a Family!

It's slowly dawning on me that my boys and I are a FAMILY. It's a ridiculous thought most of the time--Pat and I are, well, at least I am way too immature to be on my own taking care of my own. But here we are! Somehow, we are pulling it off! We love little Ber, and every day I get to know him a bit better. He is such a sweetiebear--I put him down for a nap about ten minutes ago and as I was closing the door I looked back at his crib. His little head was poking up above the side, bobbing and shaking in his strain to support it, just so that he could see where I was going! Quite an impressive crunch. haha. What a cutie-patootie.

Amateur Moviemaker? I say, Visionary!

You've not seen many angles like this one. I'd be surprised if this single clip doesn't revolutionize the field of cinematography. Oh, and Ber's cuteness and smarts will skyrocket him to stardom as well. Obviously. :)

Some footage of the Ber

He loves Pat!

And no, he's not always in his play-seat... that's just the only time I have hands free to photograph/record him. The little rascal! :)

Pay-up Time

I've been racking up some significant picture debt over the last few weeks... this post should make us even. :)

In Pizza Heaven

warm patio lights

fingertips, floured by the slice:

"It's Italian"

Pizza good enough to inspire a haiku? You'd better believe it. Not that you should correlate the quality of this haiku to the quality of that pizza--I'm at best a dabbler in the subtleties of Japanese poetry, but the "It's Italian" restaurant in Austin knows their margherita :P

I would consider myself somewhat of an expert, however, when it comes to judging pizza . I rhapsodized my way through the world pizza champion's four-cheese pizza in San Fransisco last Christmas, an event which turned my pizza world on its head. Okay, that's an understatement. It changed my life. I can practically taste it as I type.

(Excuse me as I wipe drool from the keyboard.)

That may be because I have exceptionally retentive tastebuds... but it's probably because I haven't brushed my teeth since eating a runner-up tonight, an echo of that incredible experience at Tony's in San Fran. YES! "It's Italian" may be in a strip mall in central Texas, but bless my basil-loving soul their pizza is inspiring.

I can't believe I won a give-away! I enter almost every blog give-away I come across... and I finally won one! :P

http://www.amazon.com/So-Easy-Toddler-Food-Survival/dp/0972722734/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1286157256&sr=1-1

YES! I love cookbooks!!

Pat and I both have job interviews tomorrow! yay.

Harry Potta!

I am reading Harry Potter in German right now. It is outrageous fun--right at my proximate level of development (cue: Vygotsky followers shout hooray!).

It's also somewhat disconcerting. I mean, I am a child of the Harry Potter-midnight-releases generation. Among my greatest grade-school worries was the mystery surrounding the "J.K." in J.K. Rowling. Is the author a man or a woman?!?! Someone, PLEASE TELL ME! (Man, those were the days). I've read the first 3 books in the series a dozen times and was the same age as Harry, Ron, and Hermione as each successive book came out until 2008 or whenever that was (Hey--I'm a fan, not an obsessive fan). I was studying in Oxford in 2005 when the fifth came out and bought a coveted "U.K. edition." You don't think up beautiful book relationships like this. They're a gift.

Suffice it to say (ha!), I know these books well. They're imbued with the English spirit--as British as mashed peas. So, that long-winded, mostly irrelevant history was just to add to my ethos in saying that reading Harry Potter in German, a language that for me is so reflective of the German way of thinking, is like eating a pumpkin whoopie pie with cream cheese filling in the middle instead of cream. It's a bit different than what you're accustomed to, but not at all disappointing.

So that's how I feel, if that makes sense.

Hodgepodge!

I want to go to the Barktober Fest today and watch some retired greyhounds race for charity... but Nooooo. Not cool enough for Pat. So instead we are lounging around volleying the "what are we going to do today?" question, taking pictures of Berret, and imagining what it would be like to have money and eat good food. ;)

P.S. We just came back from doing something! We attended the Great Trade-in event at Toys-R-Us and got a SAFE crib (not a brand name, but an adjective...) for Berret, who has been sleeping in this hazard of a drop-down side crib held together with plastic hardware and tape. (SHAME SHAME!) Then we had some cheesecake at Chili's and Ber actually slept on the bench next to us. What an angel.

P.P.S. We fed Berret his first rice cereal yesterday evening. He wasn't a big fan last night, but today ate up everything and got the hang of eating with the spoon.

A bit unsure... (okay, definitely disliking...)

Hmmm... swishing... appraising the nuances of this nutty wine rice cereal with his oh-so developed palate.

Not bad! I think he is converted.

This is Berret's new and improved 'do. We think it looks SO hip. Bravo, Pat, for your visionary infant fashion instincts.

And he's standing! He LOVES to stand.

to me, poetry is memory, the remembered feeling of experiences. Successful poetry is a snapshot of a moment--an emotional photograph wherein that intangible nugget of memory survives. I think I'll be writing some poetry once in a while to better remember this time in our life. Ber is just growing up too fast for memory unaided.

Berret seems very independent--he gets upset when he can't do something on his own. today he was "swimming" on the carpet floor like a madman, trying (unsuccessfully) to get somewhere. He is getting the hang of feeding himself, however, so when I give him a bottle he loves to practice.

Pat is waiting for me to watch "Das Experiment"--a German psychological drama. Berret is sleeping sound. Good night :)

(almost) 4 months

(swashbuckling bandana: our latest innovation in hair-hiding techniques)

(our serious little boy)

Sweet-smelling little Berret will be 4 months old on Saturday. He makes our lives happier (read: crazier) than they've ever been. What a cutie-patootie. We love you, Suessber!

(a smile :)

(we think he looks like Opa Hofmann in this picture)

(sittin' pretty)

(what IS that thing?!)

I haven't had this much fun editing pictures since I was a teacher's aide in high school and spent hours on the paint program... :)

Love from Texas!

Berret went swimming in a pool for the first time today! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures... I was too busy having fun swimming myself. And, of course, what Berret Wagner could mark this momentous occasion with anything but a poopy swimming diaper? He leaked into the hot tub and the pool. Thatta boy.

Here he is pre-swimming pool.

Here he is a few weeks ago before we moved... I love this picture :) (Pat wants y'all to know he took it)

First, and hopefully WORST, Haircut

Oh, my poor child. Today, Pat could not resist acting upon yet another one of his brilliant hairstyling ideas. I'm usually fine with these when they involve his own hair. But experimenting with the downy hair of a three-month old (even when it grows in an "old man-pattern") is a less fine thing...

At least he's not old enough to care... and at least he still looks the same from the front... :(

Someday I will look back on this and laugh. But probably not as much as Pat, who cackles like a thirteen-year old every time he sees it.

A Laugh!

Yep, Berret laughed for the first time today! He laughed and I cried. It's pathetic what his happiness does to me. I didn't even see his face! Pat was playing with him on the couch (doing some sort of Tarzan imitation in calling himself "Dada" over and over) and he just started chortling. We aren't such bad parents that our baby can't bring himself to laugh! YES!

More Dinner...

So Carly has been visiting for the past two days. Yay! We have had a lot of fun driving to medical research facilities at 5 in the morning to get some wisdom teeth removed on standby only to be turned away at 7, playing with Berret, and cooking. Tonight, we made ribs and a pepperonata. Yum. I have been bummed the whole summer because of our BBQ-bereftness... but my bummedness has been soothed by this awesome ribs-in-the-oven technique via the best food blog ever.

yummy food and one of the best sisters ever! who is that teenage boy in the green shirt?!

Berret is ever more adorable. I really need to post some recent pictures and videos. He is starting to sleep a lot more, is teething (front center incisors), and is increasingly alert and smily. He loves Aunt Carly! But, heck, we all do. :) He seems to be very independent, and loves to stand more than anything! He also has started to notice his feet and I watched him sitting on the couch today staring at his toes, flexing and curling. I can't even imagine what plans that little rascal is dreaming up, now that he knows the power of all of his little piggies.

Dinner!

In honor of our upcoming move to the south, I made something quintessentially southern today: fried chicken. I am not a huge fan of chicken han solo (a culinary term I just coined for "alone." read it, use it, embrace it.)--chicken battered and fried is no exception. And, as much as I wish I could say today's cooking changed these feelings, I remain unimpressed with chicken-only entrees. But, it was really fun to do some deep frying, and I did appreciate the tip I read somewhere to soak the meat in milk and vinegar overnight... that made a moist meat!

In the end, I'll keep eating drumsticks, but the Nestle variety. ;)

What was so much more scrumptious was this lovely apple tart, compliments of Ina (here). It was amaaaaaaazing and oh, so simple. YUM.

The wax paper came in very handy when rolling out the dough...

but I probably (definitely) should have taken it off the bottom before baking. Luckily I was able to pull it off, but only after much finagling and cursing. One corner did not survive the wax-paper peeler's hunger!

NOTE: Just stick with parchment paper, people. Wax is so 1950's.

Kayaking

Yesterday Pat bought a new kayak. We are planning to go to LP ("Lake Powell," for the joyless uninitiated,) sometime in late August. Can I just give a virtual squeal, people? Not only did Pat get an AWESOME kayak for tricks (360s with one stroke?!), but it will be a vacation. You have no idea how sweetly that word types out. Especially in italics. One more time... vacation.

Not that I am clamoring for a break or anything. By day, I research potential schools/states, work on my personal statement, and write articles for ehow.com. By night, I lead a secret life: I am SUPERMILKWOMAN!

My life is awesome. But even superheros need a vacation once in a while. (vacation...)

xxxxxx

This post is dedicated to grandparents who watch babies. and super-nannies (Cooper, you know who you are)

Berret's adorable sneeze.

Ber is a solid boy. I am a poser.