Christmas with the Baileys & Morrises

There was way too much happening this week to contain it to just one post, so we'll spread it out over the next two weeks. If you're looking for a preview you can always check the photo share.


We spent Christmas in Santa Barbara with the Baileys and Grandma & Grampa, and Carson got some more quality time with his cousins Mary Jane and Vivian.


In what was certain to be a futile effort, we tried to program a camera to take a family photo. What I would have never guessed was that Bill Morris would be the one to mess it up by hiding behind Bobbi. Even Carson realizes here that Grampa's face is going to be hidden.


Carson and Laura inspect the loot in the amazing stocking that Grandma made for Carson.


Carson got into the unwrapping far more than we thought he would. Here Laura displays some photographic genius by capturing the bow mid-flight after Carson rips it off his riding Lion.


Despite Ging-ging's concern that he was too young for it, Carson seemed to enjoy his lion just fine. Bill and Laura enjoyed that the music it plays has an On/Off switch.


A classic Jordan Christmas shot with the bow on the head. The swimming turtle has become an instant bathtub fave.


For the first of many times in his young life Carson holds up clothing and pretends to be excited.


Although Aunt Beth cooked a lot of fine food for us while we were up, Carson was happiest being served mashed up banana by cousin Vivian for his Christmas breakfast.

Merry Christmas!

A Cute 6-month Old Will Not Get You Seated Any Faster

This week Carson welcomed back his maternal grandparents to Southern California.


Early in the week Dad tried to spend a rainy morning getting a great shot of Carson and the Christmas tree. Sadly Carson still hadn't figured out that you're supposed to smile at the camera. This shot is only about 1/8th of the failed shots he tried that morning (as always, more are available at our Shared Photo Site.


It's not a trip to SoCal for Bill and Bobbi if we don't send them on some boring errand, and this one was no different, as they schlepped down to ikea to pick up a high chair. Carson doesn't seem to have warmed up to the ambiance of his new dining experience.


He still had plenty of fun with Grampa...


And once Grandma was serving up some squash he kicked off his shoes and relaxed in the new dining environment.


Not all of his dining experiences went quite so well. Here Carson and Dad are awaiting the return of their car from the valet at Mozza. Despite fighting nearly an hour of traffic, the wait at 5pm was still an hour long. Even Carson's Christmas themed green pants and red hat weren't enough to cajole the maître d' into a shorter wait time, so we just went home and ordered takeout pizza.


The long drive didn't keep Carson's spirits down for long once Grandma let him at the toybox.


We sent the grandparents on their way up north on Sunday, so it was back to just Laura, Carson and I as we begin the shortened holiday week.

O Christmas Tree

Because of our week off from Thanksgiving we've got a little catching up to do, but that's a good thing, since last weekend was so busy preparing for Christmas. As you can see above, Carson and Laura picked out the perfect tree.


The tree was decorated after Carson's bedtime, but he did pose with it the next day.


Before all the decorations were in place we just had a few sad approximations of stockings put up for St. Nicholas. He came just the same. Did you know that his feast (December 6th), is only celebrated in the U.S. by Catholic kids in Cincinnati, Milwaukee and St. Louis. I guess we're just German/Catholic pioneers here in Los Angeles.


Despite temperatures dropping all the way to the low 50s, Carson still managed to get in his weekly swim lesson.


Here Carson and his fellow student Ella show some fine synchronized swimming technique. Carson's toe point is definitely earning extra points from the Russian judge.


Finally, this weekend we got a surprise visit from Bill's college buddy (and Arlington roommate) Eddy Hwang, and his new fiance Dee. As you can see Carson clearly isn't too sure about Eddy.


Take a look at that holding technique. It screams, "I am not a pediatrician."

Over the River and Through the Woods to Ging-Ging and Pops we Go

A little slower that we'd like, but here are the pics from our trip to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving. Carson started out the trip in style above, hanging in first class with mom. Note to self, red-eyes and 5 month olds don't mix.


Now that he's moved onto solids, we figured Skyline was a must for his visit.


He also got to hang with the whole fam at Graeters.


It was hardly ice cream weather, as you can see by all the layers required during a simple trip to the swings.


What has captured the attentions of both Carson and Pops so intently?


It's the TV of course!


Carson paid equal attention to his Ging-ging while playing with her.


Carson enjoyed brunch hanging with the newly engaged Tony and Donna.


Not sure what wisdom Bad-Laura is imparting here. Perhaps "there is no spoon"?

The following shots are from the excellent party the Gromadas threw for Carson while he was visiting the 'nati. As you'll see, Carson got passed around like a football (although unlike many footballs in Cincinnati, he wasn't fumbled and returned for a touchdown).

Shauna Dammel was the first to visit with Carson. If her interest is any indication, then Justin has some work to do.


Anne McGraw (mother of Lauren who you've seen earlier in this space) took a turn.


Bill's Godmother Aunt Marianne said hi as well. Given how many babies she's been holding of late you'd think she'd almost be burned out (her twin Grandsons were born earlier this fall).


We also got to visit with Carson's Great-Great-Aunt Ginny and Great-Great-Uncle Jack.


Carson had plenty of bonding time with his less great Aunts and Uncle as well. Here Uncle Ken ensures a future spitup.


Aunt Caroline elicits a smile.


Aunt Colleen flexes both her reading and counting skills.


In addition to the standard Thanksgiving celebration, Carson also squeezed in a baptism during the trip. Hopefully this concludes Carson's crossdressing career.


While everybody was still dressed up post-baptism we had to get a family pic.


Safely back in California, Carson saw his parents' alma maters square off in hoops. Fortunately he knew which team to support.

Santa Monica Parks and Parties

Sorry for those of you that stopped by last week. The blog took the week off to travel to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving. We'll have more details on that later this week, but before we get to that we'd be remiss if we didn't share some of the pictures from two weeks ago.


We began the week by getting psyched for the start of the Hoya basketball season when Georgetown tipped off against Jacksonville on Monday.


Midweek Laura began preparing to go back to work. Her midday meeting at Activision in Santa Monica turned into an early lunch for Bill and Carson at Clover Park. Between the adjacent airport, the elderly women playing some very non-competitive soccer, swings, slides and the kiddie tower (which you can see in the background here) there was more than enough to entertain us for an hour. Once Laura begins her consulting project in December it's sure to be the host to more than a few lunch hours.


We also continued to expand our pallet last week. In a very necessary move we added prunes...


As well as the slightly less well received peas. Here Laura tries to hide her glee that Carson doesn't seem that into peas. Unfortunately for her, he just didn't happen to be hungry that day. The next day he scarfed down peas like he has with all of the rest of his foods, making it likely that the Jordan boys will outnumber Laura and demand peas be served more often.


The week ended with a trip to Miles Allen's 2nd birthday party at the carousel on the Santa Monica pier.


Although Carson didn't quite get his money's worth out of the all you could ride pass, he did seem to enjoy his one ride on the carousel.


Of course the birthday boy enjoyed himself quite a bit. Here Miles very subtly snacks on dobs of icing from the corner of the cake. Miles' blog is linked above. Perhaps this event will be momentous enough for Peter to consider making the first real update in the past six months.


Post party (and post-nap) Carson was a pretty happy boy. Here it's a contest to see who has the biggest smile: Bill, Carson or Lobster-man.


Coming later this week, Thanksgiving pics from the trip to the 'nati.