On The Beach

A little known fact about Hoboken is that we have our own sand beach (of course it is in the Hudson, and marked "No Bathing") that occasionally attracts sunbathers. We decided that it would be a good place to introduce Luke to sand.

He wasn't too sure about it

But he got used to it, and tolerated having his feet in the sand

Meanwhile, we are still cleaning sand out of his stroller a month later.

Happy Birthday, Grandpap!

Today is Luke's Grandpap's birthday, so Mom set out to make a special post just for him in honor of the big day. Unfortunately, Luke wanted NOTHING to do with this last night - he had a big day at daycare (walkies! puppetshow! "itsy bitsy spider!"), and he's a little cranky because he is cutting four - that's right, FOUR - new teeth.

First, Mom tried to get a video when he was eating. Mistake. Nothing would distract Luke from his Cheerios.

Then Mom thought that he might do better in the bathroom - his favorite place to play in the evening! She even got out his new obsession: The Luke Bench. Instead of pounding on it all adorably as has been his wont this week, he set out to dismantle it.

She tried again, moving the bench up against the wall. Luke just pushed & pulled & banged it around. I'm sure the downstairs neighbors appreciated that!

Then she took away the bench and gave him some of the letter blocks from it to play with...nope. No time for Mom. In fact, she might as well be torrrrrturing him. When she asked if he could say Happy Birthday, this is the best he would do:

So finally Mom decided to wait until the morning of Grandpap's birthday, when Luke pulled out all of the stops - the Quizzical Face (tm), the Extreme Close-up, Getting His Hands on Something He Knows is Forbidden (the TV was on channel Eleventy when I turned the news back on), and waving!

Happy Birthday, Grandpap!

I'm Charming

In July, Luke got his first school photo taken. Despite almost sleeping through the session, he posed like a little baby model for some of the funniest photos his parents have ever seen.

It's good to know that school photographers have done nothing to modernize with the times, since we got proofs and the fuzzy duplicated order form just as we would have in 1985.

I'm not sure which is better... the beanbag chair that they perched him on, or the background (surprisingly, he isn't really sitting by a lovely lake).


Granted Luke is growing fast, but somehow the photos look very little like him. We are not sure how they got the goofy grin or managed to make his had look quite so circular, but we would rather see the outtakes of him trying to put the beanbag in his mouth.

I'm casually late.....Llllllet's do lunch.

Happy Fall Everyone! Especially Grammy & Cathy!

While tomorrow may mark the Official First Day of Fall, for Paige it came early when Paul bought her the First Box of Mallomars of the Season. The ceremonial first Mallomar always makes Paige think of her Mom and her Mom's Friend, Cathy, who taught her to enjoy and relish this autumnal treat!

And because, as it turns out, the first Mallomar was sold in West Hoboken, NJ (now known as Union City), we felt it was important for Luke to become familiar with the packaging in a symbolic joining of his familial and geographical history.

The Electric City 3: Back in Training

We have so many great photos from our trip to Scranton, that it deserved another post to collect all of them.

In addition to all of the attention from Peter and Ian, Luke also had some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa. Unfortunately, we managed not to get any photos of Grandpa and Luke on their walks to survey the property, but here's one of Grandma showing Luke the finer points of peek-a-boo:

Despite the wires in the foreground and the expression on his face, we aren't torturing Luke, only marking his height with the rest of the family.


Luke posing with Grandma

Finally, the littlest Royal menacing the camera (thanks for the shirt Grandpa and Grandma!)

The Electric City: Guest Post #2

And now our second in a series of guest posts, this one from Gallant (Peter):

We arrived in Pennsylvania on a Tuesday but Paul, Paige, and Luke didn't get there until Thursday night late, we had gone to a baseball game and they still got there later than us.

That morning and basically all day we played with Luke. One of the days we left Luke at home and went out to a deli for breakfast and then took Luke along to the mall while we got our birthday presents.


Each evening we helped give Luke his bath and got to witness him turn from his back to his stomach for the first time(ed: ONE of the first times). I was also one of the first people to feed Luke his rice pudding and banana mix. I was sometimes better at feeding him than Paige. I enjoyed visiting Luke and getting to see him again, I hope to see him crawling at x-mas.

Thanks for the posts Peter and Ian! Luke is lucky to have great cousins like you two.

The Electric City: Guest Post #1

Luke recently took a trip to Scranton to visit his Grandparents, and his favorite cousins, Peter and Ian. Not only did Luke take a shine to his older cousins, but they quickly got new nicknames, Goofus (Ian) and Gallant (Peter).

We were able to get some guest posts from them to talk about the visit. Paradoxically Goofus wrote his first, so we will start with him.

This is Goofus.

I have come back from seeing Luke at my Grandparents' house, here are some of the highlights. Luke has grown a lot since I left NJ in April. He is so much more interactive and likes to play with people, not just himself.



He is making good progress eating human food (i.e. banana and rice cereal) but still doesn't have the hang of swallowing – he still spits it back out. Luckily Paul and Paige don't have to tell him to use his silverware and eat his vegetables yet.


His face is starting to look like Paul's but he has a smaller nose. "Pelvic thrusts" are his new thing and he loves when I say my name for 5 minutes straight, and cries when I don't.

Chock-a-Block

When Luke's Grammy & Grandpap Rosella visited last weekend, Luke became the beneficiary of their pre-home-sale downsizing. They brought him their Emergency Baby Entertainment Toys - the Fisher Price Rock-A-Stack and a corn popper. While Luke isn't quite ready for the crazy fun of the popper, he has completely taken to his Rock-A Stack.

Paul and Paige, meanwhile, are disappointed that the center dowel is graduated now and no longer comes with a ball on top.

Bonus Footage

Since tropical storm Hanna is now bearing down on Hoboken and rendering the Caseys housebound for the rest of Saturday, we thought we'd post some bonus footage for you.

For reasons unknown to all of us, Luke finds bed making - particularly the pillow handling and pillowcase changing part - to be hie-larious. It is just about the funniest, most joyous thing he's ever seen, and Bed Changing Day remains a highlight of his week.

Here Mom reenacts some pillow handling and changing for the benefit of the camera. (also note how Sir Luke is sitting up!) And many thanks to Paige's cousin, Sue, and her family for the cute PJs. Anyone need an oil change?

Stay dry, Eastern Seaboarders!

The Baby and the Boat

A few weeks back Carrie (Paige's high school friend) and her husband, Mark, invited us down to their home in Brick for an afternoon of BBQ, boats, and fun. Never ones to turn down food or fun, we drove down and enjoyed a great afternoon that was (mostly) rain free despite threatening skies.

Once we got there, Luke made himself right at home on the deck, enjoying the sofa immensely.

Apparently sitting there watching the Hot Dog Boat go by was pretty funny.


After lunch it was time for a boat ride, and safety first! Luke had to wear a life jacket like the rest of the kids, a development he wasn't too happy about. So unhappy that he needed a Nuk to keep it together.

Luckily Tyler and Tess were great examples of how to act on a boat (check out the Spider Man life jacket!).


Carrie and Tess enjoy the breeze before the thunder rolled in

The happy family... well at least two of us were happy. Despite Luke's love of breeze and seeing new things, having a big lifejacket around his neck didn't make him very happy.


Thanks to Carrie, Mark, Tyler and Tess for a great day!