In August of 2006, my sister, Christine, came to New York for a conference with my five month old nephew, Lorenz. We got him to ourselves over the weekend, so we hired a baby-sitter: the sitter of a friend of ours, Rhonda. And to add to the excitement, Gogo and Oz's breeder came to town on Saturday with her husband and their 8 month old baby, Ian. It was to be known as...
The Baby Invasion of '06!
To make life a little more difficult, Gogo had come home from knee surgery on Thursday. She was still pretty dopey that weekend, but was coming along nicely.
Gogo back from surgery, looking rather dopey.
First of all, let me say that Lorenz at 5 months was about the easiest baby I've ever seen. He almost never cried, and when he did, it didn't last more than a minute or two. He was occassionally a little cranky at feeding time, but nothing too bad.
David's over-exuberance worked on Lorenz. He started smiling without any idea as to what he was smiling about.
And here's happy little Lorenz with the babysitter, Rhonda.
Evan and Renee arrived with Ian around noon. We had a lunch of pizza. Renee had made a peach crisp which we baked and saved for after our big excursion.
Here's Ian clinging to Renee
Here's the whole clan preparing for a walk. Evan, Renee, Ian, Rhonda, Lorenz, and Oz.
Just preparing for the walk was a chore. We had to get two strollers and a red wagon down the front steps. Gogo was not allowed to walk at this point, so she rode in her red wagon.
Here's a picture of Lorenz in his stroller.
We walked to the Hudson River in search of a baby play park. It was a beautiful day but HOT HOT HOT. We made it to the pier, but the park was more for little kids and not for babies.
Evan, Ian, and Renee on the pier.
Gogo was loving the walk. It was her first big excursion since her surgery and I think she loved getting out of the house.
Gogo in the sun smiling at David
Just the walk to the river had done us in. The heat was really sweltering. We all hung out in the shade on the pier. Oz was having a hard time walking on parts of the street that were dark because the pavement was hurting his paws.
Here we are, exhausted from the heat.
We got back to the house and had a bit of a crash. Lorenz went upstairs to nap. Ian crashed on the New York Times chair.
We had the preach crisp, which was delicious. Ian woke up and had a bit of a begging episode with David. He was determined to have more peaches. You can see that he was quite good at charming some food out of David.
Gogo took a little nap from the safety of underneath the piano.
I like to say that Oz was bred to blend in with Ralph Lauren furniture.
That was the big baby invasion. We still had several days of Lorenz and Sis.
Oz seemed to appoint himself the babysitter. He never really got close enough to Lorenz to let anything happen. Near the end of the week, he would saunter up to Lorenz for an attempted lick, but most of the time he would park himself near Lorenz, but not close enough for Lorenz to touch him.
Lorenz and Oz in the Living Room
Gogo loved having Sis around. She slept with Sis almost every night that she was here. Whenever she could, Gogo would try to get some sympathy from Sis.
He was so seldom upset, that I felt that I had to capture a picture of him crying, just to prove that he does it. Here's a picture that you can show a future prom date:
Gogo and Oz keeping an eye on Lorenz from a respectful distance
Here's a nice series of Sis playing with Lorenz. I could pick a favorite photo, so I've included all of them.
