This is an actual request Roan made, in not so many words (“Mama fix arm. Broken.”). And it’s becoming a regular request, as a result of watching Toy Story (recall the scene where the space ranger, on the verge of an identity crisis, falls down a stairway, and – in witness to his plastic arm … Continue reading →

After spending hours and months surfing catalogs and the Web looking for a kitchen that wasn’t plastic and a company that hadn’t been caught red handed in lead paint, I thought I had finally found the most adorable, most affordable, most likely to be safe, most stylish little play kitchen on the market. After 3 … Continue reading →

This is Casey talking on the “phone” (a puzzle piece in the shape of a giraffe). This is Casey wearing a lego box on his head while sipping coffee (upon Roan’s insistance).

Well, we think the photo speaks for itself. This is what you call homemade summer jammies recycled from springtime jammies – complete (or incomplete we should say) with cut-off sleeves, and one cut-off leg (the zipper runs down the left leg, so we could only cut off the foot on that side). You know George … Continue reading →

He got in! For those of you not familiar with east coast metropolitan insanity, getting a child into pre-school around here is like trying to get a great apartment in New York City. In May, we did a round of tours, put him on several waiting lists, and crossed our fingers for fall 2008. So, … Continue reading →

Is war genetic?Here is our little Shiva – one minute loving Diego, the next minute, body slamming and threatening to throw him over the balcony. Albeit, he is 100% cotton, but this is not too far off from Roan’s usual impulse in his playgroups with other children. You know the phrase, “why don’t you go … Continue reading →

Roan recently got his first homemade haircut, a la barber Lavina. It is undoubtedly a bad haircut, but somehow we love it more than anything in the world. The professional barbers make him look too grown-up. So we just chopped a little here and there, to conserve his baby-ness.

Well, everyone should be. The Rev. W. Audry must have had a very stern father or grandfather – the kind that inspires fear and respect, like the great stag in Bambi (really, would it have killed him to extend Bambi just a little bit of warmth in passing, the tiniest hint of a smile at … Continue reading →

If you’re ever near western West Virginia, you must stop at a Tudor’s Biscuit World. We’re generally the last people to order a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich at a drive-through at a chain franchise, however small or local. But trust us, you won’t be sorry! There’s a good reason West Virginians want a Tudor’s … Continue reading →

Last weekend we squeezed into our tiny Toyota Tercel (’95 and still going strong!) and headed to the hills of WV to celebrate Casey’s sister Molly’s graduation from nursing school, Molly’s daughter Lindsey’s college graduation, and Molly & Chuck’s wedding. It was a great O’Brien family get-together, including Roan’s Grandma Becky (below) and all of … Continue reading →

Here’s a photo from a couple weeks ago, when we celebrated Roan’s and Lavina’s birthdays.Little Chipmunk, Eating his 2nd Year Birthday CakeAlready so civilized. Compare to last year… One Year Birthday CakeOhhh yeeaahh, red velvet!Check out the video of Roan’s first cake!

Or in this case – Ikea Chair Potatoe (this is Roan’s chair). Sometime in the last few months, Roan entered into a love affair with TV. Well, not TV, as we don’t have cable anymore, but he is more than satisfied by the dozen DVDs we have. And I mean more than satisfied – it’s … Continue reading →

I wonder if all parents look ahead at times to those developmental milestones of a more dreaded nature and through some sort of built-in denial/wishful thinking mechanism, cross their fingers and effectively convince themselves that by some stroke of karmic luck or genius parenting their child will be different and spare his parents a bit … Continue reading →

This is a beautiful thing indeed, after an incredibly difficult adjustment period, trying to get Roan to sleep in our new apt. For the first few weeks, he screamed bloody murder and was inconsolable before every nap and bedtime (we were so afraid one of the neighbors would call the cops!). We couldn’t leave him … Continue reading →

Roan’s new room is at least twice the size of his last room. He loves it. It’s bright and sunny. He can sit in the window sill and look at trees and squirrels out the window.

Here’s Roan in our living room, tucked in the corner of the couch in his jammies watching Thomas the Tank Engine. As far as apartments go, we love it. But it’s been an adjustment, for sure, after living in a single family home. For example, you don’t realize how LOUD your toddler is, until you’ve … Continue reading →

Please visit/bookmark this new URL for 2 Years old and on:http://roanvobrien.blogspot.com/

Two Years Old at Sherwood Gardens As usual, we’re about 5 months behind on the blog. But selling a house and moving with a toddler is a good excuse, right? Anyway, check out our little guy now – not so little anymore! Here he is at Sherwood Gardens, a now ritual springtime visit, as he … Continue reading →

19 months, actually. Let’s see, what’s new…he’s really into Legos, chalkboards, and Thomas & Friends (trains). He’s still crazy about trucks, emergency vehicles, balls, books, animals, and music. He’s actually a great dancer and plays a mean air guitar. He is very tall (comparable to a 3 yr old), and has quite a few teeth … Continue reading →

On the subject of nutritional protocol, yes, Roan has been allowed to sample all the big bad big people foods that Lavina, at one time in her new-mother-purity-craze, thought might be put off until his 21st birthday. On occasion, he enjoys eating the top off of a piece of pizza or shoving a handful of … Continue reading →

If any of you saw last year’s video of Roan trying to tear his handmade hat off his head, you’ll be surprised to know he actually wears his hats with pride this winter. Sadly for Mama, since taking this photo, his first homemade hat lovingly knit by Ma (seen here) has been retired to the … Continue reading →

Here’s our Autumn Tree going house to house with Da for the first time. Lavina made his costume, which got more mileage than we expected (ZooBoo, Red Canoe parade, and trick or treating in Rogers Forge), considering his immediate aim was to rip off every piece as soon as we got it on. Once he … Continue reading →

Like two guys from the wild west.

Just look at the skill, the concentration, the determination in this child’s actions, and with no help from Mama (in fact he screamed when Mama tried to help)! What amazed all of us was how he jumped right in and seemed to know exactly what to do, as though he were a professional sports fisherman … Continue reading →

What is better than getting to pick a duck from a large plastic brood floating in water, each with a mystery prize number on their undersides?? This has got to rank in Lavina’s top 10 most fun childhood things to do, thanks to many Italian feasts with Uncle Dan, Aunt Vickie, cousin Michelle, and sister … Continue reading →

Roan LOVES trucks. He happens to be very manly, without any influence on our part.

Roan rode his very first roller coaster – the Caterpillar – at the 2007 Maryland State Fair! Lavina tried to put Roan on her lap, as she saw another mom do with her toddler, but Roan insisted on sitting in his own place like a big boy. Lavina LOVES roller coasters, so it was an … Continue reading →

Roan loves to “help” in the kitchen. Until we bought this Learning Tower (which you see him standing in), he would scream, whine, and throw himself against our legs until we picked him up to see what we were doing at the kitchen counter level. He insists on smelling and grinding coffee beans, unloading the … Continue reading →

As is common among babies, Roan’s nose use to be a no man’s land – whenever we tried to clear his nasal passaes, he’d scream and fuss as though we were killing him. Colds were difficult mostly because of the dreaded booger removal process (his irate and uncooperative behavior later transferred to the diaper changing … Continue reading →

See the video!Our friends Jen and Ian kindly allowed Nala to have a slumber party at our house. This was a good reality check for us, as we were entertaining the idea of getting a dog. While it was great to see them playing like siblings, we’re just not ready for that much poop in … Continue reading →

Here he is at our favorite Linkwood Park on Cold Spring Lane.

Do we need to say anything more?! We don’t know what’s cuter – him or the waffles.

It was “Pirate Week” at the Children of the World International Playgroup.

Here’s Roan wearing his first pair of walking gym shoes. He’s sitting on our porch, playing with a bottle of bubbles.

This kid LOVES his watermelon, just like his mama. These days, he eats just about everything we do, even though he only has 6 teeth. He likes egg rolls (new discovery), chicken, blueberries, raisin toast, and peanut butter crackers. He has never gotten sick of plain yogurt, avocado, cheese, or cheerios. He’s not too crazy … Continue reading →

Roan was incredibly mellow, cooperative, and stoic about the whole process, as though he got his hair cut every day. We took him to Cartoon Cuts, in the mall, where they have booster seats and a television at every station. They gave us a certificate for his first haircut, with clippings for his baby book.

This was taken moments before Roan’s first haircut.

Here’s our little drummer boy at his Dada’s drum set in the basement. He is actually really good, for a baby. He saw Casey perform with the “Old Man Band” recently, and he kept running toward the stage, shrieking, because he wanted to play the drums so bad.

Here’s Roan doing “downward facing dog” (yoga) inside the pots and pans cabinet.

Roan took his first bona fide “walk” (about a dozen steps) toward Amma at 13 Months. Here he is wearing his first pair of sandals.

Roan tries out his kiddie pool for the first time in our back yard. He’s wearing his first swimming trunks, a gift from Aunt Michelle, Uncle Eric, and Cousin Daniel in Florida.

This was taken on the way to Annapolis, during a visit from Grandma Becky on Mother’s Day weekend in May. Roan got to ride on a boat for the first time, through the Annapolis harbor, thanks to Grandma Becky.

We love this photo of Roan and his Grandma Alphie, taking by our azalea bushes on the side of the house. Amma takes care of Roan every Tuesday, as well as many more times here and there during the rest of the week.

Roan’s 1 yr birthday felt like such a milestone for all of us. We did it! We survived the first year!

This photo was taken at the top of the Giant City water tower in Southern Illinois, in April. Alphie, Casey, and Lavina traveled with Roan by car for 2 days to visit the Velasco’s. It was a great trip. Roan did surprisingly well. On the way there and back, we got to spend a night … Continue reading →

Lavina started working part-time in March, and we haven’t made a posting since. Going back through 4 months of photos is a bit overwhelming, so we decided to pick a few of the silliest, funniest, or cutest shots of Roan that were taken between March and July, to catch people up just a little bit. … Continue reading →

At 9 months, Roan weighs 22 lbs and is 30 inches long (very tall). He is a squirmy wormy giggly baby on the go. He is really a lot of fun. He dances, he’s learning sign language, and he’s still very much in love with books. He watches “Little Einsteins” and “Handy Manny.” He is … Continue reading →

Why, you ask, was this photo chosen, instead of a pic where you can see his new pearls? When his teeth first started to come in, they felt so strange to Roan that he kept feeling them with his tongue. For several days, he rolled around with his tongue hanging out. Since then, we’ve just … Continue reading →

Happy New Year everyone!We spent the better part of New Year’s Eve installing baby gates near the stairs. Grandma Alphie then babysat so we could go out to dinner and a movie. We saw “The Holiday,” which ended with a new year’s party, strangely enough. Yes, we were 2 of 6 people in a desolate … Continue reading →

We just had to share this photo because we thought it was sweet, and fitting, as we look back on all we have to be grateful for in 2006, namely, our healthy little boy. Doesn’t Roan look like a little old man from behind? Here he is, looking out our dining room doors into our … Continue reading →

After Roan went to bed on Christmas Eve, we had a traditional O’Brien “dump dinner” (shrimp, sausage, corn cobs, and snap peas served on newspaper), we played a game of “pig” (a really fun dice game we learned from our Uncle Albie and Shirley), and then we piled all the presents in the middle of … Continue reading →

Grandma Alphie bought Roan a Santa suit, which he debuted on Christmas morning.

Roan tried climbing the stairs after seeing his older friend Ned (11 Mos) climb the stairs at our house. We weren’t ready for this! Thankfully, he hasn’t tried it again since, giving us more time to babyproof.

Look at those apple cheeks!!

Our good friend Lauren Goodsmith came to our house to shoot portraits in our living room. It was quite a challenge getting us all dressed up, trying to keep Roan’s shoes on, coaxing him to look at the camera, and keeping him enterained, fed, and happy throughout the process. However, it was also fun, and … Continue reading →

We predicted that Roan would freak out meeting Santa because he’s starting to develop some stranger anxiety. However, to our surprise, he calmly got aquainted and spent a few moments studying Santa.

Time is flying! We can hardly keep up with the blog and web site. One word comes to mind to describe Roan at 8 months: SPITFIRE!

It is amazing to see a little baby expressing himself through movement in new ways. If he wants to be closer to you, he’ll climb up into your lap, climp up your legs, or use the couch to stand next to you, as he is doing right now to me, to keep me from using … Continue reading →

Roan loves cold, plain yogurt, which he had for the first time when he turned 7 months old. Other favorites are sweet potatoes and oatmeal. He has gotten over his aversion to fruit. He is not too crazy about any green vegetable. Roan is crazy about books, especially small cardboard books made for infants. He … Continue reading →

Little RoRo got so wiped out on his hike in the Patapsco State Park that he fell asleep on Papa’s chest for an hour.

Poor little Roan had his first really bad cold, which lasted for more than 2 weeks. Boogers galore!

Cockadoodle doo! Roan’s first Halloween was a lot of fun. We had a good turnout for our Baby Halloween party on Sunday, including a baby chili pepper, octopus, dragon, pumpkin, mermaid, mouse, bumblebee, and ballerina. It was hilarious seeing Roan dressed up. See more photos at our Web site!

On October 16th, Roan celebrated his 6 Month Birthday! He is 21 pounds, 30 inches, and full of personality. Visit the Velasco O’Brien Web site for more photos and updates.

Every year, we go to an apple orchard and pumpkin patch in October. The past couple years, we’ve gone to Weber’s Farm, just outside Baltimore City. This year was a blast with Roan. Similar to his first swinging experience, he was very blase about everything. We put him on a baby tractor and he might … Continue reading →

Although Roan doesn’t look like he’s having the time of his life in this photo, he does enjoy swinging, especially at the YMCA playground. The first time he got in the swing, he was among half a dozen babies all swinging in a row. He waxed nonchalant, resting his arms back (like so, as though … Continue reading →

We first introduced Roan to veggies by giving him 2oz of fresh squeezed carrot juice, which he loved. He was so ready and excited to eat solids that he screamed and cried in-between spoonfuls because we weren’t feeding him fast enough. He also grabbed desperately for the spoon, wanting to feed himself. He has since … Continue reading →

Hello Family and Friends,We are experimenting with blogging while we try to determine the best way to keep everyone updated on Roan’s lightning speed developments. Stay tuned…Mama Lavina and Papa Casey