This past weekend Pappi (what Roman will call my Dad) came up to CT to see Roman and to fix our steps outside. Pappi came up on Saturday morning and we went to Tengda for lunch, then stopped by Home Depot for 400 lbs of concrete and other supplies, then got to work. Well, my dad got to work. I stood around and watched. We worked till it got dark then called it a night.

After grabbing some dinner from Cookhouse, Leona tried to have a short photo shoot using her new Nikon D90. Unfortunatley, the indoor light wasn't great, so it was tough to get great pictures of the 3 generations of gagliardi boys, but I think she did alright.

The next morning before getting back to work, Leona encouraged us to make use of the sunlight for another gagliardi boys photo shoot. This time we got better pics.

Afterwards, we mixed and poured the concrete, then went to famous Frank Pepe's for their famous New Haven style pizza.

After dinner and Roman's bath, Pappi got to spend a little more time with him. Roman didn't really show off his talking skills the last time we had visitors but he is always much better about it after his bath, so this time Pappi got to see a lot more "talking" from Roman.

A few weeks back we took Ma to JFK so she could return to China after taking care of Roman for the past couple months. It was sad parting ways, but we'll be back together in June, which will be here before we know it.

So now I'm taking my Paternity Leave and filling the role of Mr. Mom, and getting to spend all day with the little guy. Every morning, we start the day by walking Mommy to the car and waiving goodbye as she drives away. Then we go back inside and play around. Like Mommy, Roman seems to get bored easily. We're always moving from one activity to another until Roman falls asleep (for brief but frequent naps) . Activities range from walking around the house, to tummy time, to reading "Spot" (the dog) books, to dancing in front of the dresser mirror, to practicing talking.

There were a lot of little things that I had thought I'd finally have the time to get done during this leave. However, although Roman is an incredibly good and well-behaved baby, it's pretty incredible how fast the day slips away while we're playing around together.

The first day when it was just the two of us, we had pretty nice weather so we went to the beach for a walk. Although Roman was very talkative and happy on our short drive over there, by the time we parked, he was asleep. I still put him in the baby bjorn and started walking on the beach, hoping in vain he would wake up for at least part of the 30 minute walk. I've also dreamed of getting a "jogging" stoller so that I could go running with him, but didn't know of any good paths in our area. I heard that Cranbury park might have something, so another afternoon we went for a walk in Cranbury Park to check it out. while the paths wouldn't be sufficient for a jogging stroller, Roman really enjoyed sitting in the baby bjorn and enjoying nature.

Seeing how much he enjoyed sitting in the baby bjorn, I mused to Leona that it would be cool if I could use it while doing chores around the house. Leona said that she's heard of people on her Chinese message board (huaren) doing just that. So I gave it a shot on Thursday when gathering the garbage to take out. while the baby bjorn made it possible to get the job done, it wasn't easy. With a baby strapped to my torso, it was a big deal every time I had to lean over to pick something up. I also gave the baby bjorn a shot the next day when installing some new blinds, but gave it up when I realized it might not be the safest thing in the world to try to screw metal brackets into the wall above my head. He had fallen asleep anyway, so I just put him down to sleep.

As much fun as we have spending the days together, it seems that his favorite time of day is when Mommy comes home. He never smiles bigger than when he sees Leona's face after being away all day. Leona only has a few moments with him before she cooks dinner. But he is usually talkative and happy while we are eating dinner, and Leona enjoys playing with him or reading to him after dinner while daddy cleans up or cleans/sterilizes bottles.

It's going by pretty fast. I can't believe that I'm almost 30% the way through my 6 weeks of leave. Leona has started looking for a nanny, but we're going to step up the search as we get closer to the end of my leave. And Nai Nai (grandma Gagliardi) has agreed to help out if we can't find a nanny in time.

In other news, I'm on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1483601135&ref=name) now, so for anyone reading our blog feel free add me as your friend.