Nice way to spend an evening

Last night, we had the pleasure of hosting dinner for our good friends Rob, Kelley, Romi and Marilyn. Three out of the four live in Arizona, and one lives down the street a couple miles. (Hello, Neighbor Marilyn!)

It was so much fun. We hadn't seen the Gludts for six months, which may not sound like very long, but was actually half of Romi's lifetime ago. So Mark and I were thrilled to squeeze the baby and laugh with his parents and Grandma.

Mark kept Romi suitably entertained while we made dinner. Romi liked Mark, but he liked the T.V. remote control that lights up even better. He spent most of the night gnawing on or chasing it down.

Since the weather was nice, we schlepped all the food outside to enjoy. (I only use words like schlep when Kelley's around.) We made a veritable feast of pasta, fruit, salad and garlic toast. Romi seemed to like the pasta sauce -- unfortunately, he liked to wear it more as much as he liked to eat it.

Romi was not only a good guest, he was a good audience as well. I raised my hands in the air and did a little "Ooh ooh!" club call at one point, and he laughed his cute little head off. And then implored me to repeat the "Oooh ooh!" for the rest of dinner. Which usually I wouldn't do, but how can you resist this little face, which cracked up anew each time I did it? I certainly couldn't resist him -- the force is strong with this one.

Marilyn laughed at one point during dinner, remarking that she never thought she'd be having dinner with this crowd.

"You mean Rob, Kelley, me and our KIDS?" I asked, and she laughed and said, "EXACTLY!" We all agreed she was right -- for a long time, it seemed like the only kids in our group would be Brunk kids.

And speaking of kids, we had a monopoly on the cutest ones. Not only did we have have Happy Romi, we also had Silly Mark.

After dinner, it was time to wash off all the boys. Mark and Rob headed toward the jacuzzi, and Romi won himself a free bath. He chose this moment to show us how well he could stand, but Kelley wisely nipped that trick in the bud. (Slippery bath + unstable standing baby = DANGER!)

Sadly, the Gludts eventually did leave. I was sad to see them go, but not that sad, as I will see them again tonight -- for the third night in a row! Talk about a fun week...