Hello baby.
© 2013.
Everybody, meet Layla. She’s the five-month-old daughter of my brother Matt and his wife Emily, and as the first member of my family’s newest generation, she’s a big deal.
© 2013. Matt, Emily and Layla in my family’s Houston backyard.
Jeff and I flew down to Houston last weekend for Chinese New Year, and Matt and Emily brought the baby for everyone to meet.
© 2013. My grandma greets Layla, held by Matt, during dim sum on Chinese New Year’s Eve.
© 2013. My uncle Doug – who declares himself to be not a “great-uncle,” but rather a “great uncle” – holds Layla, who is apparently laughing at/with my uncle Dave (whom Doug says is a “grand uncle.”)
© 2013. Wherein Matt offers a fish eyeball (held between the chopsticks) to Layla. Needless to say, Emily would not allow him to actually feed it to her, so he happily ate it instead. Eating fish eyeballs is, um, a fairly male Dunn thing.
In case you were wondering — yes, I have a lot of photos from the five days we spent in Houston. Like I’ve said, Layla is kind of a big deal. Plus, this is the first, last and only time I’ll have had with her as a baby. Because an ocean separates Matt’s family from me, the next time I see Layla, she’ll be crawling if not walking, probably talking and definitely showing more personality.
So yes, I made a lot of pictures, and this post reflects a few of my favorite moments from our trip.
© 2013. Asleep in the dining room.
© 2013. Matt plays the piano for his attentive daughter. Also, Matt rarely wears a shirt when he doesn’t have to. There will be more “shirtless Matt” photos coming up.
© 2013. Attempting naptime. This is my childhood bedroom, although the playpen was a new addition for the duration of our trip.
© 2013. Playtime with Jeff.
© 2013. Cranky baby gets kisses in the kitchen. Those picture frame magnets to the right contain my brothers’ and my old school pictures from 1997 or 1998.
© 2013. Bath time! Matt scrubs Layla’s little toes.
© 2013. Tolerating her sink time. This is the same bathroom where our mom gave us baths, although she used a plastic tub and not the sink.
© 2013. Proud daddy holds up clean baby to the mirror. (Proud daddy is merely shirtless, again, folks.)
© 2013. This is the same changing table our mom used for us. That Christmas family photo directly above is probably from 1992.
© 2013. Layla got a little fussy during our last dinner in Houston, so Emily took her to the window to show her the pretty lights outside.
© 2013. Early-morning cuddle time with Matt in the living room.
And in case you didn’t think that was enough photos of Layla — well, here’re some more.
Words and Light 
Ohhhhh myyyyyy goodnessss! She is just the cutest little thing! And she already has so much personality! Happy you got to spend time with her!
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