toof numba two

Henry is now sporting two teeth!  Hooray--after months and months of saying "oooh any day now a tooth should pop through" he's finally gettin' some, and I think they are all going to come at once.  He's got the bottom two, and now it looks like the ones on top are ready, they're giving him quite a bit of grief anyway...but you never do know for sure...we may just end up saying the same thing again for a few months!  AND I got a picture of the little chompers, I even zoooooooomed in...just in case you missed them, but if you want to get a really good look, i suggest clicking on the pic and magnifying it to get the full super toothy experience ;)

crawl-giggle-snort

  we went to philip this weekend to cousin chancie's wedding and had a wonderful time!  henry is such a romantic-he sat on mommy's lap and just took in the whole ceremony without a peep-he was really into it :)  he also got to hang out and play with grampa and gran olivier and his aunties!  they even drove back with him most of the way and entertained him so mommy and daddy could have a little break....we are thinking that we will just have to have aunties with us from now on when we travel!
  sooo...i was a bad documenter this weekend and didn't really get any good photos! i don't know what i was doing...so as soon as gran molly gets hers up from the weekend, i'll probably steal some and post them on here!
 i do, however, have this cute little video snippet of henry crawling after his daddy and laughing. he chases after us all over now and he's been crawling away on all fours.  if he wants to go somewhere, he certainly gets there--a few days ago he even crawled up on top of a box we had sitting in the living room!

okay, soooooooo I lied. I do have a cute video, but it won't upload and i've been trying for a couple days now and have decided to give up and just throw this cute picture up instead.  Probably not quite the same level of cuteness, but i suppose its adequate...for now.

finally!

A tooth!! So much for Henry sleeping through the night, because now we have some serious teething going on! Some pearly white finally popped through yesterday---and henry finds it very intriguing.  He sticks his tongue out constantly now and feels his tooth with it--its so funny to watch.  I tried to get a pic of it but it was, well, difficult with that tongue in the way.  

ps-turns out that what i thought was an allergic reaction to milk, was a flu bug :( Henry has had the flu for the past few days, but seems to be doing better now, we had some formula today and were able to keep it down-yay!  Maybe tomorrow we will be back to eating some solids and we can try out that new tooth!

sleepsitting

just so you know, after i finally had things cleaned up the other night, henry puked all over his highchair, and then the rocking chair, so then we had to take both of them apart and clean them as well.....anyway, I won't dwell on the particulars of all that because I have probably already inundated henry's readers with enough details concerning his bodily functions.  (he is allergic to dairy, we discovered a couple months ago, and i bought him some new crackers to try....thinking that crackers wouldn't have milk in them, i didn't scrutinize the label like everything else i buy, and i fed them to my poor baby...who actually really enjoyed them sans side effects.....he must really be allergic to milk to be that sick after eating crackers that "may have traces of milk" in them :(

so, like I said, you can breathe a sigh of relief because this post will not be about vomit.  its about sleeping.

two nights ago, since henry's crib and room was in complete disarray (it was clean, just a mess yet), he slept in his pack-n-play in our bedroom with us.  And, Henry actually slept through the night!!!!--second time that week!  However, I couldn't sleep that well (could it be because I am so used to getting up several times a night...or worried he would throw up more?).  So while I was up I was watching the interesting things that go on with Henry while he sleeps.  This little boy is very active in his sleep. Not only does he toss and turn quite a bit, which I already knew he did, but he sits upright in his sleep!  When I heard some rustling, I peeked over the pack-n-play's edge to see him sitting with his eyes half shut.  I thought great, now he's awake and I'm going to have to put him back to sleep.  He grunted a few times, and then all was quiet.  I peeked again, and he had tipped forward, and, very very awkwardly, fallen back asleep.  When I knew by his breathing that he was really sound asleep, I helped him out a little by readjusting him and covering him back up with the blankie.  We did this several times throughout the night.  So Henry is a sleepsitter?

Because I am a compulsive googler....I googled it.  And found an interesting article that explains that sometimes babies will try to practice their new skills (sitting up, standing, etc.) while they are sleeping because they are so excited about them...really?

Henry's problem is, in all his excitement to sleepsit and whatever else he does, he gets stuck and wakes himself up several times a night.  So we are working on making sure he knows how to get unstuck during the day.  We make a game out of figuring out how to lay back down once we are sitting and standing.  That, and, we got rid of the blanket and wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts to bed to keep cozy since blankie doesn't last long, and he gets twisted up in it.  Combine all of this with two regular naps a day and we are beginning to sleep through the night!!!!!   Hooray!  It took us awhile to get there, but I think that we are finally on to something.  Now....we'll just see what happens when he starts walking....    

the craptermath (hey, I have plenty more poo puns where this came from after a day like today)

after one solid hour (this does not include the amount of time everything spent in the actual washer and dryer by the by) with:
an entire roll of paper towels
two rubber gloves
one can of clorox disinfectant wipes
one jug of greenworks all natural cleaner
one spritzer of oxy stain remover
two scented candles
one fan
some serious elbow grease
and all the hot water our small apartment complex could afford (sorry everyone, cold showers tonight)

I was able to clean........the crib.


Came very close to calling FEMA.

But I survived.



Dear Loving Husband,

   Do not forget this when Mother's Day rolls around. Okay?

                    Love,
                       your wife and super mom/woman etc.etc.

holy sh!t

    pardon my, what do people say? french? but you will see why this post deserves such a title.  today, I am surprised that the world did not come to an end, because we certainly experienced a poo of apocalyptic proportions when we awoke.  we opened the door to henry's nursery this morning, and our rejoicing in the fact that i only had to wake up once last night to get him back to sleep was swiftly stifled by an all too familiar smell-poopy.  but this was no typical crap, because henry had decided, at some point during the night/early morning...who really knows-- to finger paint with it.  all over his crib.  it was ground into the bedsheets, in his hair, between his toes, all over the rail of the crib where he likes to stand up, on his white bumper pads, and drumroll please, his mouth!  so he must have sampled some too, and believe me, this stuff looked nothing like chocolate. at least i know my gag reflex still works-seriously. so guess what mommy will be doing today during henry's naptime? no, she won't be trying to take a shower or fix herself something to eat. she'll be pulling on some elbow-length rubber gloves and getting serious about some poo.  it's okay, she's not hungry anymore anyway.
    I called my mother, worried that it would have been bad for him to eat his own poo (I was picturing him in the hospital with a stomach pump/charcoal/the whole works, because that's what i do best) and he really didn't drink as much of his bottle as he usually does, so who knows, maybe his stomach was already full? of poo? (okay i might be stretching this a bit, it could not have tasted any good...but then again, henry is a different kind of guy).  So anyway, back to mom, she told me not to worry about it, and I respect her opinion as a health professional so.....i'm going to go ahead and...pretend not to worry about it :)
   austin called in late to work, because he stuck around to help me hose henry down and wrestle him into some clothes.  henry wasn't too happy about the very serious bathtime we had in which i got into eeeevery little nook and cranny with some rigorous scrubbing.  when his boss asked austin why he was running late he simply explained--my son pooped everywhere--without batting an eye.  then he ventured back into the warzone to retrieve henry's outfit for the day and picked out a onesie that reads "i love my mommy" he handed it over to me with a big cheesy grin on his face.  as if i need to be reminded.




there will not be photos to accompany this post.  you're welcome.

the wave and other recent developments

hooray-eight months today! the above picture is of henry at a wedding, they had a photobooth set up where people could write a message on a chalkboard and pose and this is henry's shot :)  I find it enjoyable--did you see those dimples?  so, in the spirit of the 8 month mark I thought I should write up a little update on what henry is up to these days development-wise.  he just had the last of his vaccinations until he turns one year old, so no more booboos for a little while.  they also weighed him and he's almost 19 pounds...I think he's already working on converting his cute chubalub into some serious muscle with his current calisthenic schedule.  he doesn't even have to grunt to pull himself up in his crib, or on the couch, or anything else that looks like it could be scaled.  everyday he crawls with his tummy off of the floor more and more.  he has also started waving (we don't wave goodbye by the way, we wave hello) haha.  except he turns his palm to his face so that he's really waving to himself-hehe  his hands just fascinate him!  he's starting to utilize a pincer grasp to pick things up and sometimes he'll pass things from hand to hand.  this really comes in handy when he picks up some finger food to sample!   I can't believe he's that big--its so odd to watch him sit in his highchair and chew on something!  We're working on different food textures, adding some mushy rice to veggies, mashed carrots, mashed bananas, etc.  Its pretty messy, but fun to watch him explore...and see him make the occasional goofy face when he tastes something different :)  he says mama, dada, and every now and then he'll say baba for a bottle.  he likes to explore and gets bored of his toys pretty quick, and we're also finding out that he is fairly strong-willed when it comes to getting what he wants....he loves dogs, but hasn't quite figured out that they aren't just stuffed animals that he can do whatever he wants with.  he's been visiting his grampa d to cheer him up and kiss his booboo...well, blow a kiss anyway.  and he thinks that playing with grampa's crutches is way more fun than playing with his other boring toys.  grampa couldn't have picked better time to hurt his leg, this way he and henry can learn to walk together!

my blue-eyed boy

the waterbaby

henry looooves water and loves to hang out at pools and swim!  here are some pics of him playing in the water with mama and daddy :) some are from graettinger and some are from angostura

floating in the shade

daddy's such a goof

splashing around

A Rapid Visit (the place, not the speed) :)

oh I'm so funny right?  okay, we'll move along.  Henry had an awesome time in the Black Hills last week playing with his grandparents and uncle Conor, and auntie Faith (we had a surprise visit from her while we were out there!)  He spent several days at angostura lake, swam, rode in the boat with grampa Kel, watched daddy do some lake surfing, we visited storybook island, went for stroller rides with gramma Deb, played with Sadie the dog, assisted in taking a few of uncle Conor's seniors portraits (if you would like to see how those turned out visit (www.shutterpoets.blogpsot.com), let's see...I hope I'm not forgetting anything.  It was a blast!

riding Eeyore at storybook island (it rained shortly after....coincidence?)

Dr. Seuss's cat in the hat read us a story!

chillin' on the beach...henry wrote his name in the sand because he's super intelligent like that

and then lounged in his little lawn chair

driving the boat with grampa

auntie Faith surprised us with a visit and held on to Henry in the boat so that mommy could take pictures of daddy...

doing this!

the wave and other recent developments

diggin' in the dirt

while we were at angostura lake, henry built a sand castle!  (mommy may have helped just a little)  maybe we have a future architect....or demolition man.  I think he had more fun destroying the castle than anything, and once he got a handful of sand, that fist was not going to open-he held on tight to every bit of grit he could gather!--thank goodness he had a bink in his mouth or he would have packed his cheeks with it too!  I can't believe I let him do this, but then again, boys need to get dirty sooner or later :) 

haha--he was having so much fun that he didn't even mind that his diaper was full of sand!  we took an extra long bath that day :)