what i am

things have been less than stellar lately.  henry has had ongoing ear infections for about six weeks, and now he has a cold on top of it.  and a big swollen purple gum from a tooth that's coming through.  and his fingernails are falling off...(why? we're guessing its from the icky eczema episode).... i know i know, it could be worse, he could have something really serious.  but this is kinda no fun. even though he looks pretty pitiful he still manages to play with his toys and take a bottle, even though he won't eat any food.  and i don't know where he gets the energy because he hasn't been sleeping very well at night.  he has an appt. with dr. todd on monday (the specialist that did his surgery) and hopefully we'll get things figured out.  i have a feeling that he will probably have to get tubes, which, i guess, is okay with me if it will make him feel better.  (which may result in us getting some sleep at night :) )  

since this post has kind of been a downer, i decided i should embed a little video that henry really likes.  he has started doing a little boppy bouncey dance to some kinds of music that he likes.  one of his faves is the song shout.  my dad got one of those get well cards that plays music when you open them and it plays this song.  he gets really excited when he opens up the card and he'll start to jump up and down--its pretty cute :)  another favorite is "what i am" by will.i.am of the black eyed peas.  i know, this seems odd, but they did a remake of the song for sesame street and he really loves this version.  we play it for him a few times a day.  sometimes just for fun.....and sometimes to distract him while we try to give him some medicine. or ear drops. or baby orajel.    :)  soooooooooooooooo enjoy!  be warned--its pretty catchy so good luck getting it out of your head once you've listened to it!  austin and i are addicted now, and have tried to download it from itunes with no luck  

everyone needs a little self-affirmation every now and then :)

one small step for henry...

so i really wanted to get some footage of henry because we don't get videos of him up as often as we should....and you will quickly see why. henry wants to be the one holding the camera, not the other way around. as soon as he sees someone with it, he will drop whatever it is he's doing to get his little hands on it. the following video is a hodge podge of him walking with his dragon wagon....for about two seconds before he sees the camera, and then we got creative and dad hid so that we could get a few minutes of him playing his "be so big" game. henry can stand for longer periods at random times when he's just hanging out doing what henry does, but when we try to get him to stand on his own on purpose, he likes to lean forward or backward because we catch him quick and he thinks that's funny. ah well, at least you get to see him stand for a little bit.

What's super awesome about all this though, is that he surprised us and took two weeee little steps for the first time while we were taping him! Now that never happens! lucky us! and lucky you--because now you get to watch it too :)

p.s. this past week, since i have been working diligently on this post and trying to figure out how to get the video to work (thanks lindsay!) henry has started taking one or two steps on his own. if he's in between furniture he will try to walk from one spot to the next--like from the couch to the coffee table--which is super exciting!....for us! ;)

treehugger

henry liked this tree and licked this tree. that's right. he liked this tree so much he licked it.

what a stinker :)

 

 

that's all :)

bananaberrynose

sooo, i am working on uploading some seriously awesome video footage from last weekend.....i can't get it to work though...again.  so whilst i try to figure out the issue i thought i'd share:

1)  that henry has his third ear infection within less than two months.  i guess he has super uper tiny ear canals and this is what is creating the problem.  so, remember in the last post when i said somethin like, woohoo henry is sleeping though the night now? yeah. scratch that.  at least, however, he doesn't have a sore throat and thrush and a horrible eczema outbreak on top of it all like he did the last time.  he was taking so much medicine that I had to tie on my super-mom cape and make a little organized schedule that was color-coded and everything because some had multiple doses throughout the day, and some of the dosage amounts changed from day to day etc.  yep, and that is why i never blogged about that particular epsode until now--things were a little too crazy.  anyway, he's trying some new boo boo juice (medicine) and we'll see what happens.  hopefully it will ease the irritablity enough so that he will quit scratching at his head and leave his newly sprouting hair alone! (yes he is finally getting hair! and it's cute and curly too!)  my poor baby bar-ba-loot.

and 2) on wednesday of this week i was in such a whirl of scurry hurry because henry slept super long (because he didn't sleep at night of course) and so we were late getting to daycare, thus cutting into my thesis work time at the library.  after dropping henry off, running a few errands, and buying my chai at the coffee shop, i settled down to do some writing. then i went for a potty break, and as i was washing my hands i looked up in the bathroom mirror to see a nice bright purple splotch (we're talking dime-sized here) of gerber's banana berry puree.  nice.  i had no idea how henry's lunch landed on my nose, but there it was.  thank you, general public, for letting me walk around like a looney tune. zipadeedoodah.

and, since i don't have a photo of henry this time around, i thought i would supply the next best thing, some brown bar-ba-loots eating truffula fruits. tada :)

double digits?!

henry is 10 months old today. geeeeeeez.  okay, so i suppose this means its time to do the 'ol update on his latest and greatest achievements:  (drumroll perhaps?) its a longola one. you might want to grab some tea or something.

I think that he weighs about 23 lbs right now and he's getting pretty tall...although i don't know how long for sure...he's grown at least an inch i know though :) because his head is a lot higher up when he stands next to the coffee table now-and we don't need to worry about him hitting his chin on it anymore when he does his little hippy skippy bouncey dance.  he also has FOUR teeth and is currently working on his fifth.  You can easily see them in photos now :)  he looks so cute with the little gap between those top two teeth-hehe 

We haven't really been trying a lot of different food lately because henry has been having some skin issues and we don't want him to have a bad eczema outbreak again.  (he had one a couple weeks ago and it was pretty bad--blisters and everything, the poor guy even lost a toenail for crying out loud--mom almost went a little looney over this one)  So we have been watching what we eat, and I think we'll probably take him to get tested for allergies in a couple of weeks.  He is already allergic to milk...but we have a feeling there must be something else going on too.  I'm worried that henry is going to be that kid that's allergic to everything!

      Which will send me down another tangent.  I am currently researching cake recipes that are dairy, egg, and gluten free.  I think I found a pretty good one, but if any of you cook for folks with allergies and have an awesome recipe let me know!  I am trying to find one for henry's birthday cake....i know i know, its a little ways away yet, but i like to plan ahead....otherwise i just don't get things done...plus i would like to sample it beforehand because i want him to enjoy his first cake and have it actually taste good! 

AND now back on track with henry and his super powers.  he has been standing up for short periods on his own.  he's so funny-he thinks it's a game.  He will just stand there and laugh and laugh.  He has also been mimicking us too.  He likes to click his tongue and shake his head!  If you lean to one side he will sometimes mirror you and lean that way too.  He's super nosey and needs to know what is going on at all times--especially if someone is doing something in the kitchen, he must watch whatever is happening.    He has become a huuuge fan of elmo and we watch elmo for a few minutes almost everyday when sesame street is on.  he loves to ride the four-wheeler with grandpa outside and gets excited every time he sees it (says ooohooh and does his little bouncey up and down thing).  he's been really getting into books lately and likes to be read to.  dr. seuss's abc book is his favorite.  its the oooonly time he will sit still.  henry does find his binks to be very comforting and i know that we will one day have to start to get away from them, but he is....ready for this one?.....sleeping through the night now!!!!!!! woooohoooo, thanks to those binks! And mom and dad are just fine with that :)  also, henry has become a big fan of mom lately and needs to be within close proximity of her at all times...which is kind of flattering, but kind of difficult sometimes, and sometime even heartbreaking--this last week when i dropped him off at daycare he started crying mamamama and doing that little chin quiver thing...argh.  that hurts.  BUT we make up for it when i go to pick him up and he's all grins to see me :)  

The typical henry day?  He usually wakes up around 7 in the morning, has breakfast and plays, takes a nap around 9 or 10, then we have lotion time with mommy (we are trying our darndest to keep his skin from breaking out again), then lunch, play outside (if its wednesday or thursday we go to daycare from 1-5 while mom works on her thesis and teaches dance classes) take an afternoon nap around 2 or 3 get up and play some more, then we have supper, bath, another lotion session and brush our teeth, then off to bed by 8 or 9! aaaaaaahhhhh what a sweet life henry has!  It's nice to have a bit of a routine now.  Okay, okay, i know, information overload, i'm all done now. whew.  told you it was long though-how was the tea?  

Now for the best part!  Pictures of Henry playing outside and being a big ten month old :) 

gosh i love this little boy :)

 

henry's first fall!

I loooooove fall.  Pretty sure Austin might be getting sick of me saying oooh that's pretty, oooh that's pretty, every five minutes as I stare out the car window on our trips but.......ooooh its just so pretty outside right now!!!!  This last weekend we went on a little trip to visit grandma deb and john by gray eagle, mn.  It was gorgeous outside, and we had a lot of fun in the great outdoors with henry.....and so, of course, mama got a little camera happy.  AND I fixed the blog so that I can post big pics--woohoo!  So here we are!  Henry taking his "dragon wagon" out for a stroll on the lawn by the lake.  As you can see from his expression, pushing his dinosoaur around is pretty serious business, and he does not like it when you try to help him.  He is a very big boy. 

crawling on the lawn

 flower so pitty.

 Henry swinging for the first time!  He loved it!  As long as he was in motion that is :)  It almost even put him to sleep one morning

 grandma deb giving h a push

Okay, so brace yourself.  This next set of photos is like, super cute.  I mean, seriously, it could result in a cuteness overload.....it could

because who doesn't love kitties!!!!

 Henry does!!

 see.  I told you.  that was super cute wasn't it?  You might need to take a little break now huh.

 Then we visited the pumpkin patch of course!  It was Henry's and my first time at one!

 I love this right here.

Then we carved our amazing finds!  We've got a clown, h for henry of course, an owl, and a haunted mansion....goooooo us!  We're awesome.

 H playing with his h   :)

 The last day there, henry made sure that we woke up in plenty of time to see the sunrise on (big?) birch lake so that I could take these photos.  thanks henry.

 Hooray for pumpkins, pretty leaves, cooler weather, kittens, swings, and sweet baby boys :)

henry's first fall

kaydyn and "nenry"

first of all, why does the blog look weird?  I am trying to change some things so that I can make the photos I post larger, because, well, its all about the photos anyway! especially in this post :) If you want to look through the archive, it's at the bottom now.  You may want to grab a cup of java for this one--its just a little long.  These are all pics of kaydyn and henry (or should i say "nenry" as she called him) playing during our visit to missouri.  They warmed up to each other pretty quick!  It was so much fun to watch them play together :)  I know.....bryson is missing from these, he had to spend quite a bit of time under a special light because of his jaundice, so photo op time was fairly limited, and he had his own post previous to this anyway....don't worry bryson I'll be after you when you come to see me next month :)    

here they are---cousins and fast friends :)

showing nenry the dogs outside

 making sure he doesn't fall over :)  

 hanging out at the diner

playing the jukebox 

 kaydyn feeding nenry ice cream (the safe plastic kind, no allergic reactions here :) )

 pushing nenry around in his stroller (no one was allowed to help with this...)

 tired after all that strollin'

 hanging out in the kitchen

 kaydyn, you got some fluffy stuff on your butt

 mmmmm, more plastic deliciousness

 geez nenry, its just a bouncer

 bath time!  

 hey....should we get our parents soaking wet?

yeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh! 

 woooohooooo

 that was fun

 time for a bottle break

 cousinly love + matching binks = super cute

henry had a great time playing with his cousin!!! we can't wait until we see them again :)  pretty soon, bryson will join in all the crazy fun too!