thanks!!!

we had an awesome thanksgiving here! my brother travis and his wife amber came to visit with their two little ones kaydyn (2) and bryson (2 months) for ten days. henry got to spend quite a bit of quality time with his cousins playing and learning how to walk. we had an early christmas because they will be moving to north carolina in december, and then we had a bunch of family (about 30 people) over for thanksgiving day! It was awesome :) Henry even had some sweet potatoes and turkey (the gerber kind-ha). he got to visit with his great grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and even more cousins.

I thought it might be fun to whip up a little list of the things that henry is thankful for at the moment:

• grandpas and grandmas
• his brand new ears!
• bananas
• anything that has wheels on it
• binks
• the dirt located in the potted plants around the house (mommy isn't thankful for this)
• baths
• playtime with cousins
• those little spring door stoppers that go boing when you pull them
• small, shiny metallic objects (especially those within reach of his tongue)
• dogs!
• elmo
• music (especially the kind coming from hallmark cards)
• AND mommy and daddy i'm sure :)

WE are so thankful for all of you! Family and Friends! Austin and I are incredibly blessed to be surrounded by people who are supportive, encouraging, and love our little boy (almost) as much as we do :) We are also grateful to have that happy, healthy, silly, and busy little boy :)



p.s. I will have pictures to follow soon---they won't download at the moment....

we hit a hundred

This is the 100th post! And what would be better than showing off a small video of henry walking! Yep! He's almost given up crawling! It happened so fast, one minute he was on his hands and knees and the next he's toddling around. He really got the hang of it within a week after his surgery--which is kinda funny because he started crawling within a week of his first surgery! I also think that having kaydyn around also really helped because he was always trying to chase her around. So does this mean that we don't have a baby anymore :( is he a toddler now? yikes.

Besides walking all over the house we are crazy busy--we had quite the thanksgiving-early christmas here with lots of family and now we are getting ready for more this weekend with henry's baptism and first birthday party! woohoo--i'm super excited....maybe borderline nerdy excited....

SOOO here is henry doing what he likes to do best!!

(and yes, that is the proclaimers singing 500 miles in the background. did i plan it that way? you better believe it.) oh, and just so you know, those are screams of joy and excitement...not pain.

p.s. and another quick note...we are super behind on our posting. it has been baby central here the last week :) we have had kaydyn (almost 2) and byrson (almost 2 months) over to visit as well as jolie (nine months) for a couple days too. we were busy!!!!! so i have a lot of info and updates and TONS of pics to share and i think we will have to do our thanks-a-christmas palooza posts in small installments....so they are coming yet :)

suuuuuuper henry!

so much fuss for these little ears!!

henry did awesome today!  the surgery went well and just flew by--we felt like we had just settled into the waiting room when they called our names to visit with the doctor!  sometime i feel so silly for worrying so much :)  the hard part was right after surgery when he was a little woozy and sore/scared.  he cried for about twenty minutes and we cuddled and finally had a snack, and then we were discharged.  we went down into avera's new cancer institute (which was awesome by the way...and so is the surgical center and all of the people that work there--they are all sooo very nice and accommodating and great with children!)  we looked at all the pretty artwork and waterfalls and before we knew it henry was ready to crawl around, pull on the plants, and play the piano they had sitting in the corner.  so we went home.  his surgery was at 8:15 this morning and we were home around 11:00!  i took these pictures right after we got home.  he just played and seem perfectly content...so far so good!  :)

he even took the time to.....SEND SOME TEXT MESSAGES TO HIS GRANDPARENTS TO REASSURE THEM THAT HE WAS DOING JUST FINE!!!!!!!!!!!  hahaha (when henry does something he goes all out, even texting i guess.) 

sooooo we are thinking........henry seems to have a fairly high pain tolerance and to bounce back from things pretty quick....maybe he is really a super hero, he does, after all, have quite a few super powers.....like melting his mommy in a big puddle of goo    :)

eleven

that little cartoon baby is getting awful close to that caterpillar's face  :)  eleven months!  that means he'll be twelve months in a month....which means he will be one year old.  don't worry, i'm not going to get all mushy gushy yet, i'll save that for a month from now :)  hmmmm what has henry been up to lately?  well, he has taken about seven steps, so he's slowly starting to walk.  he thinks that crawling is much easier and faster, so he doesn't try walking all that often, in fact, he usually walks when he's not even thinking about walking...which is ironic right?  he has six teeth and he's working on some more.  he loves to applaud, but i think we already covered that :)  oh yes--he likes to give hugs now--which mommy and daddy really love!  he even hugs his little stuffed elmo which is super sweet, and he really likes to share.  he likes to offer his bottle and his binks to his mom, dad, grandparents, and of course we can't leave elmo out either :)

i don't know, i'm trying to think of other things to add.....but i'm pretty distracted at the moment.  henry is having his surgery tomorrow morning.  so we'll be getting up bright and early--hopefully that will help him and he'll feel better/eat better/sleep better!  i will let you all know how it went--thanks for keeping us in your thoughts :)

henry's happy trees

we thought it was henry's turn to try out some finger painting!!!  He didn't really know what to think at first, and was pretty cautious....

But when he decided he didn't need his bink...

...and realized that the paint was getting all over his fingers

he threw caution to the wind and just let loose!  

 chaos and messiness ensued :)

Channeling his inner Picasso...or Bob Ross   :)   if you look closely you will see a few happy trees i'm sure 

:) he had a blast!  i think we have a little artist

a very intense artist!

and then it was time to clean up!  thanks crayola for the super easy-to-clean, non-toxic fingerpaint.  he may have got it on his mouth, but at least he didn't get any in his mouth as far as i could tell :)  

 one of the works of art henry created today! i love that you can see his handprints

haha, sooo proud of my little boy, this is definitely going on the fridge :)

what's good for you

this afternoon, instead of frantically trying to accomplish a million little things after henry went down for his nap.....i went down with him. and it was wonderful. we took a two hour lovely lazy cuddle nap. and i even got the added bonus of watching him smile and giggle in his sleep before he woke up. c'mon--is there anything sweeter than a baby sleep smiling? :) i would love to have a photo of it, except that is one moment even i wouldn't risk ruining for a picture. following our snooze we had a little tickle fight and a snack. henry ate bananas and i dipped several oreos in peanut butter. were they good for me? no. but you better believe they were good for me :) now baby and momma feel refreshed and happy. did i get a single thing done today? not really. am i a little stressed about that? yeah a little. but i would do it all over again. especially now as henry's first birthday rapidly approaches and i reflect on how much he has changed and grown. i have a sneaking suspicion that there will come a day when he will no longer want to cuddle nap with mom. so it was totally worth it :)

going bananas with dad

just a fun little video of henry feeding his daddy some bananas :)

into the wild (or happy halloween)

On October 31st, Austin and I had the unique opportunity of visiting a special zoo where they house the world's smallest and most adorable giraffe. 

Here he is in his cage.

He looked so sad all penned up like that.  So while nobody was looking, we broke him out of there and released him back into the wild.

He was so happy to be out of his cage that he clapped his hooves!

free to roam the grasslands...

and graze...

on fallen leaves...

he may seem calm and gentle, but only if you kept a safe distance.  this next shot was dangerously close. luckily, Austin was there to distract him before it was too late. i could have been run over with cuteness by this small, yet quickly stampeding giraffe. it was definitely a close one.  

even though the authorities eventually caught up with us...and we had to return him to his enclosure, we had a lot of fun watching him frolic in the great outdoors on such a lovely day :)

(soooooo......I was pretty late with my Halloween post and pics. BUT it was worth the wait right? totally.)

the curl and other stories

henry visited the doc yesterday and they decided that he should have tubes.  so he will be having surgery on nov. 17th to have them placed in his ears :(  but he should feel much better once its all over :)  this surgery is fairly routine and quick.  also, dr. todd is an allergist, so while henry is under for the surgery, he will give him his allergy tests so that he doesn't have to be awake for all of that--sounds like a good plan to me! we still aren't quite sure why his fingernails are falling apart, and if the problem persists we'll have to take him to a dermatologist.  we are hoping they will grow out just fine and it will be just one of those things that we'll shrug our shoulders at.  its possible that the eczema caused it...but we don't know for sure.  hopefully, when we find out what his allergies are (if there are any more than milk) it will help us steer clear of that whole issue again. in case you didn't remember, dr. todd is the same person that removed the lump from henry's neck, so these two are getting to know each other pretty well :)  

after dr. todd had finished looking in henry's ears, henry clapped for him--hahaha.  it was pretty funny.  henry just started clapping and has been on a roll.  he claps right when he wakes up, he claps while he eats, he claps when he's playing with his toys, i wonder if he claps in his sleep!!!  i also feel pretty darn cool, because it seems like everything i do now lately deserves some applause :)  haha.  

AND i thought that i should add this little snippet just for fun.  i was able to sneak this little pic of henry's curl.  yep, that's right, he has A curl.  and we are darn proud of it :)