mama mia! :)

henry had his very first pizza!!!  We made him his very own personal pan :)  Of course, the cheese wasn't real cheese.  It was actually "mozzarella style shreds" that are mostly made of tapioca and soy.  Its actually not too bad, kinda salty tasting I thought.  We found it at the pomegranate market in sioux falls amongst some other fun things that we are looking forward to having henry try, like coconut milk ice cream!  I think we will save that for his valentine treat :)  he is starting to experiment with new foods more and we are slowly moving away from the purees finally.  But that also means that his mama is gonna have to figure out some new nifty dairy-free recipes.  i did get a "go dairy-free" cookbook a bit ago so i will have to take a closer look at it.  You would be surprised by the number of products that have milk in them that you don't even think about!  I would love for henry to just try some plain bread or crackers, but many of those things have milk!  Austin and I have become quite the label scrutinizers---anything for henry :)  below is a before pic of henry's little pizza.  the "cheese" looks just like the real thing!

 and the "after"!  not too bad if i do say so myself :)

 just checking it out, he's never eaten anything like it before and had to give it a good inspection

 daddy is the official taste-tester i guess :)  henry loves to share his food

 if daddy thinks its good, it must be!

haha, he wasn't ready for that gooey cheese texture

but despite the funny faces he kept on eating it, so i think its pretty safe to say that henry likes pizza :)

okay mom your turn---you gotta try this its sooo yummy!

 A little bit of the aftermath from Henry's first big boy meal.  pizza, corn, and applesauce washed down with soy formula :)

 a happy belly for our happy baby--hooray!!!

henry and his flutterbuddies

This past weekend henry's gramma deb and john came to play with him in sioux falls!  what a lucky guy :) we went to the butterfly house and then we went swimming! I forgot how awesome the butterfly house is--so neat--if you haven't been there, you really do need to check it out.  At first, henry just stood and stared at all the little winged creatures as they fluttered around him and said "ooooo" over and over.  eventually, however, the novelty wore off as it usually does and he started running around like a wild man :)  mommy also had quite a bit of fun photographing henry's new little friends

 "ooooooo"  daddy had to hold henry's hands some of the time so that he wouldn't reach out and grab any, which was against the rules :)

 just taking it all in

 watching flutterbuddies with gramma

 there's a few munching on some orange slices...one of henry's favorite snacks.  I wonder which he's reaching for.  the butterflies or the food...

 hehe, this little butterfly was very sneaky, he hung out right under henry's nose.

 me and my boy---love love love love love him.

we had so much fun!  sorry no pool pictures.  I decided to join in the fun and go swimming with my boys rather than hang out on the sidelines and document it :)  thanks deb and john for the fun day!

ps--check out those big boy shoes henry has on!  we got him new shoes that day because his old ones disappeared (i do have a very vague memory of setting them on top of the car while out running errands--hey! its hard to monitor every little thing like that when you've got a little one with you!) but it doesn't really matter too much i guess, as they wouldn't fit him any more anyway--they were a size three and he's now a size five and half!!!  yikes--i hope we can keep up!

kickin and screamin........

henry did it.  he threw a tantrum.  he laid down on the floor and kicked and hollered.  it was not beautiful, in fact it was a little surprising.....and embarrassing.  he wanted the remote control, but he didn't need the remote control, especially when he messes up the programming and no one can figure out how to even turn the tv on once he's played with the remote.  yikes.  It seems a little early to be starting the temper tantrums isn't it?  austin and i were really thrown off by this.  i had to take a moment and really reconsider very time i saw someone with their kid who was throwing a temper tantrum in some public place like the grocery store and thought, wow that kid is really bratty, his parents can't even control him....


i turned to www.kidshealth.org like a usually do in these situations when i just want to learn a little more about babies and what their behaviors.  i have been going to this site since i was first breastfeeding and find it to me really encouraging and reliable.

little baby, big 'tude

just the typical evening.  henry sporting a diaper and shades. texting his buddies.

hehe.

oh henry.  he's into accessories. loves hats and sunglasses.  he'll bring them to me so i can put them on him.  haha, i wonder what's going to happen when he can start dressing himself!

Ft. Henry

I should be working on my thesis.

But aren't you glad I took a break to bring you this instead ?

:)

we created a little fort for henry out of some large cardboard boxes, complete with multiple entrances, exits, and doors with handles--how awesome are we?

playing with uncle george in his fort

peek....

 ....a boo

haha

and some more later--it stayed up for several days, taking up most of the living room :)

 i know its kinda blurry but i love his facial expression

this last photo is one of my all-time favorites.  that's my henry. that's my little henry's little smirk :)

okay, back to business, thanks for taking a break with me

one-year check up

henry had his one-year wellness check yesterday.  I know, we are a little behind, he's had a very busy month!  he weighed in at 24.8 pounds and is 30-31 inches long (hard to tell with the squirming).  It made me want to get one of those vertical height measurement keepers--it would be so fun to compare his growth in a way that you can really see!  Henry had quite a bit of fun in the waiting room, and i think he's going to be pretty outgoing.  he went up to random strangers and introduced himself with an "uh oh".  He even politely asked....or maybe demanded a woman's cell phone.  (He saw her using it, walked over to her, and held his hand out for it like everyone's cell phone actually belonged to him.)  He smiled, giggled, and played peek-a-boo.  He discovered the trash can and decided that of all things in the room, the trash can was the most interesting. He was very brave and only cried for a few minutes after his shots, and was very pleased with his elmo sticker and board book rewards.  I suppose that after the one year mark you probably don't update on every little thing your little one accomplishes as much?  It would be a lot!  I feel like he is learning so may new things every day at a faster and faster rate.  That little rocking chair we got him? yeah, well he can only use it under close supervision because he thinks he needs to stand and rock in it---he tries to climb up everything, not even worried about falling at all.  And he is adding more words to his vocabulary.  Right now, whenever anyone drops something he will say "uh oh" pretty clearly...and he will also just walk around saying "uh oh".  He also now says the words "car" "ball" "gunka" (which means grampa), "go" and "no no".  He has started this really interesting language that he chatters in as he goes about his daily business and it kind of sounds like a gobbledygook of "tickle tickle".  He also will lift up his shirt and point to his belly if you say "belly" (or lift up your shirt to find yours, which can be interesting).  Sometimes he'll quack a little when we talk about ducks, and I think that elmo is just on the tip of his tongue :)  Its so fun to listen to him discover his little voice :)  He really likes it when you chase him around saying "I'm gonna get you!"--It will make him giggle pretty hard.  He also absolutely loves to wear things on his head.  He would walk around all day with a blanket or a towel on his head if i let him.  If it falls off, he brings it back to me so that I'll put it back on his head.  His favorite, though, is probably his daddy's golf hat.  He loves to steal it and walk around with it on his head!  Here he is trying to put it on himself :)

haha daddy, got your hat!

ps. it was brought to my attention that some people are having trouble loading the blog, so i minimized the number of posts that come up at one time (only three).  hopefully this will help!

henry's first year photos

while we were in rapid celebrating christmas, i took henry's one year photos because the weather was amazingly warm for december!  if you want to check them out visit www.blissbysaralynn.blogspot.com

I don't know, maybe i'm being a little lazy, but i think you can see them just as easily there :)  after all, i do have a very busy one year old running around and that last post took quite some time :)  you can also see a few senior photos i took of his uncle conor too...probably won't be long and i'll be doing henry's

a holly jolly henry!

for christmas we went to rapid city to visit austin's side of the family (we already had christmas with my side at thanksgiving :)  )  and henry had an awesome time!  he was probably spoiled just a tad bit :) austin and i also enjoyed spending some quality time with family that we don't get to see as often as we would like to!  so are you ready for this?  you may need to take another coffee break for this one, i had a hard time just narrowing it down to just these photos :)

here's our henry christmas morning!

 i have quite a few pictures of him opening presents and decided to just pick one :)

 playing with new toys is almost as fun as sitting on the boxes they come in! henry has to climb up and sit on everything

 trying out the new sled he just got from grandma deb!

 and the red rocking chair austin and i got him for christmas! he loves little chairs that are just his size for sitting in-its so funny to watch him act all grown up--he feels pretty cool :)

 :) we were up late on christmas eve putting the chair together, and then we had to take it apart again for the ride home-ha.  so cute in his little red rocker

then we went to austin's aunt and uncle kathy and kevin's house for christmas dinner with grandpa kelly. the food was amazing and henry had plenty of fun. in fact he found all sorts of stuff to get into

woohoo another christmas tree for me to tear down!

 and look mommy, they have no no's here too!

 look at this pretty ball i found

 what a stinker

henry also got to hang with some of his great-aunties, he especially loved their pretty jewelry and scarves :)

and he made a new friend--ella, who helped him open a gift

and tried to feed him with her doll's sippy cup :)

henry and grampa kelly

then we went to gramma deb's for the evening where henry played with his second cousin madison and great-auntie ann

 great-uncle darin made him laugh pretty hard too :)

 sitting in great-aunt kathy's lap

cuddling gramma

while we were at gramma's house, henry added two more words to his vocabulary--car and ball!  he found some very pretty balls on the christmas tree

 taking a pretty ball for a ride in his new sled, there will be more photos a little further down of him really riding in it outside too :)

 it was a very busy christmas day for henry lee and he spent the whole time looking like this--with a great big smile on his face :)

we also went out to the cabin in the hills where i took a few photos of henry and conor, opened a few more gifts, and played in the snow

reading with grampa

playing with new toys

 haha-henry loves this tickle-me-elmo!  he starts dancing around when elmo starts laughing and he runs right to him and tries to hug him :)

 sadie is probably the best toy though :)

out sledding! henry loved riding in his new sled, he sat so well in it and just took everything in.  haha, i love how he looks all bundled up in his snowsuit

daddy pulling henry

hehe, look at that little smirk :)  he got so relaxed sometimes that he almost just laid down

and tada!  could it be, a photo of all three of us!  :)

we had a wonderful christmas! thanks to everyone who made it that way!

p.s.-we also had a mini-christmas celebration with grampa steve, gramma molly, levi, tessa, faith, and great grampa and gramma don and donna--i didn't get many photos of it so i will be getting some from molly who got some great ones, and i will post those as soon as i get them :)