Let it snow, and snow, and snow....

Looks like we will have a white Christmas this year! We are on our third day of pretty steady snow now. This morning we finally cracked after being stuck inside since Friday and braved a trip to the Children's Museum - here are some views from the car ride:






To keep Henry entertained during long hours indoors, we also broke out his easel for him, which he LOVES. Our little artist does little else these days except use his crayons.





Off to shovel again! Hopefully Santa brings me a snow blower this year...

Snow Day!

The first winter storm of the year has arrived in Boston - right now they are expecting up to 11 inches (we only have about 3-4 right now, based on my extremely scientific calculations). To celebrate, we took a gift from under the tree early and took Henry on his first sledding adventure.

The beginning of the storm this afternoon:




Henry gets into his new snow pants:




First time standing in snow!:




Sledding with dad:







He had a great time, even though he was forced to wear mittens.

His ear infection seems to be better - we go in for his follow up appointment on Tuesday to make sure he is all set. He is also MUCH better with taking his antibiotics - in fact, he now requests more after each dose!

We are settling in for a long night of snow and shoveling - wish us luck!

Send some coffee our way

Poor Henry.

Last night our little guy was up ALL NIGHT. Every two hours starting at 9:30 PM, and then every 30 minutes starting at 4 AM. Needless to say, all in the house are tired. In addition to being very upset last night, Henry has been pretty on edge lately, not eating, and this morning had a small temperature. Since we could no longer write it off to his teething, we took him to the Dr this morning to discover he has a pretty bad infection in both ears.

We started him on antibiotics today (a process that now involves me sitting on him, Mike holding his arms down, and me desperately pouring it in his screaming mouth and then attempting to scrape back in all that he spits out - good times), so we have our fingers crossed that it starts to work soon and we have our happy boy back soon.

Please send good thoughts his way!

Words

Henry keeps adding more and more words and phrases to his vocabulary, which makes for entertaining days. He has become quite adept at "please" and "I'm sorry" (although he often says "please" as more of a shouted demand than a courtesy). We have gotten him to say "I Love You" a few times when prompted, but not yet spontaneously (oh, that one will melt our hearts when it happens). We are working hard on "thank you" (no go on that one at all) and "Merry Christmas" (he sometimes at least attempts that one). He calls all television shows "the news". His new word of the day today was "messy".

He is also getting a decent grasp of his colors - he is correct in identifying them about 75% of the time, which I think is pretty good. He LOVES to say "purple" and "green" - they are by far his two favorite colors. He says "blue" and recently started saying "yellow", but "red" and "orange" have yet to come out (although he can correctly identify them most of the time). Alas, it is still too soon to tell if Mike has passed on his green/brown color-blindness, but I am sure we will be able to figure it out soon.

The first of his canine teeth poked through this morning. We were not too surprised seeing as how Henry has not eaten a meal since Monday (literally), and today was pretty much a mess of tantrums and sobs. Poor kid - teeth hurt and canines are supposed to be particularly bad. After these 4 come in he will get his 2 year molars, and then he is DONE! I have decided we will throw a massive "done with teething" party - everyone is invited to watch the ceremonial burning of the teething toys.

This is how he rides...

Henry and Kate had a fun playdate yesterday. Henry is finally starting to figure out who all of his friends are, and when we approach our weekly baby class he now begins to yell "Kate! Kate!". Henry was also much enamored of Kate's dog, and after we got home last night he would randomly and sadly say "Tess? Tessie?".




Poor Henry is fighting off not only another cough, but also about to cut a few canine teeth. Add all this up and Henry has basically not eaten a meal since Monday afternoon. Let's all hope he feels better soon!

Santa

It is that time of year again - time to meet with the "big guy", let him know you have been a good boy or girl all year, and present a list of demands/gift requests.

Last year, Henry and Santa were best buds. They laughed, Henry played with his beard, they hugged. It was a grand time. Here are some photos of their glorious meeting last year:






This year... it was not as pleasant:




As you can see, we couldn't even attempt a photo of Henry sitting on Santa's lap (my attempts to pry my screaming child off me and put him there were starting to feel like child abuse, so I gave up and joined the photo session). This is actually the best picture we got, if you can believe it. I suppose it is a rite of passage to have the "screaming child with Santa" picture, though. Hopefully next year won't be as traumatic for either of us.

Giving Thanks

The Powells have returned from our Thanksgiving trip to Michigan! We decided that this would be an appropriate time to reflect on all the things we are thankful for in our lives:


- Our health (also known as the ability to run at a full sprint through the Cleveland airport carrying a diaper bag, a toddler, a collapsed stroller, a car seat, two coats, and a rolling carry-on ensuring that we made our connecting flight with mere seconds to spare. Also allowing us to avoid the heart attack the thought of missing the flight and being stranded in Cleveland could have given us)

- "Jack's Big Music Show" and portable DVD Players (thus ensuring the most serene flights we have had since Henry was 4 months old, and allowing Mike to sleep and me to actually read for brief moments of time. We are also now re-considering our policy of forcing Henry to fly unattended once he reaches age 7)

- Large freezers (to accommodate the spectacular- and spectacularly large - Thanksgiving meal that involved not one but TWO turkeys)

- Trader Joes Breakfast Bars (which allow our child to not starve since he refused to eat any Thanksgiving goodies)

- Black Bottom Cupcakes (My personal favorite, and kindly brought over by Pam. Thank you!)

- The Gym (a necessity for me now after the truly insane amounts of food consumed the past few days)

- Nintendo Wii and Mario Kart (for confirming to everyone that it is a GOOD thing I don't drive)

- New additions (family just gets better as it gets bigger - Henry is so excited to have a cousin coming this year!!!!)

In all seriousness, we are truly thankful for our wonderful family (those we were together with this week, and all those we were with in thoughts and spirit). Happy Thanksgiving!