'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Henry is nestled all snug in his bed:




His stocking his hung by the bookshelf with care:




And a Sugarplum Crumble is currently baking in the oven (we'll let you know how it turns out!)

Merry Christmas Eve to everyone!!!

Update

We heard back from the pediatrician today (apparently the on-call pedi should have called us last night, and she was very apologetic we didn't hear anything last night). Henry's films look fine - they were mainly looking for fractures and at his hips (apparently there is some type of fairly common childhood virus that can settle in hip joint...who knew?) He still has a limp today, so now we are just watching it - if it gets any worse or if it isn't gone by Monday we need to go back in. So, good news!

Now, we are off to a flurry of cookie baking and other Christmasy activities - Happy Holidays!

Back from the hospital

Well, we did end up taking him into Children's Hospital this afternoon. They ended up needing to do a full sequence of x-rays from his pelvis all the way down his left leg (since he is a toddler and can't really communicate where his leg hurts, so they needed a full view) - about 5 x-rays in total. I would like to say that Henry was a trooper through the process, but I would be lying. I don't blame him, though. He was brought into a scary new room with 3 strangers, de-pantsed (and de-diapered!), forced to lie on a table, mom and dad both put on crazy lead aprons, and then mom and dad basically lay down on him to hold him still for 20 minutes. NOT FUN. We had a few comments on how strong he was and what a good kick he has if that gives you an idea of the resistance he put up :)

So, after about 20 minutes of x-rays and an hour in the waiting room, the verdict is...we don't know. The tech came out and told us that the attending physician had signed off on the x-rays and passed the results on Henry's pediatrician, and that we should be in touch with the pediatrician tomorrow. The tech couldn't say anything beyond that, but said that the reason we had to wait until the attending signed off was to make sure there was nothing seriously wrong that had to be taken care of right away. So, we are assuming that nothing is broken, but won't be sure until we talk to the pediatrician tomorrow.

Keep those fingers crossed!

Henry is 20 months old!

Henry is 20 months old today! He is inching closer and closer to 2 years old - we can hardly believe it.

Here is a picture of Henry on this day last year:



And here he is today (in the Christmas spirit):



Henry and I have quite a few adventures the past few days attempting to navigate the stroller through giant snow drifts and narrow, icy paths here in Boston (lets just say people could REALLY do a better job of shoveling around here). It is worth it to get out of the house, though.

The big news is that we went to the pediatrician this morning. The good news - his ears look great! We give him one more dose of antibiotics tonight and then he is all done.

The bad news - I mentioned to the doctor that Henry seemed to have hurt his leg on Sunday (he took a slide at the Children's Museum a little too fast on Sunday). He has been limping, and when he first wakes up in the morning it seems more pronounced, but he hasn't seemed very bothered by it and there is no swelling. The pediatrician watched him walk for a long time and examined his leg, and thinks that he may have a fracture :( She gave us the option of waiting until tomorrow morning and seeing if he still has a limp before going for x-rays at Children's Hospital, but Mike and I may take him in this afternoon to avoid the joy of a hospital on Christmas Eve.

So, everyone cross your fingers that out little guy is OK. Christmas in a cast does NOT sound that fun.

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!

A season of miracles

Today marks a truly miraculous day in the Powell home. Henry slept in until (insert drum roll).....

8:50 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, TWO HOURS later than usual. A full 13 hours of sleep for our little guy last night.

Of course, I was up at 6:30 AM and spent the next two hours worrying about WHY Henry wasn't awake, going in to make sure he was breathing, etc. Essentially, not enjoying it at all.

Henry is 19 months old!

Henry is 19 months old today!!!

Here is a picture of him on this day last year:




And here are some pictures of him today (rocking some Christmas jammies):





Henry is now firmly ensconced in the "terrible twos". While "terrible" may be a bit of an exaggeration, his favorite word is certainly "NO". He is definitely trying to exert control over the household, so things like bedtime, bath time, diaper changes, and getting dressed are no longer as easy as they used to be. His name does mean "ruler of the home", so I guess he is just living up to his potential :)

Boston continues to enjoy frigid temperatures, so the park has become but a lovely memory for us. To keep busy with indoor activities we have broken out the art supplies:





The Powells head to Michigan on Wednesday for Thanksgiving with the Powell/Rohde family - we are looking forward to seeing everyone!

18 Month Appointment

Henry had his 18 month pediatrician appointment today. In general, he looks good! She was happy with the mount of words he has (and he FINALLY said his own name this morning!) as well as his physical skills.

For his stats: Height - 34 inches (90% percentile and a nice jump from the 31.5 inches of 3 months ago). Weight - 26 pounds, 11 ounces(60%). So, his picky eating has finally caught up with him - he only gained 8 ounces in the past 3 months and dropped from 70% to 60%. So, we are sticking with whole milk for a while longer and will keep working on getting him to eat more. I am not too worried - I think he just is going to be a long and lean kid with all the running around he does. After all, he never had any baby chub at all - even pre-walking.

He had two shots, including his 2nd batch of the MMR (our pediatrician is very conservative with vaccines, so Henry always gets them at the earliest possible time). That wasn't too fun for him, but he was a champ and accepted the animal crackers with grace after they were done (and then yelled "BYE BYE!" as loudly as he could at the pediatrician. He was obviously ready to leave!)

He still has his cough - it has been about 2 weeks now. She wasn't terribly concerned about it, but did notice a wheeze when he breathes. She had noticed it at his 15 month appointment as well. Since I had asthma as a child she wants me to bring him back in 2 weeks if he is still coughing and they may give him an inhaler (which would not necessarily mean he does have asthma, they can't diagnose that until he is older). He doesn't seem to be having trouble with his breathing, so it doesn't look like it is a big deal.

And to end things, here is a picture of our little blueberry face enjoying breakfast:

Updates

This last week we had a great time with Grandpa Tim and Nene who were visiting. We lucked out with abnormally warm November weather (although the Floridians may disagree...) and Henry had a fabulous time showing off his skills, playing cars, shopping, taking a trip to the Children's Museum, and much more. Thanks to Dad and Nene for the visit - it was great to see you and Henry misses you!

In other news, Henry continues to expand his verbal horizons. He is using a few phrases somewhat consistently ("Mommy sit down" is a big one), he is correctly identifying the moon and stars while on evening walks (yes, you can sometimes see stars in Boston), and he amazed me today by saying "orange" as he pointed to his orange play-doh. Way to go Henry! His new favorite thing is to look at people's bellys. This unfortunately involves the lifting of people's shirts while in public, so we are trying to discourage this one.

Tomorrow is Henry's 18 month pediatrician appointment (a little on the late side), so we will have more updates then!

Election Day, Part 2

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is a happy, historic, wonderful, magnificent, HOPEFUL day.

Election Day

Henry got to help perform his civic duty today and went with Mike and I to vote in his first Presidential Election.

We got to the polls a little after 8 AM, and while the line was long we only had to wait about 35 minutes or so before casting our votes. Henry was a trooper, gave big smiles to the election workers, and was pleased with his "I Voted" sticker.

Waiting in line to vote:




Showing off his new sticker (or evidence of clear voter fraud??):



Henry wears his politics with pride:

Henry's First Concert

Since Henry is quite the singing machine these days and has always loved his music classes, we figured the time was right to have him attend his first concert. We went with his good friends Jake and Kate to see Vanessa Trien and the Jumping Monkeys Band at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. (Vanessa was one of Henry's Music Together teachers, so we knew it would be a good time!)

Henry had a great time - he was very good staying in my lap for the first 20 minutes or so, and then moved to dancing in the aisle. He had quite the time with the "High 5" song, and gave High 5's to everyone around us. He also ate a truly obscene amount of cookies while there.








In other news, Henry seems to have his first slight cold of the season and is coughing a lot. Add that together with the end of Daylight Savings causing a 5:30 AM wake up call this morning, and we are not a well rested household.

Last, but certainly not least, Henry would like to remind everyone to PLEASE VOTE TOMORROW!!! Yes, even if you are going to vote for the "other guy" 9(well, actually if you live in Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Florida and are going to vote for the other guy, I give you permission to stay home :) )

Happy Halloween!!!

We took Henry out for his first Trick-or-Treating experience this evening. He didn't quite get it (when people asked if he wanted candy he would yell "NO" and run), but he had a grand time running full tilt down the sidewalk and watching some of the other trick-or-treaters. We are guessing next year he will understand the process a bit more, but for now Mike and I are enjoying the fruits of his trick-or-treating labors.

The fabulous jack-o-lantern I carved:




Henry and Mike trick-or-treating:





Henry discovering that the true joy of Halloween is running as fast as he can down the sidewalk:

Henry is 18 months old!

Henry is 18 months old today!!!

Here is a picture of him on this day last year:





And here are some pictures of him from today:








To celebrate the milestone, Henry started saying a new word ("washing", while he washes his hands - too cute) and had a truly insane, ear splitting, ridiculous, seemingly never-ending temper tantrum. Full on, on the ground, kicking, screaming, and writhing.

So, what did mom do? Yes - I took pictures:







At one point, a couple walking by stopped and stared for a few minutes - seemingly unable to believe they were witnessing the event of full on screaming toddler and photo taking mom. This is further evidence of me being the BEST MOM EVER! :)

What was the tantrum over, you ask? We had arrived at the Children's Museum 10 minutes before it opened, so he was unable to open the automatic doors like he wanted. It is TOUGH being 18 months old!

Words

So, Henry has reached that age where it seems like he picks up a new word every day. Just yesterday at the park he said what I *think* was his first phrase - "eat crackers". I have no idea where he got this from since he almost never eats crackers, but that's OK.

Most of what he says is still semi-garbled "neanderthal speak" (let's just say not every word is crystal clear), but it is fun to hear all the the things he is picking up. It also makes us more cognizant of what we say around him - you never know what he will repeat!

Some of his most common words:

- "Up" and "down" (used ALL DAY - he also says "UP" as his words for "tree" and "squirrel")

- "cookies" (spoken in a highly amusing, guttural way and used as his word for all food)

- "Mommy" and "Daddy" (not always used correctly, and he occasionally likes to call strangers daddy)

- "Ball"

- "Book"

- "Woof Woof" (used for all Dogs) and "Doggie" (used for all other animals)

Kennebunkport

This past weekend Mike and I were lucky enough to have Nana Gayle and Papa Mark come into town to watch Henry so the two of us could get away. We took full advantage of the situation and spent the weekend in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Kennebunkport was (as always) beautiful. We had great weather - cool, crisp, and sunny. We enjoyed the foliage:



And views:



We stayed at a fabulous local inn:



that had a frighteningly tall bed (anything requiring 3 stairs to get on it makes me afraid of rolling off in the middle of the night):



On Saturday night Mike and I celebrated my birthday by having dinner at the White Barn Inn: http://www.whitebarninn.com - a truly phenomenal restaurant that did not disappoint in any way.



(I think we both look a tad giddy/flushed since this was post wine pairings and cheese platter. YUMMY)

Thanks to Gayle and Mark for watching the little guy - he had a great time - and thanks to Mike for the great birthday weekend away!

Vermont

It has become a Columbus Day Weekend tradition for a group of William Smithers (and significant others) to go to Vermont for our "Fall Festivus" celebration. Apple picking, corn mazes, board games, outlet shopping, lots of baked goods, and bad movie watching are all included.

This year was our 7th annual Fall Festivus - in addition to the Powells we had Beth, Jess, Rene, her husband Kurt, their ridiculously cute son Luke, Amy (honorary William Smither), and her boyfriend Mike. With us in spirit and thought of often were Erin and Roy (we have 3 spaces reserved for you next year!!!) We rented a house in Plymouth, Vermont and thoroughly enjoyed the views:



We returned to one of our favorite orchards where Henry got to meet some farm animals:



And pick some apples:



This is also where Beth had a truly hilarious hysterical laughing fit in the haunted house and was mocked by several young children. :)

Naturally, a Powell beehive cake was made for the occassion:



We had some great meals, a few massive games of Uno, a nice day trip to Woodstock, and Mike, Henry and I had a banner day at the Manchester outlets. Thank you so much to everyone that made it - it is always one of our favorite weekends of the year and is so much fun to catch up with old and dear friends. I miss you guys already!