Weekend Update

We had a fun Saturday yesterday...after another early wake-up (I find it ironic now that I consider 7 AM to be sleeping REALLY late), the 3 of us headed downtown. Henry continued his tour of Boston restaurants and joined us at Legal Sea Foods. In the momentous news category - Henry had his first "kids menu" order! Yes, he had his very own meal - fish shaped cheese ravioli. He enjoyed it immensely and made quite a mess.

After lunch we all headed over to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer "Great Start Party" - the kick-off for the 2008 Walk. It was great to see a lot of my old friends and colleagues (although I admit it made me very nostalgic for my work days there). It also made me realize that I REALLY need to get my butt in gear and do some training. If I am going to be walking 40 miles in 4 months, training must be done (also, considering the 5 miles I did on the treadmill the other day nearly wiped me out....that may be the bigger sign that I need to get some training done!). Hopefully the weather will warm up soon so that Henry and I can enjoy some long training walks together.

Although my training isn't top-notch (yet!), my fundraising is going well for the Avon Walk. As of today I am at $1,190! That puts me at 66% of my minimum fundraising requirement.

If you haven't checked out my Avon Walk web page, please take a look!

http://tinyurl.com/2jvwy9

Here is a picture of me, Henry, and my "Walker Buddy" Lauren at the Avon party yesterday - Lauren took over my position at the Walk last year. Henry was a little overwhelmed by the activity around him and thus not looking at the camera.

So far today has been a semi-lazy Sunday. Poor Mike is still sick with the cold I gave him, so he enjoyed a bit of a sleep in. After he woke up, I took a 2 hour nap. So far, the 3 of us all are still in our PJs - and I have a feeling it will stay that way.

It has been confirmed that Henry IS getting some teeth - we can now see the little suckers. He has his two middle bottom teeth and should be getting his top 2 middle teeth next, but is actually getting the two to the sides of the top middle. So, he will look like a cute little vampire for a while :)

Henry is 9 months old!

Henry is 9 months old today! And yes, this is the best picture we were able to get of him. Most of the pictures looked like this:

We may need to come up with a new idea for months 11 and 12. Today, his nanny made the observation "you know, Henry is the SQUIRMIEST child I have ever met!". Yes, yes he is.

Henry celebrated his 9 month "birthday" by officially babbling! The morning was full of the sounds of "bla, bla, bla!" as he cruised around the couch. It is very cute (and we have to say we are both somewhat relieved that he started this. 9 months is apparently when they start to become concerned/take note if they are not babbling. Henry is a procrastinator, just like his mom!)

Unfortunately, Mike has now caught the evil cold I had last week (and am still somewhat recovering from). He stayed home from work today - I think in all honesty this is the first time he has taken a sick day since we have been married. I re-stocked our medicine drawer for him and he managed to get in some naps, so our fingers are crossed that he gets better soon. Our fingers are also crossed that Henry somehow manages to avoid catching it. However, considering some of his favorite things to do are to stick his hands in our mouths (and then in his own) and to basically lick every surface in the house, our hopes aren't too high.

Our Little Walker

Henry is a big fan of his new Radio Flyer "Walker Wagon". He has no fear - crawls right to it, pulls up, and starts walking! The only issue is that he does not know how to turn (or avoid crashing into the wall). Once the wagon meets a barrier tears are shed. Therefore, there has been a lot of us walking hunched over "directing" the wagon. There have also been a few instances of distracting Henry with another toy and then quickly hiding the wagon from him (shhh...don't tell him).

Henry also started a bit of babbling today! He is a little on the "late" side for babbling (although there is such a wide range of what is "normal" for babies). He has been throwing out a few random "M" and "G" sounds lately, and today started in with a constant stream of "Ra Ra Ra"! He is making progress!

Back from the doctor

Henry and I have returned from a quick visit to his pediatrician. The last 3 days have seen several instances of inconsolable crying/high-pitched screaming lasting 30 minutes to an hour or more. This on top of overall general crankiness made me worried that he may have another ear infection, so to the doctor we went.

The good news is that Henry is in perfect health! Ears are clean, belly is good, no congestion, etc.

The bad news is that there is (as of yet) no real explanation for what he has been going through. The poor thing is obviously in some sort of distress. I keep imploring him to learn English so that he can tell us what is wrong, but to no avail. Also, this is now the THIRD time in Henry's life that I have taken him to the pedi absolutely convinced something was seriously wrong only to be told he is perfectly fine. I secretly think the pediatrician thinks I am an extremely insane mom or else have Munchasuen-by-proxy syndrome going on. I have debated taking video of Henry during one of his screaming fits to show her that I am not crazy (since he is always an angel at the pedi office), but Mike pointed out that doing so may actually make me look crazier. :)

Anyway, Dr. Zuckerman basically said what she always does - Henry has an "intense" personality. Essentially, he is a big drama queen! He is extremely loud and vocal when he is in anyway upset or uncomfortable (now....where on EARTH could he have gotten this from?????). In other words, the karma bus hit me, and Henry is most definitely his mother's son.

He may be getting some more teeth - there is no real evidence yet except maybe some puffiness on his top gum. In the meantime, we are keeping an eye on it, giving him Motrin when he gets really fussy, and are stocking up on frozen items for him to chew on (a frozen waffle at dinner was a big hit). Right now he is cozy in his PJs and fast asleep, so we hope the poor little guy has a good night's sleep.

In other news - Henry is becoming quite a champ at "cruising". He can easily navigate up and down the sofa, and can go all around the bed (usually as I am in the middle of making it!). He is now attempting the daredevil trick of cruising from one piece of furniture to another - verrrrry tricky. Some falls have occured, some bruises are evident, some tears have been shed, but he is a champ and gets right back up to try again (after a hug and kiss, of course). This evening Mike put together Henry's new Radio Flyer "walker wagon" that he will be able to push around the house - we'll try to get some fun pictures if him trying it out! He has also become a little motor-boat, blowing a continuous stream of raspberries as he crawls about. This is helpful for me because I always know exactly where he is - kind of like a bell collar on a cat! He is loving bath time and is becoming more interested in his books (both having them read to him and eating them). His new favorite thing is crawling WITH something. A board book, a coaster, a magazine, his lovey... he likes to keep it under his hand and see how far he can drag it as he moves about the house.

As for me - I still have this darn cold, but it is getting a little better. I no longer feel like I have been hit by a bus, which is a good thing. Monday and Tuesday were pretty rough, but I was able to take advantage of our nanny on Wednesday and spend the afternoon napping, so that helped. Hopefully all will be better by the weekend.

Lastly, I want to send a big congrats to our friends Tiffany and James on the birth of their son Henry David!!!! We can't wait for the two Henrys to get together soon!

First Cold

No, not for Henry - he had his first cold a few months ago. Nope - this is the first time I have been sick since Henry's arrival. Oh man, it stinks. It is just your run-of-the-mill nasty head cold/maybe sinus infection, but when you have almost zero ability to rest (let alone blow your nose) throughout the day, it really catches up with you. Mike was a huge help yesterday -I even got to sneak a nap in the afternoon - but it is Monday and back to work, so I am on my own. I have loaded up on Dayquil and green tea - here's hoping some of it works (here's also hoping that Henry decides that today is the day he will consistently nap longer than 30 minutes! Yesterday his naps were: 45 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 10 minutes, 25 minutes - The "usual" pattern for a baby his age is 2 naps of about an hour and a half or two hours each. Sigh. We have a child who likes to break the mold, I guess)

Henry MAY be teething again - it is hard to say. He had a temperature of 102.2 on Saturday night but no other symptoms of being sick...sometimes they get a fever when teething. He is also still being fairly clingy, so something is up. He was in a great mood most of last week so we hope our sweet little boy comes back to us soon.

I am off to re-load on medication. I hope all is well with everyone!

Loveys

Way back in the dark ages when Henry was still waking every 2 hours around the clock and I was in extreme sleep-deprivation mode, we introduced a "lovey" to Henry to try and help his sleep. Essentially, a lovey is a transitional object to help them sleep without you. We gave Henry a little blanket with an animal head on it. Actually, he has 4: a frog, an elephant, a bear, and a monkey (just in case we lose one, you need a back up!)

I don't know how much the lovey helped him sleep back then, but lately he seems to have finally "adopted" his loveys as a security object. He falls asleep with them either over his face, or sucking on them (as shown in the photo above). We keep one of them out with his toys in the living room and he has started crawling around with it in his mouth. The blue elephant seems to be his favorite.

Today was the latest development in the lovey relationship. Yes, Henry has learned to FLING the lovey out of his crib at nap time and then scream inconsolably because the lovey is now on the floor. Ah, the joy of youth!

So this begs the question - what do you do? Do I go in and give him the lovey back to help him go to sleep (and this child has been a POOR napper lately, so every 30 minute catnap is a blessing)? Do you let him cry, thus teaching him that flinging objects out of his crib just leads to them being gone for nap time? Is he even able to make that connection at this age? Will this make him even more determined to climb out of the crib than he already is???? Have I created a lovey-loving monster who will soon be like Peanut's Linus dragging his blue elephant everywhere he goes? What crazy psychological damage have I done to our child by forcing a lovey on him but then not picking it up for him when he flings it????

*

And, the ultimate question: who knew that the questions of parenthood could make you so insane????

Happy 2008!

Mike and I have come to the realization that we are now officially "old". The epiphany came on New Year's Eve, when we were getting into bed at about 10:30 PM and were OK with it. In fact, I was very happy to be going to sleep at that time. I think our days of staying up until midnight and drinking copious amounts of champagne are, alas, behind us.

Thus far Henry has been enjoying 2008! While he has reverted back to his 5:30 AM wake up time and is still not napping for longer than 40 minutes, his mood the past few days has been much improved. He is turning into a little superstar - a complete ham who is ALL OVER the place. The "re-directing" has begun in earnest, especially when he discovers remote controls, cell phones, any type of wire, potted plants, newly folded laundry, food, glasses of water, coffee cups, shampoo bottles, and the trash can. Mike discovered this morning that the little guy has actually CHEWED OFF part of the finish on our TV stand. Who knew you could do that with only 2 teeth???

It is fun to watch him, though, and to see what things interest him. He is figuring out toys more - shaking rattles and banging things together. His favorite thing is still to just stand. Pulling up some one's legs is his greatest joy. We hosted a playgroup today and Henry startled quite a few other babies by crawling to them and then using their heads to hoist himself into a standing position.

We started a new baby class yesterday - lots of activities, song singing, etc. Henry's favorite activity was the parachute. He crawled to the middle of it and just laughed and laughed as it moved around him. A lot of the other babies in the class are not yet crawling, so Henry was the main attraction most of the day.

Yesterday we also braved the FREEZING temperatures. I believe it felt like 5 below with the windchill when we walked to class together. Henry was very comfy in his stroller and many layers. I, on the other hand, need to obviously invest in warmer gloves.

The cold weather made it necessary for Henry to truly bundle up, and hence I broke out his leg warmers, which he is modeling in the photo above. Yes, he may look silly (and like he is about to teach a jazzercise class) but since he is so tall all of his pants are like high waters on him, so the legwarmers help cover his legs (at least, this is what I keep telling Mike....)