Happy Easter - Henry is 11 months old!

Henry is 11 months old today!!! You know what that means...on this day next month our little guy will be ONE YEAR OLD. It is amazing. I can't quite comprehend that right now. At this time last year the baby showers were over, the nursery was set, I was almost done with work, and Mike and I were just hanging out and waiting. Who could believe all that the next year would bring...

Here is our butterbean refusing to pose with his 11 month sign (it is really a 2 person job at this point, and since Mike is out of town, this is what we got...)

Henry's 1st Easter Basket!

Henry looking through his Easter loot:

He was not a fan of the bunny ears, alas:

Random Milestone

Today, Henry has officially worn holes in the knees of his jeans for the first time. I am sure this is the first of many destroyed articles of clothing for our little crawler. We are so proud! :)

Henry and I are on our own for the next few days - Mike left this morning for a weekend bachelor party, and then heads out again Monday morning for a business trip. Luckily Henry seems 100% over his cold, and I am sure the two of us will have a good time hanging out together.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Birthday Fun

Henry has had a big weekend. Yesterday we took him on his second trip to the New England Aquarium (note to self: never again take child to Aquarium - or any museum - on a rainy Saturday at the end of a LONG winter. Who knew 3 bazillion kids could be jam-packed in that space???) He once again loved watching the fish, but the highlight of his trip may have been the french fries he was allowed to eat when we had lunch.

Today we went to his friend Jake's 1st birthday party (since almost all of Henry's friends are very close in age, we are now entering "birthday party season"). The party was at My Gym - a location Henry has enjoyed before - and where he will be taking a class starting in a few months. Henry had a great time crawling around, being in the ball pit, going on the "zipline", eating his first pizza (he really liked that...), and basically being his usual fun, smiley self.

Here he is, entranced by his reflection (practicing for a part in "Pirates of Penzance", perhaps????):

Having fun in the swing:

And chilling out in the ball pit with the birthday boy:

The Powells Return...

Where is this, you may ask? Cape Cod? North Carolina? No my friends, it is the Indiana Lake Dunes National Park (yours truly had no idea this existed) and was a brief detour for Mr. Powell and myself a few days ago. It was very nice - I bet it would be REALLY nice if it was warmer than 30 degrees, as well.

So, the Powells have returned from a wonderful visit with Nana Gayle and Papa Mark in Grand Rapids, with a mini-vacation to Chicago for the two "adults" for a few days. Heaven!

The trip started off....well, not so well. As my last post indicated Mike was getting over a bout of the flu and Henry seemed to be coming down with a nasty cold. We awoke pre-dawn last Friday morning (gotta love those early flights) to find poor Henry miserable, and with a fever of 103.4 - yes, his highest temperature ever. There was debate of postponing, but he seemed OK and we were loaded up on Infant Motrin so we decided to soldier on.

Yeah - it was a bad flight. Poor Henry was so sad, so so tired, couldn't eat, couldn't sleep - and then we had an over 2 hour delay in Detroit because they didn't know where our plane was (this is true!). Here is the saddest photo ever:

Note the glassy eyes, the exhausted face, the general misery. Mike and I looked worse, let me tell you! (our fellow passengers may also have looked worse by the end. Henry was, shall we say, not a stellar passenger this day).

We almost fell into Gayle and Mark's arms with relief when we finally arrived. :)

The first two days were spent by all of us in Grand Rapids. Henry began his road to recovery by taking daily 2+ hour naps (!!!) and enjoying the antics of Gretel the dog (who loved Henry's food flinging abilities)

On Sunday afternoon Mike and I left Henry in their capable hands and headed to Chicago for a few days of "non-baby" time - the Sleep-cation!!!! On our agenda:

- Sleeping
- Shopping (our hotel was right in the middle of the Magnificent Mile - Coach was down the block, Nordstrom was across the street. I was happy)
- A museum or two
- A few good dinners
- A few workouts in the fancy fitness center in the hotel
- General meandering
- Lots of conversations NOT related to babies, baby poop, baby sleep, the transition from bottle to sippy cup, the general overall cuteness of Henry, etc.

Here is what we accomplished off of that list:
- Sleeping
- A few good dinners

Yes, we were utter sloths. (although, I naturally came down with Henry's cold while there thus part of the reason for our lack of motivation to do anything else). It was FABULOUS! :)

We did do some shopping and took some long walks. Had a great dinner at Smith and Wollenskys and some classic Deep Dish during the day. We had daily updates on Henry so we knew his fever had broken and he was continuing his fabulous sleeping (he was showing off for his Nana).

The last night we had a phenomenal dinner at Rick Bayless' restaurant Topolabampo (http://www.rickbayless.com/restaurants/topolobampo.html)
One of the best meals we have had - we both had different tasting menus (but we chose to do them sans the wine selection - there were way too many margarita, mojito, etc selections). I discovered that Habanero sauce is REALLY REALLY INSANELY HOT. We also saw Rick Bayless in the flesh (exciting for those who watch the Food Network)

We also both discovered that as parents over the age of 30 we can no longer drink nearly as much alcohol as we used to. My Champagne Margaritas and Mike's Mexcal Margaritas on top of the wine we had at the hotel wine/chocolate/cheese bar (YUM) ahead of time did not mix well. And our last evening of sleep was marred by the oh-so-lovely hangover the next morning. We have learned our lesson - damn you Rick Bayless!!

We returned to Grand Rapids yesterday afternoon to find Henry well and in fabulous spirits - he obviously enjoyed his time with his grandparents quite a bit. Another early flight this morning yielded a very different trip - a happy baby who did not cry and actually took an over hour nap in my arms on the second leg.

So, a big THANK YOU to Gayle and Mark for taking such wonderful care of Henry for us. You have no idea how much we appreciated it!

A Busy Thursday

Lots of updates today...and very little time to write them!


Apparently this February was the wettest/cloudiest on record in Boston. It was a pretty miserable month, and unfortunately the affects are now being felt in that almost everyone we know is sick. Half of my baby class has been out of commission lately. Colds, a stomach bug, the flu...people are dropping like flies.


Unfortunately, Mike was first of the Powells to succumb and came down with the flu on Saturday. Sunday he did not get out of bed until 5:30 PM...it was pretty bad. After taking a sick day on Monday he was back at work, but still not feeling 100%. He now has a nasty cough he is battling.


Henry was next to go. Last week he had a high temperature for a few days, but after a call to the Dr. and no other symptoms we figured he was fine and it may be partially teething related (those top two suckers are sloooooooooooooooooowly inching their way out). This week he developed a terrible cough, and yesterday it got bad enough that he was unable to sleep. The poor baby is actually crying sometimes after he coughs because it hurts :( He also has had a temperature of 102 or so. We went to the pediatrician this afternoon and it is just a bad cold - no ear infection, etc. That is good news, but also means there isn't much you can do for him. No cold or cough meds for kids under 6....


So, Mike and Henry are not happy campers. We are hoping they both get a good night's sleep tonight because tomorrow we have an early morning flight to Michigan! Yes - the Powells are headed to Grand Rapids for a visit with Nana Gayle and Papa Mark. After a few days in MI, Mike and I are leaving Henry in their capable hands and headed to Chicago for what I am affectionately calling our "sleep-cation". Yes - we are going to stay in a hotel and SLEEP. Sleep past 6 AM!!!!!! Oh my goodness I am excited. So, cross your fingers that our little bug feels better VERY soon so that he is back to his usual fun and sunny self for his visit (and isn't our fellow airline passengers' worst nightmare...)


In other news - Henry had his Early Intervention Assessment this morning (only a week's wait - it was great!). We had 3 people come to the house to play with Henry, observe him, and go through an immensely long checklist to see what he is and is not doing. Everything from if he is using his thumb when picking up small objects, to if he can figure out how to pull a string to get a toy, to the rhythm of his babbling. They were all very nice and Henry warmed right up to them. He is a ham, as we know, so he did a lot of showing off :)


When they first arrived and were observing they all said that he looked fabulous (naturally!)They loved how extremely social and engaged he is, and he has great fine motor and gross motor skills. However, after going through the checklist the speech pathologist DID determine that he qualifies for Early Intervention services (meaning he is 25% delayed on his verbal/communication skills).


They all stressed that they are not overly concerned about Henry. This is not a sign of a learning disability or some large over-arching "issue". Basically he just needs a little help for him to focus on bringing up those skills. He is right on the cusp of qualifying for services. Some of the things that they based this on are things like: not consistently responding to his name, not responding to "no", not looking where people are pointing, not looking in the right place when you say something like "Where's Daddy?", etc.


So, what this means is for the next 6 months Henry will have 1 hour a week with a developmental specialist who will come to our home. She will work with him and show us things we can do with him to help him with those skills. I think this is a fabulous service, and we are glad he is able to take advantage of the help. While you never want to hear that your child needs extra help with something, we do know that having this service is a great thing for him. He almost definitely would be fine without it and would just reach certain milestones on the later side, but why not take advantage of the service?


So, that is the update from here. We won't be posting for the next week while we are in Grand Rapids/Chicago. So, we leave you with another cute picture if our little pork chop: