Professional Pictures

We finally got around to having professional pictures taken of Henry - it was kind of sad to realize we made it through his first year without having any really good family portraits of the 3 of us. We love how they turned out. The only problem is deciding which ones we are going to get - we have about 200 to pick from! Some of the photos from our session made it onto our photographer's blog - check it out! (we are the April 28th entry)

http://paulaswiftphotography.blogspot.com/

Party!

Today we celebrated Henry's 1st birthday with his 1st birthday party. Despite the fact that he was having a tough day teething-wise, Henry was a party animal and had a good time with all his friends.

The Year of Henry

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Henry is ONE

We can hardly believe it, but the big day is here - and almost over. Henry is one year old.

It is amazing how quickly the year has gone (especially when you think back on those early, very sleepless nights and how looooong they seemed). It is amazing how very, very, very different he is and how much he has changed in the past year. Everything - everything is amazing. There are truly no words.

Henry had a good birthday - it was our first HOT day (interestingly, the day he was born was also the first hot day of spring last year). Henry wore his new birthday shirt:

Then he got to accompany me to the dentist (isn't that what everyone wants to do on their birthday?) and spend some time at the local playground. Mike came home to have lunch with him and help open some of Henry's presents:

Later in the afternoon our good friends Beth and Jess came by to visit Henry and Jess helped me finish putting together his birthday present from me and Mike (thanks Jess!) Once it was determined to be road worthy, we took him out for a spin. He liked it from the get-go:

But once it started moving he got a little apprehensive:

Then he decided he liked it again:

Thank you to everyone who called or emailed birthday wishes to Henry today!

The Jinx

(Warning: this entry involves gross things. It is all way too much information, but I thought I would share. Read at your own risk)

So, I have fallen victim to The Parenting Jinx. All you parents know what I am talking about - as soon as you say something about your child or your child's behavior, that child will jinx you and prove you wrong.

For example - if one were to say "Oh,we are so lucky because little Susie/Johnny has always been easy to put down for the night", the very next night little Susie or Johnny will be up until midnight despite all efforts to get them to sleep.

(it is interesting to note that The Jinx does not work in a positive way - if I were to say to someone "Oh, Henry has never slept past 5:30 AM", Henry will not wake at 7 AM the next day to prove me wrong. This is unfair, but how The Jinx operates. I don't make the rules.)

Anyway, most parents are well aware of The Jinx and therefore rarely if ever verbalize positive attributes of their children's behavior that they are frightened of jinxing. Alas, I forgot this rule.

So, what did I do? The other day while talking to a friend I remarked on how lucky we were that Henry will have made it to his 1st birthday without ever throwing up or having a diaper blowout (the fact that these are the things I talk about in daily conversation is another post entirely). All those extra sheets, Ultimate Crib Sheets, sheet savers, etc. that we have - they are not even out of their packaging. I had heard of all these other middle of the night sheet changes and baths, but we had not experienced it. Obviously, Henry had blessed us.

Now, what do you think happened? Yes - THE JINX. Friday night Henry has dinner, goes to bed, all is well. An hour or so after falling asleep he woke very briefly with a coughing fit, cried for about 30 seconds, and was back asleep - we didn't even need to go in.

A few hours after that as I head to bed, I check the video monitor for a last peek. Something looks funny so I have Mike look at it - yes, it appears that Henry is in the middle of a puddle. We go in....vomit. All.Over.The.Crib. And there is Henry, fast asleep in a pool of it, clutching his lovey (also covered in it), in his PJs (soaked in it) apparently not bothered at all. His entire dinner was on display for us (the child does not chew well). It was horrifying.

So, on we went to our first ever middle of the night PJ and sheet change. Henry was NOT happy - he would have preferred to to stay sleeping in it, I guess (note that Henry is apparently not sick, we think his coughing caused this incident but we have no idea)

I thought that with this, The Jinx was done. I was wrong.

This morning I went to get Henry and at first glance it seemed to he had thrown up again - SOMETHING was on the sheets. Upon closer inspection...Poop. All.Over.The.Crib. And there is Henry lying in the middle, clutching his lovey (also covered in poop), in his PJs (that the poop had soaked through) apparently not bothered at all.

So, on I went to another sheet, mattress pad, PJ change (although this one also involved a bath and subsequent bleaching of the tub). Henry was NOT pleased. In fact, while still clad in his poop soaked jammies, he kept toddling over to his book bin and bringing me books to read, then becoming very upset that instead of reading to him I was trying to clean him up.

I have learned my lesson. I will never again tempt The Jinx - let's all hope that this doesn't happen again.

Random Things

The big news of the week...Henry has discovered how to flush the toilet.

He was VERY excited by this. We are hoping the novelty wears off soon (luckily we have toilet lid locks in place so he has so far been unable to throw random things in and flush them down. I am sure that he will find a way to thwart the locks and this will soon happen, though)

In other news - Henry's other new favorite thing is repetitive reading of his favorite books. I read "Jamberry" FIFTEEN TIMES IN A ROW yesterday. He picks up the book and brings it over to you to show he wants it read. As soon as you complete the book and close it, he hands it right back to you (occasionally when you finish he will also begin crying until you start it again). I am starting to hallucinate Sandra Boynton books.

Here are some pictures of Henry and our friend Kate at the park the other day. The weather remains nice - today it is supposed to be mid-70s and sunny. Perfect sandbox weather.

Walking

I just had to post some more walking pictures of Henry. I think he is so stinking cute when he walks. He is getting a lot better, too! Today at the playground he was able to successfully manage his sneakers and going from surface to surface (pavement to wood chips, for example).

He is officially a toddler!!!

(some day I will get a good picture of him walking - maybe with his face actually showing - I promise)

Spring has sprung!

Today was our warmest day since the end of October - 70 degrees, sunny, light breeze....it was fabulous. Here are some photos of Henry enjoying the day:

In 39 Days...

In 39 Days I will walk 39 miles during my participation with the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer -Boston. I will be up and ready to go at U Mass Boston at 5:30 AM on Saturday, walk 26.2 miles that day, camp out in a tent that night, and walk 13.1 miles back on Sunday. I will be walking with over 3,000 other men and women who share the same commitment to help in the fight against breast cancer.

I am SO excited for this event, having seen the past 3 year's Walks from a logistical standpoint. I am also excited that I am going to be walking with my good friend Tiffany (another past Avon Walk colleague). Tiffany had her son - Henry David - 3 months ago, and the two of us make up TEAM HENRY! We want to make sure our Henrys don't ever need to go through the trauma of having one of us, or any other friend or family member, be diagnosed with this disease.

I STILL NEED HELP THOUGH! All walkers are required to raise a minimum of $1800 in order to participate. Thanks to so many generous friends and family I am now at $1,190!!!! Thank you SO much to everyone who has donated and supported me thus far.

I have $600 left to raise in the next 39 days! If you have not yet donated, please take a look at my Avon Walk page: http://www.tinyurl.com/2jvwy9

Donating is easy, and you will be making a giant impact in the fight against breast cancer.

Thank you so much to everyone for all of your support. Team Henry is off for a training walk now!

Big Boy Shoes

Due to Henry's stupendous achievements with walking these past few days, Mike and I decided to take him shopping for his first "real" shoes today. Being barefoot is obviously the best way for him to learn to walk, but since it is getting warmer (well, hopefully soon) it is only a matter of time before we are at the park or in the backyard and he will need shoes when walking around.




So, we fell for the hype and took him to Stride Rite to have him "professionally fitted" for his first pair of over-priced children's shoes.



Turns out Henry has big feet!! He currently measures at a 4.5 EXTRA wide! Where did those fat feet come from? I wear a narrow - I guess it is Mike's genes :)



Henry was very cooperative and impressed the sale-person by walking around the store right away in his first pair of sandals. His sneakers are a different story - he doesn't quite know what to think of them and tends to stand and stamp his feet a bit trying to figure out what the HECK are on his feet.



We got him two pairs - sneakers and some summer sandals. Very cute in my opinion:



When we got home we had him wear his sneakers for a while to try and get him used to them. He wasn't a huge fan so after an hour we gave in and took them off. The problem is, he then started playing with them and seems to have lost one of them already. I have no idea how this happened, but I really hope we find it soon!

Walking

So, we have been getting many questions about Henry's new-found walking skills and how he is coming along. As we know, he took his first independent steps a little over a month ago (2-3 steps from the coffee table to the couch). He has been cautiously improving his skills slowly but surely the past month. He was the same with crawling - it was a LONG process between his first crawling "steps" and actually motoring around the house.



At this point, I am fairly comfortable saying that we have an "official" walker! This is not to imply that he is the most stable of walkers (oh my, far from it), but he is now trying to walk instead of crawl probably 75% of the time. He can also now get into a standing position by himself (without pulling up to stand on furniture first) and take off. He has also started "walking" aimlessly - no toy or parent as his destination, but walking just to walk. Today was the first time he made it across the entire room without falling. I am guessing that walking will be his main form of transportation by his birthday (please don't hold me to that, though). Tomorrow we are taking him to Stride Rite to get him fitted for his first "real" shoes (his Converse are terribly cute, but may not be the best for new walkers).



Here are some pics of our little walker. Note the "Frankenstein" pose he likes to do to maintain his balance.







The pictures aren't so hot, but trust me that it is hard to get a good picture of this child walking!!

Happy Birthday!

Henry and I want to wish a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our favorite guy in the world. Mike is 32 today! He was also lucky enough to be able to cancel his most recent business trip, so he is here in town with us on his birthday.

Mike and I met a little over 10 years ago and were married almost 4 years ago. Last year he became a dad. Every year and every day we love him more.

So, happy birthday to the best husband and dad there is.

Lastly, because the Powells can't resist a lemon beehive cake - here is a shot of Mike's birthday cake that was whipped up last night :)