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 :) )