Bathtime Conversations

For some reason, Henry gets very talkative during his bath. We play a game where he makes a sound and I repeat it, and then I say a word and he repeats it. The other night he was repeating every word I said. I grabbed my camera, and of course, he stopped doing it. I managed to capture a few Henry words. I just love the way he says "Stella." It sounds like "Tetta." He seems to say "baba" or "dada" in place of most words. I swear the other day he said "billy goat." I'm sure it was just a random combination of sounds, but it made me laugh.




Naked Time Update: We had another couple of hours of Naked Time yesterday to try and air out Henry's diaper rash. This time we had FIVE pees and ONE POOP on the floor. YUCK!

Naked Time!

My poor little Henry has such sensitive skin that he keeps getting horrible diaper rashes. He's had prescription medication for the rashes on three different occasions, and we always keep him slathered in Desitin in an attempt to prevent a new rash. Yesterday evening his little bottom was so red and raw. He shrieked and shook and clenched his legs together when I changed his diaper. Even a bath with baking soda made him scream. He spent two hours running around the house with no diaper on to air out the rash. I kept a VERY close eye on him to make sure he didn't leave any surprises anywhere. Although he seemed to enjoy the naked time, his rash doesn't look any better today. In fact, it looks worse after all night in a diaper. We're going to run to Target right now to buy more Desitin, but when we get back, it's Naked Time!

Don't YOU check your mail without pants on?

Pants? Who needs pants?

I LOVE naked time, Mommy!

Henry is going to HATE me for these pictures someday.

Weekend Getaway (a.k.a. Birthday Barf-O-Rama)

Happy Presidents' Day! For some reason that greeting never really caught on. It's definitely not my favorite holiday, but anytime I get a 3-day weekend, I'm glad. So, as I said, Happy Presidents' Day! We spent the weekend down in Sunriver, Oregon (near Bend) at our friend Jim's parents' house. They have a huge vacation home there, so we had 11 adults and 4 children staying there. Henry and I drove over Saturday morning since Jeff was still working. He did pretty well on the 4-hour drive. He slept the first 2 1/2 hours, was o.k. for the next 1/2 hour, and then whined and cried for the last hour. He REALLY wanted to get out of his car seat. Jeff didn't make it there until Sunday, so as soon as he arrived we went for a walk. In the COLD. It was snowing earlier in the day, and it was really cold! Did I mention that it was cold? We only walked for about 10 minutes before turning around because it was way too cold for Henry, who didn't have any gloves with us. Bad Mommy!

Jim's birthday was on Sunday, so we were all there to help him celebrate.

Unfortunately, we ended up calling it "Birthday Barf-O-Rama" or "Noro (VIRUS) Birthday." All of a sudden on Saturday, Amber became violently ill. She spent most of the night on the bathroom floor. We thought it might have been food poisoning. Until 2 1/2-year-old Sebastian threw up later that night. The next day, it struck Bryan. He threw up all night. Then Sunday night, it was Mark's turn. I haven't heard whether there were any more casualties after we QUICKLY left early today, and so far our family seems fine. Knock on wood.

I don't think I've ever mentioned on this blog what a great sleeper Henry is. I usually don't talk about it, because every time I do, he has a terrible night's sleep that night. I'm taking a chance by writing this down, but I'll throw caution to the wind just this once. Henry started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks, and with very few exceptions, he has been a great night sleeper. This was NOT the case at Sunriver. He has spent the night away from home before and has done great. Saturday night he screamed and cried when I tried to put him down at his usual 7:30 time. I can't stand to let him cry, so I got him back up and didn't put him down until about 9:30. He seemed o.k. until 2:45 a.m. when he woke up SCREAMING. I picked him up, calmed him down, and fed him a bottle, but he wouldn't go back to sleep. He wouldn't go back into his crib. He wouldn't sleep in bed with me. He finally went back to sleep at about 4:15...then he woke up at 6:30. Not good. Sunday night was a bit better. He went down at 7:30 with very minimal crying. But, then he woke up crying at 11:00. And 11:30. And 12:00. And so on. It was another rough night. I thought at least he would sleep well in the car on the way home. I thought. He slept for the first 40 minutes of the drive, but woke up when I stopped for gas. Then he wouldn't go back to sleep. He wanted OUT! Here is a very unhappy Henry....

After 1 1/2 hours of whining and crying, and then a stop for pizza with Jeff, and then MORE whining, he finally fell asleep in the car.

He slept for the last 40 minutes of the drive and then for another hour in the car in the garage. I just put him down for the night in his own crib. Hopefully he'll sleep all night...and none of us will throw up.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Don't you think Henry makes the perfect Valentine cherub? If only he had a pair of wings and a bow and arrow. He could be Cupid. Since I don't have a pair of wings lying around, I had to improvise for some Valentine's pictures. He loved the balloons and chocolates!

Mmmm...look at all these chocolates!

These balloons are fun!

Happy Valentine's Day from Henry and his two sweethearts (Mommy & Daddy)!

Rainy Sunday

This morning it was clear and sunny out. I wanted to go outside to enjoy the nice weather. After Henry's nap, Jeff and I decided to take Henry and the pugs to a nearby park. By the time we got everyone dressed and ready to go, it was kind of cloudy. By the time we drove to the park (about 2 miles away), it was gray. As soon as we got out of the car, it started drizzling. A few minutes later it was full-fledged raining. We were determined to enjoy our trip to the park. I pushed Henry on the swings and let him explore the play structure while Jeff walked the pugs around the park. We only stayed for about 15 minutes. Oh well. It was still fun.

Henry loves swinging! He smiles and laughs the whole time.

Henry's driving...watch out!

A little rain didn't spoil Henry's fun! He even kept his hood up the whole time.

Here's a quick & blurry video of Henry having fun swinging in the rain....

We live in Oregon...

...so Henry needs rain gear!


Of course, when we take him out in the rain, we will probably have him wear pants.

Sick AGAIN!

Yes, Henry is sick again. He was congested and coughing over the weekend, but he seemed o.k. otherwise. Then this morning he woke up with a 101.3 fever. Not too high, but he definitely needed to stay home. Jeff was home, so Henry stayed home with Daddy. He woke up from his nap this afternoon with a 104.5 fever, so when I got home from work I took him to Urgent Care (after he greeted me by vomiting on me). He then threw up again in the car on the way to Kaiser. He screamed and cried and made everyone around us in the waiting room feel sorry for him. When we were finally seen by the doctor, he did not like being poked and prodded, so he screamed and cried some more. Fast forward TWO HOURS...end result: double ear infection on top of some kind of virus. He's on antibiotics, and I was told he should be feeling better within 48 hours. I've called in a sub and will stay home with my little sickie tomorrow. Poor baby. He just can't seem to stay well. I'll be so glad when cold & flu season is over!

Here's a video from Saturday when he was feeling MUCH better. He's having fun feeding Daddy....

Feeding Frenzy!

Henry is a very picky eater! Some days he hardly eats anything (which drives me crazy) and other days he has a voracious appetite and eats all day long. He's kind of a thin little guy, and was barely in the 25th percentile for weight at his last few doctor appointments. This surprises me because neither Jeff nor I are picky eaters, and neither of us could be described as thin! Yesterday morning Henry woke up HUNGRY. I got him out of his crib, and was changing his diaper, when he started asking for a bottle, "ba-ba?...BA-ba?...BA-BA!" As I was pouring milk into the bottle, Henry continued his "BA-BA!" chant. As I was about to put the bottle into the microwave, Henry grabbed it with both hands and started gulping cold milk straight from the bottle (without a nipple). After chugging a couple of ounces, he allowed me to heat up the bottle, and drank the rest in the normal fashion. When we got home yesterday afternoon, Henry was already hungry for dinner. I made him some beef and pasta. O.K., it was hamburger with macaroni and cheese, but he loves that stuff. He ate quite a bit of dinner, but then used his "all done" sign to let me know he was finished. I cleaned him off, lifted him out of the highchair, and set him down. Then I proceeded to feed the dogs his leftovers. I threw the bits of hamburger onto the ground, and Rocco and Stella quickly ate them up. Then I tossed some of the macaroni on the floor, and Henry was right there with Rocco and Stella eating it off the floor! I put a stop to that pretty quickly. Clearly Henry was still hungry, so I started handing him pieces of macaroni as I finished making spaghetti for me and Jeff. Henry was walking around, playing, opening cupboards, and coming back to me every few minutes for more macaroni. After one macaroni hand-off, he walked away and I heard a THUD. I turned around to find him flat on the ground about to let out a loud cry/scream, with macaroni still tightly clutched in each fist. I don't think he wanted to let go of the macaroni, so he wasn't able to use his hands to break his fall. I quickly scooped him up, and he started crying hard. However, in between sobs, he continued to feed himself macaroni. It was definitely a hungry day.

Here's Henry during a peanutbutter feeding frenzy. He even had peanutbutter in his hair when he was finished.

He was mad because I wouldn't let him touch my camera! I don't think peanutbutter and cameras go well together.