Sunny Surprise

It was supposed to be rainy today...but, it wasn't! It was sunny and beautiful this afternoon. I left work a little early, picked up Henry, and we played outside for awhile. He spent a lot of time looking at, touching, and smelling the flowers.As I was sitting on the rock wall, he climbed up next to me and sat down. Then he grabbed my hand and said, "Hold Mommy's hand." I love my little sweetie.
After dinner, I had a little surprise for Henry. I bought rainbow-colored ice cream cones, and I gave him his ice cream on a GREEN cone. He was so excited, and kept saying, "Special green cone" over and over.Wherever the food is...the pugs will be there, too.

Funny Stuff

Just a few Henry funnies...

He still goes in and out through the doggy door all the time, and I'm trying to get him to stop. I don't like it when he goes outside in the rain wearing only socks or when he walks on the grass before I've had a chance to pick up dog poop. So, I keep telling him that the doggy door is FOR DOGGIES! This afternoon while I was in the kitchen, I heard the doggy door flap open and close, but Rocco & Stella were both with me in the kitchen. I saw Henry running around outside on the deck, so I opened the sliding glass door and he immediately said, "Doggy door is for doggies!" I said, "Yes, that's right. Are you a doggy?" His reply..."Woof! Woof!" as he ran away.

A couple of days ago I was trying to figure out what to make Henry for dinner. I was giving him some choices of his favorite foods.
Me: "Do you want spaghetti? Or chicken nuggets? Or meatballs?"
Henry: "Or candy?"

Henry loves to be tickled. He actually asks for it. As I'm changing his diaper, he'll say, "Mama tickle arm?" While playing with Jeff, he'll say "Got your neck?" which means that he wants Jeff to tickle his neck. The funniest thing, though, is that he doesn't only request the usual tickle spots. On several occasions, he's said, "Tickle tongue? Tickle teeth?" Umm, o.k.

As we were in the car driving home from daycare last week, out of the blue Henry said, "Rabbits eat grass, fruits, and vegetables." I was kind of surprised at that bit of knowledge from a 2-year-old!

I was feeding Henry dinner, and I was trying to get him to use his fork as opposed to picking everything up with his fingers.
Me: Use your fork.
Henry: Use your words!

After changing Henry's diaper, and putting him back down on the floor, he said, "There...that's better."

He's a funny kid!

Mommy Time

Me and Doodlebug.
I am usually the one taking the pictures, so I don't have a lot of pictures of me and Henry together. I finally got a couple of recent ones, so I thought I'd share them. I haven't mentioned this on the blog, but I've recently lost 40 lbs and I kind of wanted to wait until I'd lost more before posting pictures of myself. Oh well. I'll post more pictures of myself after losing ANOTHER 40 lbs. It might be a while....

"How 'bout go playground?"

I took Henry to a nearby playground today. We were the only ones there, but we had fun. It was a bit chilly today, but we really needed to get out. Last Saturday it was almost 80 degrees. Yesterday it snowed. On April 19! How many more days until Summer? I can't wait!

He's Two and a Half!

Henry was born exactly 30 months ago today. I can't believe he's two and a half already.

Some tidbits of information about 2 1/2 -year-old Henry:

• He won't eat ANY vegetables (unless you count french fries, which I don't)
• He loves Reese's Pieces
• He doesn't share very well...at all
• He won't watch any other show besides Thomas the Tank Engine on t.v.
• He tells me when he needs his diaper changed
• He knows all of his letters and colors
• He can recognize and name over 50 of the Thomas trains
• He asks to be tickled
• He loves being naked (especially in his crib, lately)
• He will NOT take cough medicine
• He likes the taste of coffee
• He is fascinated with the moon
• He will eat 3 popsicles in one sitting
• He can recite all of the words from several books
• He won't say "please" even though the knows how
• He likes to smell flowers -- even fake ones
• He still goes outside via the doggy door
• He has an incredible memory
• He calls all bald men "Grandpa"
• He asks for balloons EVERY time we go to the store
• He laughs at farts and burps
• He quizzes US about animal sounds ("what's a cow say?" etc.)
• He loves sitting on Mommy's lap to read books
• He loves playing outside with his daddy

Henry + Thomas = True Love

Henry LOVES his Thomas underpants so much. It makes us laugh. He's worn them over his clothes three times now, and when he sees them, he gets giddy and shrieks, "Thomas undoopanth!!" This evening, he sat watching t.v. (Thomas & Friends, of course) while holding the Thomas underpants and occasionally stroking them against his face. Should we be worried?


"Oh, Thomas undoopanth..."

I think we're better...knock on wood!

O.K....NOW I think we're better. I ended up going to the doctor on Tuesday because I had started feeling so much worse. My head felt like it was going to explode, my chest was wheezing, I was having coughing fits, I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't sleep. The doctor said that I definitely had a sinus infection, and I possibly had pneumonia. Lovely. So, he put me on a very strong antibiotic, gave me an inhaler, and gave me cough syrup with codeine...and FINALLY after five days, I started to feel better. Yesterday was the first day that I didn't ask Jeff to drill a hole in my skull to relieve the pressure. Also, Henry has finally stopped coughing! And Jeff is feeling well! Hooray! I was beginning to think we'd never get better. But we are! Knock on wood....

Last weekend, even though we weren't well, we just had to get out of the house. If I stay cooped up too long, I start to get cabin fever. Henry is the same way. He gets grumpy and whiny if we don't leave the house. So, I raided some quarters from his bank, and we went to Toys 'R' Us to play on the ride-on toys at the front of the store.

Henry seems to like Kermit.

He's not too sure about Barney.The worm creature is o.k.We even ventured out to a restaurant last week. I still wasn't feeling well, but we needed to eat! Henry loves going to the Mongolian Grill near our house. He actually requests their food, "How 'bout noodles and chicken??" So, Jeff & I took him to his favorite place, and he ate like a CHAMP!YUM!!

Yesterday Henry & I were at Target. I was looking at socks for him, when he spotted something with Thomas on it. All of a sudden, he frantically started asking, "How 'bout Thomas? How 'bout hold it? How 'bout want it? How 'bout Mommy open it?" It was a pack of Thomas underpants. I explained that they were for big boys who go pee pee and poo poo on the potty. He had to have them. I think Henry is actually close to being ready for potty-training. I, however, am not quite ready. My plan is to start potty-training this summer when I'm off work. After his bath last night, Henry said, "Go poo poo on the toilet." He's never pooped on the toilet, but I let him give it a try. No luck. As soon as I took him off the toilet, he said, "Put on Thomas underpants!" I guess he thought he'd earned them just for trying. We compromised.
All right, I think we're pretty much caught up.

Spring Break Fever

This week was my Spring Break. I wish that I could write about all of the fun and wonderful things we've been doing, but I can't. All three of us have been sick. HUGE bummer!


Jeff and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on Monday. We'd been getting over colds, but we felt good enough to go ahead with our anniversary plan. Jeff's mom, Lannie, flew down from Spokane for a few days. Jeff and I went to the beach OVERNIGHT! It was my first time EVER being away from Henry overnight. I knew he was in good hands, but it was still hard for me to leave him. He had a runny nose and a cough, but we still went. Once at the beach, I called to check in on Henry, and found out that he woke up from his nap with a fever of 104.5! We were sure it was an ear infection, so Lannie took him to the urgent care clinic. It turns out, he had pneumonia. Poor little guy. We returned the next day, and he was feeling much better, but he's been coughing like crazy all week. I'm glad Jeff & I had the opportunity to celebrate our anniversary, and I'm so appreciative that Lannie was here taking excellent care of him. Jeff & I have both been sick for the past few days, so the whole family spent Spring Break coughing and blowing our noses. It was a nice anniversary, but a pretty sad Spring Break.



I've been feeling cabin fever staying at home all week, and I think Henry has been feeling it, too. He was happy to play outside for a little while yesterday.

I haven't been taking pictures lately, but that's probably because nobody wants to see pictures of snot and kleenex. I have a couple of pictures from Easter. Henry got a basket with lots of toys and a very little bit of candy. He loves Reese's Pieces.

He got cool Thomas sunglasses!Once everyone's feeling better, we'll get out there and do stuff...and take pictures...and update the blog more often!

Children's Museum

Today Marianne and I took Peyton, Nathan, and Henry to the Portland Children's Museum. It was surprisingly busy for a Monday! It was made up of many cool hands-on imaginative play exhibits: a construction site, a digging area with shovels, trucks, and rubber rocks, a store where kids could run the cash register, a hospital, a theater, a place to play with water, and lots of other stuff to do.

Peyton brushing the crocodile's teeth

Henry checking out the crocodile

Nathan playing in the "rocks"

Henry hoarding rocks and buckets

Tickets, please!

Who's that handsome guy?

He's Baaaaack!

Henry is definitely back to his old self. He went to the doctor again on Thursday, and was diagnosed with a double ear infection. Since he's been on antibiotics, he is so much better. No fever. No coughing. He is eating. He is drinking. Life is good!


I was worried about getting him to take medicine twice a day because while he was super sick, he REFUSED to take any medicine. You can force it into his mouth, but you can't make him swallow it. Jeff had to strong-arm him a couple of times to get him to take it. But, we found something that really worked. I bribed him with lollipops. I told him, "FIRST medicine, THEN lollipop." It worked! He's been taking his meds like a champ!
I'm not sure what was going on with his hair on this day. Sick guy bead head?

Henry's been back at daycare this week, and he is having fun again. We went on a family outing to Toys 'R' Us on Sunday, and of course came home with a new Thomas item.

Thanks, Daddy! I love my new roundhouse!

Still Sick...

Poor baby! I thought Henry was getting better because he only had a low-grade fever on Monday and Tuesday. Wrong! I checked on him before going to bed last night, and he was burning hot. I took his temp, and it was back up to 103.5. To make matters worse, he now refuses to take any medicine. He will cry, run, hide, and spit out the medicine to avoid taking it. I took him to the doctor's yesterday, but the nurse just listened to his chest, looked in his ears and throat, and said that he's fine. "Fine" meaning no pneumonia, ear infection or strep throat. He has some kind of virus. He has a horrible cough, his nose is constantly running, and he keeps spiking fevers. He won't eat anything, and he will only drink a little at a time (except bath water - he wanted to chug that tonight). Sometimes he is burning up and whimpering, and other times he gets a burst of energy, and wants to play outside. I caught Henry in a brief moment of happiness yesterday. Reading with Daddy makes everything better!

Oh, Crap!

Henry has a temperature of 103.5 (after taking Motrin earlier). I hate it when my baby's sick. He's sitting on my lap eating an ice cream cone right now, so I guess he's doing o.k. Feed a fever, right?

Happy Birthday, Rocco!

Today is Rocco's 4th birthday. Jeff and I couldn't remember whether he was 3 or 4, but after counting back in time, I figured it out. I made meatloaf muffins tonight for dinner, so I gave Rocco his very own meat muffin with candles. I didn't light the candles because Rocco is afraid of fire...crazy dog. He wasn't quite sure what to do at first, but he eventually figured it out.

Henry has slight fever and a cough. I must have jinxed myself a couple of days ago when I was marveling at how healthy Henry has been this Winter. We didn't go to his My Gym class today because I didn't want to be "That Mom" who brings her sick kid around other kids. I hate when people do that! After being cooped up most of the day, we played outside on the deck for a while in the afternoon.

I gave Henry some Motrin, and I have the humidifier going in his room. He's supposed to be sleeping, but I can hear him over the monitor, and he's singing "Happy Birthday" to Rocco.