You, Me and the Bean

Monthly Update 1.22.12

2012-01-22T11:51:00.000-08:00

Georgia had to her two month appointment this week. She got her shots, which she DID NOT LIKE, but she tolerated well: no fever just lots of sleeping and frowning at Mama. She is 12.9 lbs (90th percentile) and 23 inches long (75th percentile), so she's a big girl. Got a great report from the doctor so we are not going back for 2 months.
She is such a fun baby. She's even tempered and sweet. She loves to snuggle and is interesting in everything going on around her. She doesn't fuss much, unless she gets over tired and then she is a bear to settle down. She smiles a lot, especially when she nurses and at her brother.
Life with a newborn has been chaotic. Our house is a mess, dinners are fast and we don't get to play with Henry as often as we'd like to, but everyone seems to be adjusting well.
Henry has had another great semester at school. He had his second perfect report card last week and is being invited to birthday parties and having friend over all the time. He thinks his sister is pretty great, even if she doesn't do much. He loves to be in on every diaper change (mostly to comment on how huge the poop was) and every smile or baby cooing session, he wants to be a part of it all. He's been doing more things by himself. This morning we found him reading in bed instead of getting up to watch cartoons. He loves drawing mazes for Papa and I to complete and robots.
Well it sounds like the baby is waking up. I'll try to post more photos later.

A few photos

2011-12-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

Weekly Update 12.9.11

2011-12-09T12:02:00.001-08:00

Georgia has spent the morning grumbling at me but she is finally asleep so I thought I'd do a quick update. She had her 2 week check up on Tuesday. She has gained 2 1/2 lbs in the past 2 weeks. She left the hospital at 6 lbs 5 oz and weighed in on Tuesday at 8 lbs 13 oz. She's still pretty mellow and sleeps a lot, but every day she seems to be awake a little bit longer. Her vision is getting better so when she is awake she likes to be moving around looking at things. Her personality is really starting to show. So far she doesn't cry at night like Henry did, but she will let you have it when you change her diaper or don't hold her the way she wants to be held. She is really interested in her hands and has been able to get her thumb in her mouth a couple of times. I was a thumb sucker until Kindergarten, so it seems fitting that my daughter would be one also. My parents spent a fortune on Strawberry Shortcake dolls to encourage me to quit the habit. It seems only fair that I should have to do the same. :) She fell asleep taking a bath this week, so apparently she has decided that she likes baths.
Henry is doing pretty well. He is keeping busy with friends and play dates and school. I think he misses some of his time with his parents by himself, but he doesn't complain much about it. He is counting down the days until Christmas. Last week we sent a letter to Santa with at least 30 gifts listed. St. Nicholas also came to our house on Tuesday. St. Nick is something that we celebrated in my house growing up. We'd leave our shoes by the fireplace and in the morning they would be full of candy and little gifts. Henry got lots of candy and swim goggles (which he has used in the bathtub every night since) and a book about super heroes. He and Papa are working on a painting for the living room. Henry designed it and I have to admit, it's pretty great. I'll post a picture of the finished product.
I am doing pretty well. My recovery with this delivery has been so fast and easy, it's crazy. I feel good and if I just got more than 2 hours of sleep during the night I would probably feel great.
Wade is doing pretty well. He is juggling work and the family, which can sometimes be challenging but his work has been so understanding about everything, he pretty much just comes and goes as we need him to. He is still playing music and stays up too late writing music, but that's just what he does so what can I say.
We have family in town starting next week until the end of the month. It's going to be so wonderful to see my sister Susie and hold my nephew, Willem.
This weekend we are going to try to get a Christmas tree and put up some decorations. I doubt we'll get lights on the outside of the house this year, but that's okay. Hope you guys have a great weekend.

Pippy's Here!

2011-11-27T12:18:00.000-08:00

Georgia arrived on 11/18/11 at 9:02. She was 6 lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long. Earlier that day I went in for a doctors appointment and discovered that my fluid was low. It was time to have a baby. The hospital was completely full, so we had to wait until 6:30 to get a bed. At around 7:30 I had my IV in and was getting ready for pitocin. My contractions were about 10 minutes apart, not very strong at that point, but once the pitocin kicked in they quickly went from fairly easy to totally unbearable. Around 8:15 I told the nurse that I was pretty sure that my water broke and she decided that she should maybe check my cervix. The contractions were getting really strong so she brought in a birthing ball but I only sat on it a few minutes and then told her that I was ready to push. She checked me and all I remember is her saying, "I need nurses in here now, where is the doctor? We are having a baby." Waiting for the doctor felt impossible. When she finally got there she threw on her scrubs and two pushes later we had a baby. The doctor looked at me and said, "Hi, I'm Dr. Bennet. It's nice to meet you." :)
So far Georgia has been very sweet. She is awake an hour or two in the morning and in the evening and the rest of the time she naps. She wakes up about every 3 hours to nurse. She started nursing about 20 minutes after she was born and has been doing great ever since.
Henry is doing pretty well with the change. He is a little more sensitive and makes comparisons about how we treat him verses G, but for the most part he seems to be doing well. Having his 6th birthday on Wednesday really helped. He felt very special.
Wade is working from home this coming week and Henry is back in school, so things should be a little more normal for us: whatever that is now,I guess we have to redefine normal. Have a great week.

Weekly update: 11.13.11

2011-11-13T06:19:00.000-08:00

Not going to be a long one today folks, we have had a pretty slow week. Although we did have a bit of super exciting news on Friday when my nephew was born! I have to wait until Christmas to snuggle him but for now I'm just soaking up being an aunt for the first time. He has a ton of hair and super chubby cheeks...pretty much newborn perfection.
Anyway, I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday. We took a peek at Pippy and found that all is well. We couldn't get a good look at her face because she is now facing my back but we saw toes and fingers and a full bladder.....everything looked like it should. My doctor put me at 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. She said my cervix is ripe and ready to roll, which I thought was kind of gross but I guess ripe is the actual term they use to describe a cervix that is ready for delivery, so I got over it. She jokingly gave me 3 days. Today is day 3, so we'll see. I am not having regular contractions yet.
Henry is doing great. He has been sleeping with me for the past couple of weeks because poor Papa cannot handle my snoring/need for 18 pillows that take up 80% of our king size bed. I have to admit I love having him in the bed with me. When I wake up every 2 or 3 hours I can just reach over and grab his little hand or snuggle up in his curly hair. I keep thinking that in a few days he won't be able to sleep in the bed next to me, so I am trying to really soak it in. Plus, an added bonus is that we both go to sleep at 8:30 every night. :) The weather has been crazy so we have had some fun afternoons at the park and a few boring afternoons stuck inside. But he's taking it all in stride. He has been carrying around a bear he got at the school open house last week and pretending that it is a baby and he has been incorporating the baby into his artwork lately, which is super sweet.
Wade picked up a laptop so he can work from home for a while after the baby is born. Which is such a relief because I was panicking a little about taking care of a newborn and a 5 year old a the same time. At least this way I'll have a few weeks to get in to the swing of things before I am on my own.
Well that's about all I've got for this week. We'll be sure to keep you posted on all things baby as the week goes on. I've got an appointment on Tuesday, fingers crossed for a good progress report. Take care.

Final countdown....3 weeks to go

2011-11-06T06:25:00.000-08:00

We are officially full term but I get a sense that this little Pipp of ours isn't making plans to move out any time soon. We had a sonogram and doctors appointment on Tuesday and found out that she is 6 1/2 lbs, has a full head of hair (it's amazing that you can see that on a sonogram), is definitely a girl, and that her head is down low in my pelvis, so low in fact, that all the pictures the sonogram technician attempted to take looked like a kid smooshing her face against a pane of glass. We saw her making kissy faces and practicing breathing. She looked squished in there and not very comfortable. Her movements are becoming less frequent and are usually her whole body moving from my left side to my right side. She seems to prefer my left side and stays over there most of the time. She seems to sleep a lot. Let's hope that continues for years to come.
My cervix is 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. We go in next Thursday for another sonogram and check up. I'm having some contractions but nothing regular or notable. I was thinking last night, as I lie in bed awake for hours, that it would be really wonderful if she came on November 16th. That was my Aunt Cindy's birthday, she was one of my favorite people.
But we've had a ton of other stuff going on the past two weeks. I'm sure that I will forget some of it. Another reason to make these "weekly" updates actual weekly updates.
The last week of October we had parent teacher conferences. Henry's teacher greeted us at the door by saying, "Thank you so much for bringing your child to me." I don't know if she was telling all the parents that, but boy it felt nice to hear it. She described Henry as sensitive and positive and helpful and upbeat. She told us this story,
"Last week I was feeling under the weather and I told the kids that I wasn't feeling very well. We decided that it was a good time to work on math worksheets. Henry has finished all the single digit math worksheets so I decided to introduce him to double digit math. I showed him how to do it and he completed his worksheet, brought it to the front of the classroom, came over to me, put his hand on my arm and said, "Look at that Ms. Fewins. You didn't feel well and you still taught me something new. Good job. " It made me feel so good. "
She mentioned that sometimes Henry's friend Julia gets her feelings hurt when he wants to play with other kids. "It happened a couple times last week" she said, "and Henry came over to me with Julia and said, Ms. Fewins Julia is upset, can you help us talk it out?""
He also got his first report card. He got all S's (satisfactory). They do not start handing out letter grades until 2nd grade and we found out from a friend with a third grader that the grading scale they use is more difficult than the public schools. An A is 94% or higher. I'm sure glad they don't have those standards at KU. :)
Over the weekend we went to the pumpkin patch and carved pumpkins. I promised patch pictures and didn't deliver. We actually went straight from work and I forgot my camera. Sorry. But I did get a pic of the boys carving their pumpkins. Henry and I made lots of Halloween cookies. His favorites, of course, were the ones that came over from Gigi's house. He loves Gigi's cooking. He had to work the candy corn in on the side of his mouth though because on October 28th he lost his first tooth! The tooth coming in is a big one, it looks like he might have Wade's teeth, but it's hard to tell just yet. The tooth next door is getting wiggly too, so we might have 2 missing teeth here pretty soon. When he lost his tooth I ran into the guest room and threw together a tooth fairy pillow. Henry did not use it though, he is feeling a little shy about giving his tooth to the tooth fairy and is sentimental about giving away his first tooth.
Henry had a Halloween party at school. He had a great time! He got to wear his costume to school, which was a big deal considering that every other day he has to wear his uniform. They decorated cookies and Papa got to come to school and party with him. He did not wear a costume. Here he is with his "girlfriend" Elsa. We also attended family fun night at school. Henry had a great time doing the book scavenger hunt and playing the games. It's fun to see the difference in how he feels about his school now. They had a family fun night orientation in August and he held our hands the whole time and wouldn't talk to anyone. This time he was roaming the halls like he owned the place.
Then, of course, there was Halloween. We got started a little late because we had several very cute visitors before we left for trick or treating but that was actually okay because Henry got the feel of trick or treating with out the gigantic bag of candy. Don't get me wrong, there was still plenty of candy, but much less than last year. The first two houses he really wanted me to be up on the porch with him, but by the third house he ran back and yelled, "This is fun. I am feeling super confident." He even did a "trick" for one of the houses, his attempt that the thumb trick. It was pretty funny. Henry was Optimus Prime.
Yesterday he had his first birthday party with his school friends and his first birthday party where Mama and Papa got to leave him there by himself. I could handle one of those every weekend. He played at the Gymnasium, ate cake and ran around like a maniac. He slept well last night. Today we are going to do some cleaning and try to finish up the million pre-baby projects we have left to do. We cleaned the car yesterday and put in the baby seat. I've also done 5 loads of laundry. My sweet friend Amanda gave us 3 huge trash bags full of baby clothes. This little girl has more clothes than Wade and I combined. It's a good thing that they are all so small, otherwise I think we would have run out of closet space. Well, I think I'll close this one out. We've got some coupons for breakfast bagels and free coffee (for Papa) so we're going to walk to the bagel shop on this beautiful, sunshine-filled morning. Have a great week friends.

Weekly Update 10.16.11

2011-10-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a month, not a week. Sorry about that. We've been super busy with things like: Pretending to be pumpkins Golfing Go-karts Bumper cars Getting lost in giant haunted mazes

Napping
Sewing
Feeling fall breezesAnd getting ready for our baby girl to arrive But all that fun stuff aside, it has been a challenging few weeks. Gigi and Grandpa were in Europe for two weeks which gave Wade and I a taste of what it would be like to be a split shift family. It was hard. Upon returning from his trip, Grandpa came down with a stubborn case of pneumonia. Send prayer and good thoughts his way, please. And while you're at it throw in a few for Nana who is also recovering from surgery.
Okay, let's break it down:

Papa: Papa is currently napping in the other room. He continues to be super busy at work, staying late and working on the weekend occasionally. He is still playing music and working hard to do all the things that I can't do (the list is long) to get our house ready for the baby.

Henry: Henry is doing great at school. He was in a play last week: Noah's Arc. He was the dove and did a very nice job! His school is right across the street from a park, so we like to go to the park everyday after school for a little while. (Henry just entered the room, and has some things to say) - Also, I was in parade 2 weeks ago and I got lots of candy. I liked it a lot. It was fun. I have been building a super mega bionical, or some people might say a Lego robot. He has intelligence of a 10, very smart, very tough because he is the leader, very strong, he has awesome weapons and that's it. Grandpa has ammonia. But I think he's starting to feel better because he set his oxygen to a 2. I can't wait for Halloween. Who0Oo0Ooooo..... (that's a ghost sound, scary!) I am going to be Optimus Prime and I'll have tons of candy that I will cut in half with my battle sword. I mean, it's not real, I'm just pretending that it is a real battle sword. I am reading a book about how my body works. It's 330 pages long. I've read 23 pages to my Mama. We have learned about eyeballs and hair follicles. I'm excited to learn about the bones, muscles and the body parts. That's all I have to say.

Mama & Baby: Mama and the Pipp (that's what we call her for now) are doing fine. I'm feeling those last month of pregnancy pains. By the end of the day my ankles are swollen and I'm asleep by 9 every night and up every few hours to use the bathroom, but we are healthy and happy so I really shouldn't complain. I start going to the doctor every week next Tuesday. So far we're measuring right on track, so I doubt that we'll get to have another sonogram before she's born, which is kind of a bummer, but that's okay. She's kicking like crazy and I spend far too much time watching my belly roll from side to side or feeling her hiccups. I can't wait to see her and get to know her even more.

THE END OF THE STORY. TO BE CONTINUED.....*

* Said by Henry. Have a great week. I promise to be back next week pumpkin patch photos. : )

Weekly Update 9.19.11

2011-09-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

The boys are on a bike ride which means that I can type this post without a tiny person hanging on my arm. I do still have the tiniest person kicking me in the bladder, but that cannot be helped for another 9 weeks. That's right, we are in the single digit weeks now. I am feeling okay. Not as good as a month ago, but not as bad as 5 months ago. The baby's kicks are getting pretty serious. When I feel a kick I can't help but give her a few taps back and she usually kicks me again in the same spot. The heartburn and sleeplessness is back and now that it is getting cooler outside I am really feeling sorry for myself that I can't have a nice warm cup of coffee in the morning. But I can't really complain.
The baby is almost 16 inches now and about 3 lbs. She is going to be gaining about a half a pound a week from now on so I imagine that those kicks will lessen as she fills out and there is less room for her karate style antics.
This week has been nice. We've had amazing weather again. In fact, it's actually kind of cold. I'm wearing a sweater today and on Thursday and Friday I had to send Henry to school in pants and a long sleeved shirt. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten him any winter school clothes yet, so I guess it's already time for another round of uniform shopping.
Picking up Henry has become one of my favorite parts of the day. Imagine it, a group of 5 and 6 year old kids, all perfectly lined up by the door waiting to come out and all their parents standing outside, happy see their kiddos. Little girls walking out in their navy blue skirts or khaki jumpers and little boys with their flat front khaki pants and polo shirts nicely tucked in, all with their backpacks on their backs, excitedly walking out the door in search of their parents. And then, imagine a tall blond boy, a full 6 inches taller than any other kid in the line. His polo is untucked and covered in yellow and blue marker spots, as are his hands and you can barely make out where marker spots have transfered over on to his face. One of his backpack straps is pulled over his forehead, the other is wrapped around the top of one of his arms and all of the papers that should be in his backpack are in a wad in his hand. He runs over when he sees me and we stop for a second so that he can show me all the artwork, schoolwork, handouts and the library books from the day. Then we walk across the park as he tells me about school, usually starting with whatever game he played in PE. Friday it was cops and robbers. He liked being a robber (of course).
My coworkers threw a shower for me on Thursday. It was short and pretty low key, just like I like a shower to be. People brought some yummy food and gave me some lovely gifts. It was fun to celebrate with old and new friends.
The cool breeze last week reminded us that we wanted to put a screen door on our front door. Wade went out on Sunday and found a basic one and he and Henry put it on this morning. Henry LOVES helping with projects. He loves to use the tape measure and the tools. The door looks good and the breeze this morning was wonderful. The cat likes it too. Today Henry and I are going to start sanding down his bedframe, bake some pumpkin bread and plant some mums. I'm looking forward to the house smelling like fresh air and pumpkin bread.

Have a great week friends.

Weekly update 9.11.11

2011-09-12T15:42:00.000-07:00

Hello people. I need to apologize right up front, I am going on 3 hours of sleep and just worked a 9 1/2 hour day, so there is a strong possibility that this post may be rambling, thank goodness for spell check or you might not be able to read it at all. Last week was great. The weather was perfect, it was box fan in the window kinda weather.
Saturday we headed out to Mass St for the band day parade. I was super excited that I remembered my camera until I realized that Henry was making this face for every photograph. I'm not sure what that's about. The first band was the KU band, they played the fight song and got everyone pumped up. Henry says that the KU band was his favorite because they had a girl in front throwing a baton. It was pretty amazing. Then we headed over to our favorite burger place for some veggie burgers and chili dogs. I had to beg him to make a normal face for this picture. So I guess this is his "appeasing his mother" face. I'm sure I'll see a lot of it in the years to come. And then it was back home for a quick shower to get ready for a wedding in KC. Henry had a good time at the wedding but he refused to go up on the dance floor to dance, he claimed to be too shy. Instead, when the music hit him just right, he would dance on his chair, which caused sort of the opposite response he was looking for as more and more people came over to watch his dance moves. He ate 3 pieces of cake and still managed to fall asleep 20 minutes after we got home. Sunday was a slow day. We went to breakfast our our favorite breakfast place and then Henry headed over to Aunt Kelly's to play for an hour while I went to the store. We brought a very late birthday gift over to Gigi and Grandpa's and visited with them for a while. We blew some bubbles and cleaned the house a little....standard weekend stuff. So here's what's up with the fam:

Henry:
School is going great. Maybe a little too great. When I came to pick him up today he walked over with a smile that I haven't seen before. I quickly found out that Elsa gave him two kisses on his cheek today and that he was feeling VERY romantic. Oh dear. He is walking around the house spelling words and speaking in Spanish and singing silly kid songs that all of us sang in grade school (trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat). He has been making mazes for Wade and I and I have to admit, they are pretty tough.

Wade:
Work has been crazy for Wade so he has been working a TON. That's about all I have to say about it. Nobody likes it when Papa isn't home.

Laura + Baby:
We are doing pretty well. I had my 29 week appointment last week and everything checked out great. The baby's heart rate was 140 and I'm measuring right on track. The doctor gave me the paperwork to register at the hospital which threw me for a loop. Time is just going so fast with this pregnancy. I guess we are almost to week 30, counting down to single digit weeks. The baby is kicking a lot. Big kicks and little tickles. She likes to get going around 3 am and keeps going on and off until my alarm goes off at 5 (hence my lack of sleep last night). But I'm not complaining, I love those little wiggles. Well, maybe not the ones that involve her using my bladder as a trampoline, but all the other ones.

Well, I guess that's all I have for this week. Henry is hanging on my arm asking me every 2 minutes if I am done yet and it's driving me bonkers, plus he keeps wiping his nose on my arm. Little boys are gross (oh great he just read that now he is licking my arm. Seriously.)

Have a great week.

Weekly Update 9.5.11

2011-09-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

We have been pretty much out of commission this weekend. Henry brought the sore throat/sniffles home from school this week and shared it with the whole family, even Grandpa. Fortunately, Henry started feeling better on Saturday, right about the time that Mama started feeling bad. It has been a challenge for two under-the-weather parents to keep up with him, but we've managed. And I can't complain too much because we got to have the windows open all weekend and had some of the nicest weather we have seen in months. We did venture outside long enough to check out the monarch larvae that has been chewing up our geraniums. We had 14 caterpillars in the yard on Saturday, today we have 4 and lots of brand new monarchs hanging from our peonies bushes. Tonight I made a big pot of lentil soup and homemade biscuits for dinner; I am attempting to raise my iron level without having to take those nasty iron supplements...and plus it's just good get-better food. Hope you guys had a great weekend. We'll have a better update next weekend, I promise.

Gigi and Henry

2011-08-31T07:40:00.000-07:00

Laurie,
Henry and I were just battling and after we were done he told me I had to build a new man (note: Henry is in to Lego Hero guys right now and he likes to make them battle whenever he can find someone to battle with). I asked him to do it for me--he said no, that I had to do it. And then with a straight face he asked me if I needed to watch a tutorial--I asked if it was long and he said no, and then he proceeded to give me the tutorial.
Love,
Mom

Weekly Update 8.28.11

2011-08-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

An interview with a Kindergartener.
M: Henry how was your first week of school?
H: Awesome (two thumbs up)
M: What was your favorite class?
H: P.E. with Mr. Kennedy
M: What your favorite game?
H: Crash cars
M: How did you feel the first day?
H: Scared but had a great time.
M: Did you learn anything new?
H: I learned how to play crash cars and a couple new other games.
M: Did you make any new friends?
H: About 7.
M: Did you get in any trouble?
H: Really? Really? No. But that was a good question.
M: What's different about being a Kindergartener vs. being a preschooler?
H: Duh. It's funner.
M: Anything else you'd like to say about Kindergarten?
H: Yeah. Hmmmm. There is nothing else really.

Update 8.21.11

2011-08-21T05:43:00.000-07:00

Once again I have been busted in the back bedroom at 7 am by the little bean. I swear he sleeps until 9 during the week, I really just don't know how he knows that I'm up on the weekends. At any rate, he is snuggled in watching cartoons for now, so I have a few minutes to give you a very overdue update. The past few weeks have been crazy! We have had something going on every weekend and a lot of weekdays. Which is saying a lot for self-described homebodies. We've had a friend stay for the weekend, going away parties, registration at Henry's school, Mama's birthday, a baby shower, family in town and a whole lot of other stuff going on that I can't think of at the moment. Here's the shake down:

Henry: It's been hot lately. So hot that even a busy 5 year old doesn't want to have anything to do with it. So Gigi has had to get creative with her daytime activities. Two weeks ago they headed to the Lego exhibit in Topeka. Henry loves everything Lego and had a great time. This pic was one of my favorites. Gigi said that they spent most of their time in a gift shop reading a 200 page book about the history of Legos. They stopped for ice cream on the way home and popped to campus for one last photo at the tree sculpture (they tore it down this weekend). Henry has also just recently completed his first session of swimming lessons. It's amazing how far he has come in just two weeks. He is floating and "pushing and pulling" (I'm not sure what that means but he is very proud of it), and sticks his head underwater every chance he gets (even in the bathtub). The teacher said that he caught on very quickly and that she felt he only needed to take level 1 one more time, which is quite an accomplishment. I think most kids do it at least 3 times. He really loves to swim and it is so fun to watch him find activities that he enjoys and is good at. He has gone to the pool with Gigi since swimming lessons ended and all he wants to do is practice. No slides, no walking across the lily pads, just practice. I hope he is that diligent when it comes to school. Here are some pics from swimming lessons. I love this one, even though he's blurry, because I remember standing on the side of the pool, listening to my teacher and doing that same "I'm freezing" dance. And here he is after just sticking his head under water. A major milestone. Kindergarten starts tomorrow so I thought it would be a good idea for us to have a special day that is all about Henry. We called it "Henry Day" and let him pick his activities (with some guidance from Mama, of course). He chose to go to a place in KC called Kaleidoscope. It's a place for kids to explore and be creative. I remember going there as a kid and having a great time and I think Henry did as well.
The entrance to Kaleidoscope: A submarine with tons of buttons that make funny sounds and play music: Outer-space. A room lit by black lights that had two of Henry's favorite activities. Painting space glasses with glow in the dark wax: And a camera that would let him take multiple pictures of himself and project them on the wall. At one point we had a crowd of about 6 people watching to see what crazy photo he would come up with next. My favorite was one of him making a shush face looking one direction and a screaming face looking back at himself. Then he made a puzzle. After he was done drawing his picture he got to send it through the puzzle machine. Very cool. Everything in Kaleidoscope is larger than life, sparkling and colorful. After we left Henry asked if he could redecorate his room to look like it. But I don't think our house is big enough. Our next stop was the fountains outside of Crown Center. He ran around and pretended to be a ninja battling the water for at least 90 minutes. He fell asleep in 2 minutes that night. We are planning to make Henry Day a monthly activity.

We are all set for Kindergarten to start tomorrow. We've filled out 35 different forms, purchased $100 worth of khaki pants and red and navy polos, we have a backpack full of school supplies and even went to the school on Friday to find Henry's cubbie and say hello to the teacher. Henry has two friends from preschool that will be in his class. Both of them are girls and both of them liked to play princess with Henry back in his preschool days. While he seems happy to have people he'll know in his class, he has asked me several times if there will be boys to play with also, because he really gets tired of playing princess games. ;) My hope is that he finds at least one good buddy early on and that he doesn't get bored with school like he did in preschool and that I don't start crying in his classroom when I drop him off. The Bean is a grade school age kid....I can't believe it.

Papa: Wade had a big show a couple of weeks ago in Omaha. It was a success and an adventure. Since then he has been writing songs, doing research on grad school, skateboarding, and taking Henry to see the cats at the Human Society (I have a sneaking suspicion that I am going to come home one day to find a third feline in the house).

Mama + baby girl: We are doing fine. She'll have her wiggly moments and then be quiet for hours, especially when I am busy walking around or talking. She is 14 inches now and almost 2 lbs. My only complaint is that my hips are super sore and rolling over in bed can result in a charlie horse or just a major side cramp. We are about to enter our 3rd trimester which means she'll be putting on the lbs quickly and I'll probably start to feel even more tired and hungry (if that's even possible) and want to clean my entire house but not have the energy to do it so I'll convince my husband to do it. We have a lot still to do before the baby gets here. Painting the room, buying a mattress and crib, finding a way to fit another person's things in to a room full of toys for a 5 year old boy. I think Wade is going to build shelves on the North wall of the room so that we can get rid of the toy chest, dressers and art shelves. Henry wants to paint his bed frame red, which should look pretty neat and will be a job for when it cools off a little this fall. Any of you blog friends that like to paint let me know, we'll have a painting party.
My sisters and Mom threw a baby shower for my sister Susie and I last weekend. I was amazed by the generosity of my extended family and friends. Kelly put a lot of time and effort in to the decorations and Annie and Mom made some fantastic food, including 3 kinds of homemade cupcakes. I sampled all three.
I took my glucose test yesterday and am anxiously awaiting the results. If I fail the test and have gestational diabetes we will be delivering this baby about 3 weeks early, so the first week in November. If I pass it then we could have another Thanksgiving baby. Even though I am not a fan of the turkey dinner in the hospital, I can't think of a anything more appropriate then having a baby on Thanksgiving.

I’ll leave you with a couple of our favorite Henry quotes from the week:

Last night I told Henry that it felt like the baby was dancing in my belly. He said, “Yeah, I put up a disco ball when I was in there. She probably just figured out how to work the lights.”

Thursday morning I gave him a kiss before I left for work. He said, “Goodnight Mama. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.” “Okay,” I whispered. Then he said, “Wait, it’s morning? I mean don’t let the work bugs bite.”

Have a great week (or month) blog friends.

Weekly Update 7.17.2011

2011-07-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

We have not been up to much this week. It's been too hot to leave the house. Henry has been doing a lot of drawing and dancing and playing with his "guys". We spent much of the weekend sitting at the dining room table, all of us working on our stuff, as Henry would say it. For Henry, that means drawing. For Papa, it's writing music. And for me it's working on a quilt for the baby. I finally got all the squares cut out, now it's time to start sewing.

This is the face that Henry makes when his "guys" are battling. It's the sound of a ray gun shooter. I know that because he just came in the room, read that sentence, and then told me to tell you that it's a ray gun shooter. So there you go. It's supposed to be hot all next week, so I imagine we will be doing much of the same. Henry starts swimming lessons tomorrow, he's a little nervous about putting his head under water but I think he will take to it quickly. He's been reading books for the summer reading program and is picking up on it so fast, it's fun to watch. I can't wait for him to start learning Spanish this fall. Wade and I both need refreshers from college. And speaking of school, we started stocking up on our khaki pants and polo's this week in order to be ready for school. I have to say he looks pretty cute in his uniform. :) We also brought down the 0-3 month baby clothes from the attic, which was fun. We have a lot of gender neutral clothing for her to wear this winter, which is good because I have been stocking up on sundresses and other pink-frilly goodies for next summer.
That's all I have for now. Have a great week. Stay cool.

More sonogram pics

2011-07-10T12:07:00.000-07:00

Here she is with her legs over her head. Yes, those are her legs and you can see her little, 1 1/2 cm foot kicking me. She stayed like this for much of the sonogram. I think she was asleep. And here's that foot again.

Weekly Update 7.10.11

2011-07-10T06:30:00.001-07:00

You know the door alarms that they used to have in stores, the kind that projected a little laser across the doorway and when a customer walked through the door and hit the laser with their leg a little bell would ring? Well, I'm pretty sure that Henry has secretly installed one of those alarms on my bedroom doorway. If I wake up at 2 am and tip toe to the bathroom, which is no where near his room, the moment I lay my head back down on my pillow I will hear, "Maaa-maa". The cats, however, can go absolutely bizzerk, have meow-meow matches (our term for kitty wrestling), stand in the doorway and meow at the top of their lungs until someone gets up and puts food in the bowl or jump on and off the bed 33 times in 10 minutes and Henry will snore right through it. This morning I woke up at 7 and rather than daring to get out of bed I read a book for 30 minutes. I did not hear a peep from his room. Then I crept in to the kitchen to get a glass of water and when I closed the refrigerator door there stood the child. Blanket and pillow in hand. Puffy eyed with hair stuck to one side of his head. Red lines on his cheek and forehead. "Hi," he said. "Let's get in your bed and watch some cartoons." At 7:30 am the only cartoons on are Thomas the Train and Sponge Bob Squarepants. Thomas is for 3 year olds, according to Henry, so now he lies, in my room, watching a Sponge Bob, his IQ dropping by several points every minute.
This week was pretty fun. Last Saturday Henry and I got up early and walked to the farmer's market. I figured at 8 am, how hot could it really be? Well, almost 90 degrees according to the bank that we passed on the way there and after about 2 minutes of walking, I had a major complainer on my hands. Fortunately, checking the GPS on my phone every 30 seconds made the trip a little more fun (and about a hour longer then it should have been). Henry picked out some flowers and apple cider donuts and stopped for a coffee and scone (and air conditioning) on the way home. That afternoon, Wade decided that it would be a good idea, since it was a long weekend, for us to move Henry to the big bedroom. Now here's the thing. I like to do things right. I thought we would spend a weekend really getting the room ready for Henry. I thought we would paint it, clean the carpets, replace the closet doors and maybe put up new blinds....all before we moved the child in to the room. Wade, on the other hand, preferred to go ahead and make the move and then move all the furniture back out later for the cleaning/painting portion. Now, I know that I am right in this argument. However, I also know that I will be the one sitting in the rocking chair giving direction and not lifting a finger as he passes through the living room single-handedly carrying a dresser and a bed frame. So, it didn't seem like the right time to put up much of a fight. I still plan on painting/cleaning the carpets before the baby comes. I may forget to put on deodorant these days, but nesting is like a pregnancy craving and ask any woman what she craved during pregnancy and she'll remember, in detail. He's not off the hook. ;)
On Sunday we purchased fireworks and Henry got down to business. As I mentioned last week, many items were blown up, including a plastic cow. Fortunately the cow survived. On Sunday afternoon we finished up the rest of our daytime fireworks and then proceeded to blow up all of Aunt Kelly's fireworks as well. Henry is still apprehensive about actually lighting the fireworks (yay!) but he really enjoyed directing the show. After dinner we shot off the rest of our fireworks and played with sparklers. I seriously considered taking Henry to the city fireworks display but the combination of late bedtime, mosquito, and traffic made me think twice. Fortunately we can see the fireworks from our yard so at about 10 I pulled Henry out of bed and we stood in the driveway for a few minutes and got our fireworks fix. When Henry crawled back in to bed he said, "Wow, that was fun. I can't believe you actually did that." I guess I am a stickler for strict bedtimes and even my 5 year old knows it. Oh well.
We spent this weekend uncluttering the clutter we created with the move. We have a lot of stuff and a little house. (Oh my sweet husband just handed me a decaf-skinny white cow from Java Break. What a good man. I guess I should probably wrap this up and start helping him with the clutter.)
No news on the baby front. I felt a few big kicks this week, on the outside instead of just on the inside, which is exciting. Our friend Rachel gave us a trash bag full of girl clothes, which Henry and I dug through, there was plenty of "Oh how cute"'s and "awwww"'s. Even Henry is not immune to the cuteness of baby girl clothes. Rachel also gave us a bag of baby girl shoes which Wade sorted though one night and left his favorites out on the dining room for me to find in the morning. There were some good ones in there but that didn't stop me from seriously considering a pink polk-a-dot pair I saw at baby gap yesterday. So far I have only purchased 2 girl outfits, I'm pretty proud of myself. Although there is still 4 months to go. :)
It's supposed to be 104 today with a heat index of 115. Henry plans to spend the day in his underware (nothing new) playing with Legos. We are going to go to Gigi and Grandpa's house to celebrate Grandpa's 64th birthday. Happy Birthday Grandpa! We love you.

IT'S A GIRL!

2011-07-06T18:08:00.000-07:00

I still can't believe it. We're having a girl. Honestly, I started crying in the doctors office. She is doing great. We saw her heart, kidneys, spine, bladder, brain, nostrils and mouth, ears, fingers, toes....everything. It was incredible. Much more thorough then even with Henry 5 years ago. She was super wiggly and uncooperative so it took a while to see everything. She fell asleep with her legs over her head and her arms on either side of her head (I have a photo which I'll scan tomorrow). Her photos look EXACTLY like Henry. This one is a facial profile and the little button nose is exactly like Henry's (his nose is still a little button nose).
Anyway, hope you had a good 4th. I'll post our weekly update later this week....now I'm off to shop at Baby Gap. :)

Sonogram info (just so I don't forget)
She weight 12 oz.
Her leg bone was 3.5 cm
Her heart rate was 141 beats per minute

Weekly Update 6.26.11 (just roll with it)

2011-06-30T16:47:00.000-07:00

Well, obviously it's been more than a week since my last post, so here is a quick update over the week that I missed. Aunt Annie was in town and came over for a sleep-over. We built a gigantic fort in the living room and I got to listen in the bedroom next door as the two of them whispered way past Henry's bed time. It reminded me of sleep-overs with my Aunt Cindy and I didn't really mind letting someone else take over the bedtime duties for one night. Although, I am not sure how well Annie slept with the cats jumping over her, exploring the new structure. (Note: Henry is wearing pj shorts in this photo, despite how it looks.) We celebrated Father's Day with Grandpa on Saturday since Annie was still in town. We ate brats (Henry's favorite) and ice cream cake and we all had green and blue tongues for 2 days afterwords. Also, I think I discovered the source of the one-eye squint smile.
On actual Father's Day we took Papa out for ice cream and donuts and drove to the lake to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful evening. But the nice, comfortable weather ended on Sunday. It’s been hot this week folks. HOT! So we have spent the majority of our time inside the house. Henry ran through the sprinkler with the neighbor for about 15 minutes on Sunday. Then they moved on to stomping in the mud followed by riding bikes, then climbing trees, then jumping on the trampoline. It’s funny, when he is playing by himself he can draw or paint or play with legos for hours but when he has a friend over the maximum amount of time allotted for each activity is 15 minutes. Things move so quickly I can barely keep up. I will have just gotten the basketball from the garage and they have already moved on to the sidewalk chalk. But other than those three hours of circuit training play time with the neighbor, the rest of the weekend the past week have been pretty mellow. Last Saturday I woke up to find a little boy and an orange cat in our bed. Apparently both of them were frightened by the thunder of an early morning storm. Those early snuggles made for a lovely, slow morning. Cool and dark, we all stayed in bed way too long and then took our time eating breakfast and laying around the house reading the paper and playing with Legos. It would be safe to assume that nothing productive happened in our house that day until after 2:00. But really, who am I kidding, that’s how most of our Saturday mornings go.

The baby seems to be acquiring new real estate in my abdomen at rapid rates these days. He/she has recently taken over the space that once housed my bladder, forcing me to use the bathroom every 16 minutes. My stomach has been evicted from its 10 acre compound in the spleen district, and moved to a cramped 2 bedroom condo, just south of my liver. I can tell that space is limited since it continuously sends out search crews of stomach acid up my esophagus. Ironically, this forced downsizing has had zero impact on my appetite. If anything food just moves through faster, making it so I have to eat every 32 minutes (every 2 bathroom breaks). The size of my “bump” has forced me to start lying about the due date. It has to be done in order to avoid the “twins” joke. Telling a pregnant woman with a 5 year old son that she probably has twin boys in her uterus is a misdemeanor in several states. It’s true, don’t do it. I can still fit in to my jeans with the help of a hair tie and a belly band but I learned an important lesson last week about the security of one’s belly in a belly band. They need a warning label: Belly bands will roll up over your belly if you sit for more than 3 minutes. Unfortunately, a coworker had to be sacrificed to order for me to make this discovery. A kind old man that held the door open for me one morning as I hopped out of my car and ran across the parking lot with my shirt and belly band rolled up under my chest, revealing not only my entire midsection but also my jeans that were held together with a raggedy old red hair tie, stretched to the max and covered in knots of yanked out old hair. Once the door shut behind me I felt a cold breeze and slowly reached down to find flesh where I should have found several layers of fabric. My only comfort is that the sun had not fully come up yet and that he was an old man, so he probably had cataracts or at least terrible night vision; I hope for his sake. I’ve also lost the ability to pick anything up off the floor, a stumbling block I hadn’t expected until the 7^th or 8^th month. With Henry I was still able to pick things up off the floor well into my 8^th month using my feet-hands skills: a cleaning technique I perfected as a child. A combination of extremely long toes and several years speed cleaning tiny Barbie doll accessories with both my hands and feet has made me foot-hand ambidextrous. But right now I have so much hip and thigh pain I can barely pull my own pants on, let alone grab a tiny Lego wheel with my second and third toe and drop it into a 1 foot high bucket. I currently require 5 pillows in order to get my 6 hours of interrupted sleep: one for the back, one for the belly, one under the leg and two under the head. Honestly, I am not sure that Wade even fits in the bed anymore. He may be there somewhere but since I go to bed at 8 and wake up when it’s still dark outside, I really can’t be sure. I am also convinced that I have developed pregnancy narcolepsy. On Monday I sat on the sofa watching Henry play with the cat. What seemed like seconds later I awoke to Henry telling me that the neighbors came to the door to ask if he wanted to play and he let them into our house to show them our new cat. I was on the sofa, 2 feet from the door, sound asleep.

I love the advice people give pregnant ladies. Everyone does it, it’s impossible to resist because every mother has a story. I didn’t understand that when I was pregnant with Henry and got annoyed by all the stories, but now I understand where it comes from and appreciate the camaraderie that comes from sharing the experience with other Mamas. It’s a life changing experience that never goes the way you have planned, and most of the time that makes for an interesting story. The stories range from non-helpful: My child’s arm fell off in the birth canal, to very helpful: teach your husband to put powder on your face because otherwise you will look like you were dipped in a vat of Vaseline in all your pictures. The good news is that because I am not able to retain a memory for more than 30 seconds, most of the scary, non-helpful stories float right past my long term memory. Of course I remember my own experience with delivering Henry and am determined not to make the same mistakes that I made this time around. And one piece of advice that has stuck in my head, probably because I heard it from so many of my friends is get a doula. So we did. She’s great and gives never-ending amazing massages and will cost us less than a new stroller because our doctor’s office pays half the expense. I did a lot of research on doula’s and this is what I found: women who have doula have a 50% lower rate of c-sections, 40% lower use of forceps and a 60% reduction in labor time. Sold! Plus, I like the idea of pulling the “You’ll have to have a c-section” card out from the nurses because I heard that at least 3 times with Henry and honestly, it’s just a cold-blooded thing to say to a woman in labor. A doula is like a bodyguard. A massaging bodyguard.

On Wednesday we have our first sonogram. It’s going to be a different experience because we get to find out the sex. I’m so excited to find out; I honestly don’t know how we had the self-control to wait with Henry. I can’t wait to start on my sewing projects and to decorate the room. Plus it will be nice to stop debating over names. I have a list of 12 people that I have to text with the news and strict instructions that I have to do it BEFORE I leave the doctor’s office.

That's all I've got today (thank goodness, right? Rambling post there, sorry). I'll catch up with you all on Wednesday with the big news....twin boys! Just kidding Gigi.

Henry wisdom

2011-06-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

Remember today when you and Papa were smiling in the car and I was smiling and we were laughing and I was talking about the clouds and that one that looked like Papa with a beard? I was looking at the sky and at the pavement and at the grass and just thinking to myself: What a wonderful world. What a wonderful life. I mean, I was really thinking that the whole time, Mama. Well, except for the pavement, that was actually a little boring.

Weekly Update 6.12.11

2011-06-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

Whew. That was an exhausting week. On Sunday evening Aunt Annie came in to town and we had dinner at Gigi and Grandpa's house. It was a short visit and Henry had a great time showing her dance moves and telling jokes at the dining room table. She will be back in town tomorrow for a few more days and we plan to spend most of our afternoons and evenings with her. On Wednesday we brought a new friend in to the house. Beatrix the cat. She is a great addition to the family because she will pretty much let Henry do anything to her. He picks her up, covers her in pillows and blankets, chases her around the house, calls her name 200 times a minute and she's totally unfazed. We had such luck with Bea that we decided to get the dog a try. We met her a couple of times last week and she seemed like such a good-natured, even tempered dog. It was a no-brainer. Well.....what we have learned from this experience is that getting a new cat might be a no-brainer but getting a new dog definitely requires a brain. The dog was sweet and very cute but she was not a good choice for a family with cats. She chased the cats and was so strong that Mama really couldn't control her. After a couple of incidences with the cats we decided that it wasn't a good fit. The humane society gives each family 4 days to try the dog out and if it doesn't work you can bring it back. So we did. It was sad. Henry was okay with it though, surprisingly he is so busy with Bea he really didn't even pay attention to the dog. We did do some fun things with the dog over the weekend. We took her to the lake and Henry got in the water with her, which was super fun. We took a super long hike in the woods and I was kicking myself the whole time for not bringing my camera. The wildflowers were so pretty and Henry had such a good time in the water. On the next cool Saturday we'll have to do it again.
Well, that's about it. We have a busy week ahead of us. Wade has 2 shows. Henry will be busy building with his legos and running through the sprinkler. Mama will continue to be hungry and tired all the time. The baby is 5 inches head to rump this week and has been squirming all over the place lately. We are all so excited to find out the sex. Wade and I both think it's a boy, Henry is hoping for a girl. We shall see.....Have a great week ya'all.

Weekly Update 6.7.11

2011-06-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

Hi. Sorry that I'm running a little late this week. We had a busy weekend, and by busy I mean lazy, and by weekend I mean week. Okay, we weren't total blobs the entire week. We had a few moments when we got a lot done (and by we I mean Wade).On Monday we headed for an afternoon Royals baseball game. Wade and I figured we would be lucky to make it to the 5th inning considering that we have a child that will not sit still long enough to eat an entire meal, let alone watch one of the slower spectator sports available. But Henry understood what the baseball game was all about: getting snacks from the snack guy. I explained that, yes, of course we want to watch the guys run around, and cheer for the blue team and all of that...BUT the way that we make doing that fun is by eating large amounts of totally bad for us snacks. Within 3 minutes of arriving Henry was ready for a hot dog. Then he wanted a milkshake. He shared my nachos and then was ready for peanuts and cotton candy. Of course we didn't let him go near the cotton candy for we know what a large amount of pink dyed sugar will do to our son, it isn't pretty. Anyway, there was plenty of squirming and a little complaining and several trips to "explore" but we made it all the way to the end of the 7th inning. By then Mama and Papa were also ready to go. Grandpa got to take his grandson to his first Royals game, all is right in the world. We even got to drive Grandpa's convertible to the game, which in the end may have been more fun for Henry then the actual game. On Tuesday Henry, Gigi and I headed to the Topeka Zoo to feed the giraffes. Gigi has a photo but I need to show her how to send it to me, so maybe I'll add it later. But for now, picture it in your mind. A huge giraffe mouth, the size of your head, with a 4 foot tongue (okay that might be exaggerating a little) licking your arm in an attempt to grab a tiny piece of lettuce. Yeah, it was pretty cool. Gigi fed the baby giraffe which was also fun but lacked the element of terror provided by the giant papa giraffe head coming down and almost chewing off your arm with it's gigantic teeth (I could be wrong there, I'm not sure that the giraffe had teeth).
I think I can comfortably sum up Wednesday-Friday in this way: Henry wakes up late with Papa, they rush to Gigi's house, Henry eats eggs and toast (it's always gormet at Gigi's), Papa rushes to work, Mama has been at work since before the sun came out, Henry plays with Transformers, Legos and kicks around the ball with Gigi, Mama eats lunch at 9:30 because she has been at work since before the sun came out and she is also constantly hungry these days, Papa drinks a large double shot from LPT, Henry helps Gigi clean her house without complaining (this must be a secret power only grandma's possess), Mama picks up Henry from Gigi's, Mama and Henry play Transformers and eat a snack of either banana peanutbutter towers or cheerios, Papa comes home, Mama complains that she doesn't feel like cooking, Papa goes to get take out, Henry squirms around while eating dinner-driving Papa crazy, Henry takes a shower, Papa cleans the kitchen (which is made much easier given the fact that we ate take out), Papa reads Henry a story and turns out the light, Henry stalls going to sleep for 15 minutes to 1.5 hours by calling Mama in for kisses, hugs, lullabies or really any other snuggly type activity for which Mama is a total sucker, Mama goes to bed, Papa stays up too late watching movies or playing music.
On to Saturday. Mama hit the farmers market early and scored some veggies, a coffee cake and a very large decaf coffee from LPT. The decaf played a good trick on my body, I felt more energetic. Of course that may have been the mountain of sugar syrup and chocolate that they added. Either way it gave me enough energy to do some cleaning. Here's the thing about cleaning though, I can make it maybe an hour cleaning and then I require a 15-20 period of staring off in to space which is just the perfect window of time for my child to dump out all the toys that I just spent the hour picking up. So in the end I just settled for reading a book and sent Papa out to do yard work. Yay pregnancy!
In the afternoon we checked out a cat at the human society. And a dog. Yes, I realize it is crazy to get a cat and a dog 5 months before we will be welcoming another addition to our family but the hubby is being pretty persistent about it, which isn't usually his style. So we'll see what comes of this. I have a feeling we are going to be a 2 cat, 1 dog, 2 child family very soon. Yikes!
On Sunday Wade built the frames for our veggie garden. This was no small task given that it was 94 degrees outside. Henry and I popped out occasionally to provide moral support and water and plant a bush and swing on his swing.While Wade was working hard outside, I was working hard inside trying to find the perfect fabric to make a baby quilt. Of course the one I love is floral and girly and I am afraid to start making it for fear that I will be setting myself up to have a boy. But I think I'll start anyway, hope he likes flowers. :)
This afternoon I had my second doctors appointment. Henry came with me, which I was afraid might increase my blood pressure but no, it was fine. Right when we walked in I saw the doc fly by in her scrubs so I knew we were in for a long wait. We played for an hour building ramps out of magazines for Henry's race car and then had a 2 minute appointment with the doc. She's awesome, upbeat and positive. My blood work has all been good, including the gestational diabetes test (yay!) and I have gained back the weight I lost during that torturous first trimester. Henry thought it was pretty cool to hear the baby's heartbeat. He said he wants to come back next time....but I don't think that will happen because next time we have a SONOGRAM! And we are finding out the sex of the baby, so be sure to tune in the first week of July for the exciting news.
Well, I better go make some dinner (yes I am actually cooking this time). I'll leave you with this story. I called Gigi's house this afternoon and Henry answered the phone:
H:Hello?
M: Hey dude, are you answering Gigi's phone all the time these days?
H: Yes, pretty much. Yesterday the US Government called.
M: Really? How do you know?
H: It says it on the phone, Mama. (duh!)
M: Did you hang up?
H: No, they talked to me about drilling and President Obama and some other stuff. Kept me on the phone for like an hour or so.
M: You know, you could have hung up.
H: Not on the US Government, Mama.

Henry wisdom

2011-06-02T09:52:00.001-07:00

This morning in the car on the way to Gigi's.

"Papa"

Yes

"You know what's weird about life?"

Hummm. No what?

"Feelings"

Good point.

Weekly update 5.29.11

2011-05-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

This week has been pretty quiet. Aunt Susie, Uncle Ted and Bagel are in town, staying with Gigi and Grandpa, so there has been some excitement for Henry during the time he spends with Gigi in the mornings, but everything at the Kelly household has been pretty much the same ol' thing. We were all pretty exhausted by the time Friday came and really looking forward to a 3 day weekend. On Saturday morning we went to the garden center and Gigi found some lovely shade plants for our front yard that Wade is planting right now. In the afternoon, Wade, Grandpa and Uncle Ted had a rib cook-off. Henry was the bbq assistant and had all the appropriate gear for job. He was very helpful taxing food and utensils back and forth from the grill and handing out samples of brats to all the judges. Henry loves beer brats. It's funny, the kid spent most of his life as a vegetarian and just one taste of beer brats and he's hooked.

The competition was pretty fierce and in the end the result was a 3 way tie, which means that all 3 kinds of ribs have to come back for the next cook off.
Henry also got to shoot some baskets with Papa and throw a baseball around with Mama. He is practicing catching with a mitt for the baseball game tomorrow. He's pretty sure that he'll catch a fly ball.
We are headed over to the neighbors for a bbq this evening, provided that all of us can stay awake. We are a sleepy bunch around here today. Tomorrow Henry gets to go to his first Royals game. We are hoping to make it to the 5th inning. Hope you had a great weekend.

And....we're back

2011-05-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well....look who decided to show her face around these parts again. Yes, it's true, we have been MIA from the blog world lately. But I promise to make it up to you with this mind blowing post spanning the past 2 months with Tom Brokaw-like reporting and National Geographic quality photographs. Okay....that may be a stretch but stick with me anyway cuz the kid is cute and sometimes says funny things. Here goes...

March:
Explaining St. Patricks Day to an inquisitive 5 year old is challenging. Mainly because my understanding of St. Patricks Day is limited to drinking beer, wearing green, and and eating corn beef and cabbage. After many confusing attempts at an explanation for what this holiday is all about, Henry settled on Wear Green Day. For this photo he also grabbed all his green toys on his way out the door.

Drawing robots has become one of Henry's favorite activities. Except for when he is sleeping, it really is the only time that he stops talking.

April:
Henry's friend Sophia came over and helped us dye eggs. We dyed 24 eggs before they told me that neither one of them like to eat hard boiled eggs.

We usually spend Easter with my parents but this year they were out of town and we were on our own. Easter is not the same without my Mom's amazing strawberry pie, so I had to make an attempt. I had a little trouble with the pie crust but overall it was a success. I ate 2 pieces, despite my horrible morning sickness. We are planning a trip to pick strawberries in the next couple of weeks and you better believe there will be a lot of strawberry pies in our future.
The Easter Bunny was pretty good to Henry. He got more candy then any one child should have. Fortunately, he forgot about the candy after a few days. Unfortunately, Wade and I did not. :) It was a freezing cold morning but that did not stop Henry from doing some serious Easter egg hunting.Found the money egg.
Some of Henry's other favorite activities are:
Having a "Battle of the ages" with Papa.

And sorting Lego robots.
On his birthday, Papa built Henry a 3 story tree house. Henry and I decorated the house with balloons and a Happy Birthday banner and I forgot to take photos. But catch a few photos of Henry exploring his tree house. He did the "I have a tree house" dance for 20 minutes which I think is exactly what Papa wanted for his birthday. :)
May:
Mother's Day flowers
Big news!
Helping Mama plant some flowers.
Riding bikes with the boys.

Celebrating Graduation!

I hope to do a better job at keeping up with the blog now that I am feeling a little better. Have a great week friends.

Weekly Update 3.13.11

2011-03-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

At 7:14 am I tiptoed to the kitchen. Quiet as a mouse I made a pot of coffee. I had a vision of sitting the back bedroom, sipping coffee and quickly downloading the photos from the week to throw together a blog post. Then I would move over to my sewing machine and put together my last square for my quilt and work on the embroidered robot that I am making for Henry's Easter basket. I poured my coffee, let the cat out, opened the window just a crack and turned on the computer. The house was silent. Well mostly silent except for the sound of little footsteps. I figured it was just the cat and then I remembered that the cat just went outside. Then I heard someone say, "I just feel like getting some paper and drawing. I just want to draw my dream and then go out for a bike ride and then eat some breakfast and then play some soccer and then dig in the dirt and make you a mud cookie. Mama, are you ready to go?" So much for my plans. But I'm stubborn so I gave him his paper and markers and sat him at my sewing table to draw his dream. He's been talking pretty much constantly since he walked in the door. He told me his dream and asks me to take a peak at his drawing every 30 seconds. It's driving me a little nutty, so let's speed this along.
The weather is wonderful right now. We've been working outside all weekend. Well, when we weren't watching the Jayhawks win the Big 12. ROCK CHALK. Anyway, Papa pitched the old baby swing yesterday and threw together a disk swing big enough for kids and adults.
Wade also single-handedly took apart the little play house in our back yard and rolled the base of it to the front yard to be the bottom of Henry's tree house. Then he got the outline for our garden set up. Henry has picked the one on the left for his garden. He's interested in planting root beer plants, strawberries, blueberries, garlic, carrots and red bell peppers.

But the main thing Henry is in to right now is Angry Birds. I made the mistake of getting the game for him on my phone and I haven't made a phone call for 6 days. Just kidding :) What I love about Henry and Angry Birds is that he can only play for a few minutes and then he gets the urge to "make a level" which means he wants to draw out his version of what he just played and then have me pretend to play it. We have a busy week ahead of us and are looking forward to lots of warm weather and Jayhawk basketball. Have a good one.

Weeky Update 3.6.11

2011-03-06T11:56:00.000-08:00

I'm hiding away in our extra bedroom to bring you the weekly update. It occurs to me that you're probably thinking, "weekly update? Please, it's been almost a month since your last post" and it's true, monthly update would probably be more accurate, but bear with me, people, I'm doing the best I can. I've stolen this moment away from cleaning the bathroom, which I will regret later when Henry's friends come in from outside and have to use my messy bathroom, but oh well.

The real downfall of me not posting on this blog every week is the fact that I can barely remember what we did this week, let alone the two week prior to it. I can tell you that Grandpa and Grandma B came in to town to see Tangent Arc at their Lawrence CD release show. They had a big crowd there and I think every one had a good time. We didn't get to visit with Grandpa and Grandma as much as we would have liked to but Grandpa did get his bike all set up for, hopefully, many bike rides along the levee this spring.

Henry has been having friends over a lot lately. We are trying to keep him busy with kids his age since he isn't at school anymore. Here is his buddy Sophia. She think Henry is really funny so Henry lays it on pretty thick when she's around. He told me when she came to visit on Friday that he was "going to get all romantic with her" and then asked to call Papa for tips on how to get romantic. It was a crack up. On Friday Henry, Gigi and I went to KC to check out the Moon Marble House. They are a local business that sells handmade marbles and we got to watch the artists at work. It was pretty fun and before we left Gigi bought Henry 9 new marbles. Thanks to Gigi and Grandpa, Henry got to go to his first KU basketball game last night. He thought it was a lot of fun cheering for the Jayhawks and loved the adventure of doing something new. The Marching Cobras had us dancing in our seats at half time. We have a pretty quiet week a head of us. No big plans

Weekly Update 2.13.11

2011-02-13T18:43:00.000-08:00

We have had weeks of sickness followed by weeks of snow but today we were all healthy and the temperature was almost 60 degrees. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of snow on the ground and lots of mud, but we still got to open the windows today and lay in the sunshine.

The week in review:
Papa: After months of hard work, Wade did something he has always wanted to do, he made a cd. The Tangent Arc cd arrived at our house on Tuesday. He has several shows this month to promote the cd and is getting a really nice response. We are so proud of him.
Mama:
Long story short: we have pulled Henry out of preschool and decided that he could just spend the afternoons with Mama. This means that Mama is up at 4 am and at work by 5 so she can be home by 1. This also means that right now as I type this (8:30 pm) it feels like midnight. But I can't complain, spending the afternoons with my guy is pretty fun, even when I am sleep deprived.
Henry:
Has 4 new freckles on his nose, including one that is in the exact same spot as the only freckle on Papa's nose.Has been spending a lot of time with his friend, Estrella. Bowling, sledding and drawing are some of their favorite activities. He told her last week that he might be falling in love with her. But it turns out that Mama is still his first choice for a Valentine (yes!). He here is drinking a post-sledding hot cocoa.

We enrolled Henry in kindergarten last week at St. John School. It is the same school that I went to and it is a REALLY great school. It's going to take a little extra work for us to afford it, but it is totally worth it.
Have a great week friends.

Weekly Update 1.16.11

2011-01-16T18:51:00.000-08:00

It snowed! Henry had 2 snow days this week and, actually, we were really happy because he needed those days off to recover from stomach flu. The poor kid had stomach flu for over a WEEK! We were all feeling pretty exhausted and worried for him by mid-week. Not only was he not feeling well but he also just seemed really sad and worried about it. Our boy is a sensitive little guy, I really learned that this past week. But I could tell that things were looking up when, on Wednesday, I picked him up at Gigi's and he handed me an envelope with Aunt Kelly's address on the front. "What is this?" I asked. "It's an invitation to my party. My HENRY IS FEELING BETTER AND DOES NOT HAVE A SICKNESS ANYMORE PARTY." At my party we are going to eat pizza and decorate our own chocolate cupcakes. And so we did...

We also blew up 8 balloons for each room in the house and played balloon games. This was a balancing the balloon on the top of your head game, created by Grandpa. Papa cheated.
And then there was sledding. It started in our yard and then ended with several hours of sledding down the biggest hills we could find in town. Henry loved crashing. He loved bailing off the sled mid-way down the hill. He and Papa when down one particularly steep hill and actually went into the air for a second. It was great. We are hoping for many more snow days this winter.

Graduation/Christmas/New Years/Stomach flu

2011-01-13T19:52:00.000-08:00

Sorry for staying away so long. We've had a great month. Laurie's graduation get together was super fun. We had our first snow of the season that day and got to enjoy it sat around warm camp fire enjoying the company of family and friends. Henry got to meet many second and third cousins and see great aunts and uncles that he hadn't seen in years.
Christmas was wonderful. Henry was SO excited about Santa. We tracked him on NORAD and every few minutes Henry would run from the back bedroom to the living room and yell "Santa's in S-W-E-D-E-N" now. I didn't know if he was actually going to be able to fall asleep, with all the giggling and wiggling coming from his room. But he did finally fall asleep and sure enough, Santa came to our house as well.
We had such a wonderful time with Susie and Ted and Bagel and Annie in town. We both took the week before Christmas off so we got to enjoy lots of pre-Christmas celebrating, shopping, cooking baking, gingerbread house making, gift wrapping and visits to the Christmas house (a house that has set their lights to music, very cool). The day after Christmas we started a new tradition of bowling and burgers. Henry discovered the joy of bowling and I discovered the joy of gutter guards. I am usually the queen of gutter balls, but not this time. After bowling we went to the burger stand where Henry was introduced to Foosball and pool. Both activities he enjoyed while snarfing down a hot dog and fries.
But this past week the fun ended while Henry dealt with a serious case of stomach flu in combination with an ill-timed chicken pox shot. The poor kid has had a week of feeling terrible and just when we got our big snow storm of the year, perfect for sledding. Here's hoping that he feels up to it this weekend.
Anyway, I'm pooped so to follow is a big hodge-podge of photos from the past few weeks. Enjoy.

Hiatus

2010-12-05T20:40:00.000-08:00

We are shutting down shop for the next couple of weeks while we get through finals and graduation. We promise to update you on all the news in the Kelly house as soon as we return. Rock-Chalk-Jayhawk!

Weekly Update 11.27.10

2010-11-27T11:59:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving friends. We hope your day was relaxing and filling and that you got to spend it with loved ones. We spent Thanksgiving with Gigi and Grandpa and Aunt Kelly. Gigi made a feast, at least that is what Henry and Aunt Kelly called it. And Henry was very curious about the roast beast Gigi made (he had just watched The Grinch).
We have had a jam packed couple of weeks and I am afraid it is going to get worse before it gets better. But we only have a couple of weeks to go before finals are over and we can celebrate Christmas, so we spent a little time this weekend preparing for it. But first, the little man turned 5 this week. We had a little get together with the family to celebrate. We did not have a buddy party because Henry had was completely booked with his friend's birthday parties. Sofia, Utah, and Estrella all had parties this week/weekend. Henry was the only boy to attend Sofia's princess party. She told her mom that she wanted to invite him because "He is a wonderful man" which we all found very sweet, and hilarious. He seemed to have had a good time, although he did mention that girls squeal and scream a lot. :) This was the year of TRANSFORMERS, so he had a Decepticon cake. Lemon icing, vanilla cake and strawberry ice cream: all his choice and not a bad combination, I have to say. On Friday night Santa arrived in Lawrence. His reindeer dropped him off on the top of the Weavers department store and he helped the city count down to light up down town. Henry sat on Papa's shoulders and waved to Mr. Claus with the sweet look of excitement and magic that only comes from Santa Claus. Then firemen came in and rescued him, which was also pretty cool. On Saturday we decided to put up our lights. We dug all the Christmas decorations out of the attic, put up the tree and then discovered that our big ceramic outdoor lights did not survive the summer in the attic. So we headed to Target to get some new ones. This time we went with small multicolored LED lights. Wade climbed all over the roof, making my legs go numb over and over again, which Henry found completely hilarious, and we ended up feeling pretty happy with how it turned out. Last night we drove around the neighborhood sizing up the neighbors and listened to Christmas music. Today we are headed to Sears to pick out a new bike, which was a birthday gift from Henry's Nana. He has been talking about it since he woke up this morning. If the weather is nice this afternoon we'll take it for a spin and I'll post a picture. Have a great week.

I was four my whole life

2010-11-23T10:21:00.000-08:00

That's what Henry told me this morning when I asked him how it felt to be turning five. "Sad. Poor four, " he sighed. "I will miss four. I was four my whole life."

I admit, I am going to miss four too. When Henry lines up against the wall after a growth spurt or his 5T jeans fit like highwaters only 2 weeks after we bought them, I share in his excitement about growing bigger and feel thankful to have a healthy kiddo. But birthday's are a different kind of measurement. This morning I snuck into his room and snuggled up next to him for a quick birthday snuggle: his curly hair was matted on one side, his fat baby cheek squished up against the pillow, and I wiggled my finger into his fist and thought about the fragility of it all. I reminded myself that it is essential that I relish every moment with my little boy. I remembered back to when he was just a few weeks old, not sleeping through the night, crying for what seemed like no reason at all, Wade and I beside ourselves with fatigue, anxiety and frustration. My Mom told me not to worry, that he would probably start sleeping through the night at around 6 months. SIX MONTHS! That's forever. But it is not forever. In fact it was 4 1/2 years ago, and it flew by.

Tonight, at Henry's birthday dinner, we pulled out a piece of paper and pen and wrote down everything that we could think of about being 4. His favorite color: Green and pink (together). His favorite book: Transformers. His favorite game: Uno. His favorite song: Anything with a good beat. His favorite food: Pizza with spinach and olives. His least favorite food: Soup. His favorite smell: Cinnamon. His favorite toy: Transformers. His favorite number: 10. What he likes do at school: Ride bikes and make art. What he wants to be when he grows up: A paver. His favorite friend to play with:Utah and Papa.

Then we made a list of all the great things that he can do now that he is 5: Ride roller coasters. Go to kindergarten. Be older then some of his buddies. Ride a bigger bike. Read books. Eat more food. Grow bigger muscles.

I told him about the day he was born. How we were sure that he was going to be a girl and had convinced our families and all the nurses. How surprised we were when found out he wasn't. How Wade ran out to the waiting room, threw his arms up in the air and proudly said, "Well, it's a boy." and everyone jumped up and clapped and gave each other long hugs. How lovingly his grandparents looked at him when they first got to hold him. How he had dark hair with little blond tips and the nurses joked that he looked like he had just come from the salon. How Wade did not let him out of his site the entire 2 days we spent at the hospital.

We celebrated the day he was born with a cake and ice cream and more presents then he even knows what to do with. And he blew out 5 candles and told me his wish:

"That we always love each other." -Henry, age 5.

Weekly Update 11.7.2010

2010-11-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

Welcome to this weeks edition of: Blurry Camera Phone Blog Posts. Apparently no one felt the need to drag along our actual camera this week, even though we actually had lots of fun, photo-worthy moments. The work week was pretty standard. Both Wade and I had to stay extra hours this week to keep up at our jobs. Unfortunately, that meant that we had to do what we call in our family "Divide and conquer", which leads to not as much time together. But it's only temporary.......5 weeks people, we are counting down!
So, Susie was in town this week. Which, I have to say, is fun for people of all ages. Susie is like a breath of fresh air. Henry LOVES her, well we all do, but Henry is especially fond of her. Occasionally over the weekend he would just sigh and say, "Aunt Susie is awesome."

On Saturday evening we all got together to make applesauce. Henry chopped and peeled and was a big help.He worked so hard that he had to take a break with Grandpa. Here he is learning all about football. He cheered for the purple team, which is unheard of in our house.

I worked all day so Henry and Papa went on an adventure at the lake. This was the first day of Henry's new "style": wearing shorts over pants. I'm hoping it is a phase, like the rainbow suspenders that were tragically lost recently. ;)

On Sunday I did a little shopping in KC while Henry and Wade cleaned the school and went on even longer bike rides. The kid can ride miles on his bike, it's really cool. But the best part of the weekend was last night when Henry read a bedtime story to me, front to back, with only a little help. :)

This week is going to be pretty busy. I have an exam on Thursday. Wade has a TON of work to do and we have parent teacher conferences on Friday. Here's hoping for a good report.
Have a great week!

Weekly Update 10.31.10

2010-10-31T08:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! I'm going to start off this post with a pic from last week's fundraiser. I love pictures of Henry with his buddies. Okay, now on to the week....Henry got to wear his costume to school twice this week. Here he is with his friends Ellie and Sophia. Sophia is not feeling it. And then there's this...hum......
The weather has been amazing and Henry has been up for some super long bike rides. For a kid that just started riding his 2-wheeler two weeks ago, he blows my mind. He loves riding along the levee because he can make skid marks in the gravel. He also likes to go with no feet. And it's extra fun because every mile or so he says, "Man. This is awesome. What a great day." Last night we carved the pumpkins. Henry was the designated scooper. He got creative with it. Henry designed his own pumpkin: 3 eyebrows, 1 eye, 2 mouths. Papa did a Decepticon symbol. Henry saw it, gasped and said "Oh Papa. It's so beautiful." Henry was a Transformer for Halloween.

We went around the neighborhood and came home with quite a loot. At one house I overheard Henry say, "I'll pick this candy bar because it is my Mom's favorite." Then he came over to the sidewalk and gave it to me. Such a sweet little guy.
We've got an easy week ahead of us. Wade is playing music and Laurie is going to classes, but midterms are over (whew!). Parent teacher conferences are coming up soon as well as Henry's school pictures, which I'll be sure to post. The little man turns 5 in just a few weeks. Time goes by so fast, friends. Make the most of it.

Hope your Halloween was exactly what you wanted it to be. Have a great week.

Weekly Update 10.24.10

2010-10-26T08:26:00.001-07:00

Busy week, friends. This post is going to be quick.
This weekend we headed out to the pumpkin patch. Henry took his pumpkin' pickin' pretty seriously. He found the perfect one....or make that three. I hope Papa has been working out his forearms because he is going to have a lot of carving to do this weekend.

On Sunday LCNS has it's annual fall fundraiser benefit concert. Wade's band played. The kiddos watched. I now understand the origin of the mosh pit.

Uncle John really needs to work on his silly face.

And this pic is from a show Wade had last week. It's a good one so I thought I would throw it into the mix.

These are more picks from the butterfly bio dome.

Hope your week is going well. I have an exam tomorrow and then midterms are officially over! I promise a better update next week.

Quotes

2010-10-21T05:46:00.000-07:00

I've been cleaning out my computer this week. I have a document that I saved that I would use to keep Henry quotes. I think he must have said them in the last year. Hopefully they are not a repost.

"What this Mama, I'm incorporating some danger into my dance moves."
"Do cat bottoms taste good? Is that why they are always licking them?"
"Why did Santa make germs?"
"How do I get my nails to shoot out like cat claws?"
"Dear God, please make the Earth healthy. Please help it stay green. Please make tailpipes that do not release CO2."
"Stop at this station Papa. This music is nice. It makes me feel good. It smells sweet, like flowers."

Weekly Update 10.17.10

2010-10-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

This is big time folks. Henry is riding his bike without training wheels! Just last week we were talking about giving it a try and he was still feeling pretty nervous. I figured we would go for it next spring. But on Friday, when I pulled up at Henry's school, I saw a tall blond boy ride past the front of the school on a bike with no training wheels. When he rode by again I realized that the boy was my boy. I asked him, "Henry, did you realize you are riding a 2-wheel bike? No training wheels?" "Oh, it's Braden's," he said. Like that made a difference. We went home, called 10 people to share our news and then headed outside to remove the training wheels from his bike. He is so excited about it and I think he actually likes riding more now. Every day this weekend we went for at least 1 bike ride.
Sadly, except for the bike riding and spending some time playing today (Sunday) I haven't gotten to spend much of the weekend with my boys. I worked 10 hours on Saturday and late in the evening on Friday. Today we put a lot of time into picking up the house and we made a long trip to the library. I'm afraid that the next 2 weeks I may be too busy to make a post. Midterms are coming at me rapid fire and I am feeling a little unprepared. I'll try to squeeze something in but it may be like this post: very few photos, a little boring, and short.
Have a great week friends.

No training wheels!

2010-10-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

Weekly Update 10.10.10

2010-10-10T18:23:00.001-07:00

A self-portrait by Henry B Kelly.

Happy 10-10-10 blog friends. This week and weekend were jammed packed again. But that's okay, we had a great time. The week was busy with the normal shenanigans of the Kelly household. Laurie worked 12 hour days to close month end and survived another week at school. Wade put the final touches on his EP. Henry had fun at school and with Gigi and Grandpa. Overall, I'd say we were a pretty productive bunch. But then the weekend came and the fun really began. For starters Mama and Papa went on their first date in 4 years. It took a little while for us to get the hang of it. We had a few moments where we slipped into Parent Mode and started talking about schedules and winter clothes...but for the most part we kept the conversation "date-ish" and by the end of the night I think we both felt rejuvenated and ready for the next date night. Hopefully it will not take another 4 years. Henry got to spend the night at Gigi and Grandpa's, something that he has been talking about doing for months. I hear he had a great time. I know he ate pizza and stayed up until 10. I imagine there were some sweet treats in there, but I've learned to not ask too many questions :) He suggested that he spend every Friday with Gigi and Grandpa. We haven't heard back from them about that...humm... Anyway, Saturday morning Mama worked, Henry played and at noon we headed to the LCNS FALL FESTIVAL. Which is basically a mini-carnival. Our school is the cutest school on Earth already, but with balloons, well it's just almost more than I can take. Henry helped make the signs and was very excited about the treasure hunt. It was our first stop. I think he walked away with 3 spider rings, 2 pumpkin erasers and a page of unicorn stickers. Not a bad haul. After that we headed to get his face painted. He requested a tiger. And not just a face on his cheek, he wanted to be a tiger. Julia's Dad did an excellent job. Unfortunately, a tiger face is no match for 2 hours in a jumpy castle. But before we got busy jumping we picked up a green balloon dog and a green sprinkle cupcake.

And we got busy dancing to the Minivans! (Henry isn't actually in this picture because he will not dance in public anymore. Very sad. But he was still feeling it, even as a wall flower.)

I love this picture because Rachel is actually down talking to her preschooler and playing the guitar at the same time. Ahhh parenthood. Personally I'm amazed she could do it. If only we could all be so talented. Next stop, the bouncy castle. It took some persuading to get Henry in there because just as he was taking his shoes off a little girl climbed out crying. He thought that kids were going in healthy and coming out with broken limbs. But we finally convinced him and I have never seen a mind change so quickly. One jump is all it took. This picture looks incriminating but I promise Henry did not just knock down those kids. The tiger face post 2 hours of jumping. Henry closed the place down in that bouncy castle. (This picture also reminds me how tall our child is. Now I know why people don't believe me when I say that he is 4.)
*
Today was equally as fun. Henry, Gigi, Kelly and I headed out to Pendletons to check out the butterfly Bio-villa. Like any good trip to a farm, there was a hayride. Henry, once again, gave me the one eye smile.

Then we headed inside the bio-villa. Lots of butterflies. The yellow ones were Henry's favorites.
The obligatory photo opt. Henry's head has been too big for these things since he was about 3 years old.
Next, the cool stuff. Like riding tricycles that can go off-road and ram into things.
And Aunts that will play along.

And a little squash catapulting. Way more fun then you would imagine.
After that it was back home for a long soccer game with Papa while Mama went to work AGAIN and a spaghetti dinner followed by an early bed time. Next week is going to be a busy one. Wade helps at school on Monday and I get to do field research in a stream. Tuesday is our 8 year wedding anniversary which we share with the birthday of my beautiful Mom. Wednesday Wade has a show in KC. On Friday we are going to an amusement park with Kelly and Cooper. And then on Sunday we are all going to poop out and be lazy all day long. Yeah right. Anyway hope your week is great. Henry should have some school pictures to check out pretty soon. And we have some great pictures from John and Lydia's wedding a couple of weeks ago. The little man managed to not give the photographer the squint eye. So grateful for that :) Click here if you want to get a preview. Anyway, have a great week!

ps I apologize for my inability to remain consistantly in either the first person or the third person for an entire paragraph. I also apologize for my lack of commas, not using spellcheck, and other grammatical mishaps. I'm throwing this post up at lightening speed so that I can get back to studying.

Weekly Update 10.04.10

2010-10-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

I thought that the end of wedding season for the Kelly's would mean easy, relaxing weekends but boy was I wrong. This week and weekend have been crazy busy, and sadly not in a fun way. I have been at work every day for 3 weeks straight. I have been taking work home to do it in the evenings as well. How do I do my school work when I am spending all my free time doing my work, you wonder? Well the answer is, I don't. So now I am feeling behind at school and at work. Plus I have this great kid that I don't get to hang out with. Bummer.

On Friday I picked Henry up from school and had to chuckle at the group of boys lined up along the railing of the tree house. They just looked like trouble up there. I tried to take a picture but they are just too fast. I was able to take a photo with my phone on my walk to school. Those honeysuckle bushes smell so good. On Friday, after dinner, we packed up a few cupcakes and rode our bikes to the Train Park, which is the perfect park for a game of soccer. We ran around until it got so dark that we couldn't see the ball and then rode home eating our treats. It got chilly quick and has been cool all weekend. Wonderfully cool.

I worked all day on Saturday, which means that there is not photographic evidence of what they boys were up to. I hear there were bike rides and soccer games, and I got to sleep in the incredible fort that they built.

Since I was gone all day Saturday, Sunday become sort of a make up day. We cleaned, we shopped, we had a lazy morning. Henry learned how to spin a top. The first thing he said on Sunday morning was, "Can we see Gigi today? I miss her." I missed her too. We hadn't spoken to each other on Friday or Saturday, which is unheard of for us. So Henry and I called her while we ate our waffles and made a plan to stop by in the afternoon. When we got there Henry hopped on his scooter and we went for a walk and then came home to play ladders. Henry is still learning how to be a good sport. There were a few mini tantrums when his score was the lower score. But he is learning. I took some pictures of him playing with Gigi.

I know the coming week will be busy. We have school and work, like always, but we also have the Fall Fundraiser for LCNS over the weekend, which should be fun. Hope your week is excellent.

Quotes

2010-09-29T19:33:00.001-07:00

Henry and Wade came to pick me up from work tonight. The sky was completely clear and the stars were bright and Henry, not being someone that is typically out after dark, noticed the stars. He could not believe how pretty they were. We decided to make a wish on a star. So we said the little star wishing poem, "Star light star bright first star I see tonight. Wish I may, wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight." Henry's wish, "I wish that we all stay together forever and always love each other."
We hugged and headed inside to brush teeth and go to bed. Mid-brush he realized that he had another wish for the star tonight. We ran back outside. Said the poem. Henry's wish, "I wish that there were no mosquitoes or ants in or around our house." We headed back into the living room only for Henry to realize that he had yet another 2 wishes. The first one was that the trees would start to change to orange, yellow and blue tomorrow. The second was that everyone have sufficient (his word) air and water and to help the Earth stay healthy and green.

Uncle John, Wade's brother, got married on Saturday. I explained to Henry that we wouldn't see John for a little while because he was going on a honeymoon. "What's a honeymoon?" Henry asked. "Well, it is a vacation that two people that just got married take to spend time together." That seemed to satisfy his curiosity. Then, that night when Henry and I were saying our bed time prayers, Henry said, "Take care of Uncle John and Lydia on their honeymoon. And help Uncle John to find lots of honey on the moon."

Weekly Update 9.26.10

2010-09-27T07:40:00.001-07:00

"Without the sour you can't appreciate the sweet"

This quote applies to many things in life. It certainly applies to raising children. I think I am going to petition for it to be that state motto for Kansas (or maybe just Lawrence because often times I feel like Lawrence is a pocket of sweet surrounded by a flat land of sour). This morning I walked outside and could see my breath and yesterday the sun shined but the air was cool and we had to grab jackets for our bike ride and THAT is the sweet of Kansas. After 3 months of hot, humid, buggy, sour, the onset of Autumn feels like a cool drink after a day of laying hot asphalt. Three cheers for sweater weather!

Yesterday Henry and I went mum shopping. Henry is not easy to shop with because he feels very strongly that we should buy every single thing that we show any interest in. He cries. He yells. He even stiff-legs it, so that we get to be THAT parent: the one that is dragging their tear soaked preschooler by the hood of his sweatshirt, with his unbendable legs stretched out behind him. Henry felt that we needed at least 8 mums. One of each color. I explained to him that we would have to put each mum that we purchased into the ground, to which he said, "That's okay Mama. I worked hard today and now you can work hard too." Humph. So we walked out with 2 mums, 3 temper tantrums, and 1 Mama feeling slightly under appreciated. Wade spent most of Sunday doing yard work while Henry and I (emphasis on I, despite what the 4 year old tells you) cleaned the house. I'm not going to lie, it was a pit. Every single weekend this month we have either had a wedding or family in town, or both. Last weekend I don't think we spent more than a couple of hours at home. So we gave it a thorough scrubbing and now it feels like home again. Yesterday we also squeezed in a bike ride, a trip to the grocery store and a soccer game.
On Saturday we attended John and Lydia's wedding. Wade was a groomsman and Henry was the ring bearer. Henry did a good job...and so did Wade. He was very nervous ahead of time (Henry, not Wade) but he pulled it together and even sat pretty still during the ceremony. I'll post pictures when we have some. For now you can enjoy this one from Wade's phone. The wedding was lovely and they were a very sweet couple. Cheers!
Friday was jam packed with the rehearsal dinner and work and school. We got it all done but it wasn't pretty. Henry still needed a tie and jacket (which we couldn't find so we went with a tie only). Wade needed a black suit. I had to make a red velvet cake and buy a glass cake stand. Henry and Wade both needed black shoes. Basically, it was chaos. We dropped Henry off at Gigi and Grandpa's house after the rehearsal so that we could get all that shopping done quickly and when I returned to pick him up I found all three of them up on the bed reading stories. Grandpa was almost asleep. Gigi was wearing her new reading glasses and Henry was snuggled in under her arm in his jammies. It was so sweet I hated to interrupt them.
Our plans for this week involve mostly just trying to do as little as possible to make up for the chaos of the past month. We need to move a lot of plants in our yard and put up the frames for our garden. We need to take evening bike rides to enjoy this time of year, when the sun is still up in evening but the air is cool and the leaves are changing color. There really is no better time to be on a bike. We love to ride in Old West Lawrence, with it's tree lined brick streets and big old houses. Henry and I have some mum's to plant and a Halloween costume to start planning. I was hoping we would have one more year of fun homemade costume but it looks like we might be unable to dissuade him from the plastic Transformers costume at Target. Bummer. Any-hoo. This weekend or next weekend the local apple orchard will open for picking and I can't wait to stock my shelves with applesauce and apple butter and maybe an apple pie, or two.
I'll try to post some mid-week photos from the wedding and our bike rides, since this post is almost picture-less and, really, mostly just me rambling on for way too long, with questionsable grammar skills and far too many comma's and "ands". Have a great week blog friends. Try to enjoy the sour and the sweet.

Weekly Update 9.19.10

2010-09-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

Good morning. Yes, it is 11 am on Sunday and yes, my family is just getting started with the day. Wade stayed up super late working on a flier for his mom last night and I took the opportunity to watch a chick flick without having to listen to him moaning or making rude comments about how unrealistic chick-flicks are. Lately Henry has been sleeping in until 9ish on the weekends. I think he is growing. I mean he sleeps 12 hours a night and I swear every morning he looks taller. I read in my "What to Expect: The toddler years" book that kids actually do grow overnight, in bursts, and I believe it.Sorry about the skipped post last week, but I'll bring you up to date. It was actually a very difficult week for our family. We had to put down our little girl cat, Girlfriend. She was injured over the summer and just was not recovering. It was impacting her quality of life. It was really hard for Wade. Susie and Ted were in town and Henry got to spend a lot of quality time with Susie. He loves Susie, they have a special relationship. Henry also got to go on a field trip with his class last week. They have been talking about neighborhoods so the teacher arranged for them to visit the post office and mail themselves a post card. The school is right in downtown so the post office was just a short walk away for the kiddos. They watched the sorting machine and checked out all the other equipment and postal vehicles. We got Henry's postcard the next day and he was super excited. Here it is: The next day the kids walked to a landscape business and got to see more big vehicles and play in the dirt. Then they headed back to school to pick grapes from the school garden to squeeze to make juice for snack. They planted the seeds from their grapes along the west side fence of the school. Henry thought that was very cool. On Friday the kids talked about bugs and one of the parents brought in some bugs for them to check out. For snack that day...chocolate covered crickets. Henry did not try one, but several of the other kids did.
Now on to this week. On Monday Wade helped at Henry's school. There is a little boy in his class that is not talking and is struggling with some behavior problems. He seems to respond to Henry and Henry took note of it and has been playing with him and teaching him words. It's pretty amazing to watch the little boy engage with Henry in a way that he hasn't with other people. We are so proud of our little dude for helping him out.
On Tuesday I woke up early to go to the gym and decided to walk out on our front porch to enjoy the amazing orange and pink sunrise. I proceeded to step on a rusty nail which resulted in a trip to the Prompt Care for an emergency tetanus booster. The good news is that I don't have to worry about tetanus until I am 42. Bad news: now both my foot and my arm hurt. The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. I had an exam on Thursday night I spent most of Thursday in the library. Henry and I built a fort on Friday and we decided to sleep in it all weekend. I have some more photos from my phone that I cannot download at the moment. When I can I'll post them. For now here is Henry and Ray Ray in the fort this morning. Enjoy the first week of fall.

Weekly Update 9.6.10

2010-09-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

Oh man, are we making up the lack of photos last week???? Yes sir we are. Prepare for a feast for your eyes. But I think we'll take it in reverse order because, frankly, I can only remember the weekend.Today we woke up early and Henry played outside for an hour or so while Mama sat on the front porch drinking coffee and loving life. We also snacked on some apple cider donuts that we picked up the day before during our official "First cool day almost Fall tradition" which involves driving 30 minutes to drink fresh apple cider and eat fresh donuts. But now I am jumping ahead. Here we are devouring the donuts this morning. Yes, we were still in our jammies. Henry likes to eat his donuts pirate style. Then we headed over to Gigi and Grandpa's for a barbecue celebrating Susie and Ted's visit. Susie and I attempted to make the super epic rainbow cake. I like to call it the Super Epic Rainbow Flop. Here is what it should have looked like. Here it what it actually looked like. We had a fantastic meal with the family and Henry came home sugar high and having met his yearly requirement for food coloring.
Sunday was a pretty fun day. We slept in, of course, and then hung around the house, cleaning and playing and possibly cooking some food for future use (I may have a stocking the freeze addiction). Then, while we were outside playing with water balloons, we decided that we definitely felt a cool fall breeze which can only mean one thing in our house, time for the First cool breeze, almost Fall tradition which means a trip to Rees Fruit Farm. With the windows down we drove to Topeka and partook of the delightful treat. Evidently Henry likes to drink his apple cider slushes pirate style as well. Arrgh. Next stop, the sunflower field. Henry had a great time finding trails among the rows of sunflowers. On Saturday we went out for an early morning bike ride and then headed over to Gigi and Grandpa's house to say hi to Susie, Ted and Bagel. Henry got to pick the restaurant and then, when we got home Henry had his feet done on the porch. What a life! Look at this kid. It has been a wonderful, long, relaxing weekend. Now it is time to get started on a new week. Susie is in town all week, so Henry will get to spend his mornings with Susie and Bagel and his afternoons back at school. Mama has yet another week of work and school, and Papa has a busy week ahead of him with several meetings for the fundraiser for Henry's school plus playing music and being an all around great guy. Hope your week is wonderful. Now I am going to try to scrub off some of this food coloring. Hugs.

Weekly Update 8.29.2010: List Style

2010-08-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

This week Henry:
Learned about all different kinds of families in school.
Learned to sing a song about families in Spanish. His Spanish skills now almost surpass Mama's after 3 years of Spanish in high school.
Perfected his robot dance.
Drew 500 pictures of robots.
Managed to convince Gigi to buy him more Transformers,
Played with his friend Tay-tay for 3 hours, a record in the world of 4 year olds.
Brushed his own teeth.
Amazed strangers at the store with his adding and subtracting skills.
Watched some of the Transformers movie and then stood up on the bed and said "This is the best day of my entire life."

This week Mama:
Started a running program
Made 3 kinds of soup, lasagna, black bean burgers, muffins and granola (it's like the show Hoarders, freezer style).
Finished her 16th to last week of school.
Ate too many Fig Newtons
Did 25 loads of laundry
Teared up when she realized that she is in school with people that were born in the 90's

This week Papa:
Mowed the lawn
Stressed about work
Made a really cool t-shirt for friends that are adopting a little boy from Ethiopia
Changed the words to Goodnight Moon in a way that made Henry and Mama laugh so hard they both almost peed their pants.
Wrote music
Played with Transformers and Legos

Next week you can expect:
More food hoarding.
More music being made.
More close calls with the peeing in the pants.
More laundry.
Aunt Susie and Uncle Ted in town.
Hopefully a few photos.

Enjoy the week.

Weekly Update 8/22/10: Mini Version

2010-08-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

And so begins Henry's last year of preschool and Laurie's last semester of college.

This is going to be a quick update folks. We are fully immersed in the chaos of school and work, so much so that I only have a few minutes to post. 5 day preschool seems to be going well. Henry has some buddies and is having fun. He obviously (see above) is growing like a weed. At this point he is mostly just legs and a blond puff. He has grown 3 inches and a whole shoe sizes since May 31. We ran into a friend at the grocery store this weekend and she asked Henry how old he is now. His response, "4 and 3/4 plus 3 inches."

On Saturday Henry went downtown with Papa and Rachel and Estrella and they put up fliers for his show this week. Henry really likes Estrella. They are close to the same age and Henry loves holding her hand. After their visit downtown Henry said "Well, I have 4 girlfriends now and the good news is that when I get to 5 we are going to have a parrrr-teee." Ridiculous.

I spent most of Sunday in the kitchen preparing for the week. I feel like the only way that we are going to get through the next 15 weeks of me being on campus 9 hours a week, plus my full time job and Henry in school every day, plus Wade playing 3 shows in the next month (whew!) is for us to be super prepared. I am trying to make some dinners to freeze for busy nights, plus get all of my beans soaked and my tomato sauce made so that I don't even have to think about those things during the week. Speaking of tomatoes, heirloom cherry tomatoes are one of the only things that make mid-August in Kansas bearable. I grabbed two pints at the farmers market this weekend. Yum. While I was busy stocking up the freezer like we were about to be snowed in, Wade and Henry made plans to shoot some hoops at the park down the street. It was hot but Henry was ready for action. I acted as ball chaser/paparazzi while the boys played. We also hung a Henry "H" above his bed. Here is he pretending to sleep. Enjoy the rest of the week blog peeps.

Weekly Update 8.15.10

2010-08-14T09:36:00.000-07:00

It's a scorcher out there friends. We spent most of our week in a dark, air-conditioned house, trying to save our energy for those brief moments when we had to burst out of the house and run to the car.

I'm not going to lie, coming up with indoor activities for an active 4 year old is challenging. Poor Gigi had Henry all day Monday-Thursday this week because preschool has not started and it was so hot they couldn't even play outside in the mornings. On Thursday they took a trip to the Natural History Museum. Henry was very excited about watching the bees work. The rest of the exhibits were just a little too old for him. Lawrence needs a Children's Museum. On Wednesday they went to the movies. They had a great time.

Smelly markers have also come in really come in handy this week. On Tuesday Henry spent hours making his own transformer book. He took the one that we checked out from the library and copied the pictures and then Gigi wrote out the story, making note of a few changes-mainly that all the good guys had become bad guys. Henry is very interested in bad guys right now.

On Friday we had a massive thunderstorm. The sky was dark by 7 pm, which is at least 2 hours earlier than normal. It was the perfect opportunity to set up a flashlight on the bed and make shadow puppets. Henry made a very good alligator and bunny.

The guys also wrote a song on the piano about Transformers. It's called "The Battle of the Ages". I'll try to get it on video, although it is a lot harder to get him to sing on video these days, he is a little more self-aware then he was back in the Moon Walkin Cowboy days.

On Saturday we went out for breakfast at our usual place and then hit the farmers market. Henry worked on his second Transformers book.

In the afternoon Henry and I both decided that the only real way to combat the heat was homemade ice cream sandwiches. We made coconut ice cream and chocolate chip coconut cookies. It was good and messy.

The weather on Sunday was fantastic. Wade spent at least 3 hours in the morning working in the yard while Henry and I ran to the store, make homemade pita and hummus, did 500 loads of laundry, watched a little Star Wars, played with Transformers and cleaned the house. In the afternoon friends came over to play in the sprinkler and go for a bike ride. The weekend ended on a sour note when Wade got a speeding ticket while trying to rush our overdue books to the library 5 minutes before it closed. Ouch!

We have a busy week ahead of us friends. Monday is the first day of school for Henry. He starts the afternoon class at preschool, which is only 4 and 5 year olds. I start my last semester at KU on Thursday. I'm taking 9 hours this semester so I apologize ahead if I am grumpy for the next 16 weeks. Wade has 4 shows coming up in the next 2 months. Plus we have 3 weddings, a couple of birthday's, family coming to town and a trip to Colorado. Whew! See you in December ;)

"I like to live close to danger"- H

2010-08-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

Henry has been doing all kinds of new things all by himself. One of these things is washing his own hair in the shower. Last night, while he was working up a good lather, I reminded him that his shampoo is tear free. He decided that the next logical step was to squirt of blob of it into his eye.

**Result: Not tear free when placed directly into the eye.

I'm thinking of keeping a log of all the items that he has consumed as a child, so when he is an adult and discovers that he has an abnormal tolerance for dangerous household items, he will understand how he made it happen.

On Thursday Henry attempted to knock out his two bottom teeth by jumping out of the car and directly into Gigi's forearm.

**Result: Blood, tears and two prematurely wiggly front teeth. The upside is, of course, the potential for an earlier visit from the tooth fairy. Better get busy making a pillow.

10 things I love about Henry

2010-08-11T05:49:00.000-07:00

1. He is soft all over. From his blond curls to what's left of his baby thigh roll.

2. He loves to make us laugh. He'll stick with a joke for hours as long we are laughing.

3. He is fully committed to play. It reminds me to slow down, stop cleaning and enjoy life.

4. He likes to sit on my lap when he eats, and I let him, even if it means that I will have orange Nacho Cheese Doritos powder all of my shirt.

5. He tells me every night that he loves me 150 million hundred times, to cyberspace (a little confused on that one) and back and that he will live with us until he is 100 years old.

6. If the music is right he will start dancing anywhere-restaurants, the store, the sidewalk.

7. He likes to help me fix dinner and pretend that we have a cooking show. He says that I am the Head Chef and he is my "Sushi Chef".

8. After he uses the potty he yells "Clean up crew, wiping system".

9. He really loves people and he tells them he loves them and shows it every time he is with them.

10. He calls the piano "the pea-an-yo". It kills me.

From the Archives

2010-08-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

I was digging through our photos today and I found some old videos. They are two of my favorites. Watching these is bittersweet, on the one hand it is so amazing to watch Henry grow and get to know him and on the other hand I miss him at almost every age and these videos are a reminder of that. But I'm still so glad that we have them.

2010-08-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

Weekly Update 8.8.10

2010-08-07T19:47:00.000-07:00

Hi party people. Well, we have just completed the birthday weekend extravaganza. I had a great day on Saturday with my guys and my little sis. Henry and Wade gave me some beautiful flowers and I got to spend some quiet time on the front porch planting and enjoying the breeze. Quiet time doesn't happen much at my house. :) (A blurry one, sorry. It's all I've got. )
After a relaxing breakfast and a trip to the garden center, Wade and I sipped on coffee with one hand while playing transformers with the other and contemplated going to the fair. But then we realized that we were insane and that it was 100 degrees outside, so we called up Henry's buddy, Rosa, and headed for Aunt Lillie's pool. Henry jumped in by himself several times. He had two floating rings on at all times, plus a life jacket, so I'm pretty sure that he was actually only in the water from the knees down, but hey, everyone has to go at their own pace. And by the end of the day he was blowing bubbles and feeling very brave. Then Henry and Wade headed to another friends house for a bike ride. While the boys were out I threw together a birthday cake that ended up looking better than it tasted. Henry coated it in about 3 layers of sprinkles, so it had a nice crunch. We went to The Burger Stand for dinner. Kelly joined us and was kind enough to share her truffle oil fries. Henry had his first corn dog. He is a fan. Papa had a beer. He is a fan. After dinner we headed home, way past Henry's bed time, to sing Happy Birthday and eat a very tiny sliver of cake. Henry was concerned about the fire hazard of having so many candles on one cake. I was not amused. At bed time Henry asked for an extra hug, because I am the birthday girl, and he told me that he would always love me and always be my friend, even with my stinky armpits.
Since we goofed off all of Saturday, we spent Sunday playing catch up. Right now I have about 8 loads of laundry to fold on the bed. Wade is out for a super run to combat the all the treats we ate this weekend. Including a lovely Sunday dinner downtown with Gigi, Grandpa and Aunt Kelly. Henry got some smelling markers and drew pictures of robots, bulldozers and crocodiles with Grandpa the whole time. Kelly gave me a slice of one of the best cakes I have ever eaten and Mom and I planned our strategy for trying to mimic the recipe at home. Other items of note during the week:
Henry ate an entire 8 inch sub. His feet fell asleep half way through so he had to stand up. We skipped the fair and opted for a ride that was in air conditioning. It's lame, I know. We've promised Henry a trip to Worlds of Fun in the fall to make up for it. And last but not least, we got a lovely card from Wade's grandmother, Nana, on Saturday with a photo from her mother's 102 birthday. This is Henry's Great Great Grandmother, Eva. There are 5 generations alive in his family, which is so very special. When she celebrates 103 next summer, we are going to be there. :)

Weekly Update 7.31.10

2010-07-31T15:19:00.001-07:00

This past week has been jam packed full of fun with family in from out of town. Henry was ecstatic to see his Aunt Annie last Saturday. His primary objective was to spend as much time educating her in the ways of Transformers, and I think he accomplished that goal. I am fairly sure Annie walked away with a solid knowledge of the major players in the world of Transformers and I personally witnessed her successfully transforming level 2 (age 4+), which is better than Mama or Papa did after just a few training sessions. Aunt Annie does have a PhD, which could explain it. Next time we see her, we'll work on the level 3's. Henry also spent a lot of time playing with his Aunt Susie and Uncle Ted. I think he really enjoyed having the whole family together.

But playing Transformers with Papa is also pretty great. Unfortunately, I managed to go all week without taking a photo of Henry with his Aunts. This is all I've got, a crappy, camera phone photo of the ladies getting their toes done. Notice the wee little bean running the massage chair controls on Aunt Annie's chair...Note to self: pedicures are not as relaxing when a 4 year old has control of the massage chair. One of the ladies pointed out that there were little treasures hidden in the brick wall on the North side of the room and Henry had a great time finding the treasures and taking pictures of them with Annie's phone. Other things to note:
-Henry loves root beer. Real beer, however, tastes like "trash". Let's hope that sticks.
-I completed my Microbiology coarse on Thursday by taking a 3 hour final exam. I learned a lot. Now, go wash your hands.

-Wade has been busy at work this week. He had a Turnpike interview on Friday night so if you have local channels, check it out. I can't watch it because it makes me nervous, but I hear he's pretty good at it.

-Henry has taken to calling people by their first initial-Dog (example: Papa is P-Dog) thanks to the creative efforts of Kelly and Cooper. He called Grandpa G-Dog and Grandpa became very confused and asked What is happening with the dog? Does Henry want a hot dog? He also gives the peace sign when he leaves.

-Tomorrow Wade is helping his sister move to Lawrence. Our lucky little boy with have another fabulous family member living near by. I tell you, this is one lucky kid. Surrounding by people that love him.

Well, off to bed. Later Dogs.

Dinner Attire

2010-07-23T15:22:00.000-07:00

Weekly update

2010-07-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

It has been a hot July in Kansas, my friends. All week the heat index hovered around 105-110F. Right now it is almost impossible for me to get Henry out of the house. But when there is a promise of splashing Mama involved, well, it helps. This week has been super busy, as usual. I had class in KC on Tuesday and Thursday nights so Henry and Wade had fun visiting friends and eating Mexican food. Henry is in summer school too, in the mornings. He comes home every day soaking wet from playing in the sprinkler and with lots of fun and interesting art projects.

Today Henry and I headed up on campus to stick our toes in the fountain for a quick cool-down. Henry knows how to work those fountain sprayers and it wasn't long before we were both soaked.

And afterwords he said, "Now that I put my toes in the fountain, I'm a real jayhawk."

Last weekend Grandpa and Grandma B came to visit to celebrate Grandma's 60th birthday. Grandpa calls Henry "Henry-O" so I've been calling him "Grandpa-O", we'll see if it sticks. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of the three of them together. Henry also got to spend some time with his Aunt Lillie and Uncle John, two of his favorite people.

Tomorrow Aunt Annie arrives and Susie and Ted will be here on Monday. Should be a great weekend. Later Gators.

Prayers

2010-07-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite parts of the day is bedtime. Henry likes for me to rub his feet and we say prayers. It's usually something like: Hi God, it's Mama and Henry. Thank you for a great day. Please help me to not be scared of monsters or have any bad dreams. Thank you for Lego's. Amen.

But lately he has really been chatty during prayers and it is giving me some wonderful insights into how his day has been. It's hard to be away from my baby all day, and when he does get home and I ask how his day was I usually get "It was good." So, tonight when he said his prayers I just sat back listened:
Hi God. It's Mama and Henry. Or Laurie. Or Laura. Thank you for a great day. Thank you for show and tell. Thank you for playing pretend no pants guys with Utah at school. Thank you for snack. Thank you for Bagel and Gigi. I love Gigi. Thank you for the house we built in the living room. Thank you for cupcakes. Thank you for transformers and Lego's. When you see Santa ask him for some new ones for me. Please make me not be scared of monsters. Amen. Also thank you for chocolate milk. Amen.

2010-07-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight Henry was shucking an ear of corn and said, "Whoa, this corn has more hair on it than Grandpa."

I thought Henry was in bed, asleep, when I heard a noise in the bathroom and then, through the monitor I heard, "Whoo-hoo...my poops comin' in for a landing."

Happy 4th

2010-07-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

Holiday weekend fun

2010-05-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

Easter

2010-05-30T15:58:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me today that I have not posted any pictures from Easter. I grabbed the camera and realized that we only took 4 pictures on Easter. Oops. Well...at least they are good ones. Henry thought dying eggs was super fun and we have done it 2 more times since Easter for no reason except "funness" (as Henry would say). And the bottom picture, well, it's just a little shocking for me. I feel like he is WAY too tall and looking WAY too kindergartenish. Yikes!

Mama's Day

2010-05-10T06:46:00.000-07:00

Hope you had a special day all you Mom's out there. You do so much.

This pic is from my first Mother's Day. Happy First Mother's Day to my friends Lisa and Amy.

Hike to California

2010-04-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

Friday is my favorite day of the week. Friday is Mama-Henry Day. We spend a couple of hours doing practical stuff like cleaning up and going to the store, and then once the boring stuff is finished we head out for an adventure. Yesterday we went on a hike. Henry discovered that he really loves hiking. We rode the bike trails to the dirt path and then walked up the dirt path to the top of a hill with a bench looking over the lake. Once we got to the top Henry said “Wow I love hiking. I can’t believe we just hiked all the way to California.” On the way back down the hill we picked some wildflowers, spotted some pretty cool looking bugs, and touched a tree that had been struck by lightening. We also rode our bikes through huge puddles, mud puddles and make some serious skid marks. It was a windy, cloudy, perfect day.

We also had Parent Teacher conferences yesterday afternoon. Overall Henry is doing great. He is making a lot of friends and is becoming a little bit of a social butterfly. Ms. Stephanie said that he is the leader of the class. Which is great but he has also had a few bossy moments. Stephanie said that sometimes he finds herself just talking with Henry about things like he is a coworker, which just cracked me up. She also said that he can count to 60, maybe higher but they just didn’t have time to keep counting. He is reading 4-5 letter words and doing a very good job of sounding out longer words. He is ready for the afternoon class of 4-5 year olds. She did say that he did not know the shape of an oval. He insisted that it was an egg shape.

Soccer was great this morning. Coach Fernando is a wonderful and patient guy. Henry didn’t score any goals but he did cheer for Adam when he scored a goal. This is progress for Henry since he has no experience with team sports and did not understand that Adam’s point counts as his point since they are on the same team. He feels very important when he gets to drink a Gatorade at the end of the game. Today he told me, with a bright red Gatorade mustache, "Oh Mama, it is fun to be a real soccer player." Henry works so hard at practice, he goes to bed at 7:00 on Saturdays. I’m thinking we are going to have to get some soccer goals for the yard.

Hope you have a great weekend. The lilacs in the yard are blooming. The sun is shining. Be sure to stop and listen to the leaves blow in the trees….advice Henry gave me when we stopped to take a break on our hike.

Soccer

2010-04-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

Soccer started on Saturday. Henry LOVED it. The first thing they did was huddle up around the coach and introduce themselves. Henry’s coach is named Fernando. Then the coach lined the kids up and they ran, single file, around the field 2 times. Henry was grinning from ear to ear. When he passed us on the second lap he yelled “Now I have 6 more friends.” Then the kids did jumping jacks, which when done by 4-5 year olds, is either jumping up and down with your legs together while moving your arms, or jumping up and down with your legs open while moving your arms, or no jumping at all, just arm moving. After the warm up the kids did several kicking and scoring exercises and then it was time for his first game, which was pretty hilarious. Henry scored 2 goals and was so proud of himself. And in the end he even got a snack and juice that comes out of a pouch. What a great morning. I have a feeling that we will have many more Saturday morning soccer games to come. Our little boy looked the like a real soccer player out there.

Prayer

2010-03-20T09:54:00.001-07:00

Hi God. It's Henry. Thank you for a great day. Please help all the sick people and people that have ouchies. I'm sorry for trying to scare the cats today. I have one question for you. Is there a problem with me eating all the candy when I get to heaven?

A- (points to himself) men (because he is a man, of course)

Coats back on

2010-03-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

Happy first day of spring. 4 inches of snow.

Weekend

2010-03-07T19:55:00.001-08:00

Wade injured his back on Friday and has been totally out of commission. So this weekend it has pretty much just been me and the little bean (with a few hours of back up assistance from the Amazing Gigi and Grandpa). I really don't know how single parents do it. I realized at about 8:00 tonight that I haven't showered all weekend. My house is still a mess. I spent about $60.00 more than I usually do at the grocery store because I am too easily persuaded to buy things like a Tigger electric toothbrush or a box of sidewalk chalk the size of a loaf of bread. I had at least 2 mini-breakdowns and made more baked goods then any family of three could ever eat (stress baking, passed down from my Mom). But there were plenty of good moments too. The kid is always changing. It blows my mind. Here are a few of my favorite Henry quotes:

On the radio we hear a song that says "You're hot and your cold, you're yes and you're no...."-
H: Mama she says yes when she means no. M: I heard that. That's silly. H: No Mama, that not silly, that is Frustrating!

On a bike ride-
M: Why are you riding so slow kiddo?
H: It's a beautiful day, Mama. I HAVE to ride slow so I can see all of it.

Unloading groceries at the store-
M: Henry those are too heavy, why don't you get the light stuff?
H: No Mama. I will lift the heavy stuff so that you don't have to.

Sitting in the sunshine with the cats-
H: Cats have good ideas. I think people should sit in the sunshine every day too.

Henry's world

2010-03-05T14:28:00.000-08:00

A few of Henry's favorite pics from his camera.

Already?

2010-02-24T18:10:00.001-08:00

H: Today at school Elsa asked me to marry her. She asked to kiss me on the lips but I said no, she can only kiss me on the finger.
M: Well, that was probably smart, with germs and all.
H: Here smell my finger. Can you smell Elsa?
M: Yes, it smells like a very sweet friend.
H: I think I will marry Elsa. I like her because she always holds my hand. And I like holding her hand because it is small like mine and it is soft and smooth and because she always wears dresses, everyday she wears dresses. And because she always smells good.
M: Those sound like good reasons. I like Elsa too.
H: Yes. But I will not marry her now Mama, because I am too small. I will marry her when I am old. Like 15 or something.

And another

2010-02-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day, I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return."

I read this the other day on a blog that I recently discovered thanks to my friend Kenna. I don’t know who said it, but it resonated with me. I’ve noticed, since becoming a Mom, that much of my time is spent doing mundane, every day tasks and it is easy for me to get fed up with the “Normal day” routine. But time goes by quickly. Henry is 4. He started taking showers and is washing himself. Our days of taking baths together have passed. He is starting to read and some day soon I wonder into his room and find him with his face in a book and no desire to snuggle up for our bedtime stories. Pretty soon he will sleep in on the weekends and our Saturday mornings together watching cartoons and eating cheerios will be over. Soon he may not be interested in baking cookies with me or painting our faces like cats or pretending that we are being chased by pincher trucks on the ride home from Gigi's house. But for now he still holds my hand and buries his face in my thigh when he is nervous. And he still likes for me to rub his feet after we turn the lights out at bedtime. He still likes to sit on my lap whenever we eat dessert and he still calls for me at night when he has a nightmare. With all my might I am fighting the tendency to go into autopilot on a Normal Day. I’m pretty sure, in the end, they will be the days that mean the most.

LOVE

2010-02-14T06:43:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentines Day to all our blog friends! Our Valentines Day celebration started on Thursday night. While I made dinner Henry sat at the table and wrote the names of all of his friends at school and his own name on each of his 21 Valentines. He made his Valentine envelope at school on Monday and, once again, the teachers told to us that he spent the most time of all the kids creating his envelope. He loves art and will spend all of his center time (the time at school when they do art) creating beautiful paintings. He was very excited to get Valentines from his friends at school.
This year we are celebrating by spending the whole day together, doing some of our favorite things-like baking, painting and bike riding. We are starting the day out by letting Papa do one of his favorite things: sleeping in. Henry and I are making heart shaped waffles, fruit and facon-bacon for breakfast...we are hoping the smell of good food will wake our late sleeper. Last night I made Henry a choo-choo train sweatshirt for Valentines Day. Papa gave me a delicious German Chocolate Cake (my favorite). And Papa is getting lots of rest, his favorite dinner and a beautiful painting by Henry.
Yesterday we made cupcakes and cookies...

We hope your Valentines Day is full of sweet treats, warm snuggles, your favorite things, lots of rest and, most of all, that you are surrounded by love. Lot's of love.

Back log

2010-02-13T11:55:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to lie, facebook has made me neglectful of the Bean blog. It's just so easy to post a picture from my phone with the click of a button. Most of you are facebook friends, if not here are some of the pictures I've posted over the past few months. I call this, What we are up to-

Laughing:

Eating (kind of):Enjoying sunny days:Baking:

Reading:

Playing:

Playing in the snow:

Sledding:

Helping: Freezing:

Building:

More Building:

Getting into trouble:

The good stuff

2010-02-13T11:37:00.000-08:00

Last weekend as we sat around our dining room table eating dinner, Wade was what we call in our house "actin' a fool", which basically means slapstick humor, funny faces, falling out of his chair...if you know him then you know exactly what I am talking about. Henry was cracking up. Pink cheeked, food leaking out of his mouth, incredibly loud laughter...if you know him then you will also know exactly what I am talking about. It was one of those wonderful moments as a parent when you look around at the life you are trying to create and feel a sense of pride and immense joy. Of course, Henry then began the difficult task of trying to follow-up Papa's jokes with some of his own, which mainly consisted of him mimicking the things that Papa did. One of his jokes was "You know what's a good joke? You are." Of course he did not mean it in the way that grown-ups take it, which is what made it so funny. The best part was every time he would make a joke he would throw his slice of pizza down on his plate in victory. Like -"Yeah, I know that was a good one". Awesome.

2010-01-27T09:05:00.001-08:00

“Will you scan that?”- H, to the check out guy at Target after putting a booger on the conveyor belt.

And a little overdue birthday fun

2009-12-26T20:22:00.000-08:00

I made a wish. I wished that we would all be friends forever. -Henry

Post snowman-building

2009-12-26T20:18:00.000-08:00

Rosy cheeks, stocking cap hair, and hot cocoa...leads to silliness.

SNOW!

2009-12-26T20:06:00.000-08:00

We spent the morning digging the house out of the snow and attempting to build a snow man. Tomorrow....sledding....

Merry Christmas

2009-12-26T20:05:00.000-08:00

2009-12-09T19:02:00.001-08:00

H: Aunt Kelly has red hair. Gigi has silver hair. I have blond hair. And Grandpa has skin hair.

2009-11-21T06:37:00.000-08:00

Mama dat ambleeance might be going to help someone with a heart attack. Their heart might be broken so they don't know how to love anymore.

2009-11-15T19:24:00.001-08:00

H: What did I say when I came out of your tummy?
M: You couldn't talk yet. But you cried a lot.
H: Oh. Really? I think I was crying because it was comfy in there.

2009-11-15T19:23:00.002-08:00

I was just looking at this picture of Papa. You know, the one where he thinks he is a superstar.-H

2009-11-15T19:23:00.001-08:00

M: Henry why do you have your pants pulled down like that? I can see part of your bottom.
H: Because Mama, I am pretending that I am Papa.

2009-11-15T19:21:00.000-08:00

M: Henry are you cheering for the guys in the white shirts or in the blue shirts?
H: Um, I think I am cheering for the guys in the black and white stripes.

Weeds

2009-11-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

Are you ready for this? Because I'm not. But I learned over the past 4 years that you can't slow it down so you just have to try to pay attention and enjoy every day. So...our boy is almost 4. I'm a little sad about it because I have just LOVED 3. I could do 3 for years. 3 is good. I'll probably feel the same way about 4 when 5 comes, but for now I am just missing 3. Henry is tall! 89th percentile in height according to his check up today. In his typical style he answered all the nurses questions, sometimes a little too thoroughly. For example he showed her that he could hop on one foot. When asked if he could throw a ball he went into a 5 minute story about hitting a home run into the street earlier today. "Does he know 2 or 3 colors?" was met with Henry pointing out every color in the room (and it was a colorful room). She chuckled and said "Okay so he is definitely using 4-5 word sentences." Since we already had the swine flu there was no need for shots even though Henry was prepared for a flu shot. He told me in the car on the way to the doctors office- "Mama, "I would rather get a shot then have the flu." In the end we decided not to get the flu shot even though he really did have a compelling argument for it.

This week we also got a wonderful report from his teacher at parent teacher conferences this week. Henry is doing great. He is really growing confidence in his social life. He has several new friends- Murphy, Sophia, Charlie, Ruby and Oren and brings home piles of beautiful artwork every day.

This fall he is really interested in collecting fallen leaves (he refers to himself as a leaf fiend), reading, drawing pictures of machines, building machines around the house, riding his bike and pretending. We live in a magical world right now. Every day, every activity, involves some imaginary play. It is amazing to see how quickly and with such ease children are able to move into the imaginary world. How do we lose this as adults?

We are really looking forward to the holiday season. Hopefully we will get to spend it with some of you guys. Lots of love. :)

Make up trip to the zoo

2009-11-08T17:46:00.000-08:00

We could not have asked for better zoo weather. Henry had a great time. He was supposed to go to the zoo with his Grandma and Grandpa Benda a couple of weeks ago but H1N1 kept us at home. We didn't make it to see everything at the zoo so when Grandpa Benda is here next spring we can go again. Only thing is, Henry wants to ride the train 15 times...so we'll have to get there early :)

2009-11-08T17:43:00.000-08:00

Quick Gigi, drive fast to the bathroom. Grandpa has to pee so bad that I'm afraid he is going to wet MY pants.

2009-11-07T11:16:00.001-08:00

Mama, I am going to put the phone down now and you can listen to me as I build a machine as big as the house.

2009-11-05T19:06:00.002-08:00

M: Well Henry, it looks like it is just me and you for dinner tonight.
H: Oh Mama, can't we invite Grandpa Benda or Uncle John. Someone that is a little more interesting to me please.

2009-11-05T19:06:00.001-08:00

Oh Mama. There's nothing better than love.

2009-11-04T13:47:00.000-08:00

H: (to the pharmacist at Jayhawk Pharmacy) I do like to watch KU basketball. But...only on the big bed, in my comfy clothes, with a pizza and no underwear on.

And it begins

2009-11-01T13:33:00.000-08:00

You know a costume is good when you want to wear it the next day :)

And then there is all that candy....

I think I like Halloween more than Christmas *

2009-11-01T13:10:00.000-08:00

*we'll see if he feels that way after Christmas. :)

2009-10-31T13:05:00.001-07:00

H: What is God, Mama?
M: Well, God is love, Baby. He is watching over all of us. Taking care of all the people and the animals and the Earth. He is all the love in the whole world.
H: So is the way I feel about Aunt Susie, God?
M: Yes, I think so.
H: Hummm. That's good. Mama?
M: Yes baby.
H: God sounds a lot like Santa Claus.

2009-10-31T09:58:00.001-07:00

Next year, for Halloween, I think I'd like to be a fork-lift.

2009-10-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

M: Henry quit rolling around and go to sleep.
H: I'm sorry Mama but you're just so cute I can't stand it. I just like looking at you cuz you're so cute. I mean it Mama, I can't stand looking at you.

2009-10-30T14:29:00.001-07:00

Mama, let's put a big shooter on my robot costume because, you know, I like to live close to danger.

2009-10-30T13:31:00.001-07:00

M: Look Henry, we are wearing matching shirts. We look like twins.
H: Yes Mama, if I was soft and had stinky feet I would be just like you.

2009-10-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

H: Papa says it's okay if I write on the wall just a tiny bit and Papa is the boss so we listen to him. That's what we do Mama, we listen to Papa. And Papa says it's okay to write on the wall. He weally does Mama. He weally does.

2009-10-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

*Bang* H: Ouch. Bam
*Bang* H: Ouch. Bam
*Bang* H: Ouch. Bam
*Bang* H: Ouch. Bam
M: Henry what are you doing back there? Why are you saying Bam?
H: Banging my hand against the car. It hurts. I was going to say damn, but that's a bad word.
M: Thanks for not saying that Henry.
*Bang* H: Ouch. Bam!
*Bang* H: Damn (whisper)
M: Henry, you're not supposed to use that word.
H: I know. Sorry Santa.

2009-10-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

H: Boogers and snot and eye boogers and stinky baby bottoms and poop and pee and... M: Henry what are you doing in there? H: Oh, just thinking about yucky stuff.