1 Year, 1 Week, 5 Days

Whew, Part A of our big life change is over. We successfully moved into our new house yesterday morning and through the very, very generous elbow grease of our friend Corey, we were able to get all of the "main" house unpacked. For the first time we have a basement which is why i distinguish the main house from the basement. A basement is a truly wonderful thing. All those boxes and bins and bags that were stuffed in the closet, under the bed, tucked in the garage, etc. are all clustered together neatly in the glorious basement.

I did put together the shelving units we picked up on craigslist for the basement and started stacking the boxes that are labeled. Unfortunately most of the boxes packed by the movers just say basement, so they're remaining a mystery for now.

The kitchen has taken some doing. We're planning on gutting the kitchen as quickly as we can sell our condo and line up contractors. The current kitchen is terrible, small, and kinda gross so we didn't want to get too involved in making things really perfect. But, it's likely that with spring already well upon us, it will be awhile before we can get in a contractors schedule. So, we did spend a lot of time sorting out what to keep in the kitchen and what to banish to the basement.

Henry has done pretty darn well through all of this. His naps yesterday left a little to be desired and we didn't make his swimming class after all. We hadn't been at the house very long by the time we would have needed to head out and i decided he was better off getting some sleep. He was very clingy yesterday but slept through the night just fine in his new room and has taken some stellar naps today. He's army crawling everywhere and gotten to where he can pull up on low things completely on his own. He's also getting very good and cruising around the coffee table on his own. We're looking forward to starting the week tomorrow and getting into a routine in our new house.

1 Year, 1 Week, 2 Days

Tonight will probably be my last post in Henry's first home. The packers come tomorrow, and after closing on the new house on Friday, we move in on Saturday. We're doing lots of last minute preparations so that hopefully things go smoothly with the packers, and that includes disassembling the computer. So, likely i won't post again until Monday. We had good news that the sale of our place is moving forward so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Poor Henry had a bit of a trying day. I forgot until about 5 minutes before his appointment that in addition to his usual PT, he had an appointment with the developmental therapist. I ran to the car and called Brenda while i raced up to get him. Of course he had just gotten to sleep so he started off a bit cranky. He actually did pretty well with the developmental therapist and she gave us lots of great feedback. He is still a little held back by his delayed mobility, and she emphasized a few more exercises we need to do with him to strengthen his shoulders, but she said that he's one bright little guy and doing great in terms of his play skills and communication ability.

He was just so overtired by end of her visit that he fell straight to sleep but only slept about 30 minutes. I tried off and on to see if he would take another nap or at least have some quiet time before PT started with no luck. He did manage to hold it together and then we promptly went out for a walk with JT to get some "stroller coma" action. He obliged and took a decent nap in the stroller. He went to sleep immediately after his dinner, and now we're just hoping he makes it through the night since we have a very busy few days ahead of us.

1 Year, 1 Week, 1 Day

Henry is on the all full-fat diet. It's crazy. I made him scrambled eggs with 2 TBS of butter and whole cream the other day. For meals we mix whole cream into his baby food and slather butter on his veggies. His favorite snack is now a hard biscuit slathered with obscene amounts of cream cheese. If he doesn't gain more weight on this diet then his curve would predict, i going to have to tell the Pediatrician that Henry is just taking after his tall skinny Dad.

When i picked Henry up from daycare he couldn't wait to point out all the colors they have on their wall. It's pretty amazing. He's not just excited, he's desperate to point them out and talk to you, clearly explaining that each color has it's own animal and shape (the green turtle has a circle). Of course we can't understand him exactly but he's pretty clear he's telling us everything we need to know.

1 Year, 1 Week

Over the weekend Henry crashed his first swim class. I signed Henry up for the "Shrimp and Kippers, 6-12 months" class at the Y. The registration slip i was given said the class started on 4/22. We showed up (running a bit late) and i said i was here for a swim class. The woman at the desk just pointed towards a hallway and i went on in, found the locker room, got us squared-away as quickly as possible and headed out to the pool.

5 minutes late, all the other parents and babies were in the water already in a big circle. The water was cool, the pool was noisy, and i Henry got a bit freaked out from the sudden transition. They were just jumping up and down with their babies which Henry was starting to get used to. Suddenly the instructor says "okay let's blow bubbles!" There was no way Henry was going to blow bubbles and i was getting a bit confused-- this was Henry's first class after all.

After a few more advanced moves, i asked if this was indeed the 6-12 month class which the instructor confirmed.

There are two other people taking the class with us and they showed up a little later. Turns out OUR class didn't start until next week. The class we crashed was the last class of the previous session. The instructor was a substitute though, so she didn't realize we were in the wrong class.

It was actually kind of nice to have a dry run. We figured out not to put the swim diaper on until just before class, where the locker rooms are, and what time to leave the house. Henry might even be up for some bubbles by the end of next week.

Of course the class will be about 4 hours after the movers arrive so tune in next week to see if i warrant a Mommy Oscar or not.

1 Year, 6 Days

Thank you so much to everyone that took my survey. I'll summarize my findings soon...

Last Saturday i went to see one of my favorite punk bands from college. I stumbled across a mention of their show and talked a friend that's up for musical exploration into going. For those of you with a music background, we saw Avail. Man did i have a great time. I forgot how much i love going to small live shows where people are absorbed by the music, willing to move, and heating the air to indoor pool levels. I forgot all my rules for dressing (light layers are important, leave the jacket in the car, and bring something to tie your hair back), but made it through just fine.

One thing that was markedly different was that i couldn't just be there, dancing, singing along, and pumping my fist in the air. I found myself thinking constantly about how old the band members are. When i was 18 or 20 i wasn't exactly relating to the band members. They were clearly older than I was and although music gave me freedom, i didn't have any personal musical or artistic aspirations, always easily imagining myself in a professional career.

It was interesting thinking about what these late 30-year old guys are like, what they do for day jobs, and if these simple punk songs that don't sound like they've evolved much over the last 10 years are enough to keep them going. I had forgotten that one band member "BeauBeau" is a cheerleader. That's his official band title. It's like having someone out to warm the crowd up, but he stays for the music and plays air guitar, sings along, dances, and reacts to the crowd.

The stranger thing is that now, 10 years from the last time i saw them, i wondered these things at the show and as i'm writing this i can toodle on over to google and find out all kinds of stuff about each of the band members, what they do for day jobs, and their individual musical side projects. Somehow takes the ooph out of mindless conjecture...

1 Year, 3 Days

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Bit of a crazy day... Things started off a bit off-kilter, as Henry woke twice during the night and then woke up for good a bit early. He enjoyed playing with JT so much that i couldn't sleep in like i normally do. I thought Henry was upset and crying but when i got up to check on him he was just so excited and happy playing with Dad. By 7:30 he was clearly tired so i put him down for an early nap. This delayed getting to daycare but i'm glad i did it because it may well have been his best nap of the day.

I picked him up in the early afternoon to take him for his 1 year Dr. Appointment. The appointment went pretty well. She was happy to see his non-physical development right on target, and said he was standing very well. He's also continuing to grow on his little curve and is up to 18 lbs 8 oz. We're supposed to switch him entirely to whole milk and cut down on the amount of liquid calories we give him. Instead, we are supposed to add things like heavy cream, cream cheese, butter, cheese, etc. to all foods that he eats to add calories to what he's already taking. We made a pit stop by the grocery store and hit the dairy aisle pretty hard.

She thought everything looked good though and just wants us to come back for his normal 15 month check-up. He received the Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Chicken Pox vaccine as well as was tested for TB and anemia. The anemia test came back negative right away, and we check his arm for evidence of TB on Saturday. The vaccine shot was not a big deal but he hated being held down and having his fingers pricked and bled for the other tests. It was the hardest he's cried in ages and not much fun to watch.

He played happily at home though and hopefully will have a decent night.

1 Year, 2 Days

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Although he only took a 20 minute nap at Brenda's today, he did pretty well with Amy at PT. He showed off his newfound ability to put objects IN something and did a little pushing forward to go after toys. He even cruised from his play table over to the coffee table all on his own.

I talked with the developmental therapist and she's going to come back out next week to do a 1-year assessment of Henry and see how he's doing in other areas. We're a little concerned that because he's still not really mobile he'll start to fall behind in other areas like language or cognitive development. We haven't seen any signs of that but we want to get a professional opinion.

Henry's one year Dr. appointment is tomorrow, so we'll get to see how much he weighs and get a medical perspective on him. His appointment is in the early afternoon, so at the very least he should be able to take a nice long afternoon nap at home.

1 Year, 1 Day

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Henry seems to be rapidly moving into a toddler tantrum phase. JT told me that he had a major freak out this morning when JT was trying to feed him breakfast. He would take a bite and then just go ballistic, throwing his arms around, screaming, screwing up his face, etc. When he told me i said something like "yeah, he gets upset when you don't feed him quickly enough." This evening he repeated the episode for me and i got to eat my smug words. It's not exactly that you aren't just feeding him too slowly, it's like he's beyond frustrated that he can't just absorb the food all at once and be done with it.

We played around in the living room when he got home from Ms. Brenda's and today he decided to alternately fuss and push backwards and get really determined and inch tiny, tiny bits forward to get what he wanted. He's not doing what i'd call "army crawling" because that implies real distance is being covered. But, if something is 2-3 inches out of his way he'll dig his toes in and propel himself forward.

Over the past few days he's figured out how to put thing inside something else. He had gotten really good at taking things out of containers but he got these nesting blocks for his birthday (thanks Corey!) and loves to take a smaller cube and put it in a larger one, and then take it out and repeat.

This same skill enabled him to figure out how to put his roll-around balls into the holes on the side of the dragon. Each time you put the ball in, lights and music play and the ball comes out one of the various chutes. Henry took a few times to master the motion and then just sat putting the same ball in the same hole over and over and over. He was over the moon with excitement and with 52 pictures to show for it, you could say we were too.

1 Year!

What with ballet and getting our place ready for the house inspection this morning (that's right, i'll provide details once things are further along) i didn't get a chance to post last night.

As Henry officially reached the one year mark, i've been thinking about this blog, it's format and future. Take a completely anonymous short 5 question survey and let me know how you "use" Good Intent now and what you'd like to see in the future (Click here to take survey).

11 Months, 4 weeks, 1 Day

Henry officially turns 1 year old tomorrow, but we celebrated with a small party on Saturday. Everything went really well. We had a nice number of adults and plenty of children to go around as well. It was just a really nice casual celebration. Henry wasn't overwhelmed and really seemed to enjoy having so many people to watch.

He dug right into the little cake that i made him. Eventually we had to take it away so he didn't go into a sugar coma. He loved the amazing gifts he got from friends and family far and near. We opened gifts from his party guests first and then the rest of the gifts after his afternoon nap.

Later in the day we drove up to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, which is now going to be within walking distance of our new house. We parked by the restaurant and enjoyed walking in our new neighborhood and passing by our new house. Just a little bit longer and that new house will really be ours!

11 Month, 3 Weeks, 6 Days

What a big weekend we have to look forward to! Henry is having a small birthday brunch party on Saturday and then Sunday we head to Tabitha and Cullen's house for Easter lunch and egg festivities.

I worked on Henry's cake last night and think things turned out pretty well. Tonight i need to cook a little more and wrap some gifts. It's been such fun getting all of Henry's presents! This early in his life i feel like i really get to share in the excitement of the gifts even though they're for him. Thankfully he's not to the point where he can request things i don't like (GI Joe! Bob the Builder! Elmo!) so i get to fully enjoy all the cute clothes and fun toys that he enjoys but doesn't exert much control over. I'm thinking that by his 2nd birthday this might be pretty different. Even without much tv exposure i'm told he'll start recognizing and requesting "characters." We'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it. I'm smart enough at this parenting-gig by now, to know that if i make blanket pronouncements i'll quickly be retracting my statements. So, here's to a fun birthday, a WARM Easter celebration, and cute and cuddly gifts!

11 Months, 3 Weeks, 5 Days

Henry had PT today and was just plain cranky. Perhaps he was hungry or tired or both and that contributed but he just would not accept any direction at all from Amy. We tried bribing him with fruit puffs which helped a little. After she left i gave him a full 8 oz. of formula in his new sippy cup (seems to be one he'll really take after some initial fits and starts with our old ones) and he drank it right down-- after throwing a fit that we were trying to get him to drink it.

Then he happily played on the floor on his own and even managed to push forward enough times that it didn't seem like a fluke. By the end of his play session he just seemed frustrated and would just point at what he wanted without trying to get it but hopefully this will be a springboard towards more forward movement.

11 Months, 3 Weeks, 4 Days

Here's Henry practicing to be my intern when he stayed home with me last week.

Tonight is the second-part in my cloth diaper primer. Tonight i'll be covering the questions that deal with what you do with the soiled diapers and how involved the clean-up is.

It's pretty straightforward. We have a garbage can in Henry's room with a locking lid. With cloth diapers we change him about every 2 hours during the day. If the diaper is wet you throw everything (cover, diaper and fleece) in the garbage can/diaper pail and close the lid. If the diaper is dirty then you take 1 more step. We generally use paper liners that you lay on top of the fleece. This paper liner is flushable. If the diaper is dirty you simply set the diaper aside until you're done changing, and then drop the liner in the toilet-- the rest of the diaper goes in the pail.

If everything is working in the old G/I tract then you can get away with not using the liners at all. You simply take the diaper to the toilet, give it a good shake, and then throw the rest of the diaper back in the pail.

On wash day i take out the garbage bag, empty it into the washer and run a rinse cycle sans detergent in warm water. After the rinse has finished i do a full wash cycle on hot with minimal detergent and oxyclean. You can't use fabric softener as it makes the diapers not absorbent and you have to keep the detergent to a minimum so that no residue is left on the diapers to irritate little baby skin.

When the wash cycle is done, you simply throw everything in the dryer.

I wouldn't attempt all of this without my own w/d, but once that is in place it's very convenient and much cheaper to use cloth (plus they're cuter and don't have Sesame Street characters on them.)

One final note, all bets are off during stomach bugs. We switched to disposables during this time to keep clean-up as easy as possible.

11 Months, 3 Weeks, 3 Days

Henry and i participated in a birthday gift exchange through my online community board. Henry was showered with an early birthday box full of 2 fun outfits, a new board book and a cute stuffed tiger that JT has nicknamed "Terrell." Henry went nuts with Terrell this weekend as evidenced by the photo.

When Henry was around 9-10 months old i started investigating cloth diapers. After simplifying things we have the cloth diapers down to a ritual and i thought i would give you the lowdown so the process is demystified. When you first think about cloth the hardest most overwhelming part is typing "cloth diaper" into google and then figuring out there's an entire online universe devoted to cloth diapering and that there are just way too many choices. If anyone is interested in having things simplified and receiving a simple overview of the options let me know.

We decided to go with covers and prefolded diapers. We simply fold the diaper cloth into thirds, lay it on-top of a diaper cover and then put a thin piece of fleece cloth on top of that. The fleece stays dry so the bebes don't get diaper rash. You put it under their bum and use the velcro tabs on either side of the diaper just like a disposable-- voila you're done. Sometimes i get really ambitious and "pre-load" several covers with diapers so they're pre-assembled. But usually i just sit Henry on the changing pad and put a toy in front of him that he can get interested in while i'm taking the 60 seconds or so to prepare the diaper. By the time i'm ready he's sufficiently taken by the toy that i can lay him backwards and get down to business For those of you thinking-- yeah but what do you do about dirty diapers and all the washing, i'll have a full expose tomorrow. That way those that would prefer to keep this information a mystery can just skip the text tomorrow...

11 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days

Although i'll be regretting it come tomorrow morning when we have another showing, Henry acquired a new toy this weekend. His PT recommended a walker toy for him now that he's eager to pull-up and crusing is a skill we're working on. Henry really digs his new toy, but more for all the fun stuff on the front of it than for the walking aspect. Here's a rare shot where he hasn't leaned so far over that he's cut his air supply off. Clearly this is a "supervision needed" type of toy for awhile.

This weekend Henry started initiating "peek-a-boo" and will hold up a piece of fabric over his face if you say those words. It's extremely cute and further evidence that he's making brain strides.

We've had a few showings this weekend and hope that something may be moving forward early this week...

11 Months, 2 Weeks, 6 Days

I think the days of keeping Henry home with me and actually getting any work done are quickly drawing to a close. I called the Dr. this morning and she said to feed Henry frequent small meals and see how he did. I followed her advice and he kept everything down (so far at least, we're hoping to make it through the night). Other than the fear of more gross laundry and emergency baths, Henry's day was great. So, i think he'll go back to Brenda's tomorrow.

We on the other hand, are not doing so well. The buyers for our condo backed out this morning. The contract was in the review period so they're able to back-out with little fanfare. Now we're essentially back at square one. Our Realtor is checking with the other couple that came for a second showing last weekend to see if they are still interested. I think we're hopeful everything will work out but clearly it's not going to go as smoothly as we thought.

In other news Henry has been absolutely set on pulling-up for the last few days. He still needs to feel that you're there before he really goes for it but today while i was on a conference call things suddenly got a little quiet. I turned around and Henry had scooched right in front of the coffee table and was in the position his PT is teaching him to use when he pulls up-- on one knee with the other foot flat on the ground. I went over and helped him a little and off he was. He happily stands for 15-20 minutes at a time and as soon as he falls he just gets mad that now he has to get back up again. Here's a hard-fought picture of the action!

11 Months, 2 Weeks, 5 Days

Now i don't know what to think. Henry slept fine last night, ate a big bottle this morning and had a completely normal day at Brenda's. He came home and did wonderfully in his PT session (he just won't stop trying to pull-up now and loves standing!). After that we went for a walk and met Dad at the store. We came home and got Henry ready for dinner. He seemed really interested in the food but then didn't really want to eat much. He was in super-good spirits but ate a little bit of all the choices we had. After he didn't eat many of his fruit puffs i decided he must really be through. I took the tray off his chair and then whammo, he threw-up everywhere! It was terrible and i'm still nauseas.

We cleaned him up and got him in the bath and he didn't seem any worse for wear. He was definitely tired (which we knew before dinner, PT exhausts him) but was super happy and babbling away.

It could be the stomach bug returning, but it's strange that other than the massive vomiting he seems completely fine. It actually reminds us of his projectile vomiting before his stomach surgery. I've done some online research though and all i can find is that recurrence is "extremely rare." So who knows. I'm worried though and planning on keeping him home with me tomorrow and trying to get him in to the Doctor's in case it is something more serious with his stomach.

Trust me, you're glad there are no pictures today...

11 Months, 2 Weeks, 4 Days

Henry had a normal day and a strange evening. He was fine at Brenda's, took 2 good naps, and came home talking excitedly. In the past few days he's gotten more aggressive about lunging forward onto his stomach and determined to pull-up on things even though he still needs a bit of help. So, we had lots of playtime this evening and then on to dinner.

For the first time since he was sick with the flu Henry didn't have much of an appetite. He wouldn't eat our leftovers that he had devoured recently and he only ate about half of his turkey dinner. He went crazy feeding himself bananna but wouldn't take more than a few bites of applesauce even. Then he proceeded to throw-up everything (largely bananna) that he had eaten for dinner. We're not sure if he was just gagging and it got out of control or if maybe he has the flu again. His buddy Helen came down with it on Saturday after the aquarium outing so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities, but he seemed completely normal after losing his dinner. Just immediately started chattering and pointing at new things he noticed and wanted, which he indicates by pointing and making a grabbing motion.

He had a great bath and then i made him a bottle before bed. He took several ounces and went straight to sleep. So, that was potentially a bad thing to do it if it is the flu, or it will help him not wake up from hunger in the night. I guess we'll see.

11 Months, 2 Weeks, 1 Day

What a fun weekend! We sold our house (or at least the contract is pending); Henry had his first visit to the aquarium; and we got to meet up with a friend of mine and her son that's just two days younger than Henry.

Hopefully the inspection will happen early in the week and things will move along okay. Right now we're set to close on both the sale of the condo and the purchase of the new house on the 28th. We have movers coming tomorrow to give us an estimate. We've used them before, so hopefully we'll be able to get into their schedule.

Henry had a ball at the aquarium and really enjoyed hanging out with his pal Graham today. Usually he's quiet when he meets new people, but after just a little while with Graham and his mom, Henry was chatting right along.

Tonight we had dinner together and Henry went to town on the mushroom and spinach enchiladas JT made. Hopefully this means that Henry has just about come back to table food!