Summer Dispatch

Thought i would take a second to update the blog with some tales from our summer beach vacation. So far everyone is having a great time and becoming more of a beach kid each day. We kicked things off with Silas' first airplane ride, and the first one in which Henry was able to really talk about and understand what was happening. Henry did really well on the flight, especially since we accidentally left his carry-on with all the games and toys i had bought for the flight, in the trunk of the car. Silas slept basically the whole time, and we made good time getting our luggage, getting everyone changed and refreshed and into the car for the 3 hour drive on to the beach.

Silas has been a little fussier than normal and not sleeping all that great, but i'm hoping that since we're here for two weeks he'll settle into a new routine soon. We've been jet skiing (on the "boats" as Henry calls them), to the pool, the park and the beach. In just a few days Henry has gone from tentatively walking in the sand to playing along the shore getting his feet and legs wet. He's gotten several new trucks which he's very excited about and he can't get enough of Gran and Nonna's front-loading washer and dryer-- seriously, he watches them like tv.

My Grandmother and Aunt (GG and Aunt Tammie) got in yesterday and we're all off to a baseball game tonight!

12 Weeks, 2 Days/ 2 Years, 3 Months, 4 Days

Henry has his first dentist appointment today and while it could have gone it worse, it wasn't the greatest. Unfortunately the waiting room almost proved to be the most traumatic. I'm not sure if their carpet was particularly "grippy" or what, but Henry tripped about 4 times while we were in their offices. The first fall catapulted him headfirst into the bookshelf which definitely led to tears. He calmed down pretty quickly and they brought me some ice. I think it looked worse than it was because it's a little red but didn't seem to be bothering him much after just a few minutes.

The Dentist was very nice and they did a good job of trying to show him what was going to happen but he was shy and then a little freaked out. He laid in my lap while she looked at his teeth, counted them and assessed there risk for decay. She said that he has all of his last molars coming in and that in general his teeth were in good shape. She said for now we could delay flossing but to stay on-top of brushing twice a day. Primarily because of the crowding in his mouth, she said he was at a "medium" risk for decay. She also said that although his thumb-sucking was nothing to worry about (he only does it when he goes to sleep for a few minutes by now) that he does have a serious overbite. She didn't mention braces, but as someone that's had them twice (because of an overbite and a seriously overcrowded mouth), i figure we better start putting money aside for braces as well as college!

Silas and Kerala accompanied Corey and i to get pedicures today. They were both ready for a nap so we took turns holding them and getting them to sleep while we got our toes done. I'm washing all of our clothes with the special Rit SunGuard i bought that adds SPF to your clothes. Yes, i'm THAT mom, and i've already got the pictures to prove it...

Photo Shoot

I mentioned the other day that i was going to be our official photographer from now on. I decided to try and get a few shots that i knew didn't come out well of Silas at Penny's. Here's one of my favorites that i think i'll be framing thank you very much!

Silas is back to longer chunks of sleep thank goodness and today i actually didn't go back to sleep at all after getting up to feed Silas and take Henry to Brenda's. I don't know that i'll do this consistently until i have to, but after two glasses of ice coffee i feel pretty decent.

We're in the process of getting everything packed and ready for our upcoming beach trip. I can't wait to be at the beach for two whole weeks, but i'm a little sad that at the end of the trip it's back to work for me. I'm trying to make the most of my last week in Chicago on leave with a movie outing yesterday, a massage, a lunch date and pedicures planned for Thursday.

10 Weeks, 5 Days/ 2 Years, 2 Months, 3 Weeks, 3 Days

What a busy weekend! Saturday we met Corey and Troy and several of their friends with kids at the park for a playdate. Although we were there by about 10:15 it was already VERY hot. After about an hour the kids were very sweaty and tired. We retreated to the cool of Corey and Troy's house, and enjoyed a lunch-time cookout. We went home for Henry and Silas to nap, and then went to Helen's birthday party over at Tabitha and Cullen's house. The kids had a ball playing in the little pool and with the water table and Henry was just as excited about all of Helen's presents as the actual birthday girl. Today we tried to lay low-- having a nice father's day at home and catching up on stuff around the house.

It's hard to believe, but this week is my last week of maternity leave in Chicago. Saturday some of us leave for the beach, and when i get back it's back to work. Seriously, where has the time gone?

Attire

Henry has been more and more psyched about his clothes lately, and also more specific about what he wants to wear. I pulled out two bathing suits we had kicking around from last year to see if they still fit, in anticipation on our beach trip later this month. Henry was so excited to try them on but after putting the first one on he would have no part of taking it off in order to try the next one on. It can't have been very comfortable, but he wore these for several hours and only reluctantly agreed to change into pajamas for bed.

One thing i wanted to mention so that it's recorded for posterity is his current pronunciation of out. He says it like he's from the far reaches of Canada so it's something like Ow-UT! He just learned that it means you've finished something, i.e. "run out of milk," in addition to going outside, so he's been walking around yelling it emphatically for the past few days. His newest word-- is above, which he learned this afternoon on the way home from Brenda's. His newest obsession is with all the bridges and overpasses around the city. Several are for the elevated trains, some for the highway, and some that are out of use but used to be for trains. I was explaining that the train tracks are "above us" on the bridge so now he calls the bridges, "a-buh-buh" which is his interpretation of "above us." It's extremely cute.

Silas had a content and slow day so i'll regale you with another Henry tale. We went to the bookstore this evening so that Henry could pick out a book for his friend Helen to take to her birthday party on Saturday. When i told him we were going to the book store he started saying "shh" and holding his finger to his mouth, indicating that we had to be quiet in the book store. When we got there he was so excited that he kept saying "MOMMY!" and then very quietly, "shh." He's got more personality that i sometimes think is possible given his small size.

10 Weeks/ 2 Years, 1 Month, 2 Weeks, 5 Days

Not to wax poetic, but it's interesting how the little things often drive home larger realities. I was shopping at Target yesterday and picked up some Bactine because Henry has had a few scraped knees in the past couple of weeks. Right there in the first aid aisle i had this realization that i'm the mom of a little boy-- and before long, two little boys! Henry is not your stereotypical rambunctious toddler boy which is why i think this hasn't really hit me until recently. What with all the daily walks and the hotter weather necessitating shorts, he's had a series of minor falls resulting in skinned knees-- he's really not my baby anymore!

Henry has also shown a little bit of jealousy towards Silas lately. Silas has a new bumbo chair that lets him sit up unassisted. Henry loves this little chair as well and whenever Silas is in it he wants baby "OUT" so that he can sit in it instead. Sometimes when he wants my undivided attention he'll say "baby night night" to indicate that baby should sleep so that i can focus on Henry. It's pretty mild stuff, but i have a feeling once Silas gets more active we'll have more of these feelings to work through. Should be a learning experience for me as well since i have no personal sibling knowledge to draw upon.

Silas is doing well but not sleeping all that great lately. He's in an evening routine where i get him changed and swaddled and down in his bouncy seat with his pacifier by about 7:30. He'll usually fall asleep and take a little nap and then go to sleep for good anywhere between 9:30 and 11:00. Unfortunately, regardless of what time he goes to sleep, he seems like he's in a habit of waking up at 3 am to eat. The upside is that he's been going right back to sleep after eating, i.e i lay him down and head back to bed-- but i'm missing those really long sleep stretches we were having.

Worth the Wait?

I know i promised patio pictures a week ago, so today i finally reveal them. None of the pictures i took during our bbq this weekend turned out great, but these give you a general idea of the patio-- not anything too fancy, but completely functional and lovely to have so that we're no longer sitting in the dirt when we want to entertain outside (grass didn't grow very well in this spot.) Edited to add: the other picture is (from lft to rt) Kerala, Silas, and Gabriel (Marc and Jessica's baby).

Unfortunately i have one doozy of a cold so when 7:30 rolled around and it was time for Silas to eat and start getting ready for bed, we both came inside and called it quits for the night. Basically if i stay in bed, or laying down i feel just like i have a head cold. Once i start moving around or getting up a lot (and it's so hard to stay still!) i start to feel more like i have the flu-- with aches and chills and all that. So i'm doing my best to be a good patient and Silas is being pretty accommodating by being his chill little self.

Saturday of course i completely violated the "staying-in-bed" advice when we headed out to get portraits taken of both boys. I can definitively say that doing it with two is much harder than with just one. JT came along to help which was a life-saver, but i think that i may just become our official photographer from now on. I think i take some fine pictures if i say so myself, and all that stands between me and the JC Penny portrait studio are those background fabrics which i think i can replicate fairly well with a sheet and a clothesline. The only way i could get one with both boys was to jump in the picture myself, and that turned out to not be my photogenic high point (did i mention i was sick?) The good part was that we got several cute pictures of Silas which is cool because when Henry was about this age we got one shot and then BOOM MAJOR CRYING FIT which lasted quite awhile.

Quick Catch-up

Unfortunately i've come down with a summer cold so i'm laying low and concentrating on taking care of myself and getting better. I did want to say that the beauty in the picture with Silas is Kerala, Corey and Troy's daughter. Kerala and Silas are just a little over a week apart in age and have spent many hours of their infancy together. We realized that although we all see each other several times a week we didn't have many pictures of the babies together. So we did a whole photo shoot and came up with tons of beautiful pictures.

Because i was feeling pretty sick this morning, JT took Henry to daycare so that i didn't have to get up. He and Henry walked to the train station from our house (about a 15 minute walk) and then rode the train to the stop by Brenda's. JT said that Henry did really well, walked almost the whole way, and was completely psyched for the trains.

9 Weeks, 6 Days/ 2 Years, 1 Month, 2 Weeks, 4 Days

Although we had a lovely bbq to inaugurate our patio, i don't have pictorial proof. Not to worry though, we're having another gathering this weekend and by that time our "baby grass" should be coming in and i should have more flowers in the beds. Last weekend's gathering was a success, the cornerstone of which was JT's brisket. Of course the brisket required he get up at 4 am to start the 12 hour smoking process! This weekend we're doing simple steak tacos and his killer margaritas.

Before i forget i wanted to mention a few items of blog business. The first is that i'm in the process of migrating all our pictures to Picasa from Yahoo Photos. In case you haven't read, Yahoo Photos is being discontinued in the fall. I've already transferred pictures from the time Henry was 6 months on. I'm slowly working on the older ones which i have to download in a painstaking one-by-one process. I put up a new link to the Picasa site on the right-hand side of this page. I just uploaded a new folder called May 2007 that will bring you up to date with our photo collection.

Secondly, i've had a few people tell me lately that they forget to call or email us because they feel like they're in constant contact via the blog. This is great for you guys, but not so great for us. So throw us a bone and let us know what's up for you once in awhile!