Glory Days

With JT down one-arm, there's an astonishing array of chores and parenting tasks that fall to me-- the able-bodied one. This temporary misalignment has given me a glimpse at what it would be like to be in a relationship where taking care of the house and the kids was entirely my job. I've got to say, it's not a place i'd like to be.

It's not just the sense that chores and household drudgery squash out the fun stuff in my day. I miss the sharing and the partnership that goes along with being jointly responsible for things. If i was in charge of the cooking, shopping, cleaning, kids (feeding, cleaning, discipline), and my sanity-- would JT listen as intently when i related an anecdote about a particularly crazy bath time or Silas making a beeline for the stairs as soon as i turned my back? Maybe, but now i know he's invested in our conversation because these things have happened to him and tomorrow (or in six weeks at least) it'll be his turn to keep everything under control.

I miss the help-- but i miss the camaraderie too. Some days, or really everyday from 6 to 7 pm, parenting can feel like fighting in the trenches and it's lonely without my comrade sharing the burden. I'm just thankful that normally this is a job we share.

Jungle Party

Henry and Silas' Oma and Opa joined us for a long weekend visit and were mucho help getting everything ready for Henry and Silas' birthday party. Especially with JT mostly down for the count, we took full advantage of the two able bodies. I have to say that i think the party was a success. The weather was cool and a little overcast, but nothing stopping little kids from playing outside some.


I had tried to prepare activities and organized games for the kids but somehow once most kids made an animal headband/mask free play pretty much ruled the party for the rest of the time. I did lead one round of jungle animal charades which was extremely amusing. I had cards with jungle animals on them and i would show one child the card and the idea is they would make sounds and act like that animal while everyone else guessed. Most of them would say the name of the animal outloud and if they needed help with the sounds and you whispered what an elephant sounds like they would repeat the sound in whisper form. Classic. After everyone had a turn-- and Henry had gone twice the kiddos were released back to playing. Guess we'll have to book a clown next year ;)


Henry got the cake i think he was hoping for-- chocolate with "lots of animals" and a dinosaur. It was huge, heavy and delicious. He was the recipient of some beautiful paintings, cards and drawings and one pass for hide and seek which he intends to cash in at his earliest opportunity. Although we didn't do gifts at the party, he got plenty of fun presents from family. He's already made use of his new paints (with drawings coming as thank-yous to many of you), he's been practicing spelling with his new magnetic letters and board-- playing grocery store with his scanner and shopping game, and reading the coolest pop-up books over and over and over that include sounds and tell you all about the ocean and night creatures. JT and I gave Henry and Silas a joint gift-- a wagon that seats both of them. Although it has seat-belts, i'm not sure Silas is ready for it just yet but i have a feeling by this summer he and Henry will be toodling around in it quite happily.


His presents were drawn out a few days and he received his wagon on Friday along with some additional gifts from Oma and Opa. He was very excited to say the least and immediately went out on a wagon ride with Opa bringing along his new curious George flaslight so "he could see." I think it was 6 pm but you never know when there's going to be a total eclipse.

Birthday Boy

We're mid-birthday but with the way things are going lately i figured i should take the 3 seconds i have and provide an update.

Here's what's happened. On Tuesday i took Silas to the Doctor because a strange lump appeared in his groin. When you google "baby groin lump" everything is related to a hernia-- so off to the Dr. we went. Thankfully (Hallelujah!) it was not a hernia and simply a swollen lypmh node. She said that if he had had a GI thing that led to diaper rash that the nodes will often swell to keep out intruders-- basically to fight off infection. She told me what to look for with lypmh nodes gone bad but said that in this case we knew they were fully operational.

Then Tuesday night Henry woke up throwing up and with the lower GI stuff Silas had awhile ago. He ran a fever and was generally off his game yesterday and stayed home with me-- mostly laying down which told me he really wasn't feeling well. By the afternoon though he seemed to be doing better-- no fever, getting his energy back, so we had expected he would be able to go to school today. But alas, he woke up this morning and was okay but felt warm and as the morning went on and he got hotter we could tell he a) definitely had a fever and b) did not feel well. Jt made him birthday pancakes and he only ate 1 bite-- this was the confirmation diagnosis.

We're hoping that by Saturday he'll really be better so that he can enjoy his party. Although the forecast isn't great (thunderstorms and 60) we're hoping the weatherpeople are wrong and the kiddos get to play games outside.

Busy Bees

Thanks to all for the well-wishes. I owe several of you a return message but i wanted to get a post out so people didn't start to worry. We're really doing fine. My toe is healing-- at least to the point where it's just achy and not painful and it isn't really keeping me from doing anything.

This past weekend was testament to that. Even though the weather was less than ideal(rainy and 40 or overcast and 40 with strong winds) we had a good weekend and i managed to make some serious progress on my outdoor projects. As i like to say "there are only 2 days in the weekend and 2 hours in naptime," so regardless of the weather i was out there doing crazy things both days.

Saturday i moved the leaf compost pile from the back yard all the way around to the side yard. Last year i didn't get around to blowing/shredding the leaves until the very late fall and i was rushing around because by the end of my leafblowing it was snowing-- hard. I wound up making a leaf pile right next to the ac unit which i knew would have to be moved before we could use the ac this year. Let's just say that moving partially composted, water-logged leaves into a wheelbarrow, then wheeling it 3/4 way around the house through thick soft mud (i just turned over the entire front yard) dumping (and repeat) made me feel not so bad about not getting to the gym during the week.

After that craziness i transplanted some of the hostas from the front to the side and capped off my chores by using a sledgehammer to break apart this strange concrete ring the previous owners made in the garden. It was so ugly and i've been dying to get rid of it. I'm only about 1/2 done but that was more than a good day's work.

I won't go into as much detail on Sunday-- i tried to do lighter stuff that day but i still worked for the 2 hour solid naptime lasted and was EXHAUSTED last night. The only downside to working during naptime is that i come in and the boys are fresh and rested and i'm ready for a bath and bed with 4+ hours to go.

Anyway it was nice to make so much progress. Henry's party is at our house on Saturday and i'm trying to keep my expectations reasonable for what i can get accomplished, but it would be nice to have a few more big projects completed in the front yard by then. We actually have sunny nice weather predicted this week so i'm going to see what i can accomplish during lunchtime.

Henry and Silas are both doing great and are anticipating their grandparents visit this week. Henry knows his birthday is coming and is quite excited about both it and Oms and Opa's visit.

Adapting

You know i'm not a morning person. Becoming a mom did nothing to change that fact. I managed to last three days after JT BROKE HIS WRIST of getting up with him when the kids woke up. After that each day i would stay in bed just a little longer until i was summoned. The other day the summons was particularly memorable. I had dreamily fallen back to sleep after JT got up and went downstairs to the boys. I was awoken by Henry standing, naked, next to my bed saying "Wake up Mommy, Silas has monkey-rita!" He was naked i was trying to make sense of monkey-rita and then it clicked-- of course, Silas had been struggling with a lower-GI thing and must have a terrible diaper, which JT can not take care of one-armed. I set the naked thing aside and focused on getting Silas taken care of. Thankfully Silas' affliction is gone because in addition to calling it "monkey-rita" Henry also referred to it as "margarita" and i could just imagine the conversations at daycare when he was telling Brenda that Silas has margaritas.

Henry has been potty-trained during the day for quite awhile now (a couple months i guess) and he has been pretty consistent about keeping his pull-up dry at night. So, this past Friday, we started putting him in underwear at night and so far so good. I expect to have some wet sheets at some point but i've been impressed that since last Friday he's been dry everynight. He does however wake up and have to go to the bathroom and on Monday after getting his pajamas off to go to the bathroom he just wasn't ready to get dressed yet. Rather than fight him-- JT sent him up to wake me up and tell me about Silas-- even though he was in his birthday suit.

JT and i are doing pretty well. On Tuesday we had our babysitter come over and while she helped out with the boys we made several nights worth of dinners. I think we've almost gone normal house stuff back on track. My toe seems to be healing faster than the Dr. predicted (i'm almost not limping anymore) and JT is getting very inventive at doing things with one-arm. We still have some challenges on the horizon but i think we'll survive-- a more optimistic feeling than when this all happened last weekend.

Calamity Ensues

Let me start with the positive things about this weekend-- i managed to get both kids to take a series of individual and combined pictures in which their hair isn't too crazy and they are actually smiling. That is nothing to sneeze about. We had 60 degree sunny weather for both Saturday and Sunday which is also a blessing. And, i managed to make progress on my outdoor projects-- got the front yard turned over and all the grass pulled out by the roots. I also got about 1/4 of the parkway dug up which is where i hope to transplant the shrubs to once i dig them out of the front yard.

Now for the bad stuff. JT was hit by a car on his way home from work on Friday. The guy stopped which was good and JT only broke a wrist-- clearly it could have been much, much worse. He spent a good chunk of Friday evening in the ER (mostly by himself because i didn't want to bring the boys but thanks to Corey i did manage to get down there to spend about an hour with him) and got a temporary cast on his arm. He goes this afternoon to get a permanent cast put on hopefully for something like 3-4 weeks and not 6 weeks like we feared.

Then-- oh yeah the fun doesn't stop-- i dropped a big piece of plywood on my toes on Sunday afternoon. Here's a safety tip-- wear real shoes when doing any kind of work that might harm you-- house shoes just really don't offer much protection as it turns out. I initially thought they were broken-- and i'm waiting to hear back from my x-rays this morning, but now i'm thinking maybe they're just bruised. Bruised would be infinitely preferable because they should heal in about 7-10 days as opposed to several weeks for broken toes.

So, we're working through various Dr. appointments today and trying to figure out how we're going to make it through the week. We're calling in all the help we can get and our thankfully blessed with amazing friends that live closeby. The Smerry's came over last night and helped us make dinner and watch the kids. Tonight i think we're going to just order dinner and Tuesday our babysitter is going to come over just to be an extra pair of hands for the dinner/bath/bedtime rush.

So, clearly you'll forgive my lack of pictures. In a couple weeks i'll have some great professional ones to share. In lieu of flowers, please send positive thoughts to our family that no one else decides to cause any bodily harm :)

Silas One Year Checkup

We had Silas' one year checkup on Thursday. We mostly talked our Ped's ear off about Silas sleep issues-- great one night terrible the next and checked off the pre-requisite developmental concerns as well. He's smack dab in the 10-25% percentile for weight which he's been since his early baby chubby days. I think he was 19 lbs. 12 oz to be exact and 31 in. long which works out to 75% percentile for height-- long and lean as she said. I guess Henry really was small because Silas looks like a downright sturdy baby to me but i guess he still doesn't hold a candle to those 90%percentile whoppers out there.


I believe i've been remiss in telling you about the onslaught of teeth Silas is suffering. He had 0 for almost the first 12 months of his life and then on the 23rd of March i noticed the bottom two coming in. Then this past weekend we saw the bottom two coming in as well. Dr. P checked them out and said the top right one is really swollen and probably uncomfortable for him. She recommended motrin at bedtime to help him deal with the discomfort and sleep a little better.

Yes the sleep. She said his ear infection is gone-- although he does have fluid still in his ear and wants to see him back in a few weeks when we go for Henry's 3 year appt. Otherwise she said that most likely his freak-outs at night are developmental-- separation anxiety, night terrors- all kinds of things that are "normal" around this age but hard to deal with. She recommended a few concrete things to try and to keep an eye on so i'll let you know in future posts how that works out. We had started moving his bedtime back to around 7:15 on nights he seemed like he could stay up later but we've since decided that was a bad idea and moved it back promptly to 7 and possibly a few minutes before. He transitioned to just one nap a few weeks ago and over tiredness may actually be causing some of the problems.


We've got lots of outdoor projects planned this weekend so i'm hoping the weather is cooperative. I'm also attempting to have both Henry and Silas' photographed tomorrow so you might want to check in on me at the end of the weekend to see if we survived. Happy Spring.

Happy Birthday Silas

Silas turned one last Thursday. We're having a combined party for he and Henry in mid-April, so additional celebration is forthcoming, but we had a little family party for him after school on Thursday evening. Henry was extremely accommodating at opening all of Silas' gifts and was even kind enough to test them all out for Silas. Silas was a bit fussy that night (did i mention he's finally getting some choppers) and after initially grabbing a big glob of cupcake icing and throwing it on the ground-- he decided that this cake/icing stuff was worth temporarily curtailing his screams for.

We have his one-year appointment on Thursday, so we'll see what they have to tell us about his growth and development.

The only concern i really have is that he's babbling away but has no words at this point. I think that's a bit "behind" the curve but probably not enough to worry about yet. We'll see what Dr. P says though.

1 Year, 4 Weeks

Chubbykins...

So i have some bad news to relate, i'm going to have to take a hiatus for the rest of the week from Good Intent. I'll be out of town for a conference and won't be home until Friday evening. We have swim lessons, a birthday party, and a BBQ to host so the weekend will be jam packed. I also will not have my computer with me in Atlanta, so posting from the road is unlikely.

Leaving is particularly hard for me because Henry came home from Ms. Brenda's today after he threw-up this afternoon. Of course once he got home you wouldn't know he was sick and he didn't have a fever, so we're hoping it's a fluke. Because he's presented this pattern before with stomach ailments, i'm not getting too optimistic. He went to bed fine and hopefully will have a quiet night.

Brenda said all of her kids threw-up when they were teething and Henry does have a new chopper that just started breaking through today on the top. I've never heard this before though, so i might have to chock it up to folk wisdom.

In other news JT and i were served a heart-attack on a platter this evening when we concluded our kitchen design session and were presented with an estimate of $20,000, just for the cabinets (installation and counter tops sold separately). Thankfully she said, "something looks wrong," pushed a button and the estimate was suddenly slashed in more than half, landing with a big sigh in our budget.

1 Year, 3 Weeks, 6 Days

Henry got a chance to get acquainted with his Oma and Opa this weekend. They came out for a visit and to help us during a very busy and short-handed next week. I'll be in Atlanta for the week at a conference and as it turns out, JT has a very big filing due on Friday. In case JT has to work some long nights, his parents have stepped-in to help out and spend some quality time with the H-man.

He had a great weekend honing his new skills of cruising around corners of the table, moving from the table to the couch and back again and going from a belly to sitting position. He's even gotten to where he can take 4, 5 or 6 "steps" in the crawling position before belly-flopping to the ground. The ear to ear grin he has plastered all over his face whenever he accomplishes one of these feats is impressive. He looks just as proud as i feel.

Here is Henry exploring our master closet...

1 Year, 3 Weeks, 3 Days

Sorry for the mid-week hiatus. I almost didn't get a chance to post tonight but i'm using a few minutes before bed to catch everyone up. Henry continued his string of good naps and good sleeps. In addition to learning his colors along with the older kids at Ms. Brenda's, today they were working on the number one, as in Henry is 1 year old. I'm not sure he's gotten the concept yet but i think it's amazing that he's surrounded by so much fun learning this early on.

It's cold and rainy here and is supposed to be stuck in the same weather pattern for the next few days. This is great news for the patchmaster i put down outside but not so great for the cats or Henry who were starting to enjoy exploring outside.

We had friends over again last night and the grill continue to perform admirably. We also inspected the work we agreed to do on our condo before we close next Friday. Hopefully we're moving toward tying up all the loose ends.

At PT on Wednesday Henry had his best therapy session yet. He was well rested and happy and was really showing off his new skills. Amy was so pleased to see him really exploring and trying things that clearly take him out of his comfort zone. We saw pretty clearly that it's still his weak shoulders really holding him back. He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth and even takes one or two shuffles forward and then his arms just crumble and he takes a face dive into the floor. It's not as painful as it sounds and it doesn't phase H at all, but we have to employ a number of tricks to get him to really use his arms and build that strength.

1 Year, 3 Weeks, 1 Day

Quiet day on Henry's behalf but nosiy day on the homefront. We had a work crew here for the better part of the day shoring up the beam issues that we uncovered during our initial inspection of this place. They seem to have completed everything we discussed and things look good. We accepted a bid for our kitchen remodel and have an appointment with a designer to finalize the kitchen layout and order cabinets this weekend. How quickly the cabinets arrive will dictate how soon we can get moving on the kitchen, but hopefully it won't be longer than the mid-June we're hoping for.

Henry had one of his first tastes of our backyard this evening. He and JT came out and sat a spell while i worked on the yard. Henry sat on my sweatshirt because he's not crazy about how grass feels on his skin. In general it seems like he is pretty restrained about putting things in his mouth but it was like he couldn't resist with all the seedlings, sticks and other fun stuff falling from the trees.

Tonight's picture isn't wonderful but it showcases one of Henry's new skills-- clapping and gives you a peak at our "Master Suite."

1 Year, 3 Weeks

Just a quick post to show you the photo documentation of the bookshelf destruction Henry managed to bring yesterday.

Today he had an uneventful day with a nice long nap at Brenda's. We seem to have gotten back on a more satisfactory sleep schedule. Instead of waking at 5:30 and being fully ready to get out his crib by 6, Henry is now grumbling a little at 6:30 or so and then not really waking up until 7:15 or so. The best part is that he wakes up really happy and instead of cries, you hear him talking to himself through the baby monitor.

1 Year, 2 Weeks, 6 Days

For those that pop-in infrequently, a few weeks ago i conducted a short poll of site viewers to get some feedback on how often people visit, their favorite part of Good Intent, and what they might want to see changed. The poll is still open by the way, and will remain so for the meantime, so feel free to take the survey if you're interested in letting me know about your
Good Intent feedback.

Although the sample size was small, the results were encouraging. The majority of readers check the site once a day, would like to see more pictures in posts, and appreciate the view into Henry's day the blog provides. Although those responses carried the majority, there were viewers that liked every part of the site and wanted more pictures, fewer pictures, more posts, fewer posts. So, i feel confident in just doing what i've been doing, feeling confident that someone will like it.

We had a busy but wonderful weekend in our new house. We successfully pressed the new lawnmower into service and actually have a decent lawn under all of that tall growth. We bought some "Patchmaster" to fill in a few of the bare spots. We also ripped out all of the existing weeds/day lilies that had taken over the flower beds so that when all of our new plants arrive we'll be ready to sow.

Friends came over on Friday afternoon and helped us purchase and transport a brand-new grill back to our house. Remarkably they managed to set up the grill and cook a meal on it all before 8 pm. Entertaining in our new house was wonderful although things will only be that much better when the kitchen is more workable.

Henry is on a mobility-streak. Over the weekend he started army-crawling from room to room. This was exciting and then meant that we *really* started to understand what baby proofing means. While i was working on Saturday's dinner, Henry hauled himself from the kitchen to the dining room and began pulling the books off the bookshelf. Unfortunately he managed to tear a page out of a book before I got him back into the kitchen.

This morning Henry pushed himself up to sitting from laying on his stomach. This is a very long-overdue skill that we've been working on with him in PT and daily so it was a very exciting accomplishment.

1 Year, 2 Weeks, 2 Days

I know Friday is normally one of my days off, but JT is attending a birthday party for a friend and i thought i would make use of some of my time home alone to post some additional pictures of Henry and the house. Tonights' pictures are from Henry's room.

Also wanted to say that Henry seems to be finally getting the hang of this mobility thing. This morning he army crawled from the sunroom into the kitchen where i was getting his lunch ready. This evening he crawled across the living room to an outlet at which point, i promptly located the outlet plugs we bought ages ago, but hadn't gotten around to installing. I even saw him get up on his knees a few times and rock forward and back-- just once or twice but that is a completely new development.

Also today Henry came home from daycare clapping. I saw him doing it in the car while i was getting gas and thought it was a fluke but he did it this evening and when we started getting excited and clapping back, he got to where he couldn't stop clapping.

We're looking forward to our swimming class tomorrow and hope we didn't miss too much at our real first class.

1 Year, 2 Weeks, 1 Day

Henry has been pretty cranky lately. It's no wonder, with the move, three new teeth to cut, and a presumed growth spurt. Still, it makes getting all the settling in a little more challenging when you can't put him down for longer than a few moments at a time.

We've been playing on the front porch the last two nights while we wait for JT to get home. We've met a few neighbors this way and the evening air seems to help Henry stay a little calmer.

With all of his teeth coming in he's really starting to look a little older. I think all the cream cheese and whole cream is starting to have an effect because he's never looked as chubby which helps preserve some of his "babyness."

His hair is really filling in and starting to curl around his ears. We'll be putting off a haircut for as long as possible-- i certainly don't want to force him to grow up any faster than necessary.

Our photo theme for the next bit involves Henry in each space of our house. Tonight's entries feature Henry playing in the living room. You can see things aren't perfect, but they're established enough to feel like home.

1 Year, 2 Weeks

Although i learned in the poll that i conducted recently that people like pictures hands-down the best, i have nothing new to show you. We've just been so busy in the evenings (tonight's exploits included getting a new lawnmower in the front seat of our Tercel,) that we keep forgetting to take new pictures. I do have an idea for pictures of both Henry and the house and hope to implement that next week.

Henry had PT today and it was not his most successful session. He supposedly slept quite a while this afternoon but was CRANKY for the entire hour. He seems to be getting at least 2 and possibly 3 teeth on the top though, and you can tell that it is just not feeling very good. He practically leaps towards the teething gel although when he tries to lick it off my fingers i'm not sure it's doing what it's intended.

We had a few contractors in today to give us estimates for the kitchen and some other work we're entertaining. Right now we're in dreamland, when the estimates actually come in in a few days, we'll have to start really prioritizing.

I promise, pictures tomorrow...

1 Year, 1 Week, 6 Days

Henry enjoyed being back at Brenda's and supposedly had quite a day of pulling up all by himself. JT said he did the most extensive army crawling yet this evening while i was grocery shopping. Army, or commando, crawling involves dragging your body across the floor without lifting your belly. It's called army crawling because the position looks like the little army figures.

We have contractors coming out to look at our kitchen tomorrow and give us an estimate on the work. I talked to two people today and both were optimistic about getting the work started within 4-6 weeks once we accept a bid. I was pleasantly surprised, but know it obviously takes some time to finish once they start.

We'll see what we find out tomorrow.

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.