We arrived home yesterday from vacation and i remember why i started trying to post frequently-- catching up when a lot of time has passed is very daunting!

I believe i last posted when we were heading to a baseball game. It was a minor league game about an hour away from my parents beach house-- the Shorebirds. Henry could have cared less about the baseball, but the big orange mascot bird (Sherman) was a huge hit. Henry was enamored with him and talked constantly about him when he wasn't in sight. "The Big BuBu" as Henry calls him was definitely a highlight of the trip.

A few days later we went to a model train show that was being held at the local fire department. They had several vendors selling things, and an extensive set-up of multiple tracks and all kinds of little things you could make light up and go like a ferris wheel, or the circus tent, or a water tower, etc. The last train Henry watched go around the track actually had smoke coming out of his stack, so he also talks a lot about the "hot choochoos."

For all the highlights of Henry's trip, Silas had several low points-- including two weeks of 4 hour max stints at night and excessive fussiness. Now that we're back home i've been working on putting him to bed in his crib for naps and nighttime and getting him to bed earlier. I'm also working on getting him on a feeding schedule so that hopefully all these things will feed into getting his nighttime sleep back on track. I'm not going to do anything too drastic since he starts with Brenda on Tuesday, but at least we'll be working to get his new routines established and hopefully go up from there.

JT also didn't have the best trip in that he got sick the second day he was at the beach and as of today he's actually worse that he was a few days ago. It started out as some kind of flu and then it seemed like it had turned into a bad head cold, but tonight he's been nauseous and having all kinds of stomach upset, so now it seems like the stomach flu. We're all doing our best to sanitize our hands because it will be a national disaster if i come down with it as well.

We had a chance to see JT's parents and some of our good friends the one afternoon we were in VA before flying back to Chicago. The Bane kids were there and although it took them all awhile to actually warm up to each other, they were having an amazing time running around the backyard collecting acorns by the time bedtime rolled around.

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!

Silas' 2 Month Appointment

Yesterday was Silas' two month Dr. visit. The visit itself went well-- he's just doing great and we didn't have a lot of questions or complaints. The weigh-in was probably the high-point of the visit-- he's up to 13 lbs. 2 oz! Then the lowpoint was the four shots and one oral vaccine that he had to get. He was a trooper and quieted down pretty quickly after getting the last shot. He was running a very mild fever last night and today but Tylenol seemed to help. He was pretty sleepy last night and a little fussy this afternoon, but we still made another IKEA outing and except for the last few minutes, he did great.

Henry has been as happy and energetic as ever, but getting to sleep isn't quite as easy as it was before. I think he would definitely still be considered a good sleeper, but i think it's taking him longer to fall asleep and he'll whine and cry out with all kinds of "another drink of water" requests. When you go in and ask what's wrong he'll tell you it was the dogs barking, but really that's a ploy and a lead-in to one of the many things he really wants to talk about-- his bubbles, drawing with chalk, reading books, etc. We'll go in once or twice and tell him that we can do all those things in the morning, and then we tell him he has to go to sleep and not to call out anymore. Most of the time that works. He's done great in his new bed and still stays put in the morning when he wakes up-- calling out for JT or I until JT goes and gets him.

9 Weeks/ 2 Years, 1 Month, 1 Week, 5 Days

I know you're all dying to see our new patio, but i'm going to hold off taking a picture until probably Thursday or Friday. By then i hope to have the new tables bought and maybe even a few potted annuals to spruce up all the green perennials that are growing but not flowering yet.

We enjoyed the three-day weekend very much and were lucky to have nice weather yesterday to enjoy a bbq at Tiffany and Mike's. Henry had a blast playing with Helen and Carys and being chased by Uncle Mike and Troy. Today i bought a new little swimming pool which i'm sure we'll break out as it gets hotter this summer. Last summer Henry found the water a bit too cold for comfort, but then again he didn't like to walk in the grass either, so we'll see how he does in the coming months.

We've got Silas' 2 month appointment tomorrow afternoon. Goodness knows how much he weighs now, but i definitely don't have to worry that he's getting enough to eat. He's doing well holding his head up and really starting to fall into a routine-- if not a schedule with sleeping and eating.

8 Weeks, 5 Days/ 1 Year, 1 Month, 1 Week, 3 Days

We pretty successfully tackled our first major "diy" home project. This weekend, with the extensive and gracious help of our friends Corey and Troy, we put in a paver patio in the backyard. I don't think anyone would mistake us for professionals, but i think it turned out really nice, and certainly good enough for us to put the grills and a table on. We did learn that the old adage "measure twice and cut once" also applies when you're digging. We made a mistake with the dimensions of the space we dug but managed to find a pretty easy way to fix things up. I'll try to take some pictures of it soon to post. It was extremely hard work, but we managed to wrap things up by about 4 yesterday and go for an early dinner.

Today we had to head back to home depot for a few more supplies and did a bit more yard work. Although we've planted perennials that over time will make the backyard gardens pretty lush, right now they're fairly lackluster, so i think this week i'm also going to pick out a few annuals to brighten things up.

We couldn't have asked the boys to be any better. Silas slept most of the day away in his bouncer outside while we worked. Corey kept Henry entertained inside most of the time as it was sprinkling on and off and Henry wasn't too keen on getting wet.

We're hoping to head to a friend's house for a BBQ tomorrow, and then hopefully we'll be able to have people over next weekend to inaugurate our new patio!

8 Weeks, 2 Days/ 1 Year, 1 Month, 1 Week

Henry had his 2 yr. checkup yesterday and the Dr. thinks he looks great. He's around 50% percentile for weight at 27 lbs. and 75% percentile for height at 35.5 in. We talked to her at length about his physical "delays" and about the appeal that's still pending with the insurance company. She said that she thought his walking gait looked fine and that not jumping at 2 years old is not really a problem-- she said it's the low end of normal, but that if he's not jumping by 3 years then we'll worry. She said the encourage him to jump and bounce and use a trampoline if possible-- she also recommended getting him into a gymnastics-type class if at all possible. I had planned to do that in the fall, so now i'll just see if there are any available later in the summer.

Speech-wise she said he was doing great-- especially since he was low on the speech curve at his 18-month appointment (he had about 5 words at that point.) We've counted around 80 words at this point that he uses spontaneously and she said he was doing a great job of putting words together-- i think he was talking about "new Ralph" and "blue shoes" when she came in the room. He had to get a Hep-A shot and a finger prick to test for lead (which was negative) but he did really great with both. He talked the rest of the day about his "boo-boo" but i think it was mostly because of the sparkly bandage he had on.

8 Weeks/ 1 Year, 1 Month, 5 Days

We seem to be stuck at about 5-6 hours of sleep for Silas' longest chunk. I know i shouldn't be greedy, and if this is a normal progression towards sleeping all night, it's fine. It's just that since Henry's sleep deteriorated so badly about this time (struggling to get him to sleep for an hour-- asleep 30 minutes... repeat) i'm worried about "messing Silas up." I think we're going to start trying to put him to bed earlier, and see how it goes. I also think i need to consider being home more during the day so that he can nap in his bed a bit more instead of always on the go.

That said, we accomplished another fun outing today with Silas' best friend Kerala-- we went to the mommy matinee at the theatre by our house. The babies were really good and it was the first time i had been to a movie in the theatre since Brokeback Mountain was released. Prior to the movies Corey took me out for my birthday and the babies were as quiet as could be during the whole meal.

Eureka!, we found a babysitter that Henry is excited and comfortable about that isn't family. Lauren came back tonight for her bi-weekly babysitting gig and Henry did the "bye bye" act even before we were really ready to get out the door. She said he was totally happy and about 7:30 wanted to read books in his bed and then go night night with "new Ralph."

Frequent readers of Good Intent will remember that Ralph has been Henry's best monkey companion since he was several months old. We had been looking for a back-up Ralph ever since original Ralph became so important and this winter Henry's Oma scored us two identical new monkeys. Until just recently they were kicking around with Henry's toys without a whole lot of attention paid to them. Now "New Ralph" (which is honestly what Henry calls him) has become Henry's pillow at night, and occasionally when Henry wants to take someone along to Brenda's it's been New Ralph. As we just finished listening to the Velveteen Rabbit, i'm feeling personally responsible for "old" Ralph and make sure he gets into bed with Henry along with New Ralph.

7 Weeks, 4 Days/ 1 Year, 1 Month, 2 Days

So the big news is that Henry slept in his new bed just fine last night. He didn't have any trouble going to sleep and we didn't hear him at all in the night. He did wake up right at 6 am which is the early side of his wake-up range but he just called out for us until JT went down to get him. I had put pillows on the floor next to his bed in case he fell out, and JT said he was lying on those pillows. So, we don't know if he fell out during the night or had gotten out when he woke up. Either way he wasn't unhappy and got a good night's sleep. Naptime today however, did not go as smoothly. He didn't want to take his nap and he kept getting out of bed. After calling out "mommy" for about 15 minutes he did finally fall asleep, but he only slept an hour. So, at this point i think things have gone pretty well. Tonight he went straight to sleep no questions asked so it might just be naps that are more difficult. We'll see how he does with the babysitter tomorrow-- that might be interesting.

I changed the format of the blog a tiny bit, so you'll find a few new fun features on the right-hand side of this page. Silas is sleeping pretty well at night, but it's amazing how quickly you get adjusted to whatever longer amount of sleep you get-- and frankly it's never enough until it's 8 hours straight and i'm asleep during that same time. I think Silas is making his way towards the 8 week fussy peak-- he's pretty calm during the day but in the evening he's pretty fussy and wants to be held and actually walked a bit. I think i'm going to try to start taking him on a walk when i can in the evening to help make sure he gets a little cat nap. It's just difficult since it's the time when dinner is happening and Henry gets a bath.

Well, speaking of sleep, Silas is getting close to being down for the night so i'm going to wrap this up. Happy 32nd Birthday to me tomorrow! We'll let you know how the Sox do!

7 Weeks, 2 Days/ 2 Years, 4 Weeks, 2 Days

Yesterday Silas and i attempted an outing that i would have never dreamed of with Henry-- we journeyed to IKEA which is in what i consider the far-reaches of suburbia. I believe i mentioned we're planning to convert Henry's crib to a toddler bed this weekend, so i headed to IKEA to get him some new sheets a grown-up comforter and a pillow. While i was there i wound up getting several other things as well including new duvets for both our bed and the guest room and a really cool tent that goes over Henry's bed. We went ahead and assembled that yesterday and although it's not really made to go on the crib (getting in and out is a little tricky) he was so excited about it and wanted to go to bed before i even asked last night. Hopefully the transition to his new bed is as exciting for him.

This Sunday is my birthday and JT managed to score tickets for us to see the Cubs/Sox game. He got them kind of last minute, but we actually managed to get a babysitter as well, so this will be the first time we leave both Henry and Silas with someone other than a family member. Our babysitter Lauren has sat for Henry a few times and starting this Tuesday, she'll be providing us a bi-weekly night out which i'm very much looking forward to!

6 Weeks, 6 Days/ 2 Years, 3 Weeks, 6 Days

It's hard to tear myself away to write this entry because Silas is sitting next to me just smiling away. Really big smiles. This is pretty cool because he's still been a little scare with the smiles most days. These are super big smiles, almost like he's trying to laugh!

We enjoyed a nice weekend mostly at home and now we're heading into a busy week. We've decided to try to install a paver-patio with the help of our friends Corey and Troy, so today i'm hoping to head to Home Depot to see if we can order and have delivered all the necessary materials.

Yesterday i mowed the lawn for the first time this year and learned that although Henry is a fan of his toy mower, the real thing is a little bit too scary for him. I knew it would take me awhile to get the mower started, since it hadn't been used in many months. So Henry was outside with me while i was working on it. I was talking about what the mower is and how noisy it was. Once i got it started i told him again it was noisy and started to make the first turn around the yard-- i looked back to check on Henry and saw him screaming, tears streaming down his face. Off went the mower and i went over to comfort him. After he calmed down i took him over to show him what the mower does and how it cut some of the grass shorter. Then i asked him if he wanted to stay with me and play with his bubbles or go inside with dad. He was pretty clear he wanted to go "side."

Not to make it seem like all i did was work on Mother's day. JT made me breakfast in bed and let me name my wake-up time-- both very much appreciated gestures.

6 Weeks, 3 Days/ 2 Years, 3 Weeks, 3 Days

The other morning Silas had finished eating and was laying contentedly and lazily in bed next to me. When i started to talk to him he turned his head towards me and smiled. That was a great moment, because prior to that he's mainly smiled at his mobile (see pictures) or the ceiling fan.

I'm sure i'll jinx myself, but for the last three nights Silas has slept 6/6+ hours which is a totally welcome sleep reprieve. Perhaps he'll add an hour for each new week he gains and really make me happy! Continuing his life as an "easy" baby, Silas and i and Corey and Troy met JT and another friend for lunch downtown yesterday and then spent 2 hours shopping. I remember when i took Henry out for a quick trip to Old Navy and was elated that it went okay. We were gone about 5.5 hours yesterday and i didn't even give it a second thought-- see the difference?

We're thinking about converting Henry's crib to a toddler bed soon. I don't think he would try to climb out on his own, but in the morning when JT goes in to get him he's been standing on his monkey crib toy as he attempts to climb out. The big hurdle is finding the IKEA directions for converting the thing-- for some reason they don't post them online like every other manufacturer. I don't know quite what to expect, but he's done well with his cot at daycare and i doubt he would get out of bed very much-- although who knows-- the lure of his books may just be too much. I'm going to get a bedrail at target today so that we're prepared-- we definitely need to make the transition on a weekend.

6 Weeks/ 2 Years 3 Weeks

Things are moving right along here in our household. Silas has started smiling a little bit more and as of the past few days he's staying awake and alert for much longer stretches. I'm still careful to get him back to sleep within 2 hours, but he's pretty good at letting me know he's tired, and then going to sleep without much help. The past two days we've both slept in the mornings and then been on the go all afternoon. Yesterday, Corey and I took a 5 mile walk with the babies. We were gone ALL afternoon and definitely think we made a dent in those post-pregnancy pounds. Today i had my 6 week midwife appointment and then stopped by to see Jessica and Marc and their two-week old son Gabriel. I've started trying to keep Wednesdays free so that i can run errands and take care of chores and projects like paying the bills and putting together a memory box for Silas.

I think we might be moving towards actually potty-training Henry. Brenda told us that he's actually used the potty the past few days so i'm thinking we might at least start to get slightly more serious about it. Henry's been talking more and more lately and picking up new words right and left. We've been spending more time in the backyard lately and it's great to see Henry confident enough to traipse all around the yard without holding on to one of our legs. I know that doesn't sound like much, but JT and i were remembering that at this time last year Henry would stand in the grass like a flamingo with one leg up, because he didn't like the feel on his legs. We're planning on putting in a paver-patio in a couple weeks and if things go remotely as planned, we should get even more enjoyment out of our back yard in the next several months.