Summer Deluge

I'm really glad that Henry got over his "scared phase" before all of these summer thunderstorms hit. Some of them have been absolutely gigantic-- very loud and very close. He just says "big rain" very dramatically and makes the sign for rain falling. He also sleeps through them no problem.

This weekend is supposed to be clear, which is good because we've finally managed to plan our big pool outing with Tabitha and her family. We've made it to our local pool several times this summer, but the pool out by Tab's family is more like a water park than the local pool. Henry had an amazing time out there last summer so hopefully he'll enjoy it as much this year.

I tweaked the side-bar items a tiny bit. Silas is mostly sleeping through the night now. By mostly i mean that he goes to sleep around 6:30 and i don't get him out of the crib until 6 am. Most nights he wakes up once or twice and i give him the pacifier and he goes right back to sleep. So, now i'll document what times he woke up during the night. I also added an item to help me keep track of my frozen milk supply.

I've been working down in the basement the past several nights trying to get things organized and cleaned up so that i can move ahead with my playroom plans. Right now i'm planning on areas for: arts and crafts, dress-up, sand table, blocks and big motor play, i.e balls, bikes, and slide. I know the big motor stuff will be necessary during the long winter months, but i think the dress-up area will be a big hit too. Henry is getting more and more into imaginative play. He frequently makes "soup" for us and "cold treats" and loves to watch us pretend to eat his concoctions. I let him wear an old costume of mine the other day and he had a ball parading around. I can't wait to raid our closets to find all manner of good dress-up items!

4M/ 3W/ 4D, 2Y/ 4M/ 4D

So i survived! JT was gone for 5 days, count-em 5 whole days, and i can tell you honestly that i've never been so happy to see anyone as when he walked in the door late Sunday afternoon. It's not that it's impossible to manage two children, and our two children are pretty mellow, but working both the am and pm shift when Silas isn't fully sleeping through the night is difficult-- definitely more difficult than i'm used to. Saturday we had a nice day, as we were able to get out to the park and hang out with Corey, Troy and Kerala. Kerala and Silas seemed to really enjoy their baby face off and playing with the same toys.

Sunday was a slightly different story. It's been raining and raining and raining and Sunday in particular was one long rainstorm. This prevented us from getting to the park or even the back-yard which made for one very wound-up 2 year old. I can tell that if i was a stay-at-home mom i would need to have a schedule and a bottomless list of in-door activities to handle inclement weather days.

As has been the case for the last several weekends, Silas' naps were great on Saturday and pretty terrible on Sunday. I can't quite figure out what the difference is, but Saturday he goes to sleep easily and takes naps that are 1-2 hours in duration. Sunday brings increasing bouts of fighting sleep and 30-45 minute naps which result in a fussy baby by the afternoon.

One of the strategies i used while JT was gone, was to break our time up among the different levels of our house. Typically Henry spends most of his time on the first level of the house where his room and the playroom are. We have some toys upstairs for him and i set-up a small tv and dvd player that we used when i was showering. In addition, i took him down to the basement with me while i tackled organizing projects (we have 7 18-gallon containers of baby clothes (!)) and he was absolutely enthralled with all the "old" toys that are stored down there. I decided that while our basement is never going to be "finished" that i'm going to do some upgrades down there so that the basement can be an indoor playspace during the winter. I've already started on some basic things but i'll try to take some before and after pictures to post.

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

Thankfully i did get better and stay better enough for us to enjoy our weekend. We had a lovely time trucking out to see Genine and her family on Saturday. Henry couldn't get enough of their pool and he and Maia actually interacted this time around. Sunday we went to dim sum and Silas obliged by napping in his stroller which was helpful considering Henry was a handful. He did enjoy sampling all kinds of dim sum nibbles from my chopsticks but he also wanted to run around and in general be a two-year old. We haven't been going out very much, because Silas is ready for bed by about 6:30 so i've gotten out of the habit of coming prepared with toys and snacks. Before we attempt another outing i need to re-pack my bag of tricks.

I think i'm jumping on the organic band-wagon, albeit a little late. In general we try to be an environmentally-friendly household. We recycle, we compost, we buy things off of craigslist instead of new as much as possible. So although buying organic probably also should have been something we did, it often got overcome by a) my thriftiness and b) my skepticism that non-organic was really that bad-- i mean hey, better living through chemistry right?

It's not that i've had a revelation or anything, but i did start reading about the high levels of toxins that have been found in baby shampoo and then i found the cosmetic database that lets you easily search and browse safer products. Finally, after some amount of sticker-shock at Whole Foods, i found a pretty in-expensive source online, where i got free shipping with my order. I just decided that buying organic/non-toxic when we can is in-line with my beliefs and fits how we like to spend our money-- on living well. You can bet i don't want to wash my kids with toxic levels of chemicals, but as long as i'm upgrading their products, why not buy mild ones for me as well? I'll get down of my soap-box now :)

In Henry news, although it wasn't necessarily pretty, he went to sleep without old Ralph and new Ralph last night. He's gotten re-attached to them in recent weeks and has continued to sleep with them each and every night. In fact, he uses them as a pillow. Well, yesterday we left both of them at Brenda's. He cried for real when he realized he wouldn't have them to sleep with, but we just talked about how they were sleeping with NeNe (Brenda's sister and Henry's favorite right now) and he'd see them in the morning. After he got to pick out a book to read he calmed down and then i brought him an extra lamb and dog to sleep with. Of course this was on top of the other two monkeys and the dog that he has in his bed, so he was well surrounded. He was however, VERY happy to see them this morning.

p.s. after you freeze the granita, you EAT it!
p.p.s i've looked very closely and Silas' eyes are still blue-- i believe it was just the countertops making them look brown.

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.

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!

Halloween!

I had planned to post last night, really i did but our friends came over to carve pumpkins and when they left at 10 i went to the basement before heading upstairs. Unfortunately there was water dripping at a pretty furious pace down from the guest bathroom.

While Jt's parents were here, we noticed that the shower handle wasn't working correctly-- you had to really work to get it to turn off. By the time they left and JT took a bath on Monday the water wouldn't shut off at all-- it just ran in a continuous trickle down from the handle. Our contractors came back and looked at it and were going to come this morning at 7 to figure out what the problem was. Instead Chris ran over at 10:30 last night and fixed it. Luckily he doesn't live very far but i figure we really have the contractors we'll use for the rest of our time in Chicago considering they made a housecall at 10:30 at night and fixed the problem in about 20 minutes, no charge. There was a problem with the way the valve was assembled and he got it all back together. Now we're just getting everything dried out. Most of the water had dripped straight down the wall into the (unfinished) basement. They used durock on the walls and floors which supposedly doesn't break down the way drywall or other backer-boards do, so now we just have to get everything dry and we should be back in business.

Henry had a lot of fun while Marc and Jessica were over carving the pumpkins. He didn't really get in on the act but he's very, very interested in the pumpkins. This morning i dressed him in a pumpkin t-shirt and he was non-stop pointing out the pumpkins on his shirt and the pumpkins in our kitchen. Last night with the candles in them, the pumpkins freaked Henry out a bit. I have a feeling i'll be holding him a lot during trick-or-treating tonight. Here's a picture of Henry's bear costume from when he was testing it out a few weeks ago. (it's not letting me post pictures right now so i'll add one later...)

Construction Complete!

Henry news is pretty light today. He had a good day at Brenda's and was ready to give me a big hug when i picked him up. We all went out for a quick bite to eat tonight before i headed out to quilting. JT said Henry enjoyed playing with all of his toys for awhile after they got home. We skipped the bath again tonight so we'll see if he fares any better in our new bathtub tomorrow night!

Here are all the pictures. It turns out i didn't have any before pictures so i'll have to convince you of the Wow! of the after shots. First picture cracked black and white floor tiles with all the grout flaking out, the toilet in the narrow entry-way, black rubber (!) moldings, an old (not so nice) cast iron claw foot with a scraggly shower-curtain surround, and a rusted large medicine cabinet with fluorescent non-working bulbs on each side of the mirror.

Ta-Da!

17 Months, 2 Days

Sorry for the late-posting. Last night i had to make a trip to Home-Depot for (hopefully) some of the last supplies for our bathroom remodel. It's supposed to be completed tomorrow, and today they got the room painted, the toilet and sink installed and all shower stuff in as well. The color is a tad bright, but i'm hoping that with a big white shower curtain it will look cheery. If not we can always re-paint. I'll take some pictures when they're all done tomorrow.

Henry went with JT to physical therapy today and supposedly had a great session. He was walking all over, squatting all the way to the ground and coming back to standing, standing on his own, etc. JT said they were in the bigger room today and she was trying to work with him on new things like climbing and sliding. I think JT may take over PT for a little while now that his work schedule allows. He's going to ask about Henry's long-term timetable next week.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I know i've fallen down on my photojournalist's job. Hopefully we'll build up a reserve soon.

Arrival

I got back home last night and was happy to catch a flight early enough to see Henry before he went to bed. The house is disgusting again with dirt and grit while they work on the bathroom, but it's coming along and hopefully will be done by the end of next week.

Henry had a great couple of days with JT and seems to have started walking more after a few days of a slump. He's also been squatting and picking things up unassisted which is one of his "skills" we're supposed to work on.

Unfortunately he has ringworm. We thought it was an excema outbreak, but the steroids prescribed for his excema weren't making the thing better so we got him in to the Dr. today. You just use an over-the-counter cream, but supposedly it takes quite awhile to clear up. Poor thing has his a big patch on his forehead, so he looks a little crazy. I'm hoping it's gone in a month when i was planning on getting his 18 month pictures taken.

My first-trimester screen came back completely normal. For all three tests i had the lowest results possible 1 in 10,000 which was encouraging news. Unfortunately i've been extremely nauseas the past several days. The only thing that eases it is sleep so i'm off to bed early again...

16 Months, 3 Weeks, 1 Day

JT has been out of town, which is part of why the posting has been a little sparse this week. Being a (temporary) single-parent is no easy feat, i especially have a hard time with the mornings which is designated Dad-time.

Henry got some new shoes this week, as his old soft-soled ones just weren't cutting it when he needed to be on the ground outside. He seems so excited for his shoes and appears to have figured out how to help me put them on instead of looking puzzled while i tried to cram his heel down into the shoe. He was very cooperative this morning and even posed for a few pictures.

He's sitting on one of the new carpet tiles that we're going to be installing in his playroom (the sunporch) after all the renovation is done. He managed to get one tile out of the box and he's very excited about his own personal rug!

Finished! At least the kitchen...

They've completed the work on the kitchen, effective this pm. I kept thinking i would post the pictures i took last night-- but JT was fully using the kitchen (he made traditional vietnamese soup (Pho) and lime granita last night) and things looked a bit cluttered. They are just about done loading all their tools in the van so i decided to wait and show you the gleaming kitchen shots.

Although we've had a functional kitchen for a week now, it's going to be really nice not to have grit as our secret ingredient for all dishes. They're off on another job for a week and then they'll be back to work on the bathroom. I think it turned out absolutely beautiful!

We have houseguests coming into town tomorrow. Our friends Matt and Marisa who we vacationed with last summer in CO. We haven't seen them since and we're really looking forward to catching up with them and introducing them to the much happier Young Master Bloch. When they spent time with him last summer he was at his peak of crying, crying and a little bit of sleeping. Thankfully he does a LOT more now and there's very little crying (although some whining which we're trying to address).

15 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days

I know this is a little late to really count as my headline but i've been out of my normal posting groove so i thought i would jump back with a mid-day missive.

Last night was very busy, because we went downtown and met JT after work, and then walked along the river to look at the Tall Shipsthat are here in Chicago. We had a nice walk although Henry was non-plussed by the ships. We got on the subway, grabbed the car and headed home. Henry had been a little lethargic while we were out but he perked up after dinner and played happily while i went to get some dinner and some food to have around the house (can i tell you how SICK i am of anything that goes in the microwave!). Then our friends came over to hang out and have a drink. It was a little past my bedtime when i did get to sleep and today has been so overcast that i'm not sure i ever actually woke up.

Our kitchen is currently on hiatus while we wait for the counter-tops to be installed next Friday and our contractors to finish their other kitchen. It's definitely taking longer than we had hoped but when i think once they're back things will go fairly quickly to finish the rest of the kitchen and then do the bathroom. I really hope by the end of August the kitchen is done and then maybe the first week of September, the bathroom is as well. To be able to cook again!

15 Months, 3 Weeks

Henry had a good and uneventful day. He played happily at Brenda's and was showing off his "high-five" skills to the kids at daycare. When we got home he immediately went over to his booster seat. I thought he was just playing with the straps like he'll do every so often but then i realized he was actually trying to climb into the chair.

I asked if he wanted to eat and he enthusiastically signed "eat." I gave him a snack of several graham cracker sticks and some string cheese and he ate it all with gusto. I managed to get him interested in playing with his toys for about 20 minutes. At 6:00 on the dot he went back to his booster seat and started asking to eat again.

I believe he is entering another growth spurt and thankfully has regained his appetite. He ate most of a 1/2 peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a lot of corn (which he kept asking for more of) and of course blueberries. He eats mountains of blueberries at every meal he can and is going to be so sad when fresh blueberry season is over.

They finished laying all the tile today. Supposedly tomorrow is grout, lighting and dishwasher and fridge installation. I hope so. As soon as they're out of here i plan to wash all the floors and hopefully get the last of the food and dishes out of the dining room.

No Henry pic today so here's one of the new floors.

15 Months, 2 Weeks, 6 Days

We had a full weekend and Henry was plum-tuckered by this evening. Last night we went to a good friends' house and JT got to live vicariously through their kitchen by whipping up a feast for all of us. Henry got to play with his pals Helen and Carys and went to bed peacefully in the guest room in his pack-n-play.

It's always so funny when we wake him for the drive back to our house. I've watched other families go through this when we have people over to our house and the kids are either barely awake or completely asleep as they are transferred to the car-seat and then back into bed at home.

Not Henry. Once he's awake he stays awake as until we get home. He's usually subdued in the car but wide-eyed and sometimes making funny noises. As soon as we get home we put him in his crib and he slips back to sleep without a problem. The routine seems to work for him at least.

This morning we met friends for brunch and got to meet their new 3-month old little boy. They have a 2-year old so we formed quite the brunch bunch but actually managed to get in a fair amount of adult conversation.

After Henry's one nap of the day (strange schedule today!) we went to Home Depot to pick out grout and drawer pulls and become perplexed in the paint aisle again. They laid about half the tile floor today and i think are going to finish it tomorrow or Tuesday, at which point the refrigerator and dishwasher will be permanently installed. Then i believe they'll be gone for the rest of the week finishing their other kitchen. When they come back to us, they'll finish the kitchen once the countertop is installed and then start the bathroom.

Here's Henry's wonderful do after he styled it himself after his bath.

15 Months, 2 Weeks, 1 Day

The lull in posting and pictures are due to the heat. Did i mention it's hot? Yesterday and today were both right around 100 and tomorrow it's supposed to be a very cool 96.

Although they got the cabinets up and we can start putting things away it was just too hot to face last night (we stayed hunkered in the air conditioning part of the house) and tonight i got the mugs put away and that was the end of that.

We did come home and fill-up Henry's little pool with water to play it after i picked him up from Brenda's. With water straight from the hose it was definitely cold, but really refreshing. Henry didn't exactly think so. He would stand in the water and reach down and splash his hands but refused to sit in the water. I even brought out his baby float and he wouldn't sit in it either. We're leaving it out until at least tomorrow so it should warm up a bit. Perhaps tomorrow he'll be swimming like a duck in it.

Some of you may remember that i had decided to start using signs with Henry really early on (i think around 4 mos). Well Henry never really seemed to catch on and i'm sure i wasn't as good at always using them, because he didn't seem to ever want to use them. As we started having more temper tantrums though, i decided i would re-invigorate the signing now that i know he's capable. I bought a video called Baby Signing Time and we've been watching a segment each day. It's the only time i've ever sat down and shown him something on tv and it's pretty funny to watch. The segments we've been watching focus on eating/drinking signs, more, and all finished. He's actually been signing milk and all finished for awhile but it took some time before we were sure he really meant what he was saying. Now when you say milk he signs milk and gets upset if you don't follow with MILK.

Tonight we came in from the pool and i needed to change his swim diaper before feeding him dinner. He got so upset when i layed him on the changing table. I told him that i just needed to get him out of his wet clothes and then i would give him milk and we would eat. He signed both of those back to me and calmed right down.

So, we have every plan to keep working through these signing videos to see if there are more that can make everyone's life easier!

15 Months, 1 Week, 6 Days

We're home again and survived what i think of as our "last flight." I'm sure it's not really the last time we'll travel with Henry, but i do swear it's the last time i fly alone with him without buying a seat. That said, he held up pretty well on this trip. He was really sleepy and of course didn't actually sleep but did spend good chunks of time snuggled in my arms sucking his thumb and cuddling Ralph. These reveries were interspersed with spastic yelling fits, but generally he returned to the quiet snuggle position when done.

Thank god for packing light. I only had a suitcase that i could carry-on and Henry in his stroller. This allowed me to go standby on an earlier flight when my original flight was delayed an hour. We had to go to Midway which involves a transfer on the train, but we got home and got Henry some dinner and he's off to bed. I'm about to follow, as i think his cold is catching up with me. Somehow i lugged my camera along on the trip and didn't take any pictures.

So, here is a picture of our kitchen. They have all the cabinets in and the ovens are installed. I think the flooring is coming soon which will be really nice. We're allowed to actually put stuff in the cabinets and after we do that and the flooring is in, I think we can actually allow Henry back in the dining room/kitchen/sun porch. That will make a pretty big difference, to have that much more space. Of course i'll have to vacuum every afternoon before Henry comes home, but that's a small price to pay for letting him explore.

I think Henry is getting closer and closer to taking some of his own first steps. He's been letting go and standing on his own for a few seconds at a time and this morning pushed up to standing without holding on to anything. Ever since he started crawling, he's been making such steady progress, that our weekly therapy sessions are really not too bad.

15 Months, 1 Week, 2 Days

The kitchen is moving along and so is Henry's cold. He still felt a tiny-bit feverish this morning but his cough is starting to loosen-up, so we're hoping that a reasonable night's sleep will allow him to go back to Ms. Brenda's tomorrow.

We are all very, very much looking forward to getting back to some semblance of our routine. They made progress in the kitchen, getting the rest of the basement jacked up and the subflooring all in. Tomorrow the base cabinets and some of the plumbing happens and then on Friday the tile gets put into place (half of it so that we can have a path through the kitchen to get upstairs).

Having Henry around when i'm trying to get work done has been really difficult, but it's also fun to see how much he's exploring and really starting to test his boundaries. Telling him no doesn't really work anymore. He looks at you, raises one eyebrow and smiles really widely while just repeating whatever brought the first no.

15 Months, 1 Week, 1 Day

As if there wasn't enough drama around here already, today i took Henry to the Dr. and he was diagnosed with croup. I guess it sounds worse than it is (a viral cough) but the poor guy has been pretty under the weather since yesterday and running a low-grade fever. His cough absolutely sounds terrible and he had a really hard time napping today. I don't know that it will be much better tomorrow while they're working in the kitchen. We just absolutely can't wait for Brenda to re-open on Thursday, and we'll keep our fingers crossed that Henry's fever is gone by then so he can go back.

They did demo the kitchen today and are pretty much set to start laying the floor tomorrow. Here's an in-process picture and a picture of the dining room as it's been re-purposed into our makeshift kitchen. Henry didn't feel like posing for any pictures tonight and the kitchen is in no shape for him to be in. Once the floor is down, we'll see if we can't get a shot of Henry exploring the new space.

Guest Room Relocation

I mentioned a while ago that part of the work we were doing on our house was moving the old guest room/JT's office to my former office to make room for the new nursery. This move happened awhile ago and is shown here ready for visitors. We can't guarantee you'll get a quiet night's sleep, but there will still be a comfortable place to lie your head once the baby arrives.

I'm posting this picture in part to tide you over until next Thursday, which is the earliest i'll be able to post the 27 weeks picture. I'll be in NY this weekend visiting friends and then in Bangor, ME for work through Thursday next week. Maine in January-- work never ceases to send me to exotic locales! 

Bathroom Remodel

Well this isn't baby related exactly, but i posted a little while ago that we were doing some remodeling around our place. Although the bathroom was finished before Christmas, it's taken me awhile to get around to posting something because the whole process was exhausting. But, we're very pleased with the results and have a few pictures for you.