Swimming!

I have a budding swimmer on my hands! Henry has been taking swim lessons since early Fall and he immediately took to them like, well a fish to water. Something just clicked this time.

Today he swam about 1/4 of the way across the pool and back without his flotation belt on. No doggy paddling, face in the water, holding his breath the whole way, kicking his legs (relatively straight) and doing straight arm circles. I looked up from coloring with Silas and almost couldn't believe what i was seeing.

He has so much fun that when he's not doing something one-on-one with the teacher he's jumping up and down, doing happy faces, blowing bubbles and generally giddy. Contrast this with two years ago when admittedly his lips were blue, but the lessons actually turned him off the water for awhile. We cut that class short and just enjoyed splashing in the baby pool and spending time at Gran and Nonna's beach. Last fall he took lessons at a highly recommended place. Henry enjoyed them and they did great at getting him happy about swimming again. But the teacher was so gentle that the kid was going to be 30 before he learned that real swimming happens (eventually) without a floatie.

Enter the Chicago Park District. Cheap, no frills, but Koz Park was recommended by another parent friend. The pool and facilities are clean and well-kept and the teachers are really, really good. Fun and good with the kids but also really working on the fundamentals with the kids-- and each at their own level. Swim team is right before his lessons and i asked at the end of class what the requirements for swim team are. The teacher told me they have to be 5 and able to swim the length of the pool on their own. Henry is focused on meeting that goal (before he's 6!) I think i can get away with taking some pictures there (it's a little more relaxed than the uber-strict pool we go to in the summer) so i'll try to capture his little swimming self as soon as possible. But i'm one proud mama (and papa will be as well as soon as he gets home to hear the story!)

Fall Fun

A noted lack in posting. I was away an entire work-week two weeks ago and i feel like i'm just about caught back up where i have some time to mess around once the boys are in bed. Plus, i hosted my parents for a fall visit this weekend that was lovely; albeit cool.


After several years of sticking largely close to home during their visits, we were all over greater Chicagoland. The nap schedules or our little people still constrain all day touristing, but we headed out to the NW suburbs for fun at a local pumpkin patch. The highlight of Silas' trip was the tractor ride-- which i remember him balking at completely last year. Henry loved every minute of the kids truck ride he got to go on. I believe the wacky fun house and the strawberries were also a hit, although at that point i had taken Silas to look more at the animals because the wanting to ride, afraid to ride conflicting feelings were just too much for him.

From October 2009

He did very much enjoy watching the sheep eat, the chickens peck around and the rabbits nuzzeld up against the warm back corner.

That night Henry had his first swim lesson at the new "warm" pool and he seemed to do quite well. Once i saw him get in and follow the teachers' lead without begging me to get in too, everything else was gravy. It was a little chaotic before class started with so many kids getting sorted out, but i'm hoping it will be a little calmer and Henry will be a little more assured.

Sunday my parents and i went out to the Frank Lloyd Wright house and studio in Oak Park. I hadn't been out there since soon after moving to Chicago, and it was very fun to play tourist again. It's a cool house and amazing to picture the prairie coming right up to within sight of his house. The boys sat this trip out and probably just as well. Henry might have at least listened attentively for the tour but we had a 2 hour wait before it started that would have thrown him over the edge.

Last event was JT volunteering at Henry's school to get the flower beds cleaned out and planted with spring bulbs. Volunteering seems to be a new thread running through our days. This Saturday it's my turn to help set-up the fall festival.

Three (attempted pool visits)

Summer is finally here. It seemed it would never come and then just in time for my aunt and cousin's visit-- we had 90 degree heat and the unrelenting jet engine of our air conditioner. We did get to take them downtown to see the Lake and some of Chicago's great parks. Henry had wanted to see Buckingham fountain ("big water" by Silas' naming) and they had a lot of fun in the Crown Fountain-- doing a bit of splashing. JT bundled them home for naps and the rest of us did some walking on Michigan Avenue and then took the Architecture tour on the Chicago river. It was hot and sweaty, but fun to get downtown. I do have to say that until Silas is another year or two older i think that was the one big "downtown" outing for the summer.

He wanted in the stroller, or out, or to walk, or to be carried, or none of the above. He had fun but he also was grumpy and he's just impossible to reason with. I can only presume he'll at least get more rational as he gets older but i guess i should be prepared that his stubbornness will not subside.

Today we took the boys to the park for a bit before Tammie and Morgan headed off to the airport. Then i took Henry to swim lessons (i'll write more about that next time) and after naps i took both boys to the baby pool. Now i'm sufficiently exhausted and ready to get the boys to bed, eat dinner with JT and catch up on a few tv shows and 6 enormous baskets of laundry!

Will Summer Come Again?

From August 2008

We wrapped up the official end of summer (while trying to confirm that summer will indeed rise again) with a pretty decent weekend. It was something along "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times," because while i had 5 days off work and home with the boys, one of those was an official sick day and the rest involved a mix of us all being under the weather, being somewhat better, hosting a bbq, and trying to enjoy summers passing. Of course with the weather hotter than it's been all summer, it's been a little hard to get too teary-eyed about the changing seasons.

We didn't make it to the pool again after i took the boys on Friday, but i think i'm going to look into swim lessons for Henry this fall. We haven't completely decided what we're going to do about him and gym class. We're waiting until at least the fall session to enroll because right now he's getting a lot of the same practice and exercise by frequent park visits.

I think because they've been sick, the boys' sleep skills have deteriorated a bit. Each night it's at least one of them up a few times- and sometimes both. Henry was crying out for me the other night and when i went down to figure out what was wrong he was sitting-up in bed saying "let's play" over and over to me. I'm not sure he was awake but after he called out for me an hour later i told him that he needed to remember to just roll over and go back to sleep if he woke up at night. I think he's back on the right path, but in the meantime, Silas has been waking up and when i go down to comfort him at night ... (as he just did with perfect timing) he won't quiet down and points out of his room. He's definitely at the point where everything is more exciting than sleeping even in the middle of the night. So we'll see. When it gets really bad i put him in the pack-n-play upstairs but i'm hoping not to make a habit of that.

Wringing what we can from the Pool

The pool by our house is three blocks away, clean, free, and has a lovely baby pool. These are it's upsides. The downsides are that everything that can be outlawed is, and the hours of operation frankly, suck. Upping the ante, the pool is only open from the middle of June until the end of August. By August 11th we're in a fever pitch trying to get as many visits in as possible.

The aforementioned baby pool, nicely shaded in the afternoons and perfect if you're attempting a pool outing as a solo parent with two children that don't swim, closes at 5 pm everyday. This proves challenging for someone that typically works 9-5. So we had come up with a two-pronged strategy-- I start early/work through lunch and head out early on Mondays so I can get the boys to the baby pool for 45 glorious minutes before it closes, and on weekends we all go as a family and enjoy the big pool. This past week both efforts were stymied.

Monday was the storm to end all storms which had already started clouding up the skies by the afternoon. With the flexible schedule i have, i simply swapped our pool day to Tuesday. So far so good.

Tuesday morning i specifically drove by the pool in the am, ensured it was open after the big storm, and made arrangements to pick the kids up at 4 already in their suits. PM came and we blithely headed to the pool. Alas, the baby pool was closed and i was left with two options-- turn around and head home or attempt the big pool with both kids by myself. I (stupidly ?) opted for the second.


Actually it would have been doable if Silas had been in a better mood. Henry happily held on to the side by himself playing with little plastic strainers while i tried to wrangle an increasingly grumpy Silas. He fussed on the pool ledge and pointed at the water, i held him in the water and jumped up and down, and he cried and pointed to the ledge. I put him on the ledge and he pointed to the side of the pool. I put him on the side and he took off away from the pool.

I tried again with him on the ledge and for about .4 seconds he stopped fussing and seemed like maybe just maybe he'd let us enjoy our pool visit. He kicked his feet in the water and showed signs of enjoying the pool as much as he had the previous weekend. I held Henry so he could get a break from the wall and Silas cannon balled into the water.

With the one arm i had free i grabbed the quickly-sinking Silas, pulled him up, put Henry back on the wall, soothed Silas who was now screaming and admitted defeat. So much for getting as much out of summer that day. I felt bad for Henry because he was as happy as a clam and didn't want to leave. I felt bad for myself because why couldn't Silas appreciate the efforts i was making for him!

After heading home and having a glass of wine with dinner i decided all was not lost as we could make sure to get to the pool as a family this weekend. And then the freak 73-for-a-high days started and it was too cold to go to the pool IN AUGUST! So, we're trying again today. Wish us luck please that the baby pool will actually be open.

Oh, and feel free to send suggestions for the letter of complaint/suggestion i plan to lodge with the pool and alderman's office regarding the challenging pool schedule.

Official end of Summer-- boo, hoo

I think we did a pretty good job sending summer out. Saturday we bought a new tv and JT re-taught Henry how to do the "touchdown" sign after spending most of the day relaxing in front of college football. Yesterday we went back out to Tabitha's pool and Henry had another great time. He seemed even more comfortable in the water this weekend than last weekend. Tabitha and i talked about trying to get the kids to the pool during the winter months-- even just for some free swim. It will be an additional option for outings during the long winter months.

Today we met 3 other families at the zoo and Henry definitely enjoyed seeing all the "aminals." He saw giraffes, and elephants, lots of monkeys and even an otter. I think his favorite might have been the polar bears. Both days we were home by early afternoon, which was nice to have time to accomplish all the weekend chores that need doing.

Silas has had a fairly eventful weekend as well even though all the outings weren't exactly targeted at him. He has been rolling over sporadically for the past several weeks but this weekend he pretty much non-stop started rolling. Unfortunately he has been exercising his legs when it's time for sleep, so naptimes have been pretty rough.

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!

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.

4 Months, 4 Days/ 2 Years, 3 Months, 1 Week

I know i've been remiss in posting lately. I have a few ideas for things i'd like to write that will require me to sit-down and focus, and i haven't been able to come up with that time lately. Work has certainly picked up and we've been pretty busy on the personal front as well.

Because Chicago has a much longer winter than summer i feel like each weekend, nay each day, needs to have enjoyable summer activities planned into it. Of course we have to schedule laundry and grocery shopping in there somewhere, but we've been doing a pretty good job of accomplishing fun stuff. Friday we finally made it to the pool by our house and Henry got excited all over again about swimming. I've taken to heading there after i pick the boys up from Brenda's, because the baby pool area is completely shaded and it's not as busy as on the weekends. We only wind up with about 30 minutes before the pool closes but that's a decent-enough amount of time-- especially considering Silas would really prefer to start getting ready for bed around 6-- more on Silas and sleep later.

This weekend we enjoyed a really nice bbq at Tiffany and Mike's house and Henry FINALLY got to see "Mike's Dogs" as he calls Zippy and Josie. Even better, he got to play "Hide Seek" with Helen and Carys. A high point of the night for us was that Henry went to bed uncomplainingly on a pallet on their floor, and Silas slept in the pack-n-play without much fuss. Unfortunately neither of our kids have ever let us fulfill the "transferring a sleeping child to the car" scenario that i see in my minds-eye movie of parenting. Our children wake-up and stay awake-- looking dazed, all the way home. Henry always goes right back to sleep once he's in his own bed, but this move threw Silas off his game. And here's where i start to become consumed by sleep issues again...

On Saturday Silas took a 5 (!) hour nap and went to bed like normal right about 6:30. We woke him around 11 to head home and he didn't sleep great that night (which didn't surprise me). The next day however, he wouldn't nap for more than 30-45 minutes at a stint and would wake up absolutely crying. He couldn't be soothed back to sleep and in general seemed overtired and miserable. That night i worked and worked to get him to go to sleep for the night and he put up a fight to say the least. We decided that it was time to commit to sleep training the little guy. We went through this with Henry around this time and it was truly terrible.

I was feeling like it was almost worse with Silas because he was surprisingly stubborn when it came to sleep training. Silas has been and continues to be a happy mellow baby. Everything i've read about babies with mild temperaments indicates that you might have around 20 minutes of crying and you've got the whole thing whipped in 3 days. The first night Silas cried off and on for 2 hours. Most of the time it wasn't full-on screaming, but he was definitely crying and NOT sleeping. Last night was better-- i think he only cried 20 minutes when we put him down, but he cried quite a few times during the middle of the night. He hasn't eaten in the middle of the night for almost a month but he's very resistant to falling back asleep on his own.

I was feeling drained and vulnerable the way only an infant's incessant crying can make you feel so i re-read some of my sleep books-- in particular Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. He helped me remember why we were "sleep training" in the first place and realize that this is short-term pain for long-term progress. After my experiences with Henry i do truly believe that good sleep habits are a crucial skill for babies to learn.

The only thing that caught me off guard, is that we're having to "teach" Silas these habits. I thought we might have lucked into one of those babies that somehow figure this out on their own. That's why the first night of crying was so difficult and unexpected. I'm hoping that with some good naps under our belt, and reduced crying at bedtime (and did i mention that 6 pm bedtime routine) we'll be on our way to solid-sleep habits for all of us. I'll let you know.

22 Months, 5 Days

I know i've been posting sporadically lately but i ask that you bear with me. Work is getting super busy as i prepare to go on leave in 4 weeks (can you believe it!) and i've been getting more and more tired as the days go by which makes it difficult to do much more than the basics come nightfall.

We wrapped up Henry's swim classes yesterday and i think he enjoyed things very much. He seems to forget about swimming when we're done with it, but hopefully he'll have a good time at the outdoor pool by our house once it warms up this summer. I'm a little glad to be done with walking out the water carrying Henry and Silas.

Henry had his appointment with the Pediatric Geneticist yesterday and was given a "normal" bill of health. They took a detailed family medical history and then did a physical exam of Henry. They felt that he was totally normal, had overcome his low muscle tone from his earlier days and that the various issues he's had (low muscle tone, pyloric stenosis and chordee) were unrelated and essentially three unlucky rolls of the dice. They said that if his development ever slowed or seemed to back-track certainly to get him back in, but there was nothing to prompt them to do more tests or look further because he appears to be totally normal. This was what we were hoping to hear!

Henry has loved to stand on the step-stool in the kitchen ever since Christmas but JT has been letting him do this more often as he works on dinner. Henry either plays with his own bowls or spoons or just watches as Dad puts dinner together. He's a bit more sure-footed on the step-stool now so you don't have to literally stand there with your arms around him the whole time.

Valentine's Day!

We've had an eventful day already, although nothing to do with valentine's yet. We've probably gotten about 8 inches or so of snow since two nights ago and we had therapy bright and early this morning, so we got up, got Henry some breakfast and ourselves ready and JT shovelled the walk and dug-out the car. We run a tight ship around here so we managed to actually get out the door on time.

Today was a really great therapy session for Henry. No tantrums really-- a tiny bit of fussing when we'd been doing one thing for a long time and he was genuinely having fun for parts of it. I think it really helps that his memory is developing. I try to talk about his therapist "Jo" periodically, and Henry loves to say her name as well.

Then he headed off to see Ms. Brenda and the kiddos in his valentine's day shirt. I'll try to take a picture and post it tomorrow. He's been more and more particular about what he wears. He has two winter coats-- a puffy green one and a dressy light blue wool coat. Typically he's been wearing the green coat just because it's a bit more casual. Well, Henry has decided that the only wants to wear the blue one and will go over to the coat closet and protest if i have picked out the "wrong" one. He's also pretty clear that he prefers his leather squeaky shoes to his typical tennis shoes.

That's all fine and good but i worry a bit about Brenda's sanity when he wears the shoes that squeak every time he walks for days on end. She said the kids love them so i just try to push the tennis shoes every few days or so.

Henry and i have swimming this afternoon and then he'll get to come home to some valentine goodies. We made sugar cookies the other day and decorated some of them with hearts. He enjoyed one on Valentine's day Eve, but i figure he can have another one while opening a few Valentine gifts.

21 Months, 2 Weeks

Henry does seem to be feeling better, but his lower GI difficulties are hanging around. Unfortunately we had just gotten over the last bout when this stomach ailment came around so i'm expecting another 3 weeks of gross diapers. Boy, will we be happy for spring!

We had Henry's final surgery follow-up visit today and it took about 1 minute-- long enough for the Doctor to say that everything looked great. Yeah, one less Doctor to be seeing! I'm just hoping that this concludes the portion of Henry's life where he needs surgery. And, here's to a surgery-free Silas-- i'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed.

Henry and I have swim class again today. Hopefully they've got the water heater cranked up because it's super cold here this week. I talked to Henry about going swimming when i picked him up and he seemed to remember what i was talking about and be excited about it. He had therapy tomorrow morning and hopefully it will be a good session and not one horrendous hour of crying.

Today's picture is of one of Henry's newest accomplishments. If toys fall under the couch, we use a closet rod or "stick" as Henry says to fish them out. Henry now opens the armoire, grabs the stick and attempts to get the toys out on his own. He's very excited about this and as long as the stick is on the ground it's usually all good. Once he stands up with that thing though you immediately have to intervene or anything within a 3 foot diameter gets wacked!

21 Months, 1 Week, 1 Day

Yesterday was swim class day and Henry is making some real strides. He's still not the baby splashing around and squealing (that would be Ellie who we're getting to know), but yesterday he was excited about swim class when i asked him about it, and his body was completely relaxed the whole class. He was comfortable enough that he'd float with his legs out behind him rather while i supported him under his arms, rather than his normal pose of legs wrapped tightly around me. He even put his arms over a floatydumbbell and let me just hold his hands while he floated out in front of me. All of these are things that have caused him some real distress in the past, but yesterday he took it all in stride.

I'm hoping that by the end of the class he'll be more comfortable and really looking forward to swimming this summer (which hopefully we'll be able to manage once Silas is here).

I'm hoping that JT will be able to come to the class next week and take some pictures, because i can't exactly photograph him while i'm supporting him and immersed in the water.

Speaking of pictures, i've run dry, but i can share my new "signature" that i'm using on my message board-- thanks Tammy!

21 Months

My post frequency has been affected by a "baby e-roundtable" i'm running with some friends and acquaintances. A fellow Mom and i were talking awhile back about all the people that we knew that were about to become first-time moms. She suggested we have a roundtable to pass on what we knew. I thought this was a great idea but would be difficult to pull together given our differing schedules. So, i came up with the e-roundtable.

Basically we've invited a group of current and future parents to participate. I send out an email to the group on a specific topic each week and then other participants chime in with questions or their own experiences or advice. So far it's been a lot of fun and i'm hoping helpful for those first-time moms we were targeting. I'm thinking that when it's all through i'll post it online and set-up links to the information on the right side of this blog. That way if you have friends you think could use the advice, it's there for the taking!

Henry and i had his second swim class today and he seemed a little more animated. Of course that swung wildly between really excitedly splashing around and screaming no, no, no when he didn't want to do something. All in all he seemed to have fun. One thing we really have to work on though is getting out of the pool. They have this set of steps that goes all the way down into the water and has a very gentle rise. Henry insists on being carried up and down these steps. Into the water isn't too big a deal but after i've been weightless for 30 minutes and then have to walk out of the water into real gravity with a 24 lb toddler-- i feel like i weigh about 300 pounds.

I had my 30-week midwife appointment and everything is still looking good. I passed my gestational diabetes test with flying colors, the baby is moving STRONGLY, and the heartbeat was really clear. We've started trying to make plans for Henry's care when i go into labor. Since the last labor was so fast, i feel like we don't have a lot of time to get Henry where he needs to go which is a little stressful. We'll be talking to some key Chicago actors in the coming days to hammer all of the details out.

20 Month pictures are up on Yahoo so don't say i'm not timely about everything!

Swimmer!

Today Henry and i had our first swim lesson in about a year. I decided that if Henry and i were going to take a class--now is the time to do it before Silas arrives. Depending on how much of an adjustment period we need with Silas, i'd like to sign Henry up for a gym-type class in either the summer or next fall. But, for now it's just Henry and i and my big pregnant belly swimming around.

Henry was really excited at first about his bathing suit (with sharks) and his swim diaper (with fish). Then he got scared of the noise of the showers as we walked through them to the pool. He had kind of a typical Henry first class-- most of it he was gritting his teeth and clinging very closely to me but at the end when i asked him if he wanted to get out he said "no." He did warm up as the class went on and certain things he really enjoyed so i'm hoping that by the end of our 7 week session he'll be fairly comfortable.

I know i need to take some more pictures-- so i don't have one for today. I did upload the 18 and 19 month pictures on yahoo and as soon as i get my Dad's Christmas pictures i'll have some new cute ones to share!

Losing track of dates...

Not sure how old Henry is-- my calendar is upstairs. But, i thought i would take a few minutes to get back in the habit of posting after this nice long weekend.

We had one last chance to get to the pool on Saturday. We went out to spend the afternoon with friends and it was actually warm enough to go swimming. We all had such a great time and Henry in particular just couldn't be happier. He borrowed Helen's little baby float and had so much fun just paddling along wherever he felt like going. He was even brave enough to get really close to the waterfalls.

This was the first weekend Henry switched to one nap and it seemed to go pretty well. He's definitely tired by the evening, but not unbearably so. I think the transition will take a little longer, but has mostly gone smoothly.

We enjoyed cooking out this afternoon as well, but the rain and cooler weather moved in today so JT grilled and we all ate inside. Henry had a blast this weekend after warming up to everyone and has just gotten to where he walks either more and further each day. Now we're preparing for the busy week ahead.

New 15 Month pictures are up-- access them through the "13 Months- Current" link to the right...

17 Months, 2 Weeks

I had high hopes for yesterday evening. I've been really wanting to squeeze in one last trip to the pool before they all close for the season on Labor Day. I thought yesterday was the day-- with a high of 75 and sunny i thought it just might work. And at noon, it might have, but by 5 o'clock when i picked Henry up it was mighty cool in the shade and not exactly blistering in the sun. We have plans to try on Saturday when we spend the day at the Pendleton's, but i have a feeling with a forecast high of 72 that outdoor swimming season has drawn to a close for us!

We do have a fun weekend planned with an attempt at a new nap schedule, toilet shopping, and thankfully multiple cook-outs with friends.

Henry has been taking only one afternoon nap at daycare for awhile. On the weekends with us he's gotten to where he'll take a long morning nap-- 2 hours or so, but then will zero to little in the afternoon. So, we've decided to see if he seems ready for one nap. The trick is to keep him busy and occupied in the morning when he starts to get tired. We'll keep you updated.

15 Months, 2 Weeks, 2 Days

We spent time in the backyard again after getting home from Brenda's. The pool had warmed up but not enough to meet Henry's expectations because he still mainly refused to sit in the pool unless he was sitting on my lap. He was happy as a clam to stand holding on to Dad's knee and repeatedly reach down in the water for toys we dropped for him.

Thunderstorms have moved in and are supposed to be bringing some relief from all the high temperatures. Right now it's just really steamy, but hopefully by morning it will have cooled back down to reasonable.

We're so excited that Henry seems to have ended his hunger strike. For awhile there (several weeks) he just didn't eat much of anything, at almost every meal. A bite here, a nibble there and that was it, the rest when on the ground. I would offer him food at snacks as well and he just wasn't very interested so i figured he wasn't starving. We discovered he loves blueberries over the weekend so last night for dinner he had macaroni and cheese, blueberries and peas and he ate all that i prepared for him (well, there were some peas left over). He seems to have repeated this at all meals and Brenda said he was doing better too.

Now we have 2 weeks for him to catch back up before the big 15-month weigh-in happens !