a daddy and his boy

Last Monday we made an impromptu trip to Des Moines just for a little outing. When we got home, Henry and Dameon took the trash cans out to the curb (a highlight for Henry!!) and I went on inside. Several minutes passed and they still hadn't come in, so I peeked out the window and this is what I found. I could hear them chatting away about the stars and the moon. Oh how I love my boys!

The truth is...

Dear Henry,
As trying as these past few days have been with your toddler tantrums and (very) strong opinions, and as many times as I have muttered that I need a vacation...the truth is I still miss you when you're taking your nap. That's about the only time of day that we're apart. And also, it's a lot of work to have to rock you to sleep every afternoon and every night but today I really noticed how your legs drape way over the arm of the glider and it hit me how big you are now. I get sad over the thought of not rocking you to sleep every day so...I might just rock you til you're 12, okay?
Love, Momma

CUTE by henry

For way too long now I have been compiling a list of cute things Henry has done or said and I keep thinking that I have got to get these things written down. Yay for finally doing it! And, just as a side note, he cracks us up many times a day and I can't possibly remember/record them all. These are just a few highlights...

• Henry is finally (I repeat FINALLY) sleeping through the night. Oh. my. That was a process. He has been consistently sleeping all night for about two and a half weeks. But, like everything, we are constantly in transition because...wait for it...wait for it...he just started cutting his second set of molars. Oh boy. Oh well, I can't complain. Prior to this streak, his record was three nights in a row. And that's only happened twice in his life. And he'll be 22 months old on Friday. Can I get an Uffda? Okay, now for the cute part of all this: Pretty much every time he wakes up and I go in to get him in the morning he says, "That was a good nap!" He thinks all sleeping is termed "nap." Cute? Yes!
• Several weeks ago I was getting ready to do a big Uppercase Living install at the middle school and I needed a yard stick. Dameon and Henry took off for the hardware store to buy me one. When they returned, Henry was attached to this new contraption. But instead of calling it a yard stick, he was calling it a lever. I asked Dameon where he got that from and Dameon said he didn't know but that he called it that right away. And then it clicked. Sesame Street, of course!
• Henry's been having some trouble with constipation so we've cut a few things out of his diet lately, including milk. The other night at the grocery store we decided to buy him some coconut milk since it's non-dairy and he's been begging for milk. I didn't really know what I was doing and accidently bought "Vanilla" instead of "Original". When we got home, I promptly filled his cup and he took a big drink. Immediately a look of pure delight came over him and he said, "I drinkin' ice cream!!!"
• A few weeks ago we went to the Pumpkin Ranch just outside of town. Henry absolutely loved it and was so happy that we got to choose some pumpkins to take home. Every time we come up the porch steps he asks to touch the pumpkins and sit by the pumpkins. Normal, right? But he has a third request. He wants to "chomp" the pumpkins. We use chomp in place of "bite" around here. One day he told me he did chomp the tiny pumpkin. I didn't see any bite marks, so the jury's still out on that one.

• We're pretty sure Henry is still clueless about the new baby, but every once in awhile we bring it up by talking about how there's a baby in mommy's belly. When we ask him, "What's in Mommy's belly?" He always says, "A button!" And then tries to lift my shirt to see my belly button. One day I was wearing a shirt with a pocket on it, and he was very interested in that pocket. A little while later, he asked to see my pocket, so I said, "Henry, what's in Mommy's pocket?" His reply: "A baby!!"
• About a month ago I took Henry to the doctor because he had a pretty nasty cold. Much to my surprise, he started crying the minute I set him on the scale and continued to cry the entire time. At one point when the doctor had left the room I said, "Henry, why are you crying?" Through his sobbing he said, "I nervous."
• My mom and I took Henry to the homecoming parade here in town, which was only a couple weeks after we had taken him to the Pufferbilly Parade in Boone. As the students were riding by on their trucks and floats Henry started calling to them saying, "Drop the treats!" Sorry, pal. No candy at this parade.
• Henry is an announcer of all things. We pretty much always know what he's doing when he's out of sight because he narrates the whole thing. The only time we really get concerned is when he's quiet. The other day he was quiet and I knew he was in his bedroom. I walked around the corner to find this:

• And, finally, the most recent Henry quote that I've heard him shouting from the next room about three times in the past few days: "Uh Oh! I make a mess!" One time he had torn up the mail into tiny shreds. The second time he had emptied all of the shirts out of Dameon's drawer, and the third time he had spread kitchen utencils all over the kitchen floor. His reply to me asking him to help clean up is pretty consistent, too. "Nope. I can't do it." Hmmmmmm...little stinker.

supper club

A stroke of genius, you might call it. Okay so I can't take complete credit for this. My mom was in a supper club when I was growing up. Not sure if she came up with it or not, but at the end of the summer I approached two friends about starting a supper club of our own and they agreed! Here's how it works: On Monday nights Megan cooks a meal for her family and triples the recipe so that Stacey and I can pick up our portions. On Tuesday nights Stacey cooks her meal times three. On Thursday nights it's my turn. Each meal includes a main dish and one side dish. Here's why this is so great:

1. BUDGET: Dameon and I have been looking for ways to cut back on our grocery budget for a long time. We spend way too much money on food and can't ever seem to figure out how it really happens. Very consistently we are overspending this area of our budget and is so frustrating! We obviously have to eat. And we eat most of our meals at home. We also both eat lunch from home. And we don't have to eat fancy food or anything but we don't want to eat junk either. I cook almost every night, so that means buying a lot of ingredients that I only use part of. But when I buy ingredients for one meal times three, I am more able to use up those ingredients and less goes to waste. Bingo! Grocery budget intact.

2. MESS: This may come as a shock to you but I'm not awesome at cleaning up messes. Especially kitchen messes. I know, I'm almost 30 and it's about time I get it together. I know. But cooking less often means less mess in the kitchen. Win!

3. FAMILY TIME: Typically when Dameon gets home at 4:30...or 4:45...or 5:00...I have to quickly turn Henry over to him so that I can bury myself in the kitchen and quickly prepare our meal that we need to eat by 5:30 so that he can get back to work. Now that our meals are prepared for us two nights a week, the three of us can spend more time together.

4. VARIETY: Having other people cook for us has introduced a little more variety into the things we eat. Generally the three of us seem to have the same likes thus far but I think we've eaten four or five meals that I've never prepared.

5. I'M PREGNANT: Just because I can cook it doesn't mean I can eat it. Such a bummer to spend time preparing a meal that, in the end, makes you gag when you think of eating it. Solution? Our meals are brought to our door prepared!

The only really hard thing for me is coming up with what I want to make. I think the best way for me to avoid this problem is to sit down with my cookbooks and make a list of the meals I can easily make in mass. So far I've made pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches with pasta salad, meatloaf with party potatoes, taco soup with corn bread, chicken tacos with tortilla chips, tomato cream pasta with garlic bread, and lasagna with bread sticks.

growing

It's true. You take less pictures the second time around. Dang it! I wanted to be the exception to that one. Need to try harder! Nevertheless, Baby #2 is growing like crazy and we are getting closer and closer to the halfway point and the much anticipated 20 week ultrasound. We still haven't changed our minds about finding out the gender and it's still driving me a little nuts that I just can't get a strong feeling one way or another. I will say I'm a little less on Team Girl than I was at the beginning. We shall see...
I'm starting to feel movement now and a lot of those yucky first trimester feelings have subsided. I still feel tired but much better than before! Today is the 17 week mark so we quickly got this picture taken last night. When I was 17 weeks pregnant with Henry, we moved to Winterset and the dreaded kidney pain kicked in so I'm praying that I miss out on that with this baby. I have another OB appointment tomorrow, which will just be the basic routine but I always look forward to hearing that heartbeat!