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!

project #3

One of Henry's favorite things to do is put things in and take things out. Doesn't really matter what the things are, as long as they have a container to fit them. Enter our latest project. This one is also great for fine motor skills. I gave him an empty minced onions container and some q-tips. Oh, happy day! He loves putting the q-tips through the holes one-by-one. We gave this to him on Sunday and now two days later, he's still coming back to it. I'm trying to think of something else that's skinny enough to put through the holes to add to his q-tip stash.

Oh, and the cutest part of all this is that he now tries to request a project but it turns out that word is really hard to say. It comes out something like, "pwagik." Adorable :)

we're still not sure how to feel about this...

BEFORE

AFTER

He's still the cutest boy in the world, but he just looks so old now!!!!!

projects

Each day Henry and I are going to (try to) do a project. At this age, my criteria for a project are that it needs to involve some sort of sensory experience, it needs to be hands-on, and at least part of the activity needs to be something he can do independently. When I first introduce the materials for a project, I don't do any instructing. So...no speaking and no demonstrating. I just let him explore. Sometimes this is hard because I just want him to figure out the point of the activity right away. My adult self gets in a hurry! But it's so much better to bite my tongue because often times he comes up with other purposes for the materials that I wouldn't have thought of. We usually do our projects in the kitchen because they are easier to clean up and I like to keep it separate from his other toys.

 

Yesterday's project went like this: I put out a bunch of kitchen utencils and three big bowls. I poured some dry macaroni noodles in each bowl and let him do the rest. He was completely fascinated for a solid 30 minutes. Stirring, pouring, and switching the noodles from one bowl to another. He was deep in silent concentration! After 30 minutes, he took a break to roam around the house which is when we ate lunch and then took naps. He came back to the projects after he woke up. Success!

 

Today's project was called Muffin Tin sorting. I took a few toilet paper tubes and cut them into shorter tubes. Then I put them in a large ziplock and set them next to the muffin tin on the floor. Henry is a kid who likes order, so I knew it would be best to have 12 tubes...one for each spot on the muffin tin. At first he wanted to dump the tubes out. Fine with me! Then he put them back in the bag. He wanted to shut the bag. I then realized he would likely get stuck on wanting me to open and close the bag because he loves to open and close things. So, I went ahead and put one tube into the muffin cup. He caught on right away and filled the rest of the cups one by one. Then he put each one back in the bag and started over again. He loved it! I watched the clock and this kept him busy for a good 20 minutes.

And, of course, everything gets flipped over and turned into a drum eventually :)

 

My plan is to drag out one of my fun containers from when I was teaching to store all these projects in, so that I can build up my stash. I'll let him play with the same ones for awhile and then pack them away for a bit so they seem new when I reintroduce them. The best part is that most of the projects are free because you just use stuff you have around the house. Though I guess you do have to adopt a bit of a hoarder mentality. Yesterday I stopped myself before throwing away an empty oatmeal container! Thanks to Pinterest, the ideas are endless. I can't wait for tomorrow's project because I have a good feeling he's going to love it. More to come...

Baby #2

See? Told you I'm big.

Hooray for almost being through the first trimester! It has been a lot the same as my first pregnancy with a few definite differences. With Henry, my nausea was mostly contained to the evenings. This time it's been more evenly distributed throughout the day. I also feel like I'm a lot more tired this time around but that probably has to do with the fact that I'm chasing a toddler around. Although, he's really good at playing by himself on those days when I just can't get off the couch. So, here's a little Q & A about this pregnancy...

When did you find out? July 18

How did you tell Dameon? We were both suspicious leading up to the actual positive test result. I didn't want to talk myself into it too much because I didn't want to be disappointed but right before I took the test I got extremely nervous and I just knew. It was positive right away! To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Just that rush of reality setting in comes with a lot of excitement and, at least for me, a lot of fear. I basically just walked into our bedroom with test in hand and said, "We're pregnant!" I think Dameon was equally shocked. But in a good way, of course!!

How far apart will the kids be in age? 2 years and 3 months. Perfect, I'd say!

Does Henry have any clue? No. Sometimes I'll say, "What's in Mommy's belly?" to which he always responds, "A button!" and then lifts my shirt to see my belly button. (Which, in case you're wondering, is already almost completely flat.) I don't think he'll really understand until the baby has been living in our house for a couple weeks.

How did you tell your families? First we had to get them face-to-face, which was a bit difficult to do without blowing the surprise. Then I told them I had seen a project on Pinterest where you make a book of your child's favorite things and have his favorite people read it to him. The idea is to make it into a video blog by video taping the reading. The book reveals the big secret! Yep, we have the reactions on video. So fun!

When are you due? March 25. This is a bit scary because Dameon will be in Florida with his band during the end of my 38th and beginning of my 39th week. GULP.

Will you find out the gender? Nope. Although, this is going to be harder for me than it was the first time because with Henry I had such a strong feeling he was a boy that I didn't need the ultrasound tech to tell me. This time I don't have a strong feeling and the suspense is really getting to me! At first we were both sure it was a girl but now we're both wavering.

Cravings? Yes. Oh yes. Let's see.... iced tea (not good when you're supposed to avoid caffiene), puppy chow, salad...but only the kind from Texas Roadhouse or a really good salad bar with all the toppings, soft pretzels from the mall (too bad we don't have a mall), ramen noodles until i got sick of them yesterday, and apples without the peel because the peel makes me gag when I'm pregnant.

Most prominent symptom? TIRED. I am so thankful to be a stay-at-home mom because I can nap when Henry naps. I seriously admire women who work all the way through their pregnancies or have multiple children at home and don't have the chance to nap. I am so spoiled to be able to nap every day. Plus, I have an amazing husband who does whatever I ask even after a full day of work. He has made many trips to the grocery store when I can't muster the gag reflex control to go myself, sat up with Henry on several nights (more to come on that topic later...uffda), worked long hours into the night so he can be available to help out with anything and everything in the evenings, and put up with being out of clean clothes on several occassions because I have failed to keep up with laundry. Such a good guy I have :)