Santa Arrives

This Christmas was truly one of the best I can remember. Henry absolutely loved every minute of it and was so much fun to watch. Opening gifts took ALL day, because he wanted to take every gift completely out of the packaging, put it together and play with it. It was hard to get him to move on. We actually had to let him take a nap and come back to opening the gifts in the evening. I am surprised we are not still sitting there! I have seen older kids rip through gift after gift without stopping but Henry savored every item. It was so much fun.

Henry's favorite gifts were his pottery barn kids chair from Grandma and Grandpa, his rocking horse from Nana and the wooden food that can be "cut" with a wooden knife from the Valveri's. He has been running around saying "cut, cut" since he got it. He also loves the magnetic letters from Grandma Betty and the "Penguino" from Lou and Carole. He also LOVES the Magna Doodle. Boy did he get a lot of loot!

Santa was good to Jim & I too- we got a flat screen TV!

More important than all the great gifts, we were lucky to have Nana with us and took comfort in knowing that our family and friends elsewhere have their good health and all the blessings of the love of family. We are looking forward to another wonderful year in 2008.

Christmas Morning Video

Henry Elfed!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1227029764

Boys Night

I joined a scrapbooking club that meets on Tuesday nights. I absolutely love it, although I am still very slow and don't have much to show for my nights away. Veroushka has always raved about scrapbooking and she said I would love it --she is right! These pictures are of what happens when the boys are left alone to fend for themselves! Oh well, at least they will look good in the family scrapbook!

Henry's First Haircut 9-8-2008

Henry's hair was really starting to look scrappy, so I decided that we needed to take him for his first haircut. We walked up to Village Hair and the place was packed with women getting updo's for a wedding. Joannie, the stylist was great with Henry. He sat in my lap and smiled and charmed everyone during the whole haircut. I cried. Joannie saved all the curls for us in a yellow envelope. He looks like such a big boy now-- so very handsome. Every time I look at him, I think where did my baby go? He is a full fledge little boy now.

Marshfield Fair, Aug 18

Swimming Lessons

Today was Henry's last swimming lesson for the summer session. Jim and Henry have been taking this class every saturday for 8 weeks and I tagged along today. I am usually enjoying a quiet Saturday morning with the paper and a cup of coffee! Henry's friend Jamie and his Dad, Will also take the classes. Henry is starting to kick and "reach and pull" but likes the songs just as much as anything else.

Ananda's Birthday party

We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at Wakeitha and Byron's house for Ananda's first birthday today. Henry loved Ananda's sandbox and seeing Ruth and Noah, who we we haven't seen in some time. Henry is no longer afraid of tunnels!

Playing in the water and fun with Grandma and Grandpa!

My father in-law just sent these pictures and I had to post them. They were taken two weekends ago, when we went up the new park on Neponset River which has a water feature for the kids (for those of you not from Boston, this is about 5 blocks from our house). It took Henry a good 10 minutes to take little baby steps toward the water spouts, with lots of turning back in trepidation. He was just hilarious, always serious, but clearly loving every minute of it. It was hard to get him to leave. These pictures capture him perfectly!

The visit from the Novacks was so much fun (July 24-31). During the week Grandma and Grandpa accompanied Henry to the Zoo, where we saw amazing Gorillas. We have a new video camera and got some great footage, but alas, at this point I don't know how to download it to the computer(and we still do not have a new camera). We saw the Blue Man Group on Friday night with a special guest since my cousin Peggy was in town for a conference. Afterwards we went to our favorite Japanese Hot Pot restaurant in Chinatown, which is a real experience. It is like the Melting Pot, but Asian style. Grandpa also completely cleaned and organized our shed (out of boredom, I am afraid) and I felt like I was on HGTV, with a big reveal of the new hyper-organized space. It is a dream!! I wish he had time for the basement! :-).


We loved having the Novacks here in our home. There is nothing as precious as family and I feel blessed that Henry has the chance to bond with such amazing grandparents. He is very lucky to have 3 wonderful ones that all spoil him rotten!

Henry's First Birthday Party, June 2

Henry celebrated his birthday on June 2, 2007 with a big party in our backyard. We had about 15 kids with their parents, then later on in the afternoon, we had our "childless" friends join us for a big cookout. It was seriously hot and in the late afternoon it poured down rain, but everyone just moved inside. In the evening the guys played poker, so it turned out to be an all day affair! Everyone seemed to have a really great time.

When serving Henry his birthday cupcake, Jim warned me not to light the candle, but I didn't listen. As we were singing Happy Birthday, I looked away for a second and Henry grabbed the flame with an open palm. Everyone stopped singing and gasped, as I lunged for his hand. Needless to say, it terrified Henry and he cried. The rest of the song was a bit of a bust!! The picture above is before and here is the after:


Unfortunately, I lost my camera while in Colorado which had all the photos from the party. I am heartbroken. The photos here were taken on a camera phone- at least we have a few!

For the theme of the party, I used a seersucker light blue stripe and orange. I covered the tables in seersucker fabric, I made little seersucker and orange pennant flags to hang, and we had orange, blue and white balloons. For the babies, I made carrot mini-muffins and each muffin had a small stripped flag in it with a letter to spell out HAPPY BIRTHDAY HENRY. It was very cute- but you will have to take my word for it. :-(

Here is a picture of the invites:

First Mother's Day

Today was wonderful and strange all at the same time. Everywhere people were saying "Happy Mother's Day" to me and it seemed like when people say "Happy Hanukkah" because it is the appropriate holiday, but it really doesn't apply to me. I would have to stop and think "oh, that is me...yeah uh thanks".

Henry and Jim took me to Brunch at Skyline which is a restaurant in Marina Bay on the south shore in Quincy. It was a beautiful day and we had a good time. Henry didn't behave all that well, frankly, but it was still fun! He was yelling a lot and throwing all his toys and food on the floor. I guess that is part of being a Mother and I better get used to that title. I couldn't be more thankful for the boy that gave it to me.

Mommie is Hilarious!

Breakfast at our house

Outings

Here is some photos from our recent outings with our babies group. This week we went to the newly reopened Children's Museum on the Boston waterfront. We had a great time! Two weeks ago we made a trip to the Science Museum. At this point, they are all a bit young for most of the exhibits, but both Museum's have baby rooms for the 0-2 set. I am looking forward to more of this in the summer, whenever it gets here!

From Left to right, the babies here are Gabi, Cally, Peter, our boy of course, and Griffin. All babies met at Gymboree. The Mom's are great too! :-)

Wicked Smart

OK, I know all parents think their child is more intelligent than most, but in Henry's case it is true! Well, I will admit it could be his age-- at 9-10 months, they learn so much so fast that you can't help but think your child is a genius. Everyday there is something that he couldn't do or didn't understand the day before that now he has mysteriously mastered. Two weeks ago I was having coffee with my mom's group and one mom was playing with a finger puppet with Henry. He watched a little bit, then took the puppet and put it on his own finger. OK- if you don't have a 9 month old, you may not think this is smart, you may even think it is obvious, but I am telling you we were stunned! So smart! Another example, happened last week when he was feeding himself some little corn puffs that are shaped like x's. Some of them were at the top of the tray that he couldn't reach, so he started banging on the tray to get them to rattle and move towards him so he could reach. Again, I couldn't help from saying, "so smart"! Three weeks ago he started using the sign language sign for milk when he wants a bottle. We think he is also understanding and doing the sign for "more" although that sometimes seems like clapping with his fists. We are working on that one and "eat". I also think he is also saying Ma Ma and Da Da discriminately between Jim and I, although Jim is not as convinced. Regardless, I am telling you, our boy is wicked smart!

Physically, he is also moving forward quickly, a little too quickly for me. He is crawling everywhere and is pulling up and standing on his own. He isn't quite comfortable enough to take steps on his own yet, but he is gaining confidence everyday. Teeth are another matter. He is almost 10 months old and has no teeth! I think it will happen soon though, we can feel one on the bottom ready to pierce through. "They" say late teeth are good teeth, but I think that is something that they make up to make mothers feel better that their 1-year old child doesn't have teeth!

This age is also highlighting a really sweet disposition in Henry. He loves smiling at everyone and laughs all the time. Of course, he would not be our child if he didn't also have a temper, that we are just starting to see. It is especially apparent when you have to tell him no about something like chewing on a paper towel roll. He screams and stomps his feet-- but it is very short lived- usually just a few seconds. For the most part, he is a sweet and contemplative little boy, who I just want to kiss incessantly!

Trip to Nana's

Henry and I made our first trip to Fort Walton Beach a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. Nana had him fully scheduled, meeting all her friends. We also got to see Heidi, Jim and their boys, Bryce, Grant and Cole. Heidi and I had a girls day and left the kids and went to San Destin for outlet shopping, dinner and an overnight stay! It was just lovely and good to catch up with such a great friend.

The weather was just perfect while we were there, high 60s and low 70s with lots of sunshine. Henry didn't have to wear shoes and got to play in the grass. Considering that he hasn't seen grass since he was very small it was quite entertaining. We really enjoyed ourselves and spending some quality time at Nana's house.

Cold Febuary

Last weekend we went to Martha's Vineyard so that Jim could run in the 20-Miller. (Results #68) We went with our friends Brendan and Aileen and had a wonderful time. Martha's Vineyard is beautiful, but I just wish it had been warmer so we could have gotten outside more often. We stayed in an old Inn called the Admiral Benbow in Oak Bluffs. Henry was an excellent baby all weekend and we really tested him at times!

Henry is sleeping so well now, even during nap times. We have a schedule during the day for two naps (1.5 hour+) and at night he doesn't even want to be rocked anymore. At bedtime, he just likes to be put into bed so he can doze off on his own. Of course, who knows how long this will last, but for the last few weeks it has been wonderful!

He has also become much more social. It doesn't take him as long to warm up to new situations as it used to. At first he is still wide-eyed and serious, but after a few minutes he is babbling along and smiling at everyone. Henry is also finally getting some hair! It is very dark, which is so strange, since Jim's hair was white blond when he was a boy. It is so interesting to watch him change and grow.