My Little Turkey

My camera mostly stayed in its case during Thanksgiving. That is because we were all so overstuffed we just lounged around on the couch, trying not to fall asleep.

Henry wore the cutest little Thanksgiving outfit. On the front, it said "Gobble, Gobble, Gobble." On the bottom, there was a cute baby turkey.  I am very thankful for my little turkey. . . . and my slightly larger and definitely more mobile one, too.

Nick had a new shirt for Thanksgiving as well, but he tore it off in favor of his t-shirt about five minutes after we arrived. I'm glad I snapped a quick picture before he took it off.

My sister made this rainbow layered jello, which was very cool-looking. It was also tasty, but I am astounded at how labor-intensive it must have been to make. Each layer had to be made separately. That is what I call patience.

Henry tried mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberries, white jello, and even pumpkin pie. He loved all of them. I think his favorite dish was the cranberry sauce, actually.

I hope everyone had a relaxing Thanksgiving. We did.  :)

Picture Day!

On Wednesday, we got the boys all dressed and took them to the mall to get their pictures taken. Henry looked like a little man in his sweater, jeans, and sneakers.

Yup. He's eating the price tag from his sweater. Of course, Henry smiled all the way up until it was time to get his picture taken. As soon as the camera came out, he adopted a very serious look. That's Henry. Nick had no such problem. He loves the camera. . . and the little cars that eat quarters.

Nick smiled a lot during his pictures. He was fairly well behaved, partially because he knew we'd let him do something special afterwards--lunch with Grandma Toni and then a ride on the coolest car ever. 

You will notice that Nicholas and Henry are wearing matching sweaters. I guessed at the sizes and bought those last year during the after Christmas clearance sales. Yup. I bought clothes for Henry six months before he was even born. 

He seems a little surprised by my determination to get a good deal.  I'm looking forward to seeing how the pictures turned out. Even if Henry wouldn't smile. 

Down on the Farm?

Last night, Nick and Henry and I spent a good hour and a half playing together on the floor. Nick has this nice collection of little plastic animals that are pretty safe for all ages. Nick has animals (and people) from five or six different sets, but the farm is the only home for all of these creatures right now. The other homes (zoo, airplane, rocket ship, etc.) are in the basement. We rotate them out periodically.

That is why the pilot is living on the farm with the zebra, the pig, and yes, the little green alien with three eyes. They all live in perfect harmony in the wicker basket, and lately Nick has been dumping them out every chance he can get.

Henry likes to chew on them a lot.

They have actually been playing side by side more lately, which is interesting to see. Nick seems to get that Henry plays too, and will bring him things to play with, like "Mommy, do you think Henry wants a lion or a giraffe?" 

The reasoning of a three-year-old is quite funny. I love the conversations that Nick and I have. Sometimes he makes sense. . . other times, not so much.

Anyhow, this was a pretty fun way to spend a few hours. 

A Smile From This Little Guy. . .

can make even the worst day better. How can you do anything but smile right back.  :)

I love basking in his baby cuteness.  Henry has such an interesting emerging personality.

I am very much looking forward to my five-day weekend, so that I can see more of Henry's smiles. Also, I can have more story time with Nick, and more snuggle time and play time with both boys. I especially love when Henry and Nicholas play together, and both of them smile and laugh.

Plenty to be thankful for, indeed.

"I am kind of dirty, and I decided I need to have a bath."

One of Nick's birthday presents this year was a set of finger paint soap for the bathtub. He has been asking us for a bath ever since. I told him it was almost time for bed, and here's what he said. "Mommy, I am kind of dirty, and I decided I need to have a bath."

Greg immediately chimed in with, "Nick, you took a shower this morning." Then he said to me, "You know why he's asking for a bath, right? It's those finger paints for the tub." He was right.

I was up for some fun times, though, and I told my boy he could have a bath anyway. "With paint?," he asked? "Yes, Nick," I said. "With paint." Nick and I started out with the red paint, and my bathroom looked like the shower scene from Psycho. Things looked better once I took out the blue paint.

Finger painting is very fun, and Nick is not afraid to get dirty.

We experimented with mixing colors and writing letters with the paint. I made an N and an H, and then Nick made an O. What a mess!

We decided painting time was over when soap got into Nick's eyes. The funny part is, once I got the soap out, he wanted to scrub the paint off the walls himself with the washcloth. I think he enjoyed that as much as the painting, for some reason.  :)

Nicholas is Three Today!

Three years ago today I was in the hospital after becoming a mother for the first time. Today I was in the Target, letting that same little boy pick out a toy. I left Henry at home with Grandma Toni and took Nick out for some one-on-one time with Mommy. I was feeling rather sentimental and wanted Nick all to myself. Since I'm a little bit nuts, I let our three-year-old chose what we'd have for dinner. He chose macaroni and cheese with cupcakes for dessert.

We had Panera's macaroni and cheese for dinner, and Nick picked his own cupcake from a large selection. He chose the one with the cookie on top, because my son is an intelligent little man. It's actually a gingerbread cupcake. A few weeks back there was a Groupon for cupcakes from Cuddle Cupcakes. I took full advantage of that offer. The cupcakes are amazing!

Nick's favorite thing to do with me? Hands down, making cookies tops his list. I wanted to bring some homemade cookies to daycare tomorrow so all of the kids there could celebrate with Nick. We made sugar cookies shaped like cars, and Nick (while in the Target) picked out his own sprinkles. He helped me roll out the dough, cut the cookies, and apply the sprinkles. However, about two seconds after this photo was taken, Nick ruined one of the sheets of cookies. He turned on the water, you see, and soaked them. "I was just washing my hands, Mommy!," he insisted. Anyhow, we still ended up with lots of decent, non-soaked car cookies. It's easy to tell which ones Nick made. 

My favorite part of the evening was just talking with Nick. He had some interesting things to say. Let's listen to the interview:

For some reason, he wouldn't say his age. Whenever I asked Nick his age, both in the morning and at night, all he would say is "I'm Nick." Now, this isn't because he doesn't understand age. We've been talking about turning three for some time, and Nick has been able to count to three (with meaning) for months now. I think he's being stubborn and refusing to say what we want him to say. A strong personality can be rough, but this kid won't give in to peer pressure easily. I'm very proud of him, regardless.

Perhaps that's a good attitude to have about age. If someone asks me, "How old are you, Melissa?," I might be better off if I simply answered, "I'm Melissa." My son seems to have better self-esteem than most, so this method is working for him. 

I hope Nick's third year is full of happiness, learning experiences, and plenty of playing. I never imagined three years ago that I could have such a complex and yet wonderful son.

Rocking Already?

Henry seems to be on a totally different schedule than his older brother, at least development-wise. I've especially noticed how strong Henry is--he could hold his head up very early on, and has been doing baby push-ups almost since birth. But this?

Yup. My Henry-doodle is getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. This movement is commonly done right before an infant starts crawling. I was hoping this movement was just an anomaly, but he's now been doing this for five days.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm very proud that my little boy is ahead of the curve in some ways. But we thought we had a few good months where we could still trust the Henry would stay where we put him. Nick didn't crawl until after he was 9 months old. Henry just turned five months old, and he's already rocking with quite a bit of strength and intent. I think he just wants to chase Nick. 

Henry doesn't even sit on his own yet, though he's working on that. Maybe I don't have anything to worry about, other than the excessive drooling and the baby snot. Either way, the baby rocking is certainly pretty cute.

Nick's Dance Moves

On Friday we had our new TV hooked up, and the Dish Network technician set us up with some great channels. One of the things I like best is all of the Sirius radio channels. I'm usually too lazy to hunt for cds, but I will turn on the radio for some jazz, classical, or rock any day of the week.

Nick loves to dance, and today he was inspired by some Latin beats. Below you can see him dancing with a penguin friend. You can also get a sneak peak at our new living room. I'm not quite ready to reveal all of the changes, but you can see the dresser that I bought instead of an entertainment center, along with Greg's Christmas present-a new hdtv set.

I think Nick is almost waltzing to this music. 

Sometimes when Nick dances he just spins in circles, but I asked him to move his feet and show Henry (who was sitting in my lap) how to dance. He showed me, but at one point, check out what he did to show Henry how to move his baby feet.

Perhaps I should teach Nick some different kinds of dances. The boy needs a lot of exercise.  :)

Five Months Already?

Yup. Mr. Henry turned five months old this week. Even Henry is surprised at how fast he is growing.

This week we had to buy size 3 diapers for Henry. That's in addition to the size 5 diapers we still have to buy for Nick. Henry sure is growing fast. He is not, however, sleeping well. That means, unfortunately, that Greg and I aren't sleeping well.

The last few nights have been especially rough. After teaching my class on Tuesday night and not getting home until 9 p.m., I then had parent-teacher conferences Wednesday and Thursday nights. Greg and I switch off getting up with Henry, but either way, we're both up when he is up.

On Wednesday night, Henry woke up when I was in the middle of my deepest kind of sleep. I only vaguely remember going over and picking him up. What I thought I did was set him next to me, snuggle him, and stick the bottle in his mouth. I then immediately passed out. I have quite the sleep debt lately.

Henry went to sleep relatively quickly, but we woke up in a huge puddle. I realized, at 6 a.m. when I woke up and Henry was still sleeping next to me, that I hadn't put the bottle in his mouth at all. Apparently, I stuck the bottle in Henry's armpit and went to sleep. The entire bottle leaked all over my pajamas, Henry's pajamas, and our sheets. I felt like an absolute moron.

I read this book recently called Brain Rules, by John Medina. He talks a lot about sleep debt, and how it can negatively impact your whole life. One thing that was mentioned was how your IQ can drop at least a point for every hour of sleep you've lost. I guess this IQ loss is cumulative until you get caught up on sleep. No wonder I feel like a moron. I'm not a huge proponent for the validity of IQ tests in general, but I've probably dropped at least 30 points in the last few months due to sleep loss. I suppose it's not surprising I fed my baby's armpit.

See? Henry is laughing at me. I love this little munchkin, but I do wish he would sleep. He would have a much smarter mommy.

Meeting a New Puppy

Last weekend the boys got to meet a new puppy.

My mom and stepdad recently lost their dog, Tigger. It was sad, but he will be fondly remembered. They adopted a new puppy a few weeks ago, and named him Rusty. He is a tiny puppy, but very friendly. Rusty was excited to meet the boys.

He liked licking Henry. I bet Henry tastes like baby formula or perhaps sweet potatoes.

Nick loved running with the new puppy. My big boy excels at running and jumping.

The puppy loved chasing Nick and this large bouncy ball all over the yard. Rusty and Nick were both excited.

I wonder how many calories I could burn if I could run around with that much energy?

Well, hello there.

I'm Henry. I like to scoot on the floor. I've been growing. Now, I can pick up toys and do baby push-ups of the advanced variety.

See how strong I am?

Did you know that I can pull off my own socks? I also like to chew on plastic kitchen implements. They are fun.

Every single day I learn how to manipulate, move, and pick up new things. I make noises sometimes, too. I grunt a lot.

I still like hugs from my mommy, though. Hugs are always good.

Wordless Wednesday