Four Months Old!

Henry is four months old, and he tried baby oatmeal this afternoon for the first time.  He loved it.

Here are Henry's updated statistics from the doctor today:

Height: 24 1/4 inches (25th percentile)
Weight: 14 pounds, 11 ounces (45th percentile)
Head Circumference: 41 cm. (19th percentile)

The doctor is pleased with his growth, and suggested that we start him on cereal right away. She said not to wait, even though he's not feeling too well, because the cereal might cheer him up. It did!

Henry opened his mouth up just like a little bird.

Everyone in our home is now sick. Nick, while over the croup, still has a very bad lingering cold. Greg has a sinus infection and a bad cough. Henry has an upper respiratory infection that the doctor says isn't the croup. . . yet. We will wait to see if it turns into a barking cough.

Henry's regular well visit was today, but it turned into a sick visit because Henry started running a fever yesterday afternoon, and has had low grade fevers ever since. Last night he was up to 101.5, and the poor guy just wants to be held. He's also coughing and has a bad runny nose. I stayed home with the boys today because Henry's fever was too high to go to daycare.

I am sick, too, but mommies don't get time to take care of themselves. I did pop over to my G.P. to get checked out, and I have bronchitis and the beginnings of a sinus infection. They take this stuff seriously with me because I have asthma and a history of allergies and chronic bronchitis, so I'm on about seven prescription and non-prescription medications for my various illnesses. I'm taking a nebulizer treatment as I type this, in fact.

But even as I wheeze, I am smiling, because check out this video.

I absolutely love seeing my two boys together like this. 

I hope spring comes back soon. . .

because Nick really wants to go back to the park. These pictures are from warmer days, and, sadly, I couldn't take any "having fun at the park" pictures this weekend.  :(  Instead of playing at the park, like we did last week, we spent the weekend indoors. Poor Nick was sad. It even snowed on Saturday, and the temperatures were freezing! What a way to start spring.

My spring break starts after this week, and I can't wait. I hope this last blast of winter weather runs itself out this week, because I'm hoping to get a lot of work done outside. I'm also planning on taking Nick to the park everyday, because otherwise he is a bear. Today he was crabbier than I've seen him in a long time, and I think that's because he didn't get to run around outside.

Running to nowhere, fast. . .

I love three-day weekends. Nick does, too, as evidenced by the joy in his face from simply roaming the house with a bright orange spoon. The cats, however, were not smiling after Nick decided to "tap" them with his spoon. He's been on the rampage today, whether it's throwing his lunch at us or refusing to nap, or emptying the clean laundry all over the kitchen floor. Cute but destructive.

Pardon the poor picture quality. I got a new cellphone this weekend, since my old one would only hold a charge for about 30 minutes. I chose a Motorola Crush, and it's my first phone that doesn't have a real keypad. It's all touchscreen. It even has this feature when where you turn it horizontally, it turns into a qwerty keypad. Not that I text all that much.

This phone is very fancy, but I'll have to get used to talking on it. My face keeps pushing random buttons on the touchscreen while I'm talking to someone. But it does have a camera, albeit a 2.0 megapixel one with no image stabilization. I do like the blurriness, though. It's kind of realistic, since that's how Nick is in real life. He moves so fast everything is blurry. :)

 Here's Nick hugging our elliptical trainer, which we're getting a lot of use out of so far in 2010. I'm using it every other day for at least 30 minutes, on level 10 in the fat burning mode. I keep my heart rate around 130 or above, and I think this machine was definitely worth the money. It cost about as much as 18 months of our YMCA membership, and we've already used it WAY more than we ever went to the Y. On the off days, I do a pilates bodyband workout. So far, so good, although I still have not lost one single pound.

Greg uses the elliptical nearly every day now, while Nick is in his high chair having breakfast. It's kind of interesting the way Nicholas looks at his daddy while he's on the elliptical. I guess it must seem weird, that Daddy is running to nowhere, fast.

One of my hobbies is reading about evolutionary history and human prehistory; humans used to spend all of their time searching for food and running from predators. Now, our lives are so stable that we pay tons of money for machines that help us run to nowhere. Such is modern life, I suppose. Not that I'd want to be running from a cougar or some such. I would be prey in 5 seconds flat. But I don't do too badly running to nowhere while watching TV shows I missed during the week. Lately I've been watching "Glee," "Modern Family," and "Mercy." I bribe myself into exercising with these shows. It's like a guilty pleasure coupled with a mandatory exercise routine.