Henry at five moths

So, Henry can do all kinds of amazing stuff now.  

He can sit!

For a while.  I wouldn't set him down on a hard surface and not supervise, but as I was taking these photos, I was amazed at how he kept re-balancing himself when he wobbled.

He can hold toys and usually find his mouth!

But if he drops them he gets so mad because he cannot always find them again.  And he often sticks whatever he's holding into his eye in an attempt to get it to his mouth.

Alas, he still cannot roll from his tummy to his back.

 But he can tolerate being on his tummy longer.  Right after I took these pictures, Steve looked over and noticed that he was wiggling enough in pursuit of a toy that it looked like the beginning of a commando crawl.  Woah.

 He can melt my heart with that smile, not to mention his velvety head and soft cheeks.

We say Henry is generally happy, except when he's not.  And then he's really not.  He has perfected a shriek that will stop you in your tracks.  I *think* he does it mostly when he's tired, but we are still figuring that out.  

We have been trying solid foods for a while and he's getting the hang of it.  He makes it clear that he wants more.  I think, maybe, though I probably ought not say it, that he is spitting up less.  And despite some initial concern, his new pediatrician is satisfied with his weight.  He's long and lean - 88th percentile for height last week and just 25th percentile for weight.

He has been giving me some grief at night... he caught a cold last week and mostly handled it well, but it did disrupt his sleep, and then he started into a pattern of waking up throughout the night.  Finally, Steve pointed out that I needed to just try not to feed him overnight but soothe him other ways, and that seems to be getting him back on track.  However, the last few days he has awoken in the wee hours - too late for me to get back to sleep and if Grace wakes then, she won't go back to sleep either.  It's not good.

He is getting more interested in toys and in putting everything everything everything in his mouth.  He really enjoys baths and kicks like crazy, splashing and soaking me, and it's hilarious.  He has a great giggle.  We don't hear it too often, but it is the cutest.  Grace, naturally, makes him laugh the most.

Henry started daycare yesterday.  It was hard for me to leave him, but he did fine.  He naps in a crib there so I hope it will help with getting him to nap in the crib at home as well.  As he gets older, I think he will have increasingly more fun with the other babies.  

He's a happy, calm little guy.  He is mesmerized by his sister.  He is in such a sweet stage of babyhood.    I love how his whole body smiles when he sees us.  He kicks his legs and waves his arms and his face lights up.  

This morning he fell asleep in my arms, and I really needed to get going to do some errands while Grace was at school.  I kept telling myself one more page in my book and I would move him, but I couldn't bring myself to wake him.  Holding a sleeping baby is one of life's simplest, greatest joys.  

Oh, Henry Cakes, we all love you so much.

The essence of ambivalence...

Remember how much I used to complain about the fog in San Francisco?  Well, this gorgeous video made me homesick... 

Thank you, Uncle Hilary, for sharing it.   

Defining "home" in the context of homesickness is another post entirely.

New school

Grace started her new school last week.  She didn't cry but was very solemn when I left her.  She has been full of stories about her days so far, but also leaps into my arms when I pick her up.  We are confident she will be okay as she settles in, but it's a big change and a totally unfamiliar place.  When I think of how I feel starting a new job or school, I remember how exhausting and draining it is to try to learn a new environment, new people and norms.  Given all that, I'm really impressed at how brave she has been.

This is the best we could do for pictures because she refused to pose.  

Here's to Pre-K!  Can't wait to see what the year will bring.

CT/NY

The good thing about Grace's school interrupting our vacation was that we were able to fit in a trip to see my aunt and uncle in Connecticut.  I had feared we wouldn't get down to visit them until winter, but  with Grace's early dismissal on Friday and Steve being off work, we jumped in the car (again).

After one of those ridiculous drives that takes way longer than it should and suddenly it's 8PM not 5PM, we got to their house (after visiting a number of their neighbors' homes searching for the right driveway - good thing we have a hybrid so no one heard us) in time to keep the kids up way past bedtime and catch up with Aunt Mary and Uncle Matthew (or GUM - Great Uncle Matthew; perhaps should be GAM and GUM?).

After an excellent breakfast of pancakes and omelets (you cannot visit them without eating extremely well) Saturday morning we headed into Manhattan.  We spent most of the day on the Upper East Side, starting at the Met.  I love that place... Grace was a little underwhelmed by it all, but Steve and I could wander there for hours.  

After our short museum visit, we picked up some great tacos on Lexington (the yelp review described the place as hipster chipotle, which was so accurate; worked for us, though, because we wanted yummy and fast).  We then headed over to Central Park to investigate playgrounds, the boat pond, Bethesda Fountain and the carousel.  The weather was perfect and the park filled with tourists, locals, brides and grooms having wedding pictures taken, street artists and musicians.  I could people watch in New York for hours.  We wrapped up the day with a quick stop at FAO Schwarz, then picked up cupcakes at one of the Magnolia locations (I know - cupcakes are over, and it's kind weird not to go to the original Magnolia, but so it goes; and they still tasted good).  We then walked the 27 blocks back to the car just in time to hit the traffic from the Yankees/Red Sox game.  I love seeing the fancy (and so many chain) shops give way to the neighborhood businesses that serve all the people who live there as you head north.  Every time we visit Manhattan Steve and I debate whether we would want to live there... would be a blast, I'm sure.  

Saturday night, Mary and Matthew had grilled an fabulous feast, which we ate poolside.  I love summer evenings outside.  I missed them so much in SF and even in Boston, since our apartment doesn't have outdoor space, it's still a treat to just relax outside.  After dinner, we went to a nearby ice cream shop because Frank, the dog, wanted his pup-cup.  Ok, and the rest of us wanted ice cream, too.  I will have to post the video of Frank eating his ice cream cone later along with the rest of the pictures from the weekend, including one of Grace with an ice cream cone as large as her head (I never have the cord to pull pictures from my phone when I need it).

We spent Sunday playing with Frank (Henry was quite smitten, and I think wanted to put Frank in his mouth), playing at the town park, swimming and relaxing.

What a wonderful end-of-summer-hurrah.  Giant thank you to Aunt Mary and Uncle Matthew!  

Although it's supposed to be 90 on Wednesday, you can feel the change of seasons in the air.  I love fall, but dread the winter to follow so I have mixed feelings.  For now, I will think about apple picking, the start of Grace's soccer league, and the back-to-school feeling of ending maternity leave next week.  

Great Lakes, Great Times, Great Friends

Steve had last week off so we did what anyone would do with a little vacation time... took a 17 hour road trip with two young children!

Actually, we had wanted to go to Ann Arbor to see Megan, Lars and the kiddos basically since we knew we were moving to Boston. We planned a lovely trip, stopping in western New York on the way there, hoping to stop in Cleveland to see residency friends, and returning via Toronto and Niagara Falls.  Then we found out that Grace's school started a week earlier this year and we had to cut the trip short.  So, we dead-headed to Ann Arbor last Saturday, and took two days returning, getting home just in time for Grace to bathe and have a good night's rest before school started.  We were pretty bummed, but still had a great time!  And it meant we got vacation part two...

Here are snaps of a few of our adventures.  There are pictures of the babies, but not handy... if I wait till they are I won't get this posted.  So, look forward to another round!

Lars and Steve took Bjorn and Grace canoeing on Sunday morning.  Megan and I walked with the babies over to a cute coffee shop in a cute part of town and had iced coffee and adult conversation while Henry and Elsa slept.  It was perhaps the quietest hour of the weekend and such a treat.  Meanwhile, back at the river...

After pizza in the backyard, they pulled out all the stops to make Grace think houses with yards are the best thing ever:  bouncy house, water balloons, water canons, a hammock, sidewalk chalk, hockey sticks. At first, she hid the filled-water balloons like Easter eggs.

 

We headed downtown for ice cream - the streets were filled with U of M students gearing up to start classes and there was music in the streets.  Ann Arbor reminds me so much of Bellingham.  We strolled home, admired the charming houses, and Grace and Bjorn ran nearly the entire way in an exceptionally competitive game of Red Light/Green Light (I didn't know it was a competitive game until seeing two four year olds play).   What is better than ice cream on a midwestern summer evening?

In the mornings, we lingered over coffee, nursing babies while Grace and Bjorn (and Lars) ran laps around the living room/kitchen/dining room circuit.  After a stupendous lunch at Zingermans on Monday, we spent the afternoon at the botanical gardens.  There was a lovely children's garden, and we all had fun exploring.

These two just kill me.

You should see the other pictures in this series as we tried to get one with everyone's eyes open, everyone right side up, etc.

Blurry, but Steve deserves credit for hauling/pushing three of the four kids to to DQ for blizzards... a fitting end of summer rite.

Not pictured are the good conversations with old friends, the giant messes the kids made - including a bouncy house out of couch cushions, lounging in the backyard, celebrating Lars' birthday (a bit early), and drinking gin and tonic.  When we got home, Grace said "I'm glad to be home, but I miss where we were.  I really loved it there."  I couldn't have put it better myself.

To break up the drive home, we stopped at Niagara Falls overnight (we had hoped for a reprise of the 2007 Niagara Falls glow in the dark mini-golf tournament with Megan and Lars, but it didn't work out for the me to join us).  That place is crazy - kind of Pigeon Forge meets Las Vegas meets natural wonder plus a dash of Canadian.  The falls are amazing, and I tried to imagine what it would be like if they had been developed as a national park rather than a tourist trap.  Nevertheless, we had fun, and it was a good break from the road.

         

 

We hit the road early Wednesday morning.  All in all, the kids did great on the drive.  Henry had a few rough patches on the way to Ann Arbor, but the return trip was much smoother.  I had to join a conference call for work while we were driving and Henry flipped in the middle of it so we stopped for lunch.  Of course, the only service plaza (so strange to a westerner how the toll roads here have service plazas every 50ish miles that have just one dining option - efficient, but strange; hilarious because Grace kept thinking we were at the same one and being confused when the chairs were different or something) had a McDonalds.  So, I was on the phone and trying to eat and feed Henry at the same time.  The place was nearly empty so Steve took Henry to change his diaper on a nearby table (I know, I know), simultaneously Grace dropped her fries and sat down on the floor to pick them up but I looked over and she was just sitting there eating them... it's nothing but class when we travel!