11 months and growing

holy smokes, you guys! this month! there is so much happening in this world, our country, and our family lately. to those topics i wish i had a magical salve, or at least larger arms to wrap the whole of humanity in the warmest of hugs. we're sending up prayers over here and doing our best to spread warmth and comfort. from our house to yours, we're sending you love.

it's also been a pretty big month for amelia, too. somehow, we're almost an entire year in with this one, and i can't begin to tell you all of the feelings i've got bubbling as i gear up to plan her first birthday party. this month, mia started crawling. as happens most months, the minute i hit "publish" on another of her monthly updates, she whips around the corner with some new magic trick she's been keeping in her sleeve. this month it was a shiny new front tooth, speed-crawling, stair and furniture climbing, and my personal not-favorite - spitting. mia loves to fill her tummy full, but once she's done you'll know it from the layer of colored spit she's showered you with between bites. spaghetti night is a particular favorite for mia, and we all walk away covered in a slick, orange dusting of spit by the end of it. her face is covered in beet juice, below, which is just as fun.

she bobs around the house on hands and knees, chasing one or both parents. and although she is fascinated with henry, she mostly lets him carry on without interference. if she catches him in his high chair, though, the story changes on a dime and she's below him immediately, like a puppy on the hunt for discarded scraps. except mia's interested only in unharnessed climbing up his high chair to pick at h's shorts or sneak one of the toys he's squirreled away beside him. sometimes, henry thinks mia's tiny fingers on his toes as she makes the climb up his high chair is hilarious and sometimes he snatches his foot away in agony. it's a gamble to engage with a hungry henry, and mia's more than willing to take the bet.

the other night, in a battle to keep mia from stark danger on our wooden staircase, we did a mini-tutorial on a safe decline from the top floor. henry was super excited to show mia how to "go down on your tummy, mia!" wrapped, as he usually is, in two or more blankets, no shirt, and soccer shorts, he slid down the stairs one by one while coaching mia on her form. "no, mia! on your tummy!" it was actually pretty endearing, and i wish i had it on video to brag/share with the world.

somehow, next month we will have a one year old in our home. i'll try hard not to focus on that reality until it comes, and in the mean time try desperately to remember the way mia growls to show us what a bear says, "aaahr", and that she loves open mouth kisses with her tongue mostly out. joey loves the way she'll happily dole out hugs on demand, although her generosity is waning just a bit as our requests for more and more hugs heat up.

she's still the sweetest around and we are so blessed that she's ours. happy 11 months, mia girl.

amelia and henry through the months.
amelia at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months, 7 months, 8 months, 9 months, 10 months.
henry at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months, 7 months, 8 months, 9 months, 10 months, 11 months, 12 months, and 13 months.

predictable four month check-in

mia is four months old, you guys. yet, i know it was just last week that i poked in here to brag about all of her three month tricks. there's got to be a way to bottle the baby months, doesn't there? i'd pay some real good money to be able to swim in these precious times for the rest of my life. i'd even be willing to hang on to the mid-night feedings if it meant i could smooch those million dollar cheeks for the rest of my days. gosh darn it, mommyhood is a heartbreaker.

to celebrate amelia's fourth month on earth, we met her new doctor and impressed him with her no-doubt record breaking verbal skills and physical abilities. amelia's sweet demeanor and impressive neck strength had the new doctor eating out of her tightly clenched fists, which must have made the three shots that followed seem all the more cruel. she handled the pain with a brave face and a few marble-sized tears, and then promptly fell asleep for what seemed like 24 hours. when she woke up this morning, she remembered the agony she'd dealt with the day before and hasn't let us forget about it since. in the hours she's been awake she's cried more than i've ever known to her to cry since birth, so you know we hurt her feelings in a big way, to say nothing of the sad sores she's carrying around under those tweety bird bandaids. poor girl.

a few days ago, i walked in to find amelia several inches from the perch i swore i'd set her in, and she'd pivoted about 45 degrees. the following day, she rolled from her back to her tummy. you don't need to tell me these little moments are important only to her overly proud parents. you also don't need to tell me she's incredible. because i know.

i mentioned last month in passing that our little family moved from virginia recently; but as it played out the move was pretty monumental for us, and really sort of a dream come true. before joey and i got married, we lived together in a cute little house in st. paul, and i think since then i've always imagined raising our family back there some day. in a mix of fate, good luck, and probably a lot of stubborn determination - here we are. it's insane to drive around these cozy little streets in the same car we used to cruise in, just the two of us, but now with two car seats in back and babes to fill them. strange the way life shakes out sometimes, isn't it? and even as i type this, i can't help but feel so grateful for the time we had in virginia - all the growth, all the challenges - and the the enormous blessing that we somehow found ourselves back here.

some day, i'll post a few pictures of our house now that we've settled in a little and finally feel like it's ours. we moved in to what we thought was a completely move-in-ready gem, but it turns out historic homes - for all their charm and beauty - come with fun little projects that aren't at all 'fun' and  are even less 'little'. we've quite literally been working on something in the house since we moved in. there may have even been one night where joey was haunting around at 2:00am trying to get the heat to come on in negative outside temperatures. i told you, not at all fun. but i have to hand it to joey for all of his hard work and handy-man skills. we've only ever rented together, with actually really responsive land-lords willing to fix just about anything in less than 24 hours, so it's been fun for me to see the hidden skills joey's been able to pull out as a home-owner almost every day around here. i think my parents would be thrilled to know that i married someone so able :) i, of course, married him for his good looks and wit, so the extra skills are just a welcomed bonus.

thanks for reading this extra long novel. check back next month for a fifth installment of amelia's bio, and maybe a few pictures of our home - if you're good.

xoxo


amelia at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months.
henry at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months, 7 months, 8 months, 9 months, 10 months, 11 months, 12 months, and 13 months.

happy post-labor day

joey is out of town this week, which is a bitter/sweet mix of how.the.hell.am.i.going.to.do.this and i.totally.can.do.this. the reality is, i can. we will. but i seriously just googled "how to be happy in a face-paced life", because it will always be my struggle. and also, this happened almost a year ago, when all of this was just a speckle of a nightmare, left over from the last time. and so the emotions are running hot right now.

here, this might help.

or this one.

yep, that kind of helped.

he's always got a lot of work to do.

we went to this place on monday to celebrate the day of no-labor. we had the best time while we were there. it sort of felt like life was completely perfect just right where we were, in the way things fall into place so exquisitely sometimes, completely non-replicable and organic; when the moods are just right. the weather was hot, but just breezy enough to cut the sweat by a fourth or two. we covered all the land - spent a good amount of time in the chicken coop, paid close attention to the goats in lieu of the missing sheep (henry's current favorite), and rolled in any and all available dirt. 

in the end, we walked away with a red smattering of dust covering every square inch of our bare summer skin, caked on just so with salty sweat and hard earned grit. we left just as the mad dash to the roosteraunt carried the crowd in the opposite direction of the exit. within ten minutes into our drive home, henry was asleep. hat down, shielding his smudged face from the demanding summer sun.

when i think back on all of the weekends we've spent huddled up as a family of three, this memory is climbing the charts as one of my favorite. and really, who even knows why? except maybe it was the promise of fall lingering in the shadows and whispering at us in the breeze. or that we were gooshy about apple cider and newly stocked pumpkin butter and jams, henry's halloween costume, and joey's trip home for this on sunday. and probably, it doesn't matter. i'm just grateful we grabbed it while it was there.

i hope your short week is off to a great start!

we're just fine

let's start out nice and slow, because i've got a toddler boy asleep in a crib 15 steps to my left and there's very little in the world that will pull me to my feet right now. this is it for me, nice. and. slow.

life is streaming through my fingers - tiny, microscopic crystals, sparkling and smooth. life is rushing on huge gusts of wind that come out of nowhere and drag me yards away before i have a chance to brush the unkempt hair from my face. life is sweet, glorious kisses from my two most beloved gentlemen, one hobbles over on unsteady knees, the other is holding his hand. life is this dream of mine that looks enormous, minuscule, terrifying, and extraordinary all at the same time. life is wonder, evolution, love. life - life is fast.

we get home in the evenings, henry and me, holding tightly to one another with our arms full of things. henry's neon green bag and blanket. mommy's purse, keys, and phone. sometimes we hardly make it through the door. most of the time our entrance is henry's body, folded in half so that his dangling feet hang just below his outstretched finger-tips, mother holding on for dear life. all the things fall, henry's head brushes the hard-wood floor. it was a close one, but we made it. we're just fine.

henry is upright, dashing towards the opened closet where we store coats, shoes, winter hats, toilet paper (too high for henry to reach). the shoes are great fun at 16 months old - henry can reach the shoes.

"oosch?"
"oosch?!"
"mama?"

he wants me to put on his shoes. the shoes he has in his hand are 10 sizes too large for his thick, baby feet. he loves shoes. he has 15 shoes outside of the closet now (dirty shoes. shoes i would have never let him touch in my other life.), piled on top of his legs. none of them have a match. it doesn't matter. "oosch!"

the shoes are cleaned up, neatly piled high on top of each other again in the closet. none of them have a match. it doesn't matter.

i have one minute to unpack henry's neon green bag, full of dirty clothes from daycare and a white, copied report that tells us what henry did all day. it's identical almost every day. i glance at it to be sure we're not out of any supplies - diapers? wipes? sunscreen? we're not. i have thirty seconds left to throw the dirty clothes into the washing machine before henry's hands skim the toilet seat, before he's found the cupboard he's not allowed to open, before he's got a hand/nose full of potting soil. damn, the potting soil. it's all over him. his clothes, his hair, the floor. damn the pretty plants - the bright, splashes of color i have in my home that remind me i am a woman, a person, i can keep a plant alive. henry's eating its soil.

his clothes are off, he's in the sink. his hands are spreading black dirt onto the formerly cream colored wall above the sink. the sink is now full of all the dishes left to dry on the counter beside the sink. they're dirty again. i throw them into the dishwasher. it's okay, we're doing it. we're just fine.

he's out of the sink, spread out on the kitchen floor, sobbing. he didn't want to get out of the sink. clear, thick snot is flowing from his nose, his tears are wetting the tips of his freshly cut hair. his cheeks are red, further highlighting their round fullness. he's got the most doughy cheeks. he's mine. he's a miracle. he's loud.

three things sit snug in my arsenal, ready for launch: 1.) tomatoes, 2.) cheese, 3.) bath-time. options 1 and 2 are most often used interchangeably and/or paired to steady a mad, red henry. in this moment, i choose to pair 1 and 2. to lure him into his high chair is an art i want you to know has taken months to craft. it's still not perfect. henry will remain on the tear-stained kitchen floor while i sing-talk calmly about how nice it would be to have a snack with mommy. tomatoes. cheese. all lovely things to ease the pain of evacuating the sink before henry was ready. i will cut up the tomatoes and cheese. i will have a bite. oooh, delicious! the first offer to henry is calculated, precise. not too pushy. nice and easy. denied. he wants nothing of it. that's okay, it's not over yet. i keep eating. i have an affinity to cheese and tomatoes myself, i think that's where he gets it. i place two slices of bursting, baby red tomatoes on his high chair tray and hand him a bite of cheese. he takes it. internally, streamers are falling from the rafters. he's 40 seconds from sitting calmly in his chair like a gentleman. he's in my arms, his face is glistening with every trace of transparent liquid his body has just expelled. it doesn't matter. we're just fine.

we spend the next 13.5 minutes in the kitchen together, chatting over the goings on with old mcdonald and his farm, the various noises mr. mcdonald's farm animals tend to make, the wheels on the bus - we have lots of hand motions for this one. i'm beaming with pride. this kid, he's a blessed genius. he's mine. we're just fine.

the door slams hard, rattling the door knocker. joey always lets the door slam. it's okay. we're just fine.

henry's face shoots to the location of the sound. the door?! dad!

"hi!"
silence.
"da!"
silence.
"dada!"
silence. excruciatingly l.o.u.d silence.

joey and henry have this game together, it involves a lot of creeping, sneaking, tickling, and high, screechy giggles. henry is reaching far from his perch in his high chair, neck craned, fingers taut. silent. beaming. he's like a enormously overflowing water balloon, every piece of him is stretched. the anticipation is starting to seep out of his finger-tips.

"da!"
"hi henry!"

such glee. such perfection. henry's face is dripping with tomato juice. his hands are speckled with cheese, the floor around his high chair is littered with clumps of tomatoey cheese. he is happy, eating, and talking loudly about daycare? shoes? the monkeys that are always falling off the bed? who can be sure? joey and i watch in wonder, busily making a supper we will both stand to eat. this is life. this is us. they are mine. we're just fine.

it can't be this good. but it is.

have you ever listened to the sound of your voice after it was recorded in video or, maybe worse, as your phone's voicemail playback? if it sounds anything like mine, and it surely can not possibly come close!, it's this horrific screeching sound that turns any semi-intelligable substance of a thought into nails on chalkboard garbage (my husband would argue this is where my true confidence is going to start to shine brightly). the sound i hear in my head every time i write a new blog post and read it back as i skim it for errors (upon errors, upon errors that i sometimes find and fix weeks later because it drives me bananas) is that sound. that same piercing voice going on, and on, and on. and that's not what this was supposed to be about. this was a henry thing. this was a 'my family and me thing'. because it's this incredible period in my life where i wake up every morning and thank the good lord for the miracle that is my life, and darn it i want to remember this time. that's what this space is.

do you know that i am literally living, every single day, the very fantasy that i created in my head and as i played as a little girl? and what's even more astounding is that it's even better than that little pig-tailed girl had imagined. because my son, he's got this really great personality that levels me daily. and my husband is so good. do i need to stress that more? you know how people casually throw out the word "good" to describe the things that aren't bad, giving them the minimal amount of credit, because, well, it wasn't bad? and unfortunately, somewhere along the line we turned the word "good" into "almost bad". but look it up. we've morphed the word from its true meaning. but now when i tell you that my husband is this word, you know that he's everything. he's t.h.e. husband in the books, you guys. he's really, really good.

and as my life has turned into this crazy version of itself, where all my dreams came true, i still find myself wanting, hoping for more. and that's just nuts! absolutely crazy. and because of that burn in me that's constantly convincing me i "need" more and urging me to seek out the other side of the fence (because it's greeeeeeeen, you guys!), i forget all that i have right here. right here!



it's these guys. i have these guys. they're mine. by law. by blood. and they're in love with me back. that's the breathtaking piece, that's where all of this really gets good!

i hope you're good too. i hope you're staying warm in this mid-january cold, because sometimes, even next to the fire it's impossible to stay warm, you know what i mean? don't lose your warmth. i'm really working on that these days :)

adios, 2014

2014 was one of those sneaky kinds of years that comes on highly anticipated and takes off in the night without so much as a lipstick smear on the mirror. i craved 2014 like a sleep deprived new mommy craves an ambien and a night nanny - hard! henry was tiny, healthy, and perfect, but soooo demanding of my time between the hours of 24/7 that i really thought i was losing every stitch of remaining sanity i'd held on to through his pregnancy. joey and i saw eye to eye approximately 2ish days of the week, and the other 5 (or was it 10?) were spent battling over important things like 'your coat is on the couch, again!', 'the pillow doesn't go there!', 'you'll never understand, your boobs aren't taking over y.o.u.r. life!'.

2013 saw shades of me that were straight hideous and confusing, and i looked into 2014 with love-sick, rosy goggles. and she shined. she really did. even when we were in it, neck deep in blown-out diapers and daycare drop off. it never got boring. 2014 was full of the kind of glamour and riveting excitement reserved for the tired and weary. our curtain call every morning was henry's squirmy bottom in the monitor as he vocalized his ripe entrance, and every night the lights dimmed with henry's stage right exit, his companions (bottle and lucky parent) wrapped snug around his pinky finger.

we said goodbye to 2014 at 11:15 (although huck blew a precious kiss to the old year at 6:27 on the nose, because he's nothing if not ornery on less than 12 hours of beauty sleep), and we were ready. because every new day is a better one, and every new year promises so much to look forward to. blindly optimistic? rarely. naive? always! we'll take it 2015, throw us a good one.

when in doubt, share your christmas tree photos

you know, if i've said it once i've said it enough time to elicit a trillion eye rolls - there just ain't enough time in a day. or maybe it's not time that's keeping me from blogging lately but good home-cooked imagination, motivation, exhilaration (that last gem was kind of a stretch, but only kind of). but seriously, it takes all of those things to hash out even mildly comprehensible rants. and i'm not complaining, because nobody asked for this little sliver of heaven-in-a-blog - believe me, i know! - i'm just lightly peppering the screen with excuses to take up space before the video (taken on a dark and grainy cell phone video camera - sorry)...

and pictures...

we spent the holidays back home, in south dakota, like we always do. but before we left, we had allison stop over to take a few pictures of our little family in our little arlington apartment. it's important to us that we remember these moments that are slipping by so quickly, and us in our home seemed like the perfect way to encapsulate our family this christmas season.

one more of our little gal, taken by me (the non-professional), because you've been good.

my angels in front of my mom's christmas tree the night before christmas eve. since we were kids, my brothers and i have always woken before the sun on christmas eve to celebrate christmas with my mom. there've been many version of this tradition, but without fail santa has always come by 4:45am christmas eve, my mom, my brothers and i are always there with bells on (some of us trying harder than others to hide our glee), and every year we walk away dizzy with happiness and completely in awe of the amount of generosity that spills from our family's hearts. this year, like all the years did before, takes the cake as my favorite.

because of these guys :) all of them woke up before the sun rose, some tried extra hard to hide their glee, and every single one of them left the adults completely happy and a lot dizzy. because 4 kids, all 4 and under, throwing around colored wrapping paper as they paw towards their next gift, or desperately gouge at their last gift to dislodge it from its packaging, are straight chaos and are louder than 17 freight trains crashing through the living room window. no exaggeration, i promise.

henry made a haul (boy loves his batteries).

we had such an amazing time with joey's family on christmas eve night. seriously, soooo blessed to have the family that we have. i know i say it a ton, but it can not be said enough!

and we rounded out the trip at the farmers market on friday night with my dad. my dad and brother made my niece and nephews this amazing play food stand, complete with cash register (not pictured), awning, and baskets of any bread, fruit, or melon you could crave. henry craved them all, and took big gaping bites out of eachandevery piece of not-juicy-at-all produce. sorry guys, those fruits just looked so delicious! he stopped mid-chomp after he realized (again) not a lick of that styrofoam was tasty. 

we got home late on sunday night, after a long day of not flying, then flying, then bribing a squirmy/unhappy child with chocolate on the drive from the airport, etc., etc. etc. we left sioux falls a few hours later than we'd planned, but luckily we weren't stuck at the airport the whole time we were delayed because our airline called 10 minutes before our alarm was going to chime its petulant ring to tell us to stay in bed an extra 3 hours and rest. so we did. 

but flying out of a midwest airport in december means mandatory delays for de-icing, fiddling around, etc., etc., etc., and we were still about an hour late flying out, even after our first delay. aaaaand, because of the added delay after the delay we missed our connector in dallas and spent a rousing few hours enjoying texas for all that it is. rousing.

but we made it. through the silent prayers and joey's thrown out back (luggage can be a beast if you let it) and constant flight anxiety exacerbated by additional turbulence and a blessed extra seat nestled right between the two seats we paid for on the flight home. we made it. and like we always do when we find ourselves in particularly harried situations, with a tired and not pleasant henry, we promised each other we would 1. never fly again*, 2. never have another baby**, and 3. seriously, never fly again. 

i hope you had a wonderful christmas full of family and laughter, good food, and big, genuine hugs from people you see too little and love so much. tomorrow is new years eve, and i get to stay home and catch up on my tea drinking, bath taking, and lazy making. i plan to get my hair cut, a luxury i never knew would sound so sweet. happy new year!

* we lie to ourselves about never flying again everysingletime we fly. we both hate it, for completely different reasons, and we always end up doing it again and again and again. 

** scared ya, didn't i grandmas. god willing i will have 6 more babies, but no - i'm not pregnant, for all inquiring brother-in-laws ;)

keep holdin' on

you know what just jives me up? these two. every. stinking. time. i just can't get enough of those faces. those wacky, increasingly identical smiles! there are things in my life that i'll always be grateful for, but hanging out with these two takes the cake. 

joey is out of town this week. he's enjoying mid-70 temperatures, phenomenal, towering views of guadalajara, and lots of down-time between meetings - he spent the afternoon sipping on mexican beers with his co-workers while i tackled all that it means to be a working mama with a blown-out tire this beautiful monday (darn you, sharp curbs on memorial bridge this morning!). but the thing about that seemingly not-glorious picture is that it sort of was glorious, in that messy, this is real-life sort of way.

and that's all i wanted to say. just that this life is really great. so i'm encapsulating this peaceful bliss that settled over me tonight when i sat down to cyber-monday shop with joey in the glow of our christmas tree and my computer screen :) this is contentment. this is hope. this is what we hang our hats on. happy holidays!

as it is

we spend a lot of time cleaning at our house, because everything is made to eventually land in the destructive hands of our (almost) one year old. we've got a lot of ripped pages, stained couch cushions, and barely-together shelving units. most of our spare time is spent chasing after huck as he races towards the nearest cable box to rip it from its television set. it's life with a one year old, and it's sweet. bitter sweet in its purest form.

a few weekends ago, we drove to gaithersburg, md in search of pumpkins at their annual oktoberfest. but although the place was covered in scads of pumpkins, not a one was for sale. so we trucked along, enjoying sausages and pretzels the size of our heads. somewhere along our stroll henry lost a shoe, and then we decided it was time for his first professional hair cut. so when we got back to the car, we had a half inch less hair, approximately one missing shoe, and no pumpkins. those kinds of things are just the way our weekends crumble around here, and if it's not a missing shoe it's a broken garbage disposal, which is what our sunday morning is shaking out to look like this time around.

i hope your weekend's been full of sunshine the way ours has. last night, joey and i entrusted the sleeping life our our hucka to a stranger named janesse who we met off care.com, and stole away for a fancy georgetown dinner. we walked the busy sidewalks without a stroller or a henry in our arms and relished in the company of just the one we married, which was a refreshing change of events and certainly worth every college savings account we depleated along the way (childcare is e.x.p.e.n.s.i.v.e!)

happy halloween week!

on living in the movies

some day soon, life will slow down again…
until then, there is him. and he's really great :) and i make a promise to myself every single day that our crazy rush-rush life will not translate into henry feeling like i don't have time for him or that the things he's exploring don't have importance. so we pay close attention to the ever so subtle differences in the carpet patterns as we play, and we practice over and over how to move from one side of the room to the other - but not by way of crawling! no, crawling is propostrous! and then it's how to reach far for a toy in the bath tub without flopping over - cause that's scary! that water! and we cuddle all sunday morning long while we let daddy sleep in. and we giggle, and tell secrets. for hours. because these weekends, these precious times with our little family, are so fleeting. and they're put on hold for month-long weeks that seem to move as slowly as dc rush hour traffic - sooooo slowly! yet, somehow, it all blurs together until henry is 10 months old and we've already lived in virginia for a year.

i was describing a memory i had to joey the other day, it was this time when i was all alone with my mom, i was maybe 10 or 11 years old. we were in the car, maybe running errands, and we stopped to put gas in the car. and she let me pump the gas all by myself for the first time. i remember most vividly that it was just her and me, and we smiled a lot. it was one of those moments that stuck, for some silly reason. do you have those memories too? joey said he calls those moments "movies moments", they're so perfect it feels like you're in a movie. and you remember them forever. our weekends lately, they all feel like movie moments. but ours is one of those 2 hour movies, so every weekend is just one scene. and they're so beautiful, but they go too fast. and then in the next scene the little boy, the star of the show, is a whole year older. and you mourn that a little bit, because you've missed out on a whole year between scenes. that's how i feel every single saturday morning. and every night, while i'm feeding huck his bedtime bottle, and it's dark so all i see is the shadow of him, arm slung over his face like the day has just wiped him clean out. a whole day, a whole week. i've missed it. i'm missing it. how do i stop missing it all?

10 months

10 month update from the eyes of DAD.........
Mom thought it would be interesting to see what I would have to say in comparison with her usual monthly updates.....(she may be experiencing a little writers block).  If I had to explain Buster in one word at 10 months it would be ambitious.  I am amazed daily at the desire to push your little arms and legs to the max, trying to figure out what they can do and often finding out the hard way what they cannot do.  You have no concern for self preservation and your lack of coordination is only over-shadowed by your sheer determination.  I am afraid you will be a handful in the years to come but I would be disappointed if you didn't follow in dads footsteps.  You have an insane ability to exhaust your new parents in one minute and melt our hearts in the very next.  I have an increasing concern that you may prefer mom more at this point but that is ok, soon we can band together and do what boys do best, annoy girls.

But if I can say anything it would be thank you Buster.  You have made two timid, mid-western introverts beam with expressions of outward joy and true happiness.  The smile you put on your moms face is absolutely priceless to your dear old dad and for that I am forever your biggest fan....next to your mom of course.    

for the rest: 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months, 7 months, 8 months, and 9 months.

this fast-paced life

we're back from our vacation in cancun, but since then we've been rushing around trying to keep our heads above water. thank goodness my mom has graciously offered to stick around for the big move, which has been in full force since monday. moving is hard! moving with a baby... well, you know babies don't typically make things easier :)

since i hardly have time to shower these days, a quick photo dump is all i can offer around here. enjoy ;)

while in cancun, we stayed at the now sapphire riviera resort, it was so very perfect.

but we burned to a crispy pulp almost instantly!

meanwhile, back at the ranch, henry enjoyed every speck of his time with grandma. and i missed his little face like crazy!

enjoy the rest of your week!

quick laugh

i told you that joey was out of town last week, but what i didn't tell you is that he was in guadalajara for work. so when he returned back to the office this morning he was surprised to find a little present his co-workers left behind for him while he was away.

just your typical baby picture reenactments. i spent the next half hour giggling uncontrollably after joey sent these over this morning. i can't decide whether to be honored or mildly offended on behalf of my innocent babe. could the plain white t pic be any more perfect? :)

just mommy and me

joey is out of town this week, and to get by... let's just say i'm not above presenting a new toy to my needy babes every single night. judge away, i don't blame you.

towards the end of last week, henry was presenting with a mild-grade fever and an attitude that neither of his parents were in any particular mood to enjoy. he didn't have a cough or runny nose, everything seemed normal. so we assumed he was reacting to his new (slightly cheaper) milk/soy infused formula and rushed to the store to stock up on the most expensive formula known to man in order to get h back into his jolly pants, because you already know henry has been on a strictly soy/milk-free diet since he was 4 months old. but by sunday his hands, feet, and chin were covered in the ugliest red dots and blisters, so it wasn't the food after all but a nasty case of hand, foot, and mouth. dog gonnit! my poor boy was in the worst shape by sunday night, because he tends to sleep less when he's feeling cruddy, and so he'd all but refused his naps all weekend long. you can imagine my excitement at the prospect of my single-mommy status for the week following our weekend in wonderland, and when i picked huck up from daycare on monday night, i cringed as i asked his daycare provider how he'd been all day.

"oh, he was great. smiley, giggly."
of course he was.
"but he probably gets bored at home, he's used to so many people around when he's here all day."
of course he is.

so when we got in the car i made the rash and probably a+ parenting decision to rush to the store asap for some temporary excitement by way of excessive stimulus. hello new xylophone! oh, hey there singing plastic box! because, of course he's bored at home! his parents are dull as door nails.

but you guys, he's been the most fun this week! i don't remember the last time i've giggled so hard, and our time together, just huckers and mommy, it's been so stinking precious!

we miss daddy so, so much though, and every night we settle in with our toys and set up the computer so dad can watch henry play.

miss you daddy pants! come home soon!!

good morning mommy

aren't these guys the most handsome in all the world? when i went back to work, joey and i decided that in the interest of keeping h out of daycare for as much of the day as possible we would stagger our work schedules so that joey leaves late in the morning with henry to drop him off at daycare and i get off work early in the afternoon to pick him up as early as possible. about once a week, joey texts me a precious picture of the two of them carrying out their morning routine together, which joey tells me consists of exactly 8 tasks - the last of which includes shutting the front door. i know, so cute, right? sometimes, after a particularly ragged up.all.nighter, joey will text me a picture of huck looking extra perfect with a little "i'm sorry mommy" note below. heartbreaker! lately, though, henry's been sleeping like a champion most nights, so when i'm ready to head out the door in the mornings i miss him so much i can hardly stand to leave. who would have guessed there would be a day that i genuinely missed our midnight feedings? not i. so on the mornings after a full night sleep it takes every stitch of strength i can muster so early in the morning to pass his room without risking his creeky door for a goodbye kiss before i go. the other morning, his sweet little face on the monitor, sleeping soundly, was calling to me so loudly i couldn't help myself! so i stopped outside his door, counted to two as i tried to calm my love-sick mommy heart, but i still couldn't get that face out of my head, and that cute diapered tush resting on his heels like the most perfect baby you've seen in your life. so i opened the door, ever so gently... because it sticks! every time! and man do i hate that door, because that morning it popped open with a loud smack as the hinge released from the position it'd been resting in all night. and the second i stepped into his room, henry's head popped up, his eyes roaming the room for the source of the sound that startled him awake. and then, because the poor kid was in the dark, recently awake, and because mom's shadow was still peeking at him from the dimly lit hallway, he started to cry. dang it! wide awake he was, a full half hour before joey's alarm goes off in the morning.

the message i got with this picture that morning wasn't as nice as they usually are :) but i can't blame them. no more goodbye kisses for mama. that's what they think ;)

4th of july

how was your 4th of july weekend? ours started out like this...

we woke up before 5, mostly because henry was awake, beckoning from his crib. we'd also been warned to cross the chesapeake bay bridge before 7 if we were headed to the beach, because the whole city leaves town for the beach the weekend of the 4th. we did. but we probably wouldn't have hit traffic if we'd left at noon, because arthur was in town to stir up some holiday fun.

we'd decided a couple of weeks ago to head to delaware for the holiday. there is a perfect little beach just within the bay called lewes (pronounced lewis) beach that was supposed to be a great mix of family friendly and low-key, perfect for us party animals. since the weather was on its worst behavior, we spent some time pacing the streets of lewes - a super charming little beach town that reminded us a lot of stillwater, mn, in a classy, southern kind of way. i loved it instantly, but joey (rightly) pointed out that to live there would be hell on the weekends as hoards of tourists flock to the streets and clog up the highways in and out of town. sorry lewes locals, you might be seeing more of the larsons in these parts - flocking your streets and clogging up your highways like the true tourists we'll always be. and our hunt for the perfect little east-coast town to settle down in is still on.

the beach was still too chilly for us on the day of the 4th, and we had a hotel reservation for the night in a town nearby, so we drove to the only other town in delaware we knew of to see about some independence day fun. hey'a dover, this one's for you.

we tracked down the excitement near the capitol building and settled in for the parade. but you know how henry tends to make his own plans, and by the time the first emergency responder crept past our slot on the parade route he'd had enough. so we packed up our dictator and hiked back to the hotel to settle in for the night. no fireworks for this crew when bedtime is 7:30 on the nose. next year, independence day. we're coming for you!

the next morning, h woke up on the wrong side of his cradle, so when we arrived at the beach he was in zero mood to paste on his beach smile and enjoy the waves. mandatory naps tend to solve all kinds of woes, though, so we strolled along the beach until the lapping water soothed him right to sleep.

and then, mr. happy was ready to play. he loved the sand - but mostly because there was so much of it mom and dad couldn't possibly keep him from getting a shovelful or 10 into his mouth within the first five minutes. we had a great day burying our feet in the sand and watching the kids run around us as they raced to the water and then rushed out before the waves reached their legs. next year, henry told us, he's going to run right to the water and swim all day. this weekend, though, he was more than tickled to watch the other crazy kids have all the fun.

i hope you had a great weekend too!