what would henry say?

the other day i saw a list on one of the blogs i read obsessively of questions to ask your kids about their parents. although most of the questions were probably better suited for older kids, i thought it would be fun to see what henry could articulate at two-and-a-half. here's what he had to say:

how old is mom? one

is mom big or small? big

is mom a boy or a girl? girl

what color does mom like? pink*

where does mom work? i don't know either

what makes mom happy? me!

what makes mom sad? daddy time-out me

he did surprising well, so i thought i'd get crazy and ask him a few questions about henry -

how old is henry? one

is henry a boy or a girl? boy

what is henry's favorite color? blue... no, red

which park is the best park? the rock one**

what do you want to eat for supper? mac'n cheese

bath or shower? shower

is henry big or small? small

what do you like to watch on tv? um, i don't know either. dinosaur train.

who does henry love? mommy and daddy. and grandma too.

who loves henry? daddy. grandma and mommy.

*not even a little bit
**you didn't see any rocks? look closer, there are "mountains" that lead up to the parking lot in the background of the picture. joey is convinced mountain climbing on those rocks will be henry's demise.

on tuesday, henry had his 2-1/2 year check with his pediatrician. he weighs almost 30 pounds, and slid in right around the 50% mark in height, weight, and bmi. at 2-1/2 he's talking constantly. he's obsessed with dinosaurs and snakes. he's got a pet caterpillar, with which he's surprisingly gentle, but he doesn't understand why the caterpillar can't hang out on the couch with him to watch "tee-b". he still needs mom or dad to read at least 5 books before bed, and nothing on this earth will separate him from a blanket or 5 at night.

this weekend my sweet friend and her husband are coming to dc. she and i lived together in college and spent the better part of our senior year in high school attached at the hip, so she's my girl. i'm excited to spend more than an hour or two with her, which has been the max since we both had kids and i moved away.

have a great one!

pssst... quick update

henry lives for a select number of not.too.guilty (but he should be) pleasures in his life: youtube videos of "halloween", eating lollipops until his face and hands are smeared with 4 shades of sticky sugar, and retrieving boxes from our concierge. his requests for all three fly from his mouth on incessant repeat all the blessed way home from daycare. and lest you get the sinful impression that we tele-parents let him drown in sugar baths and television marathons whenever the prince pleases, i assure you that is not the case. but lately, h has discovered the joys of snapchat - where he is straight mystified by the collection of face and costume modifications he can make within seconds (see video above). and that! that is the kind of real.guilty.pleasure i can get behind any time of day he asks.

h - 'see pictures?'
j - 'certainly, my son. for as long as your paper thin patience/attention span will allow.'

last week, the snow came to dc in a big bad way, and so we were locked snuggled  at home with the rest of the dc crazies for the entire weekend.

not my photo credit, and also this is what e.v.e.r.y street looked like for days!

as i'm sure you heard, dc/northern virginia do not do snow well, and the folks hiking down this main vein in arlington are a testimant to just that. to be fair, the sidewalks are buried in 2 feet of snow here, so the street is where the walking is going to get done.

but then, as it does, the snow melted and we took off our jackets to play at the park amidst the snow piles and dripping puddles.

in less than nine days, my mom and her husband are shipping us all away on a disney cruise of a lifetime, and we're all just wiggling with excitement. how lovely does this sound right now?

stay warm!

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 ;)

dear huck // 7

you're with your daddy this week in south dakota and i miss you every second of my day so much it feels like my heart is just going to plunk right out for all the work it's doing to keep itself together until you get home. you're it, my hucka. you're the in and out of my breath, do you know that?

you and i spent last week together at grandma deb's house because you were sick, with spots all over your body that made you look more miserable that i've ever seen you look. we went to the doctor to see if there was anything we could do to make your forehead stop burning and your skin from being completely consumed with red blisters. she gave you a big ol' sticker that mama stuck right on your spotted leg, and it wouldn't come off it was stuck on so strong! you thought it was funny, kind of, because really nothing at all could have been funny the way you were feeling that day.

we tried to keep you busy so you wouldn't stop too long to remember how terrible you were feeling.

but really all you wanted to do was arch your back as far as it could go and cuddle with mama in the most lonely hours of the night. and really, baby, that's what mama wanted to do too. watching you wriggle around inside yourself to escape your achy body only makes me want to scoop you right up and kiss every speck of your blistery skin until the pain is soaked up, right into me instead.

in a way though, i would say i was lucky. because you were sick when mom was there and not after i'd left you with daddy in south dakota. because if i'd known i couldn't be there to do everything in the world that might make you better, i would have simply gone insane. and probably only because we have god on our side, on sunday, just as i was about to get on an airplane without you, your skin decided to stop letting all the red bumps take over and instead it started to kick those stinkin' dots right off. every time daddy sends me a new picture of you, smiling as wide as can be, your pudgy hands and meaty legs look more and more like the old ones, those soft white beautiful little pieces of you that make me feel so lucky to me your mama i could burst.

come home soon sweet boy! and bring that handsome daddy of yours with you :)

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!