New Camera!

Yippee! For my birthday Brett, my mom and my dad got me a new, wonderful camera! It puts my old camera to shame. So of course I had to try it out last night by taking pictures of Henry...

Okay, these pictures of him crack me up. I cannot stop laughing at them every time I look at them (including right now). He was purposefully making goofy faces because he does not like having his picture taken, but I don't think he had any idea of just how hilarious he was being. I love the sort of dazed, half-confused, wide-eyed, airheaded look of the bottom two.

Weekly Update

Henry learns to play the ukulele from Mr. Ben

Henry showing off the beautiful pedicure he gave Daddy. Check out his stylin' new hair cut courtesy of Cary.

We had a pretty eventful week this week. Mid week Henry started to feel sick; I just thought he had a cold or something, but then on Wednesday he got progressively worse culminating in an hour and half of screaming and crying in pain. So off to the doctor we went. Blood and urine tests later all we found out was that his white blood cell count was elevated so he apparently had some kind of infection, but the doctor didn't know what. Luckily by Friday he was back to his normal self!
Henry invited Aunt Joan to come to Gymboree with him and she joined us on Friday. Henry was absolutely delighted that he got to show off all his skills to her. That night we took him to see Mickey Mouse's Magic Show at the Rose Garden. The "magic" was a bit over his head and he didn't know who most of the characters were, but he still really loved seeing Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy live and up close. Saturday we went to a music performance by Mr. Ben, a local performer who I had heard about but never seen. He is awesome - I totally recommend him to anyone with little kiddos. Brett and I loved seeing how Henry walked into the room and straight up to the front and sat down all by himself. He is really growing up and it's fun to see his independence. Then Henry got to go to a Blazer game with Gigi and Bumpa Saturday night - a treat he always loves...especially with his new Brandon Roy jersey to wear! Sunday evening concluded the weekend with a fantastic dinner at Cary and Jeff's house - after which Henry cried when it was time to leave!

Tonight Henry was playing with one of my earrings, trying to put it in his ear and he asked me "where's my hole, mom?" I told him people's ears don't come with holes in them, you have to get them put in. He looked so confused and then goes, "okay, mom." :)

Weekly Update

Henry at library storytime this week.

Henry at the Play Boutique this week - if you look (really) closely you can just make out his newly repaired front tooth!Oh boy, I am already behind this year...I looked through my camera to find a picture for this week's post and discovered that I have only taken 6 pictures so far this year. I've got to get cracking and take more!

Anyhow, the tooth situation continues to improve. After about a week of grouchiness and complaining (albeit a bit less each day), Henry seems to be adjusted to his new chompers. Other than keeping his fingers in his mouth a lot more than he ever used to, the only other sign I can tell that he notices his new teeth is he will click his silver caps together - most often at night when he is trying to fall asleep. The sound is like nails on a chalkboard to me!

He continues to crack us up with things he is saying lately. He was in the shower the other day and getting water in his eyes, so I told him "sometimes when I am in the shower, I rub my hands over my eyes like this" and demonstrated. So now, all the time I hear how he "sometimes do this" about the most random things. The other day he was taking his shoes off and told me that "Bumpa showed me how to do this" and then followed it up with "maybe he show you how too." I'm not sure if he meant that he did show me, or that he will show me, but it was cute! Tonight I was reading him a book in which a kite gets stuck in the tree and said "maybe they can pull on the string to get it down...how else could they get the kite down?" He told me "maybe they can" and then a word I could not figure out "it down." After a couple more attempts, he demonstrated and I realized he actually was saying quite clearly "axe" - I just didn't get it until he showed me what he meant. I was like "well, yes, I suppose they could get an axe and chop the tree down." And he says, "yep, maybe so." I was just so astounded that he thought about chopping the tree down to get the kite out.

His 3rd birthday is quickly approaching - I can't believe it's just a little more than 2 months away. I have no idea what to do to celebrate it. His two best friends, Anna and Inari, are both having birthday parties about a month before his, so I really want to do something for him since I know he'll remember going to theirs. Any ideas?!?

Dental Update

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes and kind words today. Henry's dental work was completed and is back home recovering well. The good news was that they discovered no new cavities (other than the ones she had already seen; save for two tiny ones she wouldn't normally even fill in another child, but since we've had so many issues, she went ahead and filled them). She also discovered that he grinds his teeth pretty badly. The two teeth below the silver caps were just completely worn down. Those two molars got silver caps (so 4 total of those in his mouth now). They will now rub against each other and will protect the other teeth from the grinding. The two upper incisors were filled - no caps needed there, thank goodness. The final procedure was to fix the broken tooth in the front. As she cleaned that one out and prepared it, the root was exposed which meant it could either be pulled or have a root canal (pulpectomy). We opted for the latter, and he now, once again, has a picture perfect smile. The rest of his teeth looked good, so hopefully this is the end of it!!
Going in and out of the anesthesia truly is the worst part - and probably worse for us to have to watch than him to experience. In fact, the anesthesiologist said he probably won't remember any of that part of the day. They let us come back to the recovery room earlier than last time. When we went back last time, he was already awake; this time he was still coming to and doing an awful moaning, coughing and shaking thing that is apparently normal, but tough to witness. The respirator made his throat very sore and his voice was still hoarse tonight as he went to bed. After sleeping it off for a couple hours at home he seemed to be doing much, much better; albeit quite grumpy. He also complained a bit about his back hurting and later told me his new teeth hurt. As I was putting him to bed he told me his teeth hurt "so bad, mama." I had never heard him say anything was "so bad" before, so that took me by surprise. He had taken some Tylenol and the dentist said he shouldn't really be in too much pain, so it's tough to say whether they really did hurt or whether it was an attempt to delay bedtime. :)

Christmas Round-Up

Our tree... (the rest of the pictures loaded in reverse chronological order...so they make more sense if you start at the bottom.)

The scooter...
The jersey (worn while opening the gift from "Lamarcas Aldridge")...

Reading a new book with Bumpa...

Opening his "Max" ornament from Where the Wild Things Are with Gigi...

Checking out Uncle Mike's gift...

The air-hockey table from Grandma and Grandpa Sutter....

We had a wonderful Christmas...busy before and busy after, but relaxing during the actual holiday itself. We spent Christmas Eve at Brett's parents house and had a lovely dinner. Henry was so, so, so excited to receive an air-hockey table (among other things!) from his Grandparents. I don't think he's stopped playing with it since! Christmas morning Henry woke up to find that Santa had left him a huge train table (as big, or perhaps even slightly bigger than our dining room table) complete with a train. He also received a new pair of tennis shoes and a circular race track for his cars from Santa. Then later on Christmas morning my parents and brothers came to our house to open presents in the morning. He got so many wonderful toys, books and games. Geoff gave him a Brandon Roy jersey that he wore straight through for 2 days (including sleeping in) - it remains his favorite thing to wear. He also got a scooter from Bumpa that he rides around the house and can't wait for nicer weather to use outside. He truly is a very loved and lucky little boy. Cary and Jeff came over the next day with the very same scooter for him (great minds think alike)! We exchanged it for some more Duplo Lego pieces to go with a set Gigi got him (the train table top reverses to a Lego base) and a battery-powered Thomas Train for his train track.

New Year's was much more sedate around here. We had originally planned to go to a party with Cary and Jeff but I cancelled at the last minute because I was too exhausted to go. I cut off the nursing completely and the transition has not been an easy one...the result of which is a big loss in sleep for both Henry and myself. Neither one of us has been in the best of moods lately. But it had to be done. I don't know how long (seems like it's been forever) I've been hoping he will self-wean as I continued to only nurse in the mornings when he wakes up, but he simply would not stop on his own so I had to put the kibosh on it in preparation for his impending dental work. (Tuesday morning...update to follow.)