eight

Not to be outdone by his little sister, Henry was enjoying a Jr. Frosty while watching her video slideshow from the other day, and decided to sing along. For those of you who don't know, that song by my dear friends in the John Kelly Band is available on iTunes...



Oh, and Maria had her two month checkup yesterday. She's 9lbs, 9ozs, 22 inches and perfect. That's all!

seven

Well, thanks for all the nice remarks about our birth announcement. That photo was actually taken by my sister while I stood on the side taking one with my camera. Henry was being so good and looking straight at me. I still like the one Kat took better! We had two choice outtakes from that photo session... You might want to click and enlarge the second one. Or not.

henry's take on a classic

Until I can emerge from preparations from Youth Sunday (a week from today), here's a gem from my son. I also recommend clicking the category "cinematical" below and re-watching Superwhoop. And also that one where he falls from June 2007. I'll be back in a week.

superwhoop

In this little vignette, my superhero son explains exactly what his powers are, how he uses them, and what it is that makes him nuts. (My apologies for the camera shakes, caused by the rolls and waves of my large abdomen when I laugh.)

happy easter

Can you tell Henry chose his own pajamas tonight?

henry loves fergie (apparently)

SO, for my two year blogiversary (no thanks to Blogger) I thought I'd share a fantastic Henry story for you. I'm telling you, I imagine you could compare living with Henry to living with Bill Cosby or Tina Fey - the comedy simply never stops (I'm sure Em & Chad would agree about this aspect of parenthood from their experiences with Em's hilarious little person).

In preparing Henry for big brotherhood we've been talking about what to expect from a baby and we've been reading several books about being a sibling. Last night we were reading this book. Mr. Rogers was great, wasn't he? Today was his birthday, coincidentally. The book is v. 80's in appearance, but you can't beat the honesty of how it's written. Anyway, we got to the part about how babies are fed in different ways - sometimes Mommy feeds the baby milk from her body, and sometimes the baby has milk from a bottle. I told Henry that our baby would drink milk from my chest and I pointed to both sides. He seemed baffled for a moment. With a look of puzzlement, he sweetly asked, "You mean from your humps?!?"

(To my knowledge, I have never referred to my bosoms as "humps", nor has Henry been listening to Fergie's hit song about her lovely lady lumps recently. It took us at least 10 more minutes to read the next 4 pages because we couldn't stop laughing.)

Also: last night and this morning Henry was walking around with a lei and his pirate hat on with his guitar making up a song about one of the girls in his class at preschool. Where does he get this stuff?

blah blah blaaaaaahhhg

Okay. I know I've been terrible about posting lately. I have only a slightly good excuse. Right now I'm taking a medication that carries a side-effect of "lethargy." Really, I am. But, I suppose I'll take a minute to put up some more pictures from our New England excursion earlier this month. You're welcome!

Here are the "gifts" we exchanged with each other. Aren't they just the tops?!?
For more on that fantastic commemorative plate, click here, and then click here.

As you may know, when we all get together, we are very serious.
For more in this series, click here and here.

Here's the 2 three-year-olds getting comfy in the play tent.

And here is Henry with all his first cousins... Kylie is trying to make her escape!

And last but not least, here's my good friend Chris with his lady punching my son
in the head. Unbeknownst to each other, Chris and I dressed as the same obscure
character from an HBO show for Halloween. Isn't that bizarre and awesome?!?

When the lethargy lifts, I will most likely be back with more regular posting. Boy, do I have some stories for you all. You can only imagine.

dyno-MITE (or trip, part 1)

My favorite part of traveling from our airport is the thoughtfulness that went into the play area for children/families. Henry LOVES to jump on the clouds and airplanes and there were about 10 other kids there enjoying themselves, burning off energy before they get on that magic metal airship.

Another thing we were very excited about was the prospect of playing in the snow at Nana and Papa's house. You can see this snowperson is quite fashionable with his/her jaunty hat and fluffy scarf. (Now, it looks more like Michael Jackson, since it's melted enough to no longer have any recognizeable facial features.)

"I crashed in the snow!"
Apparently the deductible on his sled insurance is something he's willing to absorb, since he wanted to crash over and over.

And just a teaser from the NYC/JC portion of our trip - plus a question: Why on earth are these two smiling like this? Leave your answer in the comments, please.

christmas vacation

Yep, I'm watching that classic on TBS right now... It's so so so funny. Tomorrow right after church we are taking off on a 10-hour drive back to the very heart of Dixie (it used to say that right on the license plates) to spend the week with Timon's parents, sisters, and other assorted relatives. I'm sure it will be a delightful time and a very merry Christmas will be had by all.

If you are keeping up with the Eric Volz story, you know that he is out of Nicaragua, but has gone into hiding because of death threats and fears of pursuit by vigilantes who are convinced that he's guilty. Another troubling thing is that I read an AOL News article about it, and most of the comments on the story are from uninformed cave-people who know absolutely nothing about the facts. It's pretty disturbing reading - lots of statements that he must be guilty, or that because he's a Christian, President Bush pulled some strings "unlike how he would for a Muslim or even a Democrat". I guess that's why they call it free speech. At least he is safe for Christmas.

Henry received one of these for Christmas from some nice folks at church who watch him from time to time - it's hilarious.

He calls it his computer and talks back to the little character on the screen who gives the instructions for each activity. When it says, "Push the button for the letter that comes after J," sometimes it takes a minute for Henry to find the right button. The character will repeat the instructions, and then Henry will say, "Okay, Man! I am looking! Stop talking to me, Man!" Another instance of the Man putting pressure on the little people.

i wish it was christmas toda-ay

1 until 30

Masterpiece Puppet Theatre presents:
"What's For Dinner? You Are!!"

10 until 30

Some funny things Henry says:

"gremote" = remote

"gosited" = excited

and my new favorite:
"Grown-up a teet, now we nee eat!" = Bon Appetite, now we may eat

Only 2 more days until we head north! I might even get a photo posted since Kat has a functioning camera. However, she also has dial-up, so it'll be touch and go. I can't even tell you how gosited I am for Thanksgiving. Grown-up a teet, everybody!

13 until 30

So... what's up with everyone today? Can you tell it's a struggle to come up with something to write EVERY DAY?

I actually did have something to write about today but I've forgotten it already. So I'll leave you with the announcement that Henry made this morning: "Mommy! Last night I was sleeping with my eyes closed!"

15 until 30

Hey! It's today! How about that?!?

Henry's sleeping (thank heavens); we've played school, had recess, ate lunch... his fever's finally down to normal after the tylenol kicks in - until this morning, even one hour after taking the meds, his temp was over 101. Now it's around 99. He's feeling much better but still doesn't have much appetite. I'm sure he'll be back to school tomorrow. I have gotten some good work done this morning while he did some pages in his workbooks and while he ate lunch, and now while he's sleeping I'm taking 5 minutes to get this post in. I'll finish up tomorrow's Bible study, then get some pumpkin bread in the oven and lentil soup on the stove. Aren't I just the super-mom. (cringe...gross.)

And here's one final thought to contemplate in regards to this and "yesterday's" post:

18 until 30 **updated**

The brined chicken is in the oven, the potatoes are mashed and ready, the green beans are nearly ready to roast... I thought I'd get a quick post in during the brief lull between dinner prep /housecleaning to fulfill my 30 to 30 post commitment, as well as my apparent participation in NaBloPoMo. I'll be back later to report on the chicken. Time to baste!

UPDATE:
The chicken was excellent- not the slightest bit dry and once you baste it with butter it had a great golden color. I used Pioneer Woman's turkey technique of brining and roasting with the chicken and it translated beautifully. Her mashed potatoes were fabulous as well - if you've never checked out her food blog, do it today! I've made many of her recipes and they are, without exception, delicious. The dinner company was great - our friends D and G and their little boy, Greg (he's three months younger than Henry) enjoyed learning Mexican Train Dominoes and G won 2 out of 3 games, even as a rookie! My sister, cousins and I are having another weekend get-together in January, and I'll be returning the Domino set to its rightful owner at that time. We'll be sad to see them go. Timon wants me to clarify that HE won the final game tonight. And so it is, Amen.

P.S. Henry just came out of his room after putting on his pajama shirt telling us "I a type of a scarecrow." His verbosity is always amazing and entertaining. And random.

24 until 30

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....... that's the sound of me during this gorgeous weather we've been having here in Florida. It's finally transitioned into the season of "Slightly Less Hot" (otherwise known as Fall and Winter in the rest of the country) and I am LOVING every minute of it. The windows have been thrown open, I'm wearing long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, and I'm just in a more pleasant mood overall. Henry and Timon are currently in a tent in the backyard - we'll see if they last the night sleeping out there. We had a lovely evening at our friends' house, eating absolutely delicious shepherd's pie and cornbread casserole, followed by fruit pizza - yum! I think we've decided on plans for my big birthday celebrations - bowling with friends... with our friends, that's just a recipe for comedy. I don't need a big party, or to have a fancy dinner; just lots of laughs with my friends, husband, and son is all I want. Wish you could all be there!

26 until 30

Before we head out to the zoo in a few minutes, I have to share with you one of the most embarrassing evidence of terrible parenting funniest things that's happened around here in quite some time - yesterday was our night to go feed the hungry at a local shelter/kitchen, and I had to go pick up one of the youth beforehand. I was heading to the car with Henry when I realized I wasn't wearing my red FTH shirt. I told Henry to stay in the front yard, not to go anywhere. When I came back out of the house, I was greeted with a flying stream of pee and a child naked from the waist down. He had to go potty, he said. Never mind the semi-busy city street and parking lot with parents picking up their children from church preschool right behind him. Nice!

(I suppose I should admit that occasionally when we are in our fenced in back yard, we allow Henry to pee in a corner if he's been in the pool and is all wet and it would be inconvenient to go back into the house. I guess we reap what we sow.)

30 until 30

After the next thirty days pass, I will be 30 years old. Nice! I think I'll try a post-a-day until then. Some will assuredly be much more interesting than others. For today, I give you evidence of our Halloween shenanigans. The small pirate will make a reappearance on Wednesday, Bret & Jemaine will not. That wig was v. uncomfortable. (Why didn't I just type "very" instead of "v."? I guess the world will never know.)

see here for the originals

wizard, knight, pirate, oh my

but i still haven't found what i'm looking for

Inspired by the post of one of my favorite cousins, I will now share with you some search terms with which people have found my blog in recent weeks... It always cracks me up. I shall leave them exactly as I found them, with no spelling correction, and in ascending order of popularity. Isn't it funnier that way?

5. "types of faux-hawks" As if I am a hairstyle expert. One look at this miserable mop I've got working lately and that notion will be quickly dispelled. I hope whoever's rocking my hair (via my Locks of Love donation) these days is enjoying it, because I'm NOT pleased with this do.

4. "stuff to say to a women" The "a womEn" part is what gets me. I'm sure this comes from the title of my blog, but I still think the poor soul searching for what to say to a womEn is probably sorely disappointed in how little advice I had for him. Or her, whatever.

3. "I dare you photo" Oh yeah?!? Well, I TRIPLE-DOG-DARE you, photo!!! Notice the breach in dare etiquette, skipping straight to the triple-dog-dare.

2. "secrets about sister-in-laws" I have NO idea where this came from. Don't be scared, Greta, Amy, and Courtney... I have no secrets about any of you, and if I did, I'm sure this would not be the venue for spreading any gossip. I prefer to spread my gossip the old fashioned ways - over the phone or in an email.

...and by far, the most common search is:
1. "big chop" and its many variations, like "how to do the big chop at home," and "big chop color," and "big chop photos." This of course comes from the aforementioned (#5) donation that I made earlier this year. Who knows, but apparently there are 10s of people every month that search for "big chop," and end up here. I salute you, unknown readers.

In the recent words of Henry: (making a big sighing noise) "That was so so fun, Mommy!!"

anger management

Sometimes, when I get mad... I mean, really, really mad... I do this:



It usually makes me feel much better.

(this is my favorite new show.)