Parenting the mobile child

Enter the next phase of parenting: mobility. I feel like I'm not keeping a step ahead of Henry these days. He has gained speed and agility with crawling. I put him in the living room, went to the kitchen, as usual, to make coffee. Upon my return, I found my child standing next to the computer chair! Ah, lesson learned. The next phase of Henry's life, his gaining freedom through the ability to go after what he wants, is going to keep me on my toes. I had no idea pulling himself up on furniture would be so close behind. I have a feeling walking is also in the not so distant future!

The only good side effect to all this activity is that he's been sleeping at night. Last feeding around 10-11pm and I don't hear from him until 5-6 am. I almost don't want to say it out loud for fear I'll break the spell. I feel human again!

We close on the house today. We are all very excited, and will be looking forward to baby-proofing as we move into the new house. I'm sure the spare bedroom would also function nicely as a padded room so Henry can learn to get around without the dangers of hardwood floors, woodwork, and other everyday building materials. ha ha ha.

A few recent pics, just to keep everyone interested. I'm usually behind the camera lens, but George took a nice photo of me and Henry. You can see those two little razor sharp teeth poking up through his gums. The other is a treat for all the BC alumni out there. We just finished a week of rather warm weather and this was the only T-shirt in his current size to let him hang out in. Don't worry, we're back on track for fall weather now and will be sporting only long pants, socks, and long sleeve shirts for a while, I think.

3 months until Christmas - but what was everyone doing 9 months ago???

I must say the last 7 weeks have been quite eventful. Lots of laboring women, but it really culminated in the last few days. All 11 labor rooms were filled with patients who were in labor or who had just delivered. All 4 triage rooms (our mini pregnant-patient ER setup) were filled with people in labor. Women were even laboring in the waiting room! Obviously we've been quite busy, but makes you wonder how people were celebrating Christmas and New Year's last year!

Mommy's little helper

Henry is so close to being able to crawl. While up on all fours he's been lifting his hands up and down the past couple of days. There's the constant back and forth motion he's been doing for weeks. I like to refer to it as "revving his engine" in preparation for "full steam ahead." But today, I think he finally got his legs to do a little work to string together a few "steps." I'll attempt to post a few videos, or links to videos on picasa. It was very funny seeing him get so excited! (either about the fact that he was moving forward, or me cheering along beside him) He would collapse and fall back into his "swimmer" motions on the floor.

With Henry's increased mobility, his territory has expanded a little. Here he is helping me with some laundry. Rather, investigating the handy dandy laundry basket, while I fold all the clothes.

More MN friends

During our trip to Minnesota, Henry and I also met up with Colin & Clare. They were our casamates during our JVC year - another Casa Jane romance going strong. In fact, they recently bought a house and were moving in the weekend we were there! So I got the very first parade of homes tour. It is a very cute little ol' farmhouse in the city that will become a cozy home for Colin and Clare for years to come.

We went "uptown" to grab some breakfast at The Egg & I -- and also got a spontaneous little tour of the downtown area, including the new bridge, to replace the one that collapsed a year ago. Henry was a very good boy through our meal and I could tell that he was quite taken with Colin & Clare as they played with him.

Regrettably, I don't have a photo of our brunch, but I know that it will be a memory cherished for a very long time. Busy "greasy spoon diner type joints" + 6 month old Henry = hard to forget!

Hope and Hearts Run

I've been meaning to catch up on a few things on the blog, so bear with me as I recap a few important events from September.

On the first weekend in September, Henry and I made the trek up to the Twin Cities and were able to see some friends. In particular, we spent some time with the Palzer family. I had the pleasure of living with Ann shortly after I graduated from college, and while I was living and working in St. Paul, they kindly assumed the role of a surrogate family. Although it was wonderful to play with her two year old son, Kiefer, and catch up with everyone, it was a difficult weekend at times. We were also there to participate in an event to support the Missing Grace foundation in celebration of Elias James' life, which ended prematurely during Ann's sixth month of pregnancy. I'm amazed by the strength and courage that Ann and her husband, Aaron, have exhibited during the healing process to grieve the loss of their second son. Elias remains in our thoughts and prayers.

(Henry caught a quick nap before the 5K)

I wanted to share a few pictures from the 5K -- we were fortunate to have a beautiful morning for the walk/run. Here's Ann with Lake Harriet in the background and a view of downtown Minneapolis.

"6 Month" Stats

Henry is officially 7 months old today! We had his 6 month doctor's appointment on Thursday. (His 9 month appointment will be right on time!) He remains a very healthy kid. Here are his latest stats:

• Weight: 20 lbs 14oz (86%)
  
• Length: 29 inches (96%)
  
• Head: 45 cm (78%)
  

We are still happy about his growth curve, though he seems to be plateauing just slightly (can you believe that?!?). He endured the shots as usual, mad as can be when they're sticking him, but he quickly calms down with some momma cuddle time.

The only other thing that I noticed during the doctor's exam was that it appears he has one of his canine teeth cutting next -- guess what that means Henry will be for Halloween!?! The cutest little vampire ever!

He has been terrible as far as sleeping lately. That means with George gone most of the time (only 1 week left on this nasty OB rotation!) I'm struggling for energy most days. My only hope is that we have 10 days until we close on the house, then perhaps we'll start a better sleep training plan. Either that, or I'll just sleep when I'm dead and "keep on keepin' on" as one tired momma.

Resident Retreat

Last weekend there was a retreat for the family medicine residents. It provided a nice, laid back atmosphere for the residents to get to know each other because although they are in the same program, they often don't run into each other at the hospital or clinic settings. The same is true for significant others, we had a chance to get to know one another and either commiserate or support each other through this intern year.

Here are a few pics from the retreat. The first one is Ella, a little girl who is turning five this month, holding Henry. Ella absolutely adores Henry, and I'm surprised at the patience Henry exhibits because although Ella is oh-so-careful, she sometimes treats him like a rag doll. Ella and her family are becoming fast friends of ours, as her dad is one of George's colleagues, which means we're all in this together!

The other picture is from our walk around the retreat center. I hope you can get an appreciation of the beautiful Wisconsin landscape in the background! The list of interesting things we saw on this short walk is as follows: one set of deer tracks, walnuts, a stick bug (quite amazed we saw this one!), a large ant hill, and two big grasshoppers. And most of these were spotted by Ella -- thank goodness for 5 year old eyes, they are so much more observant than adult ones.

C is for cookie

With the arrival of his new tooth, I've expanded Henry's diet to include "biter biscuits" - which are little hard cookies. He loves them. It keeps him occupied for quite a while, he can feed himself, and he's learning how much he can "bite off" and chew!

Here he is after a cookie, and some carrots as a chaser.

New Tooth

This week Henry finally cut his first tooth. I feel like he's been working on it forever. So now its almost as if he has a new toy. One that's sharp and very useful -- especially if he's given a graham cracker to keep him occupied.

I also wanted to share this picture of him in carhart overalls. George gets a big kick out of these. They are cute, but watch out for those big buckles!

He looks like he's ready to help Papa with projects around the house, doesn't he? Won't be long, I suppose...

With the cooler weather, I think fall is just around the corner and there will be plenty more days to sport some overalls in the very near future!

Glorious Golden Weekend

A weekend is generally defined as a Saturday and Sunday being free from work commitments. In residency, however, this definition changes a little bit. In our first weeks of orientation, we were handed a packet with the schedule explaining what weekend definitions were:

Lead: (essentially no weekend), working Saturday through the night and rounding Sunday morning
Silver: working Friday night (being "on call"), Saturday recovering (or "post call"), off on Sunday
Platinum: Saturday off, go in to work on Sunday through the night
Gold: Thursday night call, Friday "post call", off Saturday, off Sunday

This, of course only applies to rotations where there is "call" coverage. George is currently on OB, which consists of 12 hour shifts at a time, and a mixture of nights and days. So while there is no "call" (a 30 hour shift at the hospital) it is still a grueling schedule. Thankfully, he received what we are calling a "glorious golden weekend"-- all three days of a holiday weekend off. It was certainly needed as he finished up a stretch of 12 days in a row and was in desperate need of some sleep! We had absolutely nothing planned and enjoyed just being lazy around the house, playing with Henry.


Here is a photo of George and Henry by a "Madison Cow" - these are around town in various locations painted or dressed in different themes. This one is sporting a few fall leaves. We had a scorcher of a weekend (hot & muggy!) but I think fall and cooler weather is just around the corner. This cow was at a local farmer's market. We decided to try one of the smaller farmer's markets, instead of the main one around the capitol on Saturday morning. We found the same great deals on local produce. This is the Northside Neighborhood farmer's market, which will also be quite close to our new house.