Henry at Lake Mendota

One of the nice things about where we live in Madison is our proximity to the park and Lake Mendota. Here is a picture of Henry on one of our walks. You can see the Capitol building in the background peeking out behind the trees. (Around the time of the flood this spring, the rocks behind Henry were mostly covered, with some water lapping at the edges of the sidewalk.) This is a great path to walk and its fun to see the anglers along the way. Who knew so many people in Madison liked to fish?!

Henry has a little cold (cough, sneezes, and a runny nose) so he's been a little crabby during the day and not sleeping well at night. Which, of course, means Momma doesn't sleep at night.

Parent Lesson #5: Another tactic to be sure baby gets a nap. Take a walk!

Look who's 4 months old!

Oh wow. I can't believe how much Henry has grown and changed in four months time! Would you just look at that face?! In the last photo you can see maybe just a hint of mischief.

New just in the last week (or so).

1. We tried rice cereal in a bottle of milk because we noticed he was paying VERY close attention to what was on our plate, and where it went. Dinnertime has suddenly become a wrestling match. Henry did well with the change, both with drinking from a bottle and the new texture of added said cereal.

2. Henry can tolerate more tummy time due to increased strength, and the knowledge that rolling from tummy to back can get him out of it at any given moment. Its also more fun since he can handle the toys. We're working VERY hard to do a two handed grab and go to the mouth.

3. "to the mouth" -- this concept has really taken off lately considering Henry is actively teething. He wants to bite EVERYTHING. Including Momma.

4. Stranger Danger. Henry's not so certain he wants to be handled by just anyone. This makes dropping him off at the Y Child Watch (a free child care service to members while they work out) a bit tricky. So far, he's done alright because the exersaucer they have there is a completely new experience for him and is quite entertaining. So he doesn't mind that I'm not there anymore, for a leetle while anyway.

Madison Mallards

No wonder the city's baseball team is the "Madison Mallards" - they're everywhere! Here is the couple that lives outside our door. The woman in the townhouse next to ours leaves water out, and probably some occasional food, as there are always birds, squirrels, and even a little chipmunk that frequent our doorstep. Its cool to see the wildlife here, but I never thought they'd be quite so close to our own humble abode. I'm hoping that ducks like to eat mosquitoes as there seems to be an abundance here.

Father's Day sleep in

George and Henry are sleeping in on Father's Day...awww.

In fact, Henry treated us to our first night without any nighttime feedings! He’s been fussy lately, thanks to the start of the teething process. When we went to bed (at 11pm) we saw him fidgeting in his bed and giving an occasional whiny cry. So we gave him some Tylenol and fed him again. At 6am I woke up feeling so refreshed and happy to have slept for 6 hours uninterrupted! Then for a quick second I thought, what’s wrong. But he was ok. (Darn those “mommy moments” -- such a kill joy.)

Sweaty in Stoneham

We took Henry on his first visit to Massachusetts last weekend! It was his first airplane ride and he upheld his reputation as a fabulous little traveler. He slept through the flights and loved people watching through the Chicago O’hare airport! Our travel times were early in the morning, which worked out very well because he was a little on the tired side. Therefore, even if his ears were bothering him slightly, the yawning equalized the pressure for him. Really though, he didn’t seem bothered in the slightest by the noise of the engine or the change in altitude.

We left the stormy weather of the Midwest to enjoy several days of 90+ degree heat and humidity. Henry learned how to tough it out with the rest of us by sweating in front of a fan to stay cool. Despite the heat, we had a lovely time visiting with Meme, who prepared a wonderful array of goodies for a Sunday afternoon open house. Many people came over to say hello to the little guy and admire his good looks and charm. Though he was out of sorts Saturday when we arrived (I’m guessing due to disrupted sleeping schedules and an unfamiliar setting) on Sunday he returned to his smiling, sweet disposition, breaking from the action occasionally to have a snack and a catnap.

Of course, there were also Boston sports to watch!! Some of Henry's new gear: his very own baseball cap.

Stanley was interested in Henry mostly to see why this little guy drew so much attention from everyone. He eventually adjusted to the shift in attention (since he is usually at the center) and went back to sucking up any coolness the tile floor had to offer. I think the real fun will come when Henry is more mobile and competes with Stanley for floor space!

Here's Henry recuperating the day after - face plant in the Johnny jump up.

Blue Screen Be Gone!

Well, it appears that George may have finally fixed my computer. It has been two days since I have had a visit from the “blue screen of death.” That’s a techie term I have recently added to my vocabulary as a diagnosis for the complete and total shut down of all computer functions without warning. A lovely blue screen with white letters appears giving you a message in some sort of fancy code.

George thought it was the hard drive reaching the end of its lifespan (born on date: 2004). New hard drive (twice as large as my old one) installed, customized, and updated, blue screen of death appearance the next morning. Frustration! Next he thought a “driver” might have been the culprit. I agree with my sister on this one, that’s lingo for “I don’t quite know what the problem is…”

Long story short, George did, in fact, uninstall, update, and wave his magic wand – I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Next computer related mission: obtain reliable internet access. We are supposed to receive a modem for DSL through the mail this week. Yippee! Without internet or TV, George and I have been feeling rather disconnected from the world. At first a retreat from these distractions was welcomed, but now I’m thinking it will be nice to know about current events once again. Not to mention a return to communication with family and friends!

Father's Day

The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind, with my orientation beginning, but I wanted to be sure to put a note up about my first Father's Day! It was really a nice weekend in general, starting on Saturday morning with our trip to the farmers market. Charlotte prepared a wonderful dinner Saturday night including the spoils of our trip - delicious asparagus broiled with garlic. Quite delectable! I got to sleep in Sunday morning which was quite nice, and Charlotte had moved Henry over beside me in the bed, and it was quite cool waking up, seeing him, and then getting to watch him wake up. It's amazing as he stretches and rubs his eyes, but then when he realizes that I'm there beside him - the biggest grin you can imagine - that was enough to make Father's Day perfect! I'm so thankful to have a wonderful loving wife and blessed to have a beautiful son.

Johnny Jump up

Just want to try to put up this photo of Henry in the Johnny Jump up. He absolutely loves spending time in it. George ties his toys onto the straps and then he just jumps, plays, and talks to them for hours! He's even fallen asleep in it at times, then wakes up and goes right back to jumping.

Needless to say, it is a gift to us to have him be entertained without requiring all of our attention. We jokingly call it "johnny babysitter" - but don't worry he still gets plenty of parent time, especially given that we don't have the internet or television taking up our time!

We've MOOved to Wisconsin!

Greetings from Madison!

We've completed our move to Wisconsin, "America's Dairyland," and we are still trying to get settled into our new place. (I'm finishing up this post after our trip downtown to the farmer's market - so much good stuff up there and a beautiful day here in Madison! We feel at home already!)

Our goal is not to unpack entirely, since we'll be looking for a house soon, but the boxes still need to be stashed somewhere in the closets! So far, George has done an excellent job utilizing our closet space in order to make the apartment livable.

I'll provide a few brief updates, as we are pilfering an internet signal from a neighbor and don't always have a reliable connection, I can't spend too much time on the blog.

Henry:
1. He laughed this week for the first time and we were so excited to hear it! We are continually trying to get a repeat performance.

2. He's having a little trouble adjusting to sleeping in his own room, which is no surprise given the amount of disruption to routine we've had in the last couple of weeks with traveling and moving. We are making progress, however, as 2 out of the last 3 nights he slept from 8pm to 1am, then 2 am to 6:30am. One of the nights we experienced our first Midwest storm, complete with lightning and thunder, so that was a little rough. He's still in the co-sleeper we had next to the bed, only now it is functioning as a stand alone unit.

3. He LOVES the "johnny jump-up" that we are borrowing from Aunt Jennifer. He is learning to entertain himself by bouncing up and down. I'll get a picture posted soon.

George:
He's enjoying his vacation time!

Charlotte:
She's enjoying having George on vacation!

We are both attempting to make all the address changes required to get all our affairs in order and keep life organized.

Compy:
My computer's hard drive is on the fritz, hence the lack of blog posts and pictures submitted. A new one is on the way!

Garden:
That's right! There is a small plot of dirt out our back door and patio area where we've planted a few tomato plants, some flowers and a little basil. We got them in before the storm, so they received a good watering this week! Now for the sun...

Yay Daddy!

Here's a pic from George's graduation. I heard one phrase at commencement that pretty much summed it up. As one of the graduates crossed the stage, everyone clapped and when it became silent again a tiny voice yelled out "yay, Daddy!" -- needless to say, it wasn't Henry, as he was sound asleep (thank goodness!) but was so sweet.

Congrats, George!!