Ho Ho Ho....

Christmas was a much different experience this year. Henry has impacted the holidays for me in several ways, mostly good, but a tad depressing on some levels. As those of you who have visited my house around the holidays in years past can confirm, I love decorating for the season. We had a Christmas wedding, so I have great decorations leftover from that... I change out my everyday dishware for holiday dishes and everything. This year I was off to a great start... we got the tree out early, and as we all know, that was a bit of a bust b/c of the cat. However, it was downhill from there. I was too busy, too tired and too selfish to put up the majority of my decorations this year. Selfish in that I get approximately 3 hours of awake time with my boy each day and I'll be damned if I am going to spend that digging through boxes to put up decorations that I will have to take down a few weeks later. With all of the events and travel between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there was little to no time to do any of that. The same thing happened with shopping, which meant that the 23rd and 24th I was frantically trying to find gifts and as late as 2:30 on the 25th, I was throwing said gifts into bags to pass out. Kevin was a big help and took care of most of the shopping and gift ideas, but it was still rather stressful. I love shopping, I love decorating, I love baking Christmas goodies, but all seemed like chores this year when faced with the choice between hanging out with Henry and doing the typical holiday preparations. In the end, all that had to be done got done. The dishes were never changed out and the baking did not get done (but with baby weight, this was probably a blessing), but the important things were accomplished and I even managed to throw up some of my favorite decorations. Despite the "chores," this Christmas is definitely at the top of my list. It was so fun to buy gifts for Henry and to have the focus of the holiday be him. While he is only 3 mos. and really does not know any different, he had a great Christmas. He loved his toys and was sooo good everywhere we went. He slept through dinner on Xmas eve and did not wake up until 7:15 on Xmas morning. He giggled and smiled at his toys and looked amazingly cute in all of his Xmas gear (we had several costume changes). I think I mentioned that we tried to give the boy mashed taters on Thanksgiving, but that he wanted nothing to do with it... well, in one month's time, he has developed a taste for real food apparently. On Christmas day, I fed him a smidgen of squash on my finger and he thought it was the best thing ever. He would smack his lips and smile with each bite. (Don't freak out, he literally only had three tastes)... Rice cereal will be next, and with his size, I am not sure we can wait much past 4 months to start. I can only imagine how much this boy will eat once real food becomes a part of our daily routine.

Hope you all had an amazing holiday, I know we did. We are so thankful we had the opportunity to spend the holidays with so many friends and family. So much has happened in the past year, and we are so blessed. Happy Holidays!

Much love,
Paige

I'm too excited to sleep!



Cousin Travis is the coolest!

Henry and Elizabeth with Great Nanny and Great Grampy

Pampa Oly feeding me my Christmas dinner

Henry's loot from Santa

Nana and my Mover and Shaker toy...

My new ride from Grandma Sue

Kisses from Cousin Lauren Doo

Can we do this again tomorrow?

3 Months

Well, another month has passed and I am not sure how that is possible. Henry is getting so big and he is really starting to develop a personality all his own. This is great most of the time because he is super smiley and loves to meet new people (stranger danger is a concept we will need for sure with this one)... however, with his new found alertness and personality comes an increase in bad moods and fits too. He is still a freakishly good baby, but he has learned that he has a strong voice and loves to use it now. Month three included more traveling and lots of events... We made the trip to Decatur for Thanksgiving and the Baptism, and then headed back on the 19th of December for a tea hosted by Nana in Henry's honor. Daddy graduated law school this month and we hosted a brunch with a bunch of Kevin's friends (and family, of course). Henry was his usual perfect self through the graduation ceremony. Later in the month, Henry helped us celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary... with an ice storm in the forecast, we opted for a dinner at our usual hangout with the boy instead of the nice dinner we had originally planned. After graduation, Daddy decided to take a few weeks off of work. This has provided a great opportunity for Kevin to do some bonding with Henry...daddy daycare is in session. With the exception of a few rough spots, they have had a really great time, and I am super jealous of this extra time Kevin gets to spend with him.

Physically, Henry continues to grow... and grow. We did not have a wellness check this month so I cannot report his stats this time, but by early December he had outgrown the majority of his 0-3 month clothing. I estimate him to be around 15 lbs now, which is hilarious since my cousin's baby is 18 lbs at one year old. Henry is also getting stronger. He is so close to rolling over, and has rolled 2 times from his stomach to his back. He can also sit up in his bumbo for a few minutes at a time.

I have already posted most of our pics from the month, but here are a few from the vault.

Ready to go see Santa

Chillin in my Bumbo


Sleeping with Daddy at Nana's house

Henry... meet Santa

We dressed up the boy today (in one of his many handsome christmas outfits) and headed to the mall for Henry's first visit with Santa. He has been bugging us for weeks to take him, so we finally caved. Okay, maybe the begging will not really happen for a few years, but we felt the need to properly introduce Henry to the big man anyway. As mall Santa visits go... we were roped into purchasing pictures ($19.99 for 4 pics, $10.99 for the photo cd). Was it worth it... totally! He did not smile, but he did not cry either... I call that success! Of course when I went to pick him up from Santa he started smiling and laughing... (at Santa, not so much at me). We will see what happens next year though...

My Famous Boy!

A blog that I frequent... appropriately named Baby Blog Addict, is posting Christmas card rejects over the next few weeks. Since I had just done a post of my own on the same topic, I submitted a few shots of the boy to the "contest" (for lack of a better word). Last night they posted a few pics of him on the site... they can be seen here: http://www.babyblogaddict.com/2008/12/holiday-reject-photos-enough-and-not.html

One more for good measure... Henry and his 2 best friends, Alden and Austin (with the food on his face!)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

because i cannot get enough

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

My Boys...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Moose

Check out my roly poly thighs! I am such a moose!


*this is the moose man at nana's house in the cute moose shirt the tipton girls got hank*

Christmas Card Rejects

The hunt for a Christmas card picture has been going on for a while now... there were lots of contenders (as my boy is quite photogenic), so I thought I would share some with you all. Note: I am hoping to get my Christmas cards and birth announcements out sometime before June. Be patient... geez... I am a new mom, working an hour away from my home, in a different time zone... you are lucky I had time to do all of these posts today! Enjoy!

O Christmas Tree

or should I say "O Christmas Lights..."

Aunt Shari was way ahead of the rest of us this year, having her tree up and decorated the week before Thanksgiving. (In her defense, she was going to be out of town the next few weekends, so it made sense). At a visit to Aunt Shari's, Henry discovered the lights on the tree. He loved the lights so much that I decided I would get my fake tree out early too.

For those of you who don't know, we have a cat, Gus. Last year at this time, we discovered that ornaments, at least those of the breakable variety (or every one we own), were not an option. It was adorable though... our 4 lb kitten would climb the tree and fall asleep.

Gus in the tree 2007.

Well, this year, I was hoping that Gus would try to climb the tree and the fake branches would fail to hold his now 10 lb self (Gus is now also known as Gussy "big butt" to some, but don't tell him, I don't want to give him a complex).

clearly Gussy "Big Butt" does not take advantage of our fitness equipment

I figured that a few failed attempts would result in his staying away. Wrong. In fact, Gus finds the tree more entertaining this year because he has the ability to make it topple over completely. So...sadly, we will leave our tree undecorated again this year. The ornaments of special value will remain carefully displayed on the entertainment center or in other areas of the house... just not on the tree. I suspect that one of these years the need for a decorated tree will win out over the love of Gus, but for now, I will continue to tell myself that I love the cat more than the tree. (Note to self: next home will have a room that has doors to lock out a Gussy)

Anyway, Hankry loves our crooked undecorated tree... who needs ornaments when you have lights!
I think Nana was especially happy with Henry's love of Christmas lights because once Oly saw how much Henry loved the lights on the pink tree at their house, he was super motivated to get the remaining 46 trees out of their basement. Nana's house is the Christmas light jackpot for Henry and he cannot wait to get back there (two weeks from yesterday).


,,,tis the season!

Baptism

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we had Henry baptized at the church I attending growing up. It was a very special day, and we thank everyone who made the trip through the snow. Henry had a great day. He slept through most of church, and was an angel the rest of the time. He loves bath time, especially when I wash his hair, so he really enjoyed the water portion of the baptism. The only "moment" we had was a huge belch while up at the alter. (Henry... not Kevin) Luckily, Pastor Wray's mic did not pick up his "moment." Nana and Oly hosted a brunch following the service, and Henry got to meet even more friends. The brunch also had entertainers... Alex and Evan Cummings! These two little guys provided entertainment for the whole clan and were especially helpful with Henry. Thanks boys! (See picture below). Here are some pics from the day. I will supplement these later (and by later I mean when either my mom figures out how to get the pictures off of her camera and onto the interwebs, or, more likely, when I go back to Decatur and do the aforementioned task for her). (this includes pics with the majority of the family that was in attendance, so please don't think I am leaving you out... apparently my camera was not being used much at this event)

After Henry's "Dress Rehearsal" Sunday morning

Oly, Nana, Mommy, Daddy and Uncle Bryce (Godfather)
...with Gramma Pat and Grandma Sue

Godparents Aunt Shari and Uncle Bryce

With those pretty Wiesemann Girls (Aunt Ellen, Aunt Carolyn and Aunt Gretchen)

Evan is so good with Henry...

Alex is particularly good at supporting his head... he has had lots of practice with his little sister!

Pooped!
*note that at 2 months old... mister is nearly half as tall as Nana...
is she that tiny, or is he that giant?*

Thanksgiving

We made the trip to Decatur for Henry's 1st Thanksgiving. Good food, great company... all in all, it was a great holiday. We attempted to give Henry some mashed taters on our finger, but he rejected them pretty fast. (this reaction makes me question whether someone swapped babies with me at the hospital... Kevin and I find it hard to believe that our child would dislike a potato of any kind... maybe next year). Henry got to meet so many people, and spend some quality time (4 full days to be exact) with Nana, Oly, Uncle Bryce, Aunt Shari, Lauren and Ali. I think by the end of the weekend everyone was ready to see us go, or maybe they just wanted Leap out of the house (Leap is Henry's frog from my friend Jackie (thanks Jackie) that sings the alphabet song... Henry learned that he could "sing" along with Leap. This provided all of us with hours of entertainment, but the song has gotten rather old). Rather than writing a novel, I will narrate our Thanksgiving 2008 in pictures...

Cousin Travis, the baby whisperer... and my helpers, Cousins Hannah and Mallory

Quality time with Great-Grandfather

Family Portrait
Singing the alphabet song with Leap, Lauren and Ali (my other helpers)

Nana, Pete and Ali helping me sing the alphabet song with Leap
Meeting Great Nanny and Great Grampy for the first time...
He gobbled... He wobbled... He crashed!