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Monday, March 31, 2008
Happy Easter!
1. Coloring Easter eggs with Henry for the first time. He didn't want much to do with the whole thing until he saw Patrick drop a white egg into one of the mugs and pull it out dyed yellow. Then he became fascinated and was an egg dying machine. He ended up dying his legs green when one of the mugs spilled and poured into the booster seat he was sitting in. It took a few baths to wash completely off!




2. Going to visit Oma on the Saturday before Easter and going to her church with her and then out to dinner together where she gave Henry his Easter basket. Just Henry and I went since William was still doing nebulizer treatments for his bronchiolitis. Henry loves seeing Oma and had so much fun at dinner. After he sucked the juice from the lemon in my water, we asked the waiter for another one. He brought us an entire cup full of lemons, all of which Henry sucked the juice from. He can be seen doing this in the picture below.




4. Not pictured above - Henry and I also visited with my Dad and Sandi and Cory, better known as Papa and Grandma Bug. In the Easter basket they gave to Henry there was a fairly small rubber crab that grows when placed in water. We have left ours in a bucket of water since Easter and it has gotten huge! I'll have to put some before/after pictures up of our new pet crab. He's become our very high-maintenance pet that Henry insists has to stay either in the bucket or in the bathtub full of water.
Most importantly I'm so thankful for Easter and for the resurrection! What great news that Jesus lives. A few nights ago after we prayed Henry asked me where Jesus lives. I explained to him that Jesus lives in heaven with God and he also lives in our hearts if we ask him, and then I asked him if he would like Jesus to come live in his heart and he said, "no". Why not, I asked him. And he replied, "because I want him to stay in heaven with God." I'm thankful that because of Easter we have the opportunity to join them both in heaven one day.
And William's "first" is...
So, drumroll please.....
He started solids - well, rice cereal to be exact. Buh-dum-bah. I feel like after some anticipation I wish I could write that he took his first steps or at least rolled over or something. I'm sorry it wasn't that exciting and maybe not worth the wait! But as his mama, every first is exciting and feels somewhat monumental.
Also, my "plan" was to delay starting solids until he turned 6 months old, however after some recent sleep backsliding and some angry nursing (on his behalf) I felt like he was ready for something more. He had his first rice cereal last Tuesday at lunch. I was going to wait until dinnertime and have Patrick ready with the camera to capture his expression, but Henry talked me into feeding him earlier. We had gone to the grocery store that morning and Henry was excited that we bought some food for William to eat and when we were eating lunch he asked if William could have his cereal, too. It worked out fine because he literally did not make one face that would seem to ask, "what on earth is this" or "what are you doing to me". He just ate and ate and ate and got a little anxious if I paused to take a bite of my sandwich. He literally ate it all, I mean he WOLFED it down. I guess he was ready for something more.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
To do list
In no particular order:
- Easter
- A big first for William
- Some brotherly love
- I've been tagged by Sally
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Today was a beautiful, sunny day - a good way to kick off Spring. William and Henry both woke up this afternoon from their naps around the same time so I asked Henry if he wanted to go on a walk to the bakery near our house and get a treat (i.e. a large, seasonally shaped sugar cookie caked in delicious sugary icing). By the time we left the house and I got both boys in their stroller we had only 20 minutes to make it to the bakery before closing time. We made it with a few minutes to spare, but to Henry's dismay all of the cookies were sold out. Then to my dismay he chose a chocolate eclair instead. It's an occasional treat, so I let him take his pick from the display case - I later realized he would eat only the top off the eclair, the chocolate part. I'll be honest, all of the speed walking caused me to break a sweat. I was steaming, so after we walked about a block towards home I decided to take off my coat and put it in the stroller. A block or so later I thought about my cell phone that I had in my coat pocket. I stopped the stroller to make sure that it was still there with all of the shifting around. I reached into both pockets and found no phone, then I thought maybe I put it in my wristlet after we left the bakery so I checked there but also found no phone. As I was digging around the stroller a man across the street shouted, "are you missing your cell phone?" With his question he affirmed that I was. He then proceeded to tell me something that I couldn't figure out because of the distance of our conversation and the constant flow of traffic passing by. I finally figured out after several failed attempts at interpreting what he said "my phone's on the ground?", NO, "you have my phone", NO, "oh there's a man in a gray sweatshirt up ahead with my phone". Ok, so a man had picked up my phone and was walking in the opposite direction with it.
I thanked that man and spun the stroller around and started walking towards the stranger in the gray sweatshirt. As I explained the whole crazy scene to Henry he kept saying, "that man took your phone mommy". We walked toward the man who was only a block or so ahead of us but couldn't catch him before he slipped into the door of a bar next to the bakery. As I approached the door I figured at 4:00 no one would be in there so I'd just open the door, peek my head in and see the man in the gray sweatshirt and retrieve my lost phone. I was wrong. There were stairs leading into the bar, so I couldn't take the stroller in. So I backed it in and held on to it with one arm and opened the door with the other. I was wrong about the crowd. The room was full and all eyes darted to the door, the stroller, the children. I suddenly wondered what I was even doing here and thought about just ditching the phone and finally getting the Razr I've always wanted. But I was already standing there, so I explained that I had dropped my phone and that a man across the street told me that a man in a gray sweatshirt had picked it up and then I saw that man walk in here. Everyone was very helpful, but no one seemed to be able to find a man in a gray sweatshirt holding my pink phone. Finally when it seemed there was no hope (about 3 minutes into the ordeal) someone shouted "wait!" and then the gray sweatshirt emerged. He handed me my phone and I thanked him very much and turned and finally started walking home.
Now what's the first thing you would do if your phone went MIA? I checked the outgoing calls and noticed that at 4:00 when my phone was missing my mom's cell had been called. So I called her right away and after she answered she said, "Christina, how did you find your phone? David called me." Oh my word, the kind man's name was David and he had called my mom. He told her that he found my phone and saw my mom's number (listed as Mom Cell) and thought she'd be a good one to call. He told her that he would be in town for 2 more hours and how to reach him to get my phone back. Pretty creative problem solving on David's part. I'm thankful that he was helpful and that I was able to retrieve my phone. I wish someone would have called me between 4 and 4:10-ish, I think it would have been hilarious for good old David to take a few of my calls.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
A few things to note
- First and foremost, there was a mouse in our house! Patrick has been working on our basement (with the eventual goal of finishing 1/2 of it for a playroom/family room area) and worked for a few hours Sunday to get it cleaned up. Last night I had to take some laundry out of the dryer and needed to wash a few of William's things, so I brought Henry downstairs with me to rave about the newly cleaned basement. As I was raving I brought a stained sleeper of William's over to the large sink next to the washer and as I leaned in to turn on the cold water, what do I see to my shock and horror but a MOUSE. What followed was just an instinctual response, I screamed several times and bolted across the floor and up the stairs. When I reached the top I came to my senses and realized that I'd darted upstairs and left poor Henry in the basement alone. I called for him to come up the stairs and reassured him that everything was just fine. Together we ran into the office where I told Patrick the terrible news. He'd heard me screaming and continued checking his emails, apparently not the least bit alarmed. Oh! Then he and Henry went back downstairs, thankfully Henry takes more after Patrick when it comes to being brave. Patrick caught the mouse in a jar and he and Henry felt bad for him for quite awhile. Finally I told them that he needed to leave the house and I asked Patrick to throw it away. It was garbage night. I'm not sure if he let him go, but I'm thinking I'd just rather not know and hope I'll never see another one! Very scary.
- I took the boys to the mall today by myself for the first time. They both rode in the stroller - the "strollerbus" as we lovingly refer to it- and both did really well. Henry got to ride on the carousel there for the first time and since I didn't want him to go alone, I rode along and William vicariously got his first carousel ride. I was super dizzy as we spun around and I did wonder what would happen if Henry got very dizzy and got sick. He didn't though and had a great time. We also strolled past the Easter bunny a few times but never quite worked up the nerve to sit either on his lap or on the bench next to him. I think Henry was freaked out by the fact that he just waved and didn't speak. Although the whole idea may have freaked him out.
- Today William is 5 months! Life is getting more and more fun with him. He has started laughing at things Henry does and both love getting each other's attention. I'm really excited for them to be able to play together. I feel so fortunate that they have each other. I'll confess, when we first brought William home I cried because I thought we'd ruined Henry's life. Now I can see how God has truly blessed all of our lives. Henry's and William's lives will be richer because they have each other.
- William's cough is getting better. We've been having some ups and downs with the nebulizer. He's been grabbing hold of it and trying to put it in his mouth while I'm giving him the treatments and then gets really upset when I take it away and put it back over his mouth. Hopefully we'll only end up needing it for a week. We'll go back to the dr. on Monday, so I'll know more then.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Gas
Egg Hunt




His face and fingers were covered in chocolate when they got home and Henry was thrilled to show me that there was candy inside the eggs he found.
A Visit
Sunday, March 16, 2008
It's bronchiolitis
Because it's a viral infection, antibiotics aren't used to treat it; however, we do have to give him nebulizer breathing treatments. It's very sad. He's supposed to have a treatment every 4 hours and each lasts about 10 minutes. He's been very brave and I'm so proud of him. He cried the first two times, but today he's done really well and just sits sweetly and patiently in my lap while I hold the breathing mask over his nose and mouth. After the treatment is done, he coughs A LOT and that's supposed to be a good thing. It sounds bad, but he's getting the mucus up and out of his lungs. We're supposed to continue treatments for 2 weeks, but I'll see the doctor again in a week to check on him. We're praying that it will take less than 2 weeks for his lungs to be clear and that he can be done with his nebulizer after we see the doctor again. I am relieved in some ways to have a diagnosis - he's had a really off napping week, having a very hard time going down for his naps and then not sleeping very long which makes sense now; he has been sleeping well at night but coughing a lot throughout the night. On the other hand, I feel so sad for him that he's gotten so sick and I feel sad that he has to go through this. More about my "BFG" in a post to come.
Date night
Guessed who my date was yet?
Did you guess? Yesterday I took Henry to a matinee showing of "Horton", his first movie ever. The picture above is of him seeing the big screen for the first time after we sat down. We got there just as they were seating for the movie, so the whole theatre was empty. I let him choose our seats and then he cracked up when he sat down and the chair partially folded up on him because he's so small. He ended up sitting on my folded up coat for some extra ooomph. He did stand for part of the movie which was fine because even standing he wasn't much taller than the heads in front of us. And then he sat on my lap when he got tired. The movie wasn't super long, but I still wasn't sure if he'd want to stay for the whole thing so I asked him partway through if he wanted to leave and he didn't. So we ended up making it to the end. He was definitely the loud talker at the movie, he tried to talk over the volume of the movie whenever he'd say something to me. And he had lots to say and lots of questions. There were several other children there so whenever they would laugh, he would laugh too, as loud as he possibly could it seemed. It was a lot of fun taking him out and I loved having the chance to go to the movies! I don't think we'll do it much, it seems like a lot of "tv" watching for one day. But it was something special to do and I loved watching him as he experienced a movie for the first time. Oh and it was pretty economical: his admission was free since he's under 3 and we shared the Kid's Combo which was a tray with a small drink (for me, I brought a sippy cup with juice for him), popcorn and fruit snacks (perfect size, thanks Holly for the suggestion!).
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Makeover!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Henry looks like...
MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Pedigree chart - Descendants
I'm a little disappointed with these results! I was sort of excited about this and was hoping that this very scientific look-alike meter would solve our dilemma once and for all. We've never really been sure which of us either of the boys favor. But maybe instead of it being a cop out like I'm thinking, it just affirms that they both are a blend of both of us.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Not as sweet as you'd think
The part that's not so sweet is that Henry is now waking William up from his naps so that he can be with us. Gasp! Yesterday when he woke up from his nap he asked me the usual, "where's Wee-yum?" And I told him that William just went down for his nap and will need to rest for a little while. He seemed content with that response and we came downstairs to play. A few minutes later he asked again, "where's Wee-yum?", and I reminded him to which he replied, "we wake him up?". No, no dear Henry, he needs to sleep. A few minutes later I ran quickly to the bathroom and as I'm washing my hands I hear in a sweet little voice over the monitor, "Hi, hi, hi Wee-yum. You wake up Wee-yum?" As I ran upstairs hoping to salvage William's nap, Henry excitedly looks at me and says "Wee-yum's awake, look see his eyes!". He sure was awake and didn't end up going back down. It ended up being a long afternoon with a bit of a cranky, tired baby. It's like what do you do? I didn't want to break Henry's sweet spirit of love for his baby brother by disciplining him too much for waking him up; however I did try to explain that the reason mommy had to now hold William so much was because he was tired and that in the future we really need to let him sleep until we hear him wake up.
Then today as William was almost asleep in his crib, I was in the kitchen just cleaning up our dishes from breakfast and again hear Henry on the monitor. He quickly returned downstairs and William got really quiet again, so I thought he went to sleep. When he started crying a few minutes later I went upstairs to find several stuffed animals in his crib with him. Apparently Henry thought he needed some company and knew from yesterday that it couldn't be him.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Sweet Discoveries

William has discovered his feet. All at once he went from not realizing they were there rooted at the bottom of his being, to firmly grabbing hold of them with his chubby little baby hands and trying with all of his might to stick them into his mouth. He loves those little feet now. And I don't mind that he's so crazy about them; if he gets a little fussy or bored, I simply pull off his socks and he's entertained. And I'm a huge fan too - there's nothing sweeter to me than baby hands and feet. I love the tiny toes and chubby, dimpled hands.





Christmas in March
We opened presents together - the boys all got matching pjs from my mom and after dinner we celebrated my mom's birthday. We were fortunate to have absolutely beautiful weather and on Sunday morning we all went to the zoo. It's the local zoo, mind you and there's not much to it, but it's perfect for toddlers (or is it preschoolers now? I'm going to hang on to "toddler" until we hit 3). I think it was the first time William's precious skin has felt the wind. He's been snugly tucked away inside his BundleMe in his carrier every time we've gone out with him ever. It was so much fun to be able to get out. I also got a serious dose of spring fever!







