11 Months!

Henry is now 11 months old.  It’s crazy how sometimes I think this year has flown by and other times I think it is taking forever!  I guess it just depends on the days… henry has mellowed out a lot since he was born.  He takes about a 2 hour nap daily and gives mommy some down time in the afternoon.  (Thank god) he is still rather clingy and prefers mommy to anyone and everyone else.  Henry has gotten both his bottom middle teeth and all 4 in the middle of the top have been coming in together for the past 2 weeks.   They have finally broken through within the last 2 days. 

Henry is crawling around like a fool and can pull himself up to anything.  He recently just discovered how to climb stairs as well.  This little man has developed an attitude and now I know how mike feels sometimes when he has to deal with me J  Henry does not like to be told “no” and will crawl after me and try to hit me when I won’t let him do things he wants to.

Henry has started drinking whole cow’s milk today.  He seems to be taking it great and didn’t even seem to notice when I swapped it out for his formula.  I am sure it tastes better!  He has also been on a Sippy cup for about 2.5 weeks now too.  We have done away with nipple bottles except during bed time.  Mostly we only keep them then because the Sippy cups we have don’t hold enough milk for the hungry man before bed.

Language has been a difficult thing with henry.  He is making tons of sounds, continues to growl, but he won’t vocalize any real words and doesn’t even seem to try.  I think most of it is laziness. I know pretty well what he wants now that he doesn’t even need to ask for anything.  I’m sure with time he’ll get sick of waiting for me and finally speak up!

Figure Skating

Autumn has started figure skating this year.  We decided to join the Norwood Norfolk figure skating club after a child in daycare had started.  Autumn has been having some ups and downs when it comes to skating.  There has been a few times where she has spent the entire time on the floor or ice screaming her head off.   Most of the time she loves it though.  I am hoping it continues to get better and we fewer episodes as time wears on.  Within the first lesson she had managed to get up off the ice on her own and even let go of the wall a few times.  Since October autumn has begun to push off from side to side with her skates and will spend most of the time on the ice without throwing a fit now.    In fact… at the last session she didn’t want to get off the ice!  I can’t wait to see the ice show in March!

Autumn

Pictures of Henry

9 Months!

Henry’s nine month well-baby appointment was October 8^th.  He is getting to be such a big boy.  He still comes in small on the baby charts but he is growing every day!  Henry doesn’t babble a lot but he can do it, since we hear him from time to time.  The doctor said not to worry and that he still has plenty of time to develop those skills.  Henry can pull himself up t things now and will slowly work his way around furniture but has a tendency to fall a bit.  His poor face usually always has marks now.  We are still waiting for henry to crawl.

Henry’s first sick visit:

Henry went to the doctor for his first sick visit on OCTOBER 1^ST.  The poor little guy had a cold the week before and a fever throughout the entire weekend.  Turns out that henry had developed an ear infection.  The doctor gave us some antibiotics.

Henry’s first teeth:

Henry finally got some teeth the other day.  The first one was the bottom right on September 28^th and the bottom left followed suit on October 2^nd.  He was a pretty miserable guy for about two weeks while they worked their way out but his grin is awfully cute with his big boy teeth!

Autumn-isms:

Autumn picks up one of my bras this morning and says: "mom, are you going to wear these boobies today? these boobies are gorgeous!" LOL

Henry’s Broken Arm:

On July 11^th when henry woke up in the morning in his crib his arm was stuck through the rails.  Throughout the morning he wouldn’t use the arm and seemed to be in discomfort.  I called mike at work and had him come home so I could run henry out to the doctor’s office to be checked out.  Unfortunately Dr. Benardot wasn’t able to see us and we were stuck with another provider in the office who was horrible (DR. Mannis).  She thought he seemed fine but after insisting on a x-ray his arm turned out to be broken. 

So… our next stop was the ER.  We waited over an hour while everyone stood around and gave us dirty looks as if I had purposely broken my child’s arm.  He was given a temporary splint and we were told to follow up with the orthopedics office the next day.

The next morning at the orthopedics office we were told is was a “clean’ break, would heal fine, and that it didn’t even need a cast.  The put a new splint on because the one from the ER wasn’t done well.   We were sent home to follow up with them in 2 weeks.  

After returning home from our vacation the following Wednesday we had  a million message on our phone telling us we needed to go to a new pediatric orthopedic in south Burlington.  They had me freaking out till I could get ahold of someone the following day (since it was after closing hours when I got the messages). 

 Turns out our awful substitute doctor (Dr. Mannis) thought it would be a good idea to drive 3 hours with a small baby to get another opinion… we canceled the appointment.

Two weeks go by and we go in for another x-ray and follow up appoint

ment at the orthopedics.  We are told it is still completely broke, no new healing is seen, but since henry is using the arm it must not hurt him.  So, they take the splint off and say he’s fine.  They tell us to come back in 2 months for another x-ray just to make sure it has healed.  I am completely shocked and worried about the healing of the arm without any protection on it.

We are seeking a second opinion just to be sure.  We go an appointment at an orthopedics in Potsdam on august 10^th and he will also have another x-ray.

Deer Fence:

Our latest home renovation has been a 7 foot tall deer fence around the back acre of property.  This year we hope to not have to fight with the deer for rights to our vegetables.  We have expended what we planted this year since we hope to have a great year for production with the natural pruners… we planted strawberries, asparagus, corn, radishes, cucumbers, raspberries, and turnips.  We still need to plant our potatoes and pumpkins.  It’s getting to be late but we can only get so much done at a time with Henry man.

Henry Update:

Henry is now 5 ½ months old.  Last night he rolled over from his back to his tummy for the first time.  He was so angry about it.  He hates being on his tummy.  I thought it was a fluke but he rolled over to his tummy again today. 

Henry has started eating a wide variety of baby food.  So far he has had sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, peas, bananas, prunes, peaches, and pears.  He hasn’t even been eating baby cereal lately because he loves the regular food so much.

Henry is still quite fussy and loves to be held.  It will probably always be that way.  He loves to watch the other kids play and is very quiet when he’s happy.  When left alone during happy times that when he starts chattering away.  Around a crowd... he falls silent. 

I still have to schedule his 6 month well baby appointment.  We are still trying to find a time that won’t waste a whole day and will work around Henry’s schedule.  He really doesn’t like things to be different. 

Recently I purchased “the fussy baby” book by William and Martha sears.  It has helped deal with Henry’s neediness.  It doesn’t make his fussiness stop but it helps me understand how he feels and is also reassuring knowing that other moms have been in the same place.

Talking about death:

Autumn asks me "mommy, am I going to get really really old and die? I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!" 

-this stems from a conversation with Calvin about autumn’s great grandpa for father’s day.  Calvin told autumn that his great grandpa was dead because he got old, and that everyone dies when they get old.  Thanks Calvin…

Autumn:

after having dropped a Diego toy in the upstairs toilet earlier in the day Autumn forgot about it and went to use that potty later in the day.  Within a few minutes she came storming back down the stairs all huffy.  i asked if she went potty.  

Autumn’s Response?  “no.  I’m not using the freaking potty because there’s a damn diego in it!”



mike was cutting autumn's toast and she says "I'm watching you to make sure you don't cut your finger off"



Autumn's famous line "don't worry mom, i won't do it... i promise"

Rice Cereal:

i have started giving henry rice cereal.. i am hoping to keep it up daily as long as i can fit it into our crazy schedule.  the last two days have gone great and he seems to really enjoy it.  i don’t know if he loves the cereal or all the attention he gets while he eats it.  i hope both!  i first tried it a few weeks ago and he wanted nothing to do with it.  how things change from day to day...

Henry Update:

henry just had his four month well baby visit.  he is still small for his age and the doctor can’t seem to get over it.  he finally got a prescription for some vitamins since i told the doctor that i am now giving henry one bottle of formula at night to get some iron and vitamin D in his system.

henry is less than third percentile for weight and fifth percentile for length.  i must just be destined to have small babies.

the doctor seemed concerned about henry’s “lack of communication.”  i think he is just a quiet and serious little boy.  henry does smile a lot now and even giggles from time to time.  he doesn’t smile as much as some other babies but each baby is different.  i guess we will just wait and see.  

henry has finally started to calm down a  bit.  some days he even goes with hardly crying at all.  he definitely still has fussy days though.  henry has even started to like his bath a bit, as long as it doesn’t last too long!  henry will play on his floor mat at times and even likes to sit in his aquarium bouncer from time to time.  he likes to sit up as much as possible and gets frustrated when i lay him down too much.  sometimes henry just wants to be left alone.  he must be getting over stimulated sometimes because he likes to just be put down and left alone.  during these times he will just chatter away to himself and his toys and pull at his toes.

Mother’s Day:

we spent mother’s day morning at the greenhouse helping out with customers, as usual.  at lunchtime we went up to great grandma and great grandpa’s house for a picnic.  after about an hour mike returned to the greenhouse for the afternoon to help out while henry, autumn, and i stayed at the picnic.  

autumn got a bunch of rides on the “mule” and loved it.  we also got to play with uncle andy’s little gator and shared rides with the other kids.  autumn also loves grandpa’s very large sandbox and had a blast getting filthy in it.  later in the afternoon we took out the new parachute we bought and played with aidan, aunt tiffany, aunt gisele, grandma, and papa.

Henry was a really good boy today.  he even let daddy carry him around in the morning without having a meltdown.  at the picnic he smiled alot and even “talked” to aunt tiffany.  henry just loves being outside so i can’t say that i’m too surprised by his behavior today.  when we got home i put henry in the bouncer seat on the porch and he just giggled and giggled at mommy.  it was a nice ending to the day!

Henry Rolled over:

henry rolled over for the first time on wednesday may 9th.  it was the night before his four month well baby check up.  not only did i get to see it but when i called dad in henry rolled over again so dad got to see it too!  this was rolling over from his belly to his back.  he can get about ¾ of the way over from his back to his belly as well.  i don’t think he will be very happy with himself if he does end up rolling all the way over to his belly though since he hates tummy time so much.

Nail Biting:

Autumn has been biting her nails lately.  Mike and I are constantly telling her to take her hands out of her mouth.  I think she is doing it out of nervousness.  Whenever she gets in trouble or does something wrong her hands go straight into her mouth.  It’s been happening for about a month now and it seems to slowly be progressing into a full time habit.  We are going insane trying to break the habit… which might be making it worse.  We’ll keep trying…  I don’t want her to grow up with the nasty habit I developed in childhood.

Henry Update: 16 weeks

Next week Henry will be four months old!  Sometimes I am shocked that it has been that long, then Henry starts crying and I feel like it’s been even longer than four months!  The Zantac is still doing a great job of keeping Henry happy.  The other night I ate some dairy again figuring the Zantac was working well and I could probably start eating lactose again.  Boy was I wrong!   He spent the day with tons of gas, crying, and screams.  It wasn’t pretty.  Needless to say I am back off dairy.

Henry still hasn’t fully laughed again since the first time.  He did give a small sound that kind of sounded like a laugh last night but it was very low and small.  He also doesn’t “squeal” in delight much. In fact, we have only heard it once... this weekend… to papa in the greenhouse.  Must be Henry thinks papa is funny with all that facial hair!

I continue to get frustrated with the development books telling me what Henry “should” be doing by now.  He is such a serious little man.  He doesn’t smile, laugh, or squeal much at all.  I think it’s just his disposition, but I can’t help but wonder…  Henry has also not rolled over yet.  Due to Henry’s acid reflux issues and constant fussiness and gas we haven’t been able to put Henry on the floor much at all during the first few months of his life.  Not only is he not on his back on the floor much but he is practically never on his tummy.  Whenever we try his stomach he has a meltdown, spits up, cries, and gags himself.  He probably won’t be rolling over anytime soon. 

On the other hand… Henry can hold his head up almost completely by himself for long periods of time.  Because we are always carrying him around upright he has had a lot of practice.  He can also keep his upper body very steady while being held.  When pulled to sitting he can keep his head level with his body most of the time as well.  So, Henry is lagging in some areas but is excelling in others.

Easter 2012

Autumn-Isms:

While pulling her winter sled across the grass on the yard autumn stops, throws her hands in the air and says, “It’s no use…ugh!” Too funny!

Henry Update:

Henry has been on Zantac for about a week now. It seems to really be helping him. He is actually happy during the day and he spends some time by himself in the bouncer seat or on the floor without screaming now. He is still a mommy’s boy and loves to be held and cuddled but I can put him down once in awhile now. Henry laughed out loud for the first time on Friday the 13th. It was quite a surprise. I screamed because of excitement and scared Henry into crying after he laughed. We haven’t heard it again since but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time!

OH POOP!

I ran out to the store for about an hour tonight (4/4) and came home to find the bath mat in the washing machine. Apparently when mike stripped Henry and started heading for the tub, Henry pooped everywhere. It was all over the bath mat and down the side of the tub. I guess the only good side to this is that mike didn’t have to refill the tub with clean water!

Autumn-Isms:

When mike sat down next to autumn this morning at breakfast autumn told daddy, “if you’re going to sit here you have to share” she had yogurt but wanted mike’s bagel!

Henry Update: 14 weeks

Henry has found his hands and he can’t get enough of them. Bringing them together and sucking on them like crazy. He is also rubbing them in his eyes a lot and managing to knock his bottle out of his mouth while he eats. He gets pretty angry about that.

Henry has also started zantac medication for infants. We are hoping most of his crankiness is due to acid reflux and this will fix the problem. The doctor said it might take up at a week to see a difference while the medicine builds in his system and his throat heals. We’ll see…

Rough Night (3/28/12)

Autumn was in bed at 7:30 last night. At 8:10 we here “daddy!” and sobbing. After going upstairs i find out that her water sippy cup she keeps in bed in empty and that’s what all the fuss is about. After mike and I go to bed we here our room door open at midnight and autumn walks in asking if its morning yet. Mike escorts her back to bed and tell her to stay there. About 20 minutes later we hear her crying and yelling again. Mike goes back into her room and finds out that she is crying just because he didn’t put her stuffed bunny under the covers with her and the bunny was apparently cold. After getting up and swapping some laundry in the morning autumn wakes up and comes into the bathroom. She walks right to the window and peers through the blinds to find out if its morning yet and if she’s allowed to get up. I guess mike threatened a butt spanking if she got up again and left her room before morning.

Henry Update:

Henry has been “talking” a lot more lately as well as smiling. He is starting to figure out t hat he has hands too. He keeps bringing the right hand up and rubbing it all over his eye and then getting mad at himself. It’s pretty funny to watch. Since Henry has recently started feeling better I hope that we can get more time on the floor on his belly. The doctor insists that his chronic crying won’t affect his development.

Soy Formula (3/19/12)

After our last well baby visit the pediatrician thought maybe Henry was having issues with lactose in my diet. Since Henry hadn’t gained a lot of weight and has been extremely fussy it was worth a shot at eliminating dairy from my diet. Henry went on soy formula for a day and a half while I stopped eating dairy to get it out of my system. He has been back on breast milk ever since and id doing much better. If only the doctor had recommended this 11 weeks ago we might have saved ourselves a bit of sanity! Henry is also getting gas drops with each feeding to make sure we get most of the gas bubbles up. That seems to be helping too. Henry is a much happier baby and will actually sit in a bouncer or on the floor playing for a few minutes at a time without having a major meltdown. What a difference we have seen over the past week!

Autumn-Isms:

"I’ll just have daddy screw this when he gets home from work"
"Daddy likes to screw everything" (3/22/12)
---she was talking about replacing batteries in one of Henry's toys!


Autumn: "maybe i can watch the dinosaur Diego on my birthday"
Me: "we can watch it right now if you want"
Autumn "we can! oooohhhh I’m so excited" (3/23/12)

Groceries:

While unpacking the groceries after the last shopping trip Autumn found a tub of Folgers coffee in the bags, pulled it out, and exclaimed excitedly “Look, it’s a new compost!” Mike and I were confused for a few minutes until we realized what she was talking about. We currently are reusing an old Folgers coffee bucket under our sink to store the compost items until we can make a trip outside to the barrel. Apparently Autumn thinks that all Folgers coffee buckets are now compost. Too cute.

Work Accident:

Autumns fingers were smashed in the water tank at grandma’s greenhouse over the weekend. Shockingly nothing was broken and she again didn’t learn her lesson. Within ten minutes of calming down she was back in the water tub. That girl is just too rough and tough for her own good.

Fork in the Eye:

Last week while eating lunch autumn somehow managed to put her fork in her eye. Needless to say, it was a huge meltdown. Her eye was fine, just a bit puffy and watered for a few hours. Autumn is constantly fooling around with her silverware after taking bites so it was only a matter of time before she managed to stab herself. She insisted on medicine to make her feel better. Has she learned her lesson? Not at all. At the very next meal she was waving around the fork.

Work Time:

This weekend (March 3rd) was the first weekend we started work in the greenhouses for this season. Autumn was super excited to get to spend the weekend with both grandmas. Saturday morning when we got up she came downstairs and got out her own cereal and started eating without waiting for mom and dad. She insisted she get dressed immediately and started putting on her coat and shoes before we had woken Henry or even ate our own breakfast.

We dressed autumn in her ugliest clothes for “work gear” before we went. She kept asking “why” we were in those clothes. We told her we were working… “Why”… to make money! That got her excited. Autumn has been in love with money for a while now and just loves to put change in her piggy bank and watch me count it out to take to the bank. She has her own savings account and she loves when she gets to go to the bank with me because the ladies in town give her suckers.

Autumn kept declaring during the weekend that she was working for “big money”. She helped fill dirt pots and carried pots back and forth for us in the greenhouse. At the end of the weekend grandma paid her with a small bucket of loose change. We took autumn to the store to buy one treat with her money. The rest came home with her and was stashed in her piggy bank!

Henry Update:

Henry is now 2 months old. He is growing like a weed and I can’t wait to see how much he weighs at his next appointment on Friday. I’m not looking forward to the shots he has to get though. Henry has really settled down at night and is sleeping for 7-8 hours for the first stretch, getting up and eating a bottle, and then going back down for 4-5 more hours. He has started smiling more but he is still such a serious little boy. He has also started making some noises other that crying. He is oohing and aahing, and just within the last few days he has started making a throaty gurgling noise. He still likes to be carried around much of the day but as long as you’re interacting with him he’s happy at least. The evenings are still his cranky time and he won’t let mike hold him most of the time. Let’s hope some of these things start to settle down soon too.

Autumn’s 3rd Birthday Party:

We celebrated autumn’s 3rd birthday party at the end of the month this year. It gave us time to settle in with Henry in the house and also spaced out autumn’s gifts between Christmas and her birthday a bit more. We had a Diego cake for her party that mom and grandma hapeman made. She wore a really cute handmade Diego dress that I found and purchased on ebay. Autumn made out like a little bandit with all her presents. She got 2 sets of pajamas, bath paints, crayons, and color tabs, a new bedding set, a bunch of Clifford books, some Melissa and Doug cooking items, a Dora bike and v-tech reader cartridges. Mom and dad got autumn a bunch of Diego toys since they seem to be the ‘best toy ever” around here and we are constantly breaking up fights over them.

Henry Update:

At our one month check up Henry weighed in at 9 pounds 7 ounces. He is really growing lately. He has gone up to the 27th percentile for weight now. Henry has developed a bit of colic and we spend most of the day and night trying to figure out what will calm the little man down. Evenings are a bit hectic between dinner, house clean up, baths, and Henry! Lately we find ourselves wishing the days away until the little man calms down a bit. At the same time we want to enjoy this time since it’s the last babu we plan to have. The doctor recommended swaddling Henry during the day as well as the night. So far, it has worked when nothing else seems to keep him quiet. We’ll see…

Self Incrimination

Autumn: “I did what you didn’t tell me to do”
Dad: “What?”
Autumn: “What you didn’t tell me to do!”
Dad: (confused) “What?”
Autumn walks into her bedroom and points to the closet door “What you didn’t tell me to do”
It then became clear she was referring to the Strawberry Shortcake poster that she had asked me several weeks ago to put on her door. I had refused to let her do so.
About a week after that, while I was at work she asked her mother. Jill gave her some tape and sent her off to hang it herself.
Apparently not until this morning did it occur to her to make it clear to me that she had “done what i didn’t tell her to”
I said “You mean you did what I told you not to do”
Autmn: “Yes!”

Autumn-Isms:

“mommy, I love you so much, I’m never going to let us be apart!”

Milk Burns

During breakfast Autumn stares intently at the milk jug for a while and declares:
“It says, Cow Milk”
Me: “It says Byrne Dairy 2% Milk”
Autumn: (looking confused for a moment) “Milk doesn’t burn!”
Me: “That’s just the name of the farm where the cows live. A dairy is a farm where Milk Cows live”
Autumn: “oh”

Birth Announcements (from the Malone Telegram)

Here are the birth announcements for the two little monsters! :)

Autumn’s 3 Year Check Up:

Autumn had her 3 year check up on January 16th. Everything checked out great and she also had to get her yearly flu shot at the same time. This time I held her in my arms and distracted her with watching Henry eat while they gave her the shot. It worked much better then previous vaccines. I don’t think there is any way we would have been able to hold her down on the table to give her the shot. If she had seen the needle coming towards her, it would have never happened. She is very strong and even stronger willed. Her fear of doctors continues and she spent most of the time crying at her check up. She is now 27th% for height, 14% for weight, and 18% for BMI. She’s still little but growing!!

Henry Update:

Henry is now almost 4 weeks old. He is drinking about 3.5 ounces at feeding and giving us about 3 hours of sleep at a time at night. During the day he is a great boy and very easy to keep calm. He wakes up, gets his diaper changed, eats, and hangs out for a few minutes before falling back asleep. When he’s awake he loves to look at everything. If autumn is around he loves to watch her play and is fascinated when the TV is on.

During the evening, he isn’t such a great boy. Between 6 and 9 Henry is pretty fussy. He is full of gas and he cries a lot during these hours. Nothing seems to make him happy. Since he’s already angry we give him his baths during this time. He doesn’t like them much since he hates being naked and cold. He pretty much cries the whole time during his baths.

Henry’s skin is still very clear. So far we have escaped the skin rashes and eczema that plague newborns. His hair hasn’t started falling out yet and I’m hoping his won’t. It’s just so cute and fuzzy I would hate for him to lose it. I love snuggling in the downy softness

Henry was 6 pounds 2 ounces at his 3 day check up after being born. When we returned for his 1.5 week weight check they were hoping he would weigh at least 6 pounds 13 ounces. Our chunky little man weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces on January 16th. I guess all his late night snacks are paying off!

Autumn-Isms

Me: Autumn take a bite of your food!
Autumn: Mommy, if you tell me to take a bite of my food I’ll just screw around and won’t eat


Me: Autumn, I’m sick of this lying crap you’ve been doing lately
Autumn: Mommy, lion crap is in Madagascar!


While making cookies and dinner I stated that we were out of an item and I needed to put it on my shopping list. Autumn declared “don’t fear mommy, there’s more upstairs!” She already knows the value of my stockpile pantry!!