Jack’s New Swing

Nathan put up a really great swing for Jack today. He used a  swing from the swing set and hung it from one of our big trees in the backyard. It swings much, much higher now and Jack loves it. He had a great time swinging several times this afternoon. And then his day got even better. This evening his good buddies Sophie and Porter came over and we (well the daddies) grilled hotdogs on the fire pit. Then we went to the Fairy Tale Forest at the nature sanctuary by our house. We got to go on a hike in the dark on a trail lit up by 100 jack-o-lanterns.

 

 

10 Months

Our sweet boy is now 10 months old. This month was a very busy one for Henry. He learned all kinds of new things, including crawling, pulling up in his crib and everywhere else, signing for “more,” and he got two new teeth (now he has six). He also finished with his helmet this month. He says, or tries to say, these words: da-da, jack, uh-oh and night-night. Still no mommy. Maybe next month!

Never a Dull Moment

The past few days it's been a little bit too cold to play outside, so we've been hanging out in the house. Now that Henry is crawling everywhere we have to keep an eye on him all the time because he gets into all kinds of mischief. Yesterday we played down in the basement and the boys had a great time. I tried to take pictures of them together. Henry was having none of it. He had places to go. He got his sixth tooth today, by the way.










Here is Jack bonking Henry on the head with his sword. Jack has a big surprise coming when, one of these days, Henry turns around and hits him back. And no, Henry isn't wearing socks because he takes them off and tries to eat them.



Today they thought it was great fun to get in the pack and play together and jump up and down and laugh. Henry is sleeping in the pack and play right now because he won't stop chewing on his crib and we are waiting for some new crib railing covers to get here.







Grandma Pam came over today and I tried to make Henry wear a hat on the way to pick up Jack from school. He decided he didn't want to do that and pulled it off right away.




The funniest conversation I've had with Jack in a long time happened yesterday. It was a follow up to a conversation from a couple of weeks ago... about his fishing trip on the 4th of July. Here's what he said in that first conversation:

Jack: "Mommy, I drank some beer while I was fishing with Grandma Donna."
Me: "No you didn't. You drank some Fresca because there was no water and you were thirsty. That isn't the same thing as beer."
Jack: "Well, that beer I drank was pretty spicy."

Then yesterday he had some witches brew (ginger ale and apple cider) during a playdate.

Jack: "This is spicy like that beer I drank while I was fishing."

Hillarious. We're going to our first of many Halloween parties tomorrow. Jack says he's going to wear his cowboy costume. So much for the Spiderman costume I bought from Target.

Baby Face

Henry had fun playing outside today in his exersaucer. He had just woken up from his three-hour afternoon nap. Now that we see his hair all the time, we've realized he has a lot of it! Nathan says he needs a haircut but I'm not quite ready yet.

It's Hard to Sleep When...

You won't lay down in your crib. Henry discovered how to pull up in his crib yesterday. He had done it a couple of times before, but now he is a professional. This new trick means he is having a very hard time going to sleep, because he is standing up and talking. I took this picture while I was getting him dressed yesterday. He hates getting his clothes on because it means he has to be still. So he ended up with his shirt on his head, but he was okay with it because he was standing up.




He also now knows how to climb up the stairs, which means baby gates are up at our house once more.



Today I gave him a wooden spoon and a pot and he sat still for a few minutes, which was a bit shocking -- the sitting still part. He is a man on the move these days! But it's pretty fun to bang stuff and make lots of noise too.






Jack had lots of fun yesterday decorating his pumpkin that he picked out at the pumpkin patch. He also asked us the other day if we had noticed that he has hair on his arms and legs. Then he announced he was going to pour water on it so it will grow some more. Like a flower of course.

Goodbye Helmet!

Henry is officially done with his helmet! We have been waiting for this day for 16 weeks. He got the helmet on June 20, one day shy of his 6-month birthday. Since then we've had at least 12 appointments at Hanger, probably more than that but I lost track and they all started to run together.

When we started his diagonal measurement was 16 mm "off." That means if you looked at the top of his head and drew an X, one of the lines was 16 mm shorter than the other. The measurement should be a 0. As of today, it is between 2 and 3 mm. In other words, he has an almost perfectly round head.

He has not complained or fussed about wearing his helmet once during this whole time. I will not miss cleaning the twice daily helmet cleanings, blow drying it after cleanings, or constantly examining his head for new red spots. But, we are very thankful we had the opportunity to fix his sweet little head, and so thankful we can give him kisses on the top of his head all the time now.

Outdoor Fun

We've been outside a lot lately. On Saturday, we went to Baldwin to celebrate Grandpa Glen's birthday.



After the party, we went on a farm tour with Great Grandpa Bill and Great Grandma Pat. The first farm we went to raised alpacas. I had never seen an alpaca before, or even heard of one for that matter. They are cute little animals and are raised so wool can be made out of their hair. Jack really liked feeding them and Henry wanted to touch them too. He definitely preferred looking at the alpacas over looking at the camera for a picture.









Next we went to a honeybee farm. Jack wasn't quite as impressed with this farm, but it was interesting that this kind of weird man raises bees, lots of them. I was a little nervous about getting a bee sting, or one of the boys getting one. There were bees everywhere!

Today we went to the pumpkin patch for the 4th or 5th time already this year. We are taking advantage of our season pass from groupon! Today was extra exciting because we met Jack's good buddies Ben and Sam there. They had a great time running around and enjoyed apple cider slushes before we went home.






Sweet Henry had fun too. His big excitement today came after we got home. He learned how to go from laying down and crawling around to sitting up all by himself. And he also learned how to pull up on the shelves of his changing table... which means I now have to move the diapers, kleenexes and burp cloths I have there because he's going to try to get them all the time. He is a very busy little boy these days.