hey

We went to see friends and visit Fireman Mike in Rockville sunday. Mike showed us all the cool firetrucks - “Big Trucks!” says Henry - and even jetted off to a call to end our visit. Thanks, Mike! Click on the photo to see the photo gallery.

I miss the beach.

Is anybody still out there? I’m upgrading the blog software.

Henry still has his shoe obsession. He routinely brings shoes to Phil and me as a way of saying he wants to go outside. The other night, just before our nightly diaper change and donning of the pajamas, Henry brought me one of my black boots. Then, he brought me another black boot - but it was from different pair. (one with heels - one without) I didn’t put them on myself because it was bedtime (and FREEZING outside!) so Henry asked if I would put them on him. I did and here are the pictures.

Phil didn’t want me to take pictures of this at first, but eventually relented. It just got funnier as Henry tried to stand and then to walk in the crazy mismatched boots, - HOW COULD I NOT take pictures of this?!

Also, today was the first day that Henry wanted to eat breakfast at his little table rather than in his booster seat at the big table. More pics -

I haven’t been taking many pictures lately. mostly because the little guy is TALKING and pictures just don’t grab that.

Munchkin has a rash on his face. He’s had it for weeks. Should clear up once it gets warmer and he finally cuts his molars (which are coming in.)


What are you looking at? NO, you cannot have my noodles!


Want some applesauce?

The Warrens came over for dinner a couple weekends ago. Dan is trying to help Henry climb up on the futon to get Emory.

Words Henry can say (that only mom and dad can understand):
dadda
mam
ball
nana (banana)
more
nanana (no no no)
outside
upstairs
shoes
cracker
magnet
baby
bye bye (with a wave)
car <- this one is brand new and he uses it ALOT
‘good day’ <- He told Phil to have a ‘good day’ yesterday morning before we left. This is something Phil tells me almost every morning. Henry said it twice - and waved bye bye! Made my year!

Ok, this is the last of the catch-up photos. All are of Henry’s first birthday. We had both sets of grandparents come and visit for the festivities, and boy, did we have fun!

Birthday cake -



and ice cream, which was TOO COLD, hence the face.

Balloons -

and presents -


and lots of time with grandparents -


Happy Birthday, little Henry!

This is Phil and Jay playing boxing on Andy’s Wii. I took video of them because they were so funny. See them duke it out here -
(movies removed - ask me for them if you need them!)

Back when it was warmer, Henry and I discovered that the pushcar can go OUTSIDE. Henry immediately began to push the car up the sidewalk to the mailbox. Once there, I realized that it is much harder for Henry to go downhill with the pushcar. It gets ahead of him and then he either has to let go and not fall or learn to run with it on the spot. HEY! Over-educated mama! the thing has WHEELS and you are on the top of a HILL. With a baby. That wants to have FUN. Get it? Okay, so I finally got it and Henry had the ride of his little life! We went up and down our little hill three times before I dragged him kicking and screaming back into the house.

Aunt Bonnie - Phil’s eldest little sister - came to see us in the middle of November (Hi, Bon!). Henry hasn’t had much chance to see her. The last time he saw her was when she came to see us in the spring with the other Syme siblings. (see pics here.) Naturally, Bonnie got the full treatment from the Munchkin, for Mommy and Daddy are not as fun on the Floor-o-Toys as they once were.

Bonnie’s visit was short, but while she was here, we enjoyed having her.

Love this pic - so cute -

Thanks, Bon, for coming to see us. Hope you come again soon! Don’t let my late picture posting keep you away.

Violet is the daughter of my friend Deb. We were postdocs in the same lab a couple years ago (years?) and we were pregnant with our first babies last year (Violet was born 22 days after Henry - and 12 days after Cheryl’s daughter, Adrienne!). Can you identify who’s who in this first picture of Henry, Adrienne and Violet?

Back in November, Violet and Deb came over for a playdate. Henry couldn’t quite walk yet, but Violet was walking all over. The two of them had a ball.

Henry had somebody his size to appreciate how fun the toys are.

Toys make the happy babies dance! (Deb took this video with her CELL PHONE! I love living in the future . . .) Violet does the Hustle and Henry does the Bump.

Eventually, these two discovered the push car. Instead of fighting over who got to push it around, we put one baby on to ride and let the other push. Problem solved and we got EXTRA cuteness!
But you really have to see it in action to appreciate how adorable it was.

I’ve finally downloaded my videos from the camera and here they are for your enjoyment. I have two versions of these new videos. For those of you who are not digging the embedded quicktime videos on this page - here are the youtube versions on their own page, and for those of you who have joined the mac army (welcome!) or are running a windows browser other than firefox (boo!) here are the quicktime versions.

We went to PA for thanksgiving. This was the first time we drove up ‘at night’ since Henry was born. The good news is that he slept most of the way there. The bad news is that we almost did, too. Anyway, we made it okay, thanks to Phil and lots of coffee. Once we got up the next morning, the playing with Henry began.

There was storybook time with Grandpa,

outside time with Aunt Sarah,

blocks with Uncle Joe,

and ‘keep Henry off the stairs’ with various relatives. (I think that’s Grandpa’s arm.)

These two shots are from Aunt Sarah’s camera - and I LUV them! Why doesn’t my camera work this well? Must be operator error!

Great Grandma Kate came over to visit. (I love saying “Great Grandma Kate”. Rolls off the tongue!) They seem to be having a good time with that potholder.

Uncle Matt had to work that weekend, but he came home anyway. Thanks, Mattie! (aren’t they handsome?)

Uncles Matt and Andy instruct Henry on the finer points of kitchen play - and they should know.

I tried to take some arty shots of Phil and Henry on the back porch since the weather was so nice and the light was so pretty, but Henry didn’t want to look at me.

Handsome Phil and I-Don’t-See-You-Mommy Henry.

Kiddo was just about to walk around this time. He would take a couple steps to Phil or I if we caught him. In a week or so, he started walking in earnest. Now, I have to wrestle him to the ground for diaper changes. Go, Henry, go!

Henry and I went to see the Maryland relatives back in September. Our cousins Brent and Trevor were making their Confirmations and there was a party. Thanks, Theresa and Bruce, for having us! It was great to see everybody and to eat cake and have people fuss over Henry - like my Aunt Jean -

Here are the boys Trevor and Brent, cutting their cake. Such handsome guys! So freakin’ BIG! Where are the little rugrats I used to know?

Big sisters Jena and Hillary were also around to party (and play football) - and play with Henry. Thanks, Jena!

My cousin Sue and her family were also there.

Have I mentioned how nice it was to see a bunch of people I love who were starved for baby-time? I actually got to eat with both hands thanks to Sue and Theresa and Sue’s daughter Kelly and a couple of pickles. Sue’s husband Mike even had some Henry-time (during the commercial breaks of the Redskins game :> ).

As you can see - Henry and I had lots of attention and had a great time seeing everybody. Hello, all you cousins! Thanks for having us!

There are lots of pictures and videos clogging up my hard drive since I haven’t posted anything in two months. Since I posted last, Henry has had two haircuts, learned to walk and had his first birthday, among other things. I’ve trimmed things down to the best photos and I figure that in 8 or 9 posts I will be all caught up. Sounds like a plan!

We left our dear Henry obsessing about shoes in the foyer of the house. Little boy still loves to sort out the shoes there. His favorite thing to do now is to put his little feet into daddy’s big shoes. Henry loves to pretend other things, too. Like talking on the phone -

Pretty much anything with buttons on it is a phone and gets held to his ear - this includes the tv remotes.

Try as I might, he still won’t talk when a phone is held to his head. Maybe next month.

More ‘catch-up’ posts in the days to come -

“Bye, y’all!”

I finally found a pair of shoes for Henry’s very own -



I like them. Henry is okay with them - I’m not sure that he likes them, exactly, but he tolerates them, and won’t take them off himself. They are already pretty dirty from all his running around. Hey! They’re machine washable - bonus. This was the third pair of shoes I bought online and tried to fit on Henry. Pain in my butt, but easier than toting him to a mall or a shoestore - ugh.

Little boy LOVES it when I take off his shoes and let him take off his socks himself. Socks are hi-larious. (who knew?) Socks are simulateously entertaining and comforting - socks are puppets, socks are balls. But the best is pulling your own socks off by the toes - the thrills! Nothing makes Henry happier. What a silly kid!

The shoes that accumulate in our foyer are like catnip to Henry. He cannot resist them. He must pick them up, poke at them with a pointy finger, pass them back from hand to hand, then fling them behind him as he grabs for another one. He can demolish a row of neatly lined up shoes in 10 seconds flat. Sometimes I think he has a preference for Daddy’s shoes, then I see him into mine. I have to keep an eye on him because he will chew on them if I leave him to it for long enough (ew.). Will he be a shoe salesman? or a podiatrist? Why does my baby love shoes so much?

“What are you lookin’ at?”

Marina sent me this link a few weeks ago and inspired me. Its a photo ‘how to’ for making your own babylegs from womens cotton kneesocks. Its a clever project and I told Marina to let me have a look at any she makes. “Ha!” says Rina. “I was forwarding the link to you so YOU would make them and let ME see!” Right, I thought, but I happened to see some socks on sale the next day that were in boyish colors, so I bought them and gave it a try. I love these things and have two pair for Henry already (see posts here, here and here).

Anyway, here are my results. Overall, it was positive. I like them and Henry will wear them all this winter.

The socks. $12 for 3 pair at the Bass outlet at Arundel Mills. Note the relatively boyish colors and patterns - perfect for the Munchkin.

First thing to do was to cut off the feet of the socks at the ankle, then to salvage a tube of material from the foot of the sock. You make the bottom part from this salvage.

But first you have to make it smaller by chopping some off. Next, I sewed the ends together at that raw edge where the argyle was (to make a tube), then turned the tube half in on itself to make the lower cuff.

Here they are - all done. You can see the new bottom cuffs that I made. This was the last pair I made, so they turned out the best of the three. The first two I did slightly differently, and I thought, easier.

This grey pair I did slightly differently. I didn’t make the ‘foot tube’ smaller by cutting some out and sewing back up again - I just used it ‘as is’ for the bottom cuff. As a result, the bottom cuff (at the top of the pic) is a bit too big. But still useable.

The blue stripey ones also have a bottom cuff that’s a bit big (and mismatched in color) but they are still my favorites of the three pair.

Here is the Munchkin modeling them for you.

Close up view from the back.

More movies of Henry and the pushcar he ‘inherited’ from Connor (thanks, Connor!).

I have figured out how to do cool stuff in Photoshop. Check this out -

Some picture galleries for you,

I bought Henry some blocks. I had more fun with them than he did, but they make for good pictures.

Also, Grandma Helen and Grandpa Dave came down last month for a visit and a short trip to the beach. It was Henry’s first trip to the ocean.

Grandma Kathy has requested some movies of Henry crawling. (Hi, Kathy!) We’ve got three movies today - one of Henry crawling, one of blueberry madness, and one with Henry’s newest trick. Enjoy -

“hey ladies! how YOU doin?”

“waddaya mean, I’m ‘pruney’ and I have to get out of the tub? I’m not pruney. I just have skin I haven’t grown into yet. And bath water I haven’t peed into yet, either. Give me five more minutes . . “