Henry, 5 months old

Mr. Henry is now 5 months old. He starting rolling at 4 months and at 5 months he started eating rice cereal. He is scooting backwards. A lot. A lot more than we are prepared for. He loves anyone and everyone talking to him. He is a very good and happy baby. Many people are surprised to hear him cry since he is such a happy baby. But trust me...he can cry.

As I was writing this he scooted under my chair. Stinker. Thanks to Katie (and her mom!) for his adorable hat.



His initial bites made for funny pictures but he really does like this new food adventure. I have to point out the picture of Randy AND Lily with their mouths open, subconsciously mimicking Henry. Too funny. See this post for when Randy had his mouth closed while feeding Harrison. :)

Locks for Love...again and again and again!!

The kids posed with my long hair (and me!) prior to getting my hair cut. This is my 3rd locks for love donation!! I've started the process of growing long enough to donate and cutting short (seems to coordinate after having a baby, definitely has something to do with the house being covered in long Jenni hairs). I hope to donate many more times!!

This summer...

Lily is busy losing teeth (see previous post, she's now lost 2!),taking swim lessons (we all can't wait to say adios to the arm floaties), watching over Harrison who is in her class this summer, practicing riding her bike in an effort to take training wheels off in the fall, princess ballet dance summer camp, being a very good helper with Henry (she won't wipe a butt yet but will do the rest of the diaper change) and learning to read (Randy bought her "Bob" books and she is flying through them (and very proud).

Harrison is busy being spiderman, iron man and green lantern (his new underwear help bring out the characters). As mentioned above he is in Lily's class for summer school but will return to his normal class come fall. He loves to wrestle his dad and tickle his baby brother. He loves to swim too but doesn't use arm floaties. He is a bit more adventurous and will mimic what other swimmers are doing. He will go down the kid water slides over and over. He is almost over afternoon naps but will fall asleep during bedtime stories. He remains a cuddle bug and takes full advantage when he sneaks into our bed at night. At the end of the spring semester he was drawing "H's" but isn't too interested in the other 7 letters yet. Sorry for the long name, buddy!

Our summer has been filled with a road trip to Colorado (kids did rather well for 2 days of 5-6 hrs each way), trip to Adventureland to celebrate my mom's birthday and 5 years cancer FREE!!, first camping experience (see previous post), weekend in Okoboji for my cousin's wedding (family surprised bride and groom with a Thriller performance), Randy 4-day work trip to Boston (besides 2 other 1 day or 1 overnight work trips this was my first extended time with all 3 kids alone) and a week in South Dakota/Sioux City for Randy's bro's 40th birthday, the 4th of July and the Days of 59 (lots of fun stuff including the annual run/walk in honor of my aunt, Susie that my bro organizes and I try to help with).

We've been so busy we're in need of a vacation. Good thing we're traveling to Grand Cayman Island in 6 days. :)

DyMOmite

Harrison is a very focused kid when he wants to be. Like when it comes to music. He will request a song over and over to memorize the words. He is very determined and as parents, we get pretty cool concerts on a regular basis. I could watch this video daily for the rest of my life...I love it...

First Camping Trip

We survived the first family camping trip. I should rephrase that to say we didn't melt on our first family camping trip. It was a HOT one. Randy gave a talk on rockets and even launched a few model rockets for the campground. His talk was great, as always. This was Randy's first talk the kids have been to. I've pictured them tagging along when he does community outreach talks. But that will have to wait. They did pretty good, probably as good as can be expected from being 3 and 5 yo and being quiet for 30ish minutes in 90+ heat. From their mom's perspective they moved their lawn chairs way too much and way too close to the stage (while flashing me a naughty smile) and fought over a water bottle. Henry even decided to baby talk and he's not so quiet anymore. But again it was at a campground so no one seemed to notice (or care).

Our family friends hung out at our campsite and the kids all enjoyed s'mores and catching lightning bugs. We went to bed at a reasonable hour (for a family with young kids) but not reasonable in campground terms (drunk people without kids who were LOUD). I don't think the drunkos woke Randy or I up anymore than we would have woken from the HEAT. I feel the need to capitalize any word with heat or hot because the HEAT was HOT. Around 3AM I checked the temp and it was 75. I'm pretty sure that was as cool as it got. The nice part of waking every 15 min was seeing our family sprawled in a tent together under the stars. Both Randy and I agreed on that the next morning. And yes, we paid back our drunko neighbors by waking up at the crack of dawn. Before the HOT HEAT set back in we enjoyed breakfast, swimming at the beach and Henry and I got in a little nap in the tent while the kids and Randy continued their beach/swimming fun.

Overall a successful camping trip. I foresee many, many, many more!

First tooth fairy visit!

Our tooth fairy is tall, dark and handsome. Normally, I'm the one to sneak around after the kiddies are fast asleep and play the role of the gift giving bunny or present leaving Santa. I couldn't fulfill the tooth fairy's duties since I was sleep deprived with a newborn so Randy stepped up to the fairy plate. He even left a "fairy dust" trail from the window to Lily's bed thanks to a friend's recommendation (Thanks Lacey!). The fairy dust was the big excitement, more than the 8 quarters she banked. But I did wrap those 8 quarters in cute pink netting with a bow (points for presentation!). Anyhow, Randy did a great job since he completed the mission without waking a kid up. Makes up for him losing her tooth the second time he was the tooth fairy. Someday we'll find it. :)