Saturday, July 28, 2007

Get this boy a wallet!

Henry is now officially a card carrying member of the New York Public Library. When I get a chance I will take a picture of him holding his card. Now, if I could only get him to sit still while I read him a book. He can make it through about two pages before he grabs the book and throws it on the floor.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Like a Deranged Politician

Once a week, Henry and I make the trek to the dry cleaners to drop off Adam's shirts. I put the bag in the stroller and put him in a carrier. I recently purchased a new one (an Ergo, I love it) and I can put him on my back.

This week, on the way home we were walking down Broadway. There is a bus station that we pass, so there are tons of people milling about and vendors on the sidewalk. I am looking like a crazy lady, pushing an empty stroller with a baby on my back. But, if you have ever walked past a bus terminal, you'll know I was the least crazy person around.

As we are walking, everyone we pass is laughing. I am getting a considerably more than normal amount of hellos and holas (and this is a very friendly neighborhood) and am starting to think something is amiss. Just then, I catch a view of Henry in a store window. He is sporting a huge three-toothed grin, swinging his head back and forth, and is very excitedly waving hello with both of his arms to everyone that we pass.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa visit from Boca Raton


First Beach Trip



Yikes, this water is COLD!

Makin' Music



Getting into trouble...





Look who is nine months old!



Swinging



Henry meets his friend Dashiell at the park afternoon for some swing time. Sadly, Dashiell is moving to Texas next week.

Soaked by the Sprinklers

Henri Matisse


Thursday, July 19, 2007

Clearly, I am nuts

We have been to three weddings in the past two months. Since I now have a son, I have a renewed interest in the Mother of the Groom Dance. I watch them dancing and feel so sorry for her. I realize how fast the time goes, and that the moment must be bittersweet.

Adam is horrified when I actually start tearing up during their dance. I even listen to the lyrics, I am such a sap. The last one was Celine Dion's "I'm Everything I Am Because You Loved Me." The line "You were my voice when I couldn't speak" practically sent me over the edge. The four glasses of wine that I chugged when I got there to calm my babysitter nerves probably didn't help.

Personally, I cannot imagine a woman good enough to marry "My Henry." I have taken to thinking about his future wife as "That Bit#$" Crazy, I know. I sound like an Italian mother that irons his underwear and brings him a plate of meatballs to eat on the couch.

Since he is so personable and handsome, I know the ladies will fall all over him and that the wedding day is inevitable. I was sharing my plight with someone, and decided that since I couldn't prevent the day from happening, I could at least stretch out our moment together. They suggested that I pick "Freebird" because the song is twenty-two minutes long. We'll see what she has to say about that!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Perils of Being a Stay at Home Mother

First, my IQ has dropped about 100 points.

I bought Henry the Little Dipper spoons to use, and I couldn't figure out the weird design. He wasn't crazy about them, so I just gave them to him to hold while he was eating. He turned them right side up and started using them properly. Well, at least my nine month old is smarter than me.

He was having trouble crawling for a few minutes this morning. He was slipping onto his belly. I was just thinking that maybe I should call the Ped because I thought he might be having a seizure or something. Helloooo, he has cotton pants and socks on for the first time in weeks, can't get much traction on the wood floor with those!

I feel like my arches are collapsing from being barefoot or in flip flops all of the time. Need to buy some proper footwear.

Anyway, that has been my day.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Why have a blog if...

You don't brag about your kid being a genius? I know ALL parents think their baby is smart. One of the funniest comments I ever heard was when a co-worker asked me why there were not more geniuses in the world since so many people were geniuses as babies?

Anyway, make fun all you want but my little Henry is a boy wonder these days. I won't even go into that much detail about his freakish ability to throw a ball. Suffice it to say that he may be referred to as H-Rod one day. And of course a hit with the ladies like Derek Jeter since he is so handsome.

My "he must be a genius" post today is about his musical ability. I bit the bullet and signed him up for the summer session of his Music Together class, since frankly I have a lot of hours to fill and he likes it.

We got to class and he immediately crawled to the center of the circle and was clapping his little hands to the music that was playing. Totally adorable. During all of the singing portions, he was shouting out all sorts of little baby noises and trying to "sing." The teacher even pointed out more than once that Henry was on pitch (oh please) and that he was singing during the resting tones (whatever the hell that means.)

But, the most exciting part was his use of the little egg rattles. He has always been good about shaking them and not just shoving him in his mouth like the other babies. He was watching the teacher very intently the entire time. When she started clicking her two eggs together he starting clapping his egg on his hand. When she started tapping her eggs on the floor, I swear to you he bent down and tapped his egg too. I would have fallen over when I saw that but I was already sitting down.

Anyway, thanks for indulging me! I think he is pretty special.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Free Will

Now that Henry can crawl, it is a whole new ball game. I can't depend on him to remain where I left him and he is starting to get into all sorts of mischief. At the same time, he also perfected moving from his belly to a seated position. Additionally, as my mother predicted, once the crawling comes, the pulling up and standing comes in full force. So, he has a trifecta of new moves to work on and there have been a flood of consequences.

The first and most "challenging" is that he refuses to sleep. I lay him down, and he immediately flops onto his belly, pushes up on the knees and sits. Over and over. The most fun time is when he does this in the middle of the night. I hear him crying and find him sitting up, totally awake. He is still to groggy to lay down, so he needs my assistance. Fun city.

He also likes to play jail bird in the crib. I try to ignore him when he sits up before naps but he whines and cries and refuses to sleep. He just sings his tale of woe, staring between the bars. When he really wants me in there, I hear the pacifier hit the floor. As soon as he sees me, he starts giggling. It is so sweet, he even pushes he little mouth and hands through for me to kiss. Yes, you can see I am quite the disciplinarian!

Henry has also perfected his alligator roll on the changing table, which makes diapering almost impossible. He flips and flops and then sits up and tries to crush his fingers in the wipes container. We will definitely start using the floor soon.

He has always like taking baths, but now really loves them. He moves all around his little tub, trying to grab the water coming from the spout and trying to stand up. He is a moving target to wash, I am sure I miss some spots.

Lastly, his favorite place to pull up is the ottoman where I keep the computer. He just loves to help me type. I venture a guess that we will be needing a new laptop soon, as he is not very gentle.

All kidding aside, it is a very fun time. I love to watch his little mind work, and see what he likes to play with and what he ignores. He moves around his room and touches things that he has never played with before with a look of such fascination on his face. He all time favorite toy is his rubber kick ball. Now that he can move around we can even pass the ball back and forth. It is pretty amazing, he can actually throw the ball to me with some force and accuracy. I push it back to him and he can grab it while it is in motion.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Mark Spitz Jr.

After the big success of putting Henry in the pool at my mom's house, I decided to give it a go at home. I have been taking Henry to Riverbank State Park here in the city to swim in their indoor pool.

It is a little challenging to get him into his swim diaper and trunks (so cute), get myself dressed, get the clothes locked up and take a shower, all while holding him. You aren't allowed to bring a stroller into the swim area, so there is no clean place to set him down. I was also a little nervous because the pool is very cold. When we swam in Florida, the pool was 92 degrees. This pool is about 78 degrees, so very chilly. Luckily he has no problem with it at all and absolutely loves the water. He even tries to swim when I put him on his belly. He splashes and squeals the entire time. We take the bus which stops right outside our building and drops us off one block away. He chatters to everyone on the bus the entire way there, I should make bus riding one of our regular activities.

Adam and I also took him to the beach for the first time yesterday. We went to Long Beach, which was really beautiful. Henry and Adam went out for a walk before we left and came back with every sand toy in the store and a special beach blanket that sand can't get through. I can't imagine what they would have come back with if Henry could ask for things! He loved playing in the sand and putting his feet in the water. He got so excited every time a wave came. The cold water didn't bother him one bit. It was a little less relaxing than beach visits in the past, he ate three mouthfuls of sand and took a face plant into the beach. I just squirted his face with a Poland Spring bottle, which didn't bother him in the least!

I will post some pictures soon.