Caught in the act! HtT rolls over

Happy Baby faces taken on Grandma's Birthday

My Eventual Triumph Over Diaper Debacles!

Many of you knew this day was coming, the day when my son would poop, and I would have it all covered. Let me tell you, it was a long time coming.

Most of my success I owe to the fact that Henry has just started solids. The introduction of rice cereal has given Henry more to digest then he has ever had to in his life; this is probably the reason why, after 2 days, he had not pooped.

At the start of day three, I was prepared. Something was coming, and that something had to be BIG!! My sences were honed. I was on the look out, listen out, and smell out. All morning long I proceeded with caution, and then it HAPPENED! I was sitting in the rocker playing with Henry, when I heard a big squirt. Thinking quickly, I held him away from my body and up in the air. Past experience has taught me that placing him on the changing table after such a large bowel movement would sentence me to outfit changing duty. Instead, I unsnapped him, and removed his dirty diaper with one hand, while cradling him in the other. After setting the diaper on the changing table, I ran to the bathroom to wash off the poopy in the shower. Look at that clean butt! Another outfit saved my mom!

In the Jumperoo, On the Boat, and Just Sittin'

Henry's Further Forays into Fine Dining

The title is absolutly aliterative abuse.

Henry's welcoming shower

Henry crashes out with Aunt Lynn

Henry before his big explosion......

and After!

Even though Cousin Charlie is already a year old, he still loves playing with the infant activity mat!

Henry's First Solid Food

Get that kid a modeling contract!

I should write a book on Diaper Debacles!

Despite Henry's young age he is already an activitist. Henry, Scott, and I did the Y-Me Walk for the Cure (of breast cancer) on Mother's Day. Henry already has an impecable sense of style and he insisted on matching his outfit to mine. Everyone from Aon was wearing maroon t-shirts, so Henry wanted to wear his blue and maroon striped "D is for Dog" jumper. I'm so thrilled to have such a stylish little man!

Because we would be walking for 5k, I didn't want to bring my diaper bag since it is big and bulky. Instead, we used existing storage in the stroller, since we would be taking that along. Forgetting a lesson I have already learned, we packed no extra outfit for Henry, which was ok by him because we didn't have any other well coordinated outfits.

We got to the walk ontime and everything started out great. I met some other women from my floor and we began walking and chatting. I am not exactly sure how far we got, but Henry started to get fussy, as though he wanted to eat. We excused ourselves from the walk and found a grassy patch in Grant Park near Columbus Dr. We took Henry out of the stroller. He was soaking wet! I swear! I had to check if we actually put a diaper on him this morning! It was an overcast day, and not particularly warm, and breezy by the lake. We changed his diaper, and to buffer Henry from the soaking wet, well coordinated jumper we placed the two burp cloths that we brought with between him and his clothing. I hoped this kept him warm. Poor Henry!

Naturally, we were not going to let him spend the rest of the morning in a pee-soaked, albeit well coordinated jumper. We took Henry to Macy's to find a new outfit for him to wear. Although Henry was a little dissapointed that there was no outfit that coordinated with his momma, he EVENTUALLY found something to his liking. We took him to the changing room, sat on the floor, and took lots of pictures. Do you like what he picked out?

Henry enjoying the Bumbo Seat

The little bee was a gift from Henry's Great-Great Aunt Wilma

Henry at home with the nanny

We have encouraged our nanny to take a lot of photos of Henry while we are at work. Here are some great shots she took a few days ago...

Henry after Diaper Dibacle Part #3

Diaper Debacle Diaries.... part two

On our last day in Puerto Rico, I couldn't stop congradulating myself for perfectly packing for Henry. I had one clean outfit left, that was perfect for the trip home, and I had a pair of long pants and a hat for the cold weather back in Chicago. We got to the airport with little trouble; and we were used tot he security drill by now. I took Henry out of the snap-and-go, and placed him on my sholder.

Hmmm....Something smelled funny.


Scott giggled and said, "Oh MAMA". The security guard lady asked me if someome was misbehaving.

After we got thru security, I made a beeline for the bathroom so I could clean-up my Henry. Luckily, I had disposible washcloths with me. Unluckily, there was only one soap dispensor in the whole bathroom, and it was located on the opposite end of the bathroom from the koala care diaper changing station. Also, I was a little premature in all my congradulations to myself on perfect packing. I had a pair of pants for my little man, but no shirt! Ay dios mio!

Scott and I ran all over the san juan airport looking for a vendor with a shirt or a onesie that would fit Henry. Eventually, Henry got hungry and Scott had to go it alone. While I sat and nursed, I could hear the flight attendants call for pre-boarding. Then for regular boarding. Then last call for boarding. Finally Scott found his way back to the terminal just in time! And what did he have?

Diaper Debacle Diaries part 1

At LAST!!
Our first family vacation is here. I have been anticipating this trip to Puerto Rico since we cancelled our trip to Costa Rica, (becuase I was knocked up) and since we decided not to fly for 11 hours to Hawaii (since we had a newborn).

I had Henry's bag packed for almost a week, and mine was packed for the last three days. I had the cutest airplane outfit picked out for Henry to wear. I had a diaper bag full of diapers. I had TONS of baby sunblock. Henry was an ANGEL on our connecting flight from Chicago to Philly. What could go wrong?

Hmmm...I'm sure that most of you know as soon as you begin thinking that things are going to be perfect, things start turning out to not be perfect. First, our connecting flight was delayed and pushed back 2 1/2 hours. Then, my little angel baby had a meltdown on the airplane when we tried putting him in our carseat for takeoff. For the rest of the flight he did O.K., thanks in large part to the efforts of Mama. We gave him a B- for the flight.
Finally when we landed in San Juan, we were able to collect only 2 of our 3 peices of checked luggage. The missing peice had all of Scott's clothes, and ALL of the diapers that I needed for this trip. Aye Dios Mio!

Luckily, I had packed plenty of little swimmer diapers, I just figured I'd need to use one or 2 of these before we recieved our missing bag, which the airline promised we would have by noon the next day.


HtT and I went for a swim, while Scott tried to keep cool in his blue jeans and undershirt. He was able to take lots of pictures of the two of us swimming around in the pool. See the little swimmer poking out from under Hank's swimtrunks? Doesn't it look like it can hold back massive amounts of baby pee? Well it can't. I found this out as soon as HtT and I got out of the water and he took a nap in his favorite place. On me. Not only did I become soaked in baby pee, but a puddle began forming under me before we realized what was going on.
In case you were wondering, the bag with Scott's clothes and the diapers arrived at 4 p.m, and not a minute too soon.

HtT in Puerto Rico

Trip to Puerto Rico

The Happiest Henry on the Blogk !

The most disgusting thing I have ever done

Scott claimes he has had a sore throat and stuffy nose for the past few days, and he was worried that he may have unwittenly passed his pathogens on to Henry. (totally bypassing me, by the way, as I have neither a sore throat nor stuffy nose).
This morning Henry was a little distressed. Fearful of a sick baby, I tried reading some of my baby books to see if they could tell me what was up with my little man. After a reading a few pages while listening to a screaming baby, I decided to give Henry the once over. The once over revealed that he had a HUGE BOOGER in his nose. It was gigantic.
I tried picking it out with my pinky finger, but my little finger was still too big to fit up Henry's nostril. Then I got that baby sucker-outer thinge that comes in Baby first aid kits. You know what I'm talking about, right? I tried using that to suck out the booger. That only pissed Henry off. Now he was really upset. I was at my wits end.
I decided I needed to take DRASTIC ACTION. Taking a page from the infant CPR manual, I covered his nose with my mouth and sucked. Henry seemed to like that, as he stopped crying, so I did it a couple more times. I think I felt something hit the back of my throat. I checked Henry's nose, and the monster booger was gone. I can only assume that, that funny feeling I have in my throat is the little booger that was bothering my little boy. It's been about an hour, and I've had a cup of tea, some juice and water, but that sticky booger is still in the back of my throat........I hope and pray that soon, I will swallow that booger, and never have to think about it ever again.

Happy Henry!

Super Henry!

When momma is away...

...Henry is difficult to soothe. Katherine went to get a massage as part of her "momma makeover" and I had Henry to myself. We played for a while and Henry got a little fussy. I put him in his crib so that I could warm up a bottle of milk. The only milk around was frozen, so I had about 10 minutes before I could try to feed him. I tried to calm him down with no success. During that time, Henry did a full-on exercise of his lungs. When I left Herny in his crib to fetch the warmed bottle, I heard another sound coming from the Nursery. Cosmo began to howl in tune with Henry's cries. This is how it went: Henry would wail. Cosmo would howl. Cosmo would howl. Henry would wail. As sad as it was to hear Henry cry, it was really funny watching Cosmo join in with Herny's crying. Momma doesn't know what she missed!

The Great Diaper Debacle...as told by Mom

Henry has started his 6th week of life, and in such he has fallen in to a nice little sleep routine. He usually goes to bed at night around 8 or 9 p.m., wakes up sometime between 1 and 2 a.m. for a change and a feeding, and again at about 4:30 before he finally gets up at 6:30. When mom gets out of bed. Now, I take the first shift. When we hear Henry throu the monitor at 1, I get up, change his diaper, feed him, and send him on his way back to dreamland. The 4:30 shift belongs to Scott. (He gets out of bed, changes Henry, and brings him back to the bedroom so that I can feed him and try to sleep at the same time.) Well, last night, Scott brings me Henry, complains a little about changing the diaper, and goes back to sleep. I begin to feed him, and soon its lights out for momma and baby.
Later that morning, as I scoop Henry up in my arms, I noticed that he was REALLY WET. I thought he was sweaty. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with NEW MOM GUILT. I, selfishly, wanting to have a few hours of baby cuddles every night, was causing my son to get SO hot at night that he soaked his nightshirt. I was a terrible mother and deserved to die, or something like that. After expressing my guilt to my husband, I handed Henry over, so that Scott could change him in the nursery. That's when I noticed how wet the bed was. Oh My God! My son was SOOO hot, he made a pool of sweat on the bed!!!!.........
After pulling "it" together, Scott and I reasoned that it was probably baby pee, and that Henry's diaper probably leaked. Scott even said, "you know how when you put on the diaper and the strapes are like this? " (Scott pulled his arm into his sides bent at the elbows, his hands straight out in front facing me. He was asking me to imagine that he was a diaper, and that his arms were the sticky things on the back of the diaper that fasten to the front of the diaper) "Well", Scott continued, "the strapes on this diaper were like this." (Scott flipped his arms around so that now he lookes like he was imitating a duck.) I took this to mean that everything was reversed, and that was probably why Scott complained about the diaper in his half asleep state earlier that morning. He went on to state that he had to finagle the diaper to keep it on. I was already pulling the sheets off the bed. Henry was making farty noises, which meant that he was probably pooping.
Scott took Henry to the nursery to change his diaper. Over the baby monitor I heard him exclaim, "why is this diaper a funny color?" The diaper was a funny color because it was inside out. Somehow, at 4:30 in the morning, Scott managed to put Henry's diaper on INSIDE OUT, so that the water resistant side was against our son's money makers, and the absorbent side was against his nightshirt. All the pee that Henry pee'd from 4:30 to 6:30 just bounced off his diaper and landed on the sheet, the mattress pad, and probably me. Thank goodness we have our own washer and drier!

Needless to say, Scott promises to make sure all his future diaper changes will be right side out, regardless if the diaper change happens at 4:30 in the morning or not!

Bathtime

My big boy!

I had to let everyone know how big my little boy is getting! We went to the doctor yesterday to get measured and weighed. Henry is 22 and 1/4 inches long and he weighs 10 pounds 13 ounces!

Tummy time for Henry with curious Cosmo

Hank da Tank

How I lost my unbilical cord stump and got to take My First Bath! by Henry (as told by my Daddy!!!)

It took exactaly three weeks for Henry's umbilical cord stump to fall off. He finally got a much needed bath, although he had a few sponge baths previously. Here is the low-down on the stump shedding. Kat and I were changing Henry on the changing table and we were both commenting that it looked like the "stump" was hanging on for dear life . It was dangeling by a thread. A gross, scab covered thread. Kat was bummed since it had been 3 weeks and she really wanted to give Hankers his first bath. Kat picked Henry up ant moved him to the crib and just like that, the stump was gone! But where did it go? I looked all over the floor, in-between the crib sheets, high and low. We even undressed Henry and checked his diaper, despite his protests. Kat said the dog must have eaten it. I was totally grossed out, since, I did not want to imagine that my dog would harm my son in anyway, even if it was just his umbilicar cord stump. About an hour later, it was time for Henry's mid morning snack. Kat had to go "on the clock", and started getting herself ready, when she announced that she knew where the umbilical cord stump was. (half-way down her shirt, stuck in her nursing bra.) Thank God! My dog is not a human eater, and I can give my son a real bath! Please see REAL BATH photo's above. The end.