I hung out with Batman, and he learned to high five (a form of affection Dirk and I have a long past with-- ask us for the story sometime!), ate sweet potato fries, stood up on anything he could grab, and napped. We had such a lovely day. :)
Leave it to Indiana... our only big dump of snow for the winter, and it's in March. That's ok-- I'm happy to have it at all. All the other storms have passed us by. We got about a foot. And school was cancelled! So much fun.
I hung out with Batman, and he learned to high five (a form of affection Dirk and I have a long past with-- ask us for the story sometime!), ate sweet potato fries, stood up on anything he could grab, and napped. We had such a lovely day. :)
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Well, since the last time I really wrote we've had a lot happen. Dirk got his MRI, met with the orthopedic doctor a week later, and a week after that had surgery on what they thought was a torn meniscus. It turned out being only rough cartilage, so he's all smoothed out and recovering. He missed a grand total of 1.75 days of work. Dirk's dad graciously offered to come and drive him to and from the hospital since I had a conference to be at for work. He took Dirk down to their house to recuperate, and Hendrik went along. I joined them the next day. Hard to believe, but I survived my first night away from Hendrik. I was somewhat sad but happy that he could be with his Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa. And it was a rare occurrence to wake up at 5:45, completely rested, before my alarm went off. We had a lovely weekend in Muncie after that! More stuff we've survived: Hendrik an ear infection. Well, he had one in his right ear that caused us to delay his 1 year shots, and when we went back after antibiotics BOTH ears were red. *frown* So he's still getting over that. And I'm surviving a hard drive accident. My work laptop that I use most often fell off my desk and landed with a thud on the floor, and it's not turning on. Thankfully my computer genius husband knows how to get to the hard drive, and we retrieved what we could. Sadly, we lost a good chunk of pictures, from about August through Christmas. We have some from then, what I have posted here and some other random ones. But Hendrik and Santa at Pokagon? Gone. Hopefully this will be a lesson to back everything up early and often. It's frustrating that I knew I should have been doing that but just didn't get around to it. So, to celebrate pictures we do have, here's a bunch from our world lately. I think you're flirting with me
because you've worked it out so that I've bumped into you every night (except last Thursday) for several weeks. But you should know I'm happily married and would prefer to see you only rarely if ever, and then just as acquaintances. It's just that a surgery- recovering husband and an ear-infected baby have made it necessary for us to spend conscious time together. Thank you for your understanding. The night before 11 months old, and all of a sudden we have forward motion. Check out my cheesy comment at the end-- I should write for "How It's Made".* So two days ago he was just army crawling for the first time, and now he won't stay in one place! He is loving the mobility. He can turn on a dime and go from lying down to sitting up really well. It's fun to watch him move-- he talks himself through it. I think he's saying stuff like, "hey, look at this piece of fuzz-- it looks yummy... Maybe if I keep going this way I can chew on Mommy's shoes... The underside of this table is so interesting..." and stuff like that. Another exciting habit this week: parties at 3 am. Saturday night he woke up, giggling and energetic and raring to go at 3. Dirk and I both groaned. And that night has been followed by several more nights of a lot of wakefulness. We finally figured out that he's cutting another tooth (teeth?). Blech. To make it worse, when Hendrik is up at 3, Shelby wants to join in the fun too. So the other night I almost had Hendrik back down, relaxed and going to sleep, and Shelby came bounding into the room and shook herself gleefully. I kicked her not so gleefully, and right away Hendrik arched his back and craned his neck and almost jumped out of my arms to go play with the dog. Sigh. If only Shelby could take those night-time wakeups! They could play as much as they wanted. But I guess that would be a house I would not want to wake up to. We have our fingers crossed that the new tooth will help him figure out how utterly boring 3 am is. And I'm thinking of locking Shelby in her cage again. Ok, one more cute thing Hendrik has done recently-- he got a big stuffed bumblebee for Christmas. We put him down when he was sleepy for a nap one day with the bumblebee, and we walked away. Several minutes later I walked past his room and peeked in, and he had the bumblebee grasped in both hands, its face right above his, and he was singing to it. He was singing the simple song (na na, na-na na) that Dirk sings to him to help him go to sleep. So sweet! Another time we put him down when he wasn't quite wanting to nap, and a few minutes later he had the bumblebee in the same position, and he was telling it a very angry story. ha BU da, da DAAAN... mmMMM uh blu blu AAAAHHHHN. That bumblebee got an earful. So... moving forward. I guess all that's left is moving up and moving out! * Has anyone else ever noticed, like Dirk and I have, how at the end of each segment the announcer says some super punny comment about the product he just described? We groan every time. Watch an episode and see what I mean!
Hendrik's Halloween costume. I guess he also looks like a mobster or Don Draper, but I don't want him to aspire to violence or womanizing! Secret agents never do any of that, so those are much better role models... hmmm. I might need to keep thinking on that.
We're not doing anything except taking pictures in it and maybe passing out candy, but I could not pass up an opportunity to dress him up. I bought the hat and then decided he needed a coat to go with it, so I found these great directions to sew one! By drafting my own pattern! So empowering. I used stitch witchery for the first time too. The fabric is a wool skirt I found at a thrift store. It was so much fun and surprisingly easy that I'll probably make more when I get a chance. This one fits pretty well, but I got the sleeves too long and narrow for everyday use. Oh well. Next time I'll know better. The little boy keeps ignoring my requests to stop growing so fast. He is the proud owner of 4 teeth and can scoot around on the floor a lot. He fed himself for the first time at Grandma & Grandpa's last weekend. Peaches and graham crackers, mmm. He has eaten a bunch of different foods and pretty much likes them all. He likes bouncing in the exersaucer, and at the baby-sitter's he loves pushing himself backward in the walker. We think crawling is just around the corner. He loves splashing in the bath. His favorite toys make fun noises, and anytime I have anything plastic and crinkly in my hand he dives for it. He loves the bags with wipes in them. His laugh is so great-- I could listen to it all day. He tells us stories very intently, and we try to respond with some of the same syllables to show him that we are listening and that we care. He lights up whenever he sees Shelby, and they like to take turns licking each others' faces. In related news, Hendrik has started giving kisses. He comes at you and presses his open mouth against your cheek. So so sweet. And *cue angel chorus* he is sleeping better!!! *angel chorus again* It's not an every night thing-- maybe we have two good nights out of three--, but we sure appreciate it when it happens. He has also developed an angry cry that sounds like he's screaming, "How DARE you put me down??!" A week or two ago he discovered that his voice can make a high-pitched screaming sound, and he enjoyed practicing that. Thankfully this week he has forgotten about it. Dirk has been so great to encourage me to let off steam by sewing. That's my current creative outlet of choice, and it really does help me relax and feel like I'm bringing order to chaos. It's a definite choice to do that instead of other things. The perfectionist inside wishes that I could do it all, but that's just not happening. So the laundry goes unfolded for another day while I sew some buttons on and watch my wonderful husband playing with our son, and I feel so thankful. Here's to you, little secret agent man! Almost 9 months old. We love you! To be fair, I did feel pretty crummy when I woke up. We've all been sort of under the weather for several days, and Hendrik has been going back and forth between average and miserable. He did get the second tooth, but it seems like more are on the way, and he just keeps having nights of sleep that are worse and worse. Last night as I fell into bed (only to wake up in an hour and stay awake much of the night) it occurred to me that I have several lovely sick days just waiting to be used and that if we didn't have a fog delay I would allow myself to take one.
No fog delay-- woke up feeling yucky-- called the substitute coordinator and emailed some plans off-- then back to bed until 9:45. Uh MAZ ing sleep. H always seems to do better in the early morning. When we finally got up, right away I put last night's chicken soup back on the stove so it could simmer. I had about eight bowls of it through the day. We got lots of chores done and just enjoyed being around the house. Thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law who came to visit on Saturday, the chores were much easier and faster than they usually are. It was just an altogether lovely, run-of-the-mill day. So thankful for this rare opportunity! We all feel better tonight, so it's back to the grind tomorrow. Hopefully H will sleep well. Here's a picture where you can sort of see his teeth... ...from our weekly pictures of Hendrik. It made me laugh.
Fun long weekend... Blueberry Festival-- funnel cakes and new earrings, home with Dirk for 3 whole days, played for a wedding with some amazing students, cuddled Hendrik, made a trial run of applesauce, sewed, listened to a funny correspondence between Gregor Samsa and Dr. Seuss (thanks, Mark!), and relaxed.
Does this count as sitting up? Is it as soon as he doesn't topple, or does it need to be when he's a little more upright? Either way, I think we're getting there. And he's wiggling his way around, not really scooting or crawling yet, but rolling with a goal. So much fun! We're back! We had a wonderful time on our crazy trip... Here's what it ended up being: We spent a night at each spot with a letter, 3 nights at F (the Alta Campground in the Bitterroot National Forest). And in the spirit of the Olympics, here are some numerical results (but no rankings-- it was obviously best trip ever!). Nights away: 10 Hendrik's longest trip to date. And ours as married folk, I believe. New states: 6 Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota Miles driven: 3,669 When Dirk kept pushing to go further and further west, I reacted somewhat negatively out of fear most of vacation would be spent inside the car. But I have to hand it to him-- if we had stopped in eastern Montana, we would have missed the most majestic and gorgeous parts of the trip. It was so worth it!
Campgrounds: 3 One night at Lost Creek State Park near Anaconda, MT. The next and best one was the Alta Campground in the Bitterroot National Forest. Beautiful!!! And spacious, and minus any neighbors. And we spent a night in the Helena National Forest at the Vigilante Campground, our last night camping, and of course the only one that it rained.
There is so much more, but I'll leave it at that. It was a wonderful vacation! We are already dreaming about a return visit. Here are some more pictures of this and that...
What better to do with free days, a little boy, and a camera with some bells and whistles? Take pictures! Digital cameras are great because they give you lots of chances to get that perfect picture. Yesterday I wanted to get a picture for H's calendar, and I wanted it to be something he can do that's a little new... so sitting in the Bumbo seat it was. He's not exactly a pro at it, so taking that good picture took a little work... Here's the one I ended up liking the most: Cute, right? But I almost like seeing the outtakes better...
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