Henry-ism for Friday

Upon finding my pillow on the couch:

“Is it okay I lay on your pillow, Mama? Is it okay I fart on your pillow?”

Henry Quote of the Day

I asked Henry if he knew what recycling was and he said “My bike?”

Happy Birthday, Dave!

Henry is very excited about Dave’s birthday this year. Earlier this morning he came out of the bathroom naked, holding his you-know-what. I told him to put his underwear on and he said “Hold on, I didn’t blow out my birthday candle!”  Dave, I will get you a proper candle for tonight. You don’t have to use his or supply your own.

The Miracle of Hyland’s Teething Tablets

I would like to kiss whoever made Hyland’s teething tablets. Rhys is having a horrible time teething (proof – he just walked by and chewed on my thigh) and out of desperation, I bought some Hyland’s teething tablets. I don’t generally subscribe to crunchy-mother-earth type remedies, especially not for the kids, but I was desperate. I don’t know what’s in these things, I’m guessing something like bee pollen, sticks, “good vibes,” a dash of Volkswagon and some patchouli, but whatever it is, it seems to work. For a short while, anyway.

Rhys Turns One!

Today is Rhys’ first birthday. It doesn’t seem like an entire year has passed since he came into the world! He was born at 5:04 pm, weighing 9 pounds, 7 ounces, a very big boy. I think this time last year he was either sleeping in the nursery or attempting to nurse. The entire hospital stay is a bit foggy to me, I was doped up on painkillers. I don’t think he remembers much either.

We had a little lunch for him on Saturday and invited some of his contemporaries. Mostly they just slapped each other in the face and spit up. I think that means they had a good time.

No really, I’m not going to smack you in the face again, I promise.

Psyche!! LOOKEE AN EYEBALL I WILL TOUCH IT, THANK YOU

We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, and had some cake and homemade ice cream and sat around and giggled at the baby cuteness. Unfortunately, we discovered that Rhys is most likely allergic to peaches. After eating peach ice cream he developed hives all over his body and then threw up. Poor thing! I called the nurse line and they told us to give him some benadryl and watch him. We did and the hives went away; he seemed fine after a couple of hours. But nothing like scaring us (okay, me) to death on his birthday. I kept praying “Please Lord, don’t let my baby’s legacy be like that of Mark Twain who was born and died on the same day!” Which shows you how much sleep I’d gotten the night before, since Saturday wasn’t his birthday anyway!

Cheesetastic Dave makes cheestastic burgers

Rhys enjoys his own personal cake

I tried my hand at cake decorating this year and it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. The most difficult part was frosting the cake itself. If I had not cut it into a “1″ I think it would have looked a lot neater frosting-wise, but because there were ragged edges, some of the cake mixed in with the frosting and there were brown crumbs here and there. To disguise this, I added some rainbow sprinkles. I am really psyched to do Henry’s cake next month, I think I’m going to experiment with fondant.

He’s cutting four teeth simultaneously: his eye teeth, his top middle tooth to the right and the tooth on the right of the middle bottom teeth. This has been a nightmare all the way around. He is miserable and wants to nurse constantly, which means I am miserable and want to hide in the bathroom constantly to stave off his groping hands and gaping maw. He’s also walking EVERYWHERE. Virtually overnight he went from crawling to walking and there’s no stopping him now.

Henry has quite enjoyed Rhys’ birthday also, particularly the gifts. I am not sure if Rhys has had the opportunity to play with any of his toys yet, Henry co-opted them the second they came out of the packages! Hopefully Henry will share his loot next month when he turns three. THREE! Where has the time gone?!

But today I enjoy the fact that I have a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old. *sniff* *sniff* They’re not babies anymore!

Rhys Slept 13 Hours Last Night – Miracle of Miracles!

I think I know why, too. He went down at 8 pm and I had to wake him up at 9 am!! Here’s what he had for dinner:

1/4 of a u-shaped kielbasa
sauerkraut
~1 cup of peas
~1/4 cup Veg All
1/4 of a 9″ pie pan of corn bread
1/2 a piece of toast off Henry’s plate
ice cream AND cone

He ate more than Henry or I did!

More thought to schooling

As I eat my second piece of pound cake today (uuuuugh) I am thinking about where Henry and Rhys will go to school. Part of me wants to send them to private school but part of me wants to homeschool. I am going to let Andrea do a year of homeschooling and let me know how it goes and then I’ll decide, ha!

Henry and I are recovering from a stomach virus. For some reason this has made me unmotivated to write. I will add more tomorrow.

Henry-ism for the morning

“Do you hear that gooster outside?” (rooster)

Update on the boys

I should be writing in this every day, even if it’s just a sentence or two. I will try to do that from now on. We’ll go oldest to youngest today.

Henry

Henry continues to be my happy, silly little boy. He’s always getting in to something. Today he was supposed to be napping and I heard him calling my name. I thought maybe he pooped (seems to be a naptime ritual – lay down, then poop) so I told him to come downstairs. When he arrived at in the family room, I noticed something shiny on his arms. I said “What is that??” and he said “Lotion!” It was vaseline. He’d smeared it all over his arms, face, shirt and all in his HAIR. And not just a little, there was a HUGE glob hanging from his hair in the back. Dave had to use baking soda to get it out.

Saturday I put him down for a nap (notice a trend here?) and he came downstairs, his face covered with toothpaste. I knew that was a sign of something amiss. I went into our bathroom and sure enough, toothpaste had been squeezed out all over the tub. “I brush my teeth, Mama!” Indeed. Then he said “Poops! I have poops, they stink, help me.” Then he ran into his bedroom. I followed him in there and checked his bed since I’d just noticed he didn’t have a diaper on and I figured he’d pooped in the bed. Nope. He directed me to a box of wipes on top of the changing table. “I poop in the box! Poops stink, Mama!” Nestled in a bed of wipes were two huge logs. That child had climbed up on his changing table, taken a dump in a box of wipes, then cleaned his own butt. Potty, you say? I’m getting him a litter box.

He’s also learning to give compliments. I had on brown socks with pink flowers Sunday afternoon and he took notice. He pulled the leg of my pants up for a closer inspection and said “Ooooh, Mama! I like your pretty socks! They have pink flowers on them!” I said “Thank you! That’s so sweet, you’re learning to give compliments!” A few minutes later he joined Dave in the bathroom. I heard his little voice declare “I like your big pee-pee Dada!”

Lots of people are now his “best friends.” I think usually this is limited to me or Dave, but he has, on occasion, professed best friendship with the recliner, or sometimes Rhys.

Today I heard both of them giggling hysterically. I looked to see what they were up to and Henry was dragging Rhys around the room by one leg.

Rhys

Rhys is actually sleeping better! He usually gets up once a night, around 4 am and I let him spend the rest of the night in bed with us. I’m too out of it to do much more than that. Nine months of getting up two/three times a night has taken a toll on me and I’m just throwing in the towel.

He still only has two teeth. I guess he’ll get some more eventually. I’ve tried giving him mashed up food, like bananas and potatoes, but he gags and acts like he’s choking.

Around the beginning of February, he started crawling. At first he was a little awkward about it, but within two weeks he was zooming around the room and started to pull up. He can walk and push his little lawn mower walker thingy now, sometimes doing it with only one hand. Today he stood up against the shower door, let go, and stood by himself for a few seconds. It won’t be long until he’s walking. Time for the foam rubber!

He’s making lots of noises now, blowing bubbles and babbling. I think he’s said “Mama” a few times, but I am not sure. He’s not doing it consistently, at any rate. He’s very smiley now, which is a welcome change from the months of unending crying. It actually stopped around the time he started crawling, so I think he was just frustrated by his inability to move around. Unlike Henry, he’s very good at entertaining himself. I can leave him alone for up to 10 minutes and he’ll play with toys or (eat) books. I hope Henry takes a few lessons from him, he needs to be a little more self-sufficient when it comes to playtime. I’m too old to play horsie for more than a few turns around the living room.

All in all they’re both doing really well. They seem to really like being together, let’s hope that lasts! Rhys tries so hard to keep up with Henry and Henry is nice enough to slow down and go at Rhys’ pace occasionally. I’ve caught them holding hands in the backseat of the car on more than one occasion, it’s so sweet.

Alright, I am off to bed. Tomorrow we’re going to the library – that’s a big deal for a two-year-old!

I am still alive – update on me

This blog surely isn’t proof of my existence, I have neglected it for far too long.

Here’s an update of what’s keeping me busy: OBAMA. Hahaha, not really, but sort of. I’ve been helping organize and beat the bushes for two local Tea Parties here in Raleigh. The first one was on March 21st and the second one will be on tax day, April 15th. There were over 400 people at the party in March, it was really amazing to see so many like-minded conservatives together, peacefully (and sometimes comically) protesting spending by our Congress and Obama’s socialist agenda. The tax day party is supposed to be HUGE, I don’t know how many they’re expecting, but I would not be surprised to see over 1,000 people show up. It’s getting a tremendous amount of press and there are over 150 other tea parties across the country planned for the same day. Here’s a sampling of my protesting skills:

And here’s my favorite creation, silly as it is.

I was interviewed by the Raleigh News and Observer and my hero Michelle Malkin linked my Tea Party photos on her blog!

On to more important subjects, Dave and I joined a church in February. We’ve gotten really involved and we’re both loving it. I go to a woman’s Bible study on Tuesdays and I am enjoying it so much. All the ladies are so nice and eager to share their knowledge. I like the fact that we’ve got a workbook so there’s some accountability, but I don’t really need it because I find myself wanting to do all the weekly assignments at once. I have to pace myself. We are studying the tabernacle, something I am ashamed to say I really know very little about. But I’m learning! Henry and Rhys go with me and so far they’ve been pretty good. Henry had one meltdown over a cellphone another child was playing with, but other than that, they’ve been great. The pastor’s wife asked me today if they’re always that well behaved, hehe. I guess they usually are, Henry has never really been that difficult but Rhys may be another story in six months.

And now to mesh the last two paragraphs, I have to keep reminding myself of this Bible verse when kvetching about Obama gets to be too much for me to handle:

The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.
Exodus 14:14