10 Fun Facts about Henry

1. Henry loves to crawl on his hands and feet.
2. Henry can sign more and all done.
3. He can say moo, mama, dada, this, and that.
4. Henry will eat anything - even dandelions!
5. His favorite book is Moo, Baa, LaLaLa by Sandra Boynton.
6. Henry does not like being tossed in the air.
7. He loves laughing and being tickled.
8. He LOVES playing with William.
9. He has curly red hair!
10. Henry is going to be a big brother in December!

Happy birthday, Henry!!!!

Our sweet Henry is one today!!! Happy birthday to our little bear. We love you dearly and are so grateful you joined our family!!!! Here's to many more happy years together.
Love,
Daddy, Mommy, and William

Easter

We had a lovely Easter weekend.

On Saturday the 23rd we had a fun Easter egg hunt with David's family and neighbors. William loved looking for all the eggs. He even stopped to look for some other hidden treasure... We sure got spoiled with lots of yummy candy!

William got a brand new Lightning McQueen bike from his Grandma Dougal. He was SUPER excited when he saw it. He ran right to it and climbed on. He's been working hard learning how to "pedal like mad" as he says. Thanks Grandma Dougal!!!
We spent Saturday evening with my family celebrating Easter and my niece's birthday. We had a great time with them! 

Sunday morning we awoke to some fun Easter baskets. We each got some books, some candy, and some other little things. Henry was so funny - he realized that his eggs made different sounds when he would shake them. So he found two different ones and would shake them together to hear their different sounds. It was pretty funny! Then one accidentally opened, spilling some M&Ms out. He sure enjoyed those!

I made the boys these really cute car mats.  They can be arranged in all sorts of ways. The boys have had lots of fun playing with them. I had a lot of fun making them - they were pretty time consuming, but the end product was well worth it!

After church David, William, and I colored Easter eggs. This was William's first time coloring eggs. He LOVED it! He had lots of fun dipping his eggs in all the colors.
That evening we had a lovely dinner with my grandparents, my uncle and his family, and another uncle.

It is fun to celebrate Easter with these various traditions. But we definitely stopped to take time and talk about the true reason for Easter. We are eternally grateful to our Savior Jesus Christ, for His atonement in our behalf and for His resurrection. We know that one day we too will be resurrected like Jesus and, that if we live righteously and apply the atonement daily in our lives, we will live with Him again for all eternity. Our lives would mean nothing without our Savior. We hope that you will join with us in remembering him not only on these special holidays, but in everyday of our life. 

Henry turns 11 months old!

Henry turned 11 months old on April 21st.
Here are highlights from March 22nd through April 21st.


This kid has a very talented tongue. He can fold it and twist it all sorts of ways. 

Henry loved playing in this box. He loves playing with William's toys as well as his own. He LOVES the playhouse I made for them. He'll crawl in and out of it any way he pleases. He loves to crawl in it and giggle. 

He loves dark chocolate! 

He really loves any food. The only thing he sometimes will turn away is scrambled eggs. 

One Sunday after church, Henry escaped while he was getting his diaper changed. He was crawling away laughing hysterically like he was the funniest guy around! All he had on were his black socks.
Henry loves laughing and loves getting chased!

We've also discovered that Henry loves balloons. 

Shortly after Henry got his 7th tooth he started biting me. We continued nursing for a week or so and he would only bite me occasionally. Well, one day he bit me while he was nursing and my reaction really scared him.  I tried comforting him and nursing him again, but he refused. He refused to nurse the rest of that day. The next morning he nursed perfectly though! He didn't bite and he didn't arch his back and scream.  Sadly, that was his last time nursing. Every time I tried after that he would arch his back and scream. I tried giving him a few days without attempting it, but when I tried again he still freaked out. I finally decided to let it go. It was a very hard decision but it was what was best for Henry. I started pumping that very first day that he refused. I pumped for a week with just my hand pump, but then I was able to borrow an electric pump. I actually just stopped pumping a week ago. My milk was definitely drying up. Thank goodness for the free formula I had received in the mail around the time he was born. Thanks to that and to what I was able to produce we never had to buy formula. And now that he's almost 1 he is on whole milk.
Henry drank his bottle best if we just laid him on the floor with it. So in the above picture he is enjoying one of his bottles. 

We sure love this happy, adorable little boy. He sure has a fun personality! We are so grateful that Henry joined our family. We love you, little bear!

Crunch!

On April 4th William, Henry, and I were involved in a car accident on our way to get David from school. To make a long story short, we were hit as we were heading southbound by a lady heading westbound. She ran her red light (which had been red for at least 30 to 45 seconds) and ran right into me. We later found out that she was most likely impaired. And we later found out she was uninsured.
But thanks to our amazing insurance company everything has been taken care of. Our car is beautiful once again!

Here are pictures of the damage.

We are truly grateful that no one got hurt.
We know that we were being watched over and protected by our Heavenly Father. 

Markus Zusak

If you've never read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak you need to. It is an amazing book set in Nazi Germany during World War 2. I will warn you that it has quite a few swear words. But the story is fantastic. 

On March 26th I went to a lecture he presented at the Provo Library. He gave a great lecture about his book. After his lecture he signed books. My friend, Lori, ended up in line right behind me. So she took this picture for me. 

I took this of him signing his other book I am the Messenger.

Henry turns 10 months old!

Henry turned 10 months old on March 21st. Here are highlights from February 22nd to March 21st.

Food Mastery

Henry mastered the sippy cup during this month.
He also made the switch from eating baby food to eating table food full time.
He successfully mastered the art of slurping up noodles/pasta.
He also mastered the fine art of spreading his food all over his face and hair.


"Has anyone seen my cookie? I swear I just had it!"

Discovering the Great Outdoors

Henry discovered the warmth of sunshine on your face, the feel of dry grass, and the taste of said grass.


He also discovered a brilliant way to sit on the grass with the least amount of skin touching the grass. This picture doesn't quite capture it, but, let me tell you, it was hilarious to watch. I am amazed at his balance!

He sadly discovered that he does not like flying.

Sleep Adventures

At this point in time, he still loved being swaddled. He'd always wiggle his arms out of it, but he still loved the swaddle. He also loves his binky at bedtime and his soft and silky blue blanket.

Reading

For a long time Henry refused to sit for books. I would attempt it but he'd always get away from me. Well, I'm happy to report that this is no longer the case. He found a book he LOVES!!! Moo, Baa, LaLaLa by Sandra Boynton is his book of choice. It's funny because this is the book that William really loved when he was a baby.

Teeth Count: 7 
Fifth tooth: top right side
Sixth tooth: top left front
Seventh tooth: top right front
He's got a cute lop-sided grin! 

Potty Training!

Potty training has always intimidated me. There are so many ways to go about it and so many factors that can influence it. I knew what methods I didn't want to use, but I didn't know what I DID want to use. Enter the best book ever! Well, it's not the best book ever, but it definitely was extremely helpful and just perfect for William! I read Teri Crane's Potty Train your child in just one day: Proven secrets of the Potty Pro. This book  was great! Easy to read, but full of amazingly helpful information.
Here is the main idea. Plan a "potty party" day for your child. In the morning your child potty trains a doll/stuffed animal. Throughout the morning the doll will have accidents and successes. The doll is praised and the child is rewarded as long as he promises to someday use the toilet.
In the afternoon the focus switches to the child. Praise and reward for successes. Accidents are really no big deal. After an accident your child sits on the potty to "help build potty training memory muscles".  At the end of the day you celebrate the child and they earn a reward of some sort.

So now that you know the theory, here is how our day went.

March 16, 2011
I chose this day because it was David's first day of spring break. He took spring break off from work. There is strength in numbers. Plus he was able to take care of Henry.


William awoke to find a present with his name on it! 

Inside was a new friend. We decided to name him Tommy. Tommy arrived wearing a diaper just like William's. But inside his turtle shell were 7 pairs of underwear (that I had sewn for him the night before).

Throughout the morning, William and Tommy read books about potty training and watched a show about using the potty. Tommy had a few accidents of both varieties. But he also had many successes - we celebrated when he was still clean and dry AND when he successfully used his potty. Yes Tommy actually pooped and peed in the toilet. His poop were little raisins I sneaked in the toilet while William wasn't looking. His pee was just a syringe of water squirted into his toilet (the bottom portion of a juicer).  Each time Tommy succeeded he got a sticker on his chart, and William got to eat a little treat since he promised to someday use the potty.

After lunch and a little quiet time (William doesn't nap anymore), William got another present - his very own underwear!!! (We regifted his Christmas gift to him.) He was SO excited!

And thus it begins. 

William had had LOTS of fluids throughout the morning and early afternoon. We would check occasionally to see if he was clean and dry. When he was he would get a sticker on his own chart and a little treat. We then popped some popcorn and watched a little movie.
During this movie, William had his first accident. And let me tell you, it was HILARIOUS!!!! Seriously! We had a waterproof blanket down on the floor. He was standing on it close to the popcorn bowl while watching his movie. All of a sudden, he started peeing. Not a little bit, but a lot! All those fluids had struck with a vengeance! The funny part was his reaction. He started looking down and you could tell he was thinking "AH! What is going on here???? Where is this all coming from???" We got him to the bathroom and cleaned him up. He was SO very sad that Mater got wet. After he sat on the toilet for a bit to practice and build his potty training memory muscles, he chose out a new pair of underwear. David, thankfully, cleaned up the accident which was all contained on the waterproof blanket and which completely missed the popcorn!

After that accident, William had several successes! He stayed clean and dry until his celebratory party began.
We invited my parents, my brother, and David's mom to come for our potty party. Shortly after they arrived for dinner, William had another accident. This one was much smaller, but he was still pretty distraught. This time he got McQueen wet. Poor kid! My dad was the hero and cleaned it up! (Am I lucky or what?)

We enjoyed a pizza dinner and a fun time visiting and celebrating William becoming a big boy.

William was actually pretty overwhelmed after dinner. He did have another success, but he was pretty much done for the day. We put him back in a diaper (which we stressed throughout the day was JUST for bedtime).


He then got to open his special present to celebrate his successful day!


Buddy!!!

The next morning I was pretty stressed thinking this was going to be a failure. William proved me wrong though. The 17th was an accident free day. He peed and pooped on the toilet with NO problems! He went 5 whole days completely accident free. Those days even included outings and church! 

Here he is with his chart all full of stickers! Since his chart was full, he earned Tiny! 

We are so proud of our big boy!!!!

It has now been a little over 2 months since this fun day. William had an accident a week for the first 5 weeks. He has been accident free since then! And the most amazing part is he is dry through the night and has been since a week or so after we started. He was even waking up in the middle of the night crying because he needed to go to the bathroom. I of course thought to myself "you've got a diaper on, use that!" But I knew that I wanted him to learn to stay dry through the night so I would get up and take him. He only did that for a week or so. Since then he lasts through the night without waking up to go potty.  He does still wear a diaper to bed, but it is dry every, single morning!
William, you have truly amazed us! We are so proud of you! 

Playin' in the Park

The beginning of March provided us with some very beautiful weather - absolutely perfect for playing in the park.


William loves the slides. 

Going down the slide! 

Crawling through the tubes. 

He went down "the big slide" all by himself!

He giggled most of the time he was in the swing. I loved it!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Dr. Seuss Day

On March 2nd we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday.

I made a hat for William the day before modeled after the Cat in the Hat's hat. He sure loved it! 

We started out the day with a Dr. Seuss style breakfast. I checked out the Green Eggs and Ham cookbook from the library. From that we got a recipe for Moose Juice (pretty much an orange julius). It was so easy and SO yummy! 

Our main breakfast dish was a blueberry bumpling (also from the Green Eggs and Ham cookbook).
They were really good! It's pretty much a biscuit recipe with blueberries added in.

Throughout the day we read LOTS of Dr. Seuss books. 

We ended the day with green eggs and ham for dinner. These aren't quite what Sam I am offers, but they were just as good!

William would definitely eat green eggs and ham with a goat and on a boat!


Henry would eat his in a box with a fox!

We loved Dr. Seuss Day!
It is definitely something we will have to celebrate every year.
And now I can remember which day is his birthday without looking it up because my cute little nephew, Zachary, was born this year on March 2nd! Welcome to the world little Zachary! I can't wait to meet you. 

A favorite

Anyone who knows me well knows that I LOVE BYU sports - mainly football and basketball.
David and I got to take the boys to several home basketball games this season. My grandpa has season tickets and when he has extras they usually come to me! I also got to go to a game or two with just my dad and other members of my Dad's extended family. But it is most fun when my little family comes with me.

William LOVED the games! He would clap and cheer "Go Cougars!" He learned the cheers. And he sang the Cougar Fight song (which I've been singing to and with him since he was a baby). After the final home game free posters were handed out. William proudly displays his poster of the team on his bedroom door. 

Henry also loved the games. The noise never seemed to bother him. He even clapped for the first time at one of the games. He was quite fascinated by all the action! And just in case you don't know, that is my sweet dad holding Henry. He was at most of the games we went to. We sure love this special time with Papa! 

When the games were on TV (on the channels you can pick up via antenna) we would watch them at home. Here the boys are watching the "blue team" (as William refers to them) beat the Aztecs in San Diego.

We love BYU sports!
Less than 4 months until football starts!
Go Cougars!!!