Henry - 10 Months

Things keep rolling along here.  Henry and I had our 9 month appointment.  He was 90th percentile for head circumference, 95% for weight (25lbs) and 99% for height.  He is wearing 18-24 month clothes.  He can fit into 12 month clothes but they are all to short!  I am doubtful we will make it much past a year in the rear facing carseat.

Henry is crawling!  He is better on the carpet, but is getting faster and more mobile daily.  He really prefers to stand.  I find him up on his knees a lot now.  We are crashing a lot more, which leads to lots of bumps and bruises.

Teeth!  We are up to SEVEN.  Three on top, four on bottom.  He gets a little fussy on days he is teething, but nothing that bad.  He still constantly has his hands in his mouth, so I am sure more are coming.

Sleep: Henry continues to go down at about 6:30pm and sleep till about 7:30am.  He is still getting up in the middle of the night about once a week to eat.  The dog and Allan wake me up more than Henry does.

Tricks:  WAVING!  Henry just started to wave yesterday.  So cute, makes me teary.  He loves songs, bouncing, being thrown around, peek a boo.  He LOVES the dog and says "hi" to him in the morning. He is ALWAYS looking for the dog (and laughing).  Henry LOVES the swings at the park and stroller rides. If he is fussy, we head out - I am shuddering at the thought of a cold winter.

Henry now HATES the exersaucer (which he used to love).  He also hates his highchair - but calms down once I put out some puffs or goldfish.  He is eating everything.  Still prefers most things pureed.

Our trip for the month was to NOVA/DC to see my sister and catch up with friends.  Henry is getting harder to deal with on the plane.  On this flight, he squirmed nonstop, barfed on me, fussed, and then fell asleep as we were landing (literally).  To say I was thrilled to be off the plane is an understatement.  Allan, Henry and I do NOT fit in two airplane seats comfortably.

Sedona - March 20, 2012

We woke up on Tuesday morning to SUN! No more snow with fast melting snow as well. That was the good news...the bad news was that my Pink Jeep Tour for 10:00 was cancelled because it was going to be too icy/muddy. I had booked myself on the 10:00am tour and Allan on the noon tour. Luckily, I was able to rebook on the 2:00pm tour. Multiple people had told me that Pink Jeep Tours are a Sedona "must".

We headed back to Red Rock State Park for another hike since we had the pass from the night before. After consulting with the friendly rangers, we decided to hike the Eagle Nest trail. This trail was 1.9 miles and we figured we could easily hike it in 2 hours (which would then give us time to get back into town for Allan's tour).

The hike was beautiful. Henry seemed to like being in the Bjorn again, but fussed after an hour till we stopped and fed him a bottle. He fussed some more afterwards but we kept walking. He finally passed out and we realized back at the center, he had a major poop. I felt bad that we had not checked (we did when he ate).

We headed back into town so Allan could take is Pink Jeep Tour (Broken Arrow). I wandered around town for an hour and then found a nice sunny place to sit and enjoy a coffee for an hour. Sedona is beautiful, but the town is pretty much your standard tourist trap town with tee shirt shops, vortex shops, and LOTS of stairs (not easy to navigate around with a stroller).

Finally it was MY turn for the Pink Jeep Tour. It was fabulous and I would highly recommend it! I was placed with a really fun family that was celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary. I had already met some of the women in the bathroom, while I was changing Henry. Wear sunblock and your seatbelt though.....


I was hungry after the tour but Allan had had some bad food experiences while he was walking around town with Henry so we set off for the Grand Canyon! There was a Dairy Queen stop along the way outside of Sedona......

Sedona, March 19, 2012 (Part II)

We headed back to Sedona after our fabulous lunch at 15.Quince. The weather was clearing as he got back to Sedona and we decided to head to Red Rock State Park. We had tried to go on Sunday, but it was closed (I think for weather and time). We arrived at 4:00pm and decided to go in even though it closed at 5:00pm. The nice ranger gave us a pass for Tuesday since it was so close to the end of the day.
We set off on the House of Apache Fire hike since we had less than an hour.

Allan was in charge of the map and Henry.

Henry did great on his first hike.

We headed back to the hotel after the hike and the baby and I slept from 6pm till 7am. I ate a handfull of nuts about 9pm but that was it. Allan kept telling me that I would be up in the middle of the night - HA!

Sedona/Jerome, March 19, 2012 (part I)

We woke up Monday morning and hit the hotel breakfast at 7:00am (when it opened) with all of the other parents who were desparate to get out of their hotel rooms at about 6:45am..... Sedona was still expected to receive snow all day so we decided to drive down to lower elevations and see some sights.

First was Montezuma's Castle. This is a small national park built around an amazing 20 room cliff dwelling that is about 1,000 years old. It was amazing how much better the weather was at a lower elevation and we loved being able to get out and walk around. Henry loved the Bjorn.

We then decided to drive to Jerome to walk around and eat a late lunch. Jerome was an old mining town built up on the mountainside (literally). It is now and artist/tourist town and we had fun walking around. We had lunch at 15.Quince. It was the best meal I have had this year. I had the “Las Comadres” Chile Relleno". I could rave for hours about how good this was with both red and green chile. yum, yum, yum.

Allan and I were fading out after lunch so we bailed on the state park and headed back to Sedona.

South Carolina, February 2012

This blog started as a travel blog. I used to write "daily email updates" when I traveled (this was before blogs) and people loved them. I always said, it is not about what happened, it is about the story you tell. It was a fun thing to find an internet cafe at the end of the day and type up what happened while drinking a tasty beverage....This blog started as a way to keep all of my travel memories in one place. Never thought I would be posting about marriage and motherhood! Times change.

I headed to Mt. Pleasant to hang with the parents this past week. I was originally invited to Soliman Bay in Mexico but decided that I was not up for taking my first trip with Henry (solo) out of the country. I also did not have enough frequent fliyer miles to get me down there ( I did not book soon enough). Luckily, I found a $200 round trip ticket on Southwest (LOVE) and $9 a day parking at MIdway. How could I turn it down? Especially since I am still on *Maternity Leave*? iroll - sometimes I wish I worked for the school district still so I could have had an actual maternity leave. oh well!

The trip was a total success! Henry was a champ. I allowed plenty of time and made sure he was hungry so he was ready to eat through take off and landing. On the way down he slept through takeoff and landing and was awake and happy the entire flight. He started fussing as soon as we turned into my parents driveway.

Coming home, he ate through takeoff and landing and napped on and off through the flight. Getting up at 4:00am was brutal (but worth it for the cheap flight.) I was also lucky that people were more than happy to help me with my luggage on the plane and Southwest made my life easy with curbside checkin. The flights were not totally full so I had an extra seat next to me both ways. It was really pretty easy! Let's hope Henry was not luring me in for the kill. Phoenix next month is looming....


I did not do much other than (try to) get a lot of sleep, do "two a day" run/walks around the 2.4 mile loop my parents live on, and hang out. My Mom and I saw The Artist and The Decendants. My Dad and I went downtown one day to drop off quilts at the quilt show and eat BBQ (yum). I also visited Belk for more "free clothes". Belk in SC is a season ahead of Chicago so I love to go and shop the clearance racks. Five tops for $50 and a pair of Born boots for $35. Woot! I need some help to hide the muffin top:(

My Mom hosted a "sip n see" for Henry to meet some of the ladies my Mom hangs out with and who have known me for years. It was great success and Henry was a champ being held by lots of strangers. He totally conked out by the end of the party though...


My parents were amazing and I did not want to come home. It was SO nice to have 24/7 help with Henry so I could go for a run, take a shower, try to sleep another hour at 5:00am (my mom is an early riser). My goal is to keep going to bed early so the midnight feedings don't kill me. Henry is sleeping for up to 7 hours at a stretch, but he goes down at 7:00pm so he is up at 3:00am! boooooo If only I could keep him up and start the 7 hours at 10!:)

East Coast Baby Shower/32 weeks

I was in NOVA (Northern Virginia) this past weekend for my "East Coast Baby Shower" which was hosted by my Aunt Edith and cousins Elizabeth and Sarah. My Aunt Edith lives in a beautiful house on the Chesapeake Bay. I loved everything from the invitations (shaped like baby bibs) to the food to the company. There were no games (thank goodness) but an activity where people wrote messages on diapers for Allan and I to read while changing the baby at 2:00am. I am sure the diapers and messages will come in handy in the near future!

It was fun to see family and friends that I don't see as often since I live in the midwest. I am constantly amazed by the generosity of my family and friends. It is overwhelming to me at times how much I have received in the past year. I have always tried to be honestly generous with my time and money, this year, I feel that generosity has come back to me tenfold. Feeling truly blessed may be the biggest gift of all. My only real regret is that I did not get a picture of myself with my hostesses. Instead I am going to post one of me and my desserts!:)

The other major highlight of the weekend was seeing my sister's new house in Arlington. To say that I have house envy is an understatement, but I am going to work to be happy with what I have (which is A LOT).

My parents left for two weeks in Paris the night of my shower and I am thrilled that they are spending time in such a fabulous city. If I could have a second home anywhere in the world, it would be in Paris. Love, love, love.

In other pregnancy news, I gained a pound this week (as of 10/25) and am up to 14lbs gained for the pregnancy. I changed OB's and feel really comfortable with my new choice. After seeing my medical records from my previous OB, I am considering my options. At best, there was some negligence involved and I need to do some research on where to direct a letter. I know that nothing will happen for me, but if something happens to someone else in the future, I want my concerns to be on record. Even with scripts for zofran prescribed by the new Dr. I am still sick almost every other day an have issues with nausea. At this point, I figure I can deal with 8 more weeks.

Fort Jefferson/Dry Torgugas

Sunday we had my favorite breakfast of the trip! We ended up at a diner called Harpoon Harry's. I had a BELT (bacon, egg, lettuce, tomato). It was FABULOUS and hit the spot. They also knew how to make grits! Yeah!

Our big adventure for the day was taking a seaplane 70 miles west of Key West to Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas National Park.

We boarded our seaplane with 5 other intreprid travellers and took a 35 minute ride out over beautiful blue waters, shipwrecks, and shifting underwater sand dunes. After we arrived at the park, we had a short tour of the Fort and then I adjourned to sit in the water while Allan went snorkeling.



It was a beautiful day!

Key West! Saturday

The sad part about this trip to Key West was that it was during "low season". This meant more heat (which we could deal with) and that many of the restaurants we wanted to visit for breakfast were closed (Sarabeth's, Blue Heaven). Thank GOD we had bikes and could ride around. Had we been walking, I would have died.....We had a hard time finding a place to eat on Saturday for lunch but finally found a French cafe on Duvall street that was open and had a table. The nice thing was that we were seated in a shady place in the back right next to a waterfall.

After brunch, we headed to the Audubon House. I had free tickets thanks to Smithsonian Magazine. I think Allan and I both enjoyed walking around the house and seeing the beautiful prints.



We then headed out for our informal "pub crawl" of Key West. We started at the Green Parrot Bar, where Allan had a beer and I was sneered at for ordering water. I went next door and bought my Dad an overpriced tee shirt for the next time I see him (since my birthday present for him this year was "bad" - a story for another day).


After The Green Parrot we went to Sloppy Joe's bar. Sloppy Joe's is famous as a Hemingway hangout. Allan ordered another beer and some conch fritters. I ordered another water and sat for about 20 minutes before I turned into a pumpkin and had to go back to the hotel for a nap.

The activity for that night was sunset cruise on a catamaran. It was a short walk there (less than 15 minutes) but was soooo hot that I almost bailed. I decided that I could make it when I saw there were shade options on the cruise. After we got underway and I had some food, things cooled down and it was a beautiful night.


There were even dolphins!

Key West! Friday

Allan and I spent the past weekend in Key West, FL for a friend's wedding. I decided not to post while I was down there (or Facebook/Foursquare) since there was a break-in in our townhouse development last week. We left Thursday and returned after midnight on Sunday. Thursday was pretty much a travel day. We had a 10 am flight and did not get to our hotel till about 5:00pm. We had dinner at an Italian place and I crashed early (this theme will continue through the weekend).

Allan was up early on Friday and even went running! We then rented bikes, which saved me since the heat was oppressive. I have found that I am much less tolerant to heat now that I am pregnant. We rode our bikes to the Banana Leaf cafe, straight down Duval Street. We managed to arrive at the perfect time to avoid a wait, yet still order breakfast!:) It was our luck to even run into the bride and some friends who had been out for a walk and stopped for a healthy brunch. After brunch, we headed off to the southernmost point in the United States for our obligatory photo op.



After our photo op, we headed down to Hemingway's house. We loved the tour which included a look at the polydactyl cats who have extra toes (and were everywhere) and a guide who did a great job of talking about Hemingway's wives and loves while keeping an irreverent tone.





After Hemingway, we headed back to the hotel where I crashed and don't really know what Allan did during that time. We were back up and showered, dressed, and at the wedding site by the 6:30 service. The bride was beautiful (of course) and I even managed to stay up till 10:30 while doing some dancing! I loved the sunset ceremony, which included a rainbow and the reception on Sunset Pier. It was a beautiful ceremony and night. So thrilling to see friends so happy.