Henry Meets Stryker

I'm a member of an online forum for moms and I really love it. Within this forum is a group of moms whose babies were all born at about the same time as Henry. This 'playroom' as we call it has been a fantastic resource when a new mom (that's me) has had umpteen random questions that sure enough other moms are also asking that BTDT (been there, done that) moms can answer.

Here's a small-world phenomenon for you: this forum is full of women from all over the world, and there are several others just like it. The town I live in is quite small and rural. Yet, another of the moms whose little boy - his name is Stryker - was born just three weeks after Henry is from my small town. Two women from the same speck on the map found each other in this massive online forum! She and her husband actually now live in Washington state (military), but recently she was down here visiting her family and we decided to have lunch. Here are a few pictures of our lunch. We didn't plan for them to be dressed alike, but how cute that they were! Of course, too bad Henry couldn't look happy about it or anything. ;)

After our lunch, Stryker and his mama had some errands to run, so we parted ways. I had already planned to go to the park and put Henry in a swing, so here are a few park pictures as well. He loved swinging and going down the slide with Mama. :)

Tired Tuesday

Nothing extraordinarily interesting to report today, but I couldn't stand not to anyway. Henry and I (and Daddy too, for that matter) are all tired today as a result of a 2am rendezvous. Here's how it went down:

7:20ish - Bed time. He hasn't seemed to catch on to the time change yet, and both of the past two nights he's been wound up just as I lay him down. He acts tired and cranky at the usual time, and at the usual point in our bedtime routine, and even as he drinks his bottle just before bed he nods off, doing the warm-comfy-contented-eye-roll. Then, when I go to lay him down, it's as if he notices that it is still daylight outside and therefore I, Mama, must be confused about what time it is and what we ought to be doing. An hour later, after several trips back into his room to retrieve him from the other end of the bed and off of his tummy, he's finally asleep - now that it's dark.

12:30ish - Midnight fussing. He just kind of whines and whimpers off and on. I go in to check on him even though I know he's mostly asleep. I watch from the corner of his room, hidden, and when he settles, I go back to bed.

1:15ish - Fussing, part 2. More of the same. I wait a bit, until it gets louder and more dramatic, then I go back in to check and watch. When he settles, I leave.

1:30ish - I had only climbed back into bed when it started again. This time, I can tell he is awake. I was waiting for this because I knew he had a dirty diaper, but I wasn't going to dare wake him to change it. I go in, perform the world's fastest diaper change in the dark, and put him back in bed. Now, I would have to contend with an alert baby in the middle of the night, but it couldn't really be helped. I went to get some ibuprofen in response to the whining and whimpering from before the diaper change. I put some water in a bottle and offered it to him from the side of the crib, to make sure he wasn't thirsty. I dug for several minutes until I found the blessed paci, and plugged it in. At least now I knew all his needs were met, and it would just be a waiting game until he went back to sleep. It was now after 2am.

I waited to save myself another exorcism from my warm bed, and when I thought enough time had passed, I laid back down. I could hear movement and settling over the monitor, but not another peep. Of course it took me many passing minutes to finally succumb to sleep again too.

6:30ish - He's fussing again. This isn't an unusual wake-up time for him, except that he lost better than 2 hours of sleep throughout the night, including at bed time, and for all he knows, it's still 5:30am because it's still pitch dark outside. I am not ready to get up at this point, so I make a futile attempt to buy myself another 30 minutes of rest. I go in to hunt for the paci again, and promptly plug it in.

7:20ish - Surprisingly, this is the next time I heard anything. He mercifully went back to sleep for another 40 minutes! And Daddy let me take my time getting out of bed while he started getting the bottle and breakfast ready.

We're dragging a little today, but we're making it. Tuesday is town day, when I do my weekly grocery shopping and errands, if any. He is usually such a good little shopper, but today his tiredness was more than he could handle. He was a bit fussy and irritable, but not so much that many an elderly passerby didn't stop to comment on what a beautiful (and well-fed) baby he is. We came home for lunch and a nap, and when he gets up in a bit we'll be on the go again, this time to the park for a walk, if it isn't raining.

Peas and Sunshine

Yesterday, perhaps to make good on my pledge to get together with that friend of mine and her daughter more often, we took advantage of the spectacular weather for our first outdoor play date. (Let's call my friend M and her daughter A.)

M and I spoke early in the morning to arrange our outing, and by lunchtime we were spread out atop blankets beneath a towering shade tree at the city park. My primary objective, outside of visiting with M&A, was to put Henry on a swing for the first time. I was sorely disappointed when we arrived to find that the swings were not safe or designed for babies as I had hoped at least one of them would be. We improvised, but I'll get to that in a bit.

I could not have dreamed or ordered better weather. Truthfully, in Texas, weather comes in extremes; seldom do you have days where it is completely comfortable to be outdoors without either a jacket or an economy sized tub of sunscreen, SPF 200. The spring and fall seasons last only a blink or two, with scorching summer heat being the dominant climate pattern. Case in point: today, in early March, the temperature is expected to reach near 90 degrees. But, yesterday, it was the perfect day to be outdoors. There was a breeze, not so strong that we were chasing down belongings blown from our picnic blanket, but gentle, ruffling up our children's fine wisps of hair. At that time of day, the temperature hovered above 70 degrees. The mild sunshine shimmered and sprayed between the branches of our shade tree - not the harsh rays of mid to late summer sun. I could have spent the entire day there, just soaking it in.

First order of business upon arrival was to feed the babies their lunch. Henry is transitioning to more finger-foods and varieties of textures, so I brought some foods that he had refused in the day or two preceding, hoping one of these times I offer, he'll be more receptive. Of course, I also brought back-ups: pureed peas and applesauce, and after he gagged on curds of cottage cheese and spat out diced carrots, I was thankful I'd had that foresight. He sipped on white grape juice and seemed every bit as smitten by our surroundings as I was. M and A tackled lunch as well - literally. M had to almost sit on her to keep her still long enough to eat. A, being mobile, wanted to cruise around and didn't seem terribly concerned about missing lunch.

Once the babies were fed, M and I grazed on our lunches while still fussing with the kids as they tumbled around on the blanket, playing with toys and trying to reach the edges of our palette. Before long, we had each of our cameras out and were staging scenes of the babies playing together (or not.) I know I took 94 pictures myself - yes, obscene.

As we neared nap time, I decided that I would attempt to get Henry in that swing, even if it meant I would have to hold him as I sat in it. We all made our way to the playground. Now, M is about perfectly sized, and her little bum did fit in the kid swing, but barely. That, of course, meant that my larger bum would in no way fit in the kid swing. I had spotted a tire swing on the opposite end of the playground equipment, and decided that I could probably get into that swing with Henry. It was hard plastic, shaped to look like a tire, but in no way soft or allowing any give. I hiked one leg over the edge to sort of straddle it and once I tested it a little, I relaxed and we swung in short strides. It wasn't exactly the picture I'd had in mind, but we were swinging. M&A came over to see how we were managing. I tried to reposition myself so that we weren't sitting so precariously on the edge, hopefully enabling us to get a better swing going. I bent my right leg so that it was spanning the hole in the middle, creating a place for Henry to sit that wasn't on the edge. Well, that hard plastic edge dug into my leg and was quite uncomfortable - but at this point, I was stuck. I couldn't move while holding Henry, and the longer I sat there, the more uncomfortable I became. M was trying not to laugh, failing. She took Henry just long enough for me to remove myself from the swing, but not before she snapped a picture - thanks, M! We were both laughing hysterically, and when M sends me that picture, I'll post it. Maybe.

Henry and I had such a great time - I hope another beautiful day finds us back at the park again soon. Here are just a few of my pictures: