Henry's first Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas day in St. Paul spending time with friends. Henry had so much fun playing with and observing the "big kids."

Little drummer boy

Thanks for teaching Henry how to play the drums, Opa!

Santa Claus

Santa Claus made a special visit to Henry's friend Chip's house this weekend. As you can see, Henry wasn't sure what to make of the big man with the white beard.

First haircut

Henry has had a rough week. Not only did he miss 3 days of daycare due to fevers caused by his first ear infection. But he also had his first haircut today. He apparently wasn't thrilled to lose his flowing locks.

Mega blizzard 2010

We had an incredibly snowy weekend in Minnesota. We received between 15-17 inches of snow on Saturday alone. The weather was so bad that the Minneapolis airport was closed, snow plows were pulled off of the highways due to low visibility, public transportation was stopped because 2/3rds of the buses got stuck in the snow & the Metrodome imploded; canceling the Vikings football game!

Sadly, several of our personal plans were also affected by the weather. Henry missed his first haircut, we had to cancel having a babysitter and going out, and we had to cancel having our mom and baby group over for dinner (leaving us with a lot of extra lasagna, garlic bread and beer if anyone wants to come over!) Henry didn't seem to mind being stuck at home. He really enjoyed watching dad and our neighbors shoveling outside (multiple times).

And after being literally snowed into our house for more than 24 hours, we ventured out for lunch at the Groveland Tap today. I never realized how amazing it is having a vehicle with all wheel drive and winter tires; I no longer miss my Honda Civic.

Thanksgiving in Michigan

We traveled to Michigan to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with our families. On the drive to and from, we stopped at Aunt Jane's house just outside of Chicago where Henry was able to meet cousin Jon. We spent the holiday weekend in Holland with Oma, Opa, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jessica, Uncle Tony and cousin Oliver. The cousins loved playing with Opa's drum set, and Oliver amazed us all with his new skill of walking!

See Oliver's blog for more of the family fun.

Snowy weekend

Grandma and Grandpa are visiting on our first snowy weekend of the fall (3-4 inches!) We all warmed up by the fireplace for several hours yesterday, literally, while we didn't have any power. An electricity line went down directly behind our house under the weight of the snow. Unfortunately Henry isn't quite old enough to know how cool it was to have a fire truck and firefighters in our backyard securing off the area before the electric company was able to fix the problem.

9 months old

Henry is 9 months old! He continues growing into a long and lean little boy: 20 lbs 9 oz. (56th %tile) & 29.5 inches (85th %tile). He is getting his 7th tooth (3rd in the last month!) He has not yet ventured into the world of crawling, nor is he interested in finger foods other than rice puffs or cheerios, but he loves standing with the assistance and has mastered his pincer grip. He is babbling more and more, and we are pretty convinced that his first word will be "hi" as he often tries to copy his friend Otis at daycare who says "hi" to everyone. And Henry loves to "hi-five" with his dad.

Happy Halloween

Henry attended his first Halloween party yesterday. He did not seem to mind his frog costume, but was not very happy about being wedged on the couch for a "baby line-up" photo. I suppose it could be pretty scary finding yourself sitting between a monkey and a bumble bee. The other costumes included a butterfly, dragon & shark. Henry did enjoy sitting along side his friends on the floor playing with and stealing toys back and forth with them. He especially loved playing with a comb, which all of the parents found very ironic.

P. was unable to attend the mom and baby party, but his garden gnome costume is far too cute to not include! Click here for additional photos.

Fall fun

Henry spent much of Saturday with his friend Chip (while their parents watched the Michigan State football game). The 3 month developmental difference between Henry and Chip is still very obvious. Chip is not only crawling and walking, but even seemed to attempt to share his toys! But it was fun for us to watch Henry interact and try to play (and/or steal toys) from his friend.

Chip tried to demonstrate to Henry how cool swinging can be, but Henry didn't find it very fun.

But he was willing give it a second try, and eventually learned to enjoy swinging today!