Home for the holidays

We spent a very relaxing Christmas holiday weekend at home this year which mostly consisted of eating and playing with new toys (trains and airplanes and new toy kitchen supplies) as well as daily trips out of the house to the duck pond. We greatly missed being with all of our family in Michigan and Tennessee, but were lucky to be able to share a fabulous evening with some of our Minnesota "family." Henry had a great time trying out all of Colin and Nora's new toys and chasing around (aka terrorizing) Sadie the dog. We were even able to fit in a trip to the Como Zoo and Conservatory today thanks to the unseasonably warm weather (50 degrees F!)

Train crazy

Christmas came early for Henry this year. Oma and Opa came to visit this past weekend and Henry received his very own train table as a Christmas present! He has been quite excited about his new gift. Every morning this week he has been waking up saying "choo choo" and wanting to immediately go play with his trains. While Oma and Opa were here we spent a lot of time playing with trains, reading books and we even went to the train museum!

Thanksgiving 2011 in Michigan

We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving in Michigan. We were able to meet our newest family member, Henry's cousin, Elliot. Henry was very interested in Elliot, but not very pleased when either of his parents were holding him. Henry was thrilled to spend time running around with his cousins Oliver and Mae, see his aunts and uncles, Oma, Opa, Grandma and Grandpa. Henry especially enjoyed playing with his father's vintage Fischer Price toys and Oliver's trains.

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Henry and the hat

Until recently Henry absolutely refused to have a hat on his head for more than 3 seconds. It was immediately pulled off. That was until his Oma gifted him a navy and white striped German sailor's hat. Now we have the exact opposite problem, he gets mad if we try to take the hat off! It has almost become part of his identity and is definitely an object of security. One note from daycare this past week read: "Henry has been mostly happy today and when he wasn't, he was comforted by holding or wearing his hat!" Unfortunately, the little knit hat will not keep him warm enough during a Minnesota winter so we are starting the slow and difficult process of trying to get him to wear another hat.

Halloween weekend

Henry was very excited to visit my co-worker, Angela, and her family this past weekend. The original purpose of our visit had been to take a Halloween photo of Henry and Callum dressed up in their matching gnome costumes. Unfortunately Henry's 2T- 3T costume did not fit and Callum's costume was temporarily lost in the box of dress-up clothing. Instead we dressed Henry in his frog Halloween costume from last year, but he refused to wear the hat and sock accessories and the length was about 3-4" too short. But Henry did not seem to care. He was thrilled to play with Olivia, Sam and Callum and their amazing toys. He also seemed very much in love with Olivia (following her around like a puppy, sitting on her lap, and wanting to be picked up by her). There were a few tears shed by Henry when we had to leave their house! We were not successful in getting Henry in a full Halloween costume at all this year, but did go trick-or-treating at a few houses in our neighborhood anyway.

Seattle

We had a wonderful fall trip to Seattle to visit our good friends Susannah, Aashish, Chloe (our God daughter) and Kiran as well as see some other Ann Arbor friends (Dana, Dave and Emma; Laura, Mike and Anna). Henry enjoyed all of the public transportation that we utilized including airplanes, trains and city buses! We visited the Pike Street Market, ate at Piroshky Piroshky, sampled coffee from the 1st Starbucks, went up in the Space Needle, walked around the Center for Wooden Boats, drank and played at the Fremont Brewery, enjoyed the Seattle Aquarium, hung out in the lovely neighborhood of Montlake, and visited the beautiful town of Issaquah just outside of Seattle. We even had a fun night out with just Susannah and Aashish, while Grandma Stephanie babysat and found out for us that Henry can climb out of a pack n play.

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