Happy 4th of July

We continue trying to get Lucas to eat anything other than milk with minimal success. But he seems to remain satiated on milk alone, and very happy and easy going despite his 4th tooth finally pushing through.

Henry had one of his first big falls a couple weekends ago. He was very excitedly running to show us the fish in a koi pond, and he unfortunately tripped on the uneven paver tiles, scraping up his face. He recovered remarkably quickly, and continued to excitedly tell us about the fish (despite the blood dripping down his face). We were very lucky that he didn't require his first trip to the emergency department for stitches.

Since adding a patio to the back of our house last year, we have been able to enjoy meals outside this summer. We don't exactly have a patio dining set at this point, but our folding table is coming in handy for now!

Henry has enjoyed the experience of babysitting for our neighbors guinea pig, Pumpkin. He thinks is is pretty cool that we are able to feed him hay and vegetables twice a day. 

And we had a fun 4th of July BBQ at our house with the Miller family, my co-worker Colleen and her fiance Owen (Henry's new best friend). 

June fun with Oma & "Oma's friend (not Opa)"

We were lucky, yet again, to have help from family in June while dad was busy with work meetings and out of town. This time, Oma visited with our long time family friend, Maude. They enjoyed being tourists on their drive to and from Minnesota and exploring the Twin Cities (when they weren't busy helping with the day to day routine at our house with Henry and Lucas). I also got to join in on some of their adventures which included visiting the St. Paul cathedral, Minnehaha Park,Walker Art sculpture garden, Minneapolis Basilica, Foshay tower observation deck, Guthrie theater and walks along the Mississippi River parkway. Oma and Maude also got to experience the severe weather storm that caused dad's airplane to be rerouted to Sioux Falls instead of Minneapolis and us to lose power for 24 hours. There was significant damage in our neighborhood from fallen trees and fallen limbs, but our home was luckily spared. I unfortunately took very few pictures of Oma and Maude with Henry and Lucas, but needless to say, they provided a tremendous amount of help while visiting and the boys loved the extra attention and hugs.

Lucas' first 2 teeth! And weighing in at 22lbs at 9 months.

Beach day at Lake Harriet with Desmond!

It was a beautiful Father's Day weekend in Minnesota. We had fun exploring the Mill City Farmer's Market, Stone Arch Bridge and Gold Medal Park Saturday morning. This was followed by Henry & Lucas' first trip to the Science Museum to see dinosaur bones (thank you Colleen and Owen!) and dinner with daycare friends at an evening BBQ. Sunday (Father's Day), dad treated us to pancakes (& mom to coffee) in the morning, but then dad got to have some "adult time" with friends at the Tigers vs. Twins baseball game. Henry just about broke Matt's heart while they were "playing baseball" together and told Matt that he was the "Tigers" and Henry was the "Twins." Having our children growing up in Minnesota is going to be hard on dad...

8 months

I'm not exactly sure where the past 8 months have gone. Lucas is growing up and changing so fast. All the important milestones of infancy seem to be passing by so much more quickly with our 2nd child; it makes me very sad, but at the same time I cannot wait until Henry and Lucas can really play together. 

Lucas continues to be a nearly perfect baby at 8 months old. We are so blessed with his happy and easy going demeanor and adoration for his older brother (and as you can see Henry is still pretty excited to be a big brother!) Lucas enjoys sitting up and chewing on anything. He is in the process of getting his first 4 teeth all at the same time! He has not yet shown much interest in crawling, which we are perfectly okay with. Our only dilemma thus far is that Lucas refuses to take any "solid" food (or even formula for that matter). We've tried pureed baby food, baby "puff" cereals, pieces of bread, crackers and pieces of whole fruit. He would initially gag to the point of almost throwing up, but now just clamps his mouth shut and moves his head side to side in order to avoid any further insult of food. I'm not worried, however, I've been told my 2 boys will likely eat me out of house and home when they are teenagers. 

(I added the last photo for all of you that do not think that Henry and Lucas look anything alike... Lucas just needs a few more teeth, and they look exactly alike, slanted smile and all!)

Happy 70th birthday Opa!

Thank you Oma & Opa!

Thank you Oma and Opa for traveling to Minnesota to spend time with and take care of Henry and Lucas! They boys were lucky to each be able to spend "one-on-one" days with Oma and Opa during the week (while the other was at daycare). Lucas got to snuggle with both Oma and Opa, go for walks, spend time outdoors and read books. Henry got to ride on a city bus and the light rail train to the Mall of America and then go on amusement park rides. And mom and dad were able to get away for a night to travel out of town to a wedding in Brainerd. We all had so much fun! I'm sure Oma and Opa are as exhausted as we all are! Thanks again. 

National Train Day!

National Train day turned out to be a little more of an Amtrak advertising campaign and less about trains than we had expected; but Henry had a great time with his friend Tyler checking out the vendors at the newly renovated St. Paul Union Depot train station and even got to see part of a live Choo Choo Bob's show!