Learning to walk

Henry has been on the precipice of walking independently for several months now. Every single day seemed like the day he would start walking on his own, but up until this past weekend he preferred the support of holding the hand (or finger) of an adult. Apparently all he needed was the motivation of being able to show off for his beautiful friend Lucy visiting from Michigan. Thank you Libby, Jeff and Lucy for making the trip out to see us!

Henry's first trip to the North Shore

We made a road trip with Henry up to the North Shore this past weekend. In Lutsen and Grand Marais we were blessed with fantastic "fall-like" weather, beautiful scenery, delicious food and a great time with fabulous friends. Henry especially enjoyed that "ah dahgg" (aka Caffrey the dog) was there with us. And although he was a little nervous at first, he also thoroughly enjoyed our gondola ride at the ski resort up to the top of Moose Mountain over a beautiful brook and a rocky hillside.

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Dirty Henry

Henry has been coming home absolutely FILTHY from daycare these days. I think he must spend the majority of his day going back and forth between the sandbox and the water table and back. He generally has dirt covering his face and in his shoes, and sometimes he even has it in his armpits. I believe my once weekly laundry days may be over.

Movin' on Up!

Henry officially moves up to the toddler room at daycare on Monday. This week he transitioned up to the new room by joining the other "younger" toddlers in eating meals sitting at a table (rather than in a high chair), napping on a cot (instead of in a crib) and playing in the big kid playground. When I picked Henry up today they were all outside playing. Henry immediately dropped the toy truck he was playing with in the sand, grabbed my hand and walked me over to a teeter totter toy (and soon 3 other toddlers had joined us to show me how the toy worked). I was happy to see how very comfortable and happy he seemed in his new environment!

Visit from cousin Oliver and aunt Jessica!

We had an amazingly hot and fun week with cousin Oliver and aunt Jessica visiting from Michigan. Although Henry is not quite walking on his own and 3 months younger than his older cousin, he was desperately trying to keep up. Henry and Oliver spent a lot of time in the pool (where Oliver awed us with his ability to "dive"), at the duck pond, at Choo Choo Bob's, at Izzy's Ice Cream, and incessantly pointing out buses and airplanes. We are exhausted from all of the activity, but it was such a wonderful experience for my sister and me to spend so much time with one another and have our boys together.

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PE tubes

Henry finally had his PE tube placement procedure today due to chronic fluid he has had behind his ear drums for the past 7 months, and everything went really well! I was able to go into the OR with him until he was put under general anesthetic. The procedure took less than 30 minutes, and then we were able to hold him in the post-op unit. We were warned that Henry might be very fussy for the remainder of the day or have nightmares due to the medications he received (inhaled sevoflurane for general anesthesia, intranasal fentanyl for pain, and IV atropine due to congestion). But other than it taking him quite a while to really wake up from the narcotic medication and maybe being a little more cuddly than usual, he has been really happy and playful all day. We even made our daily trip to the duck pond (which to Henry's excitement, entailed seeing several buses, ducks, other children, an airplane and meeting and petting an adorable little 15 month old minature dachshund).

4th of July weekend fun