Week 45

So last week was a bit crazy as Tina and Henry left town Thursday afternoon to stop in Chicago on their way to Indianapolis to visit with college friends. I'm sure we'll put pictures of that up later. Anyway, they were gone through Sunday and Derek was out of town Thursday evening through Friday evening as well. 

Needless to say, we didn't get a chance to post or take last weeks picture. So here it is:

Henry has been quite the busy little bee recently. He has quickly picked up on this whole crawling/going wherever he wants thing and is now quickly finding ways to potentially harm himself. Like crawl off the bed or down the stairs, etc...

'Tagged'

So my (Derek) older sister 'tagged' me with what is best described as the blogger version of a chain letter. Except that, unlike a chain letter, I find the responses interesting and I'm actually going to pass this thing along. Unfortunately, this means you will not be reading about Henry which may make this about the second blog entry that isn't about him so far.  

The 'letter' manifests itself as a list of questions..so here goes:

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was engaged to Tina and working at Elkhart Central High School as a teacher. I had insomnia about 1-2 time's per week due to fear of what the next day of school would bring. 

2. Five things on my to do list today?

-pack myself this morning for an overnight trip with a bunch of goofy high schoolers 2 hours north of home (forgot running shoes).

-try to get my sub plans together for school tomorrow while... (check)

-...trying to teach today and help with a staff inservice and... (check and check)

-...grade tests that were given on Wednesday by a sub because I had to be home with Henry (hmmm)

-stress, worry and think about very special friends as their very special boy had surgery today (check - and all signs are good right now)

3. Five or so places I have traveled?

-Cote d'Ivoire

-Costa Rica

-lots of places in the US of A...especially West, Southwest, Southeast and upper Mid-West

-ug...I suck

4. Five snacks/treats I enjoy

-ice cream (vanilla with peanut butter is a recent fav)

-dark chocolate

-any fresh fruit

-cheesecake

-apple pie (any pie really)

5. What would I do if I were a billionaire? 

-I haven't thought of this in like...forever. I'd probably wonder how much money it would be ok to keep and how much to give away and then forever be racked with guilt about whether I kept too much. 

-be the only person my age I know who actually owns their home

-college fund for Henry

-??

6. Five bad habits (ouch..only five?)

- volunteering and/or taking on too much stuff

- not getting enough sleep (like right now)

- not keeping in touch with people I really love and want to keep in touch with

- important dates. who needs em?

- obsessing about exercise/cycling/triathlons/running

7. Places I have lived (I assume for like 3 months or more??). I'll do my best with the dates but look at one of my answers to the above question...there may be edits when I double check these with my 'fact checker.'

- Beanblossom, IN (1975-1990)

- Hesston, KS (1990-1993)

- Phoeniz, AZ (summer of 1991)

- Goshen, IN (college years 1993-1997)

- Cote d'Ivoire (study abroad through Goshen College summer of 1994)

- Elmer, KS (parents still live there, this is where I spent the summers of 1995 and 1996)

- Elkhart, IN (1997-1999)

- Lafayette, IN (1999-2000)

- Pine Village, IN (2000-2003

- current residence (2003-2008) whoohooo longest stretch of time I've lived in one place since 1990!

8. Jobs I've had (kind of in order)

- farm kid/farm hand general all around worker person (?)

- paper boy

- airplane fueler/washer and waxer at private airport

- chemistry stockroom attendant

- custom hay baler (co-owner/operator)

- substitute teacher

- teacher

- maintenance man and furniture deliver person

- research assistant

- lab manager

9. People I think should answer these questions (you've been tagged!)

- happy stuff

- jeremy

week 44

We just realized that we posted this past Thursday but forgot to post the weekly picture.  So here it is.  It's getting more difficult to get this picture since he's trying to climb out of the chair.

Swimming lessons (aka. chlorine) + wet hair (from post lesson bath) + 2 hour nap = gravity defying hair.

We still can't get over the fact that it was over 70 degrees today.  We celebrated with a nice walk to the park to swing and to take Zoe swimming in the lake.  Boy and dog are both fast asleep at an early hour this evening.

Active little 10 month old.

We knew the day would come. And it has. Henry has begun to really move. This has benefits and drawbacks. 

Drawbacks:

1. he moves,  you put him down, turn your head for 2 seconds and he's 10 feet away eating dog hair off the bottom of your shoe.

2. he tries to climb up on unstable objects that weigh 1/10th what he does...this usually ends badly.

Benefits:

1. we clean our floors more frequently than before (see drawback #1 above for why that is)

2. he wears himself out to the point that there is not longer much of  a struggle to get him to go to bed in the evening. 

3. he can get to where he wants to go...most of the time.

Well anyway, here's a little video montage of Henry from the last couple of weeks.

Dedication

So last Sunday was Henry's dedication. Fortunately, he was in a very good mood and proved to be quite the ham in front of the church. It was obvious why most dedications are done before children are 10 months old, he was rather squirmy AND vocal.

I think poor Tonya was a bit distracted/disturbed by Henry's intense 'steely' stare the entire time she held him and talked.

Week 43

This week's picture catches Henry climbing out of the chair and shows off his two front teeth.

Henry is taking a "swimming" class with his friend Levi.  "Swimming" as in adults carrying children in pool singing, bouncing up and down and blowing bubbles.  It is quite fun though and Henry seems to be indifferent about the situation which is better than being scared.  Due to his high body fat content he floats quite well! 

 

I found this picture as I was looking for pictures to post.  

Hmmmm...must ask Derek about this new child appropriate toy.

Spring Break

We decided to take a short vacation during Derek's spring break.  We headed to southern Illinois to stay at a cabin, hike and relax.  We had a wonderful time and enjoyed some nice 60 degree weather--which was the purpose of heading south!! 

Listening to birds in the morning from our deck.

Henry really enjoyed hiking in the backpack and babbled as we looked at various things.

However, sometimes it was just too exciting and tiring to stay awake!

We did spend a lot of time relaxing at our cabin too.  We each had our favorite things at the cabin.  I liked the hot tub--Derek liked the trail for running right outside our door--Henry like all of the ceiling fans and the fireplace.

Week 42

We've had some trouble getting stuff posted recently. Here's the weekly picture from last Thursday.

Here is what Henry was trying to do most of the time we were trying to get his picture. He's really starting to get squirmy.