Happy 4th of July!

Yes, they did let us back into the country after our visit to New Zealand. We've been laying low since we got back, adjusting to the time zone, baby teeth, and (finally) summer. Now that it is a three day weekend, maybe we will have some time to update you on what's been happening in the past couple of months (if you're still reading the blog after all this time). For now, here's a look at our little firecracker. Hope all you Americans have a happy Independence Day and all the rest have a nice July 4th!

You've got to be kidding me. I'm not your little flag-waving monkey.

Will you give me a hot dog now?

We Americans have mastered the science of hands-free, self-waving flags

I WANT YOU - To give me some Cheerios

First Mother's Day

Today is my first mother's day as a mother. I don't think last year while I was pregnant counted and no, that has nothing to do with the abortion debate, but rather the fact that I believe that the job description for mom is more than carrying around a human-to-be in your belly/uterus.

I've had a wonderful day, in fact, a wonderful weekend. Yesterday, we all met up with my Aunt Linda, Cousin Rebekah and her two children at the Como Zoo. We got sprinkled on a little, but it was fun to watch the kids with all of the animals. Sparky the sea lion was inside and took a break from swimming to perch on the ledge by the glass and go almost nose to nose with Jack. We (and the other guests at the zoo) were much more impressed with this than Jack was. Jack was like, hey. Yeah, the lady next to me is as interesting as a sea lion. After the zoo, we came home, and Jack and our cat, Hank, gave me their cards and a little present. The Clever King said that those two didn't understand a calendar well enough to know when the actual mother's day was. The book from Jack is so sweet - Someday by Alison Meghee and Peter H. Reynolds. Only slightly less heartbreaking than Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and Sheila McGraw. After a trip to the grocery store, we put Jack to bed, Nick bought some wine and flowers, we cooked an Indian dinner, and settled in to watch an episode of Lost (on tape from Thursday night) and Ratatouille.

Today, Jack slept in until 7am (thanks for the gift, Jack) and then CK took Jack downstairs so I could sleep a bit more. I made it until almost 9am! This helped tip the scales even farther on the side of wellness for me; I am almost fully recovered now. Then Jack went down for a nap, and Comet came over to watch him while Nick and I went out to breakfast at one of our favorite spots. We came home, took a walk, played with Jack outside, and Nick gave me gifts from him, The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters and Burt's Bees foot cream and the promise of a foot massage. Jack went to sleep at 6:40pm and I am passing time until the season finale of Brothers and Sisters.

In other news...

Yesterday, we felt a little tooth bud for Jack on the bottom, his first one. It seems like he has been working on it for months and now it is finally emerging. Today, we felt another one on the bottom, so looks like he is getting two at the same time. He celebrated by feeding himself lots of Gerber puffs today. (Yes, Keith and Brian, he does eat that "Gerber" food now.)

We are headed to visit Nick's family in New Zealand a week from Tuesday. I don't think I have even mentioned the trip on the blog. We booked the seats a little while ago and then illness has been bogging us down. We have a lot of preparation before we will be ready to go, as I am headed to Madison this weekend with Jack for an annual get together with my high school girlfriends and CK will be having the Brodeo Part II at our house. Maybe spring will finally be here to stay in Minnesota by the time we return in early June.

I'm sure there are other things, but I can't think of any right now. All my love to the mothers and other special women out there. A special bit of love to my mom who has been gone for 22 1/2 years, but whom I think about everyday as I look into the eyes of my son.

Thanks to Jen for the lovely photo!

A Pox On Our House

It's been a difficult couple of weeks. Aside from the fact that the calendar said spring started on March 20, yet the daily high temperature has been consistently 20 degrees below average, all of the Henderlembckes have been sick. And not just the kind of sick where you stay home from work, snuggled in a quilt, watching Young and the Restless, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and maybe even Martha, but the kind of sick where, in between trips to the toilet, you lie on the bed in the guest bedroom underneath as many quilts as you can find, drugged up on Tylenol PM, moaning. (Real conversation between myself and the Clever King on Tuesday - Me: Why are you moaning? CK: I don't know I just feel miserable. Me: But why are you moaning? Real conversation between myself and CK on Wednesday - Me: Ahh, ahh, ahh. CK:Now you know why I was moaning, don't you?)

I learned a few things during this period: (1) An infant can vomit up more liquid than you think it is possible for his stomach to hold. (2) The sound of a parent vomiting can be loud and terrible enough to cause an infant to start crying. (3) There really is a point where parents can be too sick to take care of their sick child. (Thankfully, we just flirted with this line, rather than crossing it.) (4) The combination of an infant being sick and teething may be too much for any parent to handle (at least without spades of baby ibuprofen and Tylenol).

After this weekend, I think it is safe to say that we are all feeling better. Jack is back eating solid foods, drooling on everything he can get in or near his mouth, and being his usual happy-go-lucky self. CK and I feel like normal human beings and are accomplishing more each day than minimal self-care and chores.

As if this wasn't good enough news in and of itself, it is supposed to be 66 degrees here by Tuesday. Now, if only we can get Jack back on track with his sleeping.

Hopefully, more updates soon. Unless we are too busy playing in spring (fingers crossed)!

Happy Easter!

You act like you didn't know pastels are in this year

Me and bunny here are planning on eating chocolate eggs all Sunday long

The last man to call me a 'baby' I left dying in a ditch outside of El Paso

As well as being a metaphor for spring and renewal, he's also an excellent calf masseuse

Our Little Leprechaun

Jamiroquai is my fave band

Those aren't rhinestones, they're polished kibbles

abracadabra!

I'm part Irish - I don't need no funny hat

Half-Birthday

When I was young, I used to relish celebrating my half-birthday. Well, it was a celebration in my mind, at least; we never had any real celebration of the event, but I enjoyed remembering the day, nonetheless. As I mentioned in my previous post, Jack was six months old on February 25th (marking his "half-birthday"). We celebrated the event by going to the doctor, peeing all over the scale (Jack, not Mommy and Daddy), and receiving several shots (Jack again). For the first time, Jack had a bit of a reaction to the shots, but is feeling better now.

We learned that Jack is 27.5 inches tall (85th percentile), 17 pounds 14 ounces (58th percentile), and his head is 46.5 cm (98th percentile). We knew he had a big head, but didn't know it was bigger than 98% of babies his age. Hopefully, it is filled with brains and not rocks or one big boulder.

Here are some of his six month pictures that I mentioned the other day.

Giddyup, pillow!

Senior pictures only 17 years away

You're right, these do have a funky odor

It's damn hard work holding up a big noggin like this!

Beef...It's What for Dinner

Well, maybe a while down the road it will be. For now, it is rice cereal. Jack finally entered into the world of solid foods this weekend. We had been intending on getting Jack started on solids for a little while now (his doctor told us we could start between 5-6 months), but life interfered. Friends had given me the advice to start solids on a weekend because it could be a messy, time-consuming affair, and for weeks it seemed that we were either out-of-town or Jack was sick and the doctor recommended holding off so that we didn't end up with solids coming out one end or another in a more liquid form.

The actual cereal feeding itself was a bit anti-climatic. Jack didn't turn any cartwheels, our kitchen escaped relatively unscathed, and dreams of solids bringing on a longer, more restful night sleep proved unrealized (so far, at least). Nevertheless, we have achieved an important milestone, one for the (baby) books.

Fired up! Ready to go!

Whatcha got in there?

Can't a guy eat in peace?

It takes a very steady hand!

Ugh! I think some of your arm hair got in my cereal.

Mmmm, next stop, Murray's for some steak!

This weekend, we achieved a few other significant milestones as well. I took Jack in for his six-month pictures on Friday. (He is six-months old today!) And after running to one post office only to be told to go to another because "we don't process those on Saturdays, even though our own website says we do" (and no, we can't change the website), trying to find the next post office using the (wrong) address given to us by the postal staff, consulting with our friend Mike for assistance over the cell phone, and desperately using our best self-talk to keep from hauling off and hitting the oh-so-helpful mail personnel, we applied for Jack's passport. It's hard to say whether running all over town or trying to assist the Kinko's guy take a passport photo according to the State Department specifications ("he's gotta be looking at the camera with his mouth closed and the picture needs to fit between these lines, even though he can barely stay still for half a second") was more difficult. Actually, it's not hard at all. The running all over town wins, hands down. Thank goodness a passport is good for five years!

Jack has his six-month check-up tomorrow, so I'll try and "check-in" with stats and some of his new "official" pics.