Germain Visit

Dear Henry -

We were busy this last weekend - Uncle Jeff, Addie, Jasper & Papa Mike all came to visit! On Friday we wanted to head to SF & tour Alcatraz. Your dad & I decided you might not appreciate the tour...and since Nana is on spring break, she agreed to hang out with you for the day. So you missed out on SF - but you got spoiled & got to meet Pam & Gloria at her house. Alcatraz tour was sold out...so instead the big kids got treats & we headed over to the beach in Marin.

The rest of the weekend we hung around here & you got lots of good time to get to know everyone. You hung out on the front porch for quite some time in your bouncy chair, pretty sure you felt like part of the conversation with Uncle Jeff & Papa Mike - so were quite happy.

The girls were connected at the hip most of the weekend - crafts with Gran, a picnic on the lawn & getting cozy - they let you join in for a little cozy time while they watched a movie in the morning. Notice Lainey gets closer, closer, closer....this is how you & Lainey cuddling usually works. You look a little scared in the last one, wimpers started a few seconds later & Dad swooped you up before full on tears, lol.

Jack & Jasper were out all day on skates, bikes, scooters, etc with the rest of the neighborhood boys. Was fun to see the cousins instantly click & have a blast goofing off & hanging. This was the first hot weekend of the year - and the big kids found their way to the swimming hole near us - you missed out on this one too - maybe in a few years!




We wrapped up the weekend with meal of Peninsula Creamery shakes & pizza at the park. Before the big kids ran off to the playground - I managed to convince all the kids to do a photo with Granfeather....a little challenging to get everyone to smile for the same photo!

Your main interest these days is your hands. Most often they are in your mouth, you try your best to get the entire fist in your mouth & to produce as much slobber as possible. You also spend a lot of time just staring at them & checking out your fingers and crazy shapes you can make - maybe you are starting your hippie dancing practice now :-) Even when you are resting, you like to clasp your hands together & rest them on top of your belly (which is rather impressive these days).



You love to have conversation with me, doesn't really matter about what - you will listen as I describe how I'm folding the laundry - your main concern is that you are sitting close by and I talk to you a lot so you don't feel like you are alone. If I am silent too long (say a minute, lol) - you give a few panicky cries as my warning - and usually are content if I quickly pick up the conversation. I can get a lot of smiles from you now when we are chatting.

You continue to impress us with your will to sleep - to mark 10 weeks old you eliminated another feeding - so now you go to bed about 8, sleep until 3-4ish, eat quickly in your sleepy zombie state & then go back to sleep until 7ish. Its been about 2 weeks that you've been doing this most nights - and I love it! The best part is that I don't feel obligated to go to sleep the second you do - I can stay up "late" until, say, 9:30 and hang out with Dad - and then I still get a good night sleep. Next we need to work on an easier time getting you to go to sleep w/o being rocked & sshhhhed - but I'll take this for now :-) When you wake up, you don't imediately cry of hunger - and I've caught you a few times gazing up from your crib:

Can't believe we are almost to 3 months!

Love, mama

2 month update - I forgot...

Henry -



I can't believe I forgot the update from your 2 month check-up with Dr Dennis. You are now 24 inches and weigh 12 lb 13 oz!

But the best part of the visit....your check-up was on Monday & you hadn't pooped since Wednesday. When we get to the appointment - we start off by getting you stripped down to be weighed. As soon as a pick you up of the scale I put a clean diaper on you so we don't have a fire hose incident while waiting for Dr Dennis. The nurse gave me a questionaire to fill out & the last item is "any concerns to discuss?" So I made a note on there to discuss w/ Dr Dennis "frequency of pooping". Dr. Dennis came in, we go through the rest of the questionaire - things like do your eyes follow an object, can you lift your head 45 degrees - and then get to my concerns. Dr. Dennis assures me that so long as you don't seem uncomfortable, which you haven't - not to worry about 4 days & that some babies may go 8,9,10 days & be just fine (I can't imagine!). During this whole conversation - I'm holding you with just your diaper on & at some point I feel a serious rumbling going on. hmmmm.

We finish talking & Dr. Dennis is ready to examine you & so wants to take the diaper off. I warn - I think we may have a dirty diaper to contend with. Dr. looks at me curiously as we've just had this conversation about you not pooping & says, no problem I can handle the diaper. He opens it up, peers in - looks back at me & says "hope you've brought a lot of wipes!" The volume was like nothing I've ever seen before & the timing was hilarious. Both the Dr & I had a good laugh as we got you cleaned up.

I told Dad later & he suspects you were trying to bulk-up for the 2 month "weigh-in" We didn't weigh you again, but I suspect you could have lost an ounce or two :-)

You are a funny guy Bigs!

Love, mama

Karen & Daphne Visit!

Dear Henry,

We had so much fun with Karen & Daphne visiting - we didn't want them to go home! Friday was one of the first great spring weather days - you were kind enough to share your playmate with Daphne & we hung out on the lawn. I'll be honest - I have recently been impressed w/ how "active" you have become laying on the playmate - lots of kicking, coo-ing & you seem to be checking out the animal friends hanging above you. Well - laying next to Daphne (granted she is 4 mos older than you)....turns out - you aren't so active, lol. She was chatting it up, grabbing the animals, making raspberry sounds, laughing - was quite fun. Makes me realize how much you will keep changing!

On Saturday, Granfeather invited us to her house - and she decked out the whole garden to make it cozy for us. Nana joined and Rony too - now that I realize you were the solo boy with 5 ladies, what a lucky man. We enjoyed catching up, snacking, sipping & laughing in the garden - was a great spring day (you will learn I looove being outside & good weather). The Grans enjoyed meeting Daphne for the first time...

We couldn't resist a cozy baby photo shoot - so we propped you up & it was hilarious:

As if you knew that it was your 8-week birthday....you decided to sleep for 6.5 hours to mark the occasion! Up until then, you have not slept more than ~4 hours at a time so we were shocked (and thrilled). After ~4 hours - I made Dad check on you a few times to make sure you were OK b/c I couldn't believe it. We thought surely the rest of the night would be rough...but the best part was you ate pretty quickly & then went back to sleep for another 3.5 hours. We love this! Everynight since then we've had one stretch of 5-6 hours - I hope I don't jinx it by writing it here :-)

Another plus on the sleep front - you have definitely taken notice of the mobile hanging above your crib. You are now content (at least sometimes) to hang out a bit & zone out looking up before falling asleep. We are practicing putting you into your crib when you are sleepy, but not quite asleep, so you can learn to fall asleep by yourself. I haven't mastered the art of putting you down in the window before you are too tired - but works sometimes & we'll keep trying!

You are losing lots of your newborn hair. The funny thing is Dad had just asked me if you were losing - and I said, Nope, don't think so. Next time I picked you up out of the crib - I noticed a nice collection of fuzzy hair accumulating. Guess you are losing! Its more apparent now - you can tell the "new growth" all on the top of your head & then the back/sides is still darker & longer.

With the spring weather, you have been wearing a tie-die outfit...this is a special one of William's & I think you are super cute in tie-die. We can't wait for you to meet William & Maya. Jack & Lainey will ask us, "when do we get to see the fun kids at the cabin again?" and I think you will also find them lots of fun. Your dad & I think their parents are pretty fun too :-)


I love you Bigs!