Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Hiking

There was a creek running practically right through our campsite. We took many "hikes" along it throughout the week. Really, we probably only walked about two minutes down then back up if you call that a hike. But it was very relaxing to hear the rapids and smell the fresh mountain air. Here's Mom, Grandma and Henry.


Monday, July 12, 2010

Pack and Play

Another picture from our adventure up the Sierra Nevada's! This was the very first morning after we arrived. It was still a bit chilly out and we weren't ready to put Henry in the dirt yet. So we brought his pack and play (also his bed) out and put him in. He was more interested in checking out the breathtaking surroundings than playing with the toys we threw in with him.


Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Back to Civilization

So we went out to California to visit Mom's family. We got to go camping for eight nights up in the mountains. It was so beautiful and mostly relaxing - except when we had to put Henry down for naps. It was super cold during the evening, getting down in the 40's! But overall, I think Henry really enjoyed the time in nature and he definitely enjoyed the birthday cake :)


So we're back now and all really missing the mountains and California. It always feels like so long between visits... But we took lots of pictures and many of them will hopefully find their way to the blog in no particular order. This was one of the last days we were there, but I really liked this shot. More to come!


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Happy Birthday Henry

Henry is 1 year old today! What an incredible year it has been. Getting to watch him grow and learn and develop has been an incredible blessing! I look forward to more and more years of getting to know one another better. To honor the day, I'll post the very first picture ever taken of Henry. Then to see how much he's grown, a recent picture :)



Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Fun in the Sun

Mom's found some sweet deals this year at some garage sales! She found a fun swing that looks like a dolphin that is now hanging from a tree in our front yard. She also found a kiddie pool (it also looks like a dolphin) and Henry loves them both. We got to play in the pool one sunny summer afternoon. At first it was too cold and Henry would do everything he could to get out as soon as he touched the water. But Mom brought some hot water out and warmed it up a bit. He's always really enjoyed being in water!


Sunday, June 20, 2010

So Big

I guess Henry is starting to understand things more. We're pretty sure he knows what 'no' means already - even if he doesn't always listen. He's gotten pretty good at letting us know how big he is when we ask:


Friday, June 18, 2010

Pizza

So many notable milestones lately... Crawling, pulling himself up, news of becoming a big brother. But I think this milestone may top them all. Henry's first time eating pizza! For those that know Dad, he could pretty much live off pizza (and practically did for a couple years). So this was a very momentous occasion. Henry loved it cried when it was over. He acts out how Dad feels about pizza...


Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Big Brother

This has been public knowledge for a while now, but Henry is going to be a big brother! Tammy is now almost 11 weeks pregnant putting the due date at January 7. We're all very excited, especially Henry. At least we're assuming that's why he wanted to hold the pregnancy test. Or maybe it was disbelief. Definitely excitement :)


Monday, June 7, 2010

Growing

Oh how the time goes by. Rather quickly lately. There are many pictures to post, but we have currently misplaced the cable to upload pictures from our camera to the computer... So here's one from my phone.


We're so blessed that Henry eats pretty much everything we put in front of him. And he sure does enjoy eating. He often gets very upset when meal time is over. This was yesterday morning before church eating breakfast. He's eating cereal - and it's not baby cereal! :)


Friday, May 7, 2010

The Looking Glass

The new house we're in has been such a great fit for us. We love the size, the lack of stairs/basement, and the carpet. It's so much easier to watch Henry when his falls don't hurt as bad (carpet) and we don't have to worry about long falls (stairs). In the old place, we never really let Henry wander very far from the little carpet square in the living room. But at the new place, he gets to explore much more. He loves going to the front door to watch the world go by. These are some shots after he found the door.




Thursday, May 6, 2010

Being Green

Just as Easter, I'm a bit behind with this post... But last month was Earth Day and Mom had a booth for her store in Peoria. Henry and I got to hang out together almost all day long while Mom worked the event. Of course, we went to support her and hang out for a while. With a face like that who wouldn't buy something!


Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Tongue and Teeth

Henry is over ten months old! It's incredible how quickly time has gone already. It's hard to believe that next month, he'll be turning 1!


He's been getting lots of teeth lately which has apparently led to an ear infection last week... But before he started feeling too terribly sick, I got a great picture of he and Mom. He started getting in to sticking his tongue out, quite possible to feel his teeth or maybe just to imitate his silly Mom :)


Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Easter

Yeah, you read the title right. I'm posting an Easter picture. We moved a week and a half ago and that was not conducive for posting. But all the drama associated with selling our house is over and we're slowly settling down in our new place.


These pictures are from Easter at Grandpa and Grandma Cody's house.








Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Scooter

Henry is definitely mobile now. Still mostly pulling himself along with his arms, but he's really good at it now! He scoots around our house, which is mostly hardwood (side note: we just sold our house so if you know of a cheap place for rent in Morton, let us know!).


With the mobility comes some new and awesome things for Mom and me (and certainly some challenges, but let's focus on the positive). One of my new favorite things is when Henry crawls back over to me after he's been exploring and comes right up to my lap and looks up at me. So I pull him up and he sits on my lap while we play with a toy and about a minute later, he regrets his decision and goes exploring again. Another one of my favorite things happens at the end of the day. Mom's been busy lately, so I've gotten to put Henry to bed more often than usual. So my new favorite thing is when I'm holding him in my arms with his head nuzzled on one arm, body laying across my stomach, as I sing him a song and pat his back, his eyes slowly close. That moment when you can tell that he has actually fallen asleep... Wow. So peaceful.


This is probably the longest post yet! Better include a picture, too :)


Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Shake, Rattle and Roll

Henry is nine months old today! He just keeps growing and learning. We feed him more and different foods and enjoy his facial expressions when he experiences new textures and flavors. We even gave him some gobi (cauliflower) from a dish of aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower) at Khana Khazanah. He seemed to enjoy it, spice and all. But enough about food; that's not what this post is about.


Henry is also getting much better motor skills and a better attention span. He still gets frustrated when he can't quite grab something because his finger and thumb don't do what he wants them to do :) But with the increased motor skills and attention span come much enjoyment from toys both new and old. The first time we gave Henry this rattle was when he was a couple days old - naive parents, I know. He didn't seem to enjoy it much then, but look how much he loves it now that he can make noise with it!


Sunday, February 28, 2010

Pita

I was so happy to get to spend the weekend with Mom and Henry. The past two weekends they were visiting the family in California. The weekends are especially nice for me because no work = more time with my family. We got to hang out and I got to feed Henry, play a lot, and change diapers! He got to eat some pita on Saturday while I took pictures. This is my favorite of the set.


Thursday, February 25, 2010

Home!

Mom and Henry are home! They got back late Monday night. The inevitable delay occurred (2 hours again) and this time only three bags made it back on her flight. Not surprising that her bags were not the ones that made it to Peoria. But yeah, they're home safely and that's what matters :) Here's a picture Mom sent me that she took on her phone. I like it so much, I set it as my wallpaper on my work computer.


Saturday, February 20, 2010

I miss my boy!

So by the time this post is published it will have been over a week since I've seen Henry. I'm so happy that he and Mom are able to go visit the family in CA, but it's so hard for me while they're gone!

I was just reminiscing and looking through some photos from before they took their trip. The first picture shows a fun way to get Henry to laugh. I like to gnaw at his neck and make funny noises. The second picture is him waiting for more :)



Friday, February 19, 2010

Look-A-Like

So people seem to say that Henry looks like his dad. I feel honored, but I usually think that Henry looks like Henry. He might have some of his dad's features, but he's still his own person, right? Well, not according to this picture. Give Henry glasses and a beard, and it practically looks like he's looking into a mirror!


Thursday, February 18, 2010

Upside Down

The weekend before last, we were over at Grandpa and Grandma Cody's house for lunch after church. Grandpa got the camera out while Mom and Henry laughed and played. As it turns out, Henry enjoys being turned upside down! He similarly enjoys being lifted up high into the air or being held tight while you do quick squats. In each of the aforementioned, he opens his mouth as wide as he possibly can trying to stretch that smile from ear to ear and chin to forehead! It's probably the cutest thing ever as demonstrated by this picture that Grandpa took :)


Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Broccoli

At Henry's last doctor appointment, Mom and Dad learned that we can start giving him finger foods. Oh, what a new and fun (not to mention incredibly messy) experience that has been! He's enjoyed whole wheat pitas, crackers, tofu and steamed broccoli! When broccoli is steamed, it is much easier for a baby to eat. Coincidentally, it's also so much messier. All the little leaves fall off with little effort to keep the bites small enough for him. But Henry's not exactly the most gentle boy so as he grabs the broccoli, the little leaves go everywhere as demonstrated below. However, he does really like to eat his greens!



Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Window of Opportunity

Being the inquisitive boy he is, Henry quite enjoys looking out the window. Since we live on a bit of a busy street, he loves getting to watch the cars go by. It's a nice chance to teach him colors and automobile Make/Model :) Of course, in the case of this picture, he also really enjoys curtains.


Monday, February 15, 2010

Exploring

Henry is definitely in the stage of wanting to explore everything! Which, as mentioned in a previous post, leads to boredom in the house sometimes. He's also getting more and more mobile every day. Sometimes we just let him go off on his own so he can learn (of course, we make sure he doesn't get hurt too bad). That actually leads to a funny story. The other day, Mom was playing with Henry while he was scooting and rolling around the floor. He crawled over to Mom and started tugging on her pant leg. She looked down and he smiled at her. Then she looked up and back down and to her surprise, he had a pacifier in his mouth! There must have been one on the floor that he found. Crazy kid. So yeah, here he is exploring :)


Sunday, February 14, 2010

Bye!

So Henry and Mom left for CA yesterday. It's sad for us in IL (especially me since I usually see them everyday) because they will be gone for 10 days. Henry and I were hanging out before they left and Mom took some pictures. I want to post this one so he can wave bye to us in IL and hi to those in CA! Truth is, he's not actually waving, Mom's just really good at capturing a moment. Henry is in to hitting things right now - well mostly just waving his arm up and down and if some thing's in the way, watch out! Which makes this picture even funnier to me :)


Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Piano Man

Mom found a toy last fall at a garage sale. It's a little piano-type instrument and it was only $1! Henry has grown to love it. Not just playing with it, but listening to Dad make songs, too. Of course, as is the manner of a seven-month baby, whenever I am playing with his toy, he instantly gets jealous and wants the toy all to himself. Even if he's already playing with a different toy. But we'll work on that. He's a great kid. Here's some pictures of him making music.




Sunday, January 31, 2010

Teeth

Not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but Henry has teeth. They started coming in at around 5 months. But it's been really hard to get a picture to share with the world. Mom took this picture when Henry was playing on the floor (by the way, he's learned to scoot around and is very close to crawling). So yeah, there's his teeth!


Saturday, January 30, 2010

Our friend the fan

We're deep in the Illinois winter now which means Henry doesn't leave the house too often. Consequently, Henry gets a little bored in the living room (since we try not to let him watch tv). He likes to be escorted throughout the house and he really likes lights! Especially the light in the kitchen because it is also a ceiling fan. These pictures were taken of him watching the fan blades go round and round. I used the low light lens (best b-day gift ever) which I think adds some dramatic affect :)




Friday, January 29, 2010

Rubber Ducky

The other day when we were giving Henry a bath, we put a rubber ducky in with him. As he does with most everything he sees, he put the duck in his mouth. The duck has a hole in his mouth so he can drink (and spit back out) water. The funniest part was when he had the duck's head in his mouth and squeezed... The duck squirted water all over him! Here's some shots of Henry with the duck in his mouth :)



Monday, January 18, 2010

Neglect

Hello. I just want to set the record straight to make sure everyone knows I don't neglect Henry as much as I neglect his blog :)

It's been a long time... And it's not that I haven't been taking pictures. I know everyone is busy so that excuse won't work. So I'll fall back to the fact that I am on a computer for 10 hours a day at work and the only reason I want to get on a computer after that is to play civ 4. Case and point - the times when pictures were most regularly posted were times when I was off work (right after his birth and over Thanksgiving). But I try, I really do.

Mom sent me this picture one day while I was at work. It always brightens my day when I get a little break in my work with a picture message!