I've finally updated Henry 365 so check it out in the sidebar.
Tomorrow we're off to the cottage for about a week right after school ends. Tomorrow is Emily's very last day of kindergarten. I can't believe that can be true.
I'll blog occasionally from the cottage as the wee man allows... meaning when he isn't in my arms... which isn't often lately!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Not my best effort!
Oh man, was that a poorly crafted post. The sentiment was good but, boy, clearly not my best effort. Lack of sleep apparently affects my ability to write!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Henry at 1 month
Dear Henry,
You turned one month old last weekend. This week has seen you become so much more aware of everything around you. Your little bright eyes can focus on so many more things. You are still a baby who loves to be in arms and not set down much. You'll put up with a few minutes before squawking, which wears thin after a while, I admit. I try and remind myself that in a few months I'll look back on all the cuddles nostalgically rather than get irritated by having to hold you so much.
You also challenge me in getting you to sleep but lucky for us you take a soother and I've figured out that the best way to get you to sleep in the evening is to feed you and then rock you in our lovely avacado green rocking chair while you work on the soother.
Of course, your real preference is to use Mummy as a soother. You are a definite boob man and it shows in how big you are. Three weeks ago you weighed 9 lbs 3 oz (you were 8 lbs 11 oz when you were born 5 weeks ago) and this week you weighed in at 12 lbs 8 oz. I think I'm producing cream! You and I have worked really hard on your latch. I was motivated to get it right this time; I'm tired of sore nipples! And it has paid off in how much milk you are getting and how much easier (and therefore enjoyable) breastfeeding is now. My favourite part is still when you fall asleep on my after you're done feeding. A close second is how noisy you are when you breastfeed. I even recorded it. Emily declared that you sound like a flock of geese. I always thought Hope was noisy when she fed but you definitely win the prize. It's adorable.
I have to admit that you do challenge me sometimes and I get worn out. You're letting me get only 2 hours of sleep at a time but then I have to also remember that you are really easy to get back to sleep in the night and you don't really cry for any reason but wanting to be held and wanting to eat. You're pretty easy to cart around and you love the bath.
I know that these are early days and things will likely only get easier. I just have to enjoy the way you are now in the midst of our moving chaos and not wish you to be any different because really.... you are perfect just the way you are.
It's you I like, Henry.
Love,
Mummy
You turned one month old last weekend. This week has seen you become so much more aware of everything around you. Your little bright eyes can focus on so many more things. You are still a baby who loves to be in arms and not set down much. You'll put up with a few minutes before squawking, which wears thin after a while, I admit. I try and remind myself that in a few months I'll look back on all the cuddles nostalgically rather than get irritated by having to hold you so much.
You also challenge me in getting you to sleep but lucky for us you take a soother and I've figured out that the best way to get you to sleep in the evening is to feed you and then rock you in our lovely avacado green rocking chair while you work on the soother.
Of course, your real preference is to use Mummy as a soother. You are a definite boob man and it shows in how big you are. Three weeks ago you weighed 9 lbs 3 oz (you were 8 lbs 11 oz when you were born 5 weeks ago) and this week you weighed in at 12 lbs 8 oz. I think I'm producing cream! You and I have worked really hard on your latch. I was motivated to get it right this time; I'm tired of sore nipples! And it has paid off in how much milk you are getting and how much easier (and therefore enjoyable) breastfeeding is now. My favourite part is still when you fall asleep on my after you're done feeding. A close second is how noisy you are when you breastfeed. I even recorded it. Emily declared that you sound like a flock of geese. I always thought Hope was noisy when she fed but you definitely win the prize. It's adorable.
I have to admit that you do challenge me sometimes and I get worn out. You're letting me get only 2 hours of sleep at a time but then I have to also remember that you are really easy to get back to sleep in the night and you don't really cry for any reason but wanting to be held and wanting to eat. You're pretty easy to cart around and you love the bath.
I know that these are early days and things will likely only get easier. I just have to enjoy the way you are now in the midst of our moving chaos and not wish you to be any different because really.... you are perfect just the way you are.
It's you I like, Henry.
Love,
Mummy
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Oh Henry
Turns out that Henry is a very normal 1 month old. In other words, he's cranky when awake, wants to suck (on me) all the time, and fights sleep. Hope made sure I forgot what this was all like when she was a baby and made having her around downright easy. Henry's decided to remind me of why the first three months or so of a new baby.... kinda suck (although all the cuddles are still amazing).
And so don't except the following from me too often:
And so don't except the following from me too often:
- a pleasant disposition
- good looking hair
- having showered recently
- freshly applied deodorant
- coherent blog posts or emails
- a clean house
- polite responses to comparisons of how tired a person is who doesn't have a new baby in the house
- photos of Henry every day (oops!)
- declining the offer of tea, liquor, a hot meal or any other kind of help
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Life in Waterloo: Living in a walking city
As I walked down King Street today heading to Uptown Waterloo with the girls and Henry, I breathed in the yeasty smell of Brick Brewery that permeated the street. As I pointed out the shiny vats in the Brick's windows to the girls and explained what the smell was from, we took note of the old house next door with the weathered sign "Brewer's Quarters". I told the girls how Waterloo has long been a centre of beer brewing. Only a few minutes later we walked by what used to be Labatt's (now a retirement home); in front sits a memorial to Waterloo's brewing tradition. If we'd continued further up King Street we would have walked by the wonderful Huether Hotel and Lion Brewery, still cooking up great batches of beer every day.
And it was at this point that I realized that my series "Life in Waterloo" fizzled out after one, or possibly two, posts. A brewing post would have been a nice addition. How sad. Also, how telling in regard to our busy year this year.
And it's not like I have more time now with a baby forever strapped to my chest or in my arms (a topic for another post... "Will I ever get him off of me?").
Life in Waterloo has been absolutely what I hoped it would be when we decided to return here for a year. In fact, it's been more than I hoped for. We luckily rented a house that allows us to walk everywhere we need to go: school, preschool, Uptown Waterloo for any number of reasons (Waterloo has hit the mark in reinventing its downtown affectionately called "Uptown" presumably because Kitchener is downtown King St - less confusing? You be the judge), grocery shopping, even movie theatres if we ever actually went there, friends' houses. There is so much to be said for living on foot or bike or stroller. And as we walk we see so many Waterloo-specific landmarks or people such as the breweries, the old Mutual Life building (now Sunlife), sometimes even an occasional horse and buggy driven by a family of Old Order Mennonites. And certainly there are memories for me given that I've lived here on and off since I left home for The University of Waterloo in 1991.
I'm going to miss my walking life in Waterloo. Today the girls and I (with an awake Henry in the buggy) walked to Dairy Queen, passed The Brick Brewery, over to Vincenzo's (a post unto itself almost... my, how I will miss Vincenzo's) for gift cards for teachers, then to the LCBO, then to Ten Thousand Villages for a midwife gift (not purchased as Henry was screaming by then) and then home again.
As an aside, by this point Henry was riding in my Ergo carrier on my chest and Hope was in the baby buggy. Why, you ask? Because Crocs suck. I HATE them. Used to like them. Now HATE them. I have a rule, in fact, that they are only beach shoes but somehow my two girls slipped out of the house with them on under my radar and Hope ended up with a doozy of a blister because of those dang shoes (if you can call them that) and so she rode home in what is essentially a pram. I must have been the sight. I imagine I inspired more than a few people who saw me to go home and renew their birth control prescription.
Tomorrow we walk to Hope's preschool for the last time this year. I'll relish the wildflowers growing by the railway tracks that we walk along, peeking into the backyards that I've come to watch through the seasons, sneaking through our "secret path" into the back of the church, meeting Emily and John on the way home in front of the school. I'll say goodbye to some of those landmarks but I'll remember them for a long time. And I'll miss them.
And it was at this point that I realized that my series "Life in Waterloo" fizzled out after one, or possibly two, posts. A brewing post would have been a nice addition. How sad. Also, how telling in regard to our busy year this year.
And it's not like I have more time now with a baby forever strapped to my chest or in my arms (a topic for another post... "Will I ever get him off of me?").
Life in Waterloo has been absolutely what I hoped it would be when we decided to return here for a year. In fact, it's been more than I hoped for. We luckily rented a house that allows us to walk everywhere we need to go: school, preschool, Uptown Waterloo for any number of reasons (Waterloo has hit the mark in reinventing its downtown affectionately called "Uptown" presumably because Kitchener is downtown King St - less confusing? You be the judge), grocery shopping, even movie theatres if we ever actually went there, friends' houses. There is so much to be said for living on foot or bike or stroller. And as we walk we see so many Waterloo-specific landmarks or people such as the breweries, the old Mutual Life building (now Sunlife), sometimes even an occasional horse and buggy driven by a family of Old Order Mennonites. And certainly there are memories for me given that I've lived here on and off since I left home for The University of Waterloo in 1991.
I'm going to miss my walking life in Waterloo. Today the girls and I (with an awake Henry in the buggy) walked to Dairy Queen, passed The Brick Brewery, over to Vincenzo's (a post unto itself almost... my, how I will miss Vincenzo's) for gift cards for teachers, then to the LCBO, then to Ten Thousand Villages for a midwife gift (not purchased as Henry was screaming by then) and then home again.
As an aside, by this point Henry was riding in my Ergo carrier on my chest and Hope was in the baby buggy. Why, you ask? Because Crocs suck. I HATE them. Used to like them. Now HATE them. I have a rule, in fact, that they are only beach shoes but somehow my two girls slipped out of the house with them on under my radar and Hope ended up with a doozy of a blister because of those dang shoes (if you can call them that) and so she rode home in what is essentially a pram. I must have been the sight. I imagine I inspired more than a few people who saw me to go home and renew their birth control prescription.
Tomorrow we walk to Hope's preschool for the last time this year. I'll relish the wildflowers growing by the railway tracks that we walk along, peeking into the backyards that I've come to watch through the seasons, sneaking through our "secret path" into the back of the church, meeting Emily and John on the way home in front of the school. I'll say goodbye to some of those landmarks but I'll remember them for a long time. And I'll miss them.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
First cottage weekend
We're nearing the end of our first weekend at the cottage this year. Friday was beautiful here. We played on the beach and in the lake. The girls rediscovered all the cottage toys and its nooks and crannies.
Yesterday was rainy so we did some restocking in town and then were back outside in the afternoon.
Henry, being only three weeks old, is the youngest baby I've brought to the cottage. I had expectations of no sleep but he did fairly well with only one night of being awake A LOT. Last night he slept with me for a bigger portion and did much better. Although this morning he's refusing to get off me, The Dairy Queen, and take a nap.
The sun is shining again; the girls are playing at the beach; time to get out there.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Yesterday was rainy so we did some restocking in town and then were back outside in the afternoon.
Henry, being only three weeks old, is the youngest baby I've brought to the cottage. I had expectations of no sleep but he did fairly well with only one night of being awake A LOT. Last night he slept with me for a bigger portion and did much better. Although this morning he's refusing to get off me, The Dairy Queen, and take a nap.
The sun is shining again; the girls are playing at the beach; time to get out there.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:N Mary Lake Rd,Huntsville,Canada
Monday, June 07, 2010
Thursday, June 03, 2010
The wheels of government have gone turbo
Ready to have your mind COMPLETELY BLOWN? Okay, here goes....
I applied for Henry's birth certificate online (new to me... with the other two kids that option wasn't available... it was all snail mail) on May 27. His birth certificate was ISSUED on May 28 and ARRIVED in Waterloo for me to pick up on June 1.
Stop the presses, people. Armageddon has arrived.
To put it in perspective for you non-Ontarians... with the old system, it took a full two months to ever see a birth certificate.... IF YOU WERE LUCKY. (And then you had to get a passport after that if you wanted to cross the border making shopping at Target more than a little inconvenient. Ahem.)
To say that I'm a fan, is an understatement. To say that the government has surprised me, also an understatement. To say this will make me vote Liberal, yeah, UNLIKELY but still.... making me happy.
I applied for Henry's birth certificate online (new to me... with the other two kids that option wasn't available... it was all snail mail) on May 27. His birth certificate was ISSUED on May 28 and ARRIVED in Waterloo for me to pick up on June 1.
Stop the presses, people. Armageddon has arrived.
To put it in perspective for you non-Ontarians... with the old system, it took a full two months to ever see a birth certificate.... IF YOU WERE LUCKY. (And then you had to get a passport after that if you wanted to cross the border making shopping at Target more than a little inconvenient. Ahem.)
To say that I'm a fan, is an understatement. To say that the government has surprised me, also an understatement. To say this will make me vote Liberal, yeah, UNLIKELY but still.... making me happy.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
I'm thankful for....
- rain and cooler temperatures
- a good latch (and improving every day)
- a two-hour nap for me this morning (after literally being up almost all night)
- hot meals brought over by friends
- family and friends who invite the girls for playdates
- a healthy baby
- a hefty milk supply
- healing nipples
- good hemorrhoid medication (remember my experience with Hope?)
- a good duck and cover reflex when faced with Henry's impression of Manneken Pis
- an amazing midwife
- a friend who shows up and takes me to Starbucks for an hour (with Henry in tow)
- borrowed baby equipment, and:
an amazing partner who is going full out these days to make everything a bit easier for me and the girls
two amazing girls who are the best helpers and best friends
this guy. My threats to put him up on Kijiji after last night were just a joke. Seriously.
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