Traveling this week

Wow, almost a week in between posts! Haven't done that in a long time. I have a good reason though: we're traveling! Evan had to go to a conference this week in Illinois, keeping him away from Tues-Saturday. I wasn't really prepared to be on my own with two kids for that entire time, so I had asked my mom if she would come and help me out. As that would've required her to take a bunch of time off of work (which she had done when I had Henry), she instead offered to drive up this past Saturday, then on Sunday drive me, Natalie, Henry, and Calla down to my parents' house for the week. I figured since I'm on maternity leave, and it's almost over, why not?

So, I spent the weekend packing up. We had JUST reached the point where Natalie really didn't require much to travel with, and now I'm packing up a baby again! Henry is so little, he doesn't need as much stuff yet as he will in a few months, but we still had a REALLY full car.

We got here Sunday in only 7 hours, with 3 stops. I was very impressed! Both kids did great in the car. Henry only fussed when he lost his binky (easily fixable), and was awake more of the trip than I would've expected. Natalie did great until about the last 20 minutes, and then started getting really fussy. I can't blame her: 7 hours is a long time to travel! I can't imagine trying to do that by myself; it would've been next to impossible. So thanks to my mom for helping out!

We've had a good week here so far. It was really chilly the first couple of days, but the weather has now gotten really nice. We've gone to the NC Aquarium, the beach, the waterfront, and tomorrow the park. I've got some cute pictures from a few of the things we've done this week (I didn't take as many as I'd like at some things, like the beach, where i didn't take any) and I'll try and get them up when I have another 5 minutes to rub together.

Amazingly, both kids have been asleep for an hour now, so I've had a little bit of down time. I have to hand it to my stay-at-home-mom friends; I really don't know how you do it all day every day, and without any help! At least I have my mom here to help hold Henry when I need to do something for Natalie (or vice versa). I am defintely worn out, and I still have 2.5 days until Evan gets here!

Going out!

Henry and I went on a couple of trips out this week. On Tuesday, we took a trip to the mall, as I had a shirt of Natalie's I needed to exchange and a couple of coupons that were going to expire. I ended up with some new shirts to replace old, worn-out tshirts, and a new pair of jeans to replace two pairs that are too big. It was a good trip, and Henry was a really good boy!

Here he is getting ready to go out, looking sporty.

And settled into the car seat. I kind of like his "deer in headlights" look!

Photo-op when we got back home.

On Wednesday, we had a really big outing: I took Henry to meet all of my coworkers! So of course he had to look super cute

 I met them for lunch in downtown Bethesda, at a really yummy Mexican restaurant. I was going to just head home after, but it was time for Henry to eat and he needed to be changed, so I headed back to the lab with everyone. It also gave me an opportunity to show him off to others I know on my floor who weren't at lunch. There's nothing like having people ooh and aah over your baby! :) It was really great to see everyone, and have a little adult time. Henry was also VERY well behaved, and awake for a good portion of the time, so everyone got to see those beautiful eyes.

In terms of work, I'll be going back full time in about 2 weeks, so it was nice to check in and see how things are going. My desk was COVERED in papers, but I just didn't have the energy to sort through them. That'll be my big project on my first day back. I'm starting to think about what I'll be doing when I get back, as I have no experiments really planned. However, I have one paper that I need to make revisions on, as we got the referee report back (very good comments, should be easily addressed). And I have a second paper that I need to get started on, so I think June will be a writing month, and set up for some experiments in July and August. I won't be taking much time off this summer, as I just had two months off for maternity leave, so that should give me lots of time to get work done.
 

Getting back to Henry. We had an interesting day after getting home Wednesday. First up: more photos.

This is the first that Calla has really been interested in him!

And of course, my big girl.

 Henry slept some in the car on the way home, but I guess being out all day screwed up his schedule. He was awake from about 4-10pm, with a couple of very short cat naps during that time. What infant is awake for 6 hours??? He was so tired; his eyes were so red from lack of sleep, but he just wouldn't sleep. Nursing, rocking - none of the usual stuff worked. Evan ended up walking with him for about 45 minutes to settle him down, and by 10pm he finally went to sleep. Evan put him in his crib, and lo and behold, the next thing we knew it was 6:30am! He slept all the way through the night. Of course, he was RIDICULOUSLY hungry when he woke up, but still didn't cry - he's such a good boy!

Last night he went to sleep around the same time (10pm). I put him in his crib, and he settled right in. He only woke up once at 3am, and then up at 6:30am. What a great sleeper! I'm loving this waking up only once (or not at all) a night. He's not got a schedule yet, obviously, so things could change at any moment, but it's great when it happens.

Becoming more aware

Henry is 5 weeks old today!

As I remember (sort of) from Natalie at this age, heading into month two of life is when babies really start to get more engaged in the world around them. Henry is really amazing at making eye contact now; he loves to stare into my eyes when I hold him. No signs of smiling back at us yet; Natalie was 2 months before I got a true smile from her (in response to one of mine), so I'm not anticipating smiles quite yet.

Henry is also enjoying his play mat more now. Look at how well he's paying attention to the objects hanging above him!

Pajama time!

Don't the two of them look cute in their matching green pjs on Natalie's bed?

Natalie's new haircut

Last Thursday I took Natalie to get a haircut. We went to the same place I took her back before Christmas, and the same woman cut her hair. Since Natalie is older now, Nicky wanted to wash her hair. That was the only part of the experience Natalie wasn't too sure about. She laid down on a table they have set up at the shampoo bowl (instead of a chair), but was not keen on having her head flat down to have her hair washed. I basically had to help hold her head down while Nicky washed it (and help to wash it a bit too). To Natalie's credit, she didn't cry, just looked REALLY freaked out! But I talked her through it, and after that everything went great, mostly because during the haircut, she got to watch Dora and have a lollipop. :)

Here are two pictures of Natalie with her new haircut!

You'll notice a little clip in Natalie's hair in both pictures. We're having to use that until some of her "bangs" grow out. Somehow, her bangs previously got cut so that they consisted of the entire front half of her head. It looks kind of silly, so we need to let the back portion grow out and be "real" hair. Until they grow out, the hair has to be pinned over to keep it out of her face! It's a struggle to prevent her from pulling the barrettes out, but she's getting better.

Kids being cute

I've been taking a lot of pictures of Natalie and Henry in the entertainment mat on the floor, as it's a really easy way to get them both together and not really moving around (at least in Natalie's case). I promise to try not to inundate the blog with these pictures, but I do have some more really cute ones.

And of course, the main purpose of tummy time: letting Henry practice lifting his head!

After that, he went on his back for a bit.

I can't remember exactly what we were talking about here, but it makes for a cute video.

All that time on the floor makes for one tired Henry.

Mother's Day

These are just a few pictures I have of Evan and I with our kids this past Mother's Day weekend. I had a really great day: Evan made us chocolate chip waffles on Sunday morning (delicious!!), and we just all hung out together. It was very low-key, but very nice.

I did pick out my Mother's Day present. My friend Becky gave me the idea; it's really great to have a small clutch to just shove into a diaper bag with all of my basic necessities, instead of having to also carry around a purse. It will also be very useful once I go back to work, as I can slide it right into my work bag and not have to carry a purse then either. Thanks for my gift, Evan and kids!

Fun on the floor

At his two week doctor's checkup, the pediatrician recommended we start doing some tummy time to get Henry to get used to being on his belly and to start picking his head up (which he's already doing!). So, last week I pulled out the entertainment mat and put Henry on it.

Henry did really well on the mat! He lay like this, facing me, for a while (almost a minute maybe?), then picked his head up, turned it the other way, and turned it back to me. At that point, he started fussing a bit, and he'd had his belly time, so I picked him up and rolled him over, so he could look at the stuff hanging above him.

When I brought Natalie home from Essie's, the mat was still on the floor. Natalie hadn't seen it since she stopped using it, so she really didn't remember it. However, she found it endlessly fascinating!

Look at my sweet girl!

She then decided to imitate how I feed Henry, by "feeding" her baby doll. Look at that big smile! (Yes, the entertainment mat comes with a small, kid-size boppy pillow!)

Toes and bubbles

On Thursday, Evan stayed with Henry for an hour so I could go and get a pedicure. At the salon, they had a bowl of DumDum lollipops, so I picked up two of them for Natalie and I. I then picked her up from Essies, and we enjoyed our lollipops.

Natalie was very excited by my painted toes, and asked me to paint hers. So, I did! They came out really cute, and she was very well behaved. The only negative was she got excited after we finished, and hit the bottle of nail polish, which I had failed to cap properly. So, our table cloth got ruined. But that gave me the excuse I needed to buy a new one, which I really like. :)

Before dinner, we took the kids and Calla for a walk. I used a wrap to carry Henry that a friend of mine made for me before I had Natalie. It worked pretty well, but not great; I've since bought a new Moby wrap, which I'll show pictures of later.

Here's Natalie inspecting our neighbor's flower bush. He came outside as we were passing by and picked one off for her. Then yesterday he brought by two beautiful irises from his backyard for her! So nice.

Evan took Henry inside while cooking dinner, and I kept Natalie outside blowing bubbles, which she asked to do repeatedly during our walk. She's getting pretty good at actually blowing the bubbles herself, as you see in the picture below; those bubbles were blown by Natalie!

These bubbles were blown by me, and Natalie managed to catch them on her wand. That then became one of her favorite things to do, even more than blowing them herself.

I really like how this picture came out. The softness/glow around her is because a little bit of soap from the bubbles had gotten on my camera lens, but I really like the effect!

Last pictures of April

I'm doing this a little out of order, as I already posted pics from the Macbeth's visit on May 1-2, but that's ok. Basically, these are a few of my favorite pics that I took a week ago, when Henry was two weeks old, heading into his third full week.

Personally, I love this shot.

Evan took this one of Henry on our bed!

Ah, the silly faces of a 2+ year old!

Mood swings

No, not mine, although I have enough hormones running through me right now to justify it. :) No, we're talking about my eldest. Here's video evidence of why you can't diagnose children with bipolar disorder: toddlers exhibit bipolar mood swings ALL THE TIME.

Case in point: These two videos were taken last night within a 2 minute time span.

Additions to the kids' rooms

I previously posted pictures of the changes we made to the kids' rooms: setting up Natalie's big girl room, and converting the nursery for Henry. Well, I wanted to add some things to the walls of both rooms, as they were looking really blank. Luckily, I found these really great wall appliques at Target that matched both rooms! So, for $30 total I was able to finish decorating.

First up: Henry's room. I did this a little over a week ago. I think it came out nicely: added something to the big blank area over the changing table

And adds something to the big blank space that was next to the crib.

Amazingly, the colors of the animals are a really close match to the bedding! The appliques really add something to the room.
As a note: the white blank canvas over Henry's crib will be painted brown, with colored letters attached to it that spell out "HENRY". I just haven't gotten around to doing the painting yet, as Henry really likes to be held right now which impacts how much I get done during the day!

Second: Natalie's room! We did this one just tonight. And I do mean we: Natalie was a big helper in putting the stickers on her wall. It's so great that she's old enough to help do these kinds of projects now. We let her stand on a step ladder so she could reach to help do the lower parts; she still couldn't quite reach the top. This allowed me to set the overall design the way I wanted, but let Natalie choose where to put the littler flowers and butterflies.

Here's the view as you enter her room; I put a few on her door as well. 

And the full mural from inside the room

I love how it came out. These stickers add SO much color to her room, and it fits in really nicely to the mainly pink-and-green theme of lady bugs & butterflies.

It's pool time!

We've discovered Natalie's new favorite thing: the pool!

This past month, Natalie's friend Gemma at daycare was signed up for swim lessons at the local indoor pool at Ida Lee Rec Center. While Gemma was having her lesson, Essie was able to take Natalie and Ruth (the other daycare kid) into the big pool for some fun time for free! The classes were Tues-Thurs for about an hour for the month of April, giving Natalie 8 free swim times!

On the Thursday before I had Henry, I went over with them and was able to take some pictures of Natalie having fun in the pool. I couldn't go in, as I was already dilated at the time, so I waded while taking pictures of Essie with the kids.

Natalie practicing "crawling" in the water

Natalie practicing blowing bubbles!

Happy girl in the water!

Natalie & Gemma running into the shallow end.

And finally, one of her favorite things: jumping into the water!

Last Thursday I went with them to the last class; I went in the water this time, so I didn't really have the opportunity to take any pics. I had fun playing with her in the water! But now that the indoor sessions are done, we're now eagerly waiting for our outdoor pool to open Memorial Day weekend!

Henry's first real bath

We had given Henry a couple of sponge baths before his cord stump fell off, but last week we did his first real bath in his baby tub. Evan took pictures for me while I bathed him. Many of the pics are NOT appropriate for putting up on the internet, but we got a couple of good ones.

I'm not too sure about this, Mom...

At least you covered me with a washcloth...

This might be ok...will it be over soon?

Really, my son is not a huge fan of getting a bath. It wasn't Natalie's favorite either, at least until she could sit up. He does fine until I go to wash his head and face, and then he fusses quite a bit.

Since doing this bath, I've done two where we put the infant tub in the big tub in the kids' bathroom. At the end of each of those two baths, I've taken Henry out of the tub and held him under the running water to rinse off, and he seems to REALLY like that. Natalie likes standing under the running water, too, so maybe this is just something my kids really enjoy!