HENRY CLAUS.

7:30AM. OUR HOUSE AKA GOTHAM CITY.

or is that batman?

oh this was a morning. an early, early morning.

TRAITOR.

FLU.

tuesday, I got a call from hallie's school that she had puked. wonderful.



hallie on the ride home - passed out with her puke bag.

 so, we hung out on my bed doing this:

and then she barfed in my bed, which is not cool.

and then barfed in the living room. oh and that night a few times.

and then i started barfing.

but this guy isn't barfing!

and neither is dave, but that is really just a matter of time.

6 MONTHS OLD.

where has the time gone? seriously. where? show me where my tiny baby went. because this is not a tiny baby!

what a sweetie. at this point, henry:

*is 16.1 pounds, 26.5 inches long (30th and 40th%)
*so so so so happy
*sleeps through the night
*takes two naps
*loves irma
*loves mom and dad
*tolerates loves hallie
*still has no teeth
*drools like no other child i've ever seen before
*so so so so happy
*still loves his bath. he has never cried during a bath. ever.
*has never had an ear infection! or even a fever! glory be!
*seems to enjoy having his boogers sucked out with a bulb syringe
*hates getting dressed
*loves to be naked (like his daddy!)
*had his last taste of breast milk on his 6-month birthday (sad face)
*belly laughs when you try to stick his foot in his mouth
*likes baby oatmeal, but acts like you are feeding him poison if you give him any "real" food
*happiest baby EVER

CHRISTMAS PROGRAM 2011.

she was for SURE the cutest one up there. i mean, seriously. those eyebrows.

for your viewing pleasure. (sorry for the shaky iphone video! i forgot our other one.) she is front row, center! and click the button in the bottom right corner of the video (after you push play) to make it full screen.

THE HAPPIEST BABY ALIVE AND HIS GREAT-GRANDMA. AND A DISH RAG.

wheeee! an old dish rag!

oh look! here it comes again!

hee hee!

best. toy. ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS HOW WE ROLL.

i don't know how you do baking up in your crib, but here's how we do it in ours.

summer style.

and halloween style, apparently (can you spot the ghost, scary cat and bat above?). oh and some princess thrown in there for good measure (see the shoe and crown?).

decorated within an inch of their lives, that's how we roll. loooots of red hots.

hallie said - this is the best night ever.

i'm sure it was! she ate an entire container of sprinkles, so she was feeling pretty good.

STATE OF THE BOOBIES ADDRESS.

fellow breastfeeders, i'm almost finished.

not because i want to, but because the wells are running dry. after hallie's unexpected stay in the hospital, i was never able to pump as much as before. which was no big deal, i still pumped what i could and supplemented the remainder with formula. and then henry started sleeping through the night, and my supply went down some more, but still no biggie.

well now it just keeps going down. so much so that he has to work and work and work and then doesn't get much. so i've been bottling him and nursing him to keep him satisfied.

i've been drinking tea, taking herbs and pumping lots and lots.

so, as henry approaches his six-month birthday i'm feeling like this is the right time to quit. i don't really want to, but i don't want to pump for just a few measly ounces.

i'm going to keep pumping until i don't pump enough for the one bottle of breastmilk he's getting now.

and then.

i.

am.

done.

sad face.

but happy face, because NO MORE PUMPING.

no picture, because my grandma would have a heart attack.


then end.

FREEDOM.

no more cast - hooray! she had a bath the night after and she said, "ooooh, this feels like heaven."

i can imagine.

it was flaky and peeling and gross looking. her skin was so slack and sad. we bathed it, lotioned her up and slapped a band-aid on.

she's on restriction for a few more weeks but then we are officially done-zo with the broken arm-zo.

um, not sure why that picture is upside down? anyway. these were taking moments before the doctor came in and yanked (like, YANKED) the pins out of her elbow. and she screamed. loudly.

here's a closeup of the pins. so gross. like little coat hangers sticking out. yucky.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I KNOW. WE'VE BEEN BUSY.

i am so tiiiiired this week. (whine, whine, whine). i don't know why. i wake up tired and go to bed tired. i'm just tired. and busy? apparently, since i haven't blogged in a hundred and forty-five days. (that's hallie's favorite exaggeration).

i haven't mentioned thanksgiving at all. or even how thankful i am for my little family. and my big family too. it was a wonderful holiday and it *is* a wonderful holiday. it is actually becoming my favorite holiday. weird, because there are no gifts involved. and i loooove gifts. buying and receiving, thank you very much.

speaking of receiving, i just don't know what i want. i sort of want this, sort of want that. i really want a foot massager. do people give those as gifts? i want one.

anyway, here's some pictures. only the one with lauren is from thanksgiving. the others are from the wednesday before and the sunday after. apparently hallie wasn't around?

ps - lauren, you look really pretty in that picture.

i know this last picture is super blurry. but i love it. maggie and dave have become best buddies lately. she has figured out that he is the most fun of us all.

A GREAT WAY TO SPEND THE DAY.

with this fella.

ooooh, this kid. i tell you what.

THIS MORNING.

well, well. look who woke up in a good mood! with some awesome hair too.

her shirt says it all. and that is a hardboiled egg. she loves hardboiled eggs! especially the yolk. gross.

EXPRESSIONS.

man, i love this kid.

EXPECTATION VS REALITY.

sunday hallie complained about pain in her arm - her elbow area. monday morning hallie complained about her arm - same place. hmm. i called the doctor who thought we should come in for an x-ray. okaaaay, sure. i asked if she stopped complaining could we please cancel the appointment? nope, they needed to see her.

we drove up there tuesday afternoon. i thought for sure we would pop in for an x-ray, things would look perfect and we'd head to target for a slushie and some shopping. i love target so much. so much.

anyway, here's how it went all went down.

• arrive and check in.
• told to go to x-ray.
• x-ray tells us to go back to check in. also, they want to do her x-ray without her cast on (???!!!).
• sit in waiting room for 30 minutes.
• sit in exam room for 10 minutes.
• resident comes in, talks for two minutes and says it's time to get her cast off and oh yeah - why didn't we have an x-ray yet? (this is the part i start getting really grouchy.) i explain she's not ready for her cast off yet. that she had some pain and they wanted to see her. oh, okay.
• back to x-ray we go, huge crowd. they squeeze us in.
• back to the waiting room for another 15 minutes.
• back to the exam room for 40 minutes. yep, i'm mad now.

all of this to tell us that the x-ray can't reliably show if the pins have moved. um, what? so they had to TAKE OFF HER CAST AND PUT ON A NEW ONE.

oh good gravy.

it was traumatic and painful and I tell you WHAT, if I have to see my kid in anymore pain anytime soon I will be TICKED OFF. i'm so sick of seeing her in pain. it breaks my heart.

but now we have a fresh, hot pink cast. and we still went to target. and i let her pick out WHATEVER SHE WANTED. and get a slushie.

I THINK I'LL GO FOR A WALK OUTSIDE NOW.

a few sundays ago we decided to take a walk up to the mailbox. it was a gorgeous day and my dad was visiting.

our kitties followed us and it turned into quite the pet parade.

hallie, with annie on the leash
me
dad
henry (in the moby)
zoey
billy (the new name for blackie, maybe)
lucky (not pictured)

we didn't want to turn around, so we kept walking. we would have walked all the way to lucille's, but she wasn't home.

if you look at the very first picture, you can see our house in the background. we went a long way!

GIFTS.

the sun.

my son.

every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
james 1:17

SIBLINGS. AGAIN.

boy, was hallie chubby. and that is really a bad, bad picture of her. but still. the foreheads, eye shape, noses and lips are all the same. i think he will look more and more like her as he fattens up and she slims down.

and again.

and one more time,