It's a start.

I'm teaching myself from the book. I think I'm doing okay so far. I had a few confused moments, but that's only natural for me. I probably should have waited and gotten some more plain yarn so I could really tell what I was doing, but I'm too impatient. I guess I'm making myself a scarf. Probably made it too wide, but I'm not undoing it now. There are a few holes in there, but this fluffy yarn kind of covers them up.

Images of Christmas

Henry catches up with Chloe.












A Christmas breakfast.













Henry's new train.

















Stocking!!













Christmas can be overwhelming.















You may not see her, but the kitty gets a Christmas toy too.
















Henry and Daddy at Grandma and Grandpa Herr's.
















Henry and Grandpa laugh over Grandpa's new driving gloves.

Worst walk ever.

Franklin was very displeased with our walk this afternoon. It was warm enough that we wanted to take advantage of it and get out, but cool enough that he had to wear his jacket. The warm weather left lots and lots of puddles. Getting the stroller past the previously ice-covered sidewalks was a challenge, as the ice had turned into expanses of deep sludgy mess. It was fine for us humans. Henry even got to have the stroller hoisted in the air a few times over the really difficult patches. But Franklin was miserable. Not only were his little toes wet, he also had to wear that embarassing coat. And two of the cool dogs from the other side of the block were following us for part of the way. I don't think they were really laughing at him, but Franklin kept throwing them sidelong glances and hiding his tail between his legs.

Stairs

Just counted the steps in my condo building so I can really start to train. There are 42. That means if I do the steps 20 times it will be equal to the half climb! Not too bad! Here's a photo of the last serious amount of stairs I did. Prague. Screwed up my knee for the rest of the trip. Hoping that doesn't happen.

Jollity.

The dog is trying to sniff out Christmas presents under the tree. Little does he know that his are hidden in the closet.
I still haven't started training for the Hustle up the Hancock. Not sure what I"m thinking. My arms have gotten a workout lately, though....carrying Henry around at the Winter Sing and Christmas shopping. Maybe I"ll do the four-limbed crawl-climb.
Liz and Van, Rob and Carrie are coming over tonight for Christmas jollity. Yes. Jollity. Am planning an elaborate meal of cookies and wine. Maybe some M&Ms as an appetizer.

blissful slumber

I think this is the first time I've really successfully gotten Henry to go to sleep on his own in his crib. I had to pretend like I was sleeping too...sitting on the floor with my head on the ottoman, and I had to give him a bottle, but he did it! The getting up and walking out was the scary part. Now I want to go take a picture of him He looks so angelic. Yikes! Did I just say that?!?! Well, he does... But I know if I tiptoe in there he'll wake up screaming. Best to just let him be. Of course, as soon as I safely got out of the room the phone rang. It was Pete on his cell, though he didn't know he was calling me. I got to listen to a 90 seconds worth of him giving directions for a microphone photo shoot before I just hung up.

This, of course, is not Henry sleeping right now....but last weekend when he was pooped from our Christmas adventure. It fits the title, though, and is too cute to not post.

giving up

I feel awfully guilty. I just made the call to stop our cloth diaper service. We gave them a good one-year run, but they're just too hard to use anymore. The poops have gotten toxic, the changing is a struggle almost every time. I hate to think of my baby's bottom constantly covered in plastic and surrounded by that weird absorbant gel rather than soft, natural cotton....but these are the sacrifices we make for convenience.
So long Bottoms-Up Diaper Service. Thanks for your late nights and strong arms and noses of steel.





Two grandmas struggle with a newfangled cloth dipe.

Envisionings

Here's what I would like my blog to be in the near future. I really feel like it will be best used as a place for Henry stories. That's really what people want to hear about when they talk to me anyway, right? So I'll start with a simple one...Henry's first word seems to be dog, pronounced "daw!" When I went to pick him up today after work, his Grandpa showed him a picture of Pete's first Dachshund- Freddie. Henry looked at it and said "daw!" What a smart boy. When he sees the kitty he says "kkkkk" in sort of a back-of-the-tongue way. Then he looks at me and says "daw!" Oh well. Here's a photo of Pete, Auntie Liz and Freddie....

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

We had a busy day yesterday. Took Henry down to see the windows at Marshall Field's. This is the last year that it will actually be Field's (they've been bought out by Macy's) so we were very glad that he woke up in time to actually see the windows. All of the moving scenes kept him entertained. After the windows we went up to the Drake for tea. No boys allowed, of course, so Henry went with his dad and grandpa to have a sandwich. After all of that we went to buy Henry's first Christmas tree. It's a beauty! Makes the condo smell all Christmassy.

So tired

I may sound like a whiner, but I haven't worked a Friday in a long while. 2nd graders can be wild at the end of the week. Such a headache I have. And now Henry's having a screaming fit. He hasn't done this at bedtime in ages. Don't know what his deal is. Pete is trying to get him to go down, because he was waking up every time I walked away....but he won't even stop crying for Pete. I guess I"ll have to go do it....
To remind myself that I really do love being a mom...here's a photo of my clever son liberating the dog.

again with the pictures...

Today was inspection day. In honor of the thumbs up from the inspector, here are a couple arial shots of my new hood.

attempt

Trying to figure out this photo thing....

...testing....

So here's how I decided on the title...right now I'm reading Running With Scissors, a memoir by Augusten Someoneorother and in it there is a girl who frequently does "bible dips". When she has a question she opens the bible to a random spot, puts down her finger, and whatever she lands on becomes the answer to her question. So instead of a bible dip I did a Peanuts dip....seemed a little more suited to my life and philosophy. First I thought Pooh, but everyone does Pooh. Not to discount Pooh...I still think AA Milne is a wizard and a champ. So I did a Peanuts dip and the first thing I came upon (from the book of the first 4? years of Peanuts) was someone saying "It's where you keep the things that you will need when you get married". I didn't think that quite fit, so I dipped again. Not sure if that's breaking the rules or going against the cosmic flow or what, but I did it anyway. And what I came up with next was "And Don't You Forget It, Either!" That seemed a little more suited to a blog, which seems to be a bit of a journal of sorts anyway. Not sure if I want to stick with it...it feels a bit bossy and self-important. Both of which I tend to be, but loathe. Who is checking my spelling here anyway? Does having a blog mean I have to use computer geek lingo?