Henry was my super helper when we decided to surprise dad with his favorite dessert- chocolate chip bars. We've spent lots of time indoors this week due to our wet, cold weather (April showers bring May flowers after all . . . it's May 1 on Sunday so I'm expecting great things!!). Baking makes a great rainy day activity!
Henry discovered the deliciousness of chocolate chips when I wasn't looking!!!
Henry had the cutest curls until right after his first birthday- which brought his first haircut. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the humid summer air will add a little spring to his locks. But I'm not getting my hopes up . . .
Here he is, right before his first birthday. Look at those curls!!
Get ready for marathon post! Too many cute pictures not to post! :)
Henry LOVED the Easter egg hunt (after watching his older cousins for a few minutes, he figured it out!). He spied an egg behind our collection of beer boxes . . . why a collection of beer boxes in our basement? Tom thinks they make great "blocks" to stack. So inventive!
All smiles after our hunt!
We had the traditional ham dinner. After the kids finished up, most of us were able to still sit for a few minutes at the table and actually have a conversation (something we haven't really been able to do for quite some time now) . . . the kids must be growing up!
Aunt Angie brings the bunny cake each year for the kids to decorate! It was SO much fun watching them go to town on it this year . . . so different than last year when it was just Brynn and Nolan doing the decorating. I'm not sure if more jelly beans landed on the cake or in the kids' mouths!
Two jelly beans for me . . . one for the cake!
The finished product . . . too cute!
I adore my sister-in-law! However, I'm not a big fan of being pregnant with her. She is so stinkin' cute! She is all belly and absolutely glowing. We can't wait for Nolan to be a big brother in about a month!
After everyone left on Saturday, we dyed eggs with Henry. He loved plopping the eggs in the cups (as you can see, he added several eggs to one cup!).
He would sing, "stu-wa, stu-wa, stu-wa" (stir, stir, stir) while he "mixed" his eggs.
Enjoying the fruits of his labor
The Parks family on Easter morning!
Grandma Mary got Henry a grill for Easter. He loves it!
Grandma Mary, Henry and Aunt Anne
Grandma and Anne made an adorable bunny cake for dessert!
Easter Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day! After we got home from our Easter festivities, we spent the rest of the day outside. We even enjoyed a picnic dinner on the lawn that evening! We LOVE spring!
Dad and Henry practiced batting a few balls (Henry needs to sharpen his skills so he can compete with cousin Nolan- that kids is a baseball prodigy!).
Jen and the girls were going to head over to our house on Friday afternoon for a play date (since they didn't have school that day). But we decided to change locations because my house was clean and ready for our Easter company on Saturday. We thought dying eggs with the kids would be fun! I still think it was fun . . . Jennie, however, may never invite us back. Her girls daintily painted their eggs . . .
My boy is anything but dainty! He was crawling on the table to get closer to the paint, eating the paint, and throwing the rollers . . .
Then he decided to do a little experiment and smash his egg (this is after he threw it down on the table and made it crack).
He was very intrigued with what he discovered and just had to taste it!
Yum!
I thought the entire process was thoroughly entertaining! I think Jennie's skin was ready to crawl off her body. Only time will tell if we get to dye eggs together again!
Well, we are half way through the second pregnancy! It has gone by pretty quickly so far! This one definitely "feels" different than Henry- perhaps we're having a little girl?!?! We decided not to find out the gender again so we'll find out when he/she decides to enter this world! I'm "rounding out" much more quickly and in many more places (ahem!) than I did with Henry as well. And I'm happy to report that I've gained almost as much weight already with this one than I did total with the first. Ya gotta love that! I'm doing my best to embrace ALL of me! :)Now the ultra sound is a story in itself . . . I wrote the ultra sound on the incorrect date on the calendar, which was fine because Tom thought he could make it to the appointment if it was scheduled for a Friday. Henry and I were leaving Northfield last Tuesday and I thought I'd call and reschedule on my way out of town. I pulled the pamphlet out of my purse and it says my appointment is in 5 minutes (NEVER would I have messed up appointment dates/times when I was pregnant with Henry- poor second child!)! Yikes! So we rush out to the hospital. Generally, Henry has been pretty good during my appointments so I thought he'd be his charming self and hang out while the ultrasound was happening. Plus, I thought he'd get a kick out of the big TV since he doesn't ever watch it yet. Boy was I wrong! Henry completely threw a tantrum on the floor of ultrasound room the ENTIRE time. I was so embarrassed! So needless to say, I didn't really get to enjoy watching this baby squirm around inside of me. I have to wait for the real deal in four months or so!
My sweet Henry snoozing with all his "lovies"- his blanket, baby and water cup!
Poor Auntie Jennie had all four of her wisdom teeth pulled on Friday (she was a mess all weekend- her cheeks still look like she's storing food for the winter). Uncle Darren had class this weekend so we helped out with the girls. Henry had lots of fun playing with is cousins! Tom got a snazzy new bike trailer and took Henry and Brynnie for a spin in it (he tried taking Henry and Cara, but Cara wanted NOTHING to do with it- super surprising! Ha!)! 
No, not Tom Parks. Henry is obsessed with pulling off the extra roll of toilet paper and using it to blow his nose. It is awfully cute watching him tear the tiniest piece off and "blow" his nose on it! :) 
Henry, all of a sudden, is deathly afraid of swings. Last fall, not a problem. This spring, scared to death. We're not sure what to make of that one. We celebrated Auntie Jennie's birthday last weekend and had lots of fun playing on their giant play structure. Henry and I went on the "teeter-totter" swing and he LOVED that one. Was it the safety of swinging in his mom's arms? The fact that it didn't look like a swing? I'm not so sure, but I do hope he starts to like swings soon as it may be the only thing we can do at the park. I'm not so sure how much longer I'll be able to climb up structures and crawl through tunnels after him in my delicate state! 
Henry and Beanie climbed up to the top of the three-story structure! 
About two weeks ago- when the weather was really warm- Henry and I played outside with his water table filled with dried beans and rice. I was just so dang proud of myself for thinking of that! :) However, my pride has turned to annoyance as I am constantly sweeping up beans and rice. At least Henry is getting some good sensory stimulation . . . 
We had the BEST weekend! We went for walks and bike rides, played at the park, grilled both days, and pretty much spent the entire weekend outdoors. I LOVE SPRING! 
Henry continues to grow and change before our eyes.
So . . . Henry's had a bit of a rash/red/puffiness on his "man parts" for about a week. I thought it may be a diaper rash so treated it as one. After Tom got home for the weekend and took a look at it, we decided we better get it checked out. So we had yet another weekend trip to the doctor! It turns out that the poor little guy has a bit of a yeast infection (I didn't even know boys could get that?!?!) from his antibiotic/high fever that he had a week or so ago. The doc said to have him soak in warm water everyday and put some lotrimin cream on. 
We've been lucky enough to have weekly play dates with the Erickson ladies. Henry adores the girls and I adore their mom. We (when I say "we," I really mean "me" so I take full responsibility for what went on in the few hours we were away) thought we'd mix things up a bit and take the kids to a water park. My sister kindly let us use her sporty mini van so we could all trek down to Owatonna together. After changing in tiny bathroom stalls (aka, watching the kids crawl all over the bathroom floor while Anne and I slapped on swim suits- gross, but we were about to hit chlorine- that should take care of the germs, right?!?!), we headed for the pool. Elsie and Margot are experienced water park professionals and dove right in. Henry, on the other hand, was very timid and wouldn't let go of my finger the entire time. He did love riding down the lazy river in an innertube with me- that was by far the highlight! 
After a post-snack break meltdown, we decided they kids (and their moms) have had enough and headed back to the bathrooms to change. No chlorine to take care of the floor germs this time, but we managed. 
After 20 minutes of tears and bribery, the kids settled down to eat. Margot had us all in tears as she tried to feed her belly button a french fry! Good times while eating with three kids ages three and under. Anne apologized for drinking a beer in front on me and I only wished I could have joined her as one (or several) was totally necessary after the crazy time we had! All in all, a super fun trip- I just wouldn't want to do it again anytime soon! :) 
Henry with the future Mrs. Henry Parks (who am I kidding, Margot will probably make Henry change his last name to Erickson!)! 
Henry and his cousins, Brynn and Cara, all have special lovies made by one of my BFF's moms. Brynnie insisted on having a "lovie" picture taken the other night. Those crazy kids!! 
I remember the days when Henry would crawl over to our shoes and mouth them (gross!). Now he puts them on and tries to walk around in them. *Sigh* (He does look awfully sporty in his sweatsuit and converse shoes!) 
After a week long hiatus from eating while Henry was sick, it was sure nice to see him put food in his body . . . 
and outside his body! :) 
Henry was VERY sick for about a week and it was awful. It all started on a Thursday afternoon when he was playing at his Auntie Jennie's house and she discovered he had a low-grade fever. I was just told at daycare that morning that influenza A made its way to daycare. But, I was cautiously optimistic because it was such a low-grade fever. Well, after listening to him cough all night long, he woke up Friday morning with a crazy high fever. I took him to the doctor right away assuming he had influenza. His test came back negative, BUT he did have an ear infection (GRRRRR!). So the doc prescribed ear drops (since he has tubes, no oral antibiotic). He woke up again Saturday morning with another crazy high fever. So we called the same doc we saw Friday and she assured Tom that his lungs sounded fine and it was most likely a virus that was causing his high fever. We continued to pump him full of tylenol/motrin to keep him somewhat content (but he was NOT content- super cranky!). Sunday morning he woke with an even higher fever than the past few days. We loaded him in the car and headed for the emergency room. There, they tested him for influenza A again (the ER doc that he looked just like a "flu" kid), RSV, and did a chest x-ray (anyone ever watch their young child get an x-ray? it was awful!). He had some clouding on his x-ray but the doc wasn't sure if it was pneumonia or a virus. She treated him for pneumonia with an antibiotic (his ear infection wasn't cleared up at this point so the antibiotic would at least clear that up) and nebulizer treatments. Meanwhile, Tom has to leave for Chicago on Sunday night. I'm sobbing because Henry's breathing sounded so terrible and I didn't know if we should bring him back to the ER or not. I called my mom, of course (because who else do you call when life throws you a curve ball but your mom?!?!) and she headed my way to help me as I didn't want to be alone with Henry when he was so sick. By Wednesday morning, we was still running a temp (this is seven straight days of a fever) so I brought him back to the doctor. This time we actually got to see our beloved pediatrician. He took one look at him and said, "I'm pretty sure I know what he has." After checking him over, he said he was some specific virus (forgot the name of it!!) that lasted 5-7 days and it came with high fever, cough, red, puffy eyes, no appetite (he hadn't eaten a thing this whole time other than a bottle of milk in the morning) and chest congestion. Sure enough, I took Henry home after his appointment and he began to perk up. It took another couple of days to have our Henry back but we were sure happy when he arrived!!!! Phew . . . long post covering a VERY LONG week!!! 
