"Go Henry!"

Ann caught a wonderful video of Henry, but unfortunately, it's too big to upload to the blog.
So, I posted the video on Google videos -- a star is born.

Have a look at the dancing baby.

Yummy

Henry's officially entered "the oral phase" of his development. He just loves putting things into his mouth.
(No teeth yet.)

Flexible

Watch in amazement. The incredible rubber baby boy.

Random Saturday morning pictures

Yes, this is Ann with her hair straightened!

Cars!

2 weekends back, my lovely, intelligent, and generous wife permitted me to go to the Chicago Auto Show with a couple of my buddies to basically spend the day drinking beer and ogling cars. Nora wasn't interested in coming. She's way too into her princesses these days -- I thought that getting her a purple Barbie sports car for Christmas would have done the trick. Maybe Henry will be interested in coming next year.

There were some terrific cars on display -- I only took pictures of a few. A highlight was the Nissan GT-R. With a reported 0-60 time of 3.3 seconds, 4 seats, and a modest price tag of $70,000, I'd be able to take the kids to-and-from daycare and make grocery runs much more efficiently. And of course, that would make Ann very happy.

Here's Dave with the very practical Porsche 911 Targa.


And Ed (looking tuff) with a sinister, matte black, concept car from Lexus.

But of course, our ultimate interest was safety. So much so, that I asked Ed to take my picture at the Volvo display, in front of a big sign.

Command Center

Henry got a present -- his first chair. And what a chair it is. It's more like a throne. Some call a seat like this a "command center." I can see why. Henry certainly projects a new vision of authority from here.

Aside: Henry's socks do indeed say "Boot Camp." It's interesting, the psychology of baby clothes. Whereas Nora's things all seemed to say "best friends," with pictures of natural predators snuggling with each other, Henry's socks (a gift) came in a package with each pair showing the name of a different military helicopter (Cobra, Apache, etc.)

 
 
 
 

The Great Snowstorm of 2008

Milwaukee and surrounding areas received between 12-20 inches of snow on 2/6/08. I think our house got about 17 inches.

So far this winter, we've received about 70 inches of snow. Milwaukee's record winter snowfall is 109.8 inches in 1885-86, so this is nothing!

Have I mentioned that we have decided not to buy a snow blower this year? Well, like heck we're gonna get one now, what with only 8-14 more weeks of winter to go!

Grr!

We took a few pictures to commemorate this historic day. (Note that the little boy playing with Nora is a 2 year old neighbor, also named Henry. Sorry for the confusion.)

Henry and the Giraffe

Henry continues to grow more mobile. Now we have to strap him into things and keep side rails up on the crib. Still not quite able to roll, but he enjoys spending time on his belly.
This series of pictures documents his recent encounter with a giraffe.

On an unrelated note, Steve just got back from the national Hospice and Palliative Medicine assembly in Tampa, and during some down time was able to visit the Salvador Dali museum in St. Petersburg. Have any of you ever seen his paintings of the flaming giraffe? No slight against PETA intended, but they do look pretty boss ...

Sound and Fury

Finally captured a video clip that gives you an idea of how our boy can holler.

Discovery World

Discovery World is a hybrid attraction: part science museum, part aquarium, part performance hall. It opened last year adjacent to the spectacular Milwaukee Art Museum, and we bought an annual membership during the grand opening (it was like, $5 more than buying a day pass for the family...)
Well, nearly a year later, that turned out to be our only visit. A few weekends back, Steve was "stuck" with the kids, so he decided to take them out for a repeat visit, before our annual pass expired. The place is definitely coming along, with lots to see and do. We did find it ironic, however, that, at a place that celebrates the wonders of technology, the parking ticket machine was out of order and we experienced "technical problems" in processing our membership information ("I'm sorry, I can't find Mr. Rommel Fanger in our system ...")
We did have fun though, and I did snap a few pictures (click on slideshow below -- I even wrote captions!).


With our city still digging out of 17 inches of snow last Wednesday (pictures soon), and the threat of -45 degree wind chills tomorrow (WTF??), we'll need cheap indoor entertainment -- we might be paying another visit to Discovery World soon!