San Diego zoo!

We went to San Diego at the end of October. Oh, how we love that city! Especially compared to Wisconsin in winter. (we got our first snowfall today...)

I have a lot of pictures to share with you, but I'll post just a sample tonight. These pictures are from our trip to the San Diego Zoo!

Apples!

Here we are at the Elegant Farmer! This is a popular(?) destination for yummy food, apple and pumpkin picking about 30 minutes southwest of Milwaukee. 2 things to notice in the slideshow: Henry's snappy outfit (thanks, Aunt Marilyn!) and how many apples Henry's consumed over the course of the day (about 8-10?). Scary diapers, you can imagine.



Once again, click on the slideshow to be taken to the whole album.

Halloween 2008!

Well, it looks like I've gone over a month without updating the blog. So, I'll remedy that here. (Hundreds of pictures are on my hard drive, just yearning to be shared with you. Won't get to all of them tonight.)



Our street was one of 3 in our neighborhood selected to "host" Halloween festivities this year. We bought a lot of candy in anticipation of the 1000 children expected to descend on our house. Then, we promptly turned out our lights, locked our doors, and went trick-or-treating. So, if you want some good candy, we might still have some for you.

The picture album below shows pre-trick-or-treat festivities with Grandma Kathy and her "cat" disguise. Also, you can guess what Nora and Henry are dressed as. Nora hooked up with some of her school chums to go around the neighborhood. She was quite a bit braver this year, and it was a lot of fun. Some or our neighbors really went wild with the decorations. One neighbor had an old Dracula movie projected on one of their windows. It was a very cool effect. At the end of our block, a live band was playing. Wow!

(click directly on the slide show to access the entire photo album)

Fashion Model Henry

This is the first of what will (hopefully) be a series of posts featuring Henry in his new birthday clothes. Here are a couple of outfits from Aunt Karen in Okinawa!

(Full slideshow here.)

Hi!

Catching Up ... Memorial Day Weekend!

As I prepare this belated post describing our trip at the end of May 2008, I'm trying to think back to the beginning of summer. I cannot believe that it's already August, and that we're getting ready to send Nora to public school (K-4) next month. Although our jobs have kept us busy, we have had some time to get to know our neighbors, enjoy some barbecues in our back yard, and to travel a little bit.

An annual tradition is our trip to Washington Island over Memorial Day weekend. This year, we were joined by our great friends Ed & Christine and Liza & Alex. Unlike previous years, where Nora was the only kid there, this year we had Eliot (Ed & Christine's 2 year old), and Mirabelle (Liza & Alex's 18 month old), and of course Henry. That made for some great memories, but it also led to logistical issues with sleeping arrangements and meals, a renewed focus on nap times, and decreased motivation for things like sightseeing and late-night card games. (Ed & Christine rented a camper, which worked out very well for all of us.)

Overall, we had our usual wonderful time. My highlight was exploring our 4.5 acre wooded property and working on a walking trail through the woods. Maybe, in the future, the kids will play together out there. It would be excellent for hide-and-seek, maybe even a tent or a campfire...

Anyway, I hope to post more pictures and news soon. Enjoy the slide show below. To link directly to the photo gallery, click here.

Dinner with the Grandparents

A rare treat: all 3 grandparents were here for dinner last night.  As you can see, everyone is looking pretty good, enjoying a nice summer evening in Wauwatosa.

As you know, corn is delicious this time of year. We're trying to be responsible parents by feeding as much of it to our children as possible.  Look at Henry go!

trip to the beach

We're skipping ahead a bit to share some pictures from our trip to the beach last weekend. As some of you know, Ann's training for her first triathlon. One of the segments is a swim in Lake Andrea. In between thunderstorms, we were able to enjoy a bit of time on the beach at this lake. Here are a few nice pictures of our kiddos.

Henry Can't Eat Crawfish Yet ...

... but he sure wanted to. It's hard to eat crawfish with one hand, so everyone took turns holding Henry. He proved to be a fantastic traveller and the life of the party. You can see how happy he is here, really the party animal with his floppy hat.


I just had to throw in the picture below -- I saw him bike by.  He was too busy to stop for crawfish (we offered).

Happy Mother's Day!

Henry isn't able to talk yet,
but he is able to feed himself Cheerios and puffy snacks.

So, in lieu of him saying, "Happy Mother's Day,"
here's the happy baby feeding himself!

Escape to San Antonio

We just returned from an all-too-brief 5 day trip to San Antonio. It was great to see our families as well as remind ourselves that it is already close to summer in some parts of the country (85 degrees and 85% humidity!).

We stayed with Ann's brother Paul, his wife Meredith, and our first nephew/cousin Calvin, age 4 months. Steve's parents, Gary and Sophie, drove 4 hours (considered a fairly short distance in Texas) to visit us. Our friends from Milwaukee, Eddie and Yami, recently moved to San Antonio -- we were able to see them too.

We mainly took it easy. Our only big excursion was to Sea World. We ate at some great restaurants (complimentary chips and salsa -- hooray!) and spent a lot of time in Paul & Meredith's excellent swimming pool.

The slideshow below gives you a flavor for our trip. Some of the captions are informative.



Stay tuned!
One of Paul & Meredith's neighbors is a professional photographer -- he was gracious enough to give us a 2 hour photo shoot! I'll post some of his wonderful pictures soon.

6 months!

Henry had his 6-month checkup last week! Can you believe it?
Here's how the little guy measures up:
Weight: 18 pounds, 11 ounces (>75th percentile)
Height: 28.5 inches (>97th percentile)

For those keeping track, he's starting to wear 18 month clothing (preferably with the words "MVP" or "champ" prominently displayed).

He's obviously a healthy eater, and he's expanded his palate to include peas, carrots, pears, prunes, oatmeal, and rice. Last weekend, we celebrated the Easter holiday with a big brunch followed by an even larger dinner. Henry stared in amazement, drooling, as we engorged ourselves. He even made chomping motions with his mouth. It won't be long before we're feeding him turkey legs!

Speaking of legs, here's another movie of Henry gnawing on his foot.

Spring fever

Yes, spring is just around the corner. Hope is on the way!
Unfortunately it is blocked by the remnants of our massive snowfall (84.5 inches so far this winter, 4th most ever in Milwaukee).

As the snow melts, we've had time for a few activities ...

Nora took out her bike.


Henry played with his gigantic feet.


We visited Great Grandma Lillian.

Henry looked handsome for the camera.
(He's 6 months old today!)

And look! The first spring buds -- could it be a krokus?

For those of you keeping track, we started feeding Henry solid foods 2 weeks ago.
He's now tried rice cereal, oatmeal, prunes, peas, and carrots.
He's been getting constipated, so we're all working hard to make sure his bowels keep moving.
I'm really tempted to post a picture of his recent dirty diaper ... It would shock and awe.

"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.

Flexible

Watch in amazement. The incredible rubber baby boy.

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 ...

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!

New camera, new movie clip

Hi everyone! I know it's been a little while since I've posted something new. I'm playing with different cameras, trying to find just the right one. We recently tried out a new Canon subcompact -- too small. We ended up returning it. (Crutchfield.com is excellent. Can't say enough about their customer service and their very generous return policy. And if you let me know before you order something, I can save you $20!)

Now I'm trying a new Panasonic. It's fun to use and has a lot of crazy features (baby mode, pet mode, etc). It also shoots movie clips. Here's a new one of Henry at the lovely age of 4 months, 3 days. (Don't worry, folks. Although it looks violent, he didn't give himself a black eye.)