It's love...

It's love. It's love that makes the world go 'round.

Happy Valentines Day.

  H loves you thiiiiiiisssss much.

10 and 11 Months

It is amazing to watch the passage of time through the growth of a baby. It seems like yesterday we were giving H solids for the first time and now he wants to eat everything off our plates.

H, your 10th and 11th month were big milestones. You finally got a tooth…still only one little bottom tooth, but your mama and daddy think it’s very cute.  You are still a smiling baby. You love to wave and say “hi” and you are really expanding your vocabulary. You say mama, dada, baa (bottle), up, book and duck just to name a few. When you are in public and if you want someone’s attention, you will smile and wave and say “hi” until finally they are looking in your smiling face and waving back.

You have started sleeping through the night. Let’s pause for a moment of silence on this one….

Daddy did sleep training and you were a champ. You barely cried and then poof, you were sleeping through the night and mama and daddy have started doing the same. Please keep this up. Please. We beg you.

You crawl so fast, it’s sometimes hard to catch you and you are WALKING!!! Still only about 4 steps at a time, but you love to do it and you are so proud of yourself. You will stand up, walk a couple of steps and then give yourself a round of applause. I hope you will always be confident enough to give yourself a round of applause.

You love your teachers at school. Every morning when you arrive, you wave and give them each a little hug.

You love music and love to dance. Mama and Daddy love to listen to you sing to the radio.

You LOVE hummus, cheese and bread. If only you could put a glass of wine with that you would have a nice cocktail hour menu. You love to eat, but like mama and daddy’s food better than yours, particularly anything mama is eating, you must have too. You love books and like to turn the pages when we read each night.

In only one short month, you’ll be 1 year old. It is hard to believe and even harder to remember life before you. We are blessed and you are loved. Happy 10/11 months, H!!

Home for the Holidays

We packed up and headed south for Christmas. The first stop was Alabama, where we spent four days with K’s family. H loved spending time there and being doted on by everyone.  K and I were drunk on freedom one night when the grandparent’s kept H and we enjoyed a date night to the movies and dinner. Ah, the things we’ve been missing this past year.

We went to the Norman Rockwell Exhibit at the Birmingham Museum of Art.

We enjoyed Christmas Eve lunch, with the tradition of the holiday crackers that resulted in hysterics. The wine could have had a little influence as well…

On Christmas Day, we headed to Mississippi. This would be the first time H met his first cousins, except for E’s visit to Alexandria in August. They were all friends instantly and H found S and C hysterical. They loved making him laugh.

We had a big family meal with the extended family on Christmas Day and enjoyed two nights out at Old
Waverly.

H loved his rides on Great Mama Janet's walker! Well, I think they both loved it.

We ate well, laughed a lot and spent some relaxing days together and just like that it was time to head back home.

Christmas on Hancock - The Third Weekend in December

Since we would be down south for Christmas, K and I decided to make the third weekend in December our immediate family Christmas celebration.

Santa was kind enough to come visit Hancock a weekend early.  On Sunday morning, we woke up and H was greeted with lots of fun new toys. Santa brought a radio flyer wagon, balls, a special globe that plays music from around the world and H’s favorite a DJ table.

That evening, K and I exchanged our gifts and had a delicious meal of turkey, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts and for desert chess pie and milk punch. Delish

Santa Clause and Christmas at the White House – The Second Weekend of December

Weekend two was the traditional picture with Santa. I personally did not want to partake in this almost obligatory parent torture trip. The scenes of screaming, red-faced children are all too familiar. K, on the other hand, finds some strange pleasure out of seeing these pictures of crying babies in Santa’s lap…and I was overruled. After careful research to find a Santa that had a real beard and looked somewhat legit, we embarked on the journey and stood in line with hordes of other parents making faces and other ridiculous movements to get their baby to smile.

As we stood in line, I whispered to my wife that I refused to look so ridiculous when it was our turn. H is own man and he would either turn it on, or not.

Finally, as the elf motioned for us to put H on Santa's lap, as if an alien parent took over my body. I had keys out, dangling them above the camera and shouting “Henry look this way! Woop, woop, woop.” He smiled, clapped, waved, the photographer clicked, and we were done. We have a cherished memory, but I might as well go ahead and buy the dad jeans and tennis shoes. I fit the part.

After the Santa visit, K secured tickets for an evening tour of the White House decked in all its holiday glory.

This was such a special experience. H would be up way past his bedtime, but it was well worth it.

 The decorations were beautiful, trees were lit, even Bo got a special shout out in the decorations.

 

This experience was a particularly special Christmas treat.

Kicking off Christmas Celebrations – The First Weekend of December

This Christmas was our first as a family of three, so instead of lots of the usual parties and cocktails, it was all about family time. Each weekend in December, we planned a special holiday activity. 

Our first weekend outing was to the Alexandria Scottish Parade. It marks the beginning of the holiday season in Old Town and all the Scottish clans come out in their tartan glory. We met our dear friends to watch the parade. 

It was seasonably cold and H wore his fleece hat that makes him look like a dock worker. He was fascinated by the loud marching bands, but much more interested in the other parade watchers’ dogs!

Afterward, we made a stop in Silverman Antiques and Gallery. It’s a lovely antique shop in Old Town. I was almost wooed by a Civil War-era diamond ring, but my practical nature reigned supreme. 

  

The other big activity this weekend was the Christmas card photo shoot. We planned it for weeks, setting up the ‘shoot’ downstairs, testing the camera settings and lighting with a stand-in teddy bear. Come to find out, a teddy bear is a lot more cooperative than a 9 ½ month old.

Henry was not happy that he was supposed to sit in front of the lights and not play with them. Such novice baby photographers, we were. C and I exchanged less than loving words, Henry had a meltdown, we tried several different locations…and finally we got about two great shots from which to choose. Years from now, we’ll see the card and think fondly of the behind the scenes drama that ensued to get just the right picture for H’s first Christmas card.