Our Family

Henry Smiles

5 days till joy

The playoffs started this weekend and I celebrated by watching the Lakers dunk their way to victory over Denver by myself. Henry sat with me for a while and Finn came for the end but mostly it was just me saying inappropriate things to the TV and frustratingly getting Mark and Kyle's voice mail. They're both rich and can afford to watch the game when ever the damn well please so they weren't answering my call fearing I would give away something. They've been rich for a while though so I know the situation. I was laughing at the choice to guard Kobe with K-Mart and Eduardo and wanted to talk to someone about it. Kate says that basketball is the one area in my life where I am a complete extrovert. I need others to watch and talk with and I think that's true. I miss those guys the most when the Lakers are on TV. This weekend we are going to AZ to see family and friends and there will be two games on TV. I think I am more excited to watch those games with Mark and Kyle then I am about really seeing them. I mean I am excited to see them but it peaks with the opportunity to sit and yell at the TV together. To be total homers and complain about calls and non calls, make jokes about when exactly when George Karl starts drinking during the game, silly stuff that Kate rolls her eyes at when I watch a game with her. So I am counting the days until we leave, 3, but more importantly I am also counting the days until we watch some ball together 5!

A bull truck of his own

Spring Fever

Henry is getting way more smiley lately. We can all get him to smile but what really gets me is watching Finn try to do it. Henry starts to smile and then gets this wide eyed look of fear on his face as this blond bulb head is coming in for a kiss. He goes from joy to “Holy Crap!” in two seconds flat. Finn has gotten better about driving his bulltruck over Henry and Henry has gotten more OK with it. I know that they are going to have a lot of fun with each other as they get bigger and I think Finn is anxious for that to start.

We are a little more then a week away from a trip to AZ for an extended weekend. After a couple of days of nice weather here in Portland we are back to the cold dreary spring that we have yet to grow to love. The warm desert days are looking better and better. I’m pretty excited to see my brother and sister in law as well as my sister and her family. Basically all the boys I grew up with relocated to AZ so it will be a nice family reunion. I’m excited for them all to get to see Finn again and meet Henry. There is a gang of kids that Finn will get to play with and since Grandma and Papa are coming with us too, a gang of people that Kate and I will get to play with. It’s spring break right, we can get our party on.

Me and the boys

With two nights of work the boys and I have had a bit of time together in the evenings to have some male bonding. We played with trucks, farted and giggled, and wrestled around on the floor. Henry just kinda lays there and hopes Finn won't sit on his head but he smiles and bats us away when we lean in to kiss him. He seems to be over the shots rather quickly once again proving to us that Finn was the difficult baby. We thought for sure Henry would be payback for such an easy time with Finn but it hasn't panned out that way. (Sorry Beelers, you might be in for more of the same.)

Finn has been pretty funny lately. I have taught him to say a couple of things that crack me up. One being a certain catch phrase of Ari from Entourage. He tells me what Elmo did that day on Sesame Street and shows me his cars. He knows the difference between a wagon (vagon), SUV (two vishy), truck (truck), bull dozer (bull-truck), car (car), and various other types of trucks. He associates types of cars with people so that all Jeeps make him talk about Aunt Bum, all sedan's lead to talk of Aunt Jamie, and R.V.s to Tom Tom. He talks a lot and with mostly discernible words. He loves Henry and likes to make him smile but he wants to play with him badly and doesn't understand that rolling his truck on daddy's leg is not the same as running his truck on Henry's head. He always looks so confused when we get upset with him for it. The last two nights have been really great, there is a lot of freedom to being the one that is home alone with the kids. You know your role, what's expected of you. Sometimes with both Kate and I there we get annoyed when the other isn't doing "their part".

2 Months, 5 shots, and 1 angry baby

Henry is 2 months old and for that he gets painful shots in both legs. Happy birthday son, the ones that start at the year mark get better. Henry has been super angry and uncomfortable for the last 20 hours and it is a huge difference from regular Henry. Regular Henry smiles at you and goes to sleep when you wrap him up. Angry Henry screams uncontrollably every couple of minutes. I hope the soreness goes away soon and regular Henry comes back, I don't want him to be in pain but I'm also pretty selfish and I have both boys tonight while Kate is at work and I would like to have a quiet night.

A walk awalk awalka

We went for a long walk Sunday and it was really great. If you ask Finn how it was he'll say "Pretty good." That is his answer for just about any question you ask him. He says it in such a nonchalant way too. We wandered through the fields of the sports complex across the way. Stopping to watch some Little league baseball, women's soccer, and the skater boys watched over by a line of parents in their S.U.V.s. We cut across the street to the Nike World Campus and meandered the bark trails. We walked up to Costco and had a lunch of pizza and frozen yogurt. We made our way back home through side trails of ducks and play grounds. Finn was in and out of the stroller a number of times on our 3 hour walk and played on 3 different playgrounds. Henry slept in the swaying hammock oblivious to the many rain showers and even hail. It was nice Portland day, and a great long walk around our new world.

Thank God for Skype

When your feeling disconnected from family and friends spread out across the country it is nice to know that relief is a high speed internet connection away. We have been talking with most of Kate's family including Heather in Korea via web cam enabled Skype. We can have dinner with Granma and Ta Ta in Indiana, or play video games with uncle Mark. I guess I see the connections through Finn's vocab since he is the one that initiates most of the chats. He knows that he can show his new truck to granma through the computer. He climbs up to the laptop and asks "Talk granma on dis" while pointing forcefully at the screen until we try the connection. He knows the little Skype tune that plays when your trying to connect and grabs his trucks like Pavlov's dog. We have chatted with Scott, Mandy, and Baby Jake in Hawaii; Meg and Mike in Minnesota; Mark and Kendra in Arizona; Tom and Kris in Indiana; and last night with our Pleasant Street friends in Indiana over cocktails. We used to get together every so often to sit around and talk over effeminate drinks, and it is one of the things I miss most about being in Portland. Last night through the magic of the internets we got the chance to renew our fruity bull sessions. We chatted for 2 hours with none of the "on the spot" awkwardness that comes from being on camera. It was really great, really really great.

Just your standard Family of four

It's like getting waxed, only not at all

We have had two sick kids for the last couple of days but that sounds a lot tougher then it actually was. Finn seems to be fairly cheerful when he is sick and Henry just wants to breath. Kate and I were up late last night trying to make sense of our future, silly I know, and Henry was up early. I got up with him and went downstairs to hold him and try to get hi back to sleep. The problem was he was all stuffed up and he hasn't learned to breath through he mouth at all it seems. I had him on my chest face down and he was moving his head back and forth like mad. He really has great neck muscles for kid his age, like a young Arnold Schwarzenegger. After a couple minutes of his thrashing we got up and looked for the great nose plunger to help him out. The thing was, during all his back and forth over my chest he had coated me and his face in baby snot. It was sad and gross and funny and sad but mostly gross. I got a towel and wiped my chest off and then cleaned up Henry's face. I then got the infant sized turkey baster and cleaned out his nose which he took great exception to. He was super angry but breathing well and I wrapped him back up and placed him in the swing, a little snot shy from our last snuggle, and he was asleep in no time at all. I went back to sleep as well and dreamed of snot, I wonder what Henry dreamt of?