Friday, December 30, 2011

More Christmas and Family Pics!

Henry with Pancho (aka Papa)

Henry and me with my mom and dad

Silly Uncle Dave (wearing Aunt Stephanie's hair extensions)

Henry, Meet Your Family. Family, Meet Henry.

We were so lucky that both of our families came to Chicago to spend Christmas with us and share in Henry's first Christmas. In addition to the Christmas crowd, John's dad came to visit Henry shortly after his birth, and my dad and brother stopped by yesterday to meet Henry. He has no idea how much he is loved! Below are pics of all the new introductions.

4 generations!

Uncle Travis

My dad (grandparent name TBD)

John's dad (aka Grandad)

Auntie Lisa

Belated Christmas Wishes

We had a busy Christmas this year, with lots of family in town to celebrate with us (see post above), so we are just getting around to posting pics of the holiday festivities. Christmas felt a little weird for us this year - we had Henry to concentrate on rather than the bustle and bustle of getting ready for the holiday. In fact, we greatly pared down our gift giving and shopping this year, and it was actually pretty nice -- even John, the biggest fan of Christmas presents was fine with the light version of Christmas this year. Of course the highlight of our holiday was having Henry here. He was completely oblivious to the festivities, but he should be a lot more fun next year when he has more of an idea of what's going on. We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Henry and his stocking (handmade by his Mimi - John's mom)

Henry is all decked out for the occasion, complete with reindeer footies.

My fam on Christmas morning.

Best. Christmas. Ever.

Henry's new Yoda shoes - so cute!

Monday, December 19, 2011

5th Annual Cookie Exchange

Let's rewind a couple of weeks to pre-Henry days. On December 3rd, we had our 5th annual cookie exchange. Nicole hosted again, but this time at her beautiful new home, and of course everything was Martha Stewart-worthy, as usual. We had some extra delicious cookies this year, my favorite being Nicole's chocolate peppermint thumbprint cookies. Think chocolate peppermint cookies with a dark chocolate ganache filling in the thumbprint. A close runner-up was Susan's snickers fudge - sinful! I will have to get the recipes for both, even though I don't really need any sweets -- trying to lose the baby weight. Below are some pics from the night - some of the last photographic documentation of me pre-Henry.


All the amazing cookies, post-exchange. The snickers fudge is on the right - gooey deliciousness!


This year's group - we had a few newcomers. Very fun!

7 Awesome Years!

Yesterday was our seventh wedding anniversary. We both nearly forgot about it - I guess we have had other things distracting us (namely, Henry). According to traditional sources, we are supposed to give each other copper gifts for year seven. However, seeing as how we barely even remembered our anniversary, we definitely did not exchange gifts. We have our own living, screaming, and wiggling gift this year.

Happy lucky number seven, John -- we've definitely been lucky this year!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

1 Week Old!

Henry turned one week old yesterday! Normally people don't celebrate weekly birthdays, but we made it through a week, which in our opinion is a great accomplishment! To commemorate the occasion, we took a trek to Starbucks. Even though it is just a couple of blocks away, it took an hour to prepare for the outing, including two diaper and clothing changes and a last-minute feeding. Henry did well while we were out, though, so maybe we will add a small outing every couple of days or so.

This first week has been challenging, humbling, and totally rewarding. I think we sort of have the night situation figured out - he's up every 3 hours or so for feedings, but no more screaming now that we found out that he really doesn't like sleeping laying down. And he's an absolute angel during the day, aside from the numerous outfit changes from the diaper explosions.

John took two weeks off from work to hang out with Henry and me during the first two weeks, and I'm really dreading him going back to work next week. My mom is still in town, thankfully -- I don't know how I would survive without her!

Well, happy one-week birthday, Henry! Here's to many more! We are so glad you are here.

One of the rare occasions when he actually sleeps laying down.

John and Henry lounging on the sofa.

Simon is not too sure about Henry.

Friday, December 9, 2011

More Henry Pics!



Going to the pediatrician!

This is about as close as Sofia gets to him.

Sweet sleeping baby (finally!)

He's Here!

Henry Adams Beck finally arrived on December 5, 2011 at 8:30 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs, 13 ounces and was 21 inches long. We are so glad that he's finally here and are loving every minute of our time with him (even the several hours in the night when he screams for no reason whatsoever). He had a bit of a rough time getting here, hence the bruises on his face, but is doing remarkably well. Below are some pics of his first few days.

First family picture. This is what 16 and a half hours of labor looks like.

Dad and Henry

Getting cleaned up

Sweet burrito baby