Tribute to Simon

Last week we had to say an unexpected and very sad goodbye to our sweet, chubby, lovable, orange friend. We (actually John) got Simon in July 2002 in an attempt to find a friend for my rambunctious kitten (Sofia). Simon and Sofia never really became friends, but over the last 11 years, he became an integral part of our little family.

It turned out that Simon had kidney failure, and according to the vet, it is likely that he was born with the bum kidneys.

We all really miss Simon. I keep thinking I see him beached in the middle of the floor throughout the house, and I am convinced Henry is looking for him. Unlike Sofia, Simon was so good with (read: tolerant of) Henry. He would let Henry cuddle and tackle him, pull his tail, and give him kisses. Simon was a one of a kind guy, and we are thankful for the 11 great years we had with him.

Simon "helping" me work.

Simon and John checking out their favorite web sites.

Simon Claus

Ever the graceful fellow

Fancied himself a present

One of his favorite spots to park himself

Watching over Henry after we brought him home from the hospital.

Testing out the car seat

Sweet Home Chicago!

Henry's day care is closed this week, so we thought that rather than hanging out at home with him, we would take a little trip to Chicago. We've been here since Sunday and have been having an absolute blast - it feels like we never left! I can't believe that we leave tomorrow. Time flies! Here's what we've been up to since we got here.

Day 1: flight from hell. Note to self: do not fly with toddler without buying him a seat into which you can strap him and his car seat, no matter how much it costs. Also, I will also never again be scheduling a flight right in the middle of Henry's nap time. It's been over a year now since Henry has had a napless day, and I now know why I've blocked those days out of my memory. All being said, he handled the travel (and lack of a nap) like a champ.

I had dinner with two of my favorite girlfriends, Sarah and Beth, and John had dinner with two of his favorite guy friends, Jim and Jeff. All around a good first night in town.

Climbing at the airport, waiting for our flight.

Day 2: Morning trip to the Astor play lot so that Henry can burn some energy before his nap. He had an absolute blast. City kids are way more polite on the playground than kids back home, so I wasn't constantly worried about him getting knocked over, sand thrown in his face, pushed down the slide, etc. Monday also marked the momentous occasion of Henry's first bus ride.  After that, it was all "bus bus bus!" (Or maybe I should say busss-sh busss-sh busss-sh in Henry-speak.)  Henry is now obsessed with the bus, and actually cried when I suggested taking a taxi to the Children's Museum rather than the bus.  Speaking of the Children's Museum, we made our first trip to Navy Pier to visit the Chicago Children's Museum. Henry loved his time there, too. He ran and played and watched all the big kids and had a great time. We rounded out our day with dinner with Scott and Auntie Steph at Chicago Q before heading back to the hotel and passing out.

Oh, and I had lunch with some more of the best girls I know - Sam, Susan, and Nicole - in the West Loop. Miss those gals!

Enjoying our view from our room (or what you can see of it through all the kid handprints on the window)

Henry's first bus ride! He's mesmerized and will never be the same.

We paid $14 per person to get into the Children's Museum, and Henry just wants to play with trucks. Lovely.

Being silly with Steph and Scott before bed.

Day 3 (today): Henry got us up at 6:30, so we got an early start. We tried out a new play lot (Lake Shore East Park), then headed to the Loop for some exploring. Henry had his first Magnolia cupcake and was in hog heaven. He had one to himself and insisted on having a few bites of mine. After a long nap by Henry (and even longer lunch by me with my old co-workers), we headed up to our old neighborhood for a bit of nostalgia. We took Henry for his inaugural trip to Timeless Toys.  He left owning several more cars than we walked in with, the spoiled little stink. After strolling down Lincoln and checking out our old stomping grounds, we played at Welles Park before having dinner at Rockwell's, which just happens to be the first restaurant Henry ever visited.  All of this activity resulted in Henry being up past his bedtime, which caused him to morph into demon dragon baby. Not cool. We promptly put him to bed and are hopeful he will wake up as his normal sweet self tomorrow.

Playing outside with our new obsession, the school bus. He didn't let go of it all day long. I had to pry it out of his little hand at bedtime!

Miss this view.

Dinner at Rockwell's.

Moments before Henry's transformation into the most ill-behaved baby.

It's been such a wonderful and nostalgic trip! It's been great seeing friends, visiting some of our favorite spots, and showing Henry around one of the best cities on earth. Now I'm off to bed so I can enjoy my last few hours here before heading back to Tulsa tomorrow.

Marathon Post!

What? We still have a blog?

We have lots to update on since our last post! We've had lots of newsworthy events in the past month and a half or so.

First, Henry got tubes! This may not seem like that big of a deal to some, but it was a huge deal to us. Homeboy can now hear, which means that he can say words. His vocabulary has quadrupled since his surgery, and he's been all around a more pleasant person to be around. We get a new word every other day or so. The latest: the cutest version of "bus" you've ever heard!

Henry is getting a little brother! We found out in July that the bambino in my belly was another boy, and while we would have been happy not matter what it was, I'm secretly (or not so secretly) pumped that it's another boy. He and Henry will be almost exactly 25 months apart, so that means fun playmates (and great hand-me-downs). Henry has no clue what is to come.

Practicing for baby brother?

Henry had a cute 4th of July parade at his school.  All the kids had special t-shirts that they made especially for the occasion. Unfortunately, Henry was not pleased with the crowd of parents waiting outside to greet the parading kids as they exited the school and cried throughout the whole parade. Ah well - it was cute anyway!

We celebrated 4th of July at Grand Lake with lots of family. Henry had a great time with all his cousins. Maybe one day we will be able to stay up late enough to watch the fireworks.

Driving the pink jeep with cousin Ethan

Henry got his first "big boy" hair cut. I couldn't bring myself to cut off those curls, so thank goodness Auntie Lisa was conservative with Henry's "men's layered cut" as his style is apparently called. So handsome!

I did my first solo trial. Now that it's over with, I wonder what in the heck I was so worried about. Now on to the next big work project!

I continue to grow larger and larger. They weren't kidding when they said you get bigger with subsequent pregnancies. This is me at 18 weeks. Sheesh!

Henry finished his first year at "school" with a water day. They ended the celebration with a feast of Cheetos and other fun kid foods.  Henry had never seen a Cheeto before, so he was a little hesitant to taste one.  However, after I tried one and showed him it wasn't poison, he jumped on the Cheeto bandwagon and is now a huge fan. In spite of a bath and several scrubbings, his little hands may still be stained with synthetic orange cheese.

That's it with us! Hope everyone has had a great summer!

Sunday Morning at Guthrie Green

Oh, poor sad lonely blog! It's been forever since we posted, despite our constant promises to do better.  June just totally flew by - I can't believe that tomorrow is July 1st! I guess time flies when you're having fun, or when you're not, in our case.  All three of us have been sick -- John and I with the most violent stomach bug either of us have ever had (glad I shared, I bet), and Henry with both a stomach bug and a mystery virus that my mom (in all her medical expertise) has diagnosed as roseola. Henry is set to have tubes put in his ears on Tuesday, so this roseola better hit the road. Fast.

We had a brief period of time this morning when everyone was feeling rosy, so we headed down to check out the Sunday Market at Guthrie Green. Guthrie Green opened up about a year ago, and until this morning, we had yet to go and check it out to see what all the fuss was about.  GG is a really great urban gathering space, something that I hadn't really experienced since leaving Chicago. Today was Sunday Market day, so I imagine the vibe was a bit different than most weekdays. The crowd was the perfect mix of yuppies, retirees, young families, and dirty hippies. There's a stage for live music, a fantastic splash pad for the kiddos, expansive green space, and a pavilion for activities, which today as an outdoor Zumba class.  Henry had a blast - he had lots of space to run around and lots of people to look at (he took a special interest in the Zumba-ers). John was especially pleased by the market vendor selling vinyl. Great. I thought we had escaped that when we moved.

The verdict: Guthrie Green is awesome. I'm so proud of Tulsa for having a place like this, and we can't wait to go back and play next weekend!

Mesmerized by the Zumba class

Posing for a pic/restraining Henry from joining the Zumba class

Checking out the gardens

Vendors

Henry Is 18 Months Old!

Gaah! How did this happen? It seemed like I just a minute ago he looked like this:



And now he looks like this:



Both are totally precious (to me, at least) but I wonder when my little baby was replaced by this kid.  The 18 month old Henry is a boisterous, independent, and opinionated toddler. Or at least as opinionated as one can be without speaking English.  A few of his stats at 18 months: He absolutely loves cars, and anything else with four wheels for that matter. Playing outside is one of his favorite activities, and he's absolutely fearless on the playground.  The kid is 100% boy! He's a great eater and will never turn down spaghetti, bananas, or graham crackers. He love love loves being read to, and I can't think of anything sweeter than spying on him in his room while he's flipping through a book, "reading" to himself.

Here's to 18 awesome months with our little guy. We've loved every second of it!

Dominating the slide at the park

I DIE over these curls!

Long Time No Blog

First of all, where the heck did May go? It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating Mother's Day, and now it's June 2nd! Time flies when you're having fun. Or it just flies. 

As pretty much everyone knows, the weather has been the total pits in Oklahoma lately. Thank goodness our area was spared the horrible tornadoes that ravaged other parts of the state. We were fortunate enough to skate by with some really heavy thunderstorms.  While I'm SO thankful we avoided the severe weather, being trapped inside (with Henry) due to the crummy weather has really stunk. So, when the weather has actually been nice, we've been outside trying to take advantage of the few moments of sunshine (or just not rain).  This means lots of park time and a little pool time.

We will try to be better at posting for June. I was so busy at work in May that I had a mantra of "If I can just make it to June. If I can just make it to June." Well, my June calendar isn't looking much better, but I'm still hopeful for a better month. Below are some pics of what we've been up to the past couple of weeks.

Henry's new favorite food: Spaghetti. His uniform for eating this new cuisine: diaper-only.

John and Henry freezing their tushies off in the baby pool Memorial Day weekend.

Memorial Day = splash pads are turned on. We explored the one in our neighborhood park. Brrr.

Henry loved it!

Our cousin's pony birthday party. Henry enjoyed it a little bit more than last year.

Riding solo

One-handed!

Mother's Day Weekend Fun

When I was growing up, I would always ask my mom when Kids' day was, because I didn't understand why there were dedicated Mothers' and Fathers' Days.  She would always respond "everyday."  Ain't that the truth!

We had a super fun Mother's Day weekend. We had early Mother's Day celebrations with Mimi with brunch at Wild Fork. The weather was gorgeous, so we got to sit outside (which became very convenient when Henry lost his patience waiting for our food). We spent Saturday afternoon doing one of our favorite things: spring planting. We planted several pots on the back patio, and now that we have outdoor furniture, our backyard is becoming a very cozy spot.

On Sunday we met my grandmother and parents at their country club for another celebratory brunch. Afterwards, we enjoyed the amazing weather and watched Henry play on his new slide at my parent's house. That kid and slide, and slide, and slide again - it never gets old for him!

It was such a great weekend filled with family and fun. I love living in Tulsa and being able to share these special weekends with family. Hope all my mom friends enjoyed their day!

Post brunch (and trip to Snow Goose, hence the pig) with Mimi

Having a blast on his new slide

The sweet card Henry made for me at school

My little family

I'm so lucky to be this precious little guy's Mom!

My grandmother, mom, and me.