before and after

the force is with them

the misgivings tree

My friend Natalie's excellent post on the real meaning of the classic children's book The Giving Tree reminded me of our own recent arboreal adventures.

We have a pair of giant maple trees in front of our house that flank the small parking area. Every time there's a storm, or the wind blows the right way, the trees give give generously of their branches -- the small ones and the large ones. Branches in the parking area, branches across the sidewalk, branches hitting the house, big branches in the street -- yes, these are truly generous trees. But eventually, all the giving just got to be too much. So I called the city's street department.

Since the trees are in the park strip between the sidewalk and the street, it turns out that they're not our responsibility, which I found out six weeks later when a city crew showed up at our doorstep before 8:00 one morning. The verdict: One of the trees got a nice trim, and the other one was too far gone inside, and got the chop before it could fall on its own and smash our house.

It was pretty exciting to watch them cut down the tree, and apparently, we saved a TON of money since the city would do it (I've been told this by my parents, one of my uncles, and helpful members of the city crew themselves). And we have an added bonus: Since we've got one less tree, we were able to get a satellite dish for TV and now we can kiss our crappy cable provider good-bye! And that, my friends, is definitely a gift worth getting.

P.S. Lest you think I'm too callous about the loss of our ancient friend, you should know that we've already planted a flowering plum tree nearby (but out of the way of the dish) to balance things out a little.

triops

Mike and I both had to work during the school's fun fair this year, so brave Avalon took all three boys over to the school and navigated the masses by herself. The boys enjoyed dinner (hot dogs and chips) and a variety of games (including their favorite, an inflatable slide!) along with something relatively new to them: face painting.


Max chose to get a tree on his cheek for reasons unknown to me, while Liam went with an eyeball on his forehead. Since the boys' favorite band is They Might Be Giants (who are definitely in my top five as well!) I can only assume that this was the inspiration:

max wanted in on the photo shoot, too

henry at eight months

Henry is a very confident little guy. He knows exactly what he wants, and he goes after it. He's also quite possibly the happiest baby I've ever seen, and the combination of those two factors makes him really fun to watch. His favorite activities right now are crawling all around the house, knocking down blocks, splashing in the tub, and laughing at Liam. Max can make him laugh, too, but Liam is usually the one who earns the happy baby belly laughs from Henry.

Still no teeth, and still gallons of drool every day, so he must be working on it. Right? He MUST be. At this point, though, he'll still be ahead of both big brothers if he gets a tooth during the next month or so. The race is on!

He is growing like a weed (definitely time for some new onesies for these pictures) and constantly on the go. Next month, I'll have a more formal growth update, but for now, you can see it in his happy baby photos.

See also: one month, two months, three months, four months, five months, six months, seven months.

blog note

Been missing us? We ran into a little tech problem -- namely, the motherboard on my computer bit the dust and had to be replaced. So for the past few weeks, things have been pretty crazy as I snagged Mike's laptop whenever I had to work, but otherwise didn't have much time to compute. But my computer is back now, so I can finally start downloading all of these pictures and videos, and get back to posting more regularly. Thanks for your patience!

the difference a year makes

Last year: Every single time the opposing team scored a goal in a soccer game, Liam would burst into tears. If his team lost (they don't "officially" keep score at this level, but you better believe the kids do!), he would be inconsolable the whole day. And if one of his teammates scored more than one goal and he didn't score any, he would sulk and complain that it wasn't fair.

This year: In the first game of the season, Liam passed the ball to his teammate, who scored a goal. Instead of sulking, Liam celebrated his assist and congratulated his teammate. He even congratulated his friends on the opposing team when they scored goals. His team lost by a WIDE margin, but in the car on the way home, he could be heard telling Max, unprompted, "It's okay. We played hard, and next week we'll play even harder, and that's what really counts."

henry at seven months

Look out, people, he's on the move! While he can't crawl quite yet, Henry certainly gets around. He scoots himself wherever he wants to be, and he's not afraid to go after what he wants (and usually pop it directly into his mouth). He can sit up, but usually falls down pretty quickly. Bath time has been a challenge lately, because he's way too big for the baby bath, but the bath seat doesn't stick to the textured bottom of our tub (we found that out the hard way when Henry took a header into the water). For right now, the solution has been to have one of the big boys act as a human bath seat. The boy (usually Liam; Max doesn't have much patience with Henry's wriggling) sits down in the tub like he's ready to go sledding with a friend, then I plop Henry in front of him and he wraps his arms around him while I clean him. Fun for everyone.

We are still on tooth watch for Henry, but if the sheer amount of drool he produces constantly is any indicator, it won't be long before he pops one out. His favorite toy right now is a textured teething ring, if that tells you anything.

Next doctor's appointment isn't for two more months, but I can tell you that he has a VERY healthy appetite, so we have no doubt that he's growing on schedule.

Plenty more pictures of our young wiggle worm below.

See also: one month, two months, three months, four months, five months, six months.

dragonoid!

One small Easter tidbit to share: At my parent's house on Easter Sunday, a big group of the extended family was gathered for dinner/egg hunt/pinata destruction/kite flying. The boys got Easter gifts from Aunt Bethany, which included a Bakugan figure for Liam and one for Max. So just before dinner, everyone gathered to say grace, which went something like this.

Assembled Catholics: In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit...

Max (at the top of his lungs into the silent pause between the sign of the cross and the start of the prayer): DRAGONOID!

Not to be blasphemous or anything, but it was definitely the funniest prayer I've ever heard...

easter fun

Three lucky boys got to have two different egg hunts this year, one with Grandma and Grandpa in Michigan, and the other with Yami and Papaw on Sunday. They also got plenty of Easter goodies (check out Liam's excitement). It was an exhausting weekend, but so much fun.

liam's art show

This untitled work by Liam was chosen to be in an art exhibit at our local gallery! Works from all five of the elementary schools in town were chosen, and we were so proud of Liam for his artistic prowess.

happy st. pat's!

It really would require the luck of the Irish to get these three to look in the same direction AND smile at the same time. Sheesh! Also, I'd like to note that the shirt Henry's wearing was also worn by Max for his first St. Patrick's Day ... when he was one month old. Yep, Henry's definitely got some catching up to do!

henry at six months

15 pounds, 14 ounces
27 1/4 inches

Everything went great at Henry's six-month checkup. He is meeting all of his milestones and is a very happy baby. The only thing of concern is that he's in the 90th percentile for height, but only the 20th percentile for weight. The doctor says we need to fatten him up a bit.

He is at such a fun age right now, and he's just so cool. There's really no other word for it. He is the happiest baby, always smiling and interactive, and only really cries when he needs something. He still laughs only rarely, but he's so content to just be with his people, smiling and making faces and talking to us.

He's rolling around like crazy -- we finally gave in this weekend and bought an area rug for the living room so he would quit rolling and hitting his head on the wood floor. He also scoots himself backward all around the room, which the big boys think is hilarious to watch. And Liam and Henry, especially, will sit and have nonsense baby talk conversations for long periods at a time, which I think is hilarious to watch.

Henry's healthy, he's happy, and he just seems to be so joyful -- what more could we want?

missing something

So, I've been away for a little while. In case you didn't hear, a week ago Saturday we had a little excitement: I got appendicitis and had to have emergency late-night surgery. Luckily, we figured out what it was and got to the hospital fairly early, so my appendix didn't rupture before the surgeon could get there, and he was able to fix me up laprascopically. I've had a lifting restriction for the past week (couldn't even lift Henry, which meant that I had to line up babysitters ... for me!) but I'm feeling lots better now. Normal posting will resume now, and hopefully I'll be able to climb the mountain of work I've got right now and get caught up so I can be on a more regular schedule.

on parenting and assumptions

In the past few days, I've read a lot of blog posts that got me thinking about the assumptions people make about what kind of parents they will be, and what kind of parents other people are. People are horrified by the music they hear kids singing, by the movies kids watch, by the things they eat and even how quickly they eat them. Inevitably, it's the parents' fault. It's "bad" parenting. What's funny to me is that most of the people writing these things aren't parents themselves, but they know with absolute certainty that they will do things the right way. On top of that, they know precisely what that right way is.

It's easy to be irritated by those kind of assumptions, but I also find myself envying people the certainty and solidity of their viewpoints, because I've found that with each day I've spent as a parent, the ground shifts under my feet. Without meaning to, my kids have challenged nearly every assumption I've ever had about life. They have changed me. And I think that's a good thing. Sure, maybe they watch more TV than they should, and maybe that song about, er, pharmaceuticals that Max likes isn't the best thing in the world for him to know the words to. But so what?

To me, a lot of things are like old Looney Tunes cartoons: They're designed with levels. The kids can understand things on one level, and find them outright hilarious, but there are aspects of them that go way above kids' heads and are directed squarely at the parents. Young and old understand the same thing in totally different ways. In the case of Looney Tunes, I have to believe that this is so the parents will actually watch with their kids.

And think about the stuff the kids sang when you were one of them. I can picture myself as a kid with my sister, and one of my teenage uncles sang The Kinks' "Art Lover" to us because he thought it was funny. We had no idea what it meant (hint: it's about a totally different kind of appreciation); we just knew that our uncle was singing to us. I probably wandered around singing Hall & Oates' "Maneater" or The Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me" when I was little, but honestly, I thought one of them was about bugs and the other was about annoying little sisters (yeah, they totally weren't). And who knows, maybe my mom took her turn and sang Elvis' "Hound Dog" at the Ben Franklin when she was a kid. This stuff is not new.

So the next time you're at the grocery store, if you hear my kid singing that Queens of the Stone Age song, remember that to him, it's just a catchy tune (and one that his father happens to like). It's not a reflection of his parents, but evidence that his parents share with him the things they enjoy. And that's one concept that I can absolutely get behind.

have prunes, will stain

easy baking

Thank God for Loni! The boys look forward to the nights she comes over because they have so much more fun than every other night with boring old mom. They usually do some entertaining project, and last week, it was making sugar cookies with Max's Easy Bake Oven (he got it for his birthday from Yami). Reports are that the process of making the cookies and the anticipation of waiting for them to bake were way better than the actual cookies (Lon proclaimed them to be horrible), but you wouldn't know it by looking at these two.

guitar hero

henry at five months

A couple of weeks ago when we took him in for an ear infection, Henry weighed 15 pounds on the nose. There was no checkup this month, so I don't know exactly how tall he is, but he's definitely taller -- look, his head is almost to the top of the couch arm!

He rolls everywhere now, and he's been trying like crazy to sit up. He smiles constantly, and laughs occasionally. He's been getting used to eating solid food, too, and I can report that he hates rice cereal but loves oatmeal, hates carrots and squash but loves bananas and prunes (he was indifferent to peaches). As previously noted, he loves playing in his exersaucer, on his play gym, and on the floor up in Max's room. He's getting awfully good at putting his fingers in his mouth, pulling his pacifier out, and gumming everything possible. No teeth yet, but I think that's on track with big brothers.


Henry's five-month "birthday" coincided with Max's real fourth birthday, but we didn't do anything too exciting, just picked up some dinner and spent the evening playing Wii games. This was due in large part to another of Henry's "firsts" for this month -- he brought home his very first flu virus to infect mom and dad! Ah, what a proud day that was.

See also: one month, two months, three months, four months.

max at four

Our Max at this age is such a funny mix of people-pleaser and independent sasspatch. He's a joy to watch, even when he's throwing fits (most of the time). He's so creative, but that's so far mostly been channeled into excuses for things he doesn't want to do: "Putting on shoes makes my tummy hurt!" His expressions are priceless, from the pout that he still hasn't quite grown out of since babyhood to the very grown-up sly look he has when he's trying to wheedle his way into getting something he wants.


We've often observed that Liam is fascinated with how things work, while Max is fascinated with how people work, and I think it's so interesting to watch that play out between the two of them. Liam is always trying to teach Max something, and Max by turns worships his brother and wants to blaze his own path of picking exactly the opposite thing. He wants to learn on his own, thankyouverymuch, and he's not afraid to say so in no uncertain terms.

At home, Max is a funny, sassy, quick-witted, outspoken jokester, but at school, he hardly talks at all. His teachers always seem surprised to see that there's a chatterbox behind the sweet and shy boy they've taken care of for three years now. I don't have any firsthand knowledge of this (Barb will have to help me out), but I understand that he takes after Mike in this regard. In a lot of regards, really, but this is one that stands out to me.

Max had his fourth birthday party on Sunday, surrounded by friends and family. I was sick with the flu, shut into my room so nobody would be exposed to my germs, but I could hear him excitedly greet everyone by name and welcome them to his party. He was such a charming little host. And once the festivities were all done, he came to see if I was feeling better and spent a long time telling me about all the fun he had during the day. I won't lie -- it sucked to be laid up and miss my kid's birthday party. But being able to listen to him tell me all about it was definitely worth the wait. Happy birthday, Max!

henry would like to add that he loves the exersaucer

Thanks for the loan, cousin Taylor!

was someone looking for me?

this is not the baby you are looking for

This one does, however, have a birthday in less than a week! Amazing resemblance, innit?