A great night for a parade!

UNL's homecoming parade was this evening. Last year it downpoured about half-way through the parade, tonight it could not have been a more perfect night for a parade. Ralph was a great participant - clapping and waving. Its not obvious but Ralph is wearing his Husker shirt - a camo Husker shirt. Henry had a good time, too, watching from Mike's arms - I think he held on a little more tightly during the band and a few loud noises but he did not lose his composure.

(note: Ralph is starting to put his hat on backward.)

Henry & Abe

Henry stopped by work this afternoon to get his picture taken with President Lincoln. He was quite animated checking out Abe and playing in the lobby. We even caught him clapping for the first time!

(Big brother Ralph had his photo taken with Abe in February 2009.)

Ralph: Celebrating 2 1/2 years!!

Ralph's 30-month well-child check up isn't scheduled for another month so the officials stats will have to wait. No one has to tell us he is a very skinny boy. The 2T pants are way to big in the waist and the 24 months are a little big in the waist but are close to being short . . . we have discovered adjustable waist pants.

Ralph had been asking the question "where?" for quite awhile, not realizing he should be asking the proverbial "why?" - just after turning 29 months he started asking "why?" and has not stopped asking. He is very observant and notices when things are not as they should be.

The move to the transition room at daycare has gone well. He has become a little more independent and is a little more willing to accept my departure in the mornings. I'm sure it helps he has Ms. Karla as a teacher as she was his caregiver when he was in the infant room.

It has been fun watching his imagination grow in the last month. While watching the football game last Saturday we had a good game of catch going on with an imaginary football - the best way to play catch in the house.

Ralph can get extremely goofy - or at least he thinks so - when he is tired. He was cracking himself up the other day saying "My name is Dr. Seuss" . . over and over.

Ralph processes information well. Last night he said "Father bless me, Father not sneeze me." While it does not sound right, he knows enough to relate blessing to sneezing.

He seems to generalize about every street sign as being a stop sign. He likes to remind me to stop at the stop signs and we have conversations about why we stop.

He is doing great being daytime potty trained though he says "no, thank you" when I try to put him on a big potty when we are out and about and will do his best to hold it. If we are traveling we will take his little potty so he can take care of business without stressing out. Soon we will try graduating to the smaller seat that fits on the big potty. Naps can be hit and miss at home - sometimes he wakes up dry . . sometimes not.

We are working on making choices . . .you can either do "this" or get a time out. Somewhere he has learned the counting method to get things done "you have until the count of three to . . ." Sometimes I'll barely start counting and he is reacting to what he is suppose to be doing. It's amazing since we usually use this method at home but knows what it is . . . maybe he learned it at his home away from home.

Took the photo in the morning. He had to have some product after seeing me put some in my hair. His hair is not normally spike-y.

Henry: Official 9 month stats

Along with turning 9 months old, comes the 9 month well-child check up. We visited the doctor last Wednesday; Henry officially weighed in at 16 lbs 2 oz (2%) and 28" (45%). The only 'thing' above average is his head circumference - 18" (50-75%) which I can attest to after trying a number of times to put one of his Husker outfits on today. We had just bought a 2 pc 6-9 month outfit thinking he'd need that size for the bottoms and I thought we'd be fine on the top too since most of the 9 month shirts are still too big for him . . . . as much as I tried to stretch the neck out it was still tough to put on. Luckily we got the outfit on sale - and we'll still have months of use on the pants even if we can't squeeze the shirt on next week.

Anyhow, the doctor wasn't too worried about his weight since he seems to be growing fine. We aren't too worried since he is doing his fair of eating but he is constantly on the go. Everything else checked out fine. He received two shots and gets to return in 30 days for his booster flu shot.

For those wondering at this stage Ralph was 1" taller and 2 pounds heavier.

Henry: Celebrating 9 months!

We found out this morning that it is possible for Henry to sleep all night! He had gone to bed earlier in the evening; woke up around 10, had a little snack then back to bed until just after 6 am! Sleep is one theme that we can not seem to master - I stopped counting the sleepless nights. I'll admit we are not consistent in some of our methods but some nights I just want to go back to sleep. Henry is also crying loud enough now that Ralph is waking up more often.

Henry is slowly being introduced to formula. He is also increasing the amount of baby food he is eating. He'll eat whatever stage 2 foods he is offered and has tried some stage 3 foods but gags a little more often when eating these foods. He has sampled shredded cheese and tiny bits of bread but both usually fall out of his mouth instead of going down his throat. The last couple days Henry's consumption of milk/formula has decreased to 21-23 ounces while his food intake has increased.

We'll find out in a couple of days how Henry compares to his peers but I can guess he is on the small side. He is wearing 6 mo bottoms and 9 mo tops (that are still way too big).

He continues to army crawl. Once in awhile he gets up on all fours but falls back down when he starts moving. He can easily sit-up from the crawling position. This morning we introduced the learning table and he pulled himself up when he was sitting beside it, while no one was looking. He is getting pretty good at pushing the doors closed on the pop-up farm. He likes to crawl onto the base of the exosaucer. He also likes to close cupboard doors and open/close drawers.

The other week he stuck his tongue out and said "da-da" . . it lasted a few days but we have not heard it much lately.

Overall, Henry is a very happy little boy. He likes interacting with his brother and will laugh in response to what his brother is doing sometimes. He is also content to play independently.

No teeth have broken through.