cute, cute and cute.

had a great weekend. hope you did as well. spent quality time with our niece and nephew, quality time as a family, enjoyed hanging out with katherine and alex, celebrated my sister's birthday, enjoyed a family hike at Chewacla, and laughed at the many funny things henry continues to spring on us.

here's to his cuteness himself.

third day of preschool. he had a good week! he brought home two crafts, apple stamps and a painted frog.
touchdown auburn in his new Auburn hat.
shopping for birthday decorations ... he thought these decorative cones were hats. ha!
checking out chewacla park

monday with momma ... who he is now starting to call mommy as well.

his appetite is back and its almost scary how much he can eat. he can also drink milk again-rotavirus made him lactose intolerant for about 3 weeks. he has a new tooth on the bottom; this makes a total of 11 teeth altogether. he is basically no longer particular about reading any new book-its fabulous! his talking has really taken off-its amazing the things little ones know and just can't verbalize up to a certain point. he is also extremely observant. we can pass my office and he will say "momma's work!" we can approach the hill before we get to the park and he will mutter "park! park!" he can spot an auburn flag, sticker, emblem, you name it a mile away.

he still LOVES cars, trucks and keys. lastly, he is as excited as we are about football season kicking off this thursday night. woo hoo!

and one more thing, Nancy and Doug welcomed Dalton Ruth Bendinger into the world on Friday. She was 5lbs 10ozs and 19 inches long. Exciting news!

Henry's New Role ...

... of Big Brother will start sometime in February or thereabouts! We are excited to announce the we are expecting baby number two. I am almost 15 weeks. We do plan to find out if baby number two is a boy or a girl ... which will happen on Sept. 14th. So, cast your vote now on the poll. So far from talking to friends and family, girl is the overwhelming leader. I will add that girl was the overwhelming leader last time as well ...

As for us, we do not have a feeling or a preference. Just a healthy baby is a blessing!

Another reason to celebrate is that this baby will have a cousin within weeks of his/her age ... Gary's sister Deirdre and hubby Joe are expecting their first child in early March. How fun that these two will be so close in age and that Deirdre and I can share our pregnancies together. We are thrilled for them!

first day of preschool

Henry had a great first day of preschool! He had some free play time, some outside play time, a snack, he painted and helped clean up crafts and toys. When we left, he kept saying "henry's school." Too cute! Let's hope tomorrow goes as well!

this is what I'm talking about in my henry-ism of the week. you ask him to smile and he takes his pointer fingers and puts them on his cheeks. ha!

here is henry showing off his animal sounds. my favorite is the turkey. enjoy!

sunny days

Henry is still on the upswing and doing well! not 100% but SO much better. I'm thankful that all of the virus gunk happened within the last two weeks and not the upcoming two weeks because Henry starts preschool on Tuesday. He has "Meet the Teacher" day tomorrow and will be going to Grace Methodist Preschool here in Auburn on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 8-11:30am. It is a sweet little school and a smaller program, which I like. I really don't care if Henry learns his ABCs, to count, shapes, etc., this year, as long as the program is fostering a gentle, kind and giving spirit, creativity, and obedience. That is what is most important to me at this point ... the rest will come later. Gary and I both think he will really enjoy it! Our new babysitter, Sally Anne, starts this week too ... she will be keeping Henry on Tues/Wed/Thurs afternoons. She seems like a wonderful Christian young lady and we are looking forward to getting to know her.

Sunday was a beautiful day, wasn't it? We took Henry and the dogs for a long walk. Gary rigged up a leash that allowed for one person to walk the three sporting dogs. He walked them and I walked the herding group, Shelby, and pushed Henry. Below is the view from behind. Too cute!

henry sporting his new "crocs"

On Saturday there was a baby shower for Nancy. It was great to have almost all of our old crew from college all in one place! Several gals brought their little ones, which was so fun. Catherine Ellis, Megann's adorable baby girl, is pictured below. All of the baby girls were so good! Nancy is less than a month away from welcoming Dalton Ruth. We are very excited for them!

L-R from bottom: me, Elizabeth & daughter Emma, Tricia, Emilie, Nancy, April & daughter Vivian, Allison, Lindsay & daughter Caroline, and Jessica.

good news!

no trips to the hospital for us today! henry's hydration is better and we think maybe today is the day he is turning the corner. its been the best day (so far) in several days, so that is exciting! thanks for all the well wishes.

rotovirus update

day 10 of the old rotovirus. concerned about henry's hydration, we took him back to the doctor yesterday and confirmed that he is dehydrated. she gave us a different idea/method of getting more fluids in him along with some medicine to help with the vomiting. I am taking him back to the doctor today at 11:30 for a re-check of his hydration. if any better, we can go home and hope we are on the downward slope of this crummy virus. if not they will admit henry to the hospital and give him IV fluids and monitor his progress.

here's hoping for a trip back home!

i don't care if sunday's blue, saturday was bad and friday too ... thursday, I still thought about you, its monday, I'm in love

with stuffed animals and madeline, that is.

henry missed all of the weekend festivities on what we found out at the doctor's office today is the roto virus. in efforts to try to cheer him up this morning, I put most of his stuffed animals in his rocking chair for him to "rock" them. he loves stuffed animals and loves to rock.

as you can see, he was pretty excited.
at gary's mom's this past weekend-despite the virus, we still had a lovely visit with she and jon.

and henry's other love, miss madeline. he so missed not being able to come to her party. so he wanted to send a little birthday message ...

do you ever feel like ...

there are so many terribly tough, tragic, and unfair things happening to so many people that you know personally (not to mention those you don't know personally), all at the same time? gut check, heart wrenching, confusing, unbelievable types of things.

that is what it feels like right now. without going into detail about each situation, if you do pray, please pray for these families. the power of prayer is indescribable and these folks need it:

1.) The Hess Family
2.) The Murphy Family
3.) The Garner Family
4.) The Parker Family
5.) The Carpenter Family

during times like this (struggles/trials/life changing events), they always makes you extremely thankful for your blessings. sometimes, oftentimes, that question of "why" surfaces ... why does this family have to suffer through this? why do trials continue to plague them? it is not fair! turning to your faith and to your God and trusting in those two, are just about all that you have the power to do. but gosh, many times that is hard to say the least. it is hard as an outsider. it is hard as an insider. the last power you have as an individual is the power of attitude. we've all heard it, we know attitude is a choice that is ours to make. again, that is undoubtedly another area that is hard. that's unfortunately what these types of things do ... make you question your faith, your God and your attitude.

to those out there suffering, enduring life changing situations and emotions, hang in there! there are so many out there praying and loving you ... our hope is that at least once each day you feel that prayer and love and it brings comfort to you ... even if only for a brief moment.

19 months today and some congrats

19 months today. what a fun age! henry is talking ALL the time and saying the funniest things. he is still about 26 pounds and has not gained weight in a while - probably because he is on the go, a lot. he's not hyperactive, just a busy toddler. sadly, he has had a stomach bug since monday night and has had a rough week resulting in a terrible diaper rash. he now knows what "hurt" means and can say it. so this week as he has been under the weather, he has been saying "henry hurt" and it breaks our hearts. his little voice saying those words ... I can't even explain. and this is just diaper rash and upset stomach! I've got to toughen up I suppose. anyway, hopefully he's on the mend by tomorrow because his number one gal, besides momma of course, has a BIG BIRTHDAY tomorrow ... Miss Madeline turns 2! We are celebrating with her on saturday and henry wants to feel his best for that no doubt.

Happy Birthday sweet Maddie!

Also, congratulations to Meredith and Geoff who welcomed Martha "Claire" Peel into the world early this morning. Claire is teeny tiny at 4lbs 15ozs, 18.5 inches long. We hope to visit them tomorrow and meet little Claire.

lots of baths this week
The below video is another sweet one. Henry was walking in the hallway and looked at a picture we have of his cousins J&K. He picked up the picture, sat down and starting talking to it. He kept saying "KK!" and "Jake!" Then he would hug the picture. This was another miracle in that I can't believe that I caught it on video. You can hear him say KK, Jake, aw and hug, hug, hug. how I love this tender hearted little guy! and how we all dearly love J&K. they are so unbelievably great with henry and treat him like a brother.

happy 19 months!

chattanooga trip

First-please keep praying for the Hess family. Brooks now has a collapsed lung and is back in CICU. will keep you posted. thank you all for your prayers for them-I know they are felt and much appreciated!

last weekend (am late posting again), we drove up to Chattanooga to visit our good friends Robbie, Emma and their son Jake, who is seven months old. we had a really nice time!

henry trying to help me pack

at the river
it was a hot day!

gary teaching henry how to play cornhole

henry, emma and jake

I told henry to "smile" for the picture ... when you do this, he puts his fingers up to his cheeks like he is making himself "smile." it is hilarious.

fast friends

we went to the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Henry liked it although he wanted to drive the choo choo and didn't really understand why we could only just look at it. Henry was a great traveler; however, as for his behavior the rest of the weekend ... well he was good about half the trip. The other half he was whiny (which is not like him) and proceeded to throw little "fits," which is a new and embarrassing behavior.

sleeping jake

thanks to robbie and emma for a fabulous weekend!

thirsty little bear

the other morning henry woke up and decided little bear was thirsty, he kept holding his cup to little bear's mouth and saying "drink, drink." he continued doing this while I made his breakfast. fortunately, I was able to capture it on video. what I didn't bet on were the hugs and kisses he gives little bear. so sweet! henry loves stuffed animals by the way.

Update on Brooks and Florida Trip Pics

For those of you out there praying for the Hess family, Brooks made it through the heart surgery and is stable. However, the surgery has not immediately repaired the problem. Little Brooks' heart is functioning at only 8%. He has been diagnosed with an extremely rare heart condition - please click on the link to Lauren & Andrew's blog for details about Brooks' condition and for updates. Please, please keep the prayers coming for the Hess family! They have been through so much and have a long road ahead of them.

Finally ... pics from the FL trip. At Cracker Barrel (above). Henry loves fried okra!
First stop was to ocala to visit my sister and her family. we had a really nice visit and enjoyed seeing all the cousins!

Next was to Tampa to pick up the Perlins from the airport. Let me just say that Gary is the most efficient "packer" that I know. We were determined to fit 4 adults, two babies, their car seats, various gear that little ones require, and all of our luggage in my car.

The rooftop carrier (which you can't see in this photo) and the small trailer/platform did the trick! Yea Gary!

We then drove to Siesta Key for the fourth annual Perlin/Vaughan beach trip. Henry FINALLY was able to meet his far away best friend Adam, who is seven months old. After unpacking and a trip to the store we headed down for a walk on the beach before dinner.

Adam

One night we went downtown Siesta Key to walk around and get ice cream. The boys thought it was fun even though Henry has a very non-excited expression in this pic.

Last year at the beach Henry couldn't sit up and wasn't crawling or pulling up or anything mobile. This year was totally different-he thought the best part about the beach was running around and chasing the seagulls! it was funny.

Henry giving a "what's up" shout out.

sunset

Sue and Summer

Adam love his mom ... no question about that! He is an easy going guy and very happy.

best buds already

Henry hasn't chewed or put things in his mouth (like he did when a baby) in a long time. He loved these toy cookies that Adam brought and he couldn't resist eating them ... or chewing on his feet, which he hasn't done in a long time either. Who knows!

It was a wonderful, wonderful trip! Henry did great in the car and while we were there, with the exception of one afternoon. I guess the toddler "meltdowns" have begun, I don't know what else to attribute it to. Here's hoping Gary and I can lead, direct and parent him through these in the best way possible.