carry forth

Still there? I sure hope so. I have been in a very inbetween sort of position with this blog and I've been feeling unsure of continuing to share our lives so openly. Should I make it private so that certain someones can't read it? Should I just not blog at all? Not to mention life in general has been getting in the way. I took a break. A long one.

But onward and upward. Husband is on the road to recovery and fingers are crossed for no additional set backs. The plan is to be an active blogger again, publicly and not private for the time being. I can't make promises about how active due to the fact that I still am the only fully-able bodied parent currently, but I want to start making more time for myself, even if it's just sitting with my laptop typing away about daily Bloomingburg life. So here goes nothing...

I don't normally feel the need for change, but the summer has proven to be a difficult one, and has left me feeling the need for a new chapter. Hank turned one last Wednesday and DJ and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary that same day. We spent the day together. Just feeling all the love of the day pour over us. It really made my desire to turn the page that much stronger. I can't hardly believe how fast time is passing. How is it possible that three years have passed since DJ and I got married? And Hank is already a year old!? DJ and I laid in bed on Wednesday evening and reminisced about the evolution of our life together. It felt good to validate how far we've come.

So it's not a new month right now, a new week, a new year or even a new age, but I'm turning the page on something and starting a new something. I can't pin point the "something" just yet, but maybe I don't really need to. Maybe we're able to just declare a new chapter sometimes with no rhyme or reason. With no definitive end and no clear beginning but instead a full heart and a raised fist, ala Judd Nelson.

eight amazing months

June 9th, Hank turned 8 months old.  In almost the same amount of time as it took for me to cook up my little King Henry, he has gone from a lump to a lion. 

Not officially crawling just yet, mostly just rolling, scootin, climbing, rocking on all fours and reaching to get where he needs to be.

Standing is the best.  He loves to stand, bounce and wiggle.

Standing has also brought on cautious stepping.  We put the legs on a musical toy and he can slowly mowzie around.

Stranger anxiety has never really been an issue, but over the weekend we saw a few brief moments.

Grass provides endless amounts of entertainment.  At the end of the day when patience is at its' very thinnest, a trip outside to sit on the grass is in order.  It can give us another half an hour of happy and non whiney baby.

Naps are a bit shorter and sometimes harder to come by.

The first two teeth have FINALLY poked through and those little suckers are like razors!
Henry is very grabby.  Noses, eyeballs, necklaces, faces in general, loose skin of any kind, these are all fair game.

He's pulling himself up onto legs, furniture and such.

Hank shows so many different facets of his personality, his sense of humor, a little attitude, major curiosity.  I'm surprised everyday at how fast things change.

Believe it or not my seemingly photogenic babe, puts up a real fight when it comes to getting a good picture these days.  I end up with about 1000, blurry photos because I just keep taking them in hopes that he was sitting still and smiling just as the camera took the picture.  The kid is too busy being curious at the world around him to stop for another picture.  I'm pretty sure if he could roll his eyes at me when I'm shaking a toy and saying "Hank, Hank, Henry, over here Henry, Hank look at mommy..." in hopes that he will look in my direction. 

Open mouth slobbery kisses. Oh they are the best. The best I tell you. Eight months is pretty amazing.

weekend inventory

Man, what a four day weekend can do for your spirit.  Four fabulous days of no work and all play with King Henry.

It did us both good.  In four days of mostly just the two of us hanging out, Hank started finally pulling himself up consistently and giving open mouth kisses.  Pulling himself up is a fun milestone, but when he looks me directly in the eye and comes in for a kiss, mouth agape, I could die of cute overload.  He is so deliberate in his actions lately.  He hears the word "No." and gives a big adorable grin.  The kind that you can't help but smile at in return and then he quickly returns to the original action that made you tell him "no" in the first place. 

Friday I had errands to run and a house to clean.  Hank is the perfect side kick.  Making ladies laugh at Target, the grocery store and generally any where we step foot inside.  We took a solid afternoon snoozer and woke up when DJ got home from work.  Once Hank went to sleep that night, DJ and I watched that new Wizard of Oz movie.  It sucked.  We didn't even finish it. 

Saturday, DJ had to work again so Hank and I spent the day as best buds again.  We danced and sang to record after record.  We walked and walked and walked around town.  We played inside and outside.  Took THREE naps and watched Finding Nemo for the millionth time.  DJ came home and we told him that we needed to go back to Target because I managed to forget formula and wipes.  We stopped over at my aunt and uncles, chatted and played with the neighbors chickens.  Went to Target and then planned to go to a festival.  Little did we know that there were fireworks that night at the festival and by the time we got there it was crazy busy and with no stroller packed up I was not going to walk that far.  We went home and dosed our anxiety ridden dog to put him to sleep prior to the booming fireworks.  This anxiety is a newly acquired thing Bowie has.  He shakes and pants uncontrollably and he just wants to be up your ass.

Sunday was father's day, so being the good wifey that I am, I let DJ sleep in.  Once daddy woke up, Hank and I gave him his card and gift.  Unfortunately, husband needed to work on his car.  Not the most fun way to spend the first part of the day, but we had plans to meet up with my father in law, step mother in law and sister in law for dinner.  We got to the restaurant and walked up to my in laws.  They all stood up and rushed back to the car.  My in laws own a auto body shop and the fire department had called to say that there was a fire.  We immediately drove to the shop to see how bad the damage was.  Luckily it was not terrible.  It could have been much much worse and everyone was grateful for that.  Need less to say dinner was rescheduled til this weekend.

I guess you could say it was a father's day to remember.  ;)

we had zoo much fun

To date DJ and I have been to the Detroit Zoo 3 times together.  Our first trip will never be topped.  It was perfect weather and ALL of the animals were out.  Last time was the zoomance trip and I was a giant circle of a pregnant person, however it was still really fun because there were a lot of animals out and about.  This time we went with our big boy Hank, and the animals were not terribly cooperative.  There were still a lot of animals out, but they weren't active enough to make a 7.5 month old excited.

 Hank really loved the tiger statue...

 ...the bear water fountain...

...the carousel...

...our picnic...

...the polar bear tunnel...

...and the afternoon snoozer he took after the polar bears. 

The animals however, he could take 'em or leave 'em.  Hank likes to be out and about though so we would still list this under the "successful" column of the adventures in parenting list, if we were the sort of parents that kept a tally of the successful and unsuccessful adventures one partakes in during the first year of parenting.

weekend inventory

I do not know exactly where all my time goes, but it's really been getting away from me lately.  Before I know it, it's Friday and I've only blogged once. 

I'm going to turn it all around though next week, I can feel it.  I missed most of this week, but let's just sweep this one under the bridge, water under the rug, eh, erm, reverse those.

Last weekend was too short per usual. 

Friday I came home from work and found Hank and DJ taking a late nap so I thought I would attempt to get a run out of the way, instead of having to wait until Hank went to sleep for the night.  I also made the decision to switch up my route.  A fateful decision that was.  I normally run on Hines Drive which is nice and scenic, but I thought I would run through downtown Plymouth for a little change of pace.  I had my play list turned way up and didn't realize that the "music in the park" series had already started.  There were a ton of people down there.  I tried running through them, but there were too many obstacles to maneuver so I just started walking.  That's when I got the worst side stitch possible.  I tried to stretch, but again, there were tons of people so I was trying to not look like a total weirdo with my awkward side stretches.  I got out of the crowd finally, stretched out and started back up.  I could see a train on the tracks up ahead but I kept running hoping that it would get a move on by the time I reached it.  Nope.  So I stretched some more, because I was still suffering from that cramp.  I waited....and waited...thought about going underneath and then chickened out...  After a good fifteen minutes of waiting and telling people in their cars how to get around the train, I decided I had better just run back to where I came from.  I ran all over the neighborhood though trying to find the nearest route to get past the train.  I ended up going back to where I came from in the end, back through the concert in the park and all the people.  By the time I got back home I was sweaty and exhausted.  The train didn't move for an hour and ten minutes you guys.  On a Friday night at 7pm-ish!  Can I call someone to complain about this?  I'm still outraged and it's 4 days after the fact.

I spent lots of time with my guys the rest of the weekend, we hit up a 1 year old's birthday party and I started watching Game of Thrones finally.

I pumped through the first season and I am six episodes into the second season.  What have I been doing the past three seasons you guys?  Missing out, that's what.

Sunday, Hank turned 8 months old.  That boy is ah-mazing. 

I'm already done with my work week by the by.  I took Friday and Monday off just for the hell of it.  We planned to go camping, but plans fell through so now I'm just going to re-lax.  I have big plans to stalk down some new clothes for Henry, play at the park and drink some wine.  Oh and I guess celebrate daddy's day.

I'll be back tomorrow to finally show you some pictures from Hank's first trip to the Detroit zoo.