You’ll Be Glad to Know Henri Is Still Alive 2011/01/05

As am I…

Rather than fill you in on the past six months, or fill you up with excuses like the fact that I was teaching five classes and thus responsible for 99 students (!), I’ll just tell you what happened today.

After a blissful day at home watching cartoons-on-demand (Henri) and blogging (mom-mom), we multi-tasked. Henri bathed, while I fed him and read books in preparation for nap.  I then lathered him down with lotion as I have since he was a baby, despite protests from the boy who is no longer a baby.  Next, we read a final book and he talked himself to sleep in the “family nap” bed.

An hour and a half later, he woke up.  More specifically, he sat up and said, “I slept good.”  L-U-V.  Henri is never as sweet as when he’s slept good.  So, I put him on my lap, got his shoes, and began to explain that we had to go see one of mommy’s doctors.  “Are you sick?” he asked.  “No, I just go to talk about my feelings.”

We then drive to the appointment, which took about 30 minutes thanks to 3:30 PM traffic (WTF!?!), and–after a brief stop at Payless in which mom-mom got some awesome slipper shoes that are oh-so-cozy–we went into the building where my therapist is.  “We’re just going to walk up these stairs, and all the way down the hall,” I explain.  “How do you feel?” he responds.  How do I feel? “You mean, what am I going to talk to my doctor about?”  He nods his head.  “Oh, I feel pretty good, I guess.”  (And I do.)

Later, on the way home, after a backseat exclamation of “This is fun!” (“It is? I’m glad you like it…”), he says, “I want to hear that ‘I can’t stomp’ song.”  I think for a minute, trying to come up with a kids CD that has song about stomping on it.

“The What Song?” I stall.

“The ‘I can’t STOMP song!'”

“Ohhhhhh…. the “I can’t stop song…?”

“Yeah. I can’t stomp.”

So, I find Ratitude, pop it in, turn it up, and sing at the top of my lungs all the way home, grateful for a kid who likes Weezer and those times when, really, my life is a party I don’t want to leave.  Did I forget to mention we’d also picked up cupcakes?

True Paradise 2009/01/04

We spent the last day of the year in Jamaica’s hidden gem–Mavis Bank and Forres Park (our future home!) in St. Andrew’s Parish, where Mark and I discovered true paradise. We call it paradise not only because the mountain climate is perfect and views are spectacular, but because most of the mountainside is covered in coffee bean plants! Now, that’s bliss.

shelling the beans

mountainside utopia

the view from the top

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i have a brilliantly sentimental mother’s day post in the works, but until then… 2008/05/07

…you’ll have to settle for a list. besides, this is useful to record.

Ten Things I Like about Being MomOfHenri:

• Snuggling in bed and he reaches over and grabs my face like he’s “blind” henri and then smiles so big I can smell his formula breath.
• That he’s content shrieking like a dolphin or whopping me on the head with his plastic keys while I sleep a few more minutes.
• His first temper tantrum yesterday, in which I learned my son is EXACTLY like me (in case there was any doubt) in his undying resolve to be heard and picked up and held and coddled all the time and why would you even thinking of doing something else that doesn’t involve me??? for christ’s sake.
• That anything you put anywhere near his mouth like you’re going to feed him excites him to no end. These currently include Orajel and his electric toothbrush. He actually cried when I stopped brushing his teeth today! OMG–HCIT??? (HCIT=How Cute Is That. duh.)
• His hair is A) not falling out and B) staying red. Yesssss!!!
• When Mark walks in the room, Henri’s eyes light up.
• Watching him focus on the tiniest thing for the longest time (like a dog stitched onto his blanket or my over-sized flower ring).
• My son looks good in Pink. And he is so in touch with his feminine side.
• speaking of: Little boys clothes…so adorable. Hold me back, please. Or I will buy much, much more.
• Every time we take him into another room, he wants to look at every single thing in there like he hasn’t ever been there before (Yes, I know this is because he has baby-term memory, but I also want to remember it because it won’t always be that way…)
• Reading other mom’s blogs and articles, moms who are apparently very tired and extremely disorganized and generally disgruntled, and thinking “huh, I don’t feel like that” and knowing that I —really, I do— have the *best* life.

Okay, so that bordered on sentimental. But you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

henri is so cute. he even makes me want to wake up in the morning. 2008/04/30

when henri wakes up in the morning, he is generally in a bright and cheery mood! he contentedly squawks and squeals until one of us gets up to bring him back to our bed. since he’s not usually hungry right away, we give him a furry toy to chew on while we rest our eyes a little bit more. eventually, he will get frustrated/hungry enough that he’ll grab mark’s nose and wake us [back] up. his new rolling over technique is very useful at this stage. once we’re *really* awake, somebody gets up and makes him a bottle. then, he eats breakfast in bed while we get just a little more shut-eye before the horrible, tragic, day-away-from-henri-and-all-things-lovely-and-good-and-baby-centric begins. while we’re getting ready in the mornings, henri is all too happy to sit in his bouncy seat and play, along with more squaking and squealing of course. then, we drop him off upstairs with nani and/or papi, at which time the routine starts over with “giving him the fuzzy animal to chew on.”

have i mentioned i have the perfect life? and by perfect, i mean everything i’ve always wanted.