Henry's New Room (and a New Nursery)

As we mentioned, Mimi Pauline gave Henry a boat-shaped toddler bed for his birthday. Taking that as our cue, we decorated Henry’s room in a nautical theme. Our goal was to make the room as fun as possible, in the hopes that Henry would spend more time there (like during the night). Pauline donated some of Uncle Spike’s old sailing gear: model sail boats, nautical prints, an old ship’s wheel, port and starboard lights and a brass bell. We placed these throughout the room along with a treasure map rug and a signal flag banner that spells Henry’s name.

So far, Henry seems to enjoy his new surroundings. He’s been taking long afternoon naps, and although he still wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to come to our bed, he usually goes to sleep without too much fuss. Below are some pictures of the room, along with a sneak peek of the new nursery for the soon-to-arrive Baby Morris #2.

Halloween 2009

Despite an unusually rainy October, we enjoyed celebrating Halloween in our new neighborhood. To get into the spirit of the season, we returned to Butler’s Orchard for their annual Pumpkin Festival in mid-October. Mimi Pauline happened to be visiting that weekend and joined us for the usual activities of pumpkin picking, hayrides, lawn games, and the giant tube slide (which Bryant and Henry braved once).

On the morning of Halloween, we invited our friends the McCuaigs and the Huangs (and their respective families) over for brunch. Elise made bat-shaped pancakes for the kids and the adults had pumpkin bread, bagels and coffee. Henry seemed to enjoy having some other children in the house and even happily shared his toys. The children were especially excited to feed the fish in the basement, about which more later.

In the evening, we gathered with some other families in the neighborhood for a potluck dinner and communal trick-or-treating. This year, Henry went dressed as a pirate. We couldn’t quite convince him to wear the hat, but he happily tolerated the rest of the costume. Once he figured out the routine, Henry enthusiastically knocked on doors and asked for treats (although he was a little thrown by the neighbors who gave out quarters). Some of the houses had elaborate Halloween decorations, which he pointed out as “scary.” Judging from the scenes around the neighborhood, Spider-Man and High School Musical were the most popular costumes this year. Something tells me we may be looking at a superhero costume in our future.

Despite some light rain, we all had a great time. It was nice to celebrate the evening in a neighborhood with lots of kids (and enthusiastic neighbors). Bryant was especially impressed that one house had a special “witches brew” for adults only. It certainly made the evening go a little more smoothly.

A Busy Fall

After a busy summer moving house, vacationing in California and attending three weddings (not to mention planning Henry’s birthday party), we were hoping for a quiet fall, but September and October have been a blur. Elise was on call (twice!) and traveled to Boston in early October to attend the AAFP conference. In between, we all came down with a stomach bug that struck Bryant, then Henry, and finally Elise in successive waves. On top of everything else, we’ve been preparing for the imminent arrival of Baby Morris #2. She’s due to arrive sometime in late November/early December. Phase I of our preparations involved getting Henry out of the nursery and installed in his own room (see Henry’s New Room). Phase II involved replacing the safari-themed décor in the nursery with lady bugs and dragonflies. Phase III was the purchase of a new family car: a Kia Rondo with an optional third row (see New Wheels!).

Elise has been holding up well in the last few months of pregnancy. She was diagnosed with gestational diabetes in October and has been on medication and controlling her diet since then. Bryant and Henry have assisted by eating all the cupcakes and cookies that came our way this fall. The most burdensome part of the diagnosis has been the twice-weekly visits to the doctor for monitoring and testing. Fortunately, everything looks fine with the baby, and the diabetes should subside once Elise gives birth. We’ve all but decided on a name, which will remain a secret until the birth, but just to give you a hint: all the women in Elise’s family have two middle names, and Baby Morris #2 will follow in that tradition.

Henry moved to the Two’s classroom this fall and has blossomed in his new surroundings. We have long since lost track of all his new words and phrases. In the frustrating days of infancy, we used to say: “If only he could tell us what he wants!” Well, now he does – quite emphatically. He lets us know what music he wants to listen to in the car, what he wants to watch on TV and what he wants to eat for dinner. He doesn’t always get his way, but neither do we. Henry has been especially interested in music these last several months. It began with Barney songs, then moved to The Sound of Music (which he got hooked on after some friends from daycare gave us a DVD of movie clips), paused briefly on “The Bare Necessities” from Disney’s The Jungle Book, and is now focusing on Sesame Street tunes and a little ditty called “Down by the Bay.” As the price for eating dinner and/or taking a bath, Henry often insists that one or both of us serenade him with his favorite songs. He joins in too, but despite his love for music, appears to have inherited his parents’ utter lack of vocal talent.

Fall also brought the usual seasonal activities of pumpkin picking and trick-or-treating, which you can read more about in Halloween 2009. As you can see, it’s been a whirlwind. We’re expecting (hoping) life to slow down once Baby #2 arrives, but perhaps that’s wishful thinking on our part. We’ll soon see.

Things Henry Likes: Barney, Thomas & Elmo

Our last posting made us think of all the new characters Henry has embraced. He took a liking to Barney early on, and the purple dinosaur has only grown more popular with each new book, DVD or CD we purchase. Henry’s favorite DVD is The Best of Barney, and we can now sing most of the Barney songs by heart. In fact, Henry has been known to ride his trike around the neighborhood singing “I Love You” at the top of his tiny lungs. A close second in popularity is Thomas the Train. Henry discovered Thomas only recently, but he has quickly skyrocketed in popularity. Henry received a Thomas cake and several Thomas books and toys for his birthday. And his Thomas pajamas are definitely his favorite, so much so that he once insisted on wearing the top all day. Other popular characters include Elmo, Cookie Monster, Mickey Mouse and Nemo. Mom and dad are partial to Thomas, if only because the episodes are only 10 minutes long and involve no singing. There is only so many times you can hear Barney sing “Clean Up,” “Apples and Bananas,” or “Looby Loo” before you start to go a little crazy. And according to this report on the BBC, the Barney theme song has been used by American interrogators to break the will of Iraqi insurgents. The insurgents never had a chance.

Henry's 2nd Birthday

This year Henry had not one, but three birthday parties. On the Friday before his birthday (August 23rd), he celebrated with his friends at daycare by eating cupcakes during afternoon snack. Then, on Sunday, he enjoyed a Thomas the Train birthday cake and an afternoon swim at Brad and Tonia Powell’s home, where we spent the afternoon visiting with college friends. Finally, on September 29th, Henry had a joint birthday party with several of his friends from daycare at Hayes Park in Arlington, Virginia. The park has a sprayground (a water spray park for children), a large sand pit, lots of playground equipment, and Henry’s personal favorite: swings. The theme for the party was “A Day at the Beach” (because of the water and sand), and we were fortunate to have some cool (if overcast) weather. The turnout was terrific, and everyone seemed to have a great time playing in the park and eating birthday cake.

Celebrating with Henry were his friends Nicholas Cho and the twins Teddy and Dorothy Huang. Henry’s parents were glad to share the burden of planning and preparing for the party with four other parents. We were responsible for the favors and decorations. For favors, each child received a plastic sand bucket filled with bubbles, playdough, sunglasses, stickers and other small toys. And, yes, we did assemble each of those forty party favor buckets by hand!

Henry received lots of great gifts for his birthday. Mimi Pauline gave him a toddler bed shaped like a boat, which Henry absolutely loved (when his father finally managed to finish assembling it). Mimi Joanne and Paw Paw Bill gave him an inflatable pool for the backyard. It was so hot in August, we let Henry open this gift early and start enjoying the cool water right away. Mom and dad gave him a puppet theater and some puppets. Unfortunately, the pirate puppet that we selected was a little scary looking, so Henry has gone off the puppets for a while. But hopefully the theater will pay dividends soon.

Click below for more photos from the party:

Settling In

It’s been a busy summer (three weddings, vacation and a birthday party), but we’re finally settling into our new place. With the newest Morris due to arrive in late November/early December, we’re working hard to get Henry established in his new room and transitioning the nursery from a safari theme to lady bugs, dragonflies and faeries. Henry received a boat bed for his birthday (see Henry’s 2nd Birthday), so we’re going with a nautical theme for his room.

Among the biggest hurdles has been unpacking and reorganizing our large collection of books. Between the two of them, Elise and Bryant have amassed a small library of medical books, historical romances, crime fiction, English literature and travel guides. As we’ve slowly unpacked our belongings, we’ve often wondered how we managed to cram so much stuff into a two-bedroom condo. We also think we’ll never again be able to live in a house without a basement/loft/playroom.

Henry is enjoying having a backyard and a neighborhood to explore. Our neighbors lent us their sons’ Kettler trike (the Mercedes Benz of training bikes), and Henry has been taking daily rides around the block. One of our favorite routes is to run down to the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, which sits atop a large hill with great views of Washington and Old Town Alexandria. There’s also a family of deer which lives on the memorial grounds, which we occasionally see in the evenings.

So far, the commute into Washington hasn’t been bad: about 30 minutes in the mornings and a little longer in the evenings. Most days we’re able to avoid the evening rush hour. Bryant has been taking the VRE (Virginia commuter train) home from work, which is a lot more civilized than the Metro. Occasionally Henry also rides the “choo choo,” although his patience for sitting still wears thin after about twenty minutes.

Our new church (St. Mary’s) is located in Old Town, and we’ve enjoyed strolling down to the waterfront after mass for brunch or coffee. With all the activity this summer, we haven’t had the chance to explore Old Town much, but we’re hoping to do some more sightseeing this fall.

Our New Home

Finally, some pictures of our new digs. It's just a rental, but we call it home.