Trunk or Treat!

Elvis and I took our little monkey to his first trunk or treat last night.  As a side note, I apparently live under a rock, as I'd never heard of such a thing.  Anyway, it was in the parking lot at my parents' church, and we'd been looking forward to it for weeks.  There was all sorts of fun set up before the trick-or-treating began, like a photo booth, crafts, a cake walk, and more, and we had a great time walking around, seeing friends and playing games.  For me, the best part was all the costumes.  Living in a college town, I'd almost forgotten that Halloween is supposed to be for kiddos (not cleavage), so I was absolutely delighted by all the mermaids, robots, cowboys, and bumblebees.  Adorable.
When the time came for trick or treating to begin, Elvis & I took Henry around from car to car while my parents stayed at the trunk to give out candy.  I was so proud of my little guy all night.  He loved holding out his "puckin," saying the magic words, and then seeing the candy plop in.  And he said thank you every single time, without us even having to prompt him.  Frankly, he had better manners than most of the parents, some of whom were not above cutting in line or pushing (come on, we're here for the kids.  It's not a competition).  And, best of all, he had a great time in his adorable Halloween costume.  Now we just have 3 more days til the big show, and none too soon: the pants of Henry's monkey costume are already about an inch too short!

My simian sweetheart

I Should've Known ...

I was just thinking to myself last week that it's miraculous how healthy Henry has  been.  We had a cold front roll in over the weekend, and the high winds that always send Elvis and me running for the Kleenex didn't even faze him. Elvis came home sick yesterday around noon, and even then I was thinking how lucky we are that Henry seems to have such a strong constitution.  He played and squirmed as usual, and went down for his nap without a fuss (also as usual).  After naptime, it took him about half an hour to wake up and join the world which was kind of unusual.  Most days, he's wide awake as soon as his big brown eyes pop open, although there is the occasional day when he takes 5 minutes or so.  Even after he dragged himself out to the living room, he kept yawning and trying to curl up for another nap.  It was sort of weird, but then Elvis gave the little monkey a hug and noticed he was burning up.  Sure enough, he had a fever of about 101, but what really scared me was his listlessness.  The light that usually animates his sweet face was gone, and all he wanted to do was sleep.  We hightailed it to our local Target to pick up some medicine, and were almost home when it happened: That face, and that awful noise.  I put my hand up to his mouth just in time to catch the first round of what would turn out to be everything my sweetheart had eaten that morning, and more.  Thankfully, Elvis had a big empty plastic cup on the floorboard, so when my hand overflowed, I was able to catch the rest with the cup.  It was pretty unpleasant for the rest of the (thankfully short!) ride home, but Henry clearly felt better.  He smiled a little bit, and got right to playing when we got home.  He's still running a slight fever, but he's eaten reasonable meals since then, and none of it has come back up, thank Heaven.  And his mini stomach bug must have been super-exhausting, because he slept almost twelve hours last night!
Thank goodness he's feeling better, cause guess who woke up feeling nasty this morning?  Yay, Mama's turn ...

Mama's new room

 

Elvis and I have lived in our apartment for nearly 5 years now. It's a great place in a small, quiet complex near all the neccessary amenities in town. It was almost too big when it was just the 2 of us, but when Henry was born the walls started to close in. The two most cramped places in our house are the kitchen (plenty of counter space, not nearly enough storage space) and the laundry room (I say "room" out of habit). Elvis and I have worked together to make the kitchen a functioning space for two people who enjoy cooking, but the laundry closet has been the bane of my existence, and not just because I hated doing laundry.  It's located in a hallway, so it's always dark.  It only had one small shelf, and the vast majority of the space is taken up by our water heater.

 

All that has changed now, though. I found a spare pare of brackets in our room yesterday while I was doing some cleaning, and Elvis helped me put up a shelf in my little closet. With the addition of a lamp (so I can actually see what on earth I'm doing in there), a few hangers for drying and a cheerful painting by my best friend Kellie, it's actually a place I don't mind spending time now. In fact, I did a load of laundry today (even though it's not laundry day) just to be able to see my little room. I know it's nerdy, but it makes me so happy to have an organized, mostly uncluttered  place. Hooray!

I wish I had a "Before" picture so you could see the difference.

"Sweet beans, Mama."

It broke my heart to stop breastfeeding Henry, for the sole reason that it meant no longer being able to hold him in my arms as he fell asleep. That was my favorite thing in the world for 12 whole months: nourishing my beloved son and comforting him to sleep with my love and my off-key singing. But I still had the sweet moments before settling him into his crib (and, later, toddler bed) complete with a bedtime story and a lullaby, prayers, and kisses rained between whispered wishes for sweet dreams (or "beans" as he says). Elvis began to complain that my tuck-ins took longer than any tuck-in in the history of loving mamas. And I am so glad I never hurried, because now even those days are gone.

Henry is still very loving and affectionate (especially at bedtime), but now he scampers his little buns right into bed to await his bedtime story and smooches. I'm so proud of the boy he's becoming, and obviously the part of me that wants to raise a healthy self-sufficient man knows this is totally right. But that doesn't stop the part of me for whom Henry will always be my precious baby from crying like an idiot after closing his bedroom door each night.