Indoor Winter Activities

Since we're in the deep depths of winter - another all day snow storm today - we've been trying to find fun activities inside to keep Henry entertained with new things. The baby pool became a ball pit this Christmas, and we brought some of his outside toys inside like his crawling tube and riding toy. But, in search of new ideas, I made a sand tray and bowling for Henry.

I found some left over sand from an archeology activity with my 6th graders, and turned an old brownie pan into a sand tray. Henry explored the sand, but he doesn't love to get things on his hands, so he didn't really enjoy the sand sticking to his fingers. But, as always, he warmed up to it, and now asks to play with it almost every day.

Excited at the sand and bag!

Investigating the scooper

Bleck! Sand does not taste good!

We thought about building a sand box for Henry this summer, but since he didn't seem to love the texture of the sand tray, we're going to try out the beach and some friend's sand boxes first before committing. We'll see, he might grow into enjoying the sand more, after he realizes it's okay to have sand on your fingers, just don't eat it.

Henry loves to have a colored bathtub, so I combined two fun activities into one by filling water bottles and adding food coloring and letting him shake, shake, shake. He loves stirring and moving the water to mix the food coloring drops in the tub and in the bottle. We then turned the water bottles into bowling! I showed him how to knock the pins down with a ball, and he gets real close and throws/rolls the ball. He's still working on throwing skills, so this is a good game to encourage that. Until he figured out that it's more fun to just kick the bottles over!





Got any fun indoor games for us to play? I'm always looking for new ideas so please share! We've got to keep busy to distract us from the long winter until it warms up enough to play outside!

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Shooting Hoops with Henry

.....or at least watching some hoops with Henry....

We took Henry to the basketball game on Sunday. It was a fundraiser for Haiti so we felt good about giving our money to a good cause, even if we didn't last very long with a toddler in the stands. We sat down in the seats for about five seconds, the crowd cheered and Henry burst into tears. So I walked around with Henry for the rest of the first half trying to calm him down, which was only about 5 minutes by the time we got there after he woke up from a nap and we bought tickets (including more tears since mommy left the car which is super-sad). Not a great start to what we thought would be a fun outing. He calmed down and went to watch the half time show, which was dogs catching Frisbee. Which he loved. I applauded Gabe for choosing the game with dogs catching Frisbee at halftime. We watched the second half, which included more cheering and more nervous jumps, but no more tears. Henry warmed up to the band, the basketball, and even started to enjoy himself. Which none of the following pictures adequately portray. He clapped his hands to the band, and at one point, even started pumping his arm up and down like either the trombone players or the drum major. He did hold his lovey quite a bit and sucked his fingers, and spent lots of time looking around, taking in all the action. I bought him some ice cream at the concession stand, which made the rest of the game go better. I don't think we'll be watching too many more live basketball games this season. We will have to find some dogs catching Frisbees to watch though. Hmm, I'll have to get to work on that.....

Little sippy cup in the cup holder

Clapping with the band

Attempt at a family shot - poor Henry doesn't look too happy

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Lamaze Babies Growing Up

Over the past year and a half, we've met with the couples that we met in our Lamaze class quite a few times to get all the babies together to catch up. We really like everyone and the kids are fun - we see three of the couples and their kids from time to time. And we've had reunions frequently, at 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 months pretty regularly, which has been great. And surprising! At each reunion, different people have been able to make it, but it seems like the same few keep coming. We've taken photos of all the babies at each one, and while I don't have pictures of the whole group from each one, here's the progression of babies growing up:

Anna, Evi, Olivia, Henry (3 months)

Anna, Colt, Evi, Henry (12 months)Anna, Evi, Colt, Henry (18 months)

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Sledding

Last weekend, Gabe's boss invited everyone to his house for sledding, since they live on a golf course that backs up to a hole with quite a hill. It was the perfect place to try some sledding with Henry. A few days before, we found an infant sled at a sporting goods store. Since Henry loves being pulled in the wagon in the summer, we thought he'd really like being pulled in the sled, especially since he loves being outside, no matter the weather. So we tried it out in the back yard first before tackling the big slopes. The snow was still pretty deep, so we moved to the street, where more ice and thinner snow made for a more fun ride. Of course, our little dare devil liked being pulled real fast!

So FAST!!!

After sledding, Henry found a bucket in the garage, and decided to do some pulling of his own. So without any prompting, he picked up the handle, took off down the drive way, and headed into the street, pulling his own "sled." At least that's what we like to think he was doing! He just kept going and going and going....without looking back.
Until he was ready to head back home, so he turned around and went back to the garage. All done sledding, guys.
The next day, we tackled the big hills. We brought along Henry's little sled and sent him down a few very gentle slopes. The big hill was pretty fast and icy - I even cut my fingers on the snowy ice - so we found one with a little less grade and we went down with Henry on the sled. He enjoyed that much more; we're not sure if he felt more secure riding with a parent or if he could be a little more adventurous. Probably the latter.

Pushing Off

Sledding On Down

What cuties!

although Henry looks a little disgruntled, what a great shot of Gabe! :)

I've been out pulling Henry in the sled everyday, and he always follows his sledding with pulling his own bucket. Too funny! The snow has been melting everyday, so our original 2 feet was down to just 2 inches yesterday, which meant Henry could walk on his own without holding hands in the snow. But as we speak - or really as I type - it has rained all morning and the snow is all gone, leaving some pretty slushy grass. And the sun is even poking out every once and a while - for the first time in weeks!

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Oklahoma Field Trip #2

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well, writing my last post, plus reading three other blogs about babies that coincidentally and ironically mirrored some of my same feelings tonight, made me too sad. so I figured I'd better write about something more lighthearted....
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The Science Museum! We took Henry on a big boy adventure - lunch out with mom and dad, and a trip to the science museum - while we were in Oklahoma. Just for fun, but it felt like we were going on a special trip for some reason. Maybe since it was just the three of us. Or maybe because it seemed kind of like a reward-y thing to do. But it was a fun afternoon out.

look familiar?

We took this picture for our cousins, a dentist and a hygienist :)

Our boy LOVES fish. Can you kind of tell he's talking to the fish here? He is. Take my word for it.

So many Henrys! He had some troubles in the maze of mirrors, including walking smack dab into one of them. Didn't faze him, and cracked us up. We made it out safely, and he started to really get the hang of navigating the mirrors, with dad in front leading and mom encouraging from behind.

Tumbling Henry:

The obstacle course begins with the balance beam.....

continues with the tumbling mats.....
headstand to impress the judges.....
he sticks the landing......
a perfect 10!Our boy is obsessed with trains. He can hear them from our house, and says "choo-choo" ("da-dat!") and pumps his arm. He recognizes them when we cross the train tracks too. So when we found out the museum had a train exhibit, we knew it was the place for us. He ran as soon as he heard the whistle.

He watched them for quite awhile. Next up, the train exhibit at the science museum in Chicago, which is huge (couldn't find an overhead shot). Well, actually there's a New York Central Railroad Museum close by, so we'll probably tackle that first. And the New York Central Toys and Trains store in town. Yes, we have a train store in town!

Family picture to end the day

yup, that made me feel better :)

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Happy 17th Month Birthday

17 months??? 17 months!!!! It is hard to believe in so many ways. We're so proud of how far Henry has come in 17 months and it really seems like yesterday I was holding him for the first time. It's hard to imagine a time when my baby won't be a little baby. I looked at my him laying his head on the pillow next to mine tonight, and wished him to stay little forever. It breaks my heart to know he won't. We smiled, laughed, and he mashed his face into mine. Which is one of his favorite ways of showing affection. I love it, and can't get enough. I thought the same thing when I walked into the bathroom tonight while Gabe was giving Henry his bath, and Henry looked up with his bright and shining eyes and smile and curly long eyelashes and just squealed. I love him, and can't get enough of my baby.

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what little boys are made of!

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We built....

A FORT!!!!

Grandma's big round table made the perfect structure for a fort for a boy. We covered it with three blankets, and designed the fort with one big door, a back door, and a window. We lined the floor with comfy pillows, and had a great time giggling, crawling through, reading, and playing with stickers.

Outside view of the fort

Sticker book in the fort
Peek!

Actually, we're having a new dining room table delivered today too. I forgot to call Salvation Army until now, so we will have an extra table in our living room - and probably some more forts the rest of this week. Great for little boys on winter days!

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Jasmine Moran Children's Museum

It's been awhile. I've got quite a few posts saved up from break, so it's about time I start catching up.

Out in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma is the Jasmine Moran Children's Musem, a pretty cool place for being...out in the middle of nowhere. Tons of hands on activities of course, and we had a blast. I was really excited that we could share the experience as a family, since I often feel sad that Gabe misses out on many of these activities because of work. Darn that work. Stay home and play with us!

Standing in the bubble with mom

You'll notice that in the above picture, Henry's got his eye on something. That something is Uncle Andrew standing in another bubble. Pretty confusing to a little boy, who decided to go stand in the bubble with Uncle Andrew. And landed in the bubble tray, soaking his shoes, pants and sweater. So you'll notice quite a few outfit changes in the rest of the pictures :-)

Henry really loved the bubbles, and we loved watching him smile at them. They were probably his favorite room.

Ohhh, cool bubble dad.

Maybe I'll peer at it a little closer. (this is one of our favorite Henry "looks" - when he is sticking his chin out to peer at something)

Order in the Court!

Watching lots of little marbles roll all over, and learning kinetic energy in the process. No, my son is not in a baby gang, just a result of the aforementioned bubble incident.

The grocery store was also a lot of fun. Henry loves to put things in a container, and move things around, so this was just the right game. He filled his cart full, and handed all his groceries to the checkout girl. Actually, he really enjoys handing over the groceries from the cart in real life, too!

Such a big boy in this picture, climbing the stairs to the slide all by himself. He was able to sit himself down and slide down all by himself too. My baby is all growing up!

We're back home now, all unpacked and settling into our normal routines. I'm back at work, on my own now, the other school guidance counselor has left, first day today was pretty good though. Henry is sleeping better in his crib, but has had a little bit of a tummy ache the past few days. Hopefully tomorrow he'll be all back to normal. And Gabe is back to having reading days, which is nice for me and Henry because we get to see him for lunch and at little times throughout the day.

Happy 2010 - we're looking forward to our new year!

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