Someday we'll look back...

Well I sure am glad my new year's resolution this year wasn't to blog more often. I'd be very disappointed with myself. So, some of these pictures are from when Paul's family came out when Gray was first born, some are more recent. Enjoy!

When Gray was first born and the family was out, there was a lot of this that went on...

and some of this...

(gosh, she is beautiful!!)

and a WHOLE lot of this!

When Gray was 8 days old we went to Loyola's New Year's Carnival. It was our first outing as a family: super fun!

Mom Miller brought out the makings for apple pie when she came. The apples were bigger than Gray's head!

We visited the beach.

And there was some of this that went on too.

You've got to take a "first bath" shot! Don't worry, they're better now. He actually loves his bath now. My goodness, he was little!

OK! Skipping ahead about 2 months... :)
These are the kids (crazy that I have KIDS!!) playing on the baby playmat. Obviously it still entertains a 2 1/2 year old.

We're enjoying Chicago's fall as much as possible.

This picture is specifically for Jillian. Yes, one morning as we were getting ready the best place to put Gray was actually ON Moses' dog bed. :)

I finally finished Ilana's cardboard kitchen. She LOVES it and is constantly "making" us meals.

For Halloween Ilana and our neighbor (her best friend) went trick or treating. Her friend was Curious George and Ilana was a princess. We made her take the frog too. Thanks for the costume, Nonni!

An action shot:

We met up with another couple neighbors and all walked around together. One of our neighbors dressed up their 8-month old son as a lobster, it was hilariously adorable! Watch out! He's on the move!

This was the first year that Ilana really started to understand what Halloween is all about (at least the candy part). We went out when it was light and stayed in once it got dark to pass out candy. Our sweet princess even seemed to enjoy that part of the night, too. I think she had a pretty good time.

A lot of people say "someday you'll look back and smile." Well, I've made it my goal to smile as often as I can during these days. They are trying, exhausting, inefficient, mess-filled, long days, but every once in awhile there are big big smiles and we love those moments!!
Like when Ilana puts on Paul's glasses...

or when Gray is happy about being able to pick up his heavy head...

or just generally happy...

or when Ilana decides to put on her sunglasses to help her watch morning cartoons.

Here's to more smiles!
-H

6 weeks!!!!

I canNOT believe it's been 6 weeks since Grayson was born. He is a "rock star" (according to our family doctor). He's already 13 pounds ... yes, 13. He is quite a CHUNK!! Here are some pictures of these past 6 weeks.

This was emailed to me the morning that Gray was born. When our neighbor was there to take care of Ilana and asked her if she was excited to have a baby brother, this was Ilana's response: "YEAH!"

A couple days later she had her first sleepover. This was taken that night during dress up.

Nursing has gone really well. Gray's gone from this...

to this in just a couple weeks!

Gray...in a moment of inspiration. :)

Gray: "So...this is kind of ok, but if we stop for ice cream on the way home I'd really be ok with this." (This was Gray when he was 5 days old, on his way to the Dr's office.)

Gray was a bit upset until Ilana held his hand.

He's getting pretty used to being worn in the Connecta Carrier.

He's chunking up!

Gray: "So, you guys are...?" hahaha! He just makes me laugh sometimes. :)

Here he is at 6 weeks...in a 3-6 month sleeper!!!

Yes, Ilana is doing great!

We LOVE our double stroller...

...and all the baby smiles we get.

Gotta go feed my little man!
-H

Grayson Henry

Grayson Henry (we finally have a name!) was born early Friday morning, August 27, 2010 - 3:37 a.m. to be exact. It was a fast and furious labor, but we are so thankful for the experience. We were in our room for a total of 22 minutes before he was out - yowsah! I'm glad we left the house when we did. He is about 12 days early, but weighing in at 8 pounds 11 ounces, we're glad he didn't wait any longer. We were so ready to see him and we couldn't feel more blessed to have him out and in our family now. Our family doctor has done a good "once over" on him and says he's perfect. My nurse mid-wife said that everything looks great and was encouraged when she interrupted my shower last night. Here are some pictures of our little guy.
Moments after birth:

Baby Gray got Ilana some Play-Doh. Despite the picture, she was very excited. How thoughtful of Gray. :)

Daddy enjoying some Daddy-son time.

He was 20.5" at birth. Here he is stretching out.

I already love his button chin!

Falling in love...again.

AWESOME Dad of TWO!! Mommy loves having these guys visit. :)

It's been a great few days!
-H

Ian's Pizza

One night, about a week after our Taste of Chicago experience, we decided to go out for pizza - we are in Chicago after all. We looked on yelp.com for a good recommendation and landed on Ian's Pizza close to Wrigley Field. This did require another El ride, but it was to a much different part of town in Wrigleyville. There wasn't a game that night, so we figured the streets wouldn't be too crowded, plus we were heading out nice and early to give us plenty of time (we had learned a few things the week prior).

From what we could read online their "Mac & Cheese" pizza came highly recommended - what?! Well, we knew we'd be able to find something for Ilana to eat. :) What we found was that all of Ian's pizzas are some sort of meal in and of themselves, put onto a pizza.

Paul had veggie and meat somethings, we (of course) got the mac & cheese pizza for Ilana and I had the chicken alfredo...pizza. They were AMAZING!!

But...most amazing of all was our dessert pizza. As we were ordering, we asked the guy serving us for his recommendations. He mentioned their s'mores dessert pizza. He said that if we wanted a slice we'd have to let him know then because they'd have to make it up. Of course we obliged.

 IT WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! I told Paul I might just have to send him all the way down to Wrigleyville to get it as a special treat once in a while. (My mouth still waters when I see this picture.)

We walked around for a short bit, got conveniently stuck under some scaffolding while a short evening storm rolled through, saw Wrigley Field, then headed back home. It was so enjoyable and gave us confidence that we could schlep all of us onto the El downtown every once in a while ... just never to Taste of Chicago again.
-H

Our little climber

Well, Ilana has made Paul's life and become quite a climber since we've been here. I guess I never let her explore much at Baylor because the stairwell was so dirty and we had no real reason or opportunity to practice safe climbing. Well, they do have dirt in the mid-west, but at least it's not shared dirt with 200 other guys, it's just outside dirt or our dirt...somehow that makes it all ok. So, that in combination with the fact that I simply don't have the energy to pick her up very often has resulted in Ilana becoming much more brave and actually climbing. It's very exciting for me. Here are some pictures of our recent climbing adventures.

The next 3 are taken at the park that's 3 houses down the street from us. We'll probably live there most of the fall, after this little guy comes along. She LOVES it! Ilana was so proud of herself for climbing up the 2 steps to get to this landing (hey, we've gotta start somewhere!).

After she braved the small toddler structure, she decided to try her hand on the "big kids" structure. She climbed all the way up the steps, but wasn't quite brave enough to slide down this slide...

or the other one. Hey, I did say she was becoming a climber, not a slider, right?

She's continued her climbing adventures inside. She's found a safe way to get into and out of the living room rocking chair.

We encouraged the climbing by getting her a step stool for the kitchen. We also want to start incorporating her into as much cooking and kitchen help that we can get. Of course, I turned around one day and found her even putting on my gloves - she's going to be a great helper one of these days!!

Just tonight she climbed up into one of the plastic lawn chairs in the back yard - Paul was even impressed with her technique. Recently she's also started climbing into and out of the bathtub all by herself. All in all, we're really proud of our little climber. She's still one of the most cautious toddlers that I know, which puts my mind at ease. So, I tend to just let her go and try. She hasn't had too many bumps, bruises or scrapes to discourage her yet.

-H