Be my Valentine (and please call my mom!)- Week 26

Phil, Lindsay, and Noah Howes with Henry

This week included Valentine's Day, so the Siffords were kind enough to offer to watch Henry on Friday night while we went out to a movie. This was our first time going on a date on a night in which we were both working during the day. I never realized how extremely difficult it would be to leave work at 5 and make a 7:10 movie! By the time we got him from daycare, got home, got ready (which as most of you know is about 45 min - 3hrs. for Laura :) ), fed Henry and packed his stuff up, and got him to the Siffords house, it was already 6:45 and we hadn't even gotten to eat yet! Luckily, Reggie threw together some PB&Js right before we headed out the door to tide us over (insert your own "Reggie is cheap" joke here). Afterward, while sitting at Cafe Trio for an appetizer and drink, we get "the call" from April; Henry had projectile vomited 'Exorcist style' twice, on her, Dave, and the couch. Though we all felt bad for the little guy, it apparently didn't phase him one bit considering her would just smile real big right after doing it!

We had Henry sleep with us in the bed on Friday night for fear he would potentially get sick and choke, but he did fine. On Saturday, Laura took him to lunch with Aunt Jen at Thomas, where Henry decided to have a repeat performance on Laura's shoe before they could even order! Laura and Jen called over for a mop/Hazmat team and headed back home. He never got sick again, though you could tell he didn't feel well. Henry then turned "outbreak monkey" on us and got everyone he came into contact with sick - Mom and Dad, Dave and April Sifford, Jen, Sara, Aunt Allison.

Before Aunt Jen caught the virus

Saturday and Sunday nights were absolutely horrible for us. Henry would wake about every hour and a half and be very fussy, most likely because he didn't feel well. This was compounded with Reggie feeling sick, so Laura had to take most all of the bullets on Sunday night. Don't worry - Reggie returned the favor mid-week when Laura was sick!

Developmentally, Henry is really starting to talk a lot. He is constantly babbling sounds. We try to encourage this by talking back to him in between babbles. He looks like he thinks he may be having conversations with us. Also this week, we had our first try with real food! Henry ate some oats blended with milk on Thursday. He did really well with them, though it was a 5/95% split of food in his mouth vs. on his mouth! We tried oats again on Tuesday, but that was an utter train wreck, most likely because of him not feeling well.

Wait until you change this diaper, mom!

Now sitting forward in the stroller!

New culinary delight coming - Week 25

Emily Hyde, Carie and Riley Pintado, and Henry

The week got off to an apocalyptic start with a blizzard in KC dumping about a foot of snow on us in less than 24hrs. On Wed. morning, Reggie spent a little over three hours shoveling the drive, steps, and sidewalks (and pushing his neighbors car out of the snow!). At the top of the drive there were 2-3ft. drifts! As discussed last week, Henry loved the jumper that the Knoblauch's had across the street. Thanks to their generosity, Laura went over on Wed. and grabbed it from them for Henry to use these next couple of months. Henry jumped all day until he was absolutely exhausted....and then he jumped some more :) What the 'snowpacalypse also meant for Henry was that he wasn't going to go to daycare at all this week. Laura stayed and worked from home on Wed, and her parents were in town to watch him on Friday.

This is both the deck, and the ground!

As with most visits from the grandparents, Henry was showered with lots of gifts and love. This time, for Valentine's Day, he got a number of new outfits and pajamas. This is good, b/c we are a little short on the 6-9 month clothing! They also offered to watch him on Friday night so that we could go out do dinner. We accepted that offer immediately, and headed out the door to Cafe Europa for dinner, and Aixois for dessert (Editorial note - Do not go to Aixois for dessert).

On Saturday, we all loaded up and went to Columbia for Henry's first Mizzou basketball game. Our seats weren't great, but Henry didn't seem to mind. He was absolutely enthralled with everything going on (or at least how many lights there were). I also caught him shooting some 'come hither' looks towards several of the Golden Girls! He was wide awake, squeaking and smiling all the way until the 4 minute mark in the second half, at which time he fell off the wagon and passed out. Reggie was holding him at the time, and it was the first time he has ever just slowly drifted off to sleep facing forward. Once out, there was no waking him up.

Why did Dad get such crappy seats?

After a long day of fun, this boy is done for the day!

On Sunday, we went over to our friends Carie and Jonathan's home for a small Super Bowl party. It was definitely a different type of party than we have historically attended. Everyone had a kid! :) I guess that comes with the territory of getting older. Henry had a great time, and made a new friend named Carter, who is 3yrs. old. There was a semi-newborn baby there who was about a month old. Even though we keep this blog, it is still shocking how much Henry has grown when I looked at the size of Brice (the baby boy)!

Developmentally, we had to take Henry to the doctor on Thursday to get the cold he has had for over a week checked out. As part of that, Laura weighed him, and he is now tipping the scales at 15lbs, 15 ounces (with clothes on). Also, Dr. Natasha was very impressed with his ability to sit without any assistance. She has officially green-lighted Henry to start eating blended oats and milk!

Bellying up at Quinton's

Casanova - Week 24

Henry and his 'to be named later' friend; "Hey, Sifford, get out of there so we can play! Plus, it is hot in there. Trust me, I know!"

Henry has been dealing with some congestion issues/cold for the last week, and it causes him to cough and sneeze, which disrupts his sleep in the crib. We have found that he sleeps much better in the swing and when being held at a bit of an angle. On Monday night, Reggie was sitting on the couch holding the little guy while he slept. When he got up to change Henry, he all of a sudden felt something. Henry must have sweat on his belly, he thought. Upon further investigation, he realize that actually, Henry had peed through his outfit on good ol' Dad!  Just chalk up another victim to Henry's pee hitlist.

Henry apparently has a girlfriend at daycare named Emma. On Friday when Laura dropped him off at daycare, the teacher told her that Henry had a girlfriend. Laura immediately blew it off, but then noticed that he looked over at Emma and smiled real big. Then, when she picked him up at the end of the day, she was informed that apparently during the day Henry decided to lean over on Emma and kiss/slobber on her cheek. Looks like the Bogarts had a little Casonova in the family! You probably aren't all that surprised, given how smooth Reggie has always been with the ladies :) Emma's dad was upset by the development, to which Laura told him, "Don't hate the playa', hate the game!"

You can't resist these looks!

On Tuesday, the 2011 Kansas City "Snowpacolypse" hit, dumping about a foot of snow on the area. That night, we decided to all bundle up and walk across the street to the Knoblauch's to hang out and have a few drinks. At their house, we put Henry in Dolan's jumper to see what he thought of it (we were considering buying one for him). Henry absolutely loved it!!! Dolan had just outgrown it, and they were getting ready to store it in their basement, so they are letting us borrow it until they need it. What great friends!!! It is funny to watch him, because Henry will only jump off his right leg currently. And boy will he jump. He will go forever until he reaches the "crashing" point whereby he melts down on us.

Henry and Dolan enduring the snowpocalypse

Developmentally, Henry is starting to show signs of wanting to crawl. When he rolls onto his belly, he will now start to move his arms and legs in a sort-of crawling/swimming motion. Also, he no longer gets upset flipping onto his belly. In fact, he now prefers it, especially when he is playing with his light-up ball. Henry continues to progress on his sitting abilities. He can now sit on his own for around a minute, unless he is excited - then he falls over quickly! We finally decided to go online and order some 'overnight' diapers to try and cut down on the number of times he wakes up just to have his diaper changed. So far, it seems to be working well (thank you Elizabeth Mills!!). He now only wakes up 1-2 times/night (once to eat around 1-2am, and once around 5:30 for a diaper change).

Baby Rambo

Oh geez, I hope I don't get Aunt Jenni's bird flu!

Ready for a new reality - Week 23



Paul, Eileen, and Dolan Knoblauch, with Henry

Week 23 was our little guy's first "full" week of daycare. I use the quotation marks because for the next four weeks, Laura is only working M/W/Fr. Reggie handles all drop off duties, while Laura picks him up each day. One of Henry's "teachers," Elaine, must think Reggie is a pretty cold hearted parent. Each day during the week Elaine would ask how mom was doing. He would say she was tearing up a bit but doing ok. She would then ask how dad was doing, to which Reggie would just brush it off with a "Oh, it's fine. This is no big deal." I'm sure Elaine was taken aback a bit based on her resulting look.

The 2033 starting 1B for the KC Royals!!!!

Reggie has hit his busiest time of the year for work, so he has been getting home closer to 7pm recently. This is difficult for him, since generally Henry is in bed by 8, and cranky by 7:30. On the days she works, it is especially hard for Laura to not get to see Henry until around 5pm, and to then only have about 3hrs. with him before it is bedtime. It's hard to believe that  on the days Henry is in daycare that his teachers/babysitters spend more waking hours with him than his own parents.

The Knoblauchs came over on Saturday night for a few drinks. It is really cute to see Dolan interact with Henry. He is such a loving boy, so he really likes to go right up to the other baby and hang. In fact, one day at daycare, Henry was crying because he was ready to eat. Dolan crawled over to him and put his head on Henry's chest to comfort him. They live across the street from us, so it was a good chance to see how far our baby monitor's signal reached. Sure enough, when Paul went back home to put Dolan to bed, you could hear him crystal clear as he started reading him a book (Note - Paul turned off the transmitter very shortly afterward, most likely because the book, Cat in the Hat, was a bit above his reading level! :) ).

Developmentally, there have been some things worth discussing. First off, Henry started to be able to sit up on his own! It is only for a few seconds, but still it is awesome! Also, we have been working with both Bella and Henry for a few weeks to get each one comfortable with another. It seems to finally be paying off, as Bella is more and more inclined to sit still or lick Henry while he pets/grabs her. We have also found that sitting on top of Reggie's shoulders is quickly becoming one of Henry's very favorite things to do. It even calms him down when he is fussy most times. Finally, we have apparently reached the point at which the noisy hum of a bustling restaurant no longer will put Henry to sleep. Rather, the noise functions to keep him awake, and make him fussy. We had to learn this the hard way this week!

"Oh God, get him away from me. He keeps pulling out my extensions!"- Bella

Sitting up briefly started this week!

There's nothing wrong with two buddies holding hands!

Laura's earning money again! (Week 22)

Ashley, Ryan, & Reece Lorei with Henry

As discussed briefly in last week's blog, Henry began daycare on Wednesday this week. This was our trial day, and therefore he was only there for a half day before Laura came to pick him up at noon. The "teachers" took various pictures of what Henry did during his time there and made somewhat of a collage for Laura, which made her feel better. Thanks to our wonderful sisters, Henry didn't have to go back the rest of the week. Jen took off Thursday, and Allison took off on Friday to watch the little guy.

Boy do I LOVE (HATE)  the Cardinals!!

30 seconds before mom cried uncontrollably!

Thursday was Laura's first day back to work. It was a bit of a rough morning, complete with a few tears being shed as she said goodbye to her guys. Luckily, her friend Jenny met her immediately upon showing up to do coffee and then to walk her to her new seating area (for those who don't know, Hallmark is a bit like a huge game of musical chairs, whereby they move your specified seating area/work area about once/month it feels like!). Laura didn't have to go too long without seeing Henry as Aunt Jen brought him up for lunch at the Hallmark cafe.  Henry dined with some of Laura's favorite Hallmarkers; Jerrod, Katie, and Emily (at that time still in the running for Henry's number one lady).  According to Laura the anticipation of going back to work was way worse than actually going back.  She definitely missed our little man but enjoyed her $2.50 latte (much to Reggie's dismay, the days of making coffee at home may be over), getting dressed up, and not getting slobbered on all day.  

Bath Time: Rated PG-13 for all you kids out there

Friday night was a guys night since Laura went to happy hour with Elizabeth and Sara to celebrate making it through her first week of work. On Saturday, Reggie was put to work to replace a ceiling fan and the kitchen faucet. Henry was really cute when Reggie was working on the bedroom ceiling fan. Regardless of whether Laura would hold him, or if he was in his exersaucer, he would contort his body to be able to stare at Reggie, and he would just smile as big as he could! Most likely he was laughing because of how long it took Reggie to do each task (he had to go to the hardware store three separate times!).

On Monday, Laura went with her friend April to register for her upcoming baby shower. It is funny how different 6 months makes. Six months ago, Laura knew next to nothing about what a mother would need for a baby, and now she is an expert in my book! Henry was along with them, and this blue hippo caught his eye. Before you knew it, he had it in his mouth, slobbering all over it. Ol' Godmother April bought it for him as a thank you for coming along to register. He played the part of guinea pig for the trip, as April tried out everything on Henry to decide if her baby would like or dislike what she registered for!

Daycare looms.......... (Week 21)

Adam, Christa, and Henry

This week brought with it the Henry's impending attendance at daycare. As you might imagine, the Bogart household was not a calm one throughout the week! I'm not going to tell you that Laura cried a lot during the week (but she did). His first day was to be Tuesday, but Laura took advantage of a big snow on Monday to excuse him from attendance! Upon Reggie saying it was up to her, it took all of about 0.00005 seconds for her to say, "He will stay home then!." Laura and Jen took the day as an opportunity to break out the exersaucer that we received as a shower gift. He absolutely loves sitting in it. I would imagine it is because there are lots of things for him to slobber all over. He did make it to daycare on Wed. Here are some pics of his daycare, exersaucer, and Jerrod, who came to visit during the week as well.

What do I love more, my exersaucer or my hand????

Henry loves Jerrod's beard. Probably b/c his dad can't grow one!

On Sunday, Reggie had received Chiefs playoff tickets from his work, so he and Laura went to the game while Aunt Jen and Henry's NEWLY CROWNED girlfriend Sara babysat at the house and watched movies. Forgetting the fact that the game got out of hand, it was really fun for the two of us to be able to get away for a few hours.

Developmentally, Henry is sleeping much better now, but has started flipping onto his stomach to sleep for some reason. This makes us a bit uneasy based upon what we have heard about how your baby is supposed to sleep on its back, but there is no stopping this kid! Also, he has developed a great need for us to hold his hand as he goes to sleep. It definitely warms your heart when he does that. Also, we found out that 1) you can scare a baby, and 2) babies don't like to be scared! While Laura was holding Henry, Jen jumped out from around a wall, which immediately frightened him and led to some substantial crying! Upon arriving home from work, Reggie kicked Jen out of the house :) Finally, he is getting good at grabbing things and bringing them to him (to be placed in his mouth). He will even bend over if he needs to to be able to reach something.

Our kids. Love that he was putting his arm around Bella!

Happy New Year! - Week 20

The Jerrys - Stef, Tim, and Ella

The week between Christmas and New Years is always great, because work isn't too difficult (if you even have to go) and you have a chance to get some random things accomplished. This was certainly true for the Bogart clan. Reggie took off on Wednesday from work. No, not to lick the wounds of yet another installment of "Mizzou Disappointment Theater," but so that we could make a Will. We went up to Liberty to meet Reggie's friend Joe Gagnon to get it set up, followed by dinner with his family. You know, making a Will makes you realize a few things, such as "I must be getting old to make one of these" and "sorry Henry your inheritance isn't larger, but mom really needed those leggings" :)  Anyways, it was pretty painless, and was great to see Joe and his family. Their oldest son, Max, is apparently a Star Wars expert. He kept asking Reggie throughout the dinner if he knew who various characters were!

Happy New Year!

Elizabeth and our guy

This was definitely the most chill New Year's Eve we have experienced. We went over to Laura's friend Elizabeth's home at 4:30 for a very kid-friendly celebration. Everyone in attendance had a child under the age of 5 I think. Around 7, we went over to Dave and April Sifford's home for a nice dinner, dominoes, and football. Henry could only make it until around 10, at which point we put him down on a bed upstairs. Overall, it was as fun as any other year when we have gone out on the town! We even stayed out until 1:30am!

"Godmother April's belly is getting bigger!"

Mac, Henry, and Ned at Elizabeth's

The next morning, as you might expect was slow going. Laura's cousin Kristy was to come over for breakfast. on NYE, Laura had texted her to just call once she was up and going since we would be up so much earlier. NOT! Thanks to some very good sleeping by our little guy, we didn't get out of bed until about 11:15. And guess what, Kristy had already called us twice! So we rushed around and did "breakfast" at noon. Kristy is an avid cook and photographer, so Laura and Jen got lots of tips on both subjects during her visit. Laura even ended up making her guacamole later that night (which was great)! Her and Henry really got along great, and I'm sure it made Aunt Colleen (her mom) very jealous.

Kristy and Henry

After a night of partying, a guy needs a coffee!

That night, our friends Adam and Christa came over for dinner and drinks. It was a short night considering how late we were up, and how late they were up on NYE (4am). We hadn't been able to hang out with them for a little over a month, so it was great to be able to catch up! Unfortunately for them, Henry was tuckered out from all the partying as well, and spent most of the night sleeping! 

Christa and Henry

Maybe he will be a race car driver. Get 'er done!

Developmentally, Week 20 can also be dubbed as 'Great Switch' week, since we are officially trying to switch Henry over to formula bottles. We are doing this now for a number of reasons 1) We want to fully transition him to formula by 6 months, 2) It won't be very feasible to make enough real stuff once Laura is back to work, and 3) Nursing is getting old! Also this week, Henry has really mastered the art of rolling over from front to back, and vice-versa. Therefore, we are no longer using the winged sleep sacks for him when he goes to bed. This has caused a small hiccup in his overnight sleeping, in that he has been waking up more frequently (we assume he flails his arms and hits himself, which wakes him up). It is also funny to watch his progression in and around the crib once he is down. For whatever reason, that boy loves to make his way over to a bumper during the night! We think it is because he loves to feel the felt on the tree on the bumper, but who knows. Additionally, he will essentially make a circle around the crib during the night, both in spinning himself around and in getting over to every bumper!

Henry and Bella are getting along better each week. We have continued to try and get him to pet her almost every day. At first Bella wanted nothing to do with that game. She would just lick him and then back away. She is now letting him touch/grab her some and will sit there and lick his hand or face.

He does this a lot now. He likes to try and chew on his feet!

Sarah, Ben, and Ned Wilson

Dave practicing for his own in April