Henry At 9 Weeks

(Mother of the year award... I accidentally put Henry in the same sweater for his 8 week and his 9 week photos. Awesome. Different pants, though!)

Hands

Henry recently discovered his hands and he can't keep them out of his mouth. He chomps & sucks noisily on them, even when he's just eaten and I know he's not hungry. I'm thinking he might find his thumb one of these days and go to town!

Thanksgiving Point

A few weeks ago we ventured to Thanksgiving Point with chris's cousins Melanie & Heidi & their kiddos for a playdate. We had a great time at the farm seeing the animals, riding ponies and decorating cowboy bandanas. We finished the day off with lunch at their deli (yum!). What a fun day!

Henry At 8 Weeks

Burping Our Babies

Burping our babies together.

First Smiles

Henry At 7 Weeks

My gosh, where does the time go? I'm getting behind on my blogging because I rarely make it down to the real computer in the basement these days, I just end up checking email & facebook on the ipad and call it a day! So we're catching up here.

I can't believe Henry is 7 weeks old. We took a trip to St. George last week with some friends and I was a little worried about the travel & the change in surroundings & sleeping with a newborn, but Henry was a gem! We should go on vacation more often! (Wink wink -- that's for you, Chris!)

Henry is about 10.5 pounds right now -- a super chunk compared to our little peanut Emme. We started wearing 3-6 month clothing at 4 weeks old. Needless to say, he's going to throw off my buy-a-season-ahead shopping philosophy big time. He's happy and content, and sleeps for a 6 hour stretch every night, followed by a 3-4 hour stretch. And one night this week he slept for 8! So we're hoping that happens more often.

He found his hands in the last little while, and he'll suck on them noisily while he's hanging out with us.

Henry is more alert these days, and he'll make eye contact with you and smile back at you when you talk sweetly to him. It's the sweetest thing and it melts my heart every time. I want to eat up every moment with him.

A few weeks ago when Emme and Henry were being watched by Grandma & Grandpa Spencer, Henry was starting to get hungry so Emme announced that she was going to feed him with her "boob-boobs." She walked over to him, unzipped her jammies and threw them wide open to do the job! Grandma Spencer had to stifle her laugh and kindly explain that Emme's "boob-boobs" don't work quite the way mom's do.

Emme loves to share everything with Henry these days. Today we shared our princess bracelet with him.
And we couldn't leave out the monkeys, once again.

Emme continues to be a sweet little helper. She has a step-stool that has taken up permanent residence in Henry's bedroom. If I move it, she scolds me and puts it back in his room. She uses it to stand on while I change Henry's diaper, feed him in the chair or while he's in his crib so she can see him all the while.

She has given Henry many nicknames. Here are the latest few:

• Boo-boo
• Bubba
• Little Buddy
• Baby Brother
• Hank
• Hank The Tank (this one was given by Dad)

As happy and content as this boy is, he also loves to be held. He's a snuggly, cuddly infant (Emme was not cuddly until toddlerdom). He'll fall right asleep in the front carrier, in your arms or flat on Chris's chest. A few weeks ago we went to my little brother Stuart's state tournament high school basketball games at the E-center, and Henry slept right through each one strapped to my chest in the Ergo. I couldn't believe he could sleep through all that noise! What a sweet heart.

We love this little boy to pieces! It's so hard to remember what life was like before he was here. It feels so complete and perfect with him!

Allergic

We've been using Huggies diapers on Henry since birth. They are what the hospital used, and that's what I happened to have in small sizes stashed in my diaper closet in the basement.

A few weeks after he was born, Henry started getting horrendous diaper rash. He goes #2 about every hour in small quantities (as opposed to Emme who went 2 or 3 times a day in HUGE quantities that always blew out). As a result, his poor little bum was getting burned from having "mess" on it so often, and from being wiped so often.

When diaper creams didn't seem to clear it up fast enough, we resorted to filling the sink with warm water and dunking his bum in it to wash it off, rather than using wipes. He seemed to quite enjoy it, and he would just hang out and lounge their while you did your thing. It was pretty cute.


Last week I opened a pack of Pampers and took them with us to St. George on a little trip. To my surprise, we discovered that the Huggies have been aggravating Henry's poor little bum! He didn't have diaper rash once while we were in St. George -- I didn't even have to use butt paste on him.

So we've come to the conclusion that Henry has inherited Chris's sensitive skin and is allergic to Huggies! I'm going to have to sell my huge closet full of Huggies to replace them with Pampers. So if anyone is interested in some Huggies at a steep discount, let me know!

Henry's Blessing via Hannah

I just found these and realized I forgot to scan them. Hannah wrote me a letter about the day Henry was blessed (just like she did for Emme). What a sweet heart!

Henry's Blessing

We blessed Henry on March 4th, 2012. It was a beautiful day and Chris gave Henry a beautiful blessing. It was so wonderful to have all of our friends & family in attendance. Afterwards we had some yummy food & visiting at our house. It was a wonderful day to celebrate Henry!

Henry was blessed in a sweet little Norwegian hand-knit outfit that all of the boy cousins on my side of the family have been blessed in. Such a fun tradition!


The only bummer of the day was that we found out two days later that Emme had Hand Foot & Mouth Disease that day! (Thank goodness we didn't send her to nursery...) You can see it in her cheeks in these pictures, right after she woke up from her nap. Out of the 10+ kids who were at our house on Sunday, she has only passed it along to one of them so far. (So sorry, Cambree!) Yikes. And, she's passed it along to Chris...but that's a story for another day. No idea where it came from, but we'll be super glad to be rid of it soon!

{Three Generations of Spencers: Stanley George Spencer, Christopher George Spencer and Henry George Spencer}

{Our cute little family, with sick little Emme}

Have I mentioned how much this boy loves his swing? This boy LOVES his swing. In between being held by many hands this day, he got a little swing time in, while Emme watched over him. He'll swing and swing and swing and stare at the lights & fish, and when the music stops he'll squawk for a minute until you turn the music back on, and then he'll swing and swing and swing some more. It's adorable.

{Grandpa Spencer}

{Stub}

{The Snarrs, Baths & Whitneys. We love you guys!}

{Patrick & Charity}

{Grandfather Pace & Sharon with Emme}

{The Wadenator}

{The newlyweds, fresh off the honeymoon}

Thank you to everyone who came to help us celebrate Henry. We are so grateful to have you all close and we love sharing our lives with you!

Henry At 6 Weeks

Sharing

Whenever Henry starts to cry, Emme is the ultimate big sister. First she runs over to him and kisses his head. If that doesn't stop the crying, then she puts the binky in his mouth (sometimes upside down...we're still working on that). If that doesn't work, she starts bringing him toys & stuffed animals. You know, the things that make her happy.

On this day, she shared her McDonalds toy with him, and also the letter that goes to her Elmo Mailbox Shapesorter (which she calls a Valentine. "Here mom, I got you a valentine!"). Such a sweet big sister!