Family Photos

We had some traditional family photos taken at Target a couple of weeks ago. We are particularly happy with the ones of Henny.

The Norovirus - or how to lose 6 pounds in two days

Well, just as the stomach virus struck the Griggs family so too did it strike ours. Poor Henry woke up Friday morning throwing up and completely shocked at this horrible event. He was sick all day and I stayed home with him as Danny had to take his last final exam. I now have a pretty full understanding of unconditional love as I tried to catch the vomit of my son on several occasions. Why - who knows? It was just an immediate reaction - like - look son this isn't as gross as it seems I'll even try to hold it in my hands. Anyway, somehow, I ended up sick on Saturday and Danny got a milder form of the virus yesterday. So all in all we hope it is over. I am six pounds lighter - not that I would recommend this as a form of dieting. Yick! That's all from us - be thankful there are no pictures with this entry!

Breech and Speech

Well, exciting news about Baby S ... last night I was awakened to thunderous belly movement and suspected that our little one decided to make his/her move into the correct baby position. I had a doctor's appointment today and they confirmed that the baby is no longer in the breech position. Hooray! Other news is that Henry is now addressing most of his extended family by name - there is Lek (Alex), Monny (Molly), An Jen (Aunt Jen), Nan Jean (Nana Jean), Nan Kaffy (Nana Kathy), Pawpa, Grandaddy, Grandma, Gram, Mommy/Mama and Daddy - and he occasionally refers to himself as "Henny". He is also quite attached to our neighbor Jeff and his dog Grace and calls them by name. He still can't quite say Stella and just calls her Dawg - as in Back Up Dawg (accompanied by a "Stop! In the name of love" gesture or a "Talk to the hand" pose if you prefer). He also lights up when he gets to assist with dispensing treats to Stella.

Flooding you all with 9 new Henry pictures

Okay, so my immediate family is haranguing me for not updating lately - "get those stupid hobo pumpkin pictures off of there and put some of Henry up" is the gist of what they're saying, so with no further ado...

Recent pics

Admiring his leaning tower

Henry's new favorite pastime - dismantling the bookshelf!

Schenkemeyer Wedding in Hotlanta

Henry puts the finishing touches on his grooming, then makes his grand entrance with Mama

More recent pics

I love this one - the King woulda been proud of this peanut butter and banana sandwich, even if it's toasted rather than fried
















Simulating construction on I-85

What can I say about these? He's a wildman

Hobo Halloween

Well, I've been on a bit of a John Hodgman kick the past few days - I finished his book and saw him in person at the Regulator. Here is a night image of a Hobo jack-o-lantern I carved. This sign means "It is time for hoboes to take over the United States government"
Coincidentally, it also makes a nice homage to Henry

Photo update to State Fair entry

There are indeed a few pics from our State Fair fun before the batteries died

Here is one of Alex and Henry with Curious George - definitely Henry's favorite TV show (in fact, the only show that interests him)















And here is the farmboy longing to frolic with the chickens

Our State Fair is the best state fair in our state!

We went out to the State Fair this past Thursday, better known as canned food night. You get in free with 4 cans of food. It was crowded to say the least. It was a big family outing with Nana Jean, Nana Kathy (or Nonni as Henry calls her), Aunt Jen, Cousins Alex and Molly, Henry, Rachel and Danny. Henry got to ride the carousel and Alex rode the Dragon Wagon and other fun rides.
We hit the local food concessions and Danny and I split the Hungry Man dinner of 1/4 a chicken, 1/4 lb BBQ, a ham biscuit and three sides for $10 - a real deal at the fair. The maple cotton candy is still my favorite dessert and I had to throw out the rest of my third package which had become flattened and brick-like. We would have pictures to share but our batteries died.
The highlight for Henry was seeing all the farm animals. We had to carry him away from the chicken coop which is sat in front of and waved to the chickens. He loved the cows - especially enjoyed the gallon of pee that just missed us from the rear of quite possibly the largest cow I have ever seen. Whew - that was a close one! He then tried to break in to the sheep corral which Danny had to run interference on. Overall - I think we have ourselves a little farm boy trapped in the city. Alex and Molly also enjoyed the animals and the 664 pound pumpkin. A long evening of family fun was topped off by being trapped in the fair while waiting for the fireworks to end and then getting herded out with thousands of pushy, tired people - we had two babystrollers and a wheelchair and no one showed any mercy. It won't stop us from going back next year - we might just have to make a fuller, earlier day of it.
**The profound title lyrics above are from the Hammerstein musical Our State Fair.

New Videos on YouTube

This one is of Henry delighting in the miracle of popcorn



And here is another of the loquacious little man



And finally, Henry's drinking problem
Can you hear in my voice that it's 7:30 AM?

Henry on the phone

Here is my first experiment with AudioBlogger, and probably my last, only because blogger.com is discontinuing the free service

More Baby Frances

To wrap up our weekend we saw baby Frances again. Henry met her for the first time and enjoyed giving her kisses. We realized later that we didn't get any pictures of Frances and her parents, but we do have one with her Grandma and with her cousin.

Playground time

Besides playing with other kids, Henry got attacked by green cupcakes, went down a slide with Daddy and rode a "horsey" with Mom.

busy weekend

We spent this weekend in Richmond visiting cousins Ella and Jack. We were celebrating Jack's 2nd birthday. It was lots of fun and the kids got to know each other all over again.

Cousin Frances

This past Tuesday night at 10:22 little Frances Eleanor Lovett was born to Mitch and Carol. She weighed 8 lbs 3 ozs, was 20 inches long and already has blonde locks. We are glad she is here, even though she was a bit late! She will be good practice for Henry to be sweet to newborns. We are all looking forward to spending time with her. She is a lovely little girl.

Tub Time

Belated Boyer Birthday Bonanza Bitmaps

Hooray - the picture uploader is back and running at full speed - here is the baby again!

Follow-up ultrasound

Well, it's been a while since our last post, as evidenced by the fact that we've just returned from a follow-up ultrasound, so in the future I'll try to make posts more frequently. I'll get some recent pictures of Henry and the family up after my exam week is over. But for now we have a few more shots of Segundo. I love the OK sign being flashed in the slightly less creepy than usual "4D" picture. The next shot is hard to interpret, but it's a close up of the lower face, with the nose, mouth and chin visible. The final shot is a conventional scan profile. Everything looked great and perfectly healthy, baby measured once again at a due date of January 31. Stay tuned until then when the gender will be revealed!

Okay, so I could only get the first picture to upload... I've got to leave now but I'll try and post the other shots again later today.

Danny

Pictures of Segundo

Here are some shots from our ultrasound on 8/23/06. Everything looks good - baby measures here at 17 weeks, so our three due date estimates are Jan. 23, Jan. 31, and Feb. 5. Rachel has her money on January 29, 2007. On a side note, I think I caught a glimpse of the nether regions and my amateur interpretation of the gender is female - but don't get too excited - I'd only be willing to put about 50 cents on it. These images are fleeting and I have been known to confuse the head with the stomach. To sum up: Rachel is leaning toward boy, Danny says girl, and Henry says "Huh? What baby?"

Link to other videos

I've finally caught on to the craze and have started uploading home movies to YouTube. I'm not sure if the link below for the tricycle is always visible (or it doesn't always seem to load for me right away), but maybe this post will be. You can visit http://www.youtube.com/user/dfstineh to check out what I've added under "Videos".

Tricycle video

This link might work - taking you to a Henry pedaling video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQzaB5i6nC0

Henry's new tricycle

Note: The scratches on Henry's nose are not from doing jumps or flips on his tricycle, but an earlier lawnmower spill on the driveway

5th Annual Topsail Island Beach Week

Fun in Uncle Tim's Guck (truck)