7 month stats

Just a quick note to pass along Henry's stats from our latest pediatrician appointment. He is now 22 pounds, 28 inches long, and his bowling ball....errr, I mean...head is 18 inches around. He's a big boy and growing faster than I want to think about. I have him in all 18 month old clothes now...but he's even in some 24 months for comfort and ease putting off and on. This is ridiculous. I want my little baby back.

Sue comes in today...I'll be MIA until Sunday!

And then there were 5

You guessed it. The 5th tooth has emerged, the 6th is swelling the front of bubby's gums and looks to be hella painful, and with these recent developments, the drool is flowing like the River Thames. I expect that number 6 will be here by the weekend. Here is the fang photo I promised last week... Since Saturday, we've been completely in the new house, and we are loving every minute of it. Of course, we also loved every minute of staying with my family while we waited for the construction over here to wrap up......but, let's face it, there's just something about having a place of your very own (especially when you have a family of your very own) that makes you feel all happy inside. Yesterday, we made some real, visible progress with our downstairs, and by evening, Jared and I were all giddy and silly about our new digs. We even went ahead and popped the bottle of champagne that's been waiting for us for the past month. Nothing like a date-night in your freshly painted, newly decorated, all-the-way clean house! Here's a rose from Jared next to a birdhouse I found for cheeeeeeeeeap... I have some great pictures to post from this past weekend, when we took Henry to Kingwood's family Mardi Gras celebration....but, alas, I have again lost my uploading wire thingy for my camera. I'll add the pics once I find the wire, but for now, a little about the day. We were up against some pretty big baby odds even going to the parade. Not only was it rainy on the drive there, but it was getting cold and windy outside as well. To add insult to that injury, Henry completely ditched his afternoon nap. But, we pushed forward, for a few reasons. First, I was excited to get out and do something as a family that didn't entail shopping for stuff for the house. We needed it. Second, I had two friends meeting us there with their kiddos...and I really wanted to see them. Allison is a girl I met at a Kingwood Mothers of Young Children Meeting, and this was our first opportunity to hang out outside of the group meeting. She has a 14-month old doll of a baby girl named Emily. Sara, who I have often referred to on this blog, was also there with her Reese...and, as you know, Henry and I will never pass on the opportunity to get together with those two Bading women. They're a party looking for a place to happen...and we'd be happy if that place was always in our midst. Third, I knew the Mardi Gras thing was supposed to have cajun carnivalesque food booths....and we all know how happy Jared is when he find yummy carnival delicacies at his disposal. I'm taking him to the rodeo cook-off this weekend, and I expect the euphoric effects of that to last us until St. Patrick's Day! So, anyway, everything went exactly as planned. The rainclouds lifted as we pulled into a parking place, we were all dressed for the weather, the friends were all able to make it, the food was as good as Jared could have hoped, and despite his naplessness, Henry was the happiest baby on earth sitting on his daddy's shoulders watching the beads fly all around him as the parade went by. Uncle Jonathan and Uncle Justin helped to catch anything that came too close, and seriously, it may have been our best day in Kingwood so far. :) ***UPDATE - I found the photo uploader thingie!! Here are the money shots!***Today, we're celebrating my mom's birthday at my parent's house. The actual birthDAY is the 27th, but my dad is taking her on a Caribbean cruise on that day, so we kids have to settle for celebrating early. So, yeah, that lucky birthday girl is going on a cruise, and I, in all my pasty butt, lackluster-life glory, am trying not to be too jealous. Although, I will say, I have a perfect distraction from my discontentment over not being the one going on a cruise. My old college roommate, Sue Ellen, is coming in for the weekend. We haven't seen each other since she swept into Kingwood for my wedding, and now she is coming here to meet Henry and help me think of decorating ideas for the house and wear pajamas for most of the weekend and make me laugh so hard I snort drink out of my nose and mostly to remind me how awesome it is to have true girlfriends.***I found my picture uploader thing after the party...so here's Henry with the Birthday Girl!***Last thing -- if you are a praying person, please say a prayer for Baby Jameson today. He is in the ICU with a terrible infection caused by a very resistant strain of bacteria (MRSA), and he is fighting for his life as I write this. This 7-month old is such a living miracle, and he and his family need all of the lifting up we can muster. Thank you.

Catching Up - Part II

Okay, these next pics were all taken in the month of February. Our February has been completely dominated by moving in, so I thought it appropriate to begin the blog with a photo of our moving truck. I'm sure you are as glad as we were that our movers arrived on time and didn't damage any of our things. And, as an added bonus, these guys are spiritually upstanding folks...as evidenced by the front of their truck. You know, come to think of it, nothing says "I love Jesus" like a big looming cross slapped across the grill of your 18-wheeler. Nevermind the fact that, if you zoom in, you can see that the bumper sticker off to the side says,"yes, this is my truck...no, I will not help you move."

Here's Henry in his new gameroom! The whole room is painted in this fun motif, and evidently the previous owners had 3 little boys who loved this room as much as the H-man does.

The baby's new favorite place...high chair. Why? Food. Lots and lots and lots of it...all the time...all day long...

This is the face I get if the food takes too long. It reminds me of Jared's face when he's playing video games...intense...and a little maniacal.

In light of my previous comments, this probably looks like he's calling for grub. But, the truth is, in this photo, he's already eaten...and he's playing a favorite game. It's the scream-as-loud-as-you-can-at-mommy game. He yells at the top of his lungs, I pretend to be scared (jump back, exclaim my fear), he yells again. Repeat. No really, it's fun.

What a cutie...I love this picture.

His bottom teeth showed up in this picture, so I included it in the mix. We've got 4 teeth now, and I've decided that Henry is assuredly related to sharks or vampires. I'll see if I can get a photo of his fang this week for your viewing enjoyment.

This is the "hand-in-the-cookie-jar" face. He makes it anytime he's doing something new that makes him feel big and bad and like he's getting away with something. I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot more of it in coming months...

Playing with his Grampy. If you can read lips, you know already that they're saying "ooooooh"....."woooooh"....."woooooow"......."ooooooh." This seems to be Henry's version of "wow"...and he says it in the cutest, lowest, amazed-sounding way. If you do it back at him, the conversation and entertainment could go on for days.

So, there. We're all caught up to present-day. I haven't taken pictures of the house, because it's not all together yet. I'll throw some up when I make some real progress. Right now, the only room done is Henry's nursery!

Happy Humpday, everyone.

Catching up

I've been slacking on my photo uploading for the past few months, so I dedicated Henry's morning naptime to getting caught up. Here are a few...going all the way back to Christmas!

Henry's first Christmas - in Orlando a few days before the real deal.

Christmas dinner in Texas...Ham in the jar...yum!

Clowning with Mommy

First trip to the park! Henry loves the swings!!

Henry's great grandmother, Nana (Hoffman), came to meet him at the end of January! She couldn't believe how much he looked like his mom when she was a baby. Check out Henry's cute shirt -- that sweet thing is from Betsy Berthelot and her new clothing company, Monkey Business. Thanks, Bets...we LOVE it!

More pics to come...

This Valentine o' Mine

From the day I noticed the creature known as 'boy', I made it a personal goal to capture one. If that sounds more like a science experiment than healthy human courtship, I have achieved an accurate description. Not just any boy would do, either...he had to be the most sought after boy...preferably tall and sandy-haired and really fast and super tricksie with his footskills. Foster Elementary ladies, I am sure you recall our long kindergarten and first grade recesses spent chasing behind Nate Guthrie (very fast...super tricksie footskills). I would whip any girl's tail to catch that boy before she did...and I wasn't afraid to lie in wait behind the jungle gym just to put my foot out in front of a chick stampede to trip the first one in the mass and claim Mr. Guthrie as mine. In those days, I never thought about what I would actually 'do' with the boy after I caught him...it was beating all the other girls out for the prize that lured me into countless recesses of chasing.

Many years later, as I entered into the high school dating scene, I adopted similarly stupid tactics for man-hunting. I'd look around for the cutest thing a girl could find, crush insatiably, somehow put the word out that I was interested...and presto...that boy would be chased and captured. Same thing in college -- look for cute boy, find one, send vibe, ignore all red flags, chase, CAPTURE. Same thing in law school -- look for cute boy, find one, ignore all red flags, send vibe, really ignore all red flags, chase, CAPTURE. There was only one man I once knew that didn't fall victim to this doomed-to-fail plan....but he sort of snuck in via the friend door...and the end wasn't pretty there either.

When I met my hubs-to-be, I was in the process of figuring things out. I wasn't looking for the cutest boy on the block (even though he certainly was that)...in fact, I wasn't on the market for a man at all. I was studying for the bar exam. I was more stressed out than I had ever been any time in my life before or since. I was smack dab in the middle of that horrible transition between school and the real world, and the last thing on my mind was man-hunting. But, isn't that the way the story always goes...
In the summer of 2006, Jared turned the tables on me. In the 22 years prior (I'm takin' it all the way back to the playground, y'all), I had only ever done it MY way. There had never been a man that surprised me...I always saw him first, always sent the vibe first, always chased him first, always felt like I had done the capturing, you get the idea. Then, in June of 2006, Jared did it all first. Without my usual prompting or even giving over my phone number or any sign or signal from me whatsoever, Jared asked around about me...he texted...then he wrote...then he called. He engaged me in countless conversations about literature...about religion...about big ideas...about dreams...about worldly things that interested him (and me...but I was playing too close to the vest to let him know that yet).

On our first date, I asked him what his intentions were. His reply -- "to pursue you." My response - "yeah, but to what end? We live a million miles apart...so, I'm not up for pursuit unless you're serious." His immediate answer - "to marriage...or to the point we realize that's not where we're headed." In stunned silence, I let that sink in....mmmmm, yeah, I liked the sound of that.
The rest is, as they say, history. He pursued and pursued and pursued and the next thing we knew, we were walking out of the back of a church with the same last name. And he didn't stop there. In fact, he is still doing it. He asks the meaningful questions, engages my mind, finds the humor in my quirks (and there are sooo many), and most precious to me, he gives his love to me freely.

He chased.

He captured.
And, lucky for me, he happens to be tall, blonde, and have reeeeeeally good footskills.

Happy Valentine's Day, hubs...you're the best Valentine a girl could ever hope for. xoxoxoxoxoxo!!

Happy Groundhog's Day

Hi everyone. Sorry I've been MIA for the past week...we've been bogged down by moving stuff. Between workers in the house, utitilities being set up, movers arriving, and hundreds of boxes to unpack, we can't seem to catch up.

We closed on the house Wednesday at 5:00 p.m., moved things from our cars and my parents' house Wednesday night, and the work crew woke us up Thursday morning with a phone call asking to be let in. They worked dawn to dusk Thursday to Saturday painting and installing new flooring in the entryway. Then, yesterday, we went over and gave the house a once-over with the vacuum before the movers arrived.

Now, this is the place in this story that I must take pause to appreciate the wonderfulness that is a moving company. For those of you who've known me awhile, you know how much I HATE moving. In college and law school, I moved every single year...that's eight moves, folks...none of which were assisted by any moving company...well, unless you consider Lande, Jeanne, and Heather a business entity. ;) Each year was worse than the year before, thanks to the inevitable accumulation of CRAP that would occur since the last move. Every year, I would vow to throw more away, and every year, my resolve failed me. I have nostalgia issues...I admit it. Anyway, this time was different in a beautiful, poetic sort of way. This time, I sat on the lawn in a comfy chair, and told the movers where each thing went as it came off the truck. They would say, "Ma'am?" Then I would say something like, "blue room...(drink sip of my sweet tea)...downstairs." Who knew that moving could be so much fun?!?!

After the house was loaded with our things, the real work began for the Chessers. Our first project was attempting to arrange the living room furniture. We knew it would be difficult, because the room doesn't have a really obvious place for a TV, but we wanted to tackle it first since we think that having a place to sit down makes a house a home. After hours of contemplation, I think we've officially decided that NEW FURNITURE is the only answer. I'm going to try really hard to be sad about this...but, I must say, our current furniture might have 16 gallons of dried spit-up in the cushions, and on top of that, we have found that if you sit anywhere but on the middle of the cushions, you feel like you're falling into an earth fissure. So new furniture is probably a good thing. From the living room, we went straight to unpacking kitchen boxes. After several hours of doing that, we only made it through about half of the kitchen stuff...which made us both feel very despondent. We have such a LOOOOONG way to go.

In other exciting news, I'm having a terrible allergic reaction to something from over there. I know that I have a severe mold allergy that causes me to become asthmatic, and that's exactly what happened yesterday (and is ongoing today). I am just holding onto the hope, though, that this time, it's just from the of dust of moving in and the fresh paint on every wall. Can't you just hear it...."Jared, I'm allergic to this house...we're going to have to start over and do this whole thing again." Bwaaahaaha...sweet Jesus, it better just be the dust.

I'll post a few pictures when I find a little time to take some and upload them.