Oh how I love how much my boys love each other.  Sweet story time.

Look who seems to be feeling better?!?!?!

Okay, so maybe he didn't get out of his pajamas all day, but his eyes have a bit of sparkle back in them.

 Practicing his new "sounds"

Poor Henry was sick again today so he ended up at the pediatrician's office :(  Daddy took him since I had to coach Delia's soccer game.  The office was behind (not a big surprise for a Saturday morning) so we had to trade off Henry duty so John could go to JGray's soccer game.  We came home with a prescription for Zofran (anti-nausea medicine) and instructions to try Pedialyte and the Zofran to see if he perked up.  Thank goodness he did, so hopefully Sunday will be a puke-free day.

Daddy and Henry waiting at the doctor's office

As far as soccer is concerned, our games were at opposite ends of the spectrum.  Delia's game could be described using words like "uncle, slaughter, and white flag."  Even though the other team only had 5 players (one of which cried the entire game), we could not get the ball in the goal.  They, on the other hand, had absolutely no trouble scoring on us.  It was a very very very long 40 minutes.  I tried my best to stay positive (and hopefully I succeeded) and tried to keep coaching the entire time.  To the girls' credit, they hustled the entire game.  Kept on running and going after the ball.  They were very tired by the end, but I'm proud of them.  Now to re-think the game plan for next week...

JGray's game was great with lots of goals, hustle and strong defense.  I wasn't able to since Henry was still puny and needed a nap, but I heard from John and Coach G's wife that JGray played great.  He's one of the (if not the) fastest kid on the field.  What he lacks in soccer skills, he makes up for in speed and hustle and stamina.  The kid can run and run and run without getting tired.  He scored one goal, had two assists and some great defensive play.  It's so fun to watch him play.

Not exactly how you want to spend your first full day as a 1 year old, huh?  Poor kid got sick last night right before bed, and I hoped it was a one-time thing.  Unfortunately, when I went into his room this morning he was sleeping in dried-up puke.  Blah :(  He threw up again after we came downstairs but took a good morning nap.  Poor guy snuggled on me and laid on the floor.  Very un-Henry.  He took an almost 4 hour afternoon nap and seemed a bit perkier afterward.  He even ate some dinner, so I thought we were on the up-swing.  He went to bed but started crying after about 30 minutes.  Poor kid had gotten sick, again :(  Fingers crossed this doesn't last all night!

Sick, sad, sleepy Henry

One Year Old!

Today is our baby boy's 1st birthday!!  It's hard to believe that our little ray of sunshine has been here for an entire year.

At 1 Year, Henry is:

• Weighs 21 lb 12 oz (50th percentile) and is 30 inches tall (50th percentile).  He's the smallest of the Schmitt babies, so far.
• All smiles!  I swear, Henry is the happiest boy.  He is always full of smiles and laughter.  He loves to do silly things in order to get a reaction out of people (especially his older siblings).  
• Will play independently for almost 30 minutes at a time.  He'll go from toy to toy, room to room, playing and exploring.
• Loves music.  If music is on, then he is bopping and clapping and twisting.  His favorite bin in the playroom is the one filled with musical instruments.  His favorite is a wooden xylophone.  He will hunt for the mallet and "play" his music.
• Really seems to prefer his left hand.  Whether it's playing a musical instrument, hitting a ball, or pushing a toy car, he does it with his left hand.  He'll grab things with his right hand and then transfer them over to his left.  There are a few lefties in our family, so it's entirely possible he could be left handed.  We'll see!
• Is a great sleeper.  We finally dropped his dream feed, which means a slightly earlier wake up (between 6-6:30am most days).  He still takes amazing naps.  9:30-11:00 and 2:00-4:00  I'm hoping he'll drop his morning nap within the next few months so we can get out-and-about more in the mornings.
• Still enjoys his bottles.  He eats 7am, 11am, 2pm, 4pm, 7pm.  It's time to start introducing whole milk and eliminating some bottles, but I'm not in a huge rush.
• Is a great eater.  He loves bananas, broccoli, pancakes, crackers, blueberries, strawberries, cheerios, pizza, pasta and quesadillas.  The lack of teeth impedes him eating anything requiring bigger bites.
• Still waiting for those first teeth.  His older brother only had 2 teeth at a year, so Henry isn't too far behind.  I just hope he has teeth in there :)
• Is cruising along the furniture and will walk if we hold his hands.  He has no real interest in letting go and taking any steps, yet, but I have a feeling it's not too far off in the future.  And when he does, I think he's going to be running!
• Is really trying to talk and communicate with us.  He says "mom", "da", "ba" (for JGray), "de" (for Delia), "bye", and I'm pretty sure he said "Dus" (for Dusty) this afternoon.  It also sounds like he says "What's this?"  He is consistently signing "All Done" by shaking his hands and "More" by touching his hands together.  He seems eager to get his point across but doesn't get frustrated when we don't understand.  

Oh Henry, you bring such joy into our lives!!

Enjoying his third cupcake of the week.  He's got this birthday thing under control!

You may wonder what in the world I'm posting about today when the picture is of a toy dinosaur.  Apparently we've found something that makes Henry cry.  He was playing in JGray's room this morning (he loves to sneak into his room and pull out the cars and dinosaurs from under the bed).  I was in our bedroom putting some clothes away when I heard him start crying hysterically.  I ran in (since tears happen so infrequently with him) to find this little green baby dinosaur on the floor growling and chomping and moving its arms and legs.  I guess Henry must have inadvertently pushed the tongue and caused the commotion.  Needless to say, he was NOT a fan!

JGray has soccer practice on Tuesday nights.  The weather was beautiful today so I brought the younger kids to practice for a little after-dinner play time.  Delia loves to play on the playground.  She is a wiz on the monkey bars.  The girl must have crossed them 4 or 5 times tonight (with a tiny bit of help jumping up to the bar).  Henry has recently become obsessed with balls.  He loves to throw them and push them and bang on them.  During the last soccer game, I was able to entertain him by surrounding him with all the players' soccer balls.  Well, he remembered because during practice he made a bee-line for the soccer balls.  He was so proud of how sneaky he was getting out there.  I let him play as long as I could he out there (safely).

Sneaking a sip from JGray's water bottle (too bad he almost drank the entire thing!)

 So excited to be out on the field with the big kids, in the middle of all their soccer balls

Our little monkey

Look who figured out how to climb up on the slide!

Our first baby, who is now a sweet old man.  He does his best to tolerate the other "babies," especially the newest grabby one.

Today we celebrated Henry's birthday, again, with our family.  John's parents are in town visiting so we decided to have a family lunch to celebrate our wonderful boy.  Henry loves to eat, especially pizza, cheese quesadillas, peas, broccoli (sometimes), bananas, and now we've learned, cake.  He was so excited to have us sing Happy Birthday to him and to enjoy his birthday cake.

The big day isn't until Thursday, but the week of Henry continues :)

It was another Soccer Saturday in the Schmitt household.  If you include the extra 30 minutes per kid for pictures, and it was a long day at the soccer field.  Going into her game, Delia told us that she was going to "grrr" and "go get the ball."  And boy did she ever!  It took her a few minutes, but she really seemed to find her groove.  She's so fast too!  She ran the entire time she was on the field and definitely was more aggressive going after the ball.  By her last shift on the field, she was running around growling as she attacked the ball.  Daddy (who has been trying to teach the girls to be aggressive) was ecstatic!  Best of all, she scored 2 GOALS!!!  She was so so so very proud of herself :)

JGray played a tough and well-coached team, but our Thunder pulled out another WIN!  JGray was fighting for the ball and played some great defense.  He was able to play man-to-man with one of the best players on the other team.  The highlight of his game was a HUGE KICK from almost mid-field.  He said he was annoyed with that "fancy footwork guy" on the other team so decided to launch it over the boy's head and into the goal.  Everybody (including all the parents on the other team) could be heard saying, "WHOA...."   He was so proud of that kick!  John said it's a shame we didn't get it on video because it would be great to watch over and over and over again :)

I asked John to take some pictures for me at Delia's game this morning.  Proof that I am in fact coaching Delia's team.  Next time I need to use my bigger lens, but these pictures give you a pretty good idea of how much D was hustling today.

Ready for her goal kick

 Charging up the field, on the way to score one of her two goals!

The shirt says it all

Yes, this is a picture of the other team scoring, but look at this girl's hustle!

Visitors!

Grandma and Grandpa Schmitt are here!  They drove out from Illinois to help us celebrate a certain little boy's 1st birthday.  Henry's last visit with them was back in April when we were out for our annual visit.  It's crazy to think that when they last saw him he was first learning to sit up.  Now he's crawling, cruising, and all-together silly.

Here they are getting reacquainted:

Party Time!

Henry's birthday may not be until next Thursday, but that isn't stopping us from throwing some parties!  Today we invited our new playgroup friends over to play and enjoy a cupcake.  I found an easy recipe for banana cupcakes and also made buttercream icing.  Yum!

Henry has been watching during his siblings' birthday parties and seemed very aware and excited for his turn.  I bought him a cute birthday shirt and as I was changing him after his nap, I started singing "Happy Birthday."  He smiled a HUGE Henry smile and signed "more" when the song was over.  Little stinker wanted to hear it again!

He ate his cupcake like a professional.  Minimal mess and most went into his mouth :)

We have a family party planned for Sunday and then the big kids have asked to bake their own cupcakes to celebrate on the big day.

Hooray for Henry!  Happy (almost) Birthday, sweet boy!!

Milestones that this mommy may not be ready for, just yet...

Sniff, sniff, my baby is growing up.  He turns 1 NEXT WEEK (how is that even possible?!) and today I took him for his first hair cut.  Like the title of this blog post, I don't know if I'm ready for my sweet Henry to grow up just yet.  He's the baby and he's supposed to stay little forever.  Right?  I'm not sure if you could tell from recent pictures, but the lil guy was looking a little shaggy.  Hair in his eyes (touching his long eyelashes) and a good inch over his ears.  And although I want him to stay little, I also want him to be able to see, so off to a local kids' hair salon after music class.  (So you know, I realize the kids' salon was a bit excessive, especially for such little hair to be cut, but we really needed the car to sit in and cartoons on the tv for him to sit still!)

Henry really seemed to enjoy the entire experience.  No tears, not even a whimper.  He loves riding in his car and holding onto the steering wheel, so I'm not surprised he sat so quietly.  I told the stylist not to cut off too much (just enough to see his eyes), so there wasn't a lot of hair to collect for our memory box.  The end result is a little boy who looks much more like well, a little boy.  Not so much a baby anymore.  The first of many milestones that will give this mommy's heart a pause and a promise to myself to commit these special times to memory because I know they go by far too quickly.

Busted!

I knew it was a little too quiet in the family room this afternoon :)  Bless the third child who is able to entertain himself, even if it means destroying a package of diapers.  And in case you were wondering, we're still working on his clean-up skills!

Enjoying the weather

The weather has been delightful over the last week, so the kids and I have been playing outside a lot.  I've also tried to arrange park picnic lunches after school.  With Delia in school every morning, we've had to move into the realm of mid-day/afternoon play dates.  For now, we're lucky that Henry's nap schedule allows for such fun.  He naps 9:30-11:00 and 2:00-4:00 most days, so we get a great window for playtime in the middle of the day.

Delia loves to run and play.  And I love to watch her sprint around the playground as fast as her legs will carry her.  She runs and jumps and spins and climbs.  I love her fearlessness.

Henry loves to swing.  His smile makes his entire face light up.  I love his unbridled joy.  The littlest thing makes him so happy.  It's impossible not smile and laugh when you're around him.

A walk in the park

Dusty spent the summer with my parents while we did all of the construction at our house.  My mom took him for a walk every day, weather permitting, and I promised him that we'd do our best to continue the exercise for our first baby.

John went to Raleigh today to spend the night camping with two of his high school buddies, so I took the kids and Dusty for a walk.  Thank goodness the big kids are old enough to walk him responsibly on the leash!  We like to head over to the library on Sundays (no traffic!) and sneak into the new park that's under construction.  We're so excited to have a wonderful new park (rumor has it that a splash park/fountains are included?!) within a short walk of the house!

Oh, and did I mention that the kids take their Chicago Bears pride quite seriously?!

Saturdays are for soccer!

It's a Saturday in September, which means one thing.  SOCCER!  JGray continues to play with buddies, and John is coaching again.  Delia is staging her soccer comeback after a questionable start in the 3 year old league, and I am lucky enough (or possibly just crazy) to be her coach.  I was able to convince the kids to let me snap a few shots before the fun started.  Today's games were a huge success.  Delia had lots of fun and even came oh-so close to scoring a goal!  And JGray scored 4 goals in his team's first game.  His speed and attack on the ball are so fun to watch.

Go Sonics!  Go Thunder!

 Delia has quite the soccer outfit, doesn't she?  She insisted on the hot pink shin guard/socks, and we (conveniently) couldn't find her black shorts this morning so she had to wear her black skirt.  Feisty and fabulous, I think :)

He's growing up so fast.  This is the first soccer uniform we purchased for him and it barely fits now.  He loves to play soccer and is showing some real skills and speed on the field.  

Our two soccer stars.  All smiles before and AFTER the games today!

One of the big kids

Over the last few days, Henry has started doing a trick.  Yes, the not-quite 12 month old is trying to be one of the big kids and has a developed a trick or two.  Could be that his true personality is showing through and he is quite the ham.  Delia is constantly flipping and jumping off the furniture, doing cartwheels and somersaults.  Well, Henry has been watching and is trying to roll.  Not the back-to-tummy or tummy-to-back kind of roll, but the put-your-head-on-the-carpet and roll over kind of roll.  Umm, I think we have a monkey on our hands!!!

Sorry for the poor photo quality, but it was an action shot taken on my iPhone!

Waiting

We are very lucky to have my parents in town.  And even luckier that my mom only teaches preschool 3 mornings a week so she is able (and willing!) to spend time on her non-school days with us.  Dusty seems to "know" when MaMa is coming and waits by the door.  Henry is still learning but knows that if Dusty is hanging out somewhere then he should check it out too.  Proof that Dusty was desperate to see MaMa is evidenced by the fact that he willingly sat near the increasingly unpredictable and toddler-rough Henry.  We're teaching him to be gentle, or at least trying to!

Story Time

The kids and I were upstairs after lunch playing when Delia announced that it was story time for Henry (thank you, preschool!)  She must have "read" 3 or 4 books to him, very seriously telling him what was going on.  If she thought he wasn't listening, then she started over again.   Nothing like a bossy big sister :)

I was able to snap this candid photo on my phone:

Tip Toes

Oh how this little boy melts my heart!  He wants to be a big boy and is well on his way.  He may not be walking yet, but he's pulling up and cruising around on furniture, tables, chairs, pretty much anything he can get his hands on.  Including the piano.  But in order to reach it, he has to go way up on his tip toes.  So sweet....