Ducks and Other Stuff

We are still recovering from the Ducks loss on Monday night. We were so proud they made it that far and I literally had my eyes covered for the last couple minutes it was so intense! We went with Em, Halle and Thomas (Gregg was at the game!) to Zeeks for some pizza. We love it because we can watch the game eat yummy pizza and the kids can run around. We have been going there regularly since I was pregnant and we had our favorite waitress on Monday night who I remember held Henry for quite awhile when he was like 6 weeks old so we could eat our pizza!

Henry feeling worried about the score!



Baby Thomas looking precious



Silly Halle and Hen couldn't stop moving enough for a cute pic together

Things have been going very normally. Henry and Halle have been playing a bunch and each time they get better and better at sharing and noticing each others feelings. They have been really into "helping" one another and they have recently been staging these types of interactions. Watch this video!



Tonight Bill and I are going to preschool open house night to look at the selection of preschools in the area. We are excited to check it out and are also in disbelief that in the fall our little guy will be going to school. We have really been researching to find a fun school that introduces him to new things but also one that is not only academically based. You wouldn't believe the curriculum and price of some of these places!!! We have found some fun ones that focus on social skills, creativity and building friendships which sounds like a great fit for Henry. We will keep you posted.

Henry having a "working dinner" on his laptop!

Happy New Year!

It has been a great year already! Henry and I both took a 3 hour nap today and Bill got to go to a bar and watch the Badgers in the Rose Bowl. 10 years ago Bill and I were at that Rose Bowl and lived in a Uhaul for 4 days while we traveled down there. Yup we slept in a Uhaul and loved it. We were laughing over coffee this morning at how much has changed in the last 10 years!

We had decided that nothing in our life was the same and while we missed some parts of the old life we were both so happy with how our life has changed. Our relationship has gotten so strong, and aside from some dishes in the sink and having to remind him of everything ;) , I feel so incredibly supported and loved by Bill. Henry has brought such a happiness to us and sometimes I feel like he is still this special secret that only Bill and I can share. He is an amazingly wonderful little guy. He has a soft and sensitive side that I adore, but I also can't get enough of his sometimes neon bright personality! Just to think in two more months we will have even more love to give seems impossible but also very exciting.

We are so lucky to have the best friends and family around and we constantly are given love and support by everyone...its enough to make me cry!

We ended the year with the Hubert's and a big bowl of fondue...yum!

So here's to an exciting 2011. We will be one member stronger and probably full of many more stories to keep this blog going!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! Henry, though he didn't fully understand it, was in love with the idea of Santa! My parents drove from Sonora to join us for he holiday. We spent the days leading up to Christmas cooking and enjoying all of the Christmas festivities around town. We met up with my brother's family and watched the Christmas ships which was a lot of fun. We also went to the Microsoft party and decorated cookies and played around! Henry and Titi also went ice skating!

Henry awoke each morning asking for Titi and Papa and was more than happy to wake them to get the day started. He did a lot of cooking with my Mom. His specialty is limes in water with cinnamon! He did a lot of handiwork with my Dad and loved how Papa let him use the tools just like a big boy!

Henry became accustomed to having a Titi cookie after every meal. Funny thing is he likes my Mom's spritz cookies with the cherry in the middle! No one else in the family like those ones except for my Mom so she was very happy! He loved all of the attention and did lots of showing off for them.

My favorite part was having my parents here to take care of me! As I have entered my third trimester I notice that I am slowing down quite a bit. So having someone cook all the meals and do all the laundry, etc was quite a treat! My Dad took over as resident handyman and we finally installed our new pot rack which I love! We had a little misstep while installing a back splash in the kitchen but we will blame that on the materials (those little glass tiles are really hard to install perfectly!) My Mom cooked and cleaned and let me sleep which was magic!

We all logged a lot of time playing our new Kinect and it is quite a fun workout! My Dad was amazing at soccer and my Mom has the routine to Poker Face down pat! My brother and sister in law and their kids came for Christmas Day as well as our friends the Hubert's. We had a great time. Holidays are so fun with kids running around and family and friends to relax with. We had an amazing Mexican fiesta courtesy of my Mom and everyone went to bed full and happy!

As for gifts I decided to let Henry open only two. My reason was that we could slowly open the rest as I get bigger and bigger and also have some things to open once baby girl arrives and we are figuring out how our little world is going to be. Also after opening just one, a motorized fire truck, I realized he was quite content. So we gave him a car ramp from Santa and that was that. He still is consumed by both and happy as can be. Also this means I have another awesome fire truck and train set for him to explore once we bring the baby home (thanks Nana and Piper fam!)

Here are some pictures from all the fun

Henry cooking with Titi



Henry's cookie decorating skills!


Henry by the tree


Party at Microsoft



Henry loves wearing Titi's glasses!


Ice Skating time!


Reading with Papa

Big Boy Bed

Two weeks ago we transitioned Henry from his crib to a big boy bed! Bill and I couldn't decide if it was the right thing but finally in a spur of the moment decision (big boy bed had been in the garage for weeks) we decided to just do it! We asked Henry if he wanted a big boy race car bed and he said yes so we started the process. Henry helped Bill take down the crib and set up his new bed. We realized once we had the new bed set up that it needed a twin mattress so Bill rushed out and got Henry a big boy mattress too. We topped it off with some race car sheets and Henry was in 7th heaven playing in the bed. We decided not to say anything to him about getting out and let him play in it all evening until bedtime.

First night was the roughest but he never got out. He just seemed a bit confused and was waking up every hour crying. We still considered it a success because he usully is up throughout the night and he never got out. His first nap was great. He played for 30 minutes and then proceeded to take a 3 hour nap! Ever since he has been doing great. He is sleeping through the night and last night he did an 11hour stretch of sleep which has not happened for soooo long!

Overall I know we got lucky but I kind of feel like with all of the sleep troubles we have had with this kiddo we deserved one easy transition! The only hard part now is resisting the urge to curl up next to him and cuddle!

Grandpa Steve's visit!

What a wonderful December and Christmas we had! It is going to take a couple posts to get caught up so we will begin with Grandpa Steve's visit to Seattle. We had a great time and celebrated our own little Christmas which was a lot of fun. Grandpa gave Henry a balance bike which he loves. He gets better each time he rides it and in a couple months as he grows taller it will be a breeze! Henry loves reading and playing with Grandpa. He often puts him to work with play dough and they did a lot of playing around and building with all of Henry's toys. Grandpa even got to see Henry at Little Kickers soccer class and Henry was quite the show off!

We even got to have Halle and baby Thomas stay the night with us, which made for a full and fun house. The only bummer of it all was that Henry got a double ear infection which made him miserable! He did impress Grandpa though with how tough he was when it came to pain. I noticed he wasn't feeling well as his Mom but he had Grandpa believing he was in tip top shape!

We all ventured to Portland to meet our new niece sweet baby Lucy or as Henry says Baby Wucy. She is absolutely precious and is a little thumblelina. Anna and Andy are doing great and loving that little sweetie up. They humored Henry's love of playing and constantly talking about fire poles which made him very happy. We had a great visit and I stupidly forgot my camera so I will have to take pictures the next time we go, which I hope is soon!!!

Santa

I am putting together a bigger post for tomorrow with some pictures and updates of what we have been up to, but for now I will post a look back at our visits to Santa. This year went much better than last. No tears but also no real smiles! He had Santa laughing by the end because he was making some very wierd noises and asking if he could just go home!

Year #1- very cold out so we bundled him up and then forgot to unbundle him for the picture!



Year #2- This one explains itself!



Year #3- A little hesitant but we got him on the lap and he didn't cry!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

We are in full holiday swing at the Birkholz house! We had a wonderful thanksgiving with Bill's cousins and Aunt and Uncle. Henry showed off his new talent of being able to pull his pants down and Bill was very excited to show Henry that his new Windows phone played cartoons, which kept his pants up and allowed us to enjoy an amazing feast!

I actually started that morning with my Christmas decorating and am proud to say we are pretty much complete. Lights up, tree chopped down and decorated, advent calendar all filled up and Santa mantle completed (though we have space for one more on its way from my mom!)

We got our tree and had fun riding the tractor and hunting down the perfect tree. Henry loved the candy cane and puddle jumping most of all!








I have a big tree advent calendar for Henry that I have filled with ornaments and random little gifts that he gets to discover each morning. He has a little tree in his room he gets to hang the ornaments on and he loves it a lot! This is my favorite time of year and it has been so fun to introduce it to Henry. I think he may have inherited my love of the holidays! He can often be found singing Jingle Bells while playing!



We still have lots more big plans for our holiday fun but we have all been battling a cold for the past couple weeks and just when we thought it was gone it returned yesterday with avengance. That means no one is sleeping or feeling all that festive. He is so stuffy and looks so sick but not so surprisingly it has been hard to keep him resting. He does love the claymation Santa Clause is Coming to Town so we have watched it 100 times while drinking warm apple juice!

I hope to take more pictures of all of our festivities as the season continues. We have cookie making and some crafts to do. We also are going to watch the Christmas Ships and go to some light displays around town and I promise to bring my camera.