Well well. We suspected Henry was a big baby, but it's hard to tell without the proper measurements. Jaime took him to his 2month checkup yesterday and he was 15lbs, 110z. He's closing in on doubling his birth weight at two months old (that usually happens between 4-6 months). That weight at his age (9.5weeks) puts him in the "97th plus percentile." Basically, he's off the charts.

Age: 9.5 weeks
Weight: 15lbs, 11oz
Height: 24"
Head Circum: 16"

Related charts, graphs, etc.

To put Henry's weight in perspective, Stephen weighed 16lb 11oz at his 6month checkup. Henry's visit to the doctor yesterday also meant that he got a lot of shots. He did not do too well with them, he had some major pain issues between 5-10pm. Overall, things seem to be going well. I can't believe our vacation is in nine days.

Henry will be eight weeks old tomorrow, and things have been a bit better around here. We must be feeling confident if we went to the zoo on Friday and went out to dinner last night. Most nights, Henry wakes up once around 3am to get changed and fed. We've moved him to his own crib in his own room and it has worked out very well. I've been taking it for granted already, staying up late every night to watch the NBA playoffs. We sleep with our door open and Henry's door open. That way we can hear him without a baby monitor and we don't have to worry about where the dogs are anymore. We prefer to sleep with our door open and the dogs like the freedom. We've been closing the door because Henry was crying all night for the first six weeks and we wanted to minimize what Stephen could hear from his room.

Today, however, was horrible. Stephen woke up with a dirty diaper that was quite old (it could have been as old as 11 hours.. that's how long he slept). He had awful diaper rash and he squealed in pain every time you wiped him with a wipe. Eventually he dreaded diaper changes so much that the anticipation was worse than the changing. Henry was constantly crying and wanting his mother to feed him (growth spurt probably). All in all it was a pretty tough day, but Stephen and I went and got groceries at least. Somehow the total was over $190 today at the grocery. Ouch. It was just one of those days where you need everything that you rarely buy. Ketchup, ranch, disposable razors, vitamins, seasoning, etc. Periodic expenses all piling up at once.

This month is going to fly by. Our immediate family has three birthdays this month and we have a week-long vacation at the end of this month. Jaime returns to work May 31. Scary for me to even think about right now.

Henry is seven weeks old today. I think I can look back on this seven weeks and objectively say "that sucked." Looking forward, however, things seem to be getting better. He's been sleeping well at night for the past 3 or 4 days, waking up only once each night. We may try to put him in his crib soon. Still spitting up an awful lot. I'm washing all of his clothes and blankets every 36 hours. I don't expect things to get better overnight, but we are at least making progress now. The end is in sight.

It looks like Henry is going to be a lot fatter of a baby than Stephen. You never know this early in the game, but he is growing so fast. He seems to get/need/want a lot more food from my wife, and that has been part of the difficulty with him thus far. When the Mulligans were here, Henry's 0-3 month outfits were way too big for him. Twenty days later, he has outgrown them completely and we have put them all away into rubbermaid bins for storage. I can't believe it.

I replaced the garbage disposal a couple months back and it's had some intermittent leaks. I finally took everything out of the cupboard tonight and tried to get it to leak. I think I found the circumstance that makes it leak. I disconnected and reconnected all the PVC drain connections, making sure they were tight and straight. I think I fixed it, but I'm going to leave it empty under the sink so everything can dry out before I test it again tomorrow.

Henry is three weeks old today. Now we know what it's like to have a normal newborn around the house. Stephen always slept 4-5 hours without waking, even when he was only a couple of weeks old. Henry sleeps about 90 minutes before waking up. We always knew Stephen was a super baby, but I don't think we realized just how spoiled we were. We keep going to bed earlier and earlier every night (last night was before 8:30) in anticipation of not sleeping. The result: it doesn't help. Even when he's sleeping, Henry is loud enough to disrupt sleeping patterns. He is always honking, breathing heavily, waking up temporarily, and smacking the side of his cradle.

If Jaime wasn't off work for three months, I don't know how Stephen and I would cope. As it stands, I pretty much take care of Stephen from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed. If Jaime were at work, Stephen would be seriously starved for attention. He is also in the middle of a pretty bad time where he tries to misbehave almost constantly and anything you say to him triggers a massive tantrum. He is a one man prison riot--kicks, bites, spits, screams, pinches.

I woke up today not wanting to face the day. Too cold for the playground. The playground is about the only real distraction for Stephen. He isn't paying much attention to the TV yet. I know it seems lame to complain about having to watch my own child for every waking second, but I wish he could watch TV for an hour here and there! I can't leave Stephen with Jaime for even a second, because she can not lift him in her post-surgery state. Even going to the drugstore to pick up some milk requires a bit of planning.

I was slightly nervous about Stephen's 18-month wellness checkup because he's still not saying much. Also, I think this was the first time that Stephen actually remembered the doctor's office. He was a little nervous/quiet in the lobby. We were called back almost immediately, though, and I quickly recognized my favorite nurse (chubby girl with emo glasses).

In short, the doctor was worrying me for nothing. I'll paraphrase what he said "It seems to me that Stephen is saying 2 or 3 words right now. Considering the fact that he knows his body parts and clearly understands a lot of speech, he's right on track. Even if I was concerned about his speech (which I am not), I couldn't recommend speech therapy until he was two years old."

Immediately after the doctor's appointment, Stephen began using many more sounds. Right on cue, right? He can suddenly say "hot" (minus the t) and imitate many sounds (like a "j" sound, "g" sound, "k" sound).

Another great result of this doctor's appointment: Stephen doesn't need any more shots until kindergarten. He's all vaccinated.

This is the last time I'm going to post his stats because they are less and less relevant with every visit. In a three-month period, he supposedly jumped from the 40th percentile to the 90th percentile in height. In the real world, that's probably not possible. The doctor said the measurement was probably to blame (since they didn't measure him while he was standing upright).

Age: 18months
Height: 34"
Weight: 24lbs, 3.5oz

Related charts, graphs, etc.

A few months ago, Jaime won four tickets (face value of $380) to see Hair at the Kennedy Center. Musicals are not my thing, and I didn't have the faintest idea regarding the premise of Hair, but it's fun to put on a tie and go out to dinner and a show. We went with C&C (newlyweds) and it was a good double date.

I honestly didn't have a clue about Hair. I thought it was something from the 80's (getting it confused with Hairspray?). I had no idea that it is a controversial product of the counter-culture and it premiered on Broadway in 1968 when all of the topics were current. Instead of an orchestra, there was a more traditional rock band. Electric guitar, electric bass, american drum set, percussionist, keyboardist, and a brass section of four people. The band was on stage for the entire show, sort of elevated above the set. The set... hmm.. it is safe to say that this musical has no real set and a vague plot that takes two hours to develop (a large portion of the second act was the drug-induced hallucinations of the protagonist, for instance). It's mostly just a bunch of hippies dancing around and singing songs about having multiple sexual partners. My main problem was that there was usually 10+ people singing and I couldn't understand anything they were saying. Also, a lot of the elements that were risqué in 1968 are just kind of cheeky and cute nowadays. For instance, one of the main themes involves males with long hair. In my opinion, that has been a dead issue for a long time. Some guys have long hair, some don't. No one really cares anymore. It has come in and out of fashion several times in the past 50 years. There was lots of stuff like that.

I looked a lot of places, but I couldn't find a version of this that sounded as good as the one we saw live. We had a great cast, apparently. Let the Sunshine In. The ultimate refrain. Cool vocal harmonies. One of the catchiest tunes ever. Again, I had no idea this song was from Hair. The song is famous in its own right and is used in other movies and even some commercials. At the end they invited tons of people up on stage for the reprise. It was funny. There were a lot of excited 60-somethings strutting their stuff on stage. The whole thing had an atmosphere closer to that of a concert. I feel like it was maybe the most informal thing that has ever played at the Opera House, hehe.

Yesterday, we went to Home Depot and picked out some potential flooring for the basement. I liked the stuff we were looking at, but it would come to $1200-1500 after installation. So, we have something to think about. First we have to do the ceiling.

Stephen was really good this morning. It's been over a week since I could say that. It's amazing how teething ravishes a baby's body sometimes. Diarrhea, pain, diaper rash, drooling, fever, loss of appetite, odd sleep patterns. When he opens his mouth, it looks like he has a full set of teeth except for canines. I haven't tried to count them in a while because he uses his teeth primarily as weapons.

Stephen needs only the slightest excuse to get as angry as possible. I don't even understand. It's as obnoxious as you can possibly get, with some violence thrown in for good measure. If you do or say one thing that he doesn't like, he either spits his food onto the floor, knocks everything off the coffee table, or tries to inflict damage on us or our computers. My wife can attest to the fact that this happens at least 100 times a day. You know he is trying to intentionally anger you or hurt you. It's hard to stay calm and be the adult in that situation. He is doing everything he can to bring you down to his level of kicking and spitting and biting.

He is really good at walking in all different situations now. To go out to the car, I just hold his hand and he plops down the front steps with me. When we get to the car, I just barely lift him up into the back seat and he crawls into his car seat all by himself and waits to be strapped in. It's so much easier! Also, he can go get his own shoes, socks, and jacket and bring them back when we're all getting dressed and ready to leave. Then he calmly sits in my lap while we put everything on.

Stephen is to the age where all of his outfits are adorable. He wears real shirts and real pants with functional pockets, zipper, and snaps instead of a button. His shoes actually lace up and tie. He wears a real pullover if it's chilly out. Now all of his clothes are miniaturized adult clothing and it's so cute every time.

He can go up and down the stairs efficiently now, and he does so whenever he pleases. If he wants to go into the basement, he just goes downstairs. Simple as that. Yesterday I just followed him around the house all morning as he went into every bathroom and slammed the door in my face, laughing all the while. Then when I would open the door, he would bolt out and head across the house with a big laugh.

Jaime's car was acting up this morning before she left, so I told her to take my car to work. It's almost... refusing to put gas in the engine when you hit the pedal. It was like it wouldn't get in gear, but it was definitely switching gears without any issue and moving on its own. The only thing I can think of is a clog in the fuel injector, so I'm going to take it out and give it a LOT of gas when the weather warms up. We actually have an appointment (for an oil change) for this car tomorrow morning. It's going to be more interesting than an oil change, for sure.

Isn't this why we bought a new car off the lot (~250mi on the odometer)? What is going on here? Bloody hell..

Stephen protests mightily during 90% of his diaper changes nowadays. I know this is normal and inevitable, but it's still hard to deal with. He screams, kicks, and does barrel rolls while I'm trying to change him. I'm not sure if he thinks it's a waste of time (would rather be playing) or if he just doesn't want me to have control over him for one minute. The only time he doesn't mind being changed is right after he wakes up. He can not stand to be fed, either. He has to be feeding himself and smearing food in his hair or he's not happy.

We have reached the age where the child can pick up bad habits from his parents. We began to refrain from cursing around him when he turned 1, but there are other things he picks up on that he shouldn't. He loves to stick his index finger in his nose, and my wife can not seem to stop herself from laughing (and therefore encouraging him). Also, whenever I open the door to the bathroom on the main floor, Stephen goes in and spits in the toilet. There's no way that I can blame that one on his mother. Two minutes ago he was trimming his thumb nail.... with his teeth. This can't be good.

He may or may not be saying his first word: "uh-huh." He says it while nodding his head. He answers every single question with an "uh-huh," which makes me believe he doesn't quite have a handle on it. He listens for you to raise your voice at the end of a sentence (the vocal intonation used for a question) and answers "uh-huh" to everything. He understands a lot of words now and he loves to help. He helps me feed the dogs, empty the dishwasher, and even clean up his toys. He loves cooking--watching me cook, or pretending to cook and ruining my pots.

My parents, grandmother, and great aunt came through here on Monday. Having six adults in our house is like having two dozen adults in your house. It felt good to make a big dinner and have everyone around the table. Six is the maximum for our table (two on each side and one on each end), and Stephen ate in his highchair. It also involved juggling with limited counter space in the kitchen to get everything finished at the same time. Classy Chicken, mashed potatoes, "homestyle" macaroni and cheese, cottage cheese. Later we had sundaes and everything was a pleasant success. It took three loads of dishes to catch up with that meal.

It started off simple enough. Stephen sitting on my lap, facing me as I laid back on the couch. Playing, having fun.

If you know anything about the goings-on in this house, you know that Stephen is turning into a very late talker. He's nearly 17 months and he hasn't said his first word. For "Dada," he says "aaah-Da" most of the time, but there's no consistency at all. He can say "mamamama" but he can't say "Mama." So anyway, we were on the couch and I just said "Stephen, say Mama." Now, I wasn't expecting him to say it correctly.. I just wanted him to say "rahrah" or "mamamama" like he usually does, about 50 times a day.

So, he refused to even try.. at first he was being cute and trying to escape, a smirk on his face the entire time. I just kept asking him to say "Mama" and he was getting more and more angry. Five minutes later, he was a crying, snotty mess trying to escape from my lap. I know for a fact that he knew what I was saying and that he can easily attempt to say "Mama." In other words, I was certain that I was not being mean or asking too much of him.

At some point, I decided that it was time for Stephen to learn that his dad is stubborn, especially when he's making reasonable requests. So we did this for fifteen minutes. By then his whole head/face was red, his hair was soaked with sweat, and he had collapsed onto my chest and was catching his breath. When I would say "Stephen, can you say mama?" he would whimper a little, but he was completely drained of energy.

After another five minutes, he was my best friend again. He attempted to say "mama" with a smile, and I let him down and gave him some milk. I'd like to think I was doing the right thing (being firm and following through while remaining calm), but sometimes it feels like I'm just asserting my dominance for no reason.