Holy Henry

Henry was baptized on Sunday. We were all pretty exhausted from a tough battle with croup the night before but he did quite well during the ceremony. No tears or cries, just a lot of snot bubbles and a big noisy burp during Mass. Kristin and I (and Henry) would like to thank Jeremy and Jess for being Henry’s godparents, my parents for having everyone over afterwards, and all attendees. Traveling with kids is a pain, so I know it wasn't easy making it to the church on time. I’ll give extra props to my mom who made many of my favorite dishes to eat during the Packer game.

Ready for Church

With his Godparents; Uncle Jeremy + Auntie Jess

The dunking

Snapped the photo right before Cole decided to bonk Henry on the head

Henry and his Grandmas - in the dress that I, his Uncle Jeremy and Cole wore. It was a tight squeeze, he had super sausage baby arms

For comparison sake - Cole with the Grandmas at his baptism

In other news Henry now has two teeth and is on the move a lot. He mostly does baby pushups and planks but it starting to experiment with actual crawling moves.

St. Nick did come to visit Cole this year and he couldn't have cared less. It was a long process trying to get him to dig stuff out of his stocking. I am sure opening Christmas presents will be like pulling teeth and take all day.

Barely intersted

Finally digging towards the bottom

 

And its a book...yeah! Actually he likes books a lot. I'm afraid his reading level will soon surpass mine.

Cole has started to hide and will ask us, "Where did Cole go?" Unfortunately he is a horrible hider. This is him trying to hide behind the chair. As you can see, he is in plain sight. Although this is a step up from his usual, which is to hold a crayon or cup over his face and ask us "Where did Cole go?" It is getting tough to pretend and play along!

Shopping Requirements

I thought this to be an appropriate post with Christmas on its way. Over the years, all two of them, my little men have received some questionable gifts ranging from girl toys and girl clothes to well, things I just don’t like or deem appropriate for tough guys like Cole and Henry.  I decided this list was necessary when Kristin and her Mom recently went birthday cake shopping for Cole. Kristin sent me two pics of cakes they were considering. One was a cake with some construction equipment, trucks and things like that. The other was of some sissy-looking dog in a doghouse. They ended up buying the construction site cake, but just the consideration of the others makes me nervous. Kristin also sent Christmas stocking options for Henry. Two of the three choices were clearly for girls. I created the list below to help guide Kristin and the grandmas when they go shopping for the boys. I hope it helps.

Things encouraged

1. Balls: If it involves balls it's okay. (Lets be adults and not make any bad jokes here).

2. Trucks, cars, and motorcycles

3. Sports: Brewers, Packers, and Badger items are all permitted. Even Admirals, UWM Panthers, and Marquette items are acceptable. (Milwaukee Wave stuff is still under consideration, but probably won't be allowed).

5. Animals: Items involving animals are okay as long as they are not dressed up in any cutesy manner.

6. Super Heroes: Super hero stuff is fine. Even Wonder Women stuff as long as she is properly posed in her skimpy outfit.

Things to avoid

1. Nothing pink. If it is pink or partly pink just put it back.

2. No dolls and please understand the difference between dolls and action figures. Action figures are allowed.

3. No Pokemon, fake pets, or whatever the latest craze is in weird kids stuff. There's always something. Let's just stick to normal toys.

4. For further clarification - super hero stuff is allowed; however, solo Robin gear is not. The Batman is required.

5. Anything with or involving flowers is obviously not allowed.

Generally speaking, when in doubt don't buy it. Otherwise you know how to reach me to double check.

Pink Eye City

I always knew this day would come and always hoped I would not be home when it happened. Unfortunately I was not only home but in charge of Cole when he decided to poop in the tub. I had just finished washing Cole and was letting him play in the tub while I got a jump on shaving off my Thanksgiving break beard.
I turned around and saw broken bits of turds all over and then two giant logs floated by. I screamed like a girl for Kristin. She came running and told me later she thought she was walking into another ER visit situation.  After calling for backup my first reaction was to laugh about it but then I realized we only have one tub, so cleanup was going to be difficult. I had to pick up Cole and hold him by the tub. We obviously didn’t want a boy covered in poo water running around the house. He was shivering since we yanked him out of a toasty warm bath but I was not in the mood for snuggling. Kristin grabbed a Dixie cup and started scooping out the big turds and tossing them in the toilet.  Henry’s bath chair and various tub toys had to be tossed in the bathroom sink for a run through the dishwasher later.  As Kristin got out the bleach I started to panic.  It started to feel like poop was everywhere. The tub, chair, sink, and anything in Cole’s limited reach, including my forearms. It was like the movie Outbreak and the poop particles went airborne. Kristin cleaned the tub and we got Cole re-bathed and in his jammies. Since I was holding Cole and he was all over my forearms I felt I needed to jump in the shower right away. I felt better after my shower, but I can’t shake the feeling that things, myself included, have poop on them. Then I start thinking if we missed just one spot cleaning it’s pink eye city. And I don’t want pink eye. I dread calling into work to tell them I literally got crap in my eye.

The Never Ending Party

Yesterday marked the end of Cole's many birthday celebrations. He was a much celebrated little man and we had a blast singing, opening presents and helping Cole say, "I'm two!"

We kicked off Cole's birthday season with a celebration at the Grandparents Fuchs while we were all there enjoying an early Thanksgiving feast.

The present of all presents...a big Doodle

On Thanksgiving Cole was further showered with gifts by the Grandparents Fuchs who were going to miss his real birthday. Those pictures are trapped on Grandma Debbie's camera...probably never to be seen until 2014 when her memory card finally fills up.

The next day we threw Cole a "construction-themed" party and invited all our friends and kids. We had hoped to get a fun picture of all the babies lined up by age but sadly once everyone arrived, reality set in and we realized there was hardly time to get a picture of Cole and his cake! Everyone was very generous and I think we all had a nice time. Below is a picture of Cole modeling his most stylish gift.

Cole's last birthday fete was Wednesday night, on his real second birthday. The Grandparents Stear, Uncle Ben and Auntie Jess came over for chili, more cake and more presents. Cole's favorites seemed to be the cake and singing. He also got super excited when he opened some new jammies. We did let him stay up WAAAY past his bedtime to color his new rocket ship with Nick and Uncle Ben.

We are now headed over to my parent's to spend the day with Uncle Ben before returns to Philly tomorrow...I hear there are a few more birthday presents waiting to be opened. As evidenced by the above Cole is quite a lucky little guy. We can not believe he is two already - our baby is now a big boy.

Picture Day

Today was time again for some Fuchs family photos. I already hate getting my picture taken, and seeing that Cole is almost two and entering "terrible two" land we had an idea it was going to be a bit of a rough time...but this was extra bad. Seriously, it was horrible. Cole was on his worst behavior ever. He would not sit for any pictures. He threw a fit for pretty much the entire hour and a half the photographer was here. He only sat still when we put on Blue's Clues, which is why you will notice his blank stare. We thought going down to the Lake would help lift his mood and he would loosen up a bit but we (Kristin) made the mistake of taking a ball with us to entice him. Never did we (Kristin) think he would insist on holding the ball in every photo. That was not our preference. Plus, if there had to be a ball in the picture to make him happy, I would have hoped Kristin would have at least grabbed a football...not thrilled about the soccer ball.

Henry did a great job though. He really loves to smile and was hamming it up. I have a feeling we may only walk away from this with pictures of Henry. I know for sure that there are no cute Henry and Cole pictures together. We tried to have them sit next to each other, but Cole was not fan and quickly pushed Henry away so we just gave up. I think the closest we got was when we separated them by a pillow. I guess I should just be happy we don't have to do this again for awhile. I am definitely putting the cost of this photo shoot on Cole's "money owed" list.

Click below for a preview, it might be worth it just to see the picture where it looks like Kristin is missing some teeth. Thanks for nothing Cole.

Type A Images

Man Whore?

It has come to my attention that Henry may be bit of a player...even at his young age he has much better luck with the ladies than his Father. To date Henry has three potential brides...how will he choose? When Henry does get together with his many lady friends we are usually so busy making sure he doesn't roll over and smother them (he is a giant and they are all so dainty) we don't have time to photodocument.

Hanky and Zoey

Cole also has some marriage proposals lined up as well but those offers may be withdrawn now that this photo is on the web. He just loves doing the splits. I think he should play the field anyway.

Pajama Party?

Not sure if Kristin will let me post this blog, but I'll give it a try. (If you didn't know she does function as Senior Editor). I suspect a day long pajama party is going on in my absence. Kristin has been staying home with the kids for awhile now...we won't get into how long, but thanks to the economy it has been longer than expected. It seems she has gotten into a routine; however, I'm just not sure what is involved in that routine. My biggest concern is that the day is spent as one long pajama party. When I leave work everyone is pretty much out of bed, so I know they are not sleeping all day, but when I get home everyone seems to be wearing the same clothes - their pajamas. So what happens during the day? I know this; it is not showering or getting dressed. The kids get baths every night. Kristin does not. Just saying. Do they just play in the playroom? Are they eating? Who knows. Do kids need exercise? If they do they may not be getting it.

In all fairness, I know Kristin is not lying around the house all day eating bon bons, and I'm sure she is very active with the children. It just seems all too familiar when I get home and everyone is in the same spot wearing the same clothes as they were when I left home nine or so hours earlier. I leave and everyone is in the playroom in their pajamas. I get home and everyone is in the playroom in their pajamas.

I found some evidence: Notice how the boys are mostly wearing their jammies.

Eating

Cole colors while Henry relaxes

Lion wrestling

Or love making

Not sure...

More chillin' for Henry. I actually do know he pretty much eats and chills all day.

Jumping

Cole plays music. Henry listens.

Bummer Weekend

This turned out to be a let down of a weekend. Well, except for Friday. Cole made me a birthday cake and Jess and Dan babysat so Kristin and I could go see Moneyball. On Saturday, Kristin and I spent the day running around trying to get our costumes put together for a Halloween party we were headed to that night. We (and some others) were dressing up as the cast of the Jersey Shore.

I believe this hairdo is called a "blow out" or "frohawk"

We made it to the party but ended up getting called to pick up the kids from Grandma and Grandpa Stear's house. Kristin's Grandma had to go to the hospital. Obviously leaving a party under those circumstances was not a big deal and thankfully it turned out to be nothing and she is fine. It actually saved us some money and I'm sure a doozy of a hangover.

On Sunday we had plans to go trick or treating with the Highs. A couple hours before we were supposed to head over there Cole got a fever and we had to cancel. Looks like we were just not meant to do anything this weekend. We are just happy Cole and Henry are not at an age to care about trick or treating. Although, I was pretty upset about missing out on the candy. Luckily I'm a grown up and can just go buy myself some later.

On top of it, when Kristin and I were discussing our groceries for the week we agreed to get some veggies and dill dip.  Somehow she forgot and bought Southwest Veggie Ranch dip instead.  I mean, we just talked about it. What the hell? Needless to say I was disappointed. Probably the biggest disappointment of the weekend.

We did finally go trick or treating on Monday night in Kristin's parent's neighborhood, and of course took pics throughout the weekend.

Check out this dick in a box. Just kidding Cole.

The Doodle

Cole has a new best friend and it goes everywhere he goes. Can you spot the Magna Doodle in the following pictures? Cole loves this thing SO much he has been known to wake up in the middle of the night wailing for his "doodle." We are pretty lax on where the doodle can travel with the exception of nap time and bedtime. Never has a Magna Doodle been so loved; Cole spends his days drawing circles, paw prints and squares. He also likes to write his numbers (1, 2, 3...9) and pretends to spell his name (C-O-O-O, paw print!).

Super Hank

Henry's growing fast and seems to be getting bigger by the day. I think he might be the strongest baby ever and I'm looking forward to having a linebacker in our crew. I'm envisioning Cole as a wide receiver right now. He is already pretty good at catching a ball. Looks like both kids are overcoming their mother's genes and Kristin won't be setting a trend for special ed gym recommendations.

I will have to start informing Cole that he better be a nice older brother. I think Henry may be as big and strong as Cole sooner rather than later. I swear Henry was holding his head up at the hospital by the time we were leaving. I know, probably not true but he still started to hold his head up very early. He rolled over awhile ago and now is crawling. Granted he worms about a centimeter at a time, but it's still crawling in my book. The weekly video (more like monthly+) shows him rolling over. We will post a crawling video soon. Please note our camera does not do slow-motion. It is his current speed...snail.

Weekend Randoms

Some pictures of what the boys have been up to lately - from the weekend and beyond.

Laundry basket love

Fun with empty boxes

Cole collecting Bumbos at a children's store

Visit to the library - collecting all the copies of the same two books. Must be a good one.

Hopefully Cole and Henry will always get along this well. Although I realize it is not likely, so I will just hope that Cole starts wearing pants more often.

Once Henry started to use the bouncy chair and bumbo Cole loved them more than ever. The latest is the Jumperoo.

Henry at 4 months

Fun raking leaves at Grandpa Stear's house

Henry's first bite of rice cereal (almost real food)

Double Shorts - Cole was insistent on wearing his blue pajama shorts over his normal brown shorts. Not sure why. What a weirdo. 

Cole acting a little goofy. He decided to throw on the winter hat, line up some empty laundry baskets, and step in and out of them. A typical Monday morning activity for most of us.

Still sad about the Brewers.

My brother and I went to Game 6 of the NLCS. Sadly this is the Cardinals celebrating at Miller Park. Look at all that red. Makes me want to cry.