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.