A few hours at the Beach in Carmel

We went to the beach with Kate and Nat. The waves were huge and the sand soft. Fun for the kids, stressful for the adults.

Life with Henry, 5 months old

Henry is growing by leaps and bounds, and not just in size! It seems like every morning he wakes up with a newly honed skill or sound that he's ready to share with the world. This morning as he very deliberately waved a toy around that he was proudly gripping, he was looking at Olivia and me as though he wanted to say "Hey, check me out. Did you know I can do this?" His favorite noise lately is the "Hoooooot." He does this particularly upon waking up, which is adorable after naps and first thing in the morning but much less adorable in the middle of the night. "Hooooot. Hooooooooot hoooot!" sang Henry at 1, and at 2:30, and at 3:30, and at 5 this morning. This morning we had our typical wake up routine: Henry started to stir beside me around 7, waking up big sister who had been deposited in bed with us by the Dad at 6. (She's going through a "lonely" phase right now.) In response to the hoots, Olivia wakes up and coos, "Hi, Big Boy!" which results in huge smiles, squirms and kicks from little brother. Olivia then proceeds to entertain Henry for a solid 10 minutes while I get dressed, brush teeth, etc. I'm surprised that she's not tired of him yet and that every morning she's excited all over again to play with Henry. Henry is not phased by loud sounds, which is a good thing for his relationship with his sister. She is loud, and is fond of yelling "BOOOOOOOZE!" in his face, which sends him into gales of laughter. When the landscapers jackhammered out our driveway, Henry slept through it the first day... when they started up again the second day, he smiled and totally lit up at the sound of the jackhammer. In the last couple of weeks, this love of loud things has transferred to a fascination with large moving vehicles. The excitement of dropping big sis off at school in the morning (and oh boy is this EXCITING for a baby! all the BIG KIDS!) has been augmented by buses that pass when we're coming or going - Henry is a big fan of buses or large, noisy trucks, watches them closely and kicks and smiles in excitement. Henry is also a champion cuddler. Upon waking up, or sometimes for no discernible reason, he just cuddles into your shoulder and grips you. (And this boy has a strong grip.) His favorite move right now is to cuddle for a bit, resting on my shoulder, then to pull back and look at me and smile coyly, then cuddle a bit more. This of course is heart-meltingly sweet. He will also - and this is something he's done since 2 months old - initiate socializing with the barest lift of his right eyebrow. Little eyebrow lift, then a little twinkle in his eye, then a bit of a smile, and when you smile back he gives you the full-on, gaping toothless grin. But toothless no more, I should correct myself: Henry now has both middle bottom teeth. Sweet is the word I use most often to describe Henry, and it's also how I would describe the Henry-Olivia dynamic. There are occasional injuries to Henry's person, but these are always as a result of Olivia's exuberance and wacky energy - so far, at least, there haven't been any deliberate attempts to hurt her wee bro. At least not that I've noticed! I'm sure the day will come, though. For now they're a good sibling match, and it will be interesting to see how it develops as they get older.

Oakland Zoo with Halle, Sam and Trish