Anniversary

You might think that the reason I haven't blogged is because I've locked myself away to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and you would be partly right. But really I just have not had as much time to read as I would like. I'm on 227 right now and it seems like everywhere I go people are reading it or wanting to tell me what happens. I'm still trying to figure out how my prediction that Snape is really a good guy will come true, but it's not looking good right now.

I blogged earlier that Henry was taking swim lessons and it was not going well. We had a lesson on Monday and he cried pretty much the whole way through it. He acted like he was terrified of the water. I was really dreading his next lesson on Wednesday. I went by to see Korienne on Wednesday morning and I was telling her my feelings of dread and embarrassment about the upcoming lesson. She said that her little girl was exactly the same way. She is also the oldest in the class and cries and screams when they have to dive. (That sounds like a much more advanced class than Henry's, but anyway...) Katherine is two and a half and Korienne assured me that she knew my pain. That made me feel a little better. Anyway, long story short, Henry did very well at lessons on Wednesday. He was happy in the water, participated in all the games, and did all the skills. The only part he didn't like was when the instructor pulled him away from me. He just whimpered a little, but that didn't have anything to do with the water. He got "most improved" diaper dolphin! He even got a certificate!


I guess every parent thinks their child is intelligent, but here are some reasons we think Henry is a smart little guy:

1. We gave him some keys to play with and he immediately took them over to the door and began trying to put them into the lock.

2. Today he put together a sentence for the first time: "Papa bye bye" as Chad was walking out the carport door. (He said Papa and signed bye bye, but that still counts, right?)

3. When he is into something he shouldn't be and we say "no" he tries to distract us by calling the Hogs.

4. When he saw a cartoon picture of a dog in a book, he signed dog.


Chad and I had our five year anniversary on Friday night. Chad surprised me and got the same room we stayed in on our wedding night at Inn at the Mill. They had a wine and cheese happy hour and a complimentary breakfast. It was very sweet. We watched our wedding DVD, which we have only done one other time in five years. My aunt Kristina married us and during the service she talked about happiness. She said that she hoped that we would remember July 27, 2002 as one of the happiest days of our lives. Honestly I didn't think that we would have much time or energy to enjoy our wedding, but we ended up having had a blast. It truly was one of the happiest days of my life. They finally had to make us leave the reception because we were some of the last people there. My parents deserve much of the credit for our happy wedding day. It was nice to be able to relive it. (I apologize for the sappiness if you are about to gag!)

A Valance Effort

Well...it took us 8 hours, but the valance is complete! Henry has a cowboy theme in his room so we did a red bandanna print. I think it looks pretty cute and very boyish. I actually did sew some of the tabs, but my mom had to do anything that required a really straight seam. Thanks Mom!

(Haven't had time to read any Harry Potter, but I did pick up my copy this morning.)

Karl Anthony

Henry's new cousin's name is Karl Anthony. Karl with a "K"--the Swedish way. We have several Karl's in our Swedish line including my uncle's son Karl Johan. Karin also has many Karl's on her dad's German side, so it is very fitting. It sounds very royal, doesn't it? Speaking of royalty, below is a picture of Karl in his crib. Aunt Brynn insisted on taking a picture of him crying before Karin could feed him--I feel a little guilty, but it was for the sake of the blog. It looks like a bed fit for a little prince. My mother made the canopy and the bumper pad. She's going to teach me how to sew tomorrow. We are going to make a valance for Henry's window. She says there's nothing to it, but she is known to be pretty optimistic sometimes. We'll see.


Henry has had an eventful week. I signed him up for some swimming lessons with one of our neighbors. Wednesday was our first day of Diaper Dolphins and I'll have to say, Henry acted more like a cat in water than a dolphin. He was very scared of the water and cried or was on the brink of crying nearly the whole time. The only reprieve was when the instructor got out these plastic balls and dumped them into the water. I think Henry forgot he was in the water and was distracted by the balls momentarily. Did I mention that Henry was the oldest dolphin in the class? All the other babies acted like they were thrilled to be there. They were even putting their faces in the water! I was a little embarrassed by the whole ordeal, so after the class I decided that Henry needed socialization. Maybe it was the combination of strangers and water that threw him off. So the next day I took him to Baby Bookworm at the public library and he loved it. He obviously doesn't mind strangers because as soon as we got there he pried my hands off him and ran out into the middle of the circle. He also saw several of his friends there: Lillian, Jack, Violet, and Hamilton. I think I already knew that it wasn't the people that scared him, it was the water. After all, Henry attended his first party at the age of six weeks (Cory's rehearsal dinner) and his latest one was 4th of July at the Kendall's cabin and there have been many in between. My little dolphin will be trying the water again on Monday, so wish us luck.

What's a Birthday Without a Birth or Two?

Yesterday was my birthday and it was indeed wild and crazy! In fact, I stayed out until 3 a.m. I can't remember when that happened last. It's probably not what you think.

My brother's wife went into labor yesterday afternoon. My mother had planned a very nice birthday dinner for me, but when we found out Karin was in labor we scarfed down the food so we could get to Willow Creek immediately. Turns out we could have eaten a leisurely dinner and still had 5 or 6 hours to spare, but who knew? The still nameless baby boy arrived about 1:45 a.m. He just barely missed my birthday. He was 7 lbs. 5 oz. and has a little bit of brown hair and dark blue eyes (which I have yet to see). He is adorable. I think he looks like Erik--especially the lips.

Notice that post-delivery Karin (below) looks happier than pre-delivery Karin (with Henry and Erik above).

Doesn't Karin look good?

While we were waiting for baby Berry, I had plenty of time to scope out Korienne's baby girl, Rosie. Korienne is a colleague of mine. She had Rosie on my birthday and they were at Willow Creek too. Rosie is tiny and, of course, cute too! She is only 5 lbs. and something.

We had a teacher work day on Friday and Korienne was there. We were joking that we might have to deliver her baby during our meeting on Friday. Little did we know, that almost became a reality. Korienne had Rosie within one hour of arriving. They didn't even have time to get her to a delivery room or give her an epidural.

All babies and mamas are doing fine.

Korienne, Rosie, and Kathrine

If Henry Had a My Space Page....

Height:
2' 8"

Weight: 24lbs. 3oz.

Birthday: May 8

Age: 14 months

Hair: brown

Eyes: blue

Favorite color: red
(I have proved this over and over again in some semi-scientific tests where Mom & Dad put three of the same toy in three different colors -- I always grab the red one.)

Favorite book: I See a Puppy

Favorite song: "Muffin Man"

Useful skills: walking, calling the Hogs (see above picture), brushing my six teeth with a mechanical Dora the Explorer toothbrush, pretend combing my hair, pretend putting my shoes & socks on, playing peek-a-boo, turning a somersault (with assistance), stacking blocks, high-fives.

Words I can say: Mama, Papa, bye bye or any combination of these three (such as: Ma-pa, Pa-ba, etc...)

Sign language signs I know: milk, all done, water, help, eat, goodbye, dog

Likes: Clapping, dogs (mainly terrorizing Jerome), rides in my wagon/stroller, Baby Einstein DVD's, stacking blocks, stacking rings, stacking cups (anything that stacks or nests), playing with water faucets, using my bottle full of milk as a paintbrush on the carpet (not popular with Mom & Dad), pushing buttons on keyboards, stereos or televisions (also not popular with Mom & Dad), "helping" unload the dishwasher, ceiling fans, Cheerios.

Dislikes: generic brand Cheerios, watermelon, bananas, when people blow their noses, bedtime, getting out of the bathtub, having my dirty face wiped, naptime.

Zodiac sign: Taurus

Chinese zodiac sign: Dog

Status: single, but looking (mostly under the couch)

Too Tired to Copy and Paste

Have you ever been too tired to copy and paste? Not likely. My last post really wore me out and I had to take the day off yesterday. Let me explain. This new laptop is different--the built-in mouse is taking some getting used to and I got really frustrated trying to post my pictures. I couldn't copy and paste them in the right spot. I tried and tried and tried. I'm embarrassed to say how long I worked at this until finally I got so discouraged that I called Chad to help me. The good news is that today copying and pasting is easy, so I guess I'll just write it off to being tired.

This week is work week for me. I have a meeting on Friday with the social studies department and we will be developing lessons that fit our new state frameworks. To prepare for this I have been studying the frameworks, typing vocabulary words, and developing lessons (so far just in my head.) I guess the good news is that if I attend this meeting, I get a day off in the fall during the week of the War Eagle arts and crafts fair. I guess it will all be worth it in the end, but I am not accustomed to working in the summer. (I know...all you 8 to 5ers don't feel a bit sorry for me, but you could have become a teacher too ya know.)

My mother kept Henry on Monday and he came back to us in the cutest little outfit. She saved some of my brother's clothes from the 70's, so don't run off to your nearest boutique to try to find it. We'll not call it old, it's vintage--complete with a little John Travolta-esque pointy collar. Speaking of Henry, he is always doing something new. Today I was humming one of his songs from his toy I-pod and I swear he started humming it too. It was sorta like he was singing his first song--very cute!

A Considerably Large Canyon

Chad and I took little impromptu vacation last week. My parents have a condo in Durango, CO and it was just recently remodeled, so we decided to check it out. This trip was taken with a little apprehension because A) we have never been away from Henry for that long, and B) my brother and his wife are expecting their first child on July 19. We knew that Henry would be well taken care of at my parents house, but my sister-in-law was under strict instructions not to give birth until we were back. It all worked out, and we are still anxiously awaiting the arrival of little Karl Erik, or Patrick, or Hans, or Diego...or whatever they decide to name him. (Did you notice my subtle suggestions?)

Anyway, it sorta worked out where Chad got to plan the first leg of our trip (more on that later) and I got to plan "the way home," which naturally ended up heading west instead of east. It has been a dream of mine to see the Grand Canyon, so on our way home we stopped by. My cousin Andrea lives in Phoenix and we decided to meet up at Grand Canyon and camp. Andrea called us on the way there with a weather report for the Canyon--expect 100+ during the day and 37 degrees at night. Does that seem strange to anyone else but me? How can Mother Nature be that cruel? How can two people in a little Forester prepare for such extremes when the car is already loaded to the gills?

People always say this, but it's true: the Grand Canyon truly is grand. I knew it would be considerably large, but there is no way to capture its enormity on film. Keeping that in mind, here are some photos that can't possibly do it justice.

A Rookie Blogger

A new blog of my very own! I've been saying since the spring that I wanted to start a blog, but I knew I wouldn't have time until summer break rolled around. Blogging seems so narcissistic and self-indulgent, but who cares, right?

Chad set me up with my blog (Isn't he sweet?) and apparently the first thing you have to do is name your blog. The naming process stressed me out a little. It's almost like naming a child, and those of you who know us know how much trouble we had with that. Chad suggested "Brynnsights" or "Brynntuition"--and as a matter of fact, those are not taken, if you can imagine that! We checked. But I decided to go with something else, so for all those Brynn's out there starting a blog maybe we can have a small stipend if you decide to go with one of our names.

Are there any rules of etiquette regarding blogging? I don't have any idea. I haven't even spent much time reading blogs, much less writing one. I'm a rookie blogger--do I need to set some goals or have a mission statement or something? I will primarily be using this blog to write about daily occurrences. I have relatives in Sweden, Arizona, and California so maybe this will be a way for them to keep up with what Henry and the rest of the family is up to. Henry is changing so quickly it is hard to keep up with his little stages--even for us!

On another note: MY BROTHER IS AWESOME! (Genius brothers sorta run in the family, and my brother is no exception.) Thanks to him I am sitting here with my new laptop on my back patio posting my first blog. The temperature is perfect and the sun is just fading behind the horizon. Here's how it happened:

Yesterday he came over to try to fix my dinosaur computer. It was really slow and locking up and crashing all the time. He said he felt certain he could fix it, and in fact, it is working much faster now, but in the process he asked if I was sure I didn't just want a new one. He said (really politely), "The good news is that Windows Millennium was the last version of Windows that really sucked." I guess he felt I needed to be brought up to the modern age. I had been thinking about getting a laptop ever since I took my dinosaur in to MegaByte about 6 months ago and the guy behind the counter asked me if I was sure I wanted to invest in fixing it. Anyway, that's how it all happened and now after many hours of shopping and hooking up stuff yesterday, here I am tonight enjoying my new computer--thanks bro.

Chad and I really have had an exciting summer, so maybe tomorrow I'll get to the meat of what we have been doing.