Saturday night, Dave, Henry and I went to the grand opening of Ele’s new store, Love in Bloom Maternity. It was a fabulous affair, like all of Ele’s parties.
Pregnant? You should check out the loads of fabulous clothes and accessories they carry!
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I just can’t believe that Henry is one! It’s amazing how fast time flies. He’s just gone in for his one year checkup and everything seems to be fine. He is 21 pounds, 15 ounces (37th percentile), 30 inches (63rd percentile) and his head is 18.5 inches around (69th percentile). He has dropped in weight percentile, but shot up in the length and head circumference categories. He’s going to be skinny, smart and tall. Sound like someone you know?
Henry's 12 Month Growth Chart
It’s helpful to inventory milestones and it’s been a while since I have, so here’s what he’s up to these days.
OK, that’s all I can think of to add for now. He’s just the cutest little thing you’ve ever seen. I feel like someone slipped me a Mickey because I know he can’t possibly be the world’s cutest baby, can he…? But when I look at him, all bets are off. I love to see his sweet face at the end of a long day, and hold him when he’s tired. I like to watch him sleep. This whole motherhood thing is an amazing trip. It’s impossible to describe without having been through it. I just widen my eyes in surprise every day at the feelings I feel and the wonder of it all. I can’t believe a year with him has already come and gone.
Y: The Last Man
I finally finished this 10-book graphic novel.
I really enjoyed it, another success courtesy of Brian K. Vaughn. However, I thought the ending was a little weak. Or just disappointing. I’ve been trying to figure out why and I think it’s the same reason I was disappointed with the end of Battlestar Galactica. But, sorry, no spoilers…
Still, I would unconditionally recommend this series to anyone who wants an easy read full of Pop Culture goodies.
The Watchmen
I decided I had to read this prior to seeing the film, and I’m glad I did. The movie was nicely done and I thought it was really fun to watch on the big screen. Though I coulda done without blueman’s bits on the screen. I was sad they changed the ending because I really wanted to see the alien, but Dave and I both think the original ending and revised ending both have the same problems. Still, worth watching if only for entertainment purposes. I’d recommend the book, too.
The Happiest Toddler on the Block
Having loved The Happiest Baby on the Block I decided to give this one a try. The premise is that toddlers (1-4) are like little cavemen, whose primitive instincts and gut reactions rule their world. Trying to rationalize with your toddler is not an effective strategy. Karp has a few theories that he presents in a kind of annoying way, where he keeps repeating his points over and over again. Ultimately, the biggest piece of advice he has is about how to communicate with your toddler – by speaking toddler-ese. You know how you talk to a baby by saying “Good! Good job! Cup. You drank from your cup!”? Well, he suggests keeping the same tone and abbreviated syntax when dealing with a negative situation. For example, “Mad! Henry is mad! Play outside! Henry wants to play outside! But no, it’s raining.” It’s totally weird. It feels weird and sounds weird and is so unnatural. But he’s got a point. So far, though, it hasn’t worked for me and Henry. There is a video that goes with this book that I’d like to watch. It’s supposed to help make sense of the book. So, I’d say I’d give this three out of five stars and would recommend with reservations.
The Wizard of Oz
After having read Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, I feel compelled to read the original. I’ve requested it on audio book from the library and hope it doesn’t let me down. That being said, I’m not sure what my expectations are. I guess I expect that it’s not going to be a musical, and I’m hoping that the story is slightly different from the movie. The last time I watched the movie, I was a bit let down by it all.
Son of a Witch
Maguire‘s first Oz novel was certainly engaging enough. There’s no reason not to read the sequel.
What are you reading?
A silly Facebook meme that took too long, so I’m cross-posting.
Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Naturally, I chose David Bowie.
Are you male or female: Pallas Athena
Describe yourself: Always Crashing In The Same Car
How do you feel about yourself: Can’t Help Thinking About Me
Describe where you currently live: A New Career In A New Town
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Fantastic Voyage
Your best friend is: Soul Love
How you feel about your ex: Dodo
Your favorite color is: Golden Years
You know that: Speed Of Life
What’s the weather like: Chilly Down
If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: Moonage Daydream
What is life to you: Sound And Vision
What is the best advice you have to give: Hang On To Yourself
If you could change your name, what would it be: Algeria Touchshriek
Your favorite food is: We are Hungry Men
What do you wish other people would do: Sell Me a Coat
We celebrated Henry’s first birthday on Sunday, the day before his birthday (March 2nd). It was so awesome and super fun! Thanks to everyone who made his day special.
Dave’s folks came down and my mom and Gene were there, of course. Unfortunately, my granma got sick the week before and was not able to make it. That’s okay, though, she’ll just get all that Henry-time to herself the next time we see her. We missed having the West Coast contingent of the family but hope to party down with them sometime this summer.
We had a very easy party. I served champagne, wine and beer and a few easy hor dourves that went straight from the freezer to the oven. Dave made this amazing Angel Food cake with orange flavoring, topped with orange-colored Cool Whip and mandarin oranges. Henry’s favorite!
It seemed like everyone was very relaxed and had a good time. As per usual, I felt like I didn’t get to talk to half the people who were there but that’s just how it goes.
Two of Henry’s little friends came over, Sawyer and Finn, with their parents. It was fun to have someone for Henry to share the toys and cake with. And of course, Cristin and Beanie made it, too. The surprise guest was Julia, Henry’s favorite teacher from school. She may have won “best gift” award with her Mickey Mouse airplane. It was a hit with all the kids! However, they didn’t have any lack of toys to complain about.
Henry got lots of great gifts from all his friends and relatives. I’ve pictured only a few here. Perhaps the most labor intensive gift was the sweater that Cristin knit him. She’s too crafty! It’s the perfect blend of David Bowie and Henry’s birthday! It’s from the Strangers When We Meet video (I adore this song) and it has a “1” on it in honor of his birthday. Although he may not be wearing it anytime soon (it’s a tad big), at least he will not grow right out of it.
The next day we got to open more fabulous presents from Monica, and the day after that presents from Jonah and Nolan arrived. Hooray for the weeklong birthday!
(I realize that there are way too many pictures in this post and I’m sorry. But he’s my only baby and he only turns one once. If you’re a Henry junkie, you can see all of Cristin’s photos here and my photos here.)
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I was given the opportunity to tour the Sonoco Recycling Facility in east Raleigh this past week. It was great, a good learning experience and really neat to boot.
Raleigh has switched to a “single stream” recycling program. That means that instead of sorting all your materials at the curb and putting those materials into different bins within the truck, you can mix all your items together and they get transported to the recycling facility mixed together. This is a cost-savings measure for the city of Raleigh as it means they can use less sophisticated waste pickup trucks, and the pickup crews can move faster and more efficiently. I also think that more people will be likely to recycle because now it should take less work to recycle.
The impact of comingling recycling materials is that once it arrives at the MRF (materials recovery facility), it then all must be separated. That’s what we learned about in our tour of the facility. I tried to document in pictures and videos. It is really an amazing process and watching these people in action makes me want to work harder to keep contaminants out of my recycling bin.
A few tips I learned while I was there.
To see the pictures and video of my tour, read the rest of the article.
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