Our finest purchase ... The Swing!

This baby just loves to be awake! He can't stand being asleep! What are his parents supposed to do? How are his parents ever going to get some sleep? These questions have come up a lot over the last couple of weeks.

The answer? A baby swing. We originally didn't want to buy one, because we heard that they were unsafe, and that manufacturers weren't making them because of liability reasons, and blah, blah, blah. We decided, though, that Henry deserved a swing, and that we needed to get over our previous hang ups. Oh yeah, and we thought it might be nice to eat dinner together once in a while.

So we piled the family into the trusty Murano, and bolted for Babys 'R' Us. For those of you that know Sarah and me, you probably know that we're not big fans of big corporate behemoths. Baby's 'R' Us is a necessary evil -- they have everything, and it's easy to get in and out. Anyhoo, as we're about to pull into the parking lot, we spotted Burlington Coat Factory. We thumbed our nose at 'R' Us, and gave the Coat place a try. You know ... coats ... swings ... that should work out, right?

Ok, so it is common knowledge that they have a baby department too.

We jammed into Coat Bonanza (or whatever), and headed towards the Baby Depot. We turned the corner, and arrived in SWING MECCA. It was glorious. Swings out the yin yang. We turned to Henry and told him to pick the one he liked. He tried a couple of them out, and selected a Graco model with a teddy bear on the seat, and crazy muppet-like toys for him to look at.

And the thing WORKED! He loves it. We put him in it, and he just hangs out. Or falls asleep. It's like a little slice of heaven. We don't leave him in it too long, though, because we start feeling guilty that we're neglecting him.

If you have a baby that loves rocking, bouncing, or anything else that is kinematic, that baby will dig on a swing. And so will you.

As promised, Henry smiling!

Bedtime routines have begun!

Tonight, after coming home from Thornburgs, we were determined to have our first honest-to-goodness bedtime. We started out with a bath, hung out a little bit in the tub, then hit Henry with his first bedtime story. We have tried a couple times in the last couple weeks to tell him a story, but he would get fussy or go to sleep or something like that. We were determined to get through the story this time, though, so we pushed ahead ...

We began with "Owl Babies", an old Thornburg favorite. Sarah's Mom had used her artistic license to change the three main characters to Sarah, James, and Jonathan. Coincidentally, her three kids' names. Anyhoo, Sarah performed a warm rendition of said book, and received critical acclaim for her tender portrayal of the mother owl. Actually, Henry started crying at the moment when the momma owl entered the story. We gutted it out, though, and finished up.

That didn't seem to be enough for our little scholar, so our second book was "The Monster at the End of This Book" with our furry pal Grover. This one went over pretty well also, with Henry making it through the entire book before starting to cue us that it was time to eat his midnight meal.

It is going to be interesting how we will thread Sarah's and my favorite childhood things into Henry's life. Who should read Grover books to him (she or I)? Is she going to get Grover's voice right? Who's childhood should be represented in the first book that's read to him? These things seemed trivial to me before, and they may still be, but they gave me pause this evening. Decisions like these will most likely be the easiest parenting decisions that we'll make, but they're still a bit tricky ...