Gratuitous Henry pics

Three visits with three Great Aunts

OK, two of the visits were with the same Great Aunt, but it's still impressive. Henry met three of his father's four aunts this week. So he went from 0 to 3! In two days!

We stopped over to Aunt Peg's Uncle Joe's on Sunday night for Henry to meet Peg and Aunt Mary Beth, who was visiting from Arizona. Uncle Joe (who was sleeping) and Uncle Sam (who was visiting his parents) both missed out on a Henry sighting. Dems are da breaks, I s'pose.

The following day, Henry met his Great Auntie Pammie. She's Pam (or Pamela, I guess) to the rest of the world, but Auntie Pammie to me. And to Henry. That's her on the right. She was on a business trip, travelling from Connecticut. We had extreme granola food (that's healthy food for you laymen) both Monday and Wednesday nights. North Star on Monday, Whole World on Wednesday. Pammie fed Henry on both occasions. I think it's safe to say that she's pretty taken by our little Prince.

Not that we're keeping score, but here's lineup of great aunts and uncles that haven't seen the boy yet: Joyce, Hank, Peter, Mary, Tom, Chris, Missy, Kendra, and Paula. I may have missed a couple, but I think that's the exhaustive list. I'm giving the folks that married into the family a break, because you've probably endured enough already without your nephew (or nephew-in-law) giving you a hard time. Anyway, if you know one of these folks (or are one), then raz them a bit. My Mom's sibs are pretty much off the hook, though, because we're planning a bit of a reunion-lite in Florida so that everyone can hang out and meet Henry. We missed the actual reunion because we were in no shape to travel at the end of July.

Before I forget my rancor ...

Let me say a few words about how the central office at Columbus Public Schools has worked to make this a seamless transition into family life. We will be focusing on the folks that deal with insurance, so please don't misunderstand this to be a diatribe on everything that is Columbus Public Schools.

Sarah has called those yahoos at least three times, and has been told three times that there was nothing to worry about, and that Henry would be added to the plan. She started calling them on Day 5 of Henry's life, and guess what? My son still has no health insurance coverage. The pediatrician's office is getting a mite snippy, and they have good reason. We owe them $1300. Which we don't want to pay. We should have around $50 of copays, which sounds like a much more reasonable number to me.

They don't answer their phones. One woman's voice mailbox is full, so she can't take calls at all. It just plain sucks. Sarah gets responses from the insurance folks like "is your son covered under your plan?" I don't know .... aren't you the insurance person?

Do you want to know the funniest thing? For the last couple of weeks, they've been taking more out of her paycheck in healthcare coverage. Why? I haven't a clue, because we're getting no more coverage out of the deal.

Not cool, CPS. Not cool.

Ouch! Shots!

I came home today to a woozy and drowsy baby. Very woozy. Very drowsy. These symptoms were caused by a series of vaccinations that Henry received today at his doctor's visit. Five vaccinations, to be exact. I guess the drill is that they do all five at once.

They stuck him in both legs, then tried to make amends by giving him ultra cute band aids. We all know the story, though ... we can't be distracted by a bit of plastic and cotton chicanery. His wounds can't be masked in various and assorted colors, woven into a tapestry of infection prevention.

He didn't seem to mind them much, even if his Dad is already plotting revenge for this grave injustice to his son. Ok fine, he needs his shots ... I aint mad at 'em. There. I feel better.

Are you sticking your tongue out at me?

Henry found his tongue today. He has always used it to eat and cue to us that he's ready to eat, but now he sticks it out all the way (like the WASSUP guys on the old Budweiser ads) and smiles. It cracks us up. I didn't believe Sarah when she told me, then I saw it. Crrr-azy! We don't have any pictures of it, because my !@#$ digital camera has like a 5 second hesitation before it takes a picture. Which means that Henry's tongue is wagging then neatly tucked back in before the camera takes a picture. Argh. In related news, it looks like the household is going to get updated camera equipment. A new camcorder and maybe a new digital cam. We'll see what the budget allows.

It is just too damn frustrating to see something incredible that baby is doing, and not be able to snap it. So we're going to do something about it.

Tomorrow Henry goes to the doctor for his 2 month visit. Stay tuned to see if we get to start getting him off the Zantac! He's taking the Zantac for acid reflux, which may have gone away ... who knows?

Hooray for Grandparents!

Whew! We are finally recovering from last week. I had a crazy retreat for work (reminiscent of the old Arthur Andersen days ... and the work hours), and Sarah had some prework for the school year and a couple functions to attend. When both parents have to be out doing other things, what is a baby to do? Answer: find a grandparent. Thank heavens for grandparents. We were in a real jam, and they dug us out of it.

On Wednesday night, Henry swooped in on Grandma and Grandpa Thornburg, who were more than willing to snap him up for some quality time. They hung out on the back porch, swung on the swing, and offered us both way too much food when we showed up to pick him up. I happily obliged them ... what's a hungry Dad to do? Turn away perfectly good food? Sarah ate, too ... a bunch of desserts.

On Thursday night, Sarah dropped Henry off at the Rayos. My Dad geared up to watch Henry and his cousin Asia without Gramma Bob's assistance. In his words ... "I can handle it as long as there is no pooping." Unfortunately, I can't attest to the presence or absence of pooping, but everything seeemed to go great. My work schtuff ran late, so Sarah picked him up a bit later than we expected, which gave Bob a chance to see the boy. So, all was right in the world.

Thank you thank you thank you to Henry's grandparents (you too, Grandma Pitts)!!!!!! You mean the world to us, and we feel blessed to have you in Henry's life.