The New Stuff

Sing us a song, Mr. Baby Piano Man! Henry is noticing (and reaching for) everything now. He'll lunge out of your arms to try to get that thing you thought was just out of his reach ... or was it? The pneumonia is behind us, and he took his last of 10 days of antibiotics yesterday. He still percolates a little, but it's just a little cough. Something to monitor, but not go nutso about.

He is still jumping like a champo, he's picking up blocks with one hand, he's running his hand across his face to make the WaWaWa noise himself (think 8-year olds playing Indians ... er, Native Americans). And he's found his mini basketball that I got him for Christmas. He digs it, although I think he's enamored with the texture of it as much as anything else. We roll it back and forth together, and he laughs. And I laugh. The moment he can pick it up, we're going outside and dunking on the adjustable hoop. And I'll take a lot of pictures. And write about it.

Gramma came to town, and really helped us out watching the sick Bubs. Thank you so much for being cool with having your 3-month visit be filled with a less-than-100% Henry. The irony is that his giggles came back hours after her flight touched down in Tampa. Drats!

NEW-monia!

Ah, Henry has contracted his second illness that has a name. First it was the dreaded bronchiolitis, now it is pneumonia. Henry started with a fever last Wednesday, which got him an early ticket home from daycare. Sarah and I tag-teamed watching him on Thursday, but the fever wouldn't go down. As a precaution against it being an ear infection, we took him to the doctor, who told us that his ears looked great (Yeah!) but one lung had some water (Drats!). They gave him a shot and 10-day prescription for the malady, and sent us on our way. Gramma came to visit from Florida (what timing, right?) and spent the day with the Prince on Friday. Saturday has proven to be a much better day for Henry, but he's still a bit grouchy and really fights going to sleep. He's not sleeping well at night either. He was up 4 times on Thursday night, and once last night.

That's him crying right now! More later ...

Happy Valentines' Day!

Yes, I realize that we're over two weeks past Valentines' Day, but Sarah and I have been in a total timewarp the last two weeks. I'll get to that in a minute. Our little Cupid (pictured on right) was a total team player on VDay, taking an extended nap through dinner so that his Mommy and Daddy could enjoy Bravo's takeout, drink water in wine glasses, and break out the fine china (which, by the way, is neither fine nor china). A great dinner was followed by an equally scrumptious dessert of chocolate gelato (not as good as in Italy, but not too shabby) topped with raspberries.

Then, instead of posting these awesome pictures (for the rest, go here), Sarah and I:

• had our basement waterproofed: this entails big dudes with jackhammers hanging out in our house for a week ... good work, but stressful on the homeowners.
• got food poisoning: YUCK! Sarah went down hard and fast, and it lingered naggingly with me.
• did a bunch of school stuff: OSU for me, Annenberg for Sarah.
• hung out with the Prince: this really is the number one bullet, but I take it for granted that I spend every minute possible with this guy.
• tried to keep our day jobs: paying the bills is important.

Henry is doing great! He dances a bit like Elvis, and we're working on his routine to "Heartbreak Hotel". Of course, he can't stand on his own yet, so he needs a little help from his Dad to get through it. He digs sitting up, reaching for stuff, and putting it in his mouth. Standard kidzo stuff.

Graduations

Henry has graduated past all kinds of things since the beginning of the New Year. January ushered in his new life as a card-carrying member of the Lambs at "school". He no longer hangs out with the Cherubs. He is a full-blown-solid-foods-eating machine, having tackled broccoli, peaches, pears, plums (and oh, do we remember plums), yams, squash, carrots, oatmeal, barley, rice cereal, and applesauce.

He has graduated past his baby tub for baths, and now swims in the ocean of the "big boy" bathtub ... that's right, he's takin' big boy baths now. He still kicks like crazy, and now he slaps the water. And there's a lot more water now.

He is also sitting up like a champo, but still tips every once in awhile. The next big step is crawling ... he has figured out that he does not like to be stationery, but hasn't quite figured out the muscle work to be mobile. Here it comes, though ...

Our family walk

We are enjoying very unusual weather for January. Today's high temperature was 60 degrees, so we took a family walk! I busted home from work to get some daylight for the big event, and we took the stroller out of mothballs. Who woulda thunk it? It is unbelieveably strange to push the stroller and see how big Henry is, when I'm used to seeing him in his infant seat. He's sitting up like a big boy, and all I see now when I push him is the back of his head. Which is now full of hair.

So Mommy, Daddy, Henry, and Teddy traversed the neighborhood for about an hour. We saw the sunset, and picked up socks that he kicked off (more than once). Not a very exciting walk, but a welcome reprieve from winter.

Christmas Break

Before I go into the craziness of this break, I have to start by saying that getting time off to hang out with Henry and Sarah has been incredible. He is changing so fast, and we have both hung on his every gasp, short, and fart. Here are our pictures of Christmas 2005. That being said ...

It has been an absolute whirlwind since Sarah and I both buttoned up our respective careers for 2005 and got ready for the holidays. We were both off starting on December 20th, and have had far less rest and relaxation than we thought we would.

To kick things off, Henry was diagnosed with bronchiolitis. It's not as bad as it sounds: it means that a virus has enflamed Henry's bronchioles, and he has a "chest rattle." Very common in babies. It means, though, that we have to give him a treatment every four hours of Albuterol, which is an inhaler. Babies don't take to inhalers well, though, so we had to buy a breathing chamber attachment (Shannon, why don't you tell everyone what you thought it looked like?)Henry has been pretty OK with it, and is just as happy as ever.

For Christmas, all of our family was in town. Bryan, Sarah, and my Mom all stayed with me. We decided to have a very traditional Christmas Eve lunch of Tommy's pizza, which made us all deathly ill on Christmas Day. There was a lot of unpleasantness which I don't really want to write about or think about any more.

After Christmas, we emerged from our cave and tried to visit all of the relatives that we missed. We saw Sarah's Grandma Fleming in Xenia, and caught up with the Williamseses in Strongsville.

Santa brought Henry a mound of toys, a new Honda Accord, and a bag for his iPod. We pick the Accord up Monday or Tuesday (1/2 or 1/3). My RSX, dubbed Supercar, has to be traded in so that some other budding family or driving maniac can enjoy it. Can we please have a moment for Supercar? The good news is that the new car will have an iPod jack (because doesn't everything in life revolve around iPods?)

Merry Christmas, all! Or, please fill in the blank for whatever occasion that you are celebrating at this moment. Or in the last week.

Is that a syllable I hear?

Henry started moving his jaw up and down over the weekend (think of a very cute baby version of Frankenstein from the nose down). We thought that was pretty cool, but then Henry upped the ante and figured out if he talked while attempting this new jaw movement, out came .... NEW SOUNDS! He now is saying "ra ra ra", "wa wa wa" and things such as that. It is very cool, if I do say so myself.

He is also going absolutely nutso on the Exersaucer (thank you to our benefactors Chris and Kim for that gem). He is bouncing, spinning, and is enthralled with all of the toys thoughtfully placed in arms reach around the saucer. This is by far the toy of choice right now, keeping him quite content for quite a while.

Christmas tree and pictures


We went out to get Henry's first Christmas tree, and it was a blast! Here is a pic of Sarah and Henry getting into the action. We went to our normal place, and cut down a winner! Bryan has deemed it an ecologically and environmentally sound practice, informing us that we were taking part in "selective logging".

We celebrated Asia's first birthday party that night, got up the next morning, and did our traditional Christmas picture. This time we did it at our house, because Dad's living room was a train wreck because he hadn't finished his delicate surgery on the monstrosity of a tree that they had picked out. Here's a pic of Asia and Henry.

Unfortunately, the family picture turned out with Bryan being all fuzzy. Sarah was a bit fuzzy too. Damn camera. Maybe a bit of Photoshop, or Dad's pictures, will fix it.

Hello, Great-Grandpa Henry!


Henry finally met his namesake, Henry Louis Schmidt, Jr. , and the Artist Formerly known as Little Henry. We went down to Florida to visit my Mom and Papa Schmidt. The whole family (all of Mom's sibs) took the opportunity to get together, see the baby, and put together an impromptu Schmidt reunion.

I have some more pictures here.

It was really great to see everyone. The Schmidt family has literally flung themselves to the four corners of the country, and we don't get to see each other as often as we might like. And we sure don't get to see everyone together. Some of my cousins couldn't make it, which was sad, but the stalwart combatants that made the trip had a grand time.

Damn you, plums!

Just kidding, I have no qualms against plums, but someone should have warned us. Someone should have warned us that plums would turn Henry's hind end into a cannon. He pooped 7 times today. Here's a deep dive into this morning ...

Sarah needed to get to work early, so I took over the morning bottle before taking Henry to daycare. He got about 3/4 of his bottle down, and started playing a bit with the bottle, signaling that he was done. I sat him up to burp, and burps came out of his mouth... along with about half of what he had drank. He tagged my shirt, my pants, the couch, and his entire outfit. We went upstairs so Daddy could change, and then we were playing a bit before it was off to daycare. In the midst of this, Henry got a determined look on his face, and there was some rumbling downstairs. We waited a bit to make sure he was done, and Round 2 powered through his diaper.

I took him in to get changed, and the poop was EVERYWHERE! It was halfway down his pants (on the inside), up on his chest, everywhere. We did a Harry Houdini to get his shirt off without getting poop on his head! In the end, it was a disaster. I had to give him a sponge bath on the spot. I was so flustered by all of this that I forgot to take his bottles to daycare and had to go back and get them.

He pooped through two outfits at daycare, pooped three more times at home before his bath, and once in his bath. My money says he's pooping right now in his crib, but he's too pooped to give a poop. That's a lot of poop.

In related news, he pooped that Yellow Submarine outfit on Saturday. Plums were not the culprit on this one -- it was apple juice. On this fine day, Henry snapped a two-day pooping drought much to the chagrin of Beatles fans everywhere. On this less-than-somber occasion, Sarah and I opened up the diaper and just laughed. Henry didn't think this was enough, though. He turned on the fountain, so I had to deflect it for literally 20 seconds. 20 seconds of my hand being peed on. It was a potty humor smorgasbord. Am I going to miss all this disgusting crap?

Happy Thanksgiving!

This dude is just too freakin' adorable for words. This is his preppie look. I've assured him that we won't always dress him like a prepski, but it's just too hard to resist the little dude with the sweater vest! He keeps telling me that he's too "street" for this outfit, but I think he's frontin'. At least that's what I tell myself.

He is now 17 lbs. 17 lbs! Maybe I've already written that somewhere, but it's pretty crazy for me to think about.

Uncle James and Aunt Rachel recorded their first babysitting experience with the boy. We had called Los Abuelos Thornburg first, but they were out watching a movie so we called reinforcements. James jumped at the chance to get a little Henry time. It is very cool how much everyone digs this kid. We went and saw Harry Potter, James and Henry had some man time, and everyone had a grand time! Except for Grandma T, who (I'm told) scowled a bit at having some Henry time slip through her fingers. Drats!

For those of you scoring at home, score one for James. Take half of it away, though, because he put on latex gloves when he changed the baby. Who's the baby, exactly? Just kidding -- thanks James and Rachel for bailing some parents out, allowing them a taste of adult time.

Hot Baby ... Henry's first fever

Henry was not digging life the last two days. He had a mild fever (99 - 100 degrees), but it hung around and made him miserable for two days. He slept off and on all day, didn't eat really well (I know ... very un-Henry-like), and was generally not the smiling boy that we've all grown accustomed to.

Now it's over, and Prince Happy has returned! He has returned talking more than ever, and is routinely giving us the rasberries. He also has a new-found interest in his bugs (here's a picture of the bugs when Henry was just born ... they're on his car seat). He isn't just looking at them anymore ... he's batting at them. And grabbing them. Next they're probably going in his mouth.

Whew! One more thing that Sarah and I didn't totally freak out about or screw up!

He's eating now (and oh, is he eating!)

Henry has been eating rice cereal for about two weeks now. We went to the doctor's office this week, and the Prince has jumped up to the 95th percentile in height and weight. Big Boy! In this corner, measuring 26 1/2" and weighing nearly 17 lbs, Henry Rayo!

He doesn't dig the first bite, because he thinks it's milk, but he's pretty much gotten the hang of the whole eating thing. We mix it with a bit of apple juice to spice it up, so that it doesn't taste like wallpaper paste. I guess there's a reason why adults haven't jumped on the rice cereal bandwagon as the next big trend in breakfast ...

Go Bucks!

For our birthday present to each other this year, we travelled up to Michigan Stadium to see our Ohio State Buckeyes take on the villainous Wolverines of the University of Michigan. Wait, maybe we're the villains ... anyway, we went. Bryan and Sarah (SP) were gracious enough to host this very impromptu trip, and volunteered to watch Henry while we were at the game. That's SP with Henry.

We got to the game, we laughed we cried, we got really nervous, then we went crazy when the Buckeyes squeaked out a 25-21 victory (look up at the scoreboard).

Whew! What a weekend!

Asia and Henry











Here are some great pics of Henry and his cousin Asia at Steve's house when all the Rayos were in town.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

I was in San Diego this week, and was there on my birthday (Friday, November 11th). It was a great trip, but quite an anticlimactic place to spend El Numero 30. Henry, sensing his Dad's angst, decided to send me an email with this picture attached. Isn't he just darling! So, this message danced along the internet across the country, only to be foiled by the airport's wireless hookup. I ended up reading it in my office at home (after returning), but it was very cool nonetheless. Sarah held down the fort when I was gone, and Henry (I hear) was a doll baby the whole time.

When I got back (on the redeye), I went straight (I mean straight) to the Buckeyes game to see them throttle Northwestern. Then I crashed on Sarah's parents' couch. Crazy day! Then I took it easy today.

Tomorrow ... back to work, Rayo!

Parent's Night In

Grandma and Grandpa T very graciously offered to watch Henry tonight. Whereas last week they watched the boy so that we could go to a Branford Marsalis concert (which was awesome), tonight they watched him so that we could both get some work done. How sad is that: they had to watch Henry so that we could work some more. I knew that the Fall would be crazy, but this stinks.

They brought him back over just before bedtime, and we had some good times before we gave him the Zonk bottle and he went to sleep. For all of you new to the lingo, the Zonk bottle has a bit of Rice cereal mixed in. A necessary step because this dude has continued to eat (and grow) like crazy!

Happy Halloween!

Today marked Henry's first Halloween, and he was determined to make it a good one! He also had a really rough night the night before (thank you, Grammy!), so Mom and Dad couldn't carve up the pumpkins. Or could they? I busted home from work, fired up the Dremel, and carved both of the pumpkins in half an hour. Not the most artistic job, but a good one nonetheless. But I bet you don't really care about the pumpkins ... what about Henry? Here are his before and after pictures ...

Whole Lotta Rayos

Rayo family: click on the picture to get the high resolution version!

Grandpa's funeral mass was yesterday, and there were a ton of Rayos on hand to mourn his death, celebrate his life, and enjoy each other's company. Grandpa's sibs and their families from Syracuse and Tampa came back to Columbus, making it two weekends in a row for most of them. It was a sight to behold, and a testament to how tight this family is. There were tears, sure, but there were tons of laughs, lots of people kissing babies, and (of course) mountains of food that the Rayos dutifully devoured.

From the Columbus Rayos (and Warners), it was a pleasure to share our city and Steve's house with you ... I'm allowed to speak for Steve's house, right?

Front row: Bonnie, Peggy, Kim, Jeana, Robyn, Jeannie, Sam.
Second row: Mindy (the dog), Steve, Joe, Daisy, Terri, Avis, Joan, Bobbi Jo, Rosemary, Fran, Mary Beth
Third row: Bob, Sarah and Henry, Tom, Mike (Sr.), Joe, Scott, Mike (Jr.), Erin and Asia, Sarah, John (Jr.), Bryan, John (Sr.), Herbie, Chris, Brenda.

Good news and Bad News

A little birdie told me today that it's my Uncle Hank's birthday today. We have a birthday surprise for him, but sleep deprivation may delay the unveiling of that surprise until we see him at our impromptu reunion in December. Until then, Happy Birthday Uncle Hank! Billed as the first meeting of the fabled Three Henry's, the reunion has been anxiously anticipated by all. At the very least, Mom has anticipated it enough for everyone involved. We'll be sure to get pictures of the Trio Enrique. The Drei Heinrich. The Troix He ... you get the gist.

On the flip side, Grandpa Rayo (mine, not Henry's) passed away yesterday. I haven't been blogging on this because it's just too darned sad seeing him deteriorate over the last week and a half. Henry did get to meet him, but not until he started really getting too sick. The last time I saw him was with Henry. He held Henry's hand and thanked me for allowing him to meet his only great-grandson. He also thanked me for everything. I didn't know what "everything" meant, but he is more than welcome for any and all of it.

All of Grandpa's sibs came to see him last weekend. All 10 of them. No joke ... 10. Mary, Natalie, Pete, John, Joe, Fran, Angela, Frank, Rosemary, and Bobby. I'm sure that I didn't get them in order ... my apologies. It was a Rayo Extravaganza all weekend. We really appreciated all of them coming down to see Grandpa and be with us. Thankfully, Bryan came down last weekend and got to see Grandpa, too.

I have some pictures of Henry and Grandpa. Right now they're just too depressing to post. Let me brighten them up a bit and have another go at it. Oh yeah, and I have one of his bowling shirts ... that might make a good picture.

More Cabo Pics





































Wave bye-bye, Henry!!!

Felicidades, Tio Jaime y Tia Raquel!

What a happy couple! Henry wanted to make sure that I told his Uncle James and Aunt Rachel how much we love them and how very unique they are.

They flew across, then out, of the country to find that perfect place that screamed out "us". Or, well, "them". And they found it.

Alright, enough mush. Keep it real, pallies, and just remember that Columbus really is the San Jose del Cabo of the Midwest. Or something like that.

Cabo Baby!

Guess who took his first airplane ride? The dude pictured on the right ... very calmly taking his first bottle at 30,000 ft. This trip was also Henry's first trip outside of the country. Here we are winging away to scenic San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur, Mexico. What a mouthful! The whole fam went (Sarah, Henry, me) to see Sarah's brother James get married to Rachel Thomas (or is it Snell? and is that how you spell Snell? Pray tell!)

Anyhoo, this dude is a great traveler. On the plane ... no problem. Cruising the towns .. aces. Catching some "rays" (which means shade ... relax) by the pool? Cool, daddy ... cool. This cat is straight up gringo, but he can hang wherever he goes.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was at our hotel, which was more like the coolest tropical resort bed and breakfast that you've ever been to. We got to know the owners (Natalie and Loic) and the evening concierge (Elizabeth) by name. It was a really good time. That's us, by the way, having said really good time. We did lots of cool stuff, which will be the core of the next good many blogs.

He Laughed!

In true Michigan J. Frog tradition, Henry waited until all of our family left to perform. As I was getting him ready for bed last night, we played a bit before I put got his bottle and put him to bed. As I was tickling him, he laughed for the first time. It was awesome! His laugh is kind of a "heh-heh" laugh, and he doesn't do it very often (Sarah is mad because she hasn't seen it yet), but it is incredible to see and hear.

Truly incredible.

Big Weekend!

Gramma Schmidt, Uncle Bryan and Aunt Sarah descended on Columbus to see the Prince this weekend. It was great having them, and it cool having them all stay with us. We went to Lynd's Fruit Farm and took a schload of pictures. We picked our own pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, conquered the maize maze, and bought some apples to take home with us.

Henry got to wear his fall jacket for the first time, and was out in the cold for the first time. We were both probably a bit too protective of him, wondering if his legs were too cold, or his face was too cold, or he would like the wind, etc.

What a great time we had! We are very thankful for our wonderful family.

Babypalooza pics

The computer is back up, and I can post pictures from last weekend. This is Camden, son of Steve and Carrie Parada. That's Carrie that he's peeking up over. He's just a touch over a week old in this picture ... life is hard when you're a newborn!

Nathan and Henry are just about exactly the same age and size, and they both fell asleep during dinner. We ran the stroller brigade through downtown Mariemont, forcing people off the sidewalks, running for their lives and screaming. We also found a police radar trailer, and I tried to figure out how fast I could run the stroller. It didn't work.

Happy Birthday, Henry!

Today was Henry's three-month birthday, and he was in good spirits all day. He and his Dad hung out all morning, doing Supermans and hanging out in the Exersaucer. Well, Henry got in the exersaucer ... I just watched and dreamed of when I would get one for myself.

Then he took a 3-hour nap. Oh yes, you heard that right .... a 3-hour nap. And there was much rejoicing. In fact, the whole family got a nap this afternoon. Maybe you all have kids that slept like that, but this kid doesn't dig on sleep. But now he's a big boy (after all, he is three months old), so he slept great all afternoon.

And he just went down for the night (10:00), with minimal whimpering. Which means that one or both of us will be up with him at 1:00 in the morning, most likely. Such is life!

Babypalooza 2005!
(sorry, no pictures ... computer crashed)

This weekend was crazy! By "this weekend" I mean Saturday, and by "crazy" I mean we, Henry's parents, had to be a little touched in the head to think that we could pull it off without a major Henry meltdown. We started Saturday off by driving to Dayton after Henry's morning meal. An hour and some change later we were in Fairborn, OH (a suburb) to celebrate the birth of Camden Louis Parada, son of Steve and Carrie, who is just starting up his second week of life outside the womb. We choreographed this caper with Chris and Kim, who brought their two kids. Babies abound! We hung out a bit, picked up some Chipotle (mmm ... Chipotle), and played with all the babies. Matthew Williams had his pitching machine, and was spraying singles and doubles around the backyard. The little dude is 4 years old, and he hits better than I do. We said our goodbyes, and headed to stop number two on the tour.

We kicked into high gear and got to Cincinnati in about an hour and a half. We were there to see Nathan George Dershaw (or Nathan Gerald ... inside joke) and his parents Brian and Michelle. Nathan is three weeks younger than Henry, but they are exactly the same size. The two families are going through the same stuff at the same time, which is nice (and a little eerie). We strollered to dinner, commenting to ourselves how quickly life has changed for us. Got some dinner, finished it off with Graeter's ice cream (mmm... Graeter's), and packed it up for home. We got in at around 10.

But, was there a Henry meltdown? Did we bite off too much? Did we rush around the whole time because of milk, poop, burps, and yawns? NO!!! Henry was an angel, and powered through the whole day. He laughed, he chirped, he ate (of course he ate, have you seen him lately?), and he pooped, but everything was cool cool cool. That little guy is a champo.