The Parade that we Missed

Not that I'm complaining, but there are consequences to be paid for spending a weekend in the hospital, even if it is for the incredibly wonderful, life-changing experience of welcoming your second son into the world.

Unfortunately, our consequences were missing just about all of the Easter festivities of the weekend.  This started off with the Duckling Day parade, where Henry and his cousins donned their duck uniforms and marched proudly with a hundred or so pint-sized cohorts.

We also missed all the family dinners, but we didn't miss any of the food! Thanks to all of our family for feeding us the last week, and visiting the new boy!

They sleep!

Yes, there's a lot of sleeping going on in our house lately. And a lot
of not sleeping.

Emerson James came home!

I'll be posting the extended version later, but wanted to let everyone
know that everyone is home and doing great!

French Fry's official name is Emerson James Rayo, and he is just as
spirited as he was in the hospital. He eats great, but only on his
terms. Sometimes breast, sometimes bottle - no rhyme or reason.

He's asleep on my chest right now!

Baby!

Born at 12:25 pm, 8 lbs, 9 oz.

No name! More later.

Where's French Fry?

They have his bed made, they have his hat ready ... but that dude
hasn't shown up yet!

French Fry's Room - Crib Side!

As promised, crib-side pictures!

Henry has graciously donated his crib (which is the same crib his mother, two uncles, and cousin Tenzin slept in), his wall signs, bookcase, changing table, and diaper pail. He's so generous!

And, as always, Henry wants to say hello!

French Fry's Room (part 1)

I couldn't get the crib side to come out, so you'll have to be OK with waiting on the edge of your seats in anticipation. Here, for the first time in cyberland, is French Fry's room!

We changed an accent wall, added a ton of baby furniture, and took out all of our guest room furniture. A pretty major overhaul. Luckily, I convinced Sarah that our paint job from 4 years ago would still work for the baby!

Next up ... crib pictures!

Almost ready ...

We have been painting, building, finding, and cleaning like madmen. We now have all the tools ready for French Fry. Not that we're saying that we're "ready" ... We just have all the gear ready. Henry wants all of his grandparents to know that we love you and miss you very much (they were all out of town this weekend!)

Henry's first signature

Ok, maybe this is only cool to Sarah and me ... Henry did this a
couple weeks ago. Lately he's been back to his Geometry proofs.

Before I forget ...

I keep meaning to start penning all of the things we've been doing lately before I forget all of them.  Everything is moving so fast and frankly it's hard to keep up with all of it. 

French Fry's room got finished two weeks ago, and we took the last vestiges of our crap out of the closet last weekend.  The basement guest suite (which will actually be pretty !@#$ cool once we straighten up) is now outfitted with a full bath, double bed, and an iMac which could easily double as an Entertainment Center (as long as you only want to watch Disney movies ... that's all it plays!).

All that's left is some trim, some shelves, and some straightening up. We might just get that finished before our little one arrives.

I've rented a megaphone to talk to French Fry.  I heard it's loud in there.  Wanted to make sure I got through to him.  You know how kids are. In all seriousness, he's been high-fiving me lately. 

Henry is absolutely awesome right now.  His imagination is through the roof, his curiosity is insatiable, and his laughter is infectious. The dude rocks.  We spent last Saturday morning cruising Hot Wheels cars around our bedroom ... worth every minute.  He is helping out with the baby preparations, and is very excited about his new brother.  However, he isn't French Fry's brother.  He is quick to tell you that he's French Fry's Big Brother.  Nothing else will suffice.

Spring is breaking, even though I know that it will run and hide from Winter at least one more time this month.  So be it ... the last weekend has been lovely.  We're seeing our neighbors again. Some are just finding out for the first time that we're having a second child. Oops!

Our big boy camper

Henry found his tent this weekend, so we put it up and he's been
sleeping in there for naps and overnight.

He must have found a really comfy spot last night, because he wasn't
budging when I tried to wake him.

Then, all of a sudden, he popped up, started reaching for the granola
bar that I brought for him, and stumbled
Into our room to watch TV. All without opening his eyes. Ah, the
Thornburg sleepwalking/sleepgrowling/sleep disorder has befallen him.

The house is no longer safe, I fear.

Some Fun We Had: 2008

Holy crap, 2008 went fast. Here's a taste of some of the stuff we got into. Obviously not everything, but I thought this was nice ... some beach time, some pool time, some snow time ... and all of it Henry time.

With a new finished basement, a new job (wait ... two new jobs), new classes that Sarah took on, and oh yeah, a new babe on the way (shout out to French Fry), I'm pretty excited that my head hasn't exploded.

Quick note on the video: our sled popped on the run after the last one shown in the video. We started veering towards a fallen tree, Daddy our Stalwart Hero got Henry out of harm's way, braced for impact, Saved the Day, and started hearing the telltale hissing sound of a failing tube sled. So we packed it up and went home. Arrgh.

Daddy 1, Sled 0

Henry has been dying to sled ever since the snow came three days ago.
Unfortunately, it's been subzero (seriously) ever since. Today it's
15, so we're going out. Henry's napping, and I'm inflating the tube.
Even bought a new pump. Easy, right?

This is the concoction that I devised so that I wouldn't have to
resort to huffing and puffing. And yes, those are vice grip pliers.

First "sleepover"

Henry has been asking for a sleepover, so two nights ago I made the mistake of telling him: "We can't do it tonight, but we'll do it tomorrow." What a boneheaded move: everyone that knows that child knows that he doesn't forget ANYTHING. So, lo and behold, after I tucked him in last night and got snuggled in on the couch, I heard him calling down to me:

"Daddy! Daddy!"

I went up to see what was the matter, and to remind him that he should only be calling to me when he's in trouble. He let me know that (1) I forgot to put his night light up on his loft and (2) that I forgot about sleepover. D'oh!

So I made him a deal: I'd lay down in his room until he fell asleep.

It was actually a very surreal experience. I got to see Henry's room after hours. I got to see what he sees right before he goes to sleep. It was very much Henry's world. I had visions of how this is going to work when he's 15 (and I shuddered). And I got definitive proof that our little dude has a really hard time settling down and going to bed. He tosses. He turns. He kicks. He readjusts. He whispers. He repeats the whole process. And finally, he falls asleep.

He made sure to tell me this morning that he was awake when I snuck out last night. A very Henryesque comment, to be sure.

Happy New Year from Batman

Happy New Year! We had a fantastic Christmas, and a great start to the New Year. Christmas was all about superheroes for Henry (as you can, I hope, see in the picture). He got costumes, action figures, pajamas, underwear, accessories ... the whole superhero schmear. And not to be outdone, the supervillains got a place at the table, too. Daddy got a Wii, and Mommy got a bracelet so that she always had a place for her "h" charm ("h" stands for ???).

Shannon and Jen were in town (for two weeks!) and we spent as much time as we possibly could with them. We attended their son's first birthday party (ok, it was kind of a Fiesta Bowl party, but we won't tell him). Shannon and I played the Wii quite a bit over the two weeks, and continuously schemed more ways to play Olympics, or Wii sports, or Excitebike (which you can download right on to the Wii! Who knew? Not me!)

Hope you all had a fantastic break from the action, and are recharged for the next year. And, if you're in the Midwest, hopefully all of that Christmas cheer takes you through the rotten weather it appears that we're going to have over the next two months (just keep humming "Winter Wonderland" ... maybe that will work)

A Special Birthday Greeting

Henry wanted to make sure that he wished four very special people a very Happy Birthday today. Without further ado ...

Lots of Crazy Kids at our House!

We are blessed to have very dear friends. We are cursed that, with some very notable exceptions, they are all out of town, and most are out of state. It shouldn't be hard to imagine that we relish the times when they visit us, or we can visit them. Our last two weekends were dedicated to such visits.

First, Bryan, Sarah, and Annalia descended on Columbus to help us celebrate our many (OK, three) November birthdays. The three cousins got to play a lot, with Annalia starting to get into the groove with her older cousins. Henry and Asia flew around the house (as usual), trying not to maim the baby.



Just before the visit, Sarah had an epiphany ... Henry's cousins (as of December 11th) neatly arrange themselves by age. Every year is covered, and French Fry makes for a very dapper Zero. We found a great shirt maker (all done on the internet, even though the store is about a block away ... perfect for a geek like me) and made shirts up. Don't be surprised if you get one for Xmas! Revelry was had, and BSA (Bryan, Sarah, and Annalia) made it safely back home.

The very next weekend we got a visit from Chris, Kim, Matthew and Emily (the Williamses!). We watched the Bucks game (a surprisingly calm 42-7 drubbing of that team Up North (don't know if we'll see such a lopsided score again anytime soon). The kids were in their Buckeye finery (of course). We then went to dinner, and finished it up huddled in each of our cars at Sonic (not a very social plan), talking to each other through cell phones because it was too cold to get out of our cars. Que ridiculo!



Good times! Thanks for coming, everyone!

A friendly game of chess

Henry loves playing games now, and a recurring favorite is chess. And why not? His pawns can run really fast. His King has superpowers (and sometimes takes breaks on the sidelines). All of his pieces move in mysterious ways. Fun.

Baby Number Two! Code name: French Fry

Baby Number Two!
Originally uploaded by hepcatrayo.

OK, OK, OK ... I get it. You knew all along. You've seen Sarah in the halls, or heard about her getting nauseous, or wondered "Why no more feta?" -- or -- "Why isn't Sarah having her usual weekend benders?"

Let me just confirm it for you then. The secret is out. The cat is out of the bag. The monkeys are roosting. We ... are ... pregnant (wait, am I allowed to claim that, too? Is it endearing or haughty?)

Henry has informed us that the baby is in the French Fry phase right now, and will advance into the Cantaloupe and finally Watermelon phases (which, by the way, we are using as baby names until we find out the gender). Henry also gives the baby a kiss and a zerbert each night, and asks all kinds of great things about it ("Will the baby have a beard?")

It's a blast so far, now that we're past the puking. And the vertigo. That was not fun.

Sarah's only current affliction is Thirstinasia Moltocrazentia. She sometimes drinks so much with dinner (ethanol-free ... stay with me, folks) that she doesn't actually eat any dinner. Ask my parents ... her dinner from last weekend is still in their fridge. In its entirety. Maybe we can have it bronzed.

So call me up, call me a schmuck because you had to see it on the blog, Facebook, or Twitter. Some of you already have. And thanks in advance for all the well wishes ... we'll need 'em.