Goodbye, 2008!

Henry and Teddy wish everyone a wonderful 2009!
See you next year!













P.S... Thanks to great-grandma Hemmeter and Aunt Barb for the gifts featured in these photos. So cute! Don't you think Teddy and the Octopus share an uncanny resemblance?

One with Nature

Winter in Minnesota means we’re stuck inside most of the time. Which can be a bit difficult with an energetic 2-year-old. So I’m often on the look-out for fun places to visit that are: A) Free or low-cost B) Stroller-accessible and appropriate for Teddy and C) Offer Henry the ability to get his ya-ya’s out. As luck would have it, we found a new place that is fun, free and close to home: the Richardson Nature Center.

Oddly enough, we’ve driven past it hundreds of times, but just never had an excuse to visit until now. It’s a big, beautiful building with animals on display and interactive toys for kids to play with. That afternoon they were holding a “Critter Day” where they brought out the resident snakes, turtles and salamanders for the kids to observe up close.

Henry got to pet a turtle, although he declined to touch the snake. “I scared” is his new big phrase, and I guess the snake kind of freaked him out. He did touch the salamander, though. The nature center folks then fed the turtle some worms, which Henry was excited to watch. He was equally excited to see the snake eat an (already dead) “mousey”… Mommy wasn’t so thrilled to see that.

And Teddy? He just hung out and watched the whole critter show while seated in my lap. I guess one of the advantages to being Number 2 is you get exposed to things a lot earlier than Number 1. He showed his excitement by drooling profusely and trying to suck his thumb.

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas!

... And to all a good night!

Love, Henry and Teddy

Bad Santa

Nana was in town last week, so we decided to do a little shopping (of course!).

At the last minute, I decided I wanted to get a shot of the kids with Santa at the mall. Beforehand, I talked to Henry about what we were going to do and that he should tell Santa what he wants for Christmas. We've been pointing out Santa whenever we see him, so he's well aware of Jolly Old Saint Nick.

And probably like every other 2-year-old... he was excited about it at first, but once it was time to take the picture, he freaked.

As you can see...

Santa doesn't look that thrilled, either. And Teddy is kind of zoned out.

I figure that just about every kid has a not-so-happy picture with Santa, so we bought a copy for posterity. I'm sure Henry will get a kick out of it a few years. We've hung the picture in our kitchen and Henry likes to point out Santa and talk about what he wants for Christmas, so it seems like the experience didn't sour him off Santa for life. Maybe next year we'll get a smile?

P.S. Oddly enough, it seems like the Web is full of crying Santa pictures. Here's a cute photo story from the Star Tribune about Santa pictures gone wrong.

Teddy at 4 Months

Happy 4-month birthday, Teddy! He's just getting bigger and bigger every day... the kid is turning into a chunky monkey! For the most part, he's a laid-back little guy with a big smile for everyone (well, except for this picture!).

Teddy had his 4-month appointment last week and he weighs in at 17 pounds and 26 1/8 inches. He weighs exactly the same as Henry did at that age, although he's about an inch shorter. He's also looking more and more like "himself", if that makes sense. He still looks a lot like his big brother, but as he's getting older, he really is coming into his own cute little look.

And, as always, here's Henry at 4 months!

Icky the Snowman

Snow pants and boots and hats - oh my!

Last weekend we dug out all the winter stuff to spend some time outside since it was in the 30s. Which seems downright tropical right now!

Henry helped make his very first snowman. Not the most attractive guy, as you can see, since the snow was pretty dirty at the time. Henry enjoyed putting his baby carrot nose in place and then pushing the snowman over after playtime was over. Adios, snowman.

Work it!

I've been making an effort to get in shape over the past few months. I joined a gym that I try to go to a few times a week, and for the days I can't make it, I thought I'd give a few exercise DVDs a try. Right now I'm using Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred (the trainer from The Biggest Loser).

As you can see... Henry thought it would be fun to try a few moves, as well. And let me tell you.. it's not easy to do crunches with a 37-pound kid on your stomach, as I soon learned! But it was pretty entertaining to see him work up a sweat.

I just wish I had as much energy as him!

P.S. For the anyone who grew up during the 80s... remember "Get in Shape, Girl"? I had the "exercise ribbon". LOL. For a trip down memory lane, click here to see an old-school commercial.

Pretend Time

It's been very cool to see Henry start using his imagination when he plays. He's starting to play pretend and act out the things he sees around him. Very cute... and often entertaining!

A few silly examples -

- I've been making smoothies lately and Henry likes to watch me use the blender to make them. In the bathtub the other night, he took a few toys - placing a small cup filled with water and a small bowl turned upside down on top of the cup - and said "I makin' a smoofie!".

- When I get ready in the mornings, Henry likes to drag his toys into the bathroom while I'm doing my hair and make-up. This morning, he took a little blanket and put it on top of his sippy cup of milk and said "Cup too cold, Mama!".

And little Teddy T-bone is good... lots of smiles these days. Here's a pic of him giving a gummy grin...














P.S. I went back to work last week... which was probably pretty obvious due to the lack of blog posts for the last week or so! We're all adjusting pretty well, but it's taking a while to get back into the swing of things and the posts have gone along the wayside. I'll try to keep it up so I can share the cuteness! :)

Bill Cosby was right...

Kids really say (and do) the darndest things. For example, the other morning, one of the first things Henry said to me was, "I need some coffee, Mama". Hmm... not sure if a highly caffeinated beverage is what a toddler needs first thing in the morning! (However, I AM sure it's what mama needs!)

And I don't know if it's the age or what, but Henry has recently been into lining up his toys. Maybe it's the Thomas influence (shunting, anyone?), but when he's playing with something, he often needs to line it up just so.

This is what he does after bathtime with his bath toys...

And after he lines them up just right, he needs to kiss each one of them goodnight, of course.

Big Boy Bumbo!

We broke out the Bumbo seat for Teddy this week... so far, he really seems to like it! It must be nice to have a new way to see the world.

And, as with all of Teddy's baby toys, Henry just has to try it out and make it his own. Surprisingly, he still (barely!) fit!

Teddy at 3 Months

The differences between baby #1 and #2 have at times been pretty major... especially in the way that mommy deals with milestones. With Henry, I took a picture of his "month birthday" every month, on each exact day. I dressed him in special outfits and did a mini-photo session of it. With Teddy, at least this month, he gets his picture taken a week late in last night's PJ's. And, as you can see, the only piece of paper I could find at the moment had big brother's scribbles all over it. Sorry, Teddy! I guess there are pluses and minuses to being the baby brother, so hopefully it all evens out in the end.


I wanted to be sure to put up this post tonight because Teddy reached another milestone this evening... he rolled over! Very exciting! He has been trying this new move for the past few days, and has even been sleeping on his side quite a bit, but he never quite made it all the way over until tonight. Yay, T-Bone!

Teddy is recovering pretty well from his illness, it seems that he mostly has a lingering cough now. For the past day or so, he's been back to his smiley old self, which is great. When I took him to the doctor's office earlier this week, he weighed in at 15 pounds, 2 ounces, so he's gaining really well, too. He's turning into quite the chunky monkey!

Another milestone this past week... he's officially out of the "newborn" diapers, Swaddlers, and is into "big boy" Cruisers. I was kind of sad about that as I was picking up new diapers at Babies R Us. Ah... must be the mommy hormones that makes me tear up a bit when I'm buying diapers!

And for a blast from the past... here's a look at Henry at 3 months. At least in this picture, they look less alike than they did in the past... interesting!

Spreading some holiday cheer...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Fever, Part Two

From one sick kid to another. It seems that Henry's virus is now hitting Teddy. He started feeling warm late Tuesday afternoon and by midnight he had a fever of 101.5. Today he was still hot and was a sneezing, runny-nosed little mess. The doctor told us to keep a close eye on his fever and to keep him home over the holidays. Obviously Matt and I are now pretty skittish about fevers, so we're following doctor's orders.

We're going to make the best of it and try to nurse the kids back to health over the next few days. And I'll try to cobble together some sort of T-day dinner for us tomorrow!

So, we wanted to wish happy Thanksgiving to everyone... we wish we could be there with you!

Scary Stuff...

Matt and I got the scare of our lifetime this weekend when Henry had a febrile seizure due to a fever. I can't even begin to describe the horrible feeling of seeing your child passed out and unresponsive. In the end, it's really not a big deal and was over in a few minutes, but I think it felt like an eternity to us. And I think Matt and I both still have some post-traumatic stress from seeing the little guy like that.

The story... Henry woke up on Sunday morning with a bit of a cold and cough, but nothing too bad. Around lunchtime, he was a bit warm and still coughing, so I gave him some Tylenol before his nap. He woke up and was still warm, but since we couldn't give him more Tylenol until later that afternoon, we just waited it out. He was playing like normal, so he didn't even really seem sick.

I went to the gym for about an hour and came home around 3:30. As soon as I walked in the door, Matt said that Henry was still really warm, so I said I would run up to the store to get him some Motrin - we were out of it and it works better on him. I guess as soon as I left Henry kind of "froze up" and stared at the door for a while... Matt thought that maybe he was choking. But then he started seizing - he basically passed out, his eyes rolled back in his head and he was completely unresponsive. How scary for Matt, considering he was home alone with both kids.

He took Henry outside to cool him off and called me. I was just down the block, so I turned around and saw them in the front yard. We took Henry inside and took his clothes off and put him in the shower to cool him off some more. Right after that, he kind of "came to", but was still pretty out of it and shivering uncontrollably. Matt and I had both called 911 a few minutes earlier, so by that time, the police arrived and we were waiting for the paramedics. We took his temp - it was 102.9 - and gave him some Tylenol. He started jibber-jabbing nonsense, which was kind of scary, but the cops said that it's normal for them to do that - I guess their brain needs to "re-set" itself after a seizure and it doesn't cause any lasting harm. He even started singing the Thomas the Train theme song, but really, really quickly... kind of freaky. But I don't think we've ever been happier to hear him sing that song!

Henry got an ambulance ride to the hospital and they checked him out, complete with chest X-rays. The medieval torture-device that they put a toddler in for chest x-rays looks like this... needless to say, Henry was not happy (and I seriously don't know how they got that kid in the picture to be so calm!). But he really took everything very well and was back to his old self by the time we were discharged, thank God.

The doctor said that he had a respiratory virus, and that we should just keep him full of fluids and keep an eye on his temperature. He's totally OK - got checked out by his regular doc today - and was given a clean bill of health, other than his lingering cough. The doctor said that he won't remember it at all and it won't affect his health in any way. It's possible that it might happen again down the road until he's 5 or 6, but I guess it's pretty unlikely. And at least if it does happen, we know that it's scary for a few minutes, but he'll be OK. But for now, we're just so thankful that he's back to his normal, happy self!

Making the Grade

Henry's daycare held parent-teacher conferences this week.

Now, I know what you're thinking - they have parent-teacher conferences for a 2-year-old?! Yeah, I thought that, too. It's nice and all, but really, it's not like he's reciting Shakespeare and learning Algebra at this point. But, still, it's nice that they do it, I suppose, and it gives us some entertaining insight on what Henry is like when he's at daycare.

Some highlights from his "report card":

Areas of Strength: We see Henry trying to behave and his willingness to learn. He is very special and enjoys being with his friends. (Matt and I agree.)

Areas to Focus On: Working to help Henry listen better (Again - I think we'd agree with that!)

Comments: Henry is a leader, the kids follow him. Whether good or bad. He just has that personality - it's a good thing to have. (I agree and had to laugh at "Whether good or bad" - although it makes me a bit scared for what we're in for during Henry's teenage years!)

Henry's 2-year-old stats

Henry had his 2-year-old doctor's appointment this week. He checked out great - he's 35 lbs. and 37 inches tall, which puts him in the 95-97% percentile for height and weight. Sometimes I worry that he's not eating enough since he can be really picky (well, not when it comes to sweets, as you can see!), but I guess he's doing something right!

The appointment was pretty neat since the doctor really interacted with him. He asked Henry to point out various parts of his body and let him play with his stethoscope. Henry was a bit stand-offish at first, but warmed up to him pretty quickly.

He did have to get a few shots, which was not fun. I imagine that this will be the start of him dreading trips to the doctor's office, since he could get a shot. But he took it very well and cried only a little bit. The Curious George sticker that he got from the nurse after his shots helped dry up his tears, as well!

A Little Monday Morning Quarterback

Some of us on the good side of the St. Croix River are still overjoyed with the big win on Sunday. And while I have been more than giddy most of the day, my boy, All Day Jr., has been dancin' and strutin', reminding folks who rules on Sunday. Go Bikings as Henry would say.

Flashback...

Not much to say today (other than it's snowing... ugh!!) but I realized that we have a pic of Henry just like Teddy's picture from earlier this week... same hat and everything. I think he was about 3 or 4 months. Aw!














Speaking of the snow, when we woke up this morning and let Lola outside, I said - Henry, look -snow! That's called snow!

Henry said, Oh! Called snow! Called snow!

I may have confused him. ;)

Yes We Did!

What an exciting night. I'm exhausted but proud today.

I'm proud of my country, where we have the freedom to vote for the candidate we believe in.

I'm proud that my boys can grow up in a country where any child - no matter what gender or race - can truly aspire to be anything they want to be.

And I'm proud by how far we've come. No matter who you voted for, it's pretty amazing that only one generation ago - when our parents were children - segregation was still legal in this country.

To celebrate this great day, here's Teddy rockin' (Daddy's) "I Voted" sticker...

Election Day!

It's election day and Henry has an important (and non-partisan) message!

Happy voting, everyone!

Posted by: An Obama Mama

Happy 2nd Birthday, Henry!

Henry turns 2 years old today! It's crazy how quickly the past two years have gone by. It's been so wonderful to see him grow from a teeny newborn baby to a hilarious, energetic 2-year-old boy. He is the light of our lives and we're so lucky to have him. We love you, H-Bomb!

We celebrated his birthday this weekend with a big bash. Lots of fun - and LOTS of presents. A kind of insane amount for such a little kid, actually! Thanks to his obsession with Thomas, he now has no shortage of Really Useful Crew friends at our house now. Henry is still working on his thank-you cards, but a quick thanks in advance to everyone!

Halloween Recap

Whew! What a busy weekend! We kicked it off on Friday by trick or treating with some of the neighbor kids... Henry and Teddy joined Claire (aka Supergirl) and Emma (aka Cowgirl) on a quest for treats throughout our neighborhood. Lots of fun and even a few science experiments, thanks to Greg, our neighborhood science teacher. He put together a bubbly Halloween cauldron concoction of dry ice, water and dish soap. The kids had fun grabbing the bubbles and playing with them.

Henry did a great job collecting treats and Teddy slept most of the time, which was great!

Here are a few pictures of their adventures throughout the neighborhood...

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone! I'm very excited to get the boys all dressed up to go out trick or treating tonight. Hopefully the weather cooperates. If not, at least the boys have warm costumes - Henry will be a monkey and Teddy will be a banana. They already had a chance to break in their costumes last week at a party held at Henry's daycare.













I hope to keep up the coordinating costumes until they fight it... which knowing Henry's independent streak, will probably happen next year!

And to add to your holiday viewing enjoyment, here's a video of Henry saying "Trick or Treat" and talking about his new great love... candy!

Early to Bed, Early to Rise...

I just realized that Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend - at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday.
I used to love getting that extra hour of sleep... but with a 2-year-old that likes to rise with the chickens each morning, I'm kind of dreading it now. Saturday will be a busy day for Henry, and I'm sure he'll be up later than normal, so hopefully that will help counteract a super early wake-up time. Hopefully!

I just read this New York Times story about to how help kids adjust to DST. They say within 5 days, kids adjust to the time change... here's hoping!

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Henry and Teddy are sending you a special birthday message!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Love, The Lechners

Look Who's Talking...

Teddy is doing a lot of cooing and goo-goo-gaa'ing these days...

Here's some video of him doing his thing! I tried to get him to smile, but he mostly made weird faces. Maybe next time!

Teddy is 2 Months Old!

Little Teddy turned 2 months old this week. And it's kind of startling to think how quickly time has flown by! It seems like just yesterday it was late summer and I was hugely pregnant. It now seems like T-Bone has been a part of our family forever.

Teddy had his 2-month doctor's appointment this week, as well. He weighs in at 12 pounds, 12 ounces and is 22 3/4 inches. He's in the 75-90th percentage for both height and weight, same as Henry was, so I think we've got another big boy on our hands. He checked out perfectly with the doctor - but he did have to get a few shots. Not very fun, but he handled them well.

Here's a pic of Teddy at 2 months...

And just to compare, here's Henry at 2 months...

You can't tell they're brothers, right? :)

Fall Fun

We took the boys to the Sever's Corn Maze this weekend - lots of fun! Henry loved the petting zoo... he called the Kangaroos "Woah-wa" aka Lola. Oddly enough, they do kind of look like her! Henry was really brave with all the animals - super excited to feed them. Like this friendly camel...

Henry also took his first pony ride with his daddy by his side...















Teddy missed out on most of the fun by sleeping in the Baby Bjorn most of the time. I barely used the Bjorn with Henry, but I've been finding it's really nice to have when we're out and about. I haven't been brave enough to take both boys on a big shopping trip to Target or the grocery store (or, basically any place you wouldn't really bring a stroller), but when I have to, I'm hoping that Teddy enjoys the Bjorn as much as he did this weekend. He snuggled right in there. But, it will be nice when he's big enough to face front and see the world!

Brotherly Love

In the last two months, Henry has gone from an only to a big brother - quite a change for an almost 2-year-old.

We've had a few bumps in the road while he's adapted to his little brother, but in general, he's really welcomed Teddy with open arms. Almost too open sometimes, when he wants to lavish his baby brother with aggressive hugs and kisses (read: nearly smother him with love, literally!).

At first we really didn't let Henry hold or kiss Teddy that much, but recently we've been ok with it as long as we're nearby and ready to pull the 36 lb. hulking toddler off the 12 lb. peanut.

I thought it would be cute to take a few pictures of this brotherly love, when Henry was recently talking and kissing baby bro as Teddy was lounging in the bouncer.

Pic #1:

Henry: Hey, little bro, how it's going? Can I get a hug?

Teddy: Gurgle.

Pic #2:

Henry: I love you little brother! Hey, mama, get this cute shot!

Teddy: Um.. you're crushing my face a bit.

Pic #3:

Henry: I love you so much, Teddy, I think I'm just going to lay on top of you!

Teddy: Um... help!

As you can see, that's my hand in the last one, just as I was taking the picture and realized that Henry literally wanted to smother his little bro with love. Yikes!

Teddy wasn't hurt... but it was a good reminder to keep a close eye on the kissing and hugging in the future!

Girl's Night Out

On Friday night, I had my first night out on the town since Teddy was born. Woo-hoo!

My mom, sister-in-law Laura and I went to see Little House on the Prairie at the Guthrie. It was wonderful. I grew up reading the books and watching the TV show, so it was fabulous to see it come to life on stage. Melissa Gilbert plays "Ma" in the musical - very cool!

At intermission, Laura and I had a few "LHOTP"-themed drinks... she had a Prairie Passionflower and I had a Naughty Nellie.

Although I missed the boys, it was nice to have a night out. Now on to planning the next one!

PS... Teddy is officially smiling now and even cooing a bit. I will post a pic of his smile - as soon as Matt uploads the pics (hint, hint). :) Yes, I know I need to learn how to do it!

Maybe Monty Brewster had it right

Before I let this blog take a complete left turn to liberal-ville, I must get something off my chest about this year's election.

Those who know me well know I love classic movies--Caddyshack, Major League, Animal House--the list goes on. But one classic movie that I've been thinking about recently is Brewster's Millions. A great movie about an aging minor league pitcher, played by Richard Pryor. In the movie Pryor's character, Monty Brewster has to spend $30 million in 30 days in order to receive his uncle's full inheritance of $300 million. But there are two stipulations, Brewster can't tell anyone what he's doing or he'll lose everything and at the end of 30 days he must not own anything. So as he spends and spends everyone thinks he's crazy. But there's an idea in this movie that isn't so crazy, especially today...two decades after the movie was written.

During his spending spree, Brewster decides he doesn't like the negative tone of the New York City's mayor race so he launches a campaign urging people to vote "None of the Above."

Unfortunately Richard Pryor has since passed, but if he were alive today--and aware of the bafoonery that was happening with the local and national elections--I hope he would stand-up and say "None of the Above."

My faith in government wasn't very strong before, but now I have - none, zero, zip - confidence in the people who want to "lead" this country. Change is coming... and I'm scared as hell!

It's up for debate

It's a late night in the Lechner household. Not because of Henry and Teddy, but because of Barack and John.

Needless to say, Matt and I are having some interesting conversations right now! I'm keeping this short so we can watch, but FYI to anyone interested in watching future debates... tune into CNNHD, where you can watch undecided voters react live to the candidate's discussions via a graph at the bottom of the screen. Pretty cool!

Baby, You're a Star

If you know Henry, you know the kid's an early riser. It's not unusual for him to be up and at'em at 5 a.m. In the last few months, Matt and I have finally caved and pulled out our tiny coffee maker to make our early mornings a bit easier.

Anyway, since he wakes up so early, I try to find activities that take place earlier in the morning, so we can get out of the house for a while and get back in time for his nap. It's not always easy, since things often start around 10/11 a.m.

I was looking at BabyGap.com and noticed that they were doing a casting call for Baby Gap models at the Mall of America last week. It started pretty early and I thought, why not, it could be fun to get Henry's picture taken. I'm no stage mother, for sure, but I figured it could kill some time and we could spend some time at the mall afterwards.

We got there pretty early and got H's picture taken. He wasn't especially cooperative, but H had fun playing a bit with some other kids in line and I got to look around the store at the cute clothes. I don't even think these pics really even look very "Henry"ish (if that makes sense), but they still make me smile so I thought I would share. I especially like the serious one. :)

Six weeks old today!

Teddy turns 6 weeks old today. It's kind of hard to believe, these first few weeks have been flying by, especially to what I remember with Henry. He's a great little guy.

To mark the date, I'm posting the 1-month pic I took with Henry and Teddy. It will be fun to see how they grow over the next year.

I'm also posting a pic of Henry and I at the State Fair the day before Teddy was born. This picture was actually taken only hours before Teddy was born, although we didn't know that at the time. Pretty cool - I will always treasure those pictures. I was huge!!!!

And yes, we put a leash on our kid at the fair. He didn't mind it - and, hey, it's cute!