Meeting Ella

My cousin, Katie, had her first baby two weeks ago, Ella. We were able to meet Ella for the first time yesterday afternoon. She is adorable!! It was amazing to see the difference in size between Henry and Ella. It's only 4 months and 6 lbs difference, but on those little babies it is a lot!!

My mom holding Henry and Ella.

Great Grandma DeVries with Tommy (3 1/2 yrs), Ella (2 weeks), and Henry (4 1/2 months).

Great Grandma and Henry.

Catching up...

I've been bad about posting pictures lately, so here are some things we've been up to...

Aunt Sarah got engaged to Trevor and we are so excited!! We celebrated with a small engagement party, but Tommy thinks that it was the actual wedding.

Henry wore his adorable snow suit- Tommy couldn't decide if he looked like a bear or a dog.

The boys started taking baths together. Usually it goes pretty well, but Tommy has been caught making his plastic fish "eat" Henry. It wasn't very gentle :)

Henry is growing bigger!

I think this was the first and only time Tommy offered to give Henry his bottle. As you can see from the picture, neither boy looks too happy about the situation.

Henry started cereal. He isn't very good at it or very excited about it yet, but he is starting to get some in his mouth and keep it there.

Tommy had to help feed the cereal which involved lots of fake chewing while saying, "see, big brother can eat- can you?"

Henry is starting to enjoy his excersaucer, but it wears him out pretty quickly :)

That's a quick look at our life these past couple of weeks!

Do they look alike?

Everyone is always asking if Henry looks like Tommy did as a baby. I think they look quite a bit alike, but I also think that they looked more alike in pictures a month or two ago. Here is a side-by-side comparison. It will be interesting to see if they look more or less alike as they continue to grow! (Please forgive the picture quality of Tommy's- it's a picture of a picture). Tommy is on the left and Henry is on the right. If you click on the picture it will get bigger.

Four Months Old

Henry Christopher- Four Months Old

Henry is at such a fun age! He is much more aware of the world around him and loves to watch people. He has a great smile and an infectious laugh- we have fun working it out of him. He is especially ticklish and loves to have his clothes off so those are our usual tricks for getting a laugh :) Big brother seems to be having more fun with him too and Henry adores Tommy. It's fun to watch!

At four months Henry weighs 13lbs, 8 oz (25%), is 24 1/2" long (25%), and his head is 16 1/2" (50%). Tommy was 17lbs, 8 oz (95%), was 26 1/2" long (95%), and his head was 16 1/2" (50%). Obviously Tommy was quite a bit bigger at this age! The doctor was a little concerned that Henry's percentiles have dropped so significantly so we have started adding some formula to his feedings and will probably try to start rice cereal in the next week or so.

What's Henry up to at 4 months?

• He consistantly sleeps 13 hours at night (7pm-8am) and rarely wakes up in the middle of the night anymore. I think he only woke up twice in the last month.
• He eats every 2 1/2- 3 hours during the day.
• He goes down for a morning nap fairly consistantly around 9am- 10:30am. After that things tend to vary from day to day.
• He loves to suck his left thumb to fall asleep and also likes his glow seahorse that plays music that Santa brought him.
• He loves to play with rattles and toys and is able to lay under the activity gym for longer periods of time.
• He is still in 3-6 month clothes for the most part and size 2 diapers.
• He still loves his bath and isn't a big fan of his car seat.
• He smiles often and loves to be talked to!

January Days

So far, January has been spent recovering from the whirl-wind of Christmas and trying to stay busy in the cold! We've had fun playing with all of our new toys and games from Santa and just hanging out. Here's some pictures from the last couple of weeks:

I like this picture because Tommy is looking at me like, "seriously- what did you sign us up for?!"

Tommy really likes to help Uncle Chris plow and always insists on brushing the plow off when they are finished.

Woods Lake has the best sledding hill in the area! Even after suffering a cut chin and several bruises the first time he went sledding this winter, Tommy was anxious to go again.

Cousin Madelyn and Tommy

Uncle Chris and Tommy

Tommy and I built a snowman one afternoon- not too impressive is it? Maybe we'll have better packing snow another day.

All of the boys snuggling on the couch

Total concentration

Celebrating Papa's birthday- Happy birthday Papa!