Reunited and it feels so good!

Well, I (Beth) am back up in New Jersey, this time for good...or at least until next week when the three of us venture back down to VA/NC for Christmas with my parents.

It was so nice to get back to my little boy and my big boy (haha) last week. I ended up not having to go to work on Thursday or Friday because of snow. It was nice to have the snow but a real bummer that I had come down for the week to work and couldn't do it.

Since my return we have had lots of fun..

Henry hung out with Santa in downtown Ridgewood. (For those HOs out there...he reminded me of Earl Shaffer.)



Henry tried cereal for the first time.



And he enjoyed hanging out by the Christmas tree.



Other than that we've just been plugging along to get to Winter Break for Eddie. We did a great job with being early on gifts and I'm actually really pleased with what we've done for many of our family and friends. I am looking forward to sharing Christmas with Henry, even though he won't have any idea what's going on.

Eddie is still doing well with work. I got to meet more of his co-workers over the weekend at a holiday party. I am looking forward to (hopefully) spending more time with them and getting to know them. They seem like a fun bunch.

That's all from here at the moment.

Have a happy holiday!

Come Home Soon Mommy!!

I'm three days late- my bad. I actually tried to edit the blog on Monday with some pictures from the weekend, but the laptop that Henry and I have here in NJ wouldn't cooperate. But still, here we go.

We continue to be super fortunate to have the support of our family. With Beth in Virgina since Thursday the 9th and Eddie having work (including the weekend) Grampa, Gramma and Great Mom-Mom and Great Pop-Pop have put in a bunch of time with Henry (with assists from Karen, Ellen and Kevin). He has fortunately continued to be a great kid other than usually still not napping for more than 30 minutes at a time during the day (he has gotten back to being a great sleeper at night: i.e. 10 pm - 5:15 am and 6 am - 9:15 am). There are two more days of family assistance and then Beth gets to start her stay-at-mommying full time.

A couple of firsts that Henry has completed while Beth has been gone: 1) On Sunday Henry decorated his first Christmas tree. (If I was blog savvy, I would insert a hyper-link with the blog post when he helped pick out that tree). There is a picture of him "putting" the star on the tree that Beth will add on Saturday.
Also, about 10 minutes ago Henry stood behind the coffee table and after I propped his arms on the table and leaned him in against the table, he "stood" for 5 seconds before his knees buckled. I would praise him for this, but Ellen tells me I'm not allowed to, so "Henry, you stood for 5 seconds."
On the house front, things continue to move forward positively but there are still home inspection issues to be resolved. At this point though, things still seem like they are headed in the right direction.
Up next, some Devils hockey (Editors note- wow they scored!) and then spending about 48 hours waiting for mom to come home and then looking forward to visiting Santa in downtown Ridgewood on Saturday.
Stay tuned for Saturday, Sunday or Monday when our premier blog writer returns with better writing and pictures!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Since the last post we've been quite busy!

Beth and Henry had a safe trip back up to New Jersey. While we were certainly sad to leave Grama Ding Dong and Grandad, it was VERY nice to be reunited with Eddie. We celebrated our return with a family outing (minus Kevin) to pick out the Seavers Family Christmas tree. It was a first for Henry AND for me. (My parents have had the same awesome artificial tree for 30-some years.)

Here is a photo of us at the tree lot:



We enjoyed a nice weekend, hanging out with the family and friends. On Sunday, a few of us played some Mexican Train dominoes during the afternoon. After a delicious big dinner, we played some Taboo, which was hilarious. I love playing games and am glad that I married into a family that enjoys them too!

House Update: I've been hesitant to say much so nothing is jinxed. Our offer was accepted and we had the home inspection on Monday morning. Nothing terrible but certainly some things we will ask the owners to fix before we move forward. We are working on our list to send to them so we'll see what they say. *fingers crossed*

I am heading back to Virginia tomorrow afternoon for my last bit of work. I am not bringing Henry with me. I'm incredibly sad to be leaving him but also know that it will be easier for me, especially since work is going to be very busy. I am heavily involved with the online system that takes registration and important information for incoming freshman in terms of their orientation, course preferences, housing, etc. It launches on Monday so we have a lot of prep before then and also will use next week to troubleshoot anything since we have some new components. I am nerdily excited about the whole thing. The system is a really great tool and we are using it in some new ways this year.

Henry and Eddie will have some quality Man Time while I am away. I will be thankful to return at the end of next week because it will mean that we are a step closer to things calming down. Of course we have (hopefully) a move ahead of us but at least we'll all be together. It's been harder than I anticipated to be separated. But I know that it's been for the greater good, in term of having health insurance, extra paychecks in the bank and me being able to transition slowly out of my job.

In Henry news...he continues to be a great kid. We had some minor "excitement" on Monday morning when I discovered that he had fallen victim to a "hair tourniquet" on one of his toes! Ironically, I had read a paragraph about them in his Week By Week book the night before. I was able to get the hair off and his toe recovered. There is still a mark where the hair was but he won't be losing his Little Piggy that Stayed Home!

He is also starting to get much better at being able to grab things intentionally and has started putting two and two together about grabbing and pulling a bottle to his mouth to feed...although his aim is sometimes a little off!

That's about all from here....since I will be away in Virginia I am putting Eddie in charge of next week's entry!

Nifty November Winds Down

November has been a crazy month...Eddie started a new job, I started my back-and-forth schedule between NJ and VA, Henry visited Wisconsin, we celebrated Henry's first Thanksgiving and put in an offer on a house. It's hard to believe that tomorrow is December already. Time is truly flying!

Here are some highlights from the last week:

Henry's First Thanksgiving



QT with KT (I love this picture!)


Adventures in Kitty Hawk/Outer Banks with Ding Dong and Grandad



I LOVE this photo...

The Cheese State

Henry and I had a great trip up to "Great Bea's" house in Wisconsin. I hadn't been there since the summer of 2002!

He was a great traveler on our way up. Thankfully there were some kind people on our flight that helped me get on and off the plane since it involved going down a flight of stairs, walking on the tarmac, climbing up the stairs to the plane, etc...all with a backpack, a diaper bag, a fold up stroller and a cute baby boy.

We spent most of our time just relaxing at Grama's house and catching up. We did take one outing to Worzalla Publishing, which is where my aunt works. It was SO COOL to see how books are made, which is just something I had kind of just taken for granted. They publish the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and that was one of the things we saw flying through th epresses. We got to explore the "reject room" where they have the books that have minor imperfections that are still perfectly good but not good enough to sell. Henry ended up getting some great new books, including President Obama's new book and "The Pout Pout Fish in the Big, Big Dark." The fish book has become a favorite for my dad to read with Henry.

We had a great time visiting with everyone and even had a special visitor:



While we were there Grama celebrated her 80th birthday. We took this photo of the four generations that day:


My grama's house is really awesome and even has a clawfoot tub. One night we did a photoshoot with Henry in the tub. The result was ADORABLE:


Here's how we got the shot:


Mom, Dad, Henry and I flew back to Norfolk yesterday and I went in to work today. Eddie is currently on the road here for Thanksgiving. I am really excited to share my favorite holiday with Henry.

For those of you following our house hunting...we are awaiting attorney review and inspection of a house that we really like...hopefully we'll have some good news to post. (I'm not going to post anything more just yet...)

Happy 3 Months!

Today Henry turns 3 months old...time sure is flying!

We had a fantastic time last week at the Thomas Edison park and Henry earned his first Junior Ranger badge! I really enjoyed taking him out even though he won't remember it. It felt good to get my camera going again for photographs of things other than Henry. Don't get me wrong, I love taking photos of him, but it was good to exercise my eye a little bit. This was my favorite from the day, a shot from the first floor looking up in the Edison warehouse.



On Friday, Eddie, Henry and I headed south to JMU for Alumni Band weekend. Some of our friends were in town for the event as well so we had a good time just relaxing and catching up. Funny how different things were this year compared to years past...two babies and a baby on the way in our group. Craziness! But we had a great time AND the Dukes pulled out a win over William & Mary!

On Sunday, we headed north and met up with friends at Antietam Battlefield, where Henry earned his second Junior Ranger badge! It was a beautiful day to walk around and to see the battlefield sights. It is a pretty thought-provoking place. To see the beauty that is there today with the rolling fields and autumn-painted hills in the distance...and then think about the horrors that took place there during the Civil War.

(There was a few hours between the above paragraphs and this part of the post. I have packed up the laptop with the photos saved on it so I can't post anymore pictures currently...I'll make up for it when I'm back on the other computer.)

We got back to Ridgewood around 8:10 in time to watch this week's Amazing Race and put Henry to bed.

This week we have looked at some more houses and put in an offer on one this evening! We won't know anything just yet as our realtor has to talk to the seller's listing agent and consider our offer. This will happen tomorrow morning and then we wait...

Tomorrow Henry and I head to Wisconsin to visit family. I'm slightly anxious about flying with him by myself but he's a good boy so I'm optimistic. (I say this now...just wait until Mister Poop Up The Back returns!)

I will have limited internet access but will post if I can.

Chatting with Daddy

Henry was more talkative today than he has ever been, which was really neat. I caught Eddie and him having a chat tonight right before we were going to get Henry ready for bed. (The park Eddie is refering to is the Thomas Edison National Historical Site. Entrance fees are free to all National Parks tomorrow in honor of Veterans Day so I figured Henry and I could check out one close to here.)

Good morning from Henry!

Henry seems to be happiest first thing in the morning. He was talking up a storm but of course got a little camera shy when I got the camera out. But I was able to capture this and thought you might enjoy it.

What did Dela wear, boy?

Our friend Tim sings this every time he drives over the bridge from Delaware to New Jersey. In his honor, I sang it on Friday night when I crossed over into Jersey.

I managed to survive the three days without my boys in Virginia. I took advantage of the time and spent time with some friends and got the rest of the house packed up. Don't get me wrong, I missed the two of them a great deal, but it was a nice "break" to be able to be so productive...and to sleep through the night.

I got up to New Jersey late on Friday and Henry was asleep. I didn't wake him up even though I wanted to pick him up and cuddle him. We did that in the middle of the night when he woke up to eat.

On Sunday, Ellen and I took Henry across the street to take some pictures of him in an autumn outfit. I love the results. Here are a few favorites from the "shoot":




Eddie is still enjoying work, which is great. I am still working my current job until January 3rd. I am burning the rest of my leave but am still doing work via email while I'm away. It's amazing how much technology can allow you to still be productive, even from a few states away.

I went with our realtor and Eddie's parents to look at 8 houses yesterday. Still nothing. I am so thankful that we have a place to stay while we are looking. I would have been a big ball of stress if we had to look for a place to rent while we were looking for a place to buy. We are very lucky!

Henry and I went on our first New Jersey field trip today...to Target! Nothing exciting but it's fun to learn how to get to places. I think if it's nice out we'll take a walk over to the high school to visit Aunt Karen one day this week.

In Henry news...he continues to be an awesome baby. He's been sleeping and napping really well. His new thing is munching on everything and drooling a lot. Apparently this is normal and right "on target" according to the Week 12 entry in the book we read.

Thanks for reading!

November Already?!

I can't believe that we are in November already. Where has time gone?

Since the last entry...

Our POD was delivered to the house and we got everything packed up. It's amazing how much stuff we have accumulated between us, especially considering we don't have a large amount of furniture. Thankfully my parents had done A LOT of our packing for us while we were at work over the last few weeks. (I don't know what we would have done without them!) Eddie could be a gold medal Olympic packer so every square inch of the POD was used.

My parents and I went to see the Fab Faux in concert at the Ferguson Center on Saturday night. They are a Beatles cover/tribute band and are a phenomenal group of musicians. I had seen them last year and loved it...this year did not disappoint either. They played a set of just random Beatles music and then after intermission played all of Abbey Road. Pretty awesome.

On Sunday my parents left to head back home in the morning. We then took Henry to our friends' house to hang out and to watch some football. While we were there, Tim fed Henry his lunch. And while feeding Henry decided to hold the bottle on his own!

(He hasn't done it since then and I'm okay with that because if he holds it himself that means he's a big boy!)

Post-football we came back up to Newport News to take Henry trick-or-treating with some friends. It was so much fun even though Henry didn't really do anything other than hang out in his banana costume. My favorite costume that I saw was a boy dressed as Albert Einstein! I enjoy Halloween a great deal I think because it brings back memories of going out with my dad. We always seemed to have such fun.

Here is Henry in his costume the night of Trick or Treating:



Monday morning brought the POD folks back to our house to pick it up. We ended up with a lot still after the POD was packed so Eddie ended up getting a small moving truck for our miscellaneous extras. His dad flew in on Monday night and drove the truck up while Eddie drove the car with Henry.

It was pretty hard to say goodbye to Henry and Eddie yesterday morning before heading to work. I know it'll only be until Friday night that we'll be apart but it's the first time we've been apart for that long. I stopped in at lunchtime to see them (since their departure was delayed) for a quick visit. Henry was looking adorable in his new striped shirt. I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of him before they left.




They made it safely to New Jersey last evening and I was able to Skype with them. Henry seemed a little confused by the whole thing...seeing me and hearing me but through a computer screen. We Skyped again tonight and he was adorable, as usual. I'm pretty thankful for technology like that so I can interact a little bit with the little guy.

Since this is a family blog and not just a Henry blog I should also mention that today was Eddie's first day at his new job. We chatted online here and there and spoke briefly tonight and from what I've deduced he had a good day. Bagels, out to lunch, etc. He also went to see two houses and both were No Go's...two more tomorrow.

Well, I think that about does it for this entry...

We're still here....I meant to write an update on Monday to keep that pattern going but we were a little busy...

Henry got to go on his first trip to JMU! We went up last Friday and showed him around campus. Even though I know he's too little to know what's going on I loved having him see the Quad, the James Madison statue and watch the MRDs rehearse.



On Saturday we helped out with the Parade of Champions high school marching competition that JMU hosts. We had a great time up in the pressbox all day watching bands and helping out. Henry was a good boy and did really well for a majority of the day. I loved that he got to meet so many people that have been so special to me, including my high school and college band directors and the woman that I student taught with.

We drove back to Newport News on Sunday to attend a birthday party for the son of our friends. It was a lot of fun and it was Henry's first birthday party! We also took him Trick Or Treating in the residence halls for their annual event. So much fun to see the halls decorated and to see the students in costume. Henry was a hit in his costume:


Eddie and I flew up to New Jersey on Monday morning and back to Virginia Monday night. We did the quick trip to look at seven houses in hopes of finding "the one". Unfortunately we did not. But we are not discouraged just yet. We're going to take it easy on the home-front (haha) and get back to it once Eddie is up in Jersey which is next week already!

Tuesday brought us two going away parties for us at work. It's a little weird because my last day isn't until December 1 but Eddie's is Monday. (I'm remaining on for Health Insurance benefits because Eddie's won't start up for 60 days after he starts his new job...lame.) I'm going to be using a lot of my leave, which means I can be in New Jersey and then Wisconsin (to have Henry meet family!) and then finish up work after Thanksgiving. It's not ideal but it gives us health insurance coverage that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, I can collect my bonus and also spend more time prepping things for my departure.

It's been bittersweet preparing to leave...I am so excited for us and our new adventures. Eddie's new job, our first house (eventually) and getting to stay home with Henry. But we're also going to really miss the wonderful people that we've had the pleasure of working with over the last few years. We've been very lucky to work with many truly great people.

In Henry news...
-He weighed in at 12 pounds at his check-up last week.
-His sleeping has gotten much better and we're trying to be good about keeping his bedtime consistent. It seems to be helping.
-He's starting to "talk" more and it's pretty much the cutest thing ever.
-He continues to be a really great baby. We got lucky!

First Class Baby

So far in Henry's life:
-JMU Dukes always win against Virginia Tech
-Flying in first class is normal

Yep, we got to upgrade on our flights to and from Jersey this weekend. It turned out to be nice (not because of the free beer) because we had more room to operate with him...including a diaper change on the tray table! (Don't worry, we had our changing pad over it.)

Here is a photo of Henry and Mommy:



We traveled up to Jersey this weekend to look for a house. It was pretty interesting to see the various houses and to feel like a big snoop looking at people's things. We ended up really liking a house but couldn't get the seller down in price to our pricerange. We're not discouraged yet and are continuing our search.

We took a break from house hunting to check out a local pumpkin patch. Once again Henry slept through a fun activity...but was still super cute.


Today Henry is 9 weeks old. Hard to believe time is going so fast. This week he has started to really smile, which is incredibly cute. It makes me so happy to see his little smiles and I especially love it when he coos a little. He's such a sweet and patient little boy. I hope he stays that way!

Week 8!

I can't believe that eight weeks ago we were hanging out with a Henry that was only four hours old! Now he's a whole eight weeks old and is changing and growing every day. It's amazing.

He is currently resting in my lap and we are listening to a Youtube video with white noise and rain. Henry has been extremely fussy tonight, which is very much out of character for him. After walking, singing, and swinging I took a shot with Youtube for some relaxing sounds. It seems to work and he's calmed down a lot. (I'm about to fall asleep too!) I have bookmarked a good rain and cricket one for future use.

To mark today's 8 Week birthday I snapped a few shots of him with his friend Toby the Turtle.



It was fun to go back and look at a similar shot I took when he was just 8 days old:



Here are two more from today:

Made it!

Well, we made it through the first week of both of us being back to work. We were lucky enough to have my parents come up for the week to take care of him. It was such a chore for them to take him for walks, read to him and show him off in Colonial Williamsburg... :-) They will be back next week. I am glad that they are able to be here, both for us to have a piece of mind that he's home in good hands, but also because it's such a neat time in Henry's young life. He is growing and changing so much even day to day and I like that they are here to see it.

I am looking forward to the weekend, especially the thought of maybe catching a nap at some point!

The house is in a bit of disarray as we prepare for our move in just a few weeks. Our friends are being nice enough to allow us to bring some of our stuff over to their yard sale in the morning. We aren't out to try to get tons of money..just hoping to get rid of some stuff we don't need anymore. I've been trying hard to really go through my things and purge a little. I get sentimental over all sorts of stuff and it's hard for me to get rid of it. I am, however, doing a good job with actually sorting and tossing some papers, photos, etc. that I clearly do not need anymore. It's been hard not to get distracted by things like my high school yearbooks, college class notebooks with professor's ridiculous quotes in the margins, old photo albums, etc.

Henry has been asleep in his swing for a little bit now and I've been able to sort through some papers and clothes. Once he wakes up he'll eat and then hopefully he and I will both go to bed. Nighty night!

Halfway Through...

Well, I have survived the first half of my first week back to work after being home with little Henry for 7 weeks. I have been surprisingly "okay" with being back. I think really loving my coworkers helps...as does knowing that I'll be back home full-time with him at the end of the month.

On Monday, Henry stayed home in the morning with Uncle Kevin and then had adventures with dad and Uncle Kevin in the afternoon. (Baby's First Putt Putt!) My parents have been generous enough to come stay with us for the rest of the week. They took Henry on a walk yesterday and have continued my routine of "Morning Music" in the morning (obviously). Morning Music is something that I started with Henry when I was home with him. It just consists of us listening to different pieces and genres of music each morning. I think he likes it, or at least tolerates it well.

Tonight after work we will have some Azzurri pizza and then go to Eddie's kickball game. My parents haven't seen a game yet so I'm excited for them to see what all the fuss is about. Eddie is sad that his Peninsula WAKA days are numbered. He mentioned yesterday something about adult baseball/softball leagues in Jersey so I have no doubt that he'll find something to fulfill his need to be competitive!

It is my hope to do post consistently, at least on each Monday to chronicle Henry's week "birthdays" and keep track of what he is doing, his development and all that fun stuff...and post photos of course.

Welcome to Our New Blog!

As some of you may already know, Eddie very recently was offered and accepted the position of Associate Director of Student Development and Coordinator of the Student Center at Ramapo College in Mahwah, NJ so....we'll be heading north at the end of this month!

With all of our new experiences in the last 7 weeks with the birth of Henry and the adventures we are sure to face in the coming weeks and months we thought it was a good time to start a family blog. This will allow our friends and family to keep up with us and for us to share moments big and small with all of you. (Plus we'll have a pretty neat record of this time in our lives!)

I (Beth) will probably be the chief blogger though I suspect with Henry's clearly advanced mental abilities he'll be posting in no time!

So...welcome to our new blog and...enjoy!