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.)