we are still stuck in a deep freeze up here in pennsyltuckie.
and we're mighty sick of it.
still, we've tried to get out and about as much as we can.
bence and i have been on a few walks and taken a some trips to the park when the weather is nice enough.

this boy loves to run. can you tell?

if you follow this blog, then you'll remember how much bence loves to be outside.
in fact, he loves it so much, that when we come back inside, he usually does this for a good ten minutes before calming down....

...but after some snuggles and a bottle he usually calms down.

Last weekend we actually had some really lovely weather.
Henry came home a little early on friday and we decided to do something fun instead of staying at the house.
so we went to cabelas.
its only an hour or so from where we live and that's usually enough time for bence to get a little bit of a nap in the car (which is never a bad thing.)

it was an adventure, i'll give it that.
whenever bence sees a big open space he's never been before he just wants to run.
we made it through the mini aquarium before he started squealing and straining against the straps on his stroller.

he liked the fish, i think.
he definitely noticed them at any rate.
they were just insufficient to keep him happily restrained.

the rest of the trip was a challenge.
we did get to show him some cool displays, though.

henry's face in this last picture kind of sums up how we both felt after an hour.
we both heaved a sigh of relief when little buddy was strapped and immobile in his car seat.

at one point we went upstairs to look around.
henry let bence walk up the stairs while he was behind the little terror and i took the stroller up the elevator.

at the top bence realized he just wanted to go back down.
problem is, he doesn't always notice differences in depth perception.
i caught him by the back of his shirt right before he ran pell-mell over the edge of the steps.

when this kid takes off running, he books it.
i nearly ran into and knocked over some poor woman in pursuit of my child.
i think as a parent you have to get used to being a bit of a spectacle when you're out in public because it's bound to happen at some point.

last night henry asked if we'd be up for a 'park and pizza night,' and we said "heck yes!"

so here's some more park pictures;
 bence's just too cute in his moose hat to not take lots of pictures.

we didn't go over to the wooden park in the background, but it looked awesome! 

can you tell he was happy to be outside again?

also, it was freezing.
as in, barely 34 degrees.
even in the sun it was cold.
our pizza tasted like it had been refrigerated by the time we finished eating.
but it was fun.
and it's always good to  get out of the house.

bence had a bit of a hard time walking on the metal platform.
if you look you can see the metal is punctured with oval holes.
bence's feet are small enough that this made him a little unsteady.
at one point he gave up trying to walk and got down to hands and knees so he could back his way over to the slide.
it was pretty cute.

we have a little rockstar' what can i say!

and just this last one, for good measure.

Luck O' the Irish!

we had a really fun weekend visiting family.

Henry took off work friday and managed to leave work a little early thursday afternoon so we could have a longer break. 

while up we took a few drives to look at houses, went out to eat three times, dropped by a local bakery, went to a baby shower, and stopped at a parade for st. patty's day.

we were too busy having fun to take pictures of most of those things, but henry got a few on his phone.

 

bence tried on Poppo's hunting boots. they were a little big. 

the parade was lots of fun. i think bence loved watching the floats and listening to the music.

it was frigid though. 

when we got out of the car i thought it might be warm enough to leave my jacket.

but when the wind picked up it froze our hands and noses. 

i felt terrible for leaving bence's mittens in the car and tried to hold his hands so they weren't so cold.

for once, he actually let me. 

two different times two different mascots walked down the road. the first one looked like a big shapeless elmo.
henry beckoned him over, and the mascot reached over to bence's hand.
and bence lost it.
he screamed and squirmed in his seat like he was trying to get away.
it's really weird for him to be picky about people all the sudden, because he's always been so friendly to everyone.
i think he's reached the stage where he knows what's normal(ish) and departures from that are a little scary.

we didn't ask the second (blue) mascot to come over.

there were a couple bagpipe groups that walked through and it was really neat to listen to them. the traditional irish cultural displays were punctuated by nightclub floats blasting party music while guys in muscle shirts flexed and half naked college girls handed out candy.

(bence's miller lite beads were courtesy of one of the aforementioned nightclub floats)

poppo was decked out in st. patty's attire. 

if felt heavenly to get back into the car after it had sat in the sun for a good hour. we were all frozen and hungry so we went to cracker barrel for dinner. bence even behaved himself once grammo got him a racing car from the giftshop. (he's just the littlest bit spoiled.)

We've been home three days now and i still haven't unpacked our stuff or done all the laundry yet. i'm not too hopeful for today either. but i haven't been completely useless. i did make coconut cake the other day, and it was (is) heavenly. we still have more than half a pan left. 

anyone want to come over and help me eat the rest of it? (it's super rich...like i-can't-finish-an-entire piece-by-myself-rich)

we have hit the second trimester already! bence came along with me yesterday to my 16 week appointment. it's gone by really fast. bence keeps me so busy i have almost forgotten at times that i am pregnant. and then, with a jolt, i realize that i'm growing another human.

bence was pretty well behaved at my appointment. i was a little run off my feet, but that's nothing new. when we were in the waiting room he kept running back to the hallway where the exam rooms were. and when they took me back to check my weight he kept running back into the waiting room. 

when he does this he always looks over his shoulder while running away from me, laughing manically the whole time. i think he knows he's being naughty and he thinks it's funny. to be honest, it's kind of hard not to laugh because it is pretty hilarious. even when he's being a stinker. and he manages to be so cute. (and, as i've had several people tell me, he has the funniest little laugh ever.)

so far baby #2 looks good. i got to hear the heartbeat again, and that's always amazing. it was a pretty quick visit. the doctor said i'm measuring a bit big but that might mean i'm just a little farther along than he thinks. 

after my exam i sat down in their little lab to have some blood drawn and as soon as the needle was in my arm bence ran down the hallway. one of the nurses chased him down for me. even my doctor came out to play with him for a few minutes. by the time a vial of blood had been drawn, three nurses and my doctor were happily chatting about and playing with bence. he is so incredibly social and so sweet i think everyone falls in love with him. 

after my appointment we went to wal-mart, which i felt was a risky move since he had been up so early that morning and we had already been out for over an hour. but it ended up being the best grocery trip i've ever made by myself. 

right after i dropped off a prescription i went straight to Mcdonalds to get him something to eat. and for the next hour he happily gnawed at chicken nuggets and french fries in the cart while i leisurely did my shopping. 

i've come to realize that as a mommy you sometimes have to do what works, even if it isn't the healthiest/most cost effective/acceptable way to do it. he really is a good boy as long as he has a full tummy and is actively being entertained. 

even since my last update about little B, he has changed so much. it seems like everyday he makes knew and/or different sounds. he has so many facial expressions and such a vivacious little personality. he loves to be "chased" (along with any other game where there's a good amount of anticipation.) but he also loves snuggles lately. (i blame the teething.) he's fussy enough lately to prefer me over other people, and he has consistently made me laugh so hard that i feel like i'm going to throw up. (i'm just a tiny bit nauseous still.) 

jeez, we love this kid!

MORE big news...!

we have more exciting news to share.
no...we're not having twins.

Henry got a new job.
a really awesome and amazing new job.
so awesome that it will launch him into a totally new field without having to do an MBA.
he just kinda gets to skip that middle part.

about a month ago he was contacted by a consulting company who asked him to apply for a job opening they had.
they found him on linkedin.
henry kind of laughed because he said there was no way he would be hired, (because of lack of experience) but he applied since they asked.
he got a phone interview.
and that went really well.
so he had a peer conference interview (a phone interview with six people asking questions)
and that went pretty well too.
so they flew him out to florida a few weeks ago to make sure he wasn't weird in person,
and they offered him the job.

so now henry will be an IT consultant.
he will fly all over the world to tell companies what they're doing wrong.
(and then, of course, he will tell them how to do things the right way.)

this is kind of the stinky part of his new job.
henry will be traveling a lot.
which is cool in a lot of ways since i can come along whenever i want,
but it also means we will spend a lot of time apart.

the cool part of this job is that when henry isn't traveling, he gets to work from home.
so when he isn't traveling we'll see a lot of him.
it also means we can live wherever we want.
or at least wherever we want that's close to a decent airport.

we've been thinking of moving even closer to family.
mostly for my sanity and extra help with (soon to be) two babies.
i'll need all the help i can get since i'll kind of be a single-mommy for (possibly) 3 weeks of the month.
so we've been keeping an eye on real estate listings and driven around a few houses while up visiting family.

we are excited and a little nervous.
bence and i are planning a lot of trips to visit family so we don't get lonely or bored.
henry will start in just a few weeks and has given his notice at his current job.
our family (close and extended) have a lot of changes coming this year....and we can't wait to see what happens!

(Here's our cute little buddy. he likes to help me clean.)

Five years and then some

Last Friday Henry and I celebrated our fifth anniversary.

I remember when I was a newlywed and five years seemed like a long time.
Mostly because everyone I knew that had been married that long had at least a baby or two in tow,
and babies were such a grown up thing....it seemed very far removed from where i was standing.

but five years has come and gone!
and i never imagined that five years would bring so many changes and such a sweet peanut.
and another peanut in the making.
it's really amazing what can happen in half a decade. i can't even begin to imagine what the next five years will bring.

and just because it was our anniversary, i have to include the part where i'm married to the sweetest most adorable man in the world and he makes me happier than i've ever been. which is totally awesome.

Bence came along on our  anniversary "date" which was basically a grocery trip, but we had a great time.
Since little B fell asleep on the way out,
we stopped at "neato burrito" for dinner (something we could eat in the car) while hoping for a similar experience to Cafe Rio (the BEST restaurant in Utah.)

we were sadly disappointed.

but for the "pennsyl-tuckie" version of Mexican, it wasn't bad.
We made an extra trip to Wegmans after stopping at target.
because we always forget something.
And for those of you who have (or have had) kids you know that stopping at more than one place can be a dangerous thing with a toddler.
this was me and henry's way of living dangerously.
the likelihood of meltdowns and temper tantrums increases by fifty percent with each additional stop you make. (in this family anyway.)

But bence was so sweet.
and charming.
every time he made eye contact with someone he would wiggle his arm in the air and yell "AAAYY!"
(that's his version of hey, or hello--we can't tell.)

In fact, i felt kind of guilty as a mom because he was so excited to go out.
even just to go to the grocery store.
this poor kid has been kept indoors all winter. you know you have cabin fever when target and wegmans are an exhilarating experience.
i think we've got to get him out more.

he was so cute sitting in the cart all wrapped up, we tried to get a good picture of him.
but he was too busy trying to wave to a group of kids he saw over by the cart stall.

Yesterday the weather was so nice we just had to get out of the house.
almost all the snow has melted, and while everything is brown and drab looking,
the sun still warms your bones and makes it seem like spring is just around the corner.

so we put on real clothes, packed up the diaper bag, and headed out.
we've taken bence to the park before, but he never really caught on.
but this time, when we pulled him out of his carseat he started to squeal.
i think he knew we were going to be outside.
and anytime we're outside, we're bound to have fun. (at least in bence's mind.)
he took off faster than his little legs could carry him and wound up on his butt more than once.

by the time we left, his bottom was soaked as were the legs of his pants up to his knees. he doesn't have the greatest depth perception and still falls over frequently when walking over unever surfaces.

he is so independent.
Henry or i would offer bence a hand or try to help him where the ground wasn't level or where a step was too big to climb over, and he would reach out for a split second....
but as soon as he was over whatever obstacle it was, he'd rip his hand away. i guess he's too big to have help from mommy or daddy.

There was a kiddie park a little ways away from the bigger jungle gym where older kids were playing.
we tried to start bence off with the smaller slides, but he wasn't having it.

he saw all the big kids playing and he wanted to be over where they were.
and once he figured out the slides, he only wanted the big ones.
henry would go up to the top of the jungle gym with him, but once he got to the slide, he literally threw himself face foreword to go down.

a couple times henry held onto the back of his shirt while another kid went down ahead of bence,
and he would get so frustrated and mad at that two second delay that he would scream some more.

the funniest part of taking bence to the park was seeing how social he is.
we already knew that he was friendly. he has been since he was an infant.
but the entire time we were there, he insisted on running where all the big kids were.

I kept thinking of that song from the little mermaid....
"I wanna be where the people are...i wanna see, wanna see 'em dancing!"

that was bence.
we took him over to the kiddie swings at one point.
and he didn't like it at all.
we were the only ones on that part of the playground.
he kept looking over to where a gaggle of kids were playing across the park.
then he would look at them and scream.
and then look at us.
and then look at the other kids and scream some more.
and the minute we got him down he took off in their direction.

don't worry, there was still snow on the ground, but it was really warm out. no babies were cold in the making of this blog. 

Notice the wet bum.
he would fall on the snow that hadn't melted yet, and sit there with his hands in the air because he didn't want to touch the cold ground to push himself up. that's the only time he was okay with us helping him.

the worst part about going to the park: getting little B in the car afterward.
he cried as soon as I opened the door.
and then kicked his muddy little feet in indignation.
and arched his back so it was nearly impossible to buckle him in.
but once he was settled with some juice he calmed down.

and when we got home we ate dinner and watched frozen.
it's kind of his favorite movie.
he loves the music. and i'm pretty sure his eyes never left the screen for the entire hour and a half the movie lasted.

all in all, it was a pretty great day.
here's one last picture of our sweet little trouble maker.
climbing, as usual.

First haircut

Bence had his first real haircut today.

I've trimmed a few pieces before, but never really cut it.
Since he has such curly hair, he gets these little rats on the back of his head where his curls get super snarly.
And I can never get them untangled.
They get so bad that the hair doesn't even curl after a while. They just stick straight out from the rest of his curls like little dreads.
So we decided to get the scissors out and see what happened.
He's not able to sit still for very long , so it took three separate attempts sitting him down to finish.
In the end, putting him on a towel on the living room floor while watching despicable me was what did the trick.
And now his head looks much smaller, and oh so cute. just for fun, here's a before...

and another before....

and now the after!

I haven't seen this much of his neck since he was 8 or 9 months old.
It's adorable.
And surprisingly, it's still really curly.
I wasn't sure if cutting it would take away all those gorgeous ringlets.
I'm glad it didn't.
This boy is too cute for words.

Nana and papa got to see his new 'do on their way to and from a concert for aunt Callie.
He was so happy to have visitors.
he kept reaching up for papa to hold him, and running up and down the length of the living room, screaming in excitement.

He calmed down long enough to drink some apple juice and then he was back at it.
we sure love this peanut.