22 Months Old Actual

On Friday afternoon, I played with Henry while Jeff addressed a work call. We dropped off Henry at my parents. We ended up celebrating our anniversary by going to see "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" (it was the movie that was playing at the right time). It wasn't a bad B comedy. We were a bit disappointed that many of the films we really wanted to see were already out of the theaters. We then ordered a pizza for take out and went to Trader Joe's before it closed. Picked up Henry and headed home. Henry took awhile to get to sleep. Jeff and I ended up watching a second movie that we had recorded on our DVR. "Juno" is an excellent film. And that was our anniversary...16 years since our first date. Not exactly the most romantic of anniversaries, but maybe we'll do a little better for our wedding anniversary (after the state home inspector leaves).

Henry was his active self at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandpa got bitten by Wembley (one of Erin and Brian's dogs) while he was trying to rescue one of Henry's toys from doggie destruction. It was a pretty decently deep bite, but luckily it didn't look like it would require stitches.

As today (Saturday) is the last day of February, that makes Henry 22 months old (actual).

Henry had breakfast at home. Last week, he requested "pancakes" at every meal. But he decided to reject them today. I had to work on my manuscript, so we didn't go to Joel's. I read a couple books with Henry in the morning. One was "Minnie and the Magic Grinder" (one of my favorites when I was a tot).

Jeff took Henry to the park and zoo. Jeff reported that our son is very much an extrovert. It was a beautiful day. He said that Henry had a great time running back and forth between the lion exhibit and the otter exhibit. He was a little bit scared, however, of the gibbons. Jeff got back around 1:30-2PM. One would have thought that Henry would have been exhausted. We tried to get him down for a nap for about a 1/2 hour. We gave up. Tried to get him to eat lunch while we all watched a taped Wildcats basketball game from a little earlier in the day. But no. He had other ideas.

Around 5:30PM, Jeff took Henry to my parents' for dinner. We figured that they'd have better success getting him to eat. And they did. Macaroni and cheese souffle, plus he drank three bottles. He has been saying the word "macaroni" a lot. Apparently, this evening, he told Grandma "Macaroni tomorrow," so that she'll plan ahead and have his current favorite on hand.

They returned Henry to us around 8:30PM. He had a bath. We watched some of Thomas the Tank Engine. And then it was time for bed. He is snuggling with Jeff now.

The big news for me personally is that I've decided to stop pumping. Today marked my last set of interludes with Suckie (Medela Lactina Select #974197). On Tuesday, I had a really long day at work. Wasn't able to pump. That took a huge toll on my already dwindling milk supply. I talked with Jeff about whether or not I should quit pumping or continue for the next two months. He said that he was going to suggest to me that I stop, but I think that he was glad that I brought up the idea first. On Wednesday, I only pumped twice (once in the morning, once at night). Probably pumped about 60 mls for the day. I was actually thinking that I could just pump twice a day and maybe that would be OK. Today, I pumped in the morning and got about an ounce. I tried pumping early this evening, and only pumped about 10 mls. I think that my body was telling me that it was time to stop. I went for a lovely walk as the sun was setting. And it just seemed like a fitting end. So I cleaned and packed up the pump that I've been renting from the hospital. This is the second breast pump that I've rented b/c the motor was making weird sounds on the first one a couple months ago (overuse perhaps!). In some ways, I wish that I had it in me to see Henry through to April on breast milk. Even small amounts of breast milk provide antibodies. But something would have give to increase the dwindling supply (i.e., lots more sessions per day, which would mean less time with Henry and less time on my work). In any event, I've made the decision to stop. I've done a pretty good job pumping as long as I have. And there is a sense of relief knowing that it is done.