Harvard Museum of Natural History

It was a chilly 6 degrees when we woke up this morning. The January Blues have hit around our house and we just couldn't stay in and let this Boston Winter get us down another day. We bundled up in as many layers as we could and headed to the Harvard Museum of Natural History; we met up with some friends for our first offical "Family Play Date." Luckily we know so many Harvard peeps so they got us in for FREE.

(mom this picture is for you)
I guess the theme of Like Father Like Son continues.

We had a grand time looking at fossils, stuffed animals, and dead insects. Stick and leaf bugs were the coolest to me. I was not interested in all the centipede action they had going on there however.

This guy is pretty much a rock star, no wonder "Pauly D" wants to do his hair like him.

It was nice to get out of the house, even if it was only a high of 17 degrees. We stopped on our way home and got some hot chocolate and warmed our bodies up a bit. I really cannot wait for warmer weather.

I think I'm in love

Look how adorable this kid is in his glasses!
After a rough week, Berke is now only pulling his glasses off after 30 minutes. He has even gone some long stretches, so there is hope that these things might actually stay on all day in the future.

New Accessory

Berkeley got his first pair of glasses this weekend; doesn't he look studious?
There are a couple of commonly asked questions I get all the time, so let me answer them here as I am sure you are dying to know.

1. How did you know to take him to the eye doctor?
Berke has always had a little problem with his right eye, it would drift toward his nose from time to time. It started happening a lot more often around 11 months, and we noticed it mainly when he would be in his high chair. We decided to ask his doctor about this at his 1 year check up and she suggested we see an optometrist just to be safe; she felt that they would probably just watch it or maybe patch his eye. It didn't happen all the time, so we were not super worried, but we did want to get it checked out.

2. Why does he need glasses?
The optometrist informed us that Berkeley is 3xs more far sided than most babies (all babies are far sided a bit) and that because of that he was having trouble focusing on things that were close up. Sometimes when he was trying to focus, he would only use one eye, his left eye to focus, therefore his right eye would float inward. She felt glasses would be the best option because if he doesn't start using his right eye to focus on things up close he could lose vision in the eye. She didn't want to patch the left eye to make the right eye stronger because that can weaken the good eye. The glasses may correct the problem and he could not need the glasses long term, but that it is unknown at this time how long he will need to wear them.

3. How do they stay on?
After two days of battling to keep the glasses on, I would like to say they don't. But.......they supposedly stay on by wrapping around his ears so they are harder to get/fall off. They told us the first couple of days would be an adjustment (that is an understatement) and then he would get used to them (I am praying this is true). Yesterday I was pretty exhausted as he did not keep them on for more than 5 minutes and that was a stretch. He was not happy about the glasses at all. Today has been a bit better; he has gone 15-20 minute stretches most the day. It is hard because we have to constantly watch him right now, so that when/if he does pull the glasses of we are there to grab them back, clean them and put them back on.

The glasses are thick and the prescription heavy, but he does seem to be able to see out of them. I think it is just hard for him to get used to the weight and pressure on his face. He will also bump into things (as any one year old does), and it remind him they are there, then curiosity kicks in. I am hoping that every day will continue to get better for him.

Something I didn't expect was how hard this transition would be for me as a parent. I was carrying Berke around the mall yesterday in the Bjorn; he had his glasses on and was doing well for a few minutes. What I didn't expect was that everyone would be staring at him, giggling at how cute he was, doing a double take to see the baby with glasses. I wanted to yell at them; don't laugh!!
He is super cute with the glasses I will admit, but it is hard to have people stare at him. Just something I am going to have to get used to I guess.

Should I be concerned that he is still reading his books upside down?
Gotta love this adorable kid!

Hey, How's Your News?

---Christian and I got to go on a date last weekend. We went 6 years without a kid and many dates; it's amazing how much more you value date time when you do have a kid. We ventured out to Harvard Square for some dinner and a movie. AVATAR rocked! Seriously LOVED it. I had no idea what it was about except there were blue aliens and it was in 3D. Seemed weird to me, but no my friends, this is a MUST see in the theater!

After the movie we couldn't go home just yet. We stopped by a famous dessert shop, Finale, for some decedent molten cake. It was absolutely worth the $10 we paid for it!

---What has happened in Haiti is absolutely devastating. It has been hard to watch so many of my Haitian co-workers wait for news about their families. Even more difficult for me is just to see pictures of the children; something changes in a woman when she becomes a mother; I cannot imagine little Berkeley sitting on the curb not knowing where his parents are. Who would take care of him? I always struggle to understand why these horrific natural disasters happen, it is just awful. I will continue to keep the Haitians in my prayers. There are many wonderful organizations helping these people, so if you have a few extra dollars please help these people.

These types of events always make me count my blessings; I don't know why I have been given so many wonderful blessings in life. I have amazing family, a great job, health care, good health, have had excellent education, never go without food, clothes or shelter. I have a close relationship with God, my husband and my son. I take so much for granted......so much.



----On a lighter note......Christian and I are making a momentous life style change for 2010. We really want to take care of our bodies this year, both physically and spiritually. We both were eating better and attending the gym more in 2009, but we want to continue this even more for 2010. Christian is going to take on a 10K this spring and I will be doing a triathlon at the end of July. We both are very excited about the goals we have set for ourselves.

The big life change however is this......we are becoming vegetarians. I NEVER thought I would say this....EVER! We really love meat, for real, love meat. The more we learn about how animals are treated and the inner workings of the meat industry, we feel we can no longer support them. When God told us to eat meat sparingly, I cant help but fear that he knew what would happen if didn't follow this counsel. I don't think he created these animals to be treated this way for us to eat. So we are making the leap; we feel good about it. We are nervous, but hopeful and excited to try new things. I am not judging anyone who continues to eat meat, trust me, but this is something we feel strongly about for our family currently. We are not opposed to eating hunted meat (Nean, you better tell Tom when we come to Utah to have some freshly killed meat ready for us).

In Other Berkeley News:

Berke has a post birthday bash with his BFF, Lilia. They are an adorable little duo and play so well together.

He has proven to be 100% boy! He figured out this week how to open his bottom
drawer and get inside.
"Look what I can do!"

He is also finding new ways to play with his toys. He played normal for a good 2 weeks, but now he is becoming much more creative. Here I believe he is pretending to be a
rhino to flip over his Leap Frog table.

Oh yes, he also misses his granny this week. Our prayers are with granny and the family as they morn the passing of Uncle Rick who died this week due to cancer. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all!

A Year in Review

For viewing bigger and clearer, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJns8hgvDnM

A SNOW FIRST

This weekend we have been getting quite a bit of snow. We decided to bundle up the whole family and play in the snow. This was Berkeley's first time in the snow and I think he enjoyed it.

He couldn't really move, but he liked patting the snow with his double mittened hands.

Special thanks to Charlotte who let us play in the snow in her back yard. McDuff had a wonderful time running around in the snow off his leash, which is like a dream come true in the city. Winter is here and we are loving it!

Our Little Monkey's First Birthday!

Berkeley, my first and precious little son, turned one on New Year's Eve. I took the day off from work to spend this day with my family. I was much more emotional that I had anticipated on this special day; by far my little guys 1st birthday was much sweeter to me than any of my own birthdays. I reflected a lot about the day he was born and the enormous amount of responsibility and love I felt for this new baby. I was really ready to become a mother; throughout my life many close circles of friends have given me nicknames about being motherly, as I always try to take care of everyone. Maybe that is why I became a social worker. However, I was really excited about becoming a mother. Shortly after Berkeley was born a friend in my church told me that she had never seen any one transition so easily into motherhood. That really meant so much to me. This past year I felt such a smooth transition into motherhood, it has felt completely natural and happy. I really love being a wife and I especially love being a mother. Berkeley has brought so much joy into our homes. Each night Christian and I lay in bed and just talk about the adorable things Berkeley does that day and discuss how we can help him in his development. We are completely smitten with this little guy and want nothing but the very best for him.
In preparation for his birthday, I thought about what a one year old would love more than anything for his birthday. I thought that Berke would love to wake up to a kiddie pool full of balls, like a McDonald's Play Land (but much cleaner). I was right. This kid crawled straight from the other room straight into the pool of balls and never wanted to leave. Believe me when I saw that balls were all over my entire house (which meant this was a occasional and short lived kinda toy), but it was worth it, because Berke was in complete bliss!

He was also pretty pleased with his new Red Rider Wagon his Grandpa Bill sent him. He loved it when he daddy took him for a ride around the house.

We got him this adorable chair, but as you can see, it was not exciting at all with a pool of balls right next to it. I do have hopes that he will grow to love his chair.

The previous night, C and I baked some pumpkin bread, in the morning we wrapped it up with a note of Thanks and brought it to the nurses and doctors in the Labor and Delivery at Cambridge Hospital where our little guy was born. We had such a wonderful experience there and without their help we wouldn't have our beautiful little man now.

After that we ventured out in the snow to get Berke's 1st year pictures taken and to run a few errands. When we got home, we had a lot more fun in the balls. This kid was seriously in heaven. That night we had a few friends over for homemade pizza and cheesecake and played some games. Then we watched J Lo dance in a really awful looking full body leotard and watch the ball drop in Time Square.

We had a little Birthday Bash for the little guy on Saturday. Christian and I stayed up late the night before decorating this monkey cake. It only took us 4 hours to decorate; neither Christian or I had EVER done anything like this, so this was a MAJOR accomplishment for us. I think it turned out pretty well.

Like father like son.
This is so true for Christian and Berkeley; they love to work on the computer together. If Christian is playing the piano, Berke crawls right over to him and wants to be on his lap, he has a huge obsession with the piano right now. If Christian is fixing something or hanging something on the wall, Berke has to be there checking out his tools and playing with his own tools. It is pretty adorable how he wants to do everything his dad is doing right now. ADORABLE!!!

Here is mommy and Berke right before the big party. Oh, how I love this boy.

I think the best gift from his party was this life size Teddy Bear that our neighbor Agnus brought him. Berke loves eating his nose and giving him CPR, it is funny stuff.

Berke got sung to and got to eat his birthday cupcakes, which he was much more interested in smashing up than eating. It was a wonderful first birthday for our little monkey.

So there it is, we survived the first year and luckily so did Berkeley. His birthday was a big event and now it is over and we begin the 2nd year of his life.

Happiest Birthday Big Boy!

Look Who's 1!

Berkeley William Gentry
turns 1 year old
12/31/09