Shout out to my Moms

Dear Friends,

I just wanted to give a shout out for Mommy, who has been working so hard to keep me warm and fed that she barely has time to make an appearance in my blog. Mommy also went back to work this week, since "somebody has to bring home the bacon around here," whatever that means.

So when Daddy is at school I will be spending some of my days with our nice nanny Wilma. She is grandmotherly and quiet but funny. She takes good care of me so Mommy and Daddy don't have to worry.

I'll be 8 weeks on Sunday, so more big news soon.

Love,

Henry David

Victory is Mine!

Dear Friends,

Daddy finally shaved his silly beard! Yay! Thanks for your support. My cheeks feel much better these days and, well, Daddy looks a lot better too.

I think it was that comment from one of his classmates that he looked "haggard" that did it. Although Mommy kept the pressure on, too. Go Mommy!

Until soon,

Henry David

The Hair of His Chinny Chin Chin

Dear Friends,

I'm starting a campaign and I hope I can count on your support. My campaign is to convince Daddy that his beard has got to go. It looks silly and it makes Daddy look even older than he already is -- he's 35 (that's 1,820 weeks!) and the beard adds a couple years at least.

More importantly it scratches my fine, delicate cheeks. Whenever Daddy scrapes his spiky stubble against my face I take a swipe at him with my fingernails, but he's just not getting the picture.

So please, write or call Daddy and tell him he looks better clean shaven. Do it for me... and Mommy.

Love,

Henry David

Party Like It's My Birthday

Dear Friends,

I turn one month on Sunday. Yea! And to celebrate Mommy and Daddy are having friends over to a watch a game I don't want to watch and tease me with Buffalo wings and other yummy food I can't eat yet. Mean Mommy and Daddy.

It's not that I'm against the Super Bowl, although I think the hype is a bit much. It's just that my Steelers aren't in it. (Daddy says I should be a fair weather Bengals fan like him, but the weather does not look very fair from prison, where half the Bengals spend the off-season.) I'm rooting for the Pats anyway. Stupid Giants are from New York, which is also where the Yankees are from, so I don't like them.

Enough about that. I have to catch you all up on all the fun things I did this month. I didn't want to come out of Mommy's warm belly, so I waited until I was good and ready, which as you already know was early on the morning of Jan. 6. Since then I've been making the most of my time. Grandma Julie was there waiting when I came out, which made me happy.

Pa Lou and Nana Carol came to visit soon after. I slept a lot and we had a fun visit, even though we couldn't go outside much because of the cold.

Soon after Uncle Chris and Aunt Shari came to visit from Buffalo along with cousins Nick, Patrick, Kelley and Lilley. They were excited to meet me and brought me all kinds of nice presents. Daddy says babies like cash, but I really prefer the clothes and toys my family brought. I don't have any pockets anyway.

I've also gotten a lot of nice gifts from Grandma Julie, Nana and Pa, Uncle Tim and Aunt Mary, Aunt Michelle, Aunt Trinity, Uncle Dave and Aunt Tiffany, and too many other friends and family to name. So thanks very much!

Mommy says I'm also supposed to tell you that when I went to the pediatrician last week she said I was doing great. I weigh 9.6 pounds already, so I'm getting big! Mommy and Daddy are keeping me safe and warm here, but I'm excited to move to Arizona in the summer. So come visit me while I'm still in Boston!

Until soon,

Henry David

Origin Story: Life in the Ivy

Dear Friends,

Hi. I'm Henry David Ahlers. I was born at 12:36 a.m. on January 6, 2008. That's El Dia de Los Reyes Magos, which is interesting since I'm told I was conceived in Spain. I'm three weeks and 5 days old, 21 inches long and weigh 9.6 pounds. I'm a Capricorn and I like snuggling, swinging and sleeping. (I'm also something of a sucker for alliteration.) Mommy and Daddy said it was high time I started doing something productive with myself, so I started this blog.

This is my first post so I thought I would start by clearing up any confusion about the name of my blog. Since we're living up here in Boston and my name is Henry David, Daddy thought it would be clever to give the blog a name similar to "Walden, or Life in the Woods." If you don't understand why that's clever, please stop reading my blog. I don't intend to be mean, just discriminating. Or maybe Tarot.com is right and my emotional sensitivity is lacking today. So it's not me, it's my darn stars.

Anyway, we really live in Somerville but Cambridge (home of Harvard) is right across the street. Sometimes getting from Somerville to Cambridge is tougher than you'd think, because of the awful rivers of icy sewage that form on both sides of the street every time it rains, which is often. Daddy is not always so clever as he thinks, but I have to agree with him that "Life in the Ivy" is superior to "Life in the Icy Rivers of Sewage," or "Life on the Concord Commuter Rail Line," either of which would be more accurate.

I hope this blog will be a good way for us to get to know each other and share fun pictures and ideas. Let me know if you have any ideas for me about my blog or things you think I should write about.

My tummy is grumbling, so I better go. Thanks for reading.

Until soon,

Henry David