Lie, Bappa and more

Henry's vocabulary:

Lie (light or lights)
Bappa (Papa aka Wade)
Ama (Mama aka Laurie)
Ball
Moo (cow)
Broom broom (van)
Bot (bottle)
Duh (duck)
All Duh (all done)
Uh-oh
Meow (cat)
Nigh nigh (Night night)
Bye bye

We are also pretty sure we have heard some version of-Grandpa, Grandma, Gigi, Button (for belly button), tummy, cow and dog.

Other Henry skills:

Zerberts
Kisses
Putting things into cups, taking them out of cups
Throwing balls or anything that he can pick up
Patting his tummy
Clapping
Pointing
Peak-a-boo

Henry's Favorites:

Hide and seek
Papa
"The Foot Book"
Blankie
Bagel (the dog)
Broccoli
Yogurt
Turning on and off the ceiling fan
Music
Playing at the park
Taking a bath
Grabbing Grandpa's glasses

And we're back...

Hello Blogger Fans,
You may be wondering where what happened to us. Well, between finals and Christmas we were wondering the same thing. This holiday was especially stressful because it was very difficult for me to get any shopping done while I was in school. But we survived and Henry had a very fun Christmas. He got a wagon and a tricycle and clothes and toys and books...He really raked it in this year. He enjoyed opening his presents but had a hard time staying focused because he actually enjoyed pulling ornaments off of the tree more. The past few weeks Henry has a hard time staying away from the tree. He has learned the word light (well, lie) and love to touch the "lie" whenever the adults are not looking. He loved many of the other Christmas decorations as well, like the 4 foot wood Santa that was loved on so much that he is now missing his right arm. On Christmas we opened a gift from Gram Alex called "Jazzy Santa" which quickly became Henry's favorite thing...Ever! He dances and plays his saxophone so Henry tries to mimic him. On Sunday he actually leaned over and kissed Jazzy Santa, which is something I usually have to beg for.
Henry got another thrill this holiday. He got to spend 9 days with his cousin Bagel. Bagel is Susie and Ted's pooch. She was very good with Henry. She let him stick his fingers in her mouth and grab her tail. But his favorite game was the "grab Bagel's toy and make her chase me and then pull her around the room with it her mouth" game. I am not sure if Bagel was a willing participant in this game or if her doggy instincts just made it impossible for her to resist a game of tug-of-war, but either way it kept Henry entertained for several hours.
We hope you all had a great holiday and wish you all the best for the new year. We'll post photos of Henry as soon as we get them developed. -L

Ah the Joy of Christmas

This time last year Christmas was the furthest thing from our minds. We had a two week old baby and every brain cell not functioning to take care of him was asleep. Christmas trees, lights, shopping, carols, cookies...we were not paying attention. If it didn't help us get more sleep we weren't interested. Henry also wasn't interested. At that time his main hobbies involved watching his parents flip out when he spit up his dinner and practicing his aim when getting his diaper changed. Needless to say, Christmas came and went and all we have are pictures to prove that we were awake for it. Well, this year we are all still a little tired and probably will still do some last minute shopping but Henry has found the holiday spirit and he tells us about pretty much every evening on the ride home--Christmas lights. He loves them. Imagine him in his car seat (I'll post a picture to remind you of his extreme cuteness or just scroll down, there is one towards the end of the blog) with one arm outstretched pointing towards every house we pass with lights up. And ever time he says "Ooooooooooo..." With more and more intensity. Tonight Wade walked him to the store in his stroller and Henry was so excited about the lights that by the time they made it to the store the "Oooooos" had become yelps and screams of joy. I wonder what he is going to do when he sees our Christmas tree. Hopefully this year we'll have time to put it up. -L

A week in the life of Hank

-Henry was introduced to his blanket at about 3 months old. I read in one of my parenting magazines that giving the child a "lovey" would help the child learn to sleep on his own while transitioning from Mama and Papa's bed to his crib. 3 months was pretty young to start the process, but we were desperately searching for any way to move Henry from sleeping on Mama's chest on the sofa to his own bed in his own room. With high hopes and tired bodies we also bought two other blankets exactly the same as the original-one for Gigi house and one to be saved as a back-up should the original blanket ever get lost. We would wrap him up in it every time that he went down for a nap, put it over our shoulder during story time or while we were rocking him to sleep. We would drive all the way back across town if we forgot it. We took it to all Henry's doctors appointments, visits with friends, the store...Well, in the end the magic blanket fell short in it's role as a "transition object from bed to crib" and I spent another 3 months on the sofa with Henry on my chest. But, Henry has definitely developed a strong bond to his blanket and while it may not have taken him from Mama's chest to the crib, it has an important role in bedtime/naptime rituals in our house. See, the blanket is a measure stick, an indicator of Henry's level of tiredness. Most parents can relate the small window of time you have to put your child to bed without a messy 45 minute ordeal. We have developed a method for determining Henry's tiredness level. Step 1: notice the child is rubbing his eyes, yawning or just generally slowing down Step 2: take blanket from crib and hang in front of child's face Step 3: watch reaction of child. Child may a) bat blanky away like an annoying fly and cackle as if to say "Ha! Go ahead and try to put me to sleep, I'll lay in bed and cry for 20 minutes and not take an afternoon nap either". b) grab blanket and rub his face, this is the sweet spot, the window is wide open-jump in and put your baby into bed c) grab blanket, throw himself on the floor, roll around chewing on blanket-walk don't run into the bed room and put child in crib, walk away quickly being sure not to make a sound and then stand outside the door praying that the window has not closed and you have not enter the dangerous land of "The Over Tired Child" (sorry, can you tell I have been studying all day for a statistics final?)
So, with that long winded introduction let me get to the meat of the story. It's Tuesday afternoon and Henry is at his Gigi's house. He's had lunch and my Mom puts him down on the floor to play while she cleans up. It's early in the afternoon, Henry is a good two hours from a nap but she noticed he was yawning a little during lunch. My Mom sits down on the floor to play with him but he gets up and walks into the kitchen. He comes back into the living room with the kitchen towel hanging out of his mouth and lays down on floor and tries to put himself to sleep. If we had only known that a dish towel was the secret. I think I'll write a strongly worded email to Parents magazine. :)
-On Thursday I arrived a little early to drop Henry off. Usually when I get there Mom is sitting on the sofa drinking coffee and reading the paper and usually Henry goes around the room touching everything that he knows he is not supposed to while we run frantically to remove any safety hazard below 3 feet. Well, this day Mom was upstairs and her coffee cup was sitting, full, on the table. I didn't notice. I put Henry down, took off his coat and hat and walked into the kitchen to put down his things on the counter. After a minute I notice Henry was making a weird sound so I turned around and saw him. He was standing next to the table, his hand less then an inch from the coffee mug, patting the table and looking at me saying "ehhh, ehhh, ehhh" which apparently translates into "Mama this is not supposed to be here and I am having a very hard time resisting grabbing it and dumping it on the floor." :)