This kid needs a baby doll

Henry, like most 17 month olds, is learning to protest and it has made diaper changes challenging. This morning in an attempt to distract him I grabbed his baby wipes and pointed out the baby. Henry loves babies, he will point them out on boxes or TV or in person. So, I gave him the wipes and he squeeled "bappy" and sat still. Once I got the diaper on I put him down and he immediately went over to his bed and squeezed the package in between the slots of his crib. He then grabbed his blanky and shoved it in on top of the package and turned around and said "bappy nigh-nigh".

Papa's Birthday

Yesterday was Wade's birthday. Henry loved blowing out the candles, he did it over and over again as he ate his piece of cake. He thought it was pretty funny.

Close

This morning I said:

"Henry you are going to get to see your Aunt Annie and Aunt Susie this weekend. Can you say Susie?"

"Doozie"

"Good job. Can you say Annie?"

"Nee" and he pointed to his knees.

-L

We played in bubbles tonight

From our heads.....



to our toes.

We made it!

We all woke up on the wrong side of the bed (or crib) on Sunday. We were tired and grumpy and almost said "forget it!" to the zoo. But, we decided to just suck it up and see what happens and it turned out to be loads of fun. Henry was unsure at first. He is very adventurous but still acts a little bit hesitant when something is new. He isn't usually scared of things but he likes to check them out first. After about a half hour at the zoo he was comfortable and ready to go. He seemed to enjoy the gorillas and the elephants the most. He just stared at the elephants, didn't take his eyes off of them. He was a little weary in the tropical rain forest but got an up close look at some "berds" which was really fun.
Henry said "nose" and showed us the goats nose.
We rode the train. Henry got to pull the whistle at the end of the ride.

Tiny bum

Jack Pot!

We found a park that is perfect for the little bean. There are pint size slides... Pint size tunnels and loads of trucks...
Rocks, buckets and shovels...
Balls...
And tiny windows for peek-a-boos...

Slow starters

I woke up this morning and figured it would a great day to go to the zoo. Unfortunately, as is typical with our family, no matter how early we wake up in the morning we can't seem to get out of the door before 10 am and with a 12:30 nap time there was no way we were making it to the zoo today. We decided to scrap those plans and shoot for a trip to the zoo tomorrow..."We'll pack everything up tonight and be ready to go first thing tomorrow morning" we said...uh-huh... ;)

Henry was not happy about the change of plans.....
[When Henry makes that face he looks so much like Wade. I can't tell you how many times in the past 9 years I have seen that exact furrowed brow.] Anyway...

We went to the store and bought him a sun hat for our outing tomorrow and made promises of other fun things to come this morning. Henry waited patiently...
Luckily for Mama and Papa, Lawrence did not let us down. The city is having a big Earth Day celebration this weekend at our favorite park. Most of the activities were for kids a few years older than Henry but he still loved it. He just loves being outside and watching kids play. There were a couple of kids in the park about his age that he followed around and played with a little bit. We are thinking that it is probably time for him to make some friends and spend more time with kids his age. We are even considering letting him spend a couple of days a week at the learning center at the university -give Henry a chance to play with other kiddos and Gigi a little bit of a break each week.


We'll post pictures from our zoo trip tomorrow. -L

Play day

Friday mornings have become play days for Henry and his friend Dorie. I tried to get a photo of the two of them together but they were too squirmy. We'll try again next week. In the mean time here is the little man dancing at the park. -L

New chews

Henry got new shoes today.His feet have grown since his last pair of Puma's.

He is now a size 6. My friend Liz tells me that is the same size that her 3 year old nephew is wearing. -L

Peek-a-boo

Where's Papa's nose?

You got a question about the location of a body part? Well you've come to the right place because Henry can find it for you. Be sure you wear protective eye-wear and don't mind having a drool covered finger in your nose and then in your mouth. -L

Note: This pick also shows off Henry's latest bonk. A doosy he got while running down Mass. St.

Henry Shorts

"Owww" can be used in any situation to insight panic in the house, get extra snuggles, or get out of a diaper change...although Mama and Papa are getting wise to this tactic.
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Primping is fun. Henry loves having his teeth brushed, rubbing lotion on his hands, having his toenails and finger nails trimmed, and having his hair brushed. He will run up to us, stick his foot on our lap and say "feet"when he wants a baby pedicure.
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When he hears the train he said "chew chew".
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When he hears a plane he points up to the sky and says "pane".
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Squirrels run faster than baby's. So do birds. Especially when you scream "BEERD" while running toward them.
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Reading books has become an interactive activity. Henry points out balloons and trucks, makes a "nee new" sound when he sees the fire trucks and he pretends to blow out the candles on a birthday cake in one book and smell a flower in another book.
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Spitting (this is my favorite). While observing the many adults in his life brushing their teeth Henry has decided that it is necessary to pretend spit (leaning over and making a "peh" sound) whenever he passes a sink. He "spits" when we wash hands before and after meals. He spits when he sees us brushing our teeth. He even stops to spit when just passing by the kitchen sink. He doesn't, however, spit when he brushes his own teeth. Go figure. -L

I heart pop-ups

Henry has found and destroyed his new love- Papa's pop-up books. Wade has 4 books from when he was a kid and Henry loves them. He has a favorite page in each book. When one of us sits down Henry runs over to the bookshelf, grabs a pop-up book and runs back to the open lap. He turns directly to his favorite page, yells "Bun bun" or "meeow meeow" or "beeer" or "berd" (bunny, cat, bear and bird) and then proceeds to grab the pop-up portion of the page and rip it to shreds. Last weekend we went to several book stores searching for an industrial strength pop-up book but had no luck so this weekend we are trying to help him discover the joy of board books. -L

Easter Bear

Henry was in fine form this weekend. His Great Grandmother Fannie and his Great Aunts Gina and Rhonda came to visit for Easter and Henry took full advantage of having a captive audience. He had a non-stop chronic case of what Mama and Papa call "rambuncti-itis"; in other words he was wound up and bouncing off the walls. If he wasn't howling and throwing things at breakfast, he was dismantling the hotel room phone, then tearing down the hallways full speed with Rhonda, then climbing on Nana, then climbing on Papa then getting hand lotion from Gina, then dancing with a mouth full of pizza, then head-butting Mama. Whew. The family was really nice about it, but I'm sure at times they were thinking, "Is this kid on crack or what?" The thing is, Henry is such a happy kid, that even when he is being silly and crazy he is making people smile. He is just loving life right now, well, actually RIGHT now he is taking a nap because everyone has parted ways back to their home states and he crashed like he was coming down from an adrenaline high.

On the weekends Henry gets to roll around in the big bed with Mama and Papa and play snuggle games and wrestle before we start the day. This morning Henry had kisses for everyone. He must have gone back and forth five or six times giving Mama and Papa slobbery little kisses. Even his bunny "bun bun" got a few kisses. He is a happy little boy. -W

Mardi Gras Baby

We got a package from GramAlex last week, she was in New Orleans celebrating Mardi Gras and sent Henry some goodies. -L

Naptime Bedhead

The Bean's beans

Henry calls everything small, round and ediable a bean. Peas, blueberries, grapes, lentels, and beans (naturally) have all been labeled "bee" by the little man. Green beans, however, are called "breen bee". -L

No children are hurt in this story

Admittedly, Wade and I have limited knowledge of what is considered "typical" toddler behavior, however, occasionally Henry will do something that we are certain a one year old should not be doing. Usually when something like this takes place one of us will say "you should put that on the blog" and usually it goes unblogged, but yesterday Henry did something so amazing (in the eyes of his parents, at least) that I felt it worth revisiting this afternoon.

I have a house plant that has grown so enormous that I have had to tie a string from the ceiling down around the top of the plant to support it's enormous limbs from breaking or falling over. While this is a practical solution for the enormous house plant, having a tree in your living room that looks like it is in traction is not particularly attractive. So, yesterday I decided to cut the tops of the limbs off, put them in some water to grow new roots and eventually re pot. Henry was busy with his trucks on the floor so I grabbed some scissors and started trimming. Someone knocked on the door and Henry popped up and ran over. I sat the scissors down on table and followed him. It was Gloria, our mailwoman, kindly delivering an Easter package for Henry that was sent to our old address. Once we got back inside I sat on the living room floor and said "Henry, let's get into this package and see what you got." He started to sit down next to me and peel off the tape but before his tiny sweet buns hit the floor he hopped back up, walked over to the table, grabbed the scissors, walked back across the room, handed them to me and sat down. Has he ever seen scissors? Has he ever used scissors (gasp)? Have we opened enough packages in front of him, with scissors, that he just picked that concept up? These are the questions I asked both my Mom and Wade when I called them immediately after this incident. No one is confessing to Henry's apparent training on speedy package unwrapping so it remains a mystery. -L

*Note: Spellcheck marked "mailwoman" as a miss spelling and gave me two options to correct it- Mailman or Madwoman. Gloria is neither.

Spring colors

The red buds are blooming! Wade and I have a special place in our hearts for red bud trees because it was the first kind of tree we planted together. We still drive by our old place occasionally to check on it. Thank you to my Aunt Sherry for taking such a beautiful photograph, it was so lovely I just had to share it.

Henry has been pretty interested in all the colors of the season. He is surprisingly gentle with flowers and pats them very lightly, never picks them.

We have been spending a lot of time enjoying the weather at the park. Henry loves South Park so we visit it everyday over the weekend. Last weekend he chased a squirrel for at least 10 minutes. Wade and I were cracking up. He also discovered the simple joy of running barefoot in the grass.

Tonight Henry was having trouble sleeping so I went in to rock him for a while. He snuggled in and wiggled up up up until most of his upper body was draped across my shoulder and chest. He slid one foot into each of my hands and feel asleep. His soft hair was on my cheek and I could smell his baby smells (the non-poopy kind) and had his little tiny feet in my hands. I wished that I could stay in that chair all night. -L

Round 2...ding ding...

We found a new house this weekend, made an offer and they took it...so we are back in business. There was a small trade off for this property-no basement and no fridge, but it came with a washer and a dryer AND a play set for Henry! After the last house we made an offer on we don't really mind the no basement part and the fridge part, well we'll make it work.
We are thinking that fence would look awfully cute painted white. Know anyone that likes to paint fences? ;) -L