Shorts

Henry is constantly doing things that astonish, surprise and crack up his parents (and grandparents sometimes as well) and he seems to do it more frequently the older he gets. Everyday we find ourselves saying –we should get that on tape- or –I wish Gram Alex could see him do that. Here are a few stories from this past week.

-Beerd
My Mom calls me this afternoon to tell me about something Henry did that amazed her. He has been into bugs lately, mostly ants. Somehow, I am guess by observation, he decided that they are to be squished. Over the weekend he took his Aunt Annie outside and showed her the ants on the porch, “anns” he called them. He would go to the living room, get a tissue, walk back to the porch, squish the ant with a tissue and then bring the tissue back inside to show off the “anns”. Today he was playing in the back yard and stopped for a while at a certain spot. Gigi wasn’t sure what he was up to but after a minute he walked over to her, said “Beerd” and took her up into the living room, grabbed a tissue and brought her back outside. They went out into the yard, to the spot that Henry had been checking out earlier and Mom discovered that there was a dead bird on the ground. Henry took the tissue and covered up the bird. We are not sure how he knew that the bird was dead, I am not sure if he even made that connection, but it is such an interesting story.

-Dipping
Papa loves sauces and he loves to dip his food into them. He will ask to have his mustard on the side just so that he can dip his sandwich into it. Henry has observed Papa’s technique enough times that he now pretend dips all of his food. Last night he dipped his green beans into his rice and yesterday morning he dipped his cantaloupe into, well, nothing. He takes the food in his little pinchers and then dots it 3 or 4 times onto his tray and then eats it. It is so funny, we have to get it on tape.

-Another kind of Beerd
Henry spent the week with Bagel, my sisters Beagle, and decided that 4 legs are much better than 2, he has been crawling all over the house. In his bath last night he decided to give crawling in the bath a try and discovered that he was just at the right height to dip his chin in the bubbles. He was surprised. He stood up with the bubbles on his chin and said “Beerd”. I said “Yes Henry, beard.” He said “Beerd. Papa Beerd” and pointed out of the room into the kitchen were Papa was cleaning up dinner. He wanted to show Papa that Henry had a beard just like his.

-Imaginary play
At our doctors appointment the nurse asked us if Henry had started imaginary play. We said yes because he is pushing his trucks around and saying “Vroom Vroom”. But this weekend he also started pushing his shovel around the yard and pretending to “mow-mow” (mow the grass). He also started pretend feeding his little spider man doll that he calls “Man man”. He said “Man man mmmmm”.

A breather

All of the sudden in the last month Henry has become a tooth making machine. In April he had 4 teeth on the top and two little beaver teeth on the bottom. Now he has gotten in both his top and bottom molars plus his other two teeth on the bottom. He now has a toothy grin and we get a short break in teething...I hope.

Henry's new bud

My little sister, Kelly, sent this photo yesterday of Henry and Bagel. It was taken with a camera phone so it isn't great quality, but it is cute. Susie tells me that she has a bunch of photos of these two kids that she is going to send to me...so more to come.

Random moments of the past week

Finals are over so now I can download a few of the photos from the past couple of weeks that I was too busy to post earlier.

This was an accident and I don't know how to take it off without deleting the other pictures. So, here is a picture of Henry from last November. Mama trying to sneak in a few more bites.
Curly locks
Henry playing with blocks, something he has recently figured out. There is a lot going on in this photo. First thing you notice- the bruise on Henry's forehead. We had 3 big bonks in the same place last weekend and they left him with a purple goose-egg on his forhead the size of a very large grape. It was so obvious that perfect strangers would stop us on the street to tell us about their brother that always had a bruise on his forehead. The bruise is almost gone....cross your fingers that we can go all weekend without a bonk.
You may also notice Henry's choice of accessory this day. Namely that he is wearing a belt. He insisted upon wearing this belt (it's papa's) for the entire afternoon. This was a prelude to what was to come with his boots (see below).

Boots!

Henry's rain boots finally arrived. They have been on back order for months. Two problems--it's not raining and he doesn't want to take them off. Today he wore them to the doctor's office, on a bike ride, to the park and to the store. He also wore them all day on Wednesday and Thursday. Expect to see these boots a lot in the future.

Love Bapa

A cough, some shots and an update

Henry had his well-baby check this afternoon. His stats:

Height: 33 inches Percentile: 74%
Weight: 26 lbs. 6 oz. Percentile: 60%
Head Circ: 20.25 Percentile: 100%

He has always been tall, skinny and had a big head, so nothing really new there. He got to stand on the scale today instead of lay in the baby tub. The nurse asked if we thought he would stand up to the wall with the marking on it (for height) or if she should put him in the baby box. I said, oh he loves to have his height measured, we do it all the time at home and then I tapped the wall and said Henry come here let's see how tall you are and sure enough he backed right up to the wall and stood still. He is getting to be such a big boy.
The doctor asked us "Does he have a vocabulary of at least 3 words?" We chuckled, "Yes, probably more like 50 words."
Over all, she said he looked great. He does have a cold and it has turned into a cough. All of Henry's colds seem to eventually move into his chest. So rather than trying to do a nebulizer, which was nearly impossible last time and the medicine made him super hyper, she gave us an inhaler with a special baby tube. We tried it this evening and it worked great. Hopefully it will clear out his chest congestion.
The last thing we had to do was the shots. Henry was amazing. He didn't even cry. He made a face like "What was that?" and wiggled a little like it was uncomfortable but he didn't cry at all. We visited Gigi afterwords, she works in the same building. Henry got lots of sympathy, a big hug and then hung around for some extra Grandma snuggles.

This evening we rode over the bridge into our new neighborhood and checked out a couple of parks. Henry loves riding on the bike. He also got to see two trains. Trains have become Henry's favorite thing. We rented a Thomas the Train movie from the movie place down the street and he wants to watch it first thing every morning. He calls trains "choo-choo" or "chooch" or "tane". Usually it is "chooch".

Aunt Kelly is graduating from High School next weekend so all of my side of the family will be visiting. Aunt Susie and Uncle Ted are coming up from Texas and they are bringing their beagle, Bagel. Bagel is a great playmate for Henry, she's a good little pup. Aunt Annie is coming over from North Carolina. It's always fun when the family is in town.

Chatty

Henry is having trouble falling asleep tonight. My original plan was to get him into bed early tonight because I have a final in 3 days and because Henry isn't sleeping (he is sick, by the way) I have not gotten to study at all for it. I put him down over an hour ago. First he cried a little, I didn't go in. Then he composed himself and started talking (sing-song style, winds up and goes back down) "Mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, nana, nana, naba, baba, baba, baba, baba, baba, dado, dado, dado, deedee, deedee, meno, meno, meno, meno, nono, nono, nono, nono ..." This has been going on for a half an hour. Then it is quiet. Shew, he has talked himself to sleep. Then I hear a police car with his sirens on headed this way. Shoot....

"dee-doo dee-doo dee-doo..."

I went in there. Scoop him up and we rock for a minute. Henry starts talking again so I figure I will beat him to it and I say things like "Papa nigh-nigh, Gigi nigh-nigh, GramAlex nigh-nigh, bun-bun nigh-nigh, Mama nigh-nigh." It seems to be working. He is quiet, laying still, he is on his side with his head under my chin. I was running out of people and words that he knows to go nigh-nigh.. "the car nigh-nigh, your shoes nigh-nigh, the rocks nigh-nigh, the keys nigh-nigh" I stopped and he was still, quiet, asleep? I little hand reaches up into my mouth and he says..

"baba nigh-nigh, dit-do nigh nigh, bee-do nigh nigh..."

---

So I put him back down in bed and he is still going. Right now he is at "meno nigh nigh.." Oh, I just heard a yawn.

I guess as long as he is not crying then it is okay. He will eventually go to sleep. Sure makes it hard to study though.

A Day for Mom's

For all the Moms and Grandmas and Great Grandmas who have worked so hard and given so much love to their families- bless you, we love you.

A day for Mama

Being a Mom is the best thing I have ever done. From the first time I heard his heartbeat and felt his kicks my heart changed. I felt a love so big that I never knew was possible.

But they fit in there perfectly

"Dee-doo dee-doo dee-doo...choo-choo choo-choo..." Henry sang on the way to my parents house this morning. About half way there he started saying "eh, eh, eh", I moved the mirror to see what he was up to.

"Henry, please take your finger out of your nose."

Smiles...a few seconds later "eh, eh, eh"

"Baby please take your finger out of your nose." I reach back, pull the finger out of his nostril, and hold his arm down for a second.

"Eh, eh, eh"...the other finger is in his nose.

"Henry no-no. Take your finger out of your nose." I grab the other arm and bring it down.

We drive for a minute.

"Bingers, bingers, bingggers!"

I look back. Henry is showing me his fingers, wiggling them up above his head.

"Yes, fingers, good job."

Drive a minute.

"Uh-oh...no-no bingers, no-no" I look back and both fingers are in his nose, one in each nostril.

The Parrot

Henry is like a little tape recorder right now. He will repeat your words over and over again and he is constantly mimicking your every move. Last weekend while my sisters where in town, Annie taught him to show his muscles, which is basically means putting his arms up in the typical muscle man pose and squeezing his fists and squishing his face up so tightly that he shakes a little. I have to admit, it is hysterical. And, all the laughing only ensures that we will see it more frequently. It has now become one of his signature moves when he wants to get a laugh.
At lunch on Sunday I gave Henry his sandwich and out of nowhere he winked at me. I would have thought it was just a fluke except when I didn't make a big deal of it he did it over and over again. I said "Papa I think Henry is winking at me right now." Papa came over and sure enough, he winked at him too. It's a funny sort of wink, he leans a little to the side and then he squints (I don't think he has figured out how to do it without the squint yet) and then his right eye starts blinking several times in a row. If he was an adult you would think that a bug just flew into his eye. Totally hilarious! And he knows it to, it just cracks him up. I don't think it will be going away any time soon either because driving home this evening I adjusted my mirror so that I could see Henry and right when we made eye contact he winked at me. I am not sure who taught his this trick but I am thinking it might have been Grandpa. Tonight he was sure encouraging the winking and he was the one responsible for the grunting phase Henry went through a couple of month ago. Everytime someone would walk into the room Henry would greet them with a grunt. Anyway, we got the winking on video tonight, I'll try to figure out a way to post it later this week. -L

Blog changes

So, obviously, I made a few changes to the look of our blog. Everything is still there it is just flip-flopped. I put an enormous collage of Henry photos at the top of the blog last night but that made the rest of the page off-center and I couldn't handle it, so I settled for a smaller one on the top and put the big one at the bottom. I'll probably add to the bottom one went we get really great photos.

But the best news is that as I fumbled around trying to create this blog I discovered the button that there is an option for us to allow comments from everyone....So, feel free to push the comment button and make a comment anytime!

Hope you're having a great weekend.

-L

Whipped

We have changed the look of our blog, hopefully it doesn't throw you off when you come visit. I don't know how long it will stay like this, I can't get it centered and it is driving me a little nuts so we may have to go back to the old one. Just hang in there.

Henry had a great day today. We did our shopping spree and ended up with more books than toys, including Mama's personal favorite "I Love You Through and Through". Henry likes it too because he can point out all the body parts and stick his feet on the book when we get to the "I love your toes" and squish his nose at "I love your nose". Highly recommended for all of you who are currently wrapped around a little ones finger. We did take other pictures but the battery died in our camera so we will have to post those tomorrow. Okay, off to bed. Sleep well blog friends. -L

Shopping spree

The Bean needs some new toys. This weekend we are going shopping! A new truck, a mow mow (baby lawn mower, Henry's latest obsession), a baby doll (Wade cannot find his old baby doll, Sasha) and something creative for him like finger paints or a musical instrument. I am so excited, shopping for baby toys is almost as fun as shopping for baby shoes. -L

Unusual Parenting Methods

Here are a few things I am pretty sure you will not find in Parents Magazine.



1) Gum-chewing toddlers (there is gum in there...or was gum in there at least)




2) Pantless bike riding

3) Eating while bathing. I don't have a picture of this one, but I generally get in the mood for a little snack while Henry is in his bath. It doesn't matter how discrete I am, he can spot food from a mile away (gets that from his Mama). He has eaten everything from seaweed rice cakes to coconut ice cream bars while bathing.