Hair Done by Wade

Potty Time????

Henry is a little confused about how to use his potty.

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." :)

HENRY'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!!

"High Stepper"

Who did he get this from?

Henry talked the whole way home from Gigi and Grandpa's tonight...about 10 minutes straight. I wonder where he gets that from????? -L

Warp speed...

When I used to hear parents say, "Enjoy it because it happens so fast" it sounded true to me, but I think I always felt like when it was my turn to be a parent I would magically slow down time and savor every moment of my kid's development. Well, that is of course impossible, but I think I am beginning to know where that feeling of accelerated time comes from and have a few thoughts on it.

Tonight while we were taking a bath, after a healthy round of Row Row Row Your Boat using the visual aid of a pasta spoon as the oar, I was talking to Henry about things. I was explaining fingers and toes, full versus empty, things like that. I was asking him if he could say certain words back to me like Mama, Papa, Gigi, Grandpa, Nana, Gramalex, etc. Then I had an idea to try the names of animals. I naturally started with cat. I said, "Henry, can you say cat?" and he said back to me sort of matter-of-factly, "Meow". I was very surprised and very pleased.

So that got me thinking about the element of surprise, and I have concluded that part of what parents are talking about when they say it happens so fast is that it happens almost despite anything you are even doing; when your back is turned even. That magic of this person becoming who they are without any prompting from you is really amazing. It is happening fast, but more than that I think it is just happening in every direction at once and the moment you focus on one thing and think you are contributing and you are awaiting the result of your excellent tutelage, something else is happening that is just as or even more interesting that has little to do with you. My little guy is constantly learning with or without me. Crazy. Awesome.

It's kind of like when the grand finale starts at a fireworks show. Sometimes you see a burst so beautiful that you want to keep watching the entirety of it from the explosion to the trickle of sparkle and flames diving toward the earth, but if you do, you will inevitably miss the next one which is just as amazing but in a completely different way. That's why as a kid you would yell, "Ooohh! That was my favorite! Ohhh, no that one was my favorite! Wooooah! Okay that one was my favorite!" That's how it feels. Every day with Henry is my favorite. -W

Today after lunch at Winsteads I took Henry out of the high chair and he took off running down the isle. He got going so fast that when he tripped over his feet, which he does every time, he fell forward, did sort of a sideways 1 and 1/2 forward roll and then laid out flat on the floor. He didn't cry because he wasn't hurt, actually the look on his face was more a look of exhilaration. I don't know if it was the thrill of the speed, the excitement of the dive-bomb acrobatics or the fact that 10 women sitting in the restaurant gasped and ran over to him. Whatever it was it was clear at that moment that I was going to see this maneuver again, probably this evening in my living room on the hard wood floor but with very different results.

Getting to know my son is really an amazing experience. I think sometimes I tend to think of him sort of like a puppy. I repeat the same thing over and over and have pretty much no expectation that any of what I am repeating will stick. But over the past couple of weeks it has started to stick and it surprises me every time. Today in the car he was copying me. I would whisper "Papa" and he would do the same. I would say it really loud and he would belt it out. He sticks out his tongue, mimics my facial expressions and sometimes repeats the sounds that I am saying and when he can't get the sounds he makes his own noises with the same inflection. He is very good about letting us know what he wants. He points at things and has different sounds for "I want that", "Pick me up", "Play with me" and the cutest ever "Read to me". Yesterday he was sitting on the floor looking at the book "Mama Mama" and he saw me sit down in the chair next to him so he stood up, picked up his book and his blanket and walked over to me and then made the sweetest little squeak I have every heard. Oh, and I almost forgot, he dances now. It's a sort of bounce with failing arms move, super cute. Wade and I have both noticed that his bounces are usually right with the beat. What fun this is! -L

Jumping the Gun

We went ahead this weekend and turned Henry's car seat. Yes, it is two weeks until his first birthday, but he is way over the height and weight limit and his poor little legs were all squished up against the back seat. So here are some pictures of Henry's first car ride in a forward facing car seat. He watched Papa drive very closely and for the first time since he realized he could protest about 4 months ago, he didn't protest getting in the car seat. Road trip here we come! -L

A Jayhawk & a Lion