Playtime

Henry's vocabulary has taken off lately.  His receptive skills are growing by leaps and bounds, and he also is gaining more expressive verbal abilities.  One of Henry's favorite things to do is identify his body parts when you call them out.  He also likes to point them out on Mommy and Daddy.  His repertoire, so far, is: head, hair, eyes (he responds by squinting them!), ears, nose (when you ask him where his nose is he likes to pretend that he's blowing it), mouth, teeth, tongue (here he pants like a dog), hands, fingers, belly, feet, and toes.

One evening Henry and Daddy were reading a bedtime story (hence the reason for the pants-less Henry in the photos below).  This particular book, Horns to Toes and in Between, is a crowd favorite in this house.  The book identifies many body parts on the animals who are its subject.

Ignore the pink walls.  Two girls lived in this house before.  You should see the Pepto Bismol pink hall bathroom.  Painting is on the agenda.

One of those body parts?  Tummy, of course!  Henry had to show his off.

Look at that buddha belly!!

And then, it was time to torture play with Rowan and engage in some more bedtime delay tactics.  Oh, how we love this boy!

Elephant on Parade

Better late than never...here is a recap of Halloween 2013!

Henry was the cutest elephant you ever did see.

We went trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood.  Henry was a hit--who could resist this little munchkin?!  He totally had no clue what was going on and did not understand the concept of trick-or-treating.  But he did enjoy walking up the front steps of people's homes, looking at all of the decorations, and pressing the doorbells.  It was fun!  Can't wait until next year when he will understand more about the day.

Updates Galore

Very creative post title, huh?  Man alive, I have been slacking with the blog!  I finally have somewhat surfaced from a wedding attending, working, moving, unpacking, and fixer-upping fog, so I thought it was high time for a proper update.  I am taking a deposition next week in New York, and once that is over, I will have even more time for updates.  Maybe even get some trick or treating pictures posted!

So...I last updated on Henry six weeks ago.  Since that time, he has really taken off developmentally, as toddlers are wont to do.

Cognitive Development

After we moved to Maryland, Henry switched pediatricians.  I am in LOVE with our new practice.  I took Henry for his fifteen month visit a couple of weeks ago and the doctor talked with me for at least twenty minutes.  Twenty minutes!!  That was unheard of at our old practice, even with the doctor I loved.  This doctor told me Henry should have around 3-5 words he says independently at this age.  In other words, he can't just repeat you.  


Henry, I am relieved to say, meets the "minimum."  He says, without prompting, more (his favorite word, which he always says while doing the accompanying sign), dog (his second favorite word), nose, down, up, brush, bib, and door.  He will say mama and dada, but it's actually pretty infrequent.  I guess he figures he has our undivided attention and he doesn't need to call for us!  Every so often he says "bye" and does his own version of waving, which is more of a twisting of his hand.  

Henry repeats more than he says on his own.  Just tonight he said what I think is his first two syllable word!  After I was telling him about the cookie monster on his diaper, he said "cookie" clear as day!  It was so cute and I was so proud.  I doubt he will be saying that one on his own anytime soon, but I was happy he at least repeated it!

And Henry's receptive language skills are improving, too.  He understands so much.  He will follow simple directions like pointing to body parts and going to get a particular toy I have mentioned.  He will get a book from his shelf if you ask, throw a paper in the recycling bin, and find his shoes when asked (if they're in the same room).

Henry can now identify several body parts: head, hair, mouth, ear, nose, belly, belly button, feet, and toes.  When you ask him to show you his nose he always has to touch your nose, too.  Same with the belly button: he absolutely loves that one!

Henry is able to tell you what a sheep says--baa!  He doesn't say any other animal sounds yet, but we're working on them!

Another important milestone: Henry said goodbye to the pacifier officially in late October!  I had been dreading the day when we would have to take the pacifier away because we had become dependent on it for naps and bedtime.  My plan was to try around 18 months.  But when Henry was getting his molars, he bit through not one but two pacifiers!  He was attached to, and would only use, the wubbanub pacifier.  We ordered another one, but during the days waiting for it Henry had to make do without it.  He was going to sleep and staying asleep ok, so when the new one came, I decided we would not give it to Henry.  He never looked back!  It was a relief that the transition went so well.  I saved one of his chewed-up wubbanubs for his "special things" box.

Physical Development

Once Henry began walking I feel like this area kind of plateaued.  I mean, there's not much left to do, other than walk faster and then run.  Both of which Henry now does.  He is fairly clumsy when he runs because his brain must work faster than his legs.  He took his first real tumble at the park the other day and scraped his nose.  So sad!  But it was the first of many I'm sure.  

Henry is able to walk down stairs now as long as there is a hand or a railing to guide him.  Luckily he doesn't try this on his own (knock on wood) because we haven't gotten the baby gates installed yet!  That is on next weekend's agenda.

Henry loves to dance, which is so cute.  He dances to his toys that play music and to songs if you put on the radio.  The cutest part is he enjoys when you dance with him and is known to grab your hand in an effort to get you on your feet and grooving!  Henry seems very musically inclined, which would be nice and is definitely something he did not inherit from his mother.

Henry's stats at sixteen months: 24 pounds, 9 oz. (40%) and 32.5 inches tall! (85%).  He's getting a long, lean build (with a big tummy, of course!).  I am guessing he will level off in height, but who knows--maybe he got some tall genes from a distant relative!

Sleeping and Eating

This is the area where we are struggling the most.  Henry is now in his own room at our new house.  He naps pretty well; still twice a day for about 1.5 hours in the morning and an hour or so in the afternoon.  But he is fighting sleep at night.  He always cries when we put him down now--how hard and how long varies by night.  I hate it for him, and for us.  We're not sure why Henry is crying at night but think it may be a residual effect from a bad bout of teething he had about a month ago.  But he is sleeping through the night, which is something.  It would be awful to revert to waking in the night!

Henry also is becoming more and more picky about what he eats.  I didn't think that happened until much later!  He eats consistently well in the morning and will eat pretty much whatever we offer.  But lunch and dinner are dicey.  He pretty much always will eat cheese, cereal bars, peas, and fruit (and Chickfila of course--those grilled nuggets must be made of crack).  Other than that, it's hit or miss.  He generally likes avocado, pizza, ground turkey, organic fish sticks and chicken nuggets, and peanut butter bread.  What I am finding the hardest is getting Henry to eat what we eat for dinner.  Most of the time he won't touch it, so I end up giving him one of his stand-bys.  I hate that, because I don't want to get into a pattern of fixing a separate meal for Henry.  I am hoping that if we keep offering him what we are eating, he will start to eat more of it.  Fingers crossed!

NEXT UP: A picture post!!  Stay tuned.

Over the River and Through the Woods...

to Maryland We Went!

So, the primary reason for the blog silence lately is that we moved!  From Virginia to Maryland, in fact.  It was pretty sudden and not really something we thought we would do until the Spring.  But, a great house popped up and we jumped! 

Over the last six months or so, Mark and I had driven around several times to get a sense of where we might want to buy when our lease ended.  We had narrowed the cities we were interested in to one in Virginia and one in Maryland.  The thing about the housing market here is that houses go FAST.  Literally within a week if it's in a top school district, is updated, and is close to a Metro stop.  So we knew we needed to be ready to jump if we found something we liked.

On a Tuesday in late August, one of Mark's coworkers emailed him a link to a home for sale on his street, which happened to be in the area in Maryland we loved.  The house looked perfect for our needs, but I thought there was no way we could get our act together in time to actually make an offer by the weekend, which is when we would need to do it if we wanted this house (Mark, ever the optimist, thought we could make it happen.  We balance each other well!).  My coworker had recommended her realtor to us a couple of months prior, so I contacted him.  He got the ball rolling for our pre-approval with a lender, and we scheduled an appointment to see the house for Friday.

We liked the house immediately.  My wish list included a screen porch, a large updated kitchen, and wood floors.  This house met all of those criteria!  Mark liked the home as well, and it was in our price range--in fact, it was even lower than we thought we would have to spend to get a house in this area.  So, we decided we would make an offer.  But then, at the eleventh hour, we chickened out.  The offers were due by the following Monday morning, and we decided to wait it out for a day to see whether other offers came in and mull it over a bit.  Of course, what happens?  Someone else made a full-price offer on the house and it was accepted.

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement, but we hoped that others would come on the market throughout the winter.  And Mark (optimist, again) thought there was a chance the buyers would back out during the one-week inspection period.  I thought he was nuts.  We continued looking at homes that week and saw a few over the weekend.  We didn't like any as much.  Then, at 10pm the following Saturday, our realtor emailed us to say the buyers backed out!  I couldn't believe it.  We felt like this was a sign the house was the right fit for us.  So, we made an offer, it was accepted, and we are now the proud owners of a new (to us) house! 

We've been in the home for about three weeks, and it's starting to feel more like ours.  We've added recessed lighting and light fixtures to several rooms, finished the fence so Rowan is free to roam, and are installing a new, more efficient furnace.  We also just purchased a kitchen table.  We still need to paint a few rooms upstairs and buy a dining room set and a sofa for the basement rec room, but other than that we're pretty well set.  We love being homeowners and are in love with the neighborhood.  Several neighbors arrived with baked goods within days of our moving in, and everyone is very friendly.  Henry will be able to walk to both his middle school and his high school.  Overall, we are very pleased and are excited about this transition in our lives!

Henry Updates

Well, I have been a poor blogger lately.  Life has been so crazy that this blog is at the bottom of my priority list.  But I want to make sure I have a way to remember what Henry was up to at this stage of his development.  So, some updates!

ABCs and 123s

Henry started a little preschool program!  It is only one day a week for four hours each time.  But he does not really get much social interaction with other children, so I think it's important for him to learn how to share, communicate in group settings, and learn!

I suspected that Henry would love school, and I was right.  On the first day, every other kid in his class of 10 was crying.  Henry, meanwhile, marched into the classroom like he owned the place and started throwing sand out of the sand table.  (Part of what I hope he learns from school is proper sand-table etiquette!). When I picked him up at the end of the day, his teacher said he smiled ear-to-ear the whole day except the last ten minutes, when he was getting sleepy.  He missed the second week of school because he, of course, picked up a cold at school the first week.  But he loved last week, too, and got a great report at the end of the day.  And I love having a bit of time to myself during those four hours.  Win-win!

First day outfit and backpack! 

Enjoying the sand table and wondering why everyone else is crying.

The hook for Henry's backpack and coat!

Development

Henry's language skills improve daily it seems.  His newest words are up (which he says oftentimes while holding his hands up for you to pick him up--so cute!), duck (du), good (guh), and all done (ah duh--although it is hit or miss as to whether he will say this).  If you say "Yay!" Henry will respond by clapping his hands.  

Henry has the cutest cheese smile.  He does it sometimes when he knows he is getting away with something he shouldn't!  But he also does it to "flirt," especially with relatives and visitors.

My goals for now, if you can call them that, are to try to get Henry to recognize a few colors and numbers.  I picked up a set of flashcards for babies that have the numbers 0-10 on them and corresponding numbers of objects.  When we look at them, I point out the number of objects and their names and colors.  Who knows if anything will stick, but I am hoping Henry will learn a few colors and numbers in the next several months. 

Henry loves to read!  This makes me so, so happy, because reading his been one of my favorite things to do for as long as I can remember.  He will grab a book, bring it to you and plop himself on your lap to settle in for storytime.  Henry definitely has his favorite books, though, and becomes a wiggleworm very quickly if you choose something not on his approved reading list.  This can lead to a bit of boredom on the part of the reader, but anything to keep him enjoying reading!  Plus I have heard that reading the same books frequently helps kids learn to recognize words and begin the stages of reading themselves.

Henry has started to spin around in circles to make himself dizzy and fall over.  I have memories of doing this as a kid, so it is strange to see him doing it!  Strange but cute!

Henry "flexes" when asked to show his muscles!  It is so cute!  He adds the grunting sound as if he is lifting heavy weights.

Sleeping and Eating

Henry's sleep schedule is fairly predicable, at least in terms of the number of hours he sleeps each day.  He goes to bed around 8:30 and gets up between 7:00 and 7:30 typically.  Then he will take a morning nap of about 1.5 hours.  His afternoon nap varies more widely.  Sometimes it is only an hour.  Sometimes it is 1.5-2 hours.  We are all more ready for bedtime on the 1 hour afternoon nap days! 

Henry's standard breakfast is multi-grain cheerios, 1/2 of a banana, and milk.  I tried to give him a waffle with pumpkin butter instead before school this past Monday, and he refused to eat it!  Creature of habit.

Henry eats adult food now pretty much all of the time, with the exception of kids' whole milk yogurt and veggie/fruit pouches of baby food.  Henry can be a bit picky when it comes to vegetables, so we sometimes sneak more in by giving him the baby food pouches, which he sucks down in no time.

Henry's favorite foods right now are: blueberries (LOVES them.  Can't get enough), bananas, cheese, crackers, peas, black beans, pasta with butter and cheese or marinara sauce, ground turkey, Chickfila grilled nuggets, and anything sweet!  Henry is picky when it comes to meats and pretty much turns his nose up at chicken (other than Chickfila) and deli meat.  Henry also rejects a lot of vegetables but will eat them better if they are mixed in with other foods. 

Photo Session

A few photos to appease the grandparents:

Playing with his flashcards and sporting major bedhead.

Cheesin' and wearing my rain boots.

Daddy gave me a mohawk!

Life Lately

Whew...things have been busy, busy, busy around here lately.  Lots to update on!  But for now I will stick to Henry's latest developments.

Henry took his first steps on July 4th!  Truly an "Independence Day" for him!  He took several steps a day after then but was not consistently walking until the end of July/beginning of August.  It was a pretty organic process and it seems like one day he just picked it up and started walking as his only mode of transporation.  Once he got the hang of walking, he was off!  No more crawling for Henry.  He now moves so quickly he's nearly running.  And he has a new-found love for parks and the playground because he can run around, climb on the equipment, and watch other kids!

Henry also has made great strides in his verbal and receptive speech development!  Henry's first word was bath (which he pronounces without the 'th').  It was appropriate because it was one of his all-time favorite activities!  Ironically lately he has developed a fear of bathtime; he cries and cries when we put him in the tub and tries to stand up to get out.  I read that this is common around this age and one technique to try to ease toddlers' fears is to get in the bath with them.  So, for the past several days, Henry and Daddy have been sharing bathtime (Daddy wears his bathing suit, of course!)  Henry loves this and is totally relaxed and happy in the bathtub.  Now my concern is how to break him of this habit!

But back on topic, other than bath, Henry says several words: ball (bah), dog (dah), down (dow), banana (nana), more (mah), achoo (ah-soo--as in fake sneeze!), shoes (soos--and it's so adorable, because Henry loves, loves, loves shoes.  I think he is destined for a life as a shoe designer or a Nordstrom salesman!), and his latest, baby (bah-bi).  And mama and dada, of course.  Henry is fond of 'b' and 'd' words, apparently!

And Henry's receptive language skills are amazing.  He will retrieve things on command (shoes, ball, book, etc.), look for things when you ask (when you ask what's outside, he'll look out the window, he will look for Rowan when you ask about the dog), and he knows several body parts: head, tummy, and toes. 

Henry also dances (moves his feet quickly up and down as if he were running in place), claps, and blows kisses!  I worked with him for awhile on the blowing kisses.  So, so cute.

Henry finally learned to point with one finger rather than with his entire hand.  And he loves to do it, especially when he wants something!

It seems as if Henry really took off in the last couple of months and is now a  full-blown toddler, not a baby.  More updates (and pictures!) to come!

Happy.

During the past couple of months, lots of people have remarked about how happy Henry is.  In fact, my grandmother went so far as to claim that he is the "happiest child" she's ever known.  And they're right.  He is a happy-go-lucky guy.  (Most of the time.  If you're not taking away his pacifier or subjecting him to a diaper change).  Henry has the sweetest disposition and honestly enjoys life.  He has the widest, most open-mouthed grin that is simply infectious.  To him, life is one grand possibility that is his to discover.  And I love this about him.

Cases in point:

I want, wish, and hope for many things for Henry. 

I want him to have every opportunity.  To attend well-regarded schools.  To have the ability to try any sport he desires.  To decide that the oboe sounds like a great instrument and have us say, "Ok!"

I want him to know that he's fortunate to have every opportunity.  And understand that there are many people who are not as fortunate as he.  And that means he should not take for granted the choices he has in life, and make sure he gives back to those with fewer opportunities.

I want him to dream big.  And to know that we support him in every endeavor and career choice, as long as he gives it his best (and it is legal, of course!).

I want him to be inquisitive.  To want to learn more about the world around him--other people, other cultures, other ways of thinking.

But most of all, I want him to be happy.  Because if he's happy, we've done our jobs as parents.  And if he's happy, the world will be his for the taking.

The 4-H Club

The weekend after Henry's birthday, my best friend, Emily, visited with her daughter, Harper.  We were so happy to see them!  I wish we could see more of them, but given that they are in North Carolina, we have to make do with two or three times a year.  But there's still a chance Harper and Henry could end up married one day, right?!

Harper has the most insanely blue, beautiful eyes I have ever seen.

Playing with the kitchen toy Harper gave Henry for his birthday.  He gave her the same one!

Ha!  Stealing Harper's snacks.

Best friends!

Looks like Henry is getting a little too forward.

Watch the progression...

Harper: Hey, buddy!  How's it going?

Henry: Um, I'm not so sure about this!

Just a little love pinch.  Nothing to see here!

It was a blast to spend time with Emily and Harper.  We can't wait to see them again soon!

Giddyup Cowboy: Henry's Birthday Bonanza!

Henry's first birthday was a cowboy/western theme!  I thought it would be a fun theme and something that would come together fairly easily.

Henry did very well with so many family and friends at our house for the party.  He didn't cry at all and was a trouper throughout the whole thing, even as he missed his afternoon nap (perhaps the cake helped lift his mood a little?!).  We had a great time celebrating the birthday boy.

Thanks to my Uncle Tom for taking such great photos, as usual!

I die.  Baby cowboy boots and overalls that belonged to his Uncle Michael.  So adorable.

My mom made this awesome Wanted poster.  It looked amazing!

Iced tea in mason jars with paper straws!

"Souvenir" t-shirts!  You can't see the front of them, but Henry's face is emblazoned on it.

Hanging out with Uncle Michael.

Posing on a real child's saddle borrowed especially for the occasion.

Four generations!

Ready for his smash cake!

May be my favorite photo of the bunch.

Think he enjoyed it?!