44 Weeks Old

Henry's weekly picture comes courtesy of a neighborhood indoor playtime/playground we go to once a week. Since not much has changed since Tuesday when I posted, I'll keep it at that. :)

Roar!

I might have found a new favorite activity - dressing my child up as animals. Okay, so I've only done it once, but as you can see in these pictures, it's just about the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life. Kati gave us Daniel's old Halloween costume and it fits Henry now...and it won't by Halloween...so maybe I will just make him wear it all the time until he outgrows it.

10 Months Old!

Here's the big guy eating his big boy breakfast of waffles and pineapple. Amazing. He's grown so much in just 10 months. Not crawling yet, but I'm still happy about that. He can scoot around to wherever he wants if he's so motivated. I have to say, I'm probably a big reason why he's not crawling because I tend to give him whatever it is that he's trying to get. When I'm not in the room is when he moves around the most. But I'm not worried...I know it's only a matter of time. Two months until he's one! Wow! This year has gone so quickly. I feel like we only got back to Portland a month or two ago. Anyway, we are both feeling a lot better. Whether the antibiotics I took helped or whether enough time passed to get rid of whatever bug I had, I don't know. Henry also is pretty much better, just a little congested still is all. We're waiting for another tooth to come in...that seems like a never-ending process!

43 Weeks Old

I cannot believe we are only 9 weeks away from his first birthday. I find that so incredible. Not much new to report. We are both sick. Henry is having a hard time breathing through his stuffed up nose which makes sleeping difficult. Poor little guy. Otherwise, things are pretty much the same - we are continuing with the music class every week at the library and are trying to make it to an indoor playtime once a week also so he gets to get out and around other little kids.

Hope Prevails!

Inauguration Day!

What a day, what a day, what a day! For Henry, the swearing in ceremony was too boring to stay awake for; as you can see in the bottom picture of him sleeping soundly through it. But, then he awoke for President Obama's speech - and seemed to be captivated by it and enjoy it; as you can see in the picture of him sitting up in bed. (These pictures really were taken during those parts of the inauguration!) Last night we attended an inauguration party at Henry's godfathers' house. Cary and Jeff really set the mood with patriotic decorations and a red, white and blue dessert. We watched parts of the ceremonies again and waved our American flags. :)

And as I write this the day after, I am watching a CNN Breaking News update in which they announced the President will be signing executive orders to close Guantanamo Bay within a year. Take that, Bush!! Now we need to take Bush and Cheney to the Hague!

42 Weeks Old!

Henry's weekly pictures! Even though it's essentially the same picture twice I couldn't decide which expression I loved more and so I just posted both. New changes in Henry we've noticed include his obsession with all things tiny - specks of dirt, a piece of fuzz, a drop of water. He is an eagle eye for such things...and it gives him lots of practice using his pincer skills. He loves clapping. Sometimes for patty-cake, sometimes to signal "more" and sometimes just for clapping. He can now hold his own sippee cup and drink out of it. He's acting bashful a lot more, hiding his head in our shoulders when strangers approach. I know there's more new stuff he's doing but I'm drawing a blank now!

41 Weeks Old!

This week I've got both a video and still photos of Henry to share. The video was taken today as he was feeding himself noodles (wheels), cheese (just a little!), and ground turkey...a deconstructed version of our own turkey spaghetti dinner. He is demonstrating his attention-getting grin. I was calling it his "fake" smile, but I don't actually think it's fake - but it's definitely a deliberate smile he does because he knows it will get a good reaction. I've put a still photo of it up as well. Also is a picture of him sitting in his size 12 month pajamas that Gigi just got him. He pretty much skipped right over wearing the 9 month size. It seems like he only wore them (with them fitting well) for about a month. If I cut the feet off them I could get some more use out of them. I think I'll do that on some of the grungier ones...ones I wouldn't want to reuse or give away anyways.

Nine Month Check Up

Even though Henry officially turned nine months old about a week ago, he just went in to the doctor's office for his nine month check up today. Overall Dr. Golap was so pleased with his progress. She said he's gaining a good amount of weight and she kept commenting on how attentive he is. He kept making little grunting noises to get her attention, then when she turned to look at him he'd give her his huge grin and little wink (well, blink is more accurate). He weighs 18 pounds and 3 ounces which puts him in the 13th percentile (unadjusted) and means he gained a whole pound in 4 weeks which is great. He is 28 inches long which puts him in the 55th percentile. Long and lean, as the doctor said....doesn't get that from me! He also had another round of vaccines. The same as last month - the combo Polio, Hib, and DTaP - all in one vaccine and then we added Prevnar which is for menningitis. It is pretty much the safest vaccine of all containing absolutely no metals or animal cells or by-products. So he only had to have two pricks and once again he was a trooper. About 30 seconds of a little crying and that was all. We go back in a month to do another vaccine. Since we're spreading them out and only giving him one or two at a time he has to go in more frequently, but it's worth it to me to know we're not overloading his little body with toxins.

Here is a picture of him enjoying part of his dinner...

40 Weeks Old!

Happy New Year!

Taking after his mama's tendency to be a night owl, Henry rang in the new year by staying up late and watching Summer Heights High with me, Brett, Gigi and Grandpa Rex. If you haven't seen Summer Heights High, it is an Australian comedy that is being shown now on HBO. It is hilarious.

Henry is thoroughly enjoying playing with all the toys he got for Christmas this year. He is showing a definite preference for certain toys. In the past, he would just sort of reach out and play with whatever toy he happened to grab. Lately he is very deliberate in choosing with which toy in particular he wants to play. Here is an picture of him playing with a couple of his new toys in the living room.

Today also marks his forty week old birthday - which is the length of a typical gestation period (well, for humans...a kid in the supermarket the other day had all kinds of neat pregnancy/birth facts for me, such as an elephant is pregnant for 2 years).