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Milestones

Henry OchoNuevo

Today Henry turns 9 months old. Wowee, how time flies! Little Mr. H. has been working on lots of milestones lately. Two new teeth emerged last week after a long, painful, whiny stint of teething, bringing his tooth-count to 8 (ocho!)! He’s also been rolling from back to front (finally!) and back again. I honestly thought he’d never master the back-to-front roll, since he seemed so content to stay on his back once he’d rolled off his tum.

He’s started migrating around the crib during the night, has graduated from baby food to table food, and is learning how to transition from sitting to lying on his tummy. He’s not too happy once he’s stuck lying on the ground, but he does enjoy the process of leeeeeeaning forward until he can stretch himself completely out. Henry seems to really dig standing up in his excersaucer, which we’ve dubbed his “disco” thanks to its music-themed doodads and the music that it emits.

All in all, he’s a happy little guy with an adorable, puckish grin, which usually emerges as he’s watching his big bro’s antics in the tub or at the dinner table. The two brothers really seem to get a kick out of one another these days.

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Milestones

Henry the 8th (month, that is)

Drumroll, please! Henry Seamus Nack turned 8 months old today. He kicked off his celebration by snacking on his first fistful of Cheerios and cracking into a Yo Baby banana yogurt. (Which, based on his intestinal distress later in the day, seems not to have agreed with him very well.)

In addition to taking on Cheerios, we’ve been introducing more “table food” like rice, guacamole, and banana pieces. He gobbles them all down happily and waits impatiently for the next bite. I think he’s teething again because he’s drooling like crazy and chewing on anything he can get his hands on.

Physically, he’s been making lots of progress. He’s an avid practitioner of what we call the “Judo CHOP!” This is where he raises both tiny hands then quickly blasts them down to his waist and does a little grunt at the same time. We tend to see it when he’s excited about something–food, new toys, grabbing my sleeve and shoving it into his mouth…He’s sitting up like a champ, and as he reaches for things just beyond his wingspan, has started to roll onto his tummy. At which point, after getting over the initial bewilderment of being on his tum, he either gets mad because he’s not sitting anymore, or rolls over to his back (the better to see those scintillating light fixtures!). He’s babbling–he’s entering his Dadaist period (dah! dah dah dah!) and is also working on “ma ma ma” and “va va”.

He continues to be fascinated with and amused by his big brother–especially in the bathtub, where there’s a lot of splashing and laughing. For his part, Finny has taken to intoning “No, NO, Goon-IE” when Henry’s taken something he was playing with. All in all, it’s a good time to be Henry, and based on the number of big grins accompanied by his twinkling little eyes, he seems to be enjoying himself.

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Milestones

The Big Deuce

Finny had his big-guy 2-year checkup today with Dr. S. Our hale and healthy boy checked in solidly on the 97th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. He is 37 inches tall, which strongly suggests that he will be over six feet tall when he’s fully grown. He is a whopping 33 pounds 4 oz., and his head is 51 cm. around.

Dr. S. was impressed with not only his size but his verbal acumen and his skills at pretend play. She asked if he spoke in sentences of 4-5 words, and I said “yeah, well, a lot more than that, actually. It’s really like talking to a normal person,” and gave her an example of one of his typical sentences these days: “Mom-o get Finny some lunch and put Goonie in the  hopper.” I believe “Wow!” was her response. She also liked hearing that Finn’s already got quite the imagination–calling me “the caboose” and his brother “little freight car” or “screech owl.”

Our boy had to get three shots today, but he was really a champ about the whole thing–only crying a little bit after the first two. Once I picked him up and gave him a squeeze, he was fine and later remarked “Finny got some shots and cried a little bit.” Now he won’t have to worry about shots until he’s 4!

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Birthdays Milestones

It’s Official: The Finn-Man’s Two

Happy birthday, big-little guy.  We sure do love you a whole lot. <:-)

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Birthdays Photos

Finnster Party Pix (aka, “Now eat some *candy*!”)

We really had a ball celebrating the big guy’s birthday with so many pals yesterday. At first Finn wasn’t quite so sure he was ready for the “Totpocalypse” of toddlers descending on our homestead. Five minutes after the party started he said, “All done… all done with kids!” He then wanted to hide out in the “bat cave”–i.e. the pullout couch that Grandma Nack had been occupying. Fortunately he chilled out pretty quickly, and Grandma was a huge help in minding the sometimes overstimulated Henry.

Anyhow, it seemed that everyone had a great time, as you can see in our photo gallery (HTML). Special thanks to our pal Hughes (Hoot) for manning the camera and getting some great Finn’s-eye-view perspectives on the scene.

PS: “M&Ms are *GOOD*. Finny like to EAT them!!”

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Birthdays Miscellaneous

All Aboard for Finny’s Birthday Party!

This afternoon we celebrated Finny’s 2nd birthday (even though he’s not officially 2 until Tuesday). What a fun day we had! After weeks of nonstop rain, the clouds broke and we had a gorgeous, warm, sunny day.

I made a fun Thomas the Tank Engine train cake, thanks to some helpful pictures and advice from Finn’s Auntie Laura. The cake turned out far better than I had imagined–we had Thomas, his coal tender, and three freight cars. Finny was raptly watching me frost them, and although I was trying to explain that they were train cars, he didn’t really get it until the blue frosting went onto the Thomas cake. Then, when I put Thomas’s face on the front, it dawned on him that the cake really was a train. He started saying “Thomas! That’s Thomas!” and spent quite a while looking at the cake from all angles. It was my favorite moment of the entire day.

Lots of Finny’s playgroup pals and their parents came to the shindig, as did many other of our friends–Hoot, Alex, and Milos, the Hogartys, Reen, and our neighbors. And special guest Grandma Nack, who flew out from Illinois just for the party. It was wonderful to have a big Sunday afternoon playdate with the added bonus of cake, presents, and beautiful sunshine. We were thrilled that everyone could go out and enjoy the yard, especially since our living room is not very big when it’s filled with so many toddlers and parents!

Finn blew out his candles like a pro, and had a really good time at his party. I think everyone else did, too, and we were reminded of how many wonderful, kind people we have in our lives.

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Birthdays Miscellaneous

T-Minus 30 to Birthday Hijinks!

The Thomas cake is ready, and the streamers have been strung. Let the wild rumpus start! 😀

(Click the image for a larger version.)

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Milestones

23 Skidoo

Old Man Finnegan is officially just one month from turning “The Deuce” (!). Don’t tell him, but Mom-O has scored a whole set of great Thomas gear for his upcoming party.

Speaking of trains, “Engineer” pretty constantly insists on referring to each member of the family by our railroading handles:

  • Finn: Engineer
  • Dad-O: Conductor
  • Mom-O: Caboose
  • Henry: Little Freight Car
  • CoCo: Station Master

He’s way into rattling off crazed, run-on compound sentences like “Engineer and Conductor hang out in the Thomas tunnel and Caboose and Freight Car in the TV room!”  Super good times.

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Milestones

Henry Weighs In

Big Henry is just that! At six months, he clocks in at 19 lbs. 7 oz, 25 and 3/4 inches long, with a head circumference of 45 cm. This means he’s a little chubby for his height, but I’m guessing a growth spurt is coming on since he hasn’t stretched out much from his 4-month measurements. Compared to Finn at 6 months, Henry is 1/2 pound lighter and a little over an inch shorter, but his noggin is slightly bigger.

He was an absolute dream at Dr. S’s office and was quite flirty with the cute nurses. He only squawked for a second after his shots, then we sailed home in the Ocho so he could load up on cereal and milk. Dr. S. thinks we can start weaning him off the Zantac now, and start offering him water in a sippy cup after he eats solids. We’re still waiting for an appt. with the pediatric urologist so we’ll keep him on the antibiotics until we know more.

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Milestones

A Half-Year of Henry

Mr. Henry Seamus Nack turned six months old today. We can hardly believe it! Time has flown since he’s arrived on the scene. He’s gotten so big, and just lately he is so much more animated and alert than even a month ago. We love his giggles, his mischievous little grin and sparkling eyes, and his wonderful talent at sleeping through the night. He has started making a lot of sounds, prompting his big bro to say “What’s Goonie talkin’ about? Crazy baby!”

We go in for his official check-up with Dr. S. on Monday, so we’ll post his stats then. He’s growing like a weed, and is a big fan of his rice cereal. He cannot keep his hands off the spoon when it nears his mouth. And boy does he have a strong grip! If he’s this excited about cereal, I can only imagine his enthusiastic reaction to other, far tastier foods in the near future. So Happy Half-Year, Henry! And we’ll lift a teensy baby-spoon to the next six months!

[Click the image for a larger version.]

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Milestones

Area Baby Discovers Feet

He seems pretty excited about his new discovery, no?

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Milestones

Henry The Fifth

Today “little” Henry turned five months old! To celebrate, he napped for 1.5 continuous hours, then accompanied Finn and I to “tiny playgroup” at our friend Tara’s house. The rest of the day was spent doing tricks in the crib (rolling over) instead of sleeping. He is so amazed at his own rolling skills that he absolutely refuses to stay on his tummy during playtime. He just instantly lurches to one side and flips over.
He’s following in his big brother’s footsteps and is becoming totally fascinated with lights and light fixtures. He marvels at the Christmas tree and I catch him gazing up at the lamps in the living room quite a bit. He’s also every bit as big as Finny was at 5 months–he’s already sporting his six- to nine-month wardrobe! His little thighs look like turkey drumsticks!

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Milestones

Henry On the Move!

Our littlest guy has a lot going on these days. Henry’s been very actively working on his core strength in order to start rolling–arching his back, kicking his legs, and tipping his torso over, diligently practicing.
Today it all came together for him, and he was triumphantly rolling from tummy to back. He can roll both to the left and to the right! Next up: rolling back onto his tummy, or a continuous roll from tummy to back to tummy. We’ll keep mama’s milk on his training table, and make sure he’s got enough room in his ever-smaller PJ’s to get good momentum going.
I think he’s also teething again–he’s making some really weird expressions with his mouth, and is chewing on anything he can get into his tiny maw. The drooling and fussing seem like good evidence as well. We’ll let you know if any new chompers appear!

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Milestones

This one goes to eleven…

Finn turns 21 months old today, and is taking it somewhere new on a daily basis. We’ve been looking at lots of ABC and number books, and Dad-o and Finny have been spending some quality time with the Sesame Street gang, singing “C is for Cookie” and counting things with, of course, the Count von Count. We were wowed when Finny actually recognized the letter C and a couple others in one of the library books. He even knows, courtesy of Kermit, that a capital B looks like a fat man with his belt too tight. “B… Belt too tight!”
We were also excited when he counted to three (instead of his usual “two!”) one day. So imagine our surprise when Finny was running around the other evening, chattering about various things, when, almost under his breath and without fanfare he exclaimed:
“onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten… Eleven!”
I totally missed it, but John and our sitter, Laurie, caught the tail end of it. Luckily for me, he did it again a few minutes later and I got to hear it that time.
Now, he still really can only go to three or maaaaaybe four when we’re actually counting objects together, but he sure has the syllabic sequence of numbers one through eleven down pat as a thing unto itself. It’s almost like a little chant he does every once in awhile.
Oh, and when we ask “And what comes after 11, Finny?”, his reply is “Six!”

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Milestones

Momzi Schemes

This week has been loaded with mini-milestones for both boys. This means that Mom-o has to start getting crafty to outwit her little guys when needed!
For instance, Finn has started to understand and repeat the sequence of numbers from one to five. He has also started to buy into the idea of just eating “a couple more bites” of something before he is allowed to get down from the table. It’s great because now we don’t face flat-out resistance to eating his dinner, he cops a plea bargain. This is where Mom-o takes advantage of the little perp, saying “two more bites” and then working on our numbers as he continues to eat. “One bite! Two bites! What’s after two? Three! Four! Do you remember what comes after four? Five!” After he eats a decent amount of dinner I ease up on the counting, but I figure learning and eating is a good combo!
Henry, too, is working on a lot of things. He’s grabbing and pinching everything in sight, including my skin while he nurses. I’ve introduced Ollie the owl in hopes that he’ll grab and twist *him* instead of me, and it works sometimes. Henry’s also turned a corner on napping, it seems. I am now able to dispense with the rocking and holding before putting him in his crib. Now I just put him straight in while he is awake but ready to sleep, and he does the rest. He’s also starting to nap for a decent amount of time (anything over 60 minutes is fantastic), and can resettle himself if he partially wakes during the nap. Yesterday he had two big long 2-hour naps instead of three 30-minute ones. *That* is a development worth celebrating!

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Milestones

Big Henry’s 4-Month Stats

Our ever-bigger little guy, Mr. Henry Seamus Nack, had his 4-month check-up visit with Dr. S today. Here are the stats:
25 inches tall!
17 pounds even!
43 cm head circumference!
Still spitting up like a champ (a bigger dose of Zantac is now required)!
Further wowing the doc were the strength of “Goonie pushups”, his newfound ability to lock his knees when placed in a standing position, his 2 lower teeth (no more visible on the horizon right now), and his enjoyment of the normally-dreaded hip joint rotation test. Most babies hate it, but Henry started laughing! And maybe Henry caught on to Mom-O’s pre-natal yoga moves while in utero since his cobra pose is so good! Entire torso off the ground.
He had 2 more shots, and cried quite a bit, but manned-up fairly quickly as we made our way to the reception desk. The doc wants to go ahead and have us schedule another renal ultrasound to check in on how his kidneys and ducts are doing, because if we can, it would be nice to take him off the antibiotic. So we’ll do that within the next few weeks and post the results. Worst-case, minor surgery on his renal ducts, best-case, the problem has resolved itself.

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Milestones

Fantastic Four (Months)

Our little Henry turns four months old today! His birth feels at once like it was yesterday and a thousand years ago. (Ah, back then Finn & I would spend all morning exploring the “antenna truck.”) The little guy is tracking our movements like crazy, locking his legs for some “Proud Stander,” and grasping onto things like it’s his job. (I know: yesterday he locked onto both sets of my crow’s feet, digging in & trying to pull my nose into his mouth!)
Meanwhile big bro Finn is becoming even more of a character. Eating his weight in green beans tonight, he eyed one with a long stem and said, “Macaw! Eat the beak! Come *heeeere*, Macaw!! (haaup!).”
Despite Finn’s new penchant for inspecting things with a tape measure (“Dad-O’s leg, 30 pounds!”), we don’t know Henry’s stats yet. We’ll get the full 411 on Thursday when Margot takes him to the doc. (Eyeballing it, we can say that a standing Hen comes up to roughly Finn’s shoulder line, and that Finn is perhaps 35″ tall.)

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Milestones

Goonie: Revolutions

Henry’s really been working on his upper body strength these days. Lots of “Goonie Push-ups” as Finny says, plus random squirming, has resulted in little Henry being able to roll over from tummy to back! He did it twice yesterday during tummy time on his play mat. The first time it took a few minutes for him to get from tummy to side to back, but the second time it only took a few seconds! Nice job, H-man!

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Milestones

Bring It On!

That’s what Henry would say to the nurse at Dr. S’s office if he could speak…Unlike Finn, who can speak, and dubs the nurse “Bad Lady!”. We went in today for Henry’s second round of vaccination shots since we’re splitting them up into smaller groups of 2 shots each instead of four or more at once.
Not only did Henry not cry, he didn’t even really flinch! His attitude was almost “Hey, you got any more of those you want to give me? ‘Cause I can take it, lady!” Seriously, he was a total champ, and the visit was totally anticlimactic. I snapped up his pant leg, congratulated him on his high pain threshold, and we were back in the Ocho in no time. Whew.

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Milestones

Henry’s 2-Month Stats

We visited Dr. S today for Henry’s 2-month checkup. He’s doing quite well–eating like a champ, sleeping loooooong stretches at night, and is full of smiles and coos for us. He is 14 lbs. 5 oz., 23.5 inches tall, and a head circumference of 41 cm. He’s a bit smaller than Finn was at the same age but believe me, he’s no lightweight! The doc even thinks he may be able to stop taking the Zantac because he is not spitting up much at all and his throat is looking really good. We’ll give it another month and see.
No troubles to report, although he still seems crabby after having a couple of vaccination shots today. Maybe he is more sensitive to pain than Finny. He’s gone nuclear a couple times this afternoon for no apparent reason, so I’m kind of wondering if the injection sites are sore, and have given him some “baby T” just in case.