Oh my goodness. Henry is one year old today! We can hardly believe a year has flown by since he arrived on the scene last year after only 1.5 hours of labor.
Our littlest dude has got a lot going on these days–so busy growing, growing, growing. He’s getting ready for many more teeth to arrive–they’re making themselves known in big bumps and lumps in his boca. He’s been working really hard on practicing his walking, forcefully leading his hapless escorts around the house and getting very upset when we want to take a break and sit him down on the floor! Â (I am prone to calling him “Stampy” because of his disproportionately heavy footsteps!) And he’s really starting to chatter away. Lots of babbling and even some honest-to-goodness words like Dada, Mama, ball, cool, go, Coco, and uh-oh. He loves his little sleeping buddy Ollie, and has warmed up to his stuffed cat (an Xmas gift from Grandma Nack).
More Henry-based action includes “rock stance“: standing with his feet wide apart and jiggling one leg up and down (think David Coverdale in the 80’s). In addition to assisted walking, he’s able to pull himself up to standing unassisted, and has even stood (stock still) on his own for several seconds at a time. Dad-o has introduced Henry to “fountain inspection” both at our newly repaired fountain as well as neighbor Richard’s kid-magnet front yard fountain.
I’m only half joking when I call Henry my bossy baby. He wants to do everything himself, and when he needs your help he’s very clear about what he does and doesn’t want you to do. If you try and feed him, he grabs the spoon or piece of food and puts it in his mouth–he doesn’t want us doing it! He’s gotten into some serious chug-a-lugging, grabbing both his and Finny’s milk cups and jamming in both sippy lids at once. He’ll also let us know if and when he wants to be held (or not!) and is remarkably strong for his size (evidenced by pushing himself off me when he’s had enough of my lap).
This week he’s gotten in plenty of playtime with Grandma and Grandpa Nack, and was introduced to his very own sandbox (a wonderful gift from them) this evening. After his initial uncertainty about sitting in the sand, he got pretty engrossed in scooping and pouring. Every day this week has been an adventure–trips to Happy Hollow, Blackberry Farm, and other parks, along with shopping trips and picnic lunches. He was yawning his brains out by 6:30 this evening–I’ve never seen him that sleepy! But now that he’s in bed he’s having kind of restless sleep. Maybe he knows his birthday party is tomorrow! Happy Birthday little G-Man!
After weeks of anticipation, yesterday we departed for the Island of Sodor (er, the nearby mountain town of Felton) to ride the rails with our big buddy Thomas the Tank Engine! Finn & I had come over last year with Grandma & Grandpa Nack, but he was too little to remember it, and Henry & Margot were attending for the first time. (Last year we somehow weren’t up for taking a 2-week-old on a steam train.) As you’d imagine, we had a ball, and with the brief exception of bath time, Finn has yet to relinquish his special Thomas souvenir badge.
I get an unreasonably big kick out of assigning absurd title/surname combos to the boys (e.g. Captain Boogerfiend, General Birdwallis, and so on). “Doctor” works especially well, as featured in examples like:
