Henry's First Hair Cut

Henry was growing quite the little mullet, so after convincing his father, we headed to Snippet's today for a hair cut.  Henry did not like getting his hair sprayed with water and that lead to some tears, but our stylist was very quick so it was over before he got too distraught.  Here are some before and after photos.

A couple days ago we had another little "milestone"; Henry touched his nose on command!  It's the cutest thing ever.

Right now Henry is really into saying "no".  We have a book where he looks for a dog named Spot and he learned the word from that book.  If I ask him a question, he'll say no.  It's not annoying yet.  I would really love for him to learn how to say "yes" too.

Snowy Day

Look at those teeth!!

SNOW DAY!!!!!  Finally we're getting some gorgeous, white, fluffy snow!  I know snow is a big pain in the butt for travel but since we have no place to go, we're happy to have it.  Henry (and Gracie!) are enjoying looking out the window.  These photos were taken around 12:30--it's still coming down hard.  We decided to go outside for a little while to see what Henry would think.  He definitely enjoyed it, but of course it's cold out so he didn't last long.  He also took a minor spill but his large, puffy coat saved him from any serious injuries.

And here is a sweet picture of Henry sleeping..... 

It's been a while

Hello everybody!  I haven't written in a long time because we were having some major computer problems that prevented me from posting blogs to this site.  But, since it's been so long, there is more to share!  Now that Henry is nearly 13 months old, he is an expert walker... in fact, he's basically running everywhere he goes.  He still loves to climb and will get up on the ottoman and couch all by himself.  His talking kind of comes and goes. Some days he's babbling all over the place and will say "dog", "dada", and even imitate a dog sound, "ruff ruff". Other days it's like he's focusing on everything around him and he's pretty silent.

Henry loves to read books now.  It's such a nice change.  He has a few favorites, but overall he likes books about dogs and most nonfiction books.  He also likes his books that have little puppets and textures for him to feel while he looks at the pictures.  A new favorite game is pulling all the books off the shelves in his room.   I can't wait for him to clean up after himself.  When does that happen?  Hopefully he'll inherit his cleaning skills from his father.

Henry had such a wonderful birthday!  He had two parties and we felt really lucky to have Grandma travel here from Florida and Stu, Tutu, Ryan, Shannon, B, and Quinn travel here from Cleveland.  Lots of friends came too.  Henry is having a blast with his new toys and books and I'm enjoying dressing him up in his new outfits.

Christmas was a lot of fun too.  We made a trip to Michigan where we hung out with some of my friends and family.  Henry got to meet cousin Kathy who was visiting from South Africa and my cousin Andrea, too.  He got to try ham for the first time too!  For the weekend of Christmas, we headed to Cleveland and had a great time visiting with Mark's side of the family.  Henry got to go swimming with Stu, Tutu, and his cousins.  He also had a great time chasing the dogs, running around, helping Stu mix drinks in the kitchen, and attempt to eat tissue paper.  It was a wild time.

Henry has been trying lots of new foods too.  Recently he's shown a great interest in strawberries, tomatoes, and peaches.  Today he even tried peanut butter and he loved it.  And... it's even easier for him to eat now that he has FOUR teeth.  His bottom central incisors came in first right before Christmas and his top lateral incisors are just starting to poke through.

At our 1 year doctor appointment, Henry was 20 lbs 1 oz (25th percentile) and 29.75 inches (50th percentile).  We were very excited that he had a growth spurt!  Now that we're able to post again to this site, I'll write more again very soon!

11 months old

Wow! I've really been slacking with the blog updates. Henry is now just over 11 months old. He is officially a walker. Although he'd taken a few steps here and there for the past month, on Friday he took 14 steps and Monday he took 21! Each day he's been doing more walking and less crawling. Of course, crawling is faster so that is still his preference.

A few weeks ago Henry and I went to Michigan to visit family and he got to meet my cousin, Caitlyn. She is in the US from Taiwan. He had fun seeing her, Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandpa, Aunt Carol, Uncle Jim, Aunt Janet, George, Natalie, and Scott, too!! He also got to go for his first horse ride and Jim and Carol's. It was a very fun visit.

We've been going through a bit of a sleep regression--hopefully it's just due to learning to walk. His naps are still great but he's waking up 3-4 times at night and getting up early in the morning. Thankfully Mark enjoys hanging out with Henry in the mornings and giving him breakfast so I can get a little extra sleep.

We're looking forward to two birthday parties for Henry in a few weeks. He'll be having some buddies over on the 8th and a bigger party with family and friends on the BIG DAY, December 10!

Henry's current favorite foods are grilled cheese with turkey, mac and cheese, yogurt, and carrots. Yummy.

10 months old

This has been an incredibly busy month. In fact, I'm a week late with his 10 month photos. This month Henry took a couple steps on his own, but is definitely not walking yet. He continues to stand, do squats, and cruise around on the furntiture, but no official walking!

A few weeks ago Henry said "Mama". That was the best thing I've ever heard. He said it after he'd knocked over a big cup of water and I was cleaning it up. He crawled over, put his hand on my arm and said Mama. I'm sure he was trying to say sorry! He said it a few more times that night and has said it a few times since then.

We went to Cleveland this weekend to see all the Dillons. Henry had been suffering from a fever for the past few days. We thought it was a bad reaction to the flu shot, but he got a rash all over his body. It turns out, he has Roseola, and the rash is the sign that it's almost gone. We just hope he's back to his old self again soon. He's been grumpy and hasn't been eating well.

Henry and I are going to Michigan in a few days for another visit. Busy busy!

9 months old

Henry is 9 months old today! We took him to the petting farm at the Lincoln Park Zoo to celebrate and enjoy what's left of the warm weather. Henry enjoyed petting the goats, looking at the cows, ponies, chicks, and vegetable garden. He even got to see a demonstration of grooming a pony! The goats were especially interested in Mark's pants and leg hair.

Henry is 18 lbs. 5 oz. now and only 27 inches tall. It was very hard to believe that he only grew 1/2 an inch in the past three months, but that's what the doctor said! He is certainly growing out of his clothes quickly.

He is eating solids pretty well, although he prefers store bought food to my home cooked baby food. Poor me! He really likes to feed himself although he's not great at chewing, so we have a few scares when he eats. His favorite foods right now are cottage cheese, yogurt, whole peas, avocado, banana, peaches, and pears.

Mark wanted me to add that he is awesome!

first words and sleep for mommy and daddy!

Henry's sleep habits were really getting out of control. He's never been a great sleeper, but for the past week and a half he was up every 45-60 minutes and would wake up the instant he touched the crib. We had to do something!! So, after a lot of research, discussion, and many sleepless nights we decided to Ferberize that boy. It went so much better than we ever dreamed. After only three nights he is falling asleep on his own with only a little bit of crying and staying asleep for long stretches of time (7 hours last night). Today he put himself to sleep for a nap with no crying. I know there will still be bad nights and other set backs when teething or illness come along, but we are happy right now.

Last night he said his first words! I wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't said it twice. After dinner he said "all done". For the past 3 months I've been trying to teach him the sign for all done after meals. So I say it about 4 times and do the sign then I say it and make him do the sign. I've never gotten any type of response from him until last night. I said "all done" and he looked up at me and said "aahh done". I said "Did you just say 'all done'?" and again he said "aahh done". He can't do the sign, but he said it two times and again (although not as clearly) this morning. Other babies say mama, dada, ball... but not my kid!

We also had a great trip to Cleveland last weekend. We celebrated Omi's 89th birthday. Henry had so much fun with his grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and doggies! He went swimming with B and Quinnie, too. We'll be traveling back there in October and we're looking forward to visiting again!