All About Henry- 18 months

Let me just start this off by saying I wrote a super long post summarizing our last 6 months and then Blogger deleted the whole thing. So I'm pretty mad about it... That's all.

Happy Half-Birthday Henry!!

I can't believe this guy is a year and a half old. Before I know it he's going to be 2. Where has the time gone??

Since I haven't updated for so long, I will try to include the major highlights/milestones from the last 6 months.

Henry started walking around 13 months, so he's a pro now. He is getting really fast and is almost able to run. He is really big into climbing. Anything really. He climbs onto any chair/couch/bench- you name it, he can climb it. He especially likes climbing over mom and dad. He likes to perch himself on our throats chests and be king of mom/dad mountain.

We weaned from breastfeeding around 15 months. Long story short, we cut out one feeding a day until we were only nursing morning and night. We cut out night time and for a month or so we only nursed right when he woke up in the morning. Morning nursing was very optional for a few weeks and then one day I realized I hadn't nursed in at least 2 weeks and that nursing was officially over! Henry probably would have been fine going cold turkey, but I was the one who dragged it out. But I'm happy I did and also happy it's over.

On a normal day, Henry sleeps from 7pm-9am and takes a 2 hour nap around noon. He is such a good sleeper; I have no complaints. He occasionally wakes up at night to get a drink of water, but then he goes right back to sleep. He really is such a good sleeper. He didn't start sleeping through the night until around 14 months or so, but now it's heavenly.

We went to Utah for two and a half weeks in July and Henry slept for maybe 2 of the 17 nights. We're never traveling again. But really though, we had a good time. We spent a few nights in my mom's new house in St. George, a few nights in Sandy with my grandparents, a week in Orem with Cam's grandparents and a few days in Park City at a time share. Cam joined us midway through, so I didn't totally lose my mind, but I got close.

Henry has never co-slept in his life, but on this trip, he would wake up at midnight in his packnplay and just scream forever until I brought him into bed with me. It was hard on everyone. My theory is that the pack n play was too uncomfortable/hard/small. But who knows. When we finally got home, we were nervous how he would transition back into his crib, but then he immediately got his very first ear infection, which was really bad. He still stayed in his crib, but it was a rough couple weeks back. We have been home a month now and things are back to normal and he gained a few new molars along the way.

Henry is seriously the happiest little guy I know. He is constantly giggling and smiling. He is almost always trying to play games with you, usually peekaboo or some sort of hiding game. One of his new words is "Boo!" and he uses it quite frequently.

The last few weeks, Henry has gone from mute to like 10 words (if you can call them words). Here they are: Weee (for slide), Bow Wow (barking like a dog), Whoa, Ma (mom), Boo, Bye, Hi, Neigh, OO-EE (like a monkey), Moo, Night. oh and I can't forget his constant RAWR.

Okay so most of them are animal sounds, but they are so stinking adorable. He has been obsessed with his stuffed animals recently. He's had most of them his whole life and he's never noticed them and now they're all he plays with. From elephant to Nemo to giraffe. He loves all of them.

So earlier this year, we bought him a baby doll, which has loved from the start. Back 6 months ago, he would just give her kisses incessantly until her face was dripping wet with his slobber. But now, I find him holding her up to his shoulder and patting her back. He also loves to put his baby to bed. He finds a pillow, lays her on top, and then finds a blanket to drape over her. He then goes and finds a book for her to read. Sometimes he gets a little carried away and puts all the pillows and blankets on top of her and smothers her big time. I try to show him that she needs to breathe, but he's not quite there yet... Hahah

Alright well that's all I can think of to add right now. Enjoy a few pictures! (I didn't take any pictures during our Utah trip, so if we saw you and you took some, could you please email me?! Thanks!)

18 months!

From Cam's phone-

1st movie- The Good Dinosaur

Happy 18 months H!
We love you!

All About Henry- 1 year!

You guys, I have a one year old. How did this happen?

But seriously.

Henry is transitioning from babyhood to toddlerhood and I have very mixed feelings about this. He is very independent and has quite the personality. He is very good at listening.... but is terrible at following directions. I hear you Mom, but I have to disagree. Toilet paper IS for playing with.

His favorite game right now is turning everything into a walker of some sort. So, walking while pushing something, whether it be a chair or his huge dump truck or a cardboard box. You get the point. However, his aim isn't very good. So he goes straight until he runs into something (which is like every 5 feet in our tiny apartment) and then he cries because he's frustrated that the wall won't get out of his way.

He loves playing with his cars. He has little hotwheels, medium size cars, and a huge dumptruck; he loves them all. He pushes them around and hands them to me constantly to drive up and down my arms and legs. Sometimes we set up slides and watch them zip down. He is so stinking cute.

His favorite place in the whole apartment is standing by the big window in the living room. He literally stands there 80% of the day. Just looking out at the road/ into the sky/ at the trees. I don't know what he looks at, but he just gazes off for hours each day. No joke. He also really likes to repeatedly tap/HIT the window with whatever object is in his hand (car, wooden puzzle pieces, lego blocks, etc.). You could say, we're just a little excited for the weather to be warm enough to actually go outside and play. Not just dream of such days :)

He LOVES to give me and Cam kisses! Every morning, we each get bombarded with dozens of kisses. They may be super slobbery and snotty, but they are the best.

He has also gotten really good at waving to people, which his fans adore. He makes all sorts of friends wherever we go- the grocery store, Cold Stone, you name it, he has made a friend there. He gives a HUGE smile to just about anyone who looks at him. I'm so happy he's a social baby. It makes life in public pretty easy.

He has been really big into pointing recently. Within the last couple weeks he has learned to point, so now he points at everything. He points to his/your nose whenever we say, "Where's your nose?" And he also points to his nose when we ask for any other body part. The other day I was reading a book to him and one of the lines was "I like my eyes, my ears, my nose" and as we're reading, Henry puts his finger to his nose right when I said it :) He's learning!!

He's a bit behind in his language development, so I get really excited when I can tell he understands what I'm saying. Just today, I pointed across the room and said, "Henry, there's your bink bink; go get it!" and he promptly started crawling to it and put it in his mouth! Just because he isn't saying words doesn't mean he can't understand my words.

The day before his birthday he said "mama" for the first time. I'm not sure if he knows what he is saying, but it's a start! He teased Cameron with Dada one time, but hasn't said it since. Sad day.

1 year old means that the end is near for breastfeeding!!! I thought I would be really sad about it, but I'm starting to get really excited for it. What I am nervous for is the transition to cow's milk.. With all our dairy issues, I'm not looking forward to it at all. The hope is that he has grown out of it and that his stomach is mature enough to handle it now... I'll be the judge of that.

Now for some pictures:

I can't figure out how to flip this-- 13 months

Happy Birthday bug!

All About Henry- 11 Months

HAPPY 11 MONTHS, HENRY!!!

Henry has become so active this month! He crawls all over the place and is very, very fast. He is very quick to get into anything and everything in his reach and has no problem destroying whatever he is touching.

Our apartment is far from baby-proof and we are constantly working on improving that, but Henry seems to be developing faster than we are adapting. The only safe places are: his crib, his jumperoo, his bumbo (with the tray attached or else he crawls out of that, too), and his carseat. Unless he is strapped in somewhere, he is on the move.

His favorite activity is pulling things out. This applies to anything. He loves to just sit and pull out every single item from his diaper bag. Or stand by the kitchen cabinet and pull out every single tupperware container and lid. Or simply sit by his toy shelves and pull every single toy off/out. Sometimes he actually plays with his toys, but I think he more enjoys just pulling his toys out than anything else. Oh and he also loves to pull out every article of clothing he owns from the laundry basket or his drawers. Basically, our home is disaster zone at all times now.

He has been really into waving things really fast and then letting go randomly AKA throwing things. This is not my favorite game. Especially at the grocery store when I'm the one fetching his sippy or binky or toy. It's already hard enough trying not to lose binkies, but when he is the one throwing them across the room... Not cool.

The past couple weeks, Henry has learned how to play peekaboo with his hands. It is probably the cutest thing I have ever seen. He doesn't totally understand the concept of covering his eyes, as he usually only covers up one or neither eye and his hands are just on top of his head, but it is the BEST. He does it over and over again and just giggles up a storm. He thinks he is the bee's knees.

He also waved for the first time (at Dad of course) and has done it once or twice since (still only for Dad... it's fine. It's no secret who's the favorite around here). And he has also starting clapping! It's like, within 3 days he figured out that his hands can do things other than feed himself.

His sleeping is going a lot better. He typically sleeps from 7pm-8am and we are transitioning from 2 naps to 1 nap during the day. He still wakes up about once at night and I nurse him, but there were 2 nights this past week where he slept through the entire night and didn't wake to eat at all!! (But then he woke up in the 7s...) But I'll take what I can get!

I'm still breastfeeding and I'm counting down the days.... I just really miss wearing normal bras every day. Almost there!

Lastly, Henry is just such a joy to be around. He can make anyone smile and he smiles at everyone around him. He is such a little charmer and makes friends easily. We are so happy to have him in our family and we are so sad to think that in less than a month he turns 1 year old. I can't bear to think about how big he is.

Now, here are some pictures of our sweet boy:

Where I usually find him, inside the cabinet playing with baby food and tupperware

Morning snuggles

His hat kills me!

He's really good at selfies

I swear the hat adds on like 3 years

New favorite food: yogurt!

He could stare out the window all day long. He completely zones out and is startled if you speak

pop, lock & drop it

Such a deep thinker

Happy 11 months, big guy!

-Anna