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- 9 Months

9 months in, 9 months out. You could say that he was a tad easier to take care of when he was in... :)

At 9 months old:

Henry weighs 21 lbs 12 oz (82 percentile), is 30 1/4 inches tall (98th percentile) and has a head circumference at 82 percentile.

AKA He is a big boy.

Henry now primarily sleeps on his tummy, which is very cute. He rolls all over the place and is generally pretty good at putting himself back to sleep (which took a lot of effort on Cameron and my part). He seems to really like to sleep on his side, but tends to end up on his tummy.

He usually sleeps from 7pm-8am, getting up around 5/6 to nurse. On a good day, he takes a morning and afternoon nap, both lasting 1 hour and a half. And then we went on vacation for Thanksgiving and he is seriously struggling to get  back to our normal routine...

He loves to sit and play with his wooden blocks and dump truck. He also can sit and read eat his books for hours.

On his tummy, he can slide around from side to side and scoot backwards really well. The only problem is that he thinks he is moving forward haha

At times, he gets up on his knees and starts to rock a little bit, but he still has a little ways to go before the crawling takes off.

He has recently starting to try to pull himself up on furniture. Just this morning he was able to pull himself up onto his knees at the coffee table! He doesn't really like to put much weight on his legs. When I try to get him to stand, he keeps his legs parallel to the floor and won't put them down.

Henry has 2 very sharp teeth. I'm about to throw in the towel on nursing because this little kid BITES me just about every single time he eats. The struggle is real, folks.

Henry wears mostly 12 and 18 month clothes (and occasionally 24 month :'( ). At this rate, he's going to be in like size 8yo clothes (is that even a size?) by the time he turns 2.

As for my dairy intake: I've been eating cheesy delicious things for awhile now (in moderation) and so I thought Henry might be over the dairy thing. So, a couple days ago I boldly had my first cup of milk in 3 months. Well, that was a mistake. He was up about every hour and a half all night long just crying/screaming/pushing-like he had to poop or had a tummy ache. So... no more milk for mommy. Which is a major bummer.

He is a really good eater with solid foods. He eats almost anything you give him. He also loves his water bottle/sippy cup. He is getting better and better at picking up food (cheerios mostly) and putting them in his mouth. But a lot of times, he is lazy and just puts his mouth to the table to get the cheerio, no hands involved. It's hilarious to watch. It's like he is a bird pecking his food.

I think that about covers it! Now for some pictures:

This was my best attempt at 9 month photos....

Are we done yet, mom?

Granby time 

K-State campus is beautiful during fall

Papa

Papa

Happy Thanksgiving!

My beanie fits my 9 month old's head

Tractor time with Granbob or PaBob or Grandpa Bob 

Twinsies

-Anna

Henry- 8 Months

I know I say this every month, but seriously? Where has the time gone?!!

At 8 months, Henry:

He has successfully transitioned out of his swaddle for naps and nighttime. I still wrap the blanket around his torso to give him some warmth, but both arms are free as can be (except for the socks I put on his hand so he doesn't scratch his face up when he rubs his eyes).

He can officially roll over!! The first time (I think it was 10/21/15 but can't remember exactly) we thought was a fluke because my ipad was nearby, which gave him extra motivation to roll. But then, that very night, he decided he was a rolling machine and I was in and out of bed all. night. long. He would roll onto his tummy, wake up, and cry. Over and over again. I'm so glad he can roll over! Except not really. And this has basically been every night since then.

He has become very good at sitting by himself and playing with his toys. He doesn't tip over very much and when he does, he is very good at pulling his arms out and is content on his tummy.

Everything goes into his mouth. I mean everything. And he usually doesn't bring said-object to his face, he bring his face to said-object. Which is hilarious.

His favorite toys right now are his books. I realized the other week that in order to instill a love for books in him, he needs more time with his books. So I pulled a few out and he is just enthralled with them! He especially enjoys chewing on all the corners and leaving cute little tooth marks. I can usually find him with small pieces of dissolved book covers on the corners on his lips.

He continues to love his purple teething hand and also his 4 balls on ropes. As for non-toy objects he likes, he LOVES remotes, his monitor, my keys, my wallet, and definitely my phone. Part of me wants to get a smart phone, but the other part of me knows that Henry will destroy it within 24 hours.

Henry got his very first tooth this month! I first started to feel it on 10/7/15. It took about a week before we could see it and now, it is as sharp as ever!

Henry is a big fan of solid foods. I'm trying to think if we've introduced anything new in the last month.. We've just started squash, peaches, beef, bananas, and prunes. He continues to love peas, green beans, pears, apples, sweet potatoes, The only thing he really does not like is the pureed chicken or ham.

I have started reintroducing dairy into my diet. I'm trying to add dairy to one meal a day, increasing in quantity. And man, have I missed that stuff. It's hard to say whether being dairy-free did anything at all because when I starting having cheese again, he also starting teething and transitioning out of the swaddle. So he hasn't been the best sleeper recently, but there are a plethora of reasons why that could be the case. So pass the queso!!

As for breastfeeding, I usually feed him 4 times a day. Once after he wakes up in the morning, once around lunchtime, and once right before bed. And I usually feed him once in the middle of the night. He gets solid food about twice a day ish. I need to start increasing it (it's really just laziness on my part. Nursing is so much faster!!).

Now for some pictures! (I still haven't figured out how to upload videos. Once I do, let the flood gates open).

From my device:

10.8.15 

10.12.15

10.16.15 Aggieville Trick or Treat

Last minute M&M costume 

Trying to escape the photo shoot

8 months old!

10.27.15

From Cam's phone:

10.31.15 poor nap day at the pumpkin patch

yummy dead corn

This Never Happens

Dashing young man 10.25.15

10.24.15 Weenie Roast 

10.18.15 pictures at church

10.9.15 Squinty eyes :)

tasting the pretty flower

10.7.15 Dress up at Target

10.4.15 Sunday walks

-Anna