Henry is our shy flirt. Smile at him and he will give you a coy smile before turning away. Declared a ladies man by many. He is my Henry Bear and when you meet him you understand why. He is sweet (obviously) but also loves to growl 24/7. Even though he says mama, dada and baba, he growls more then anything. Up until this week he was content to sit and play, even without the distraction of a toy. He talks to himself (or us) and throws out his arms in excitement. He loves to play with the stacking rings and try to stack them himself. Maybe an engineer? He loves his feet and will play with them a lot (not in his mouth). He commonly lays on his side in what I've come to call his "model" pose, holding onto one of his feet. He also loves to put clothes, cloth toys, bibs and other items into his mouth and shake it back and forth in a move he must've witnessed watching Toby.
He loves to wave "hi" but not always as hi. He just likes to wave. He still loves to blow raspberries. He FAVORITE thing is to shake his head no. Sometimes I think he really means no and sometimes he does it just for fun. But you definitely will not leave our house without seeing him do it at least 5 times. He can also shake his head yes. It's not as often (imagine that) but seems to be often in agreement for something you said. I think it's another thing he inherited from daddy as Shawn is prone to this when he tells you something that is an affirmative statement. Recently he developed an "adventurous" streak laughing when I toss him in the air. He is still cautious, however, in that he only loves a foot or less of height before his laughs turn into paralyzing fear.
Of his siblings he typically finds Evie the most hilarious. We captured a video of her putting a stacking ring in her mouth and pulling it out with a little noise and he thought she was the bees knees. He also laughs when I tickle him along his rib cage under his arms. He loves peek-a-boo.
He is the hardest to feed, despite what his rolls might imply. He prefers anything toddlerish ie crunchers, mums, yogurt, and puffs and will only eat "baby" food up to a certain point. Then he becomes quite adorably stubborn. He gives you a semi-grin with his mouth firmly sealed. His look sort of says "you can't make me open my mouth, but go ahead and try!" Shawn discovered a trick of pinching his cheeks to get more in but he sure is stubborn. He's not full, since as soon as you pop the lid to the puffs he goes crazy. Henry's "crawl" is a hybrid of Ella and Grant. Not a full crawl but not the paralyzed leg type of Grant. He uses his forearms to army crawl with the aid of one leg. He's a little slower then the other two but getting faster all the time. Henry loves attention from both mama and daddy. He leans a little bit more towards being a mama's boy but revels in daddy's attention too. Here's the highlights of his 10th month:New foods this month: Eggs Yolks (vomitous, LITERALLY-LOVES them now), chicken pieces (not baby food-have you seen how nasty that stuff looks?) (YUM-give me more!), apricots mixed in with other fruit (ok), and Soy Yogurt (delicious, ranks up there with bananas and mums).
Discovers peek-a-boo with mama on April 30th and finds it HILARIOUS!
Says my favorite word on May 10th: ma-ma-ma.
Henry is very rolly-polly. I love that he has fat creases everywhere. I especially adore his fat forearms and thighs. I "spend" more of my kisses there and also on his adorable cheeks. I love my babies in every shape and form but I so wanted a chubby baby and here he is! Because of his size, Henry fits well in the 12month pajamas and shorts. He looks adorable! He definitely can wear his pants cincher free.
We had visitors the last/first weekend in April/May, my friend Andrea and her two children Emma and Easton. With her I took the kids out for their first extended shopping trip and extended trip in the quad stroller. You should've seen the looks and whispered conversations. We were quite the attraction. Doing this once has grown my confidence in managing going out and about with the kids, like I once did with Evie. Maybe to start shopping once a week with them or doing something beside being homebodies.
Like his siblings he too ran a high fever the last week of 9 months. With it came congestion and lots of snoring. He is already a loud breather, add in congestion and you start to feel like you're listening to a little man through the monitors. On 19th of May, at 2am, I ended up making a trip to the ER because two exhausted parents could not figure out why our normally laid-back baby who finishes nearly every bottle would not sleep and would not eat. So there I was with a happy (why don't they ever act sick in the doctor's office?) being told that Henry had congestion that was not letting him breath to eat and since he couldn't eat he was too hungry to sleep. DUH!! I felt like such a doofus! Why hadn't that occurred to two educated parents?? Especially since up until then we'd routinely used saline to ease congestion. Fatigue can do that, that and being too close to the situation. Who can think clearly when it is your own baby??
It has been a very short but awesome 10 months. I love you, Henry Bear!
