Henry, 7 months

It appears Henry has developed the A problem of blinking during pictures, just like daddy, Auntie Laura and Great-Grandma Maurine.

Evie loves Henry!!

Henry is such a character. He is content to suck on his hands, and be in a bouncer or under the play mat. His motto is "Whatever." Don't get me wrong, he does cry and can get very angry. Most often it involves hunger, and it involves the worst screaming, as evidence by his rage at Shawn Thursday morning for taking so long to change his diaper and get the bottle. Most often though Henry is our "talker." He yaks up a storm. And unlike the more gutteral noises of his siblings he is using more inteligible sounds. His favorite one by far, and to his father's pride and delight, is "da-da-da." He repeats this all day long and sometimes in the wee hours of the morning. We awoke Tuesday morning at 2:30 to these happy squeals and Henry calling "da-da-da" If he's not talking in this way he has begun to growl. Most often this occurs when he is "attacking" Shawn's fingers, arm or his toys. Something like "rrrrrrrrrrr" and then he gums whatever is near. As you guessed...adorable. Henry is also our breather. You can hear him breathing hard and he enjoys listening to himself. Connected to this is that he is also a snorer. He sleeps next to me still and it makes me smile every night to hear that little snore. I think I shall miss it intensely when the time comes that he can sleep in his own crib.

"Talking"

Henry is a good eater. He has no favorites and will eat everything I put in front of him. He does, however, make a sour face for the first couple of spoonfuls of most of his foods. He's become really good at moving the food to the back of his throat and swallowing. It makes for much less mess!!!! No teeth yet. None that I can even see under the surface or feel. It doesn't really matter as the few times I've put finger foods in front of him he's shown no interest. Hasn't even tried to pick them up, he doesn't even look at them.

Shortly after birth one of the NICU doctors noted that Henry had a hydrocele (similar to a hernia-except fluid filled instead of intestines) in his scrotum. We were referred to a pediatric surgeon at almost 2 months because his pediatrician and I worried it was a hernia (I had forgotten the doctor in the NICU mention it). That 2 second appointment (literally) reassured us that it would disappear on its own, likely by 6 months. At 6 months Henry still had it but on Monday during bath, I noticed that it had disappeared. Yeah!!!

Henry is an easy smiler. He has these big cheeks you almost want to pinch, but please refrain yourselves. We are still trying to get him to sleep in his crib because he is our most difficult night sleeper. He starts out in a bouncer and if he starts crying he gets moved to his swing. Only occasionally have we made it without the swing. We are not sure what we are going to have to do once he out grows them. Luckily he can be in the swing up to 30 lbs. He's big, but not that big. Soon he will outgrow the swaddle and it's my hope that by then he will also just become as easygoing in sleep as he is during the day.

Henry is a really good roller. He just does it slowly, taking half an hour to roll across around the room, but he does it. I don't think he realizes that he can cross a room with the rolling but he does enjoy it. He has started to enjoy kicking and thrashing around. He really enjoys this type of play. Henry would like to just chill with you. He doesn't necessarily need entertaining but just like to be with you. He's good at chilaxing.