Blab Blab Blab

Henry is never silent and talks to himself if we won't talk to him. He's learning so many new words every day and he'll copy us if he's in the mood. Tonight we told him to say "fun daddy" and "goofy daddy" and then Justin retaliated with "you rock, mom," which turned out to be "rock you, mommy" when Henry repeated it back. So cute!

We're off to New York, Connecticut, and Dallas for an almost three week long vacation(is it still a vacation after you become a mom?) over Christmas and New Years. I am really praying that no one gets sick and that we can enjoy ourselves because this could be really painful.

Crazy morning

This morning was a disaster. I was woken up by Henry exclaiming, "eeeewwww poo poo, yukky, eeewww" and sure enough, he had had an explosion of poo and it came out the back of his diaper and was all over his bed and blankets. I had to take every blanket and his changing pad out of his room and fumigate the place. I put the poo soaked blankets in the wash and then we went to take a bath. While I wasn't looking, Henry had pulled our very absorbant outer shower curtain into the tub and it had soaked up half of the bathwater. Just last week we had to have someone come and recalk our tub and paint the stain in the downstairs ceiling where Henry's splashes had come through so I've been really vigilant about keeping the water in the tub until Hurricane Henry struck again. Then after I had told him not to put the curtain in the tub, he turned around and took our phone and threw that in the tub and now it's fried. I don't know what it is about the men in my family. Justin and Henry keep getting our phones wet so we can't use them. This phone was actually we got at the Relief Society exchange, so it was free, but we really hate it anyway so I wasn't too angry. We're actually cancelling our home phone on Wednesday, so take note to call our cells from now on. Anyway, I drained the water in the tub and then Henry got into the soap. Usually when the water drains out and he's cold, he gets out and wants me to dry him off. This time he stayed in there and when I came to see what he was doing, he had taken the soft and soggy soap and dug his fingers into it, and now there were huge chunks of soap all over his body and under his nails. This put me over the edge and I washed him off without making sure the water didn't get in his face or was perfectly warm. Take that! lol! Plus, Henry saw that I was dissappointed and not smiling and he sorrowfully said "sorry mommy" and even used the sign for sorry, which is just so cute that I forgot the mess he had made all morning long. Henry was in a great mood for the rest of the morning until I started to take him up to his room for the nap and he started screaming in protest, "No nap, yukky poo poo, eeeww!" hahahaha! He thought I was going to dump him back into his crib filled with poo. lol! He cracks me up!

Octopus for dinner

Tonight I cooked baby octopus for dinner in this incredible Asian stir fry recipe I have in my Williams Sonoma cookbook. I really didn't know what I was doing and I had to improvise because the recipe called for beef, but it turned out really great with octopus. Justin and I were really excited to see if Henry would have eaten the baby octopus because he LOVES octopi to death. He has two finger puppets that are probably two of his favorite toys and he carries them around wherever he goes. We set one in front of him and he ate all the tentacles off of it and was trying to eat the head, but was just a bit too chewy. The tentacles were nice and tender though and he gladly ate them up. While he was eating it, he put his finger in the hole that went into it's head and kind of played with it like it was one of his finger puppets too! haha! We tried not to look at him or laugh because we knew he would just get inspired to play with it more. I'm genuinely impressed that he would eat such an alien-like looking thing. I think I'm going to try to introduce some very strange foods to him so he'll keep eating anything I put in front of him. I heard that the age from two to three is when they can get picky about what they eat. Maybe I'll try the dried crickets from the Mexican food market. If I get him to eat those, he'll surely eat anything else I make! I'm going to make grilled octopus tomorrow night, so maybe I'll take a photo of Henry eating one to go with the story.

Crazy Chaos

Well, it's been a long time since I wrote anything and it wasn't just that I was busy, but Henry had, until just recently, been kind of a nightmare. A week after Thanksgiving, my mom came to visit and that day he got the worst sickness he has ever had. You name it and he had it. It seemed like a combination stomach virus and chest cold. He had a fever every day and night for over 5 days and cried and cried and cried the entire time my mom was here. Even after he got over it, it has taken him quite a few days to get back to his normal happy self. I thought he may never go back and I had this horrible feeling that this was what the terrible twos was going to be like. I truly hope it's nothing like the screaming, clingy creature that was hanging off of my legs these past two weeks. I really had no cute stories or anything worth mentioning the entire time, except that my mother is such a champ and even though the past two times she's come Henry has been extremely sick, she is always so patient and non judgemental. I hope she still believes me when I keep telling her that he's the sweetest and happiest boy in the world! lol! He's not living up to his reputation when she comes to visit.

He has been doing some really cute things lately though that I have to note. He still has somewhat of a cold and whenever I tell him to wipe his nose, he goes and gets a tissue, wipes his nose, and either throws it away, or tries to put it back in the tissue box. It's so cute. He is also getting really finicky about cleaning up certain things. If he spills any of his food on the ground or especially milk from his bottle, he runs over to get a tissue and he cleans it up. I don't really want him using up all the tissues, but I think it's too early to try to teach him to grab a rag from the drawer because I don't want him throwing those away. I guess I'll wait until he gets a little older.

Henry also likes to sing parts of the ABC song now. I often hear him singing "WXYZ now I know my ABC's something, something, sing with me." He changes the in between words every time, but he loves to sing and he's also on tune. Yes! He also is starting to sing the songs I sing to him every night as he rests his little head on my shoulder and rock him to sleep. I always sing him the Primary song, "Henry I love you" and he sings along with me in the sweetest tiny voice. He also sings words from the other song I always sing, which is "Just the Thought of You" from Natalie Cole's remake of her father's old songs. I adore that song. I know it's a love song, but it's such a mild one, that it could apply to a mother and child. The words go..."It's just the thought of you and I forget to do the little ordinary things that everyone ought to do. I'm living in a kind of daydream, I'm happy as a king, and foolish as it may seem, to me that's everything...I see your face in every flower, your eyes in stars above. It's just the thought of you, the very thought of you, my love." Henry sings every "do" on tune and at the end he'll sing "face, flower, eyes, stars, my love." It's seriously the most adorable thing. He has also started up again kissing me every once in a while as he's falling asleep. He'll turn his head and push himself back and give me a kiss and then lay back down on my shoulder. I also taught him butterfly kisses and Eskimo kisses and he thinks they are really funny. He did Eskimo kisses to me tonight too.
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Today at our friend's graduation party, Kaitlin and Wee-o left before we did and when Henry was left at the screen door to watch them leave he said in such a sad voice..."Kay Kay and Wee-o, bye bye" and then he yelled in protest, "don't go!" and "NO!" It was very sad and incredibly sweet to see how much he loves those little kidlets.

I'm so glad he's back to his old self again. If Henry is like he was last week during the terrible twos, I don't know if I'll be inspired to write it all down! haha!

Christmas is Upon us...

As soon as Thanksgiving was over I started thinking about the Christmas preparations I had neglected to think about all year long. I was usually so good at buying things for people months in advance, but since I haven't been walking around the streets of New York City looking for the best sales every day, I haven't run across as many opportunities to buy cool gifts. I've decided to make things this year instead of buy them, so Henry and I have been busy making things to send to our friends and family. Today we made chocolate suckers and chocolate molds, candy canes and I also made a huge amount of gingerbread dough to make cookies out of tomorrow. We're going to decorate them when Grandma comes. So fun! I also have a cookie cutter for gingerbread houses too, so we're going to have a party.

Henry hasn't been himself lately and I think it's because I've allowed myself to take my third eye off of him while family was in town and while we get together with our friends for our culinary exploits. He isn't obeying like usual and doesn't say thank you or sorry very often. It's amazing how quickly they revert to primal behavior when we aren't there to remind them of what to say and do. I hope this week it gets better while my mom is visiting. She'll learn him all she knows:)

Henry is getting bored of his toys. I think I'll clean out his playroom tomorrow and take out the baby stuff since there's no baby to play with it.

Thanksgiving Mayhem

I am in the middle of Thanksgiving preparations right now, so I don't have that much time to write and I'm not paying that much attention to Henry either, so I don't have a lot of fun stories.

Today we went to the store for a couple of things and Henry found the big bags of candy, so he picked up a couple and threw them in my cart, then when we were all the way at the other end of the store, he ran back to the front of the store, screaming "candy,candy!". He took a couple more bags and instead of putting them in my cart, he started putting them in random carts passing by. People were so nice and let him throw the candy into their carts, which is good because he probably would have cried if they put them back right away. He put about 10 bags of candy in people's carts by the time I dragged him away. Then, I thought he lost his hat and I couldn't see it anywhere on the ground, but after a little while I saw that he had hung it up where there were some outfits hanging for sale. He cracks me up.

Also, Henry is saying some really funny things, like he finally said "Thomasin", who is one of his good friends. He used to say "Tabas" all the time, and I would try to get him to say "sin" at the end, and yesterday while driving past Thomasin's house with Justin he finally got it! He started saying "sin, sin, sin" and then he said "Thomasin"!. Justin also taught him to say "pistachio" and I taught him to say "recycle" today too. He is getting pretty good with the tricky words.

Road Trip!

Henry and I went on a road trip this week to DC this week to visit our friends Christi and Dave and go to the baby shower that was thrown for her. The drive down and back was significantly improved by a DVD player that we borrowed from a friend. We seriously have to get one of those. We had a fun time at the shower. Henry played with the family dog in the basement with the father of the mansion we were in. We painted bibs for Christi and I made one that said "tax refund" on it and Henry made one with his hand print in tie dye colors (for Christi's little hippie baby:). We spend the next day exploring Leesburg and the surrounding area. We found a fabulous baby shop, a bakery that charged us $2.00 for a sugar cookie. We also went to a farmer's market and discovered some Thai religious retreat ranch place with huge statues of Buddah surrounded by children and some other Thai lady. There was also some kid play equipment, so we let Henry play for a while. We left when Henry tried to climb up the religious statues yelling "jump?, jump?" haha! Um, no.

After his nap we hung out in their five acre back yard where they have a horse, a trampoline, and a killer raspberry patch. Henry was feeding the horse and the horse mistook his finger for a carrot and munched it a couple times. Henry's finger was totally flattened and I thought it might be broken, but five minutes later he ran back over the the horse and wanted to touch it again. When he hurt it, I kissed his finger a million times, so now when he notices his swollen and bloody finger, he runs over to me with a concerned look on his face, holding his finger up whining "horse, horse." All I have to do is kiss it and he goes on his merry way. This morning I caught him in his crib kissing his own finger. lol! After the horse we jumped on the trampoline and I WISH I could have had a video camera on my head because I have never seen anything cuter than Henry on his back being bounced by me standing over him. His hair was getting all fluffy around his face and he was laughing and loving every minute of it. He really loves a trampoline. Too bad we'll never get one since Justin sees kids with broken skulls from trampoline usage all day long. I also have weak ankles:) Then we strolled over the the underpicked raspberry patch where Henry gorged on raspberries. His face was smeared with them and we all got to eat our fill in raspberries. I can't believe they were so neglected! I don't think Henry and I lost one single raspberry off of our four bushes this year. So basically, our trip was a success and now I feel like I can go anywhere as long as I have a portable DVD player (hint to grandparents for a Christmas/Birthday present). hehe.

Henry's first real sentence...maybe

Today Henry was climbing on our bed, which is probably at least 3 feet high, with an apple in his hand and the apple came loose and hit him in the head as he fell back down to the ground. He cried a little bit and as Justin was carrying him down the stairs he whined, "Apple fall off the bed". haha! Justin and I both looked at each other, totally stunned at the complexity. I also think it may have been an accident that he said it so perfectly, but he has said all of those words before, but just not all together like that. He continues to amaze me. The "experts" say that 20 month olds learn about 10 words a day, so we really need to be careful what we say around him, not that we say bad things, but there are just some things you don't want a toddler repeating over and over in public.

So, I don't know if anyone has really internalized the lyrics to some of the Winnie the Pooh songs, but some of them are hilarious. My favorite line is during the song before they finally pull Pooh out of Rabbit's front door hole in which he's been stuck for days. They line goes, "think heave-age, think ho-age and out the Pooh will go-age". I wonder how the writers laughed at getting "out the Pooh will go-age" published and recorded by a professional choir.

Henry and I are going on a road trip to DC tomorrow to visit my friend Christi, so we'll post the details when we get back.

What do we do when Daddy's home?

I'll tell you what we do...Play! Yes, Justin was home all afternoon and he got many things done with the computers while Henry napped and then we all went to the Pitt Basketball game. We actually arrived really late, but the game was such a blow out that we didn't mind missing most of it. Henry loved the loudness of it all and couldn't wait until the crowd clapped and cheered so he could join in. He really loves to cheer sports teams on. We then went with our good friend Venkat to his temple for the Indian festival of Diwali. We ate some great Indian food, listened to some live music and saw many beautiful women all dressed up in their sauris. Henry didn't really eat much, but had a great time spooning the yogurt/pickle mixture(not my favorite thing on the menu) from my plate to his plate. He also played in the water jug. People were very entertained. He ended up eating some of the pickle sauce that was actually really spicy and he immediately looked at me and said "spicy!" and sucked in a bunch of air. haha! We had a lovely time even though we had to walk all the way up a huge steep hill just to get there. We saw it as our pilgrimage and our duty to work hard to finally make it to the temple where dinner was awaiting. Plus, I may have worked off that brownie I ate.


Earlier today Henry and I made gourmet apple pies. I found a really fancy recipe online and we all agree that it does have something special about it compared to other pies. I had bought some tiny ABC cookie cutters for Henry to play with in Tahoe and I broke those out and let him play with the spare dough. He was in heaven eating buttery dough as he recognized and yelled out every letter he saw. He learned how to make cut outs and we ended up writing "Henry Jackson Hohl" on one of the pies. I should have taken a photo of it before we ate it, eh? I'll make another one later. I also made lemon and lime curd yesterday, which turned out fabulous. Henry even loves it! What a good little eater!

Sleepy Sounds and Bare Bottoms

Henry loves the "snore and whistle" sounds of sleeping. Every time I go into his room in the morning and after his naps, or if he's on our bed or I tell him that Justin is sleeping in our room, he makes the sounds. He doesn't understand that the snoring sound is made from breathing in, so he makes it while breathing out which makes it sound more like clearing phlegm from one's throat. Yuk! He was doing it this morning when I went in, but he soon stood up, holding out his bottle from the night before and he said, "mommy, milk, yucky." He also frequently says "mommy, poo poo, eeewww." that's when I run to get him from his crib since he has recently been interested in fully undressing himself if he is uncomfortable in his diaper or clothes. I have to admit, though, that I love seeing his cute little naked body hopping and bounding around the house as he laughs and screams for me to chase him. haha!

He has been so good lately. No tantrums or problems sleeping. He doesn't throw his food anymore and he picks things up when he drops them. He throws garbage away and helps me wipe up his messes. He's gentile with babies and is friendly with everyone. He lets me comb his hair and put on his clothes and shoes without much trouble and he's finally starting to listen to reason, which means that I can finally start using the skills I learned from "Parenting with Love and Logic"! Yes! I really hope this keeps up because there's really no sign of the "terrible twos" in him at this point:) We connect with each other so much and we really have fun together. The other day I put on a DVD for him and he looked at me and patted the couch a few times next to him so that I would sit down and watch the show with him. I seriously felt so honored to have been invited and I left the cleaning and cooking for later so I could be close to him while he wanted to hang out. I'm glad we're becoming such great friends.

Walking Backwards and S's

Henry has learned to walk backwards and today at the Children's museum he walked right back onto the lap of an unsuspecting little girl sitting cross legged during story time. Luckily, she and her friends just giggled. He gets himself into trouble with that backwards walking. Henry has also figured out the difference between words with and without S's. He is now saying "books" and "ex"(for the letter x instead of "ek") and many other words. He doesn't say it very smoothly though and there's usually a pause between the word and the "s" sound, which is really funny.

Henry, Justin and I played together tonight and Henry was acting so cute and funny. He really craves our attention and loves to play staring and looking games as well as wrestling, horsey, and his new favorite toy, the old school cube with blocks of different shapes that fit in the holes. He is constantly laughing and smiling which brightens our day. I finally broke down and bought Henry a DVD of the old school Winnie the Pooh stories that we used to watch as kids. He loves them and walks around saying "Pooh" and "Tigger" all day long. I hope he really loves it as much as I remember loving it. I remember that I memorized all the words to all four movies when I was about 10 years old and I still remember most of the dialog as I'm listening to it after almost 20 years(I'm old). Nothing beats Pooh Bear.

Small Talk

Henry has been talking more and more lately. He even puts together two to three word sentences. He loves copying what I say and sometimes it really shocks me when he says something I think would have been too difficult to say. Today he was saying "nuts" when he saw my cinnamon sugar toasted pumpkin seeds and I told him that they were actually pumpkin seeds and he said it! "Punkin seeds" is what he said! He also says things like "farm book", "happy boy", "daddy seeping", "baby, mommy, daddy + (any animal) and "socks and shoes". It really seems like he's communicating more with me and not just copying words just to say them. He really loves to talk to me and hear what I have to say back.

You know by now that he loves the letter "W". While he was in the tub, I showed him that a W upside-down is also an M. He was so intrigued by it. He is so amazed that he now makes me turn all W's upside down to show that they make M's. When he sees it, he says "woh" under his breath. haha! He also walks around the house muttering to himself "W, M, W, M" and sometimes "ABC, W" or "AB, M". When he catches me watching him, he gets embarrassed and usually does something goofy like flop all over the floor like a rag doll screaming nonsense.

Henry also loves to say animal words like, rhino, giraffe(which he can say now), horse, zebra, panda, and others. He also loves it if they're on his PJ's or his clothes. I can't believe how much easier it has been to get him dressed if there's some sort of animal on his shirt. Even Ralph Lauren's shirts with the tiny polo player on them is enough for Henry to let me dress him.

Henry's Celebrity Look-alikes

Apparently Henry looks like a supermodel or a Japanese girl. Did anyone else pick that up? You have to check out this site. It's so fun!

Candy enough to feed an army

I don't know if it's written in Henry's genes to run from house to house collecting candy, but as soon as the idea got into his head, he was out of control! We went trick or treating with Kaitlin, Wee-o, and Thomasin tonight and Henry was in heaven. He was screaming out "Wee-o, Wee-o!" and "Tommy, Tommy!" as well as "punky, punky! for pumpkin. He also learned how to say ghost and witch and was equally amazed by every kid or dog that was dressed up. When I say Henry was excited, I mean that he was running, screaming, and yelling every word he uttered. He never waited for the nice people handing out the candy to put in his bag. As they bent down to say hello to the nice little giraffe, Henry would dig both hands into the candy bowl, almost knocking the person off their feet and the bowl out of their hands and take as much candy as his little hands could hold. Then he would turn and run back to daddy, screaming "woh, woh!" who was holding the already 10 lb bag and secretly glad that Henry got the extra illegal stash, and watching as the person staggers to their feet, needing to replenish their bowl of candy. I have to admit that it was really fun to watch. Most little kids were so calm and normal, walking from house to house, being so polite and cute, then there was Henry, tripping over curbs, screaming out for his pure love of candy and his cousins and friends, stuffing his face with jujyfruit for fuel. hahaha! We basically laughed the entire time. He really was that wild and uncontrollable.

When we got home, we dumped all the candy out and Henry jumped all over it and tried to get us to open up more and more pieces. Henry knows how to say "sucker" and now "Starburst," which Justin apparently taught him during sacrament meeting. Basically, Henry loves candy and will do anything to get it.

Long Neck

Henry got a giraffe outfit from grandma for Halloween, so I've been trying to teach him about giraffes. He has a hard time saying giraffe and really doesn't want to attempt it, but every time I talk about them I show him the sign which makes a gesture showing a long neck and I say "long neck". So instead of saying giraffe when he sees one or sees his outfit he says "long neck," but sounds more like "yong neck." L's are still hard for him. It's pretty funny:) We had a trunk-or-treat last night at the church and our friends have a cute little boy who was dressed up as a rhino and when he saw him, Henry was saying "rhino, rhino!" It was so cute that he recognized what his outfit was and could say rhino! Our nephew, Wee-o, was a caveman and when Henry saw him he wouldn't leave his side. They were getting pretty distracted looking at everyone's costumes as they went from trunk to trunk, but whenever Henry realized that he was separated from Wee-o he would yell his name over and over until we got them back together to walk to the next trunk. Henry loves his cousin:)

I don't have a photo yet, but I hope to have some soon!

Alphabet Boy

So Henry officially knows his ABC's in sign. Yesterday was his 20 month Birthday and as I was warming up his bottle to go to bed I decided to test his knowledge. I signed the entire alphabet with my hand and he was able to tell me every single letter with little problems. Every time he said a letter he would throw his hands up in the air, jump and yell out the letter with a huge smile on his face. Every morning he also wakes up reciting letters. He now says "ABCD" over and over with other letters interspersed. His all time favorite letter, though, is "W". He says it a hundred times a day and tries to find it in every book and sign. He and I do a little dance and say "dubba, dubba, dubba-u" over and over. So all day long we just look for letters. He also loves numbers and knows 1-5 and 8, but is still more interested in his letters.

Grandma and Grandpa come to visit

Grandma Teri and Grandpa Jim came to visit this last week and I think it was the busiest and most fun week we have ever had! We also lucked out with the weather, so we got to do everything we planned. This will be like a log of everything we did, so it might be a little boring, but I want to record it for posterity;)

The first day I took Dad and Teri down to the Strip District where we have a top ten bakery in the country, the best Italian grocery store in the world, and many other shops with fun and interesting things. Worth mentioning are the macaroons at Enrico's and the incredible selection of spices at Penzey's. You have to go there to experience it all. In the evening we went to the Bodies Exhibition which was really cool. The "skin only" body grossed Teri out and we thought $22 was a little steep for admission, but it was a must-see.

The next day we went to the Zoo and miraculously most of the animals were up, awake, and walking around. The best was the giant Kodiak bear with only his gigantic mammoth sized head poking out of his pond getting a drink. His head was seriously huge and he sure was thirsty! The aquarium at the zoo is fabulous and Henry ran around the entire time screaming "fish, fish!" In the evening we went to Andy Warhol Museum. Wa-heird. I hope Henry didn't see all the homosexual neon signs. lol! If you didn't know, Andy Warhol grew up here so there's a pretty decent sized museum here in Pittsburgh. Henry's favorite piece was a room filled with silver rectangular helium balloons that were blown all around the room by a fan. That was probably my favorite one also. I think I'll do that for his next Birthday party:)

We were supposed to go to to Ohiopyle (state park), but it looked like inclement weather, so we decided to go shopping at REI and H&M instead at the South Side works where there's also a fun in ground water fountain that the kids can run through. We took all of Henry's clothes off and let him run in the water and he was attracting a pretty good crowd. We then went to Jimmy Tsang's for dinner and ate some really great Chinese food in honor of the Birthday girls (Teri and Me).

The day they went home we went to the Strip one last time to get some bread and macaroons and then spent a few hours at the Phipps Conservatory where Chihuly has a spectacular exhibit. We absolutely loved it. Wow! We ate yummy Panera sandwiches for lunch while Henry slept in the car and then drove to the airport. Our little adventure had to come to an end even though there was so much more I wanted to show them. I suppose we have quite a few years to show them all that Pittsburgh has to offer.

We had such a fun time hanging out with them. Henry was so excited to have them around and even a couple days after they left he kept looking for them in our guest room. Poor little guy:(

Finally Lake Tahoe Revealed

Henry and Lake Tahoe are like peas in a pod. Henry and I arrived early and left late to get used to the time change, so we had plenty of time to relax. We stayed in a condo right on the beach, so every morning we woke up to sounds of the small waves on the lake and an incredible view. Lake Tahoe has such a unique landscape with enormous mountain ranges encircling the entire lake. There are something like 11 ski resorts in the area and we had fun going to the resort villages wishing we could buy everything in the high end ski stores. Henry, my Dad, Teri, and I hung out together the whole time. We also had fun hanging out with the other cousins and aunts and uncles. Henry took particular attachment to my uncle Grant, whom he called "Grandpa" the entire time. He loved it over at their place with all the toys and especially the train set. I think I'm going to have to get a train set for him for either Christmas or his Birthday. He liked it so much, in fact, that he wouldn't eat meals and by the end of the day he was so starving that he would finally eat massive amounts of dinner. Our favorite thing to eat was Judy's home-made wheat bread or pancakes in the morning. Ya-hum! Henry also had a fabulous time with his cousin Wil and my youngest cousin Markie. They frequently hung out together on the beach catching crawdads, digging in the sand, and climbing on rocks. I also had a great time hanging out with my cousin Liz. We shared philosophies on life and it seemed like we were very much alike!

Just like when we went to DC for Easter this year and his signing exploded, his vocabulary exploded on our trip and it hasn't stopped. He continuously learns new words and always tries to say everything no matter how difficult, which is consistent with his "no fear" outlook on life. That's our boy!

Mom's Birthday Party

Well, it was my Birthday today and Henry had a great time. He knows what Birthday means, so he knew it included some sort of a party and a cake. We had a bunch of family and friends, including my dad and my step-mother, Teri, who have been here having a blast for the last 5 days. Henry and the other three kids his age actually ate their dinner without a huge mess, then danced around on the deck to Norah Jones until they started to get dizzy and bumping into each other which led to crying. haha!. Henry especially loved the train cake pan that Stef gave me. He LOVES trains and I'm going to make him his train cake for his Birthday. I'm really excited to do it for him.

Before the party we went on a hike at Fall Run Park where Henry took a pretty bad face plant on the trail and a rock embedded in his lip. The entire rest of the day he had a flap of skin hanging down off his mouth and a fat lip. So sad. He was a trooper though and as soon as he saw another rock, he totally forgot about his lip and started running again without a thought about the hidden rocks on the trail. It was such a beautiful place and there were so many leaves on the trail and we all enjoyed kicking them up.

Check out the Lake Tahoe photos. I'll write about it next!

A couple of cute photos

I don't have time to say much, so I'm just going to upload a few cute photos. Oh, Henry said Broccoli today. "Brocky" he says. He was pretty happy with himself that he could say it. These photos are of Henry in Washington DC at church and after church at our walk through a fabulous garden with aunt Meg and Uncle Kirk, which included a butterfly garden.

Honey is one

Henry learned how old he is the other day. I should have taught him earlier, but I didn't think of it until now. Now, every time we ask him how old he is, he says "one" and sticks up his little finger. He also understands the concept of one and what one looks like. He has a numbers puzzle and runs around showing us the number one and every time he has one grape or one fruit snack he says, "one" with a big smile on his face. He surely is excited to have learned about the number one.

Henry also started attempting to say his name. For about one day he said, "Hammy," which was really funny, but now he says what sounds like "honey". I think he knows he's not saying it right because he gets a little bit of that embarrassed/shy look when he says it, but at least he's trying to say his name. He can say just about everyone else's name, but not his own. I think "r's" are really hard for him at this point and so he avoids them when he can.

I just have to point out that Henry is surprisingly good at sharing. Even though he's being so high maintenance and emotional at this point in his life, he is always so willing to share things and that amazes me still. He has his raspberry plants from which he usually eats every day. Every time, without asking, he puts a few into my mouth. Today there were so many raspberries that we decided to pick some for Justin, who was home studying, and Henry brought the entire bowl up to the office and shared them all with Justin. He did the "one for you and one for me" thing, which I hadn't ever taught him. He just naturally knows the concept. When he asked for grapes in his bowl today, before he ate any of them, he gave one to Justin and one to me and then he started eating his own. He also played Sherpa today as Justin and I watched the Yankee game. He willingly was bringing me pretzels every time I asked Justin for a few. He would bring a handful over, give me all but one, and take the last one for payment. lol! He's such a nice boy.

Henry never ceases to amaze...or make me laugh

Today I printed out a bunch of photos at Costco to swap with some of the old ones around the house that just weren't that great. I printed a few out to put on his photo wall in his room and while I was up there organizing everything, he climbed up the two tiered changing table, pulled himself up to a stand and then pointed at my older brother's photo and said, "Sam". I was shocked. I clapped, laughed, and made him say it a couple more times and then asked him if he could say "Jamie," (who is Sam's girlfriend and is in the photo with him) and he said it perfectly! For the rest of the night he was saying "Sam, Jamie" while he was jut walking around. I can't believe he remembered something I had tried to teach him so long ago. I don't know when the last time we talked about all the people on the wall was. At least a week ago or more. What a memory.

Tonight I made some more fresh salsa from the tomatoes that just ripened today. I'm loving this indian summer. I thought I would bring some over to my neighbor Swati, whom Henry LOVES to death. She's straight from India and is the most lovely, friendly, and sweet girl that ever existed. Henry calls out for her frequently, so when I mentioned we were going over there, he ran to get his shoes, then he ran to the table where my cowboy hat was hanging on the kitchen chair, put it on, then ran to the door and looked at me with an excited/impatient look like, "I'm ready. Let's go!" The hat is now folded over so much that he has to turn it sideways in order to see and then it looks more like a Napoleon Boneparte hat made from straw. lol! We went over to Swati's house, but she wasn't there. I told Henry that Swati was gone and he started repeating her name over and over in a very sad tone. Poor Henry. He got all ready for nothing. haha.

More Dog Stories and Singing

This story is in addition to the last dog story when Henry stuck his finger in dog poo before peeing on the doormat and pooping under our deck. Tonight our friend took Henry while Justin and I went to a fancy lecture/dinner for the Orthopedic Surgery department that they have every year. It was so nice to have some time away from Henry for a minute! Don't tell him I said that. Anyway, so when my friend took him to her house, her dog in the back yard started licking the outside of the sliding glass door, and when Henry saw that, he promptly ran over and started licking the inside of the glass door where the dog was licking as if it was second nature to him. lol! I always believed I had a little bit of a natural dog whisperer in me and I think I've passed it on to him:)

So, in the car the other day I was singing Old McDonald had a Farm when I wanted to tell Justin something in mid verse. I stopped singing for a second and Henry continued singing in perfect pitch and tone, "E-I-E-I-O". He actually sang on tune! I'm so glad to hear that because I fear that some of our children will inherit Justin's voice and not my own. Just so you know, that's pretty much one of the only things I would rather they inherit from me and not him. They can be like him in every other way because he is just amazing:)

Henry is getting increasingly jealous of anything that takes my attention away from him and anxious about being separated from me. He doesn't even like me to be out of sight anymore even though it never bothered him before. It seemed to start ever since he learned to say Mommy and Daddy, like now we mean more to him because he can say our names. If he's with Daddy, he calls out for Mommy, making sure I'm close by. If Justin's home and I have Henry in my arms, he calls out for Daddy, wanting him to be in arms reach. I don't know what is going on with him, but I hope it passes soon because I find myself wishing for some more alone time to rest from his intensity.

Oh, and today he got out of the tub twice to run into our room just to pee on the carpet. I guess it's my fault because I was trying to double task by making the bed while he was supposed to be playing (I can see him in the bathroom from anywhere in my room just in case you were wondering), and it was too late to stop him once he ran to the first patch of clean carpet he set foot on. Then when I got him out of the tub, he usually follows me into his room where I put on his diaper, but he was too busy closing doors, which he is obsessed with lately, and spent just a little too long closing our bedroom door and created a little lake next to Justin's nightstand. He also knows the words, "pee pee" "poo poo" and "bum bum" and isn't afraid to use them when he gets the chance.

BTW...that photo is of Henry after the tomatoes in the food processor splashed out all over the kitchen. I let him push the buttons when I chop things up. I cleaned up the walls and the cabinets, but I didn't notice Henry's face until a few minutes later! lol! He also likes to put stickers on his chest while he watches me cook.

Henry Ouch

Henry went to DC this weekend. On the way there we stopped at Harper's Ferry where we walked a little bit of the Appalachian trail. When we got out of our car, a huge train was going by right next to the parking lot, so I put Henry up on my shoulders and got really close to the train so he could feel the wind, hear the noise and see how big they really are. He was screaming and laughing at the same time from the exhilaration. So, because of the train, we didn't put shoes on him and he ended up running along the trail barefoot, falling every 50 feet as usual. On one of those falls he broke/scraped off a good chunk of his toenail and for the rest of the trip he had a bloody and really dirty bloody stump of a toe. He never cried or complained about it until today when he stubbed it on a wooden toy and it started gushing blood. I wiped it until it stopped bleeding, but shortly after that he dropped a Nalgene bottle on it, splitting his wound open again. I gave him a bottle of warm milk, took him up to my room and performed minor surgery to clean it out and put band-aids on it. Henry was such a good patient. He never cried and he totally let me do whatever I wanted without squirming. He ended up pulling off the band-aids twice, so it didn't really last long, so I hope it heals even though his toes are always covered in dirt! haha!

Happy Happy

Henry has learned many new words lately and one word he loves to use is "happy". I was putting him down for his nap today and as I snuggled the blankets around his face he looked up at me and said, with a huge smile, "happy, happy". He really is a happy boy. Here he is hanging around downtown Pittsburgh with his mommy and daddy.

Henry also love accessories like hats, sunglasses and hair ties, which he pulls up to his upper arms and leaves there for hours. Sometimes I find four or five hair ties stuck on his arms hidden beneath his tee-shirt while I'm changing him into his pjs. He's lucky that his arms aren't big enough for them to cut off his circulation! hopefully he'll lose interest in them by the time his arms grow bigger. By that time I'll be able to see his arms turning purple anyway. lol! Funny kid:) Henry fell asleep in the car with my cowboy hat on and his stretchy mosquito repellent armband that he loves. He loves his accessories!

Sweet Henry Stories

These stories, though short, have to be documented for posterity. Henry does random things every day that make me laugh and somehow my mom thinks these stories are really fun, so here they are...

The other day I put Henry down for his nap and he was being such a good boy. He had just finished a bottle of milk, was totally relaxed and I carried him to his room. I laid him in his crib, tucked all his blankets around him saying "snuggli wuggli," which he really loves and always makes him laugh or smile. Then I stroked his hair and said, "Henry, you're such a good boy." He looked up at me, smiled, and then said "boy" in his sweet little voice. Then he snuggled his head in his blankets, closed his eyes and went right to sleep. That just about melted my heart.


Last Saturday we went for a hike at Fall Run Park and we let Henry walk up the trickle of a stream that's left. He loved playing in the water. When we got to the waterfall we put him at the sloped, slippery base to let him slide down since he loves slides. When he reached the bottom he hit his elbow then looked up at us and said, "owwww, elbow." haha! Justin was like, "when did he learn how to say that? I didn't even know he knew that word!" He does, however, know the word "bridge,"but since he can't say r's very well yet, he says it without the r and you can imagine what that sounds like. lol! On this trail, there are probably 10 bridges and whenever he sees one, he says his version of bridge a hundred times. When this women passed us near a bridge we had to keep saying, "yeah Henry, that's a bridge. Good boy, bridge!" So she wouldn't be offended!

Henry loves to go out to the garden every day and eat fresh tomatoes, raspberries, carrots and beets. That's one of his favorite things to do. He walks down our deck stairs and finds all the cherry tomatoes that are ripe, then we go find all the ripe raspberries. After the raspberries are all gone Henry starts saying "beets, beets, beets" over and over and then goes over to the beets and carrots and looks them all over to find ones that are ready to be picked. Henry does pretty well finding the ones that aren't "babies". He seems to respond really well to the reasoning that we have to be careful and nice to the baby ones until they grow up and we can pick them. After he picks the beets or carrots, he holds them up and says "wash, wash" until they are all cleaned off. I really can't believe how much he loves his beets. I seriously love it.

Henry's new way of getting out of Sacrament Meeting

So, I was supposed to sing today with my ensemble, but our friend Cynthia called to say that her little 2 year old was throwing up and she wouldn't be able to sing. So I had to cancel the ensemble and I don't even know if I can reschedule because it's a total hassle to get everyone together. PLUS, my neighbor Swati whom I adore was coming to church today for the first time to hear me sing. I tried to call someone about doing a solo, but I couldn't get a hold of anyone so I was just going to talk to someone before church about it. I pulled into church a few minutes early and was rushing to get in when I somehow accidentally locked the car, got out, shut the door and there was Henry and all my stuff for Sharing Time and music locked in my car at church that's 20 minutes drive from my house. Aaaahhh!!!! I couldn't even call Swati to tell her not to come or about what happened. Fortunately I parked in the shade and after a few minutes of trying to get Henry to push the buttons or pull the lock up, we gave up. We tried to point to the keys or the lock button, but he would just put his fingers on the glass where our fingers were touching the glass. We were laughing hysterically. Henry was roaming free in the car and he was happy as a clam! haha! I borrowed a friend's car, drove home, got a spare key, and drove back. When I pulled up, my sister-in-law and Swati were in the parking lot waiting with Henry and my car and there was just 10 minutes left of Sacrament Meeting. When we opened the car door, there was such a stench that everyone almost passed out. Henry had a the nastiest poopy diaper full of undigested grapes. Gross!! My singing plans were shot and Swati didn't even get a chance to feel the spirit. Can you believe this? So, she stayed to hear my lesson in Sharing Time, which actually went really well and then left. Soon after that, I soon realized that I had forgotten my binder with all my secretary stuff and wasn't able to do any of my normal duties. How in the blazes???!!! Then after church I got snagged to sing in the ward choir and I had to sing through Henry's screaming fits because he was so tired. After that, we went home. On the way home I realized that I had left almost all my props, including my cowboy hat and my down slippers at church because I couldn't clean up properly after my lesson with all the commotion going on. Henry was already asleep too, so I couldn't return without risking messing up Henry's nap. He slept from 2:30 to 6:30(four hours!!!) and I still hear him whining upstairs at almost 11pm because he's not tired enough to fall asleep. Plus, this whole time Justin was at work and won't come home until tomorrow afternoon. We did finally get a chance to go down to visit him at the hospital and eat cinnamon rolls for 15 minutes with him, so that was the only relaxing part of the day.

Is there a division for 2 and under?

Henry is an official climber. He got some climbing shoes from his Uncle Sam when he was born and recently he has been wanting to wear them all over the house. They are a size 10, but they velcro on pretty well even though Henry is just a 7 or so. This weekend we went to Ohiopyle State Park to hike, camp, and climb with our great friends Christi and Dave Romney. That place is just beautiful. We even stumbled on a kayaking competition on Saturday where the race included dropping off a large waterfall. Henry was in heaven with all the water, dogs and motorcycles everywhere. We decided to spend our Saturday climbing at a pretty nice spot where we actually met the guy who bolted the climbs. Justin and Dave did most of the climbing. I scaled a really fun crack climb that was a 5.6 in difficulty (aka: not that hard but still gave a rush). That was a blast from the past. Many of you may not know that my brother is still a professional rock climber, so when Henry began climbing all over just about everything that looked climbable, I wasn't surprised. We put his special climbing shoes with the monkey on them and he was unstoppable. He had a blast climbing all over the boulders and more difficult ledges (with mom spotting, of course). Miraculously, he didn't even get hurt in that rocky terrain. I expected him to get a bloody lip at least once on the trip! After climbing we hiked to our campsite in Bear Run where we were totally secluded (except for the distant sound of the freeway. Ugh) and we ate yummy food, roasted marshmallows, and told funny stories in the freezing night air. Henry had a tough time without taking his usual two hour nap, so we had to live with the crankster for a while, but after a pretty good night's sleep (for him) he was refreshed in the morning. We hiked out in the morning, took a nice easy walking tour up the river to look at the waterfalls and the natural water-slide and then went home.

Henry's New Pet

We have a a new pet......spider! Haha! Just in time for Halloween, eh? We are so glad that our big mama orb weaver spider has decided to join us this year. She is a large orange spider with orange and white striped legs, just the same as the ones we used to have in New Mexico, which is astounding to me since there are something like 30,000 different species of orb weaver in the USA. Anyway, so we had her for a couple days in our back sliding door, but then she vanished. On Sunday our in-laws came for dinner and my sister-in-law was cleaning up in the toy room when she screamed bloody murder, hopping and prancing out of the room, "there's the hugest, ugliest bug I've ever seen in there, eeeewwww!" haha! I ran in there and it was our girl! I was so excited to have found her, and just in time, too, because after I put her back in her corner of the door frame, she laid her eggs! We are so excited to have them there and her back where she spins her perfect web. We have the best seat in the house from the other side of the window. Henry loves it when I put a grasshopper in the web so we can watch her wrap it up and sink her fangs in it! haha! Am I grossing you out? Good! She does have some pretty big fangs. The best part of the whole scenario is that when the little spider babies hatch in the spring, they'll all float away on the breeze with their little parachutes. Isn't nature so exciting?

Poopy mornings

Henry keeps waking up at 7am, which is really early for him, because he has a huge poopy diaper. I usually go to bed around 2am, so I've been getting 5 hours of sleep and it just isn't enough for me! The worst part is that I'm so delirious when he starts to scream that I don't go in there until I hear him say "eeew", at which point I know that he's stuck his finger in his diaper and has scooped a dollop of poop out and is sitting there waiting for me to clean it off. He knows that I finally snap out my delirium when I hear "eeew". haha! So gross.

Very BIG Boy

People had been telling me recently that Henry seems really big for his age. I thought they had meant he acts older, which is does, with his long hair and all his climbing and running. He's so sure on his feet and isn't afraid of anything. This week I took him to his new pediatrician, Dr. Butler,who I adore, and he did his checkup. Henry weighs almost 30 lbs and is just under 36 inches tall which means that he's off the chart(99th percentile) for height and at the top for weight (95th percentile). His head, however is only in the 50th percentile. haha! Poor little guy. He is excelling in every area, especially verbally and physically. For a boy, he is very verbal, follows directions, and even sings a little bit. He climbs, runs, hops, jumps, goes down huge slides and is very independent. His social skills have always been advanced and children younger and especially older than him have always loved interacting with him because of his contagious personality and sweet character.

He is so eager to please and is obedient to the point that it blows my mind. One of his new things is to help me throw everything away. As soon as he finds a wrapper on the ground, even outside on the street, he wants to pick it up and put in the garbage. He's so proud of himself when he understands instructions and does what I ask him to do. Henry is also one of the friendliest kids ever. Everywhere he goes, he waves at people, especially kids, and people can't help but react with a smile and and swooning.

His expressions are getting even more extreme as he learns to talk. He is signing over 75 words and when we go into the city or a new environment, he tries to name everything, and the things he can't name, he signs. He notices everything and never holds back his joy and excitement for the world around him.

Just the other day Henry, Justin and I were doing a little yard work and Justin took Henry to the front yard for a couple minutes and when he saw me in the back yard watering the garden, he ran toward me exclaiming, "woh dad, mommy!, mommy!, mommy!"

Yesterday we went to a Pittsburgh Pirates(I know you've never heard of them) baseball game. He loved the crowd, the jumbo screen cartoons and all the clapping. After a while, he decided to go on an adventure, so we headed out to walk around. He made a bunch of friends, got some free popcorn which he fed to a seeing eye dog. He also danced with a young disabled boy in a wheelchair and they even signed to each other. As he hopped, skipped, and ran down the ramps, he would periodically stop to dance the the music. Whenever he did, a crowd would start to congregate until he decided it was time to move on.

One of Henry's favorite things to do is to go visit Justin down at the hospital and walk around outside. There are always a variety of buses, motorcycles, the trauma helicopter coming and leaving. He gets a lot of stimulation from the diversity of people walking around and all the traffic on the street.

Well, this is Henry! He is the most lovable boy around!

Block Island Bebe

I hadn't really realized it, but Henry had never been to the beach since he was an infant and incapable of truly enjoying it. I was not prepared for Henry's excitement in seeing the endless beaches covered with sand, rocks, perfect kid sized waves to play in, and the large inlet of water which, during low tide, provides a warm, super shallow water park for kids while the parents dig in the mud for yummy clams. This trip to Block Island was THE best trip we'd had up there since I started going five years ago.
What had traditionally been a very cool, overcast and rainy place was hot and sunny all week long. The usual activities of puzzles and reading one or more books was kicked to the curb as we spent most of our days at the beach. Henry and his buddies, Gabe and Nate played in huge holes in the sand dug by their fathers' all day long. Henry also loved being around all the other children and dogs playing at the beach. He made lot of new friends and some enemies as he charmed the girls and smashed the other boys' sand creations. Other kids seem to be drawn to him and are eager to know him. We ate great fresh food, our yearly lobster, home grown tomatoes from our garden, my home-made jam and bread, and other fresh veggies from the Smocks. Eating good food is always a big part of a successful vacation. Clamming was probably the most fun activity we did this year. I had always wanted to go in previous years, however we never had enough time or motivation to get the license. While the boys were clamming, Henry and I played on the beach and caught fiddler crabs. Henry isn't afraid of anything, even large crabs with huge pincers. It was also fun to see him learn the signs for everything you find at the beach. He's so eager to learn and discover new things. Henry is always so delightful to be around with his constant smiles, dancing, expressions, exclamations of discovery and bursts of energy and laughter.

Shoe Crazy

Henry loves his shoes. He screams and cries whenever I change his diaper, try to put clothes on him, or take his clothes off. He, however, loves to wear his brown sandals that his grandparents bought for him all day long. I really didn't mind much until he started figuring out how to take one shoe off with the other foot. Now, I'm stuck putting his shoe back on a hundred times per day. All I would hear is "uh-oh, shoe, shoe, shoe, shoe...etc" as he would hobble over to me with one shoe on and one shoe off and patiently wait for me to put it back on. I would watch him walk back over to the carpet, sit down, and pull his shoe back off. Ugh. I had enough! I decided I had to get him some sort of a Croc knockoff. I checked all around, but they were either all out, or didn't carry anything of the sort. During out trip to Niagara Falls this last weekend we ran across a guy selling fake crocs for $5 and I was like "this is exactly what I was looking for!" We found a pair of white, blue and green swirled ones that have an Owl on them -- cool enough for a 18 month old -- and I was totally satisfied...until we got home. I couldn't wait for Henry to be able to take his shoes off and on all by himself. It worked for about a day, then he started moaning. After a few minutes I realized that Henry has inherited my super high, but collapsed arch that gets blistered from every shoe that was ever made (except Chinatown slippers) and that the button that connects the back strap was rubbing him in that very spot. He had his first little blister! Poor little guy:( I tried to tape it, but he just pulled it off. Band-aid - no good. I ripped the blasted thing right out of it's hole and so now there's no strap holding the shoes on!...which means that the shoes fall off everywhere we go...especially the supermarket where we had to retrace out steps 3 times to find a missing shoe. I didn't worry too much about someone stealing Henry's cheap knockoff rubber owl blister causing nightmare slippers anyway. By the way, my real Crocs give me a blister too.

Tomato man

Today I did a little quiz with Henry to see what he could say-about 25 words. He is getting really close to speaking full sentences. His whining is decreasing day by day as he realizes that I respond only to talking. I still have to suggest the words I want him to say, though, instead of him deciding on his own. He's so cute with his "please" though. The other day at the park he was whining for me to take him out of the swing and I always say "all you have to do is say please" and he copies me saying "pleeeeeeease" and all the mothers at the park let out a simultaneous "aaawww so cute". Today he said his first food word! TOMATO!!! I kid you not. He said all three syllables at least three times. Justin and I were rolling on the ground laughing at how fitting that tomato be his first food word since that was his first real food (a taste of gelato in Italy doesn't count). He likes saying the "TO" part. The middle syllable also changed a couple times from "MA" to "BA", but we got the gist of it. We picked our first Heirloom tomatoes today. They weigh about 2 lbs each and are a medium pink color. Seriously yummy and completes the tomato salad we made tonight with yellow, green/yellow striped, red, and pink ones. There isn't anything better on the face of the planet.

Emerging Personality

Henry's personality is becoming more apparent day by day. I wish I could detail all of his funny facial expressions and actions, but they are so diverse and complex that I don't know where to start. Henry loves to laugh and make us laugh. His usual routine to make me laugh is by throwing things while blurting out funny sounds or trying to get me to chase him around the house.

In a book I read about raising children I learned that eye to eye contact and those "special moments" when you and your child are on the same brainwave are some of the most important moments in their development. Those moments make them feel important, understood, loved, and special...more than anything else you do. I try to have those moments all day long with him while we play and learn together.

Henry loves to dance. Haha! I laugh just thinking about his dance moves -- definitely white boy -- and he takes every opportunity he can to dance. His moves usually include swaying back and forth, knees bent, with an occasional spin and his hands in the air. If he does a spin, he stops to look at me knowing I'm impressed and we both say "woh" at the same time. Just recently he's adopted the shoulder shrug. I'm tempted to say he learned it from "Lagaan", my favorite Bollywood movie, but he hasn't seen it yet. He loves to copy me when I do it to him and he thinks it's really funny to see me doing it.

He's also a drama king. If something scares him, he'll breathe really quickly, in and out, saying "woh" over and over and over until he feels safe again. For some reason, however, when the phone rings, he puts on the same show as when he gets scared. I wonder why...? Every time his show comes on, he does his little dance and looks at me a bunch of times to see how excited I am to watch "Signing Time" for the millionth time. He then takes his post on one of the three rocking horses to watch his show. As far as he can tell, I really love it. He is now saying "play" and "please" all the time, which is nice because now his clothes don't get dirty when he signs please by rubbing his dirty hand on his chest all day.

Henry has also just learned about the garbage and I get him to throw away many things during the day to FINALLY satisfy his curiosity. Now that he understands that we only put things in the garbage, not take things out, he loves the game. Every time I tell him to put something in the garbage, I make it out to be something really special and after he successfully opens the door, slides the bucket out, throws something in there, pushes it back in and closes the door again, I whisk him up into a flying toss exclaiming, "good boy Henry!" and "yea!". He loves it. Most of the day, he gets to throw away flies that I have swatted. He also knows the word "dead" and tries his best to say it. He knows when the bugs are dead and that when they are dead, we throw them away.

Henry and I go to parks and pools all the time. Henry is very good in the water and lets us dunk him and throw him around. He goes all the way under the water and comes up choking and coughing up water, but never cries. After about a half hour, his lips turn blue and he gets the chin quiver, but the smile never leaves his face and he's always reluctant to leave the pool. On the playground Henry loves the slide the best. He's now an expert climber and loves to climb to the very top and go down the biggest and longest slide. He also enjoys interaction with other kids. Sometimes we'll meet a really nice older boy who kind of takes Henry under his wing and he loves the attention and I can tell he's learning a lot about boys and how they interact with each other. The swing is also one of his favorites. Especially when I act like he runs into me in the front and I pretend to fly back or fall over while yelling, "ouch!" or "bleh" which makes him laugh hysterically.

His hair is getting really long, but we're waiting to cut it until after Halloween when he's dressing up as an 80's punk rocker with a huge Mohawk! haha! I can't wait:)

Shhh, Show, and Shoe

Words, words, and more words. It seems like just in this past month, Henry has picked up many new words and is able to repeat what I say a lot easier. Even though he's a little bit shy to vocalize what I tell him to say, he likes to try in the comfort of his own home, tub, or in the car. Whenever I ask him to perform in front of people, he might say one word, but then gets embarrassed and pretends he doesn't hear me.

Henry has started to say "shhhhhh...." holding his finger to his mouth whenever we see someone sleeping, especially Daddy. Every time I say, "where's Dad?" he does the Ssshhh sound and searches for him in our room sleeping in our bed, which is where he very frequently is sleeping. He must really like that sshhh sound because he has started saying "show" and "shoe" all day long, but since he is used to whispering "sssshhh", he only whispers those words. I ask Henry if he wants to watch a show and he'll whisper "show, show, show". The way he pronounces "shoe" is like a combination of "ssshhh" and "eeeww" which turns into "sheewww". He surely is having fun exploring his new vocabulary!

dog and baby poo

Today was majorly hot so Henry and I decided to play in the pool and with the hose. I ended up pulling weeds on the hill while Henry dragged the hose around the yard. He eventually wanted to be where I was, so he scooted his bum down the hill in his diaper getting scratched by weeds and rocks. When I was done I had to take his wet, muddy diaper off and I thought it would be fine to let him run around naked for a minute, but then he took off, naked, toward the neighbor's house when he saw their dogs outside. They are really good dogs, so I always let him go over and play. First, Henry pet the dogs and let them lick and sniff his naked bum until one had to poo, after which Henry promptly went over and stuck his finger in it. Yuk! Seriously so gross. Then, he climbed up on their deck and onto their doormat on which he decided to take a leak. He watched the pee stream soak the mat and then looked at us and said, "Uh Oh". Yeah, we know. I brought him down from the deck, appologising as we cleaned it off. Then Henry went under their deck, squatted down and pooped on the ground! This all happened in the course of about 5 minutes. I don't think I've ever said sorry so many times in my life! I then had to get a bag from them, crawl under their deck and pick up the poo and take it back to our house to throw it away. Never again will I let Henry romp around without a diaper on.

copycat

When I was growing up, I used to make fun of kids who copied anything anyone said or did by yelling "copycat!", but when Henry copies what I do or say, I love it. Henry loves to play the funny face game and even gets random passers by to play with him. It begins with me having a conversation with a neighbor or friend while holding Hen and he will begin imitating their facial expressions which usually leads us to abandon our conversation and turn all our attention to him. He's such a clever chap. He also tries to copy things I say which is how he started saying "I love you". When he's alone, usually in the tub and we get some good one-on-one time, he'll copy me when I try to teach him new words and signs. Of course when I do, I cheer, "Yea Henry, good boy!" and clap my hands. The other morning, Henry woke up to his usual conversation with himself in the crib and I was lucky enough to be able to open the door without him noticing and watch him for a few seconds before he saw me. There he was, lying on his back doing signs and then after each one, he would cheer and clap for himself yelling "yyeeaaaaaayyyy! yesssssssss!" I'm so happy that he picked that one up from me! haha!


He's also really great at folding his arms for the prayer. Unless I have his favorite food waiting on his tray, he will sit and patiently wait until the prayer ends before running around or starting to eat. Sometimes when Justin and I kneel across from each other for our evening prayers, Henry can't decide who's lap to sit on. During the prayer, which can become long, he will switch sides quite a few times before we're done, but each time he switches he sits down and folds his arms again. What a good little guy:) One of my goals when he turns 18 months is to start teaching him to recognize Jesus Christ, even though I know he still knows him and they're good buddies.

Backyard bugs and bee stings

Henry is totally innamored with bugs. These tiny baby ants have found their way into our house to feed on anything Henry throws on the ground and even though I would usually not welcome them in, they entertain Henry to no end. He is turning into a drama king and everything for him is so exciting and he lets you know it by yelling out, smiling, dancing, and saying "woh!" He is not afraid of any bug, which I taught him, however he's also not afraid to pick up spiders and bees. He hasn't gotten a spider bite, but he's been stung a couple times, once from trying to pick one up while we were picking raspberries an hour away from home and once from a yellow jacket on the corner of his mouth out on our deck. They are constantly trying to build hives on our deck. He gets over it quickly, though, because he's a tough little guy. The other day Henry played with a tiny grasshopper for at least 5 minutes and was so gentile with it. I was impressed with how he didn't try to kill it. The next day, he found a millipede on our front steps and so he picked it up, but right away he pulled it apart, killing it. Then, we went exploring down our hill and I found this beautiful katydid and was excited to show it to Hen. He held it by it's hind legs so it wouldn't jump away, then tore it's head off! Just like that. I was so shocked! I guess he's getting more curious these days. I can't blame him because he sees me squishing the Japanese beetles attacking my raspberry plants all day long.

Which brings me to another topic of copying everything I do. Henry is really good at doing that now. He can even copy words as well as pretty much every gesture I do. He loves for me to make funny faces and move my head in funny ways so he can copy me. Just today in the tub I tried to teach him the colors red, yellow, and blue in word and in sign with his little stacking boats and he vocalized all three colors as well as signed yellow, and red. I don't think he sees how to do blue because it looks just like I'm waving with my thumb tucked in, which I'm sure looks just like waving to him. He knows over 50 signs now and learning about one per day. He says many words now and surprises me with sweet kisses and I love yous while I'm singing to him before bedtime.

Jackson Hohl in Jackson Hole

Wow, it's really tough to write "hole" not Hohl. haha! Justin, Henry and I, along with Justin's entire family went to the Jackson Hole area for 5 days after his sister's wedding in SLC. The cabin we rented was huge, ornately decorated, and completely wheelchair accessible. It sat on 40 farmed acres with perfect views of the Grand Teton mountains. We had fun adventures hiking and going to fun activities in Jackson Hole and surrounding area. Henry had a fabulous time palling around with Kaitlin and Wee-o, in fact, Wee-o is one of Henry's first words and he says it many times a day. Even though Wee-o, Henry and eventually Kaitlin got sick on the trip, we had a great time. Henry's favorite part was playing in the back yard with his cousins on the rocks and looking at all the farm animals as we drove around. Henry loves signing horse and laughs a lot as he watches me sign cow and moo. Henry's vocabulary is steadily increasing. He says some sort of version of "what's this?" when he looks at things and sometimes he says things like "this is a...horse" to name one. Just as we were leaving Salt Lake Henry started saying "I love you" it's pretty much the cutest thing you've ever heard. I have been trying to teach him I love you in sign, so I say it even more often than normal, which ends up being about a hundred times per day. When I ask him to say it, he gets a shy smirk on his face and says "I" then moves his tongue around his lips making "l" sounds and then says "you." My heart melts to hear him say it. He is the most darling boy in the world.


After the trip to Jackson Hole, Henry and I stayed behind to see our family and friends. We hung out with cousin Emily, Peter and Wil in Provo and we saved the life of a baby blue jay learning to fly from the dogs. We also spent time at Uncle Tony and Shelly's and then played with Aunt Kris, Tim and Kate. We had so much fun and ate really yummy food! Henry really loved that every place we stayed had either dogs or cats. I wish we could get a dog for Henry. He would love it, but it would destroy our house and all our travel plans.