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.