One to Go!

Oh, where have the last 11 months gone?  I am so thankful that I was careful to take a picture of Henry on each of his "month" birthdays so I can hopefully go back and figure it out.

There have been so many changes this past month.  More dance moves. Lots of standing on his own--dozens of times a day and for increasing amounts of time. An ever increasing appetite and rarely a food he doesn't devour. Kisses and hugs to not only people, but also every stuffed animal he encounters (or pictures of babies). "So Big" and "Peek-a-Boo" are daily activities around here.  He also started clapping days after turning 11 months!  And best of all?  The habit of SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT has returned!

Turns out Henry was probably freezing to death every night and waking up to let us know about it.  When his mom FINALLY figured out the correlation between fleece footed pajamas and sleeping through the night, things have been smooth sailing.  Duh. Duh. Duh.  Now, if only I can go back to sleeping all night....

I love that Henry's personality is starting to really make an appearance.  He says "dada" with gusto, especially when Jason returns from a long day at work.  He also says "mama" (mostly when he is tired and whiny).  Other than those, he still says "ball" quite a bit and I believe he has added "more" at mealtime.  He has also become more insistent on getting into his sister's things--particularly the things she happens to be playing with at the time.  This has caused the beginning of some sibling spats.  Amelia is starting to show less patience with her brother.  What was once funny is no longer.  But fortunately, most of the time they are still giggling at each other's antics and getting into mischief together. 

Henry has found himself up the stairs and into my room (without my knowing) a few times too many for my liking.  I will go into the kitchen for what cannot be more than 45 seconds only to return to the playroom and be unable to locate Henry.  I will hear a happy squeal and the sound of extremely fast crawling up above coming from the master bedroom.  We have to be VERY careful about making sure the gate is up.  I have been setting the gate about three stairs up so that he can still get some practice in going up and down the stairs without too much of a risk of falling.

Henry thoroughly enjoyed his first Thanksgiving.  He not only ate two huge Thanksgiving meals that day, but ate leftovers for nearly a week afterward.  Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, broccoli cheese casserole, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie (both traditional and no-bake varieties), he loved it ALL!  He is not unlike a human garbage disposal.

Henry really enjoys watching the cars go by our house and the highlight of the day is when the trash truck comes around.  He even makes the vrooom, vroooom sounds when he moves his cars around. Actually, he is pretty keen on anything at all with wheels--so much so that I started to get a little concerned that maybe it was a borderline obsession and brought it up to my Parents As Teachers Educator. Turns out, it's normal!

 

And so, the one year birthday party date has been set and the planning is in full swing.  Thank goodness that I have so much on my plate between Christmas and his first birthday that I don't have too much time to be sad that my "baby" is almost one already!