Falling Perpetually Behind Is a Good Thing

Here it is, December.  Really?  I think it is supposed to be in the 60's outside today.   I feel like I am running perpetually behind, but there is a price to pay for actually having EVERYTHING together, in its place, and caught up.  The price is that we would miss valuable time with Henry.  Seeing him grow, change, learn new words, and have new experiences daily.  I think that is a hefty to price to pay, and I wouldn't trade it for the world!  So, that is our excuse for falling so far behind on our blogs, we were actually having the real Henry experience instead of memorializing it.  I guess that is what Facebook is for anyways.  Our apologies for bombarding it with Henry moments.  I guess that is for us just as much as anyone else.

H-man enjoying first ice cream cone

So, where are we?  Our last blog recounted summer adventures.  Now I guess, we have returned to work, ho-hum.  The seasons have changed, and we have a thriving, healthy toddler on our hands who can boss us around. 

Henry is almost 19 month old.  There have been some obvious changes from 16 to 19 months.  Heny has started saying longer utterances.  He now strings 4-5 words together pretty consistently.  He has a pretty expansive vocabulary.  His /f/ sound has developed, so "fish" is no longer "pish."  He can run faster, get some air on his jumps, follow directions, joke around, repeat missing lines and words to nursery rhymes, stories, and songs.  However, it is hard to break these milestones and changes down into months.  It seems like his development and changes are nuanced.  It isn't like it was when he was learning the big milestones (yeah, he can roll over today, and he couldn't yesterday).  His growth, development, and learning is sequential now, all building upon prior knowledge and skills.  He is expanding now.  Each day he is slightly more cognizant, and it is difficult to parse apart exactly what is different from the previous day, but you know there are differences. 



He likes to act out play schemes:  Lone Ranger and Tonto getting the Bandits, Crying baby needs its diaper changed, Feed the animals in the barn

Hickory Nut Gap Farm Fall Festiveness

He likes to play with trains, tractors, cowboys, horses, Indians, rakes, balls.

He likes to organize and rearrange things.  Right now, we have the house decorated for Christmas, and he likes to get the nutcrackers down by asking for them one by one (Cake man nutcrackee, Davy Crockett nutcrackee, Winemaker nutcrakee, Pirate nutcrakee, etc.).  He then likes to line them up, carry them from room to room and line them up some more, and he also likes to know what each one says.  He says "What that one say?" We then talk to him and say things that are fitting for each of the nutcrackers.

He has been sick a couple times this fall

He is getting better at feeding himself.  He still isn't very efficient, but those fine motor skills are really coming along.  He makes it to his mouth probably 80% of the time.  He has also really expanded what he will eat.  For a while, he was surviving off of mac and cheese, cottage cheese, and anything cheese with veggies mixed in and fruit.  He will now eat a couple different kinds of soup like tomato and lentil.  He will eat peas, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, turkey and peanut butter sandwiches, different rice mixtures, chicken nuggets, and some other things thrown in.  He has eaten hot dog, and pesto pizza among other food items. 





He likes to go to the park and see "other children"  as he likes to say.

He really likes ice cream. He has graduated to getting his own kiddie cone instead of sharing mommy and daddy's.


He can make better strokes with crayons.  He is also really into stickers right now.  We had Highlights Calendar with holiday stickers, and we had to go through the whole year and put each sticker on.

I can't leave him home with Daddy- or this is what happens...

He has quiet the sense of humor.  He knows lots of nursery rhymes and songs and at one point would fill in the missing words (Jack and Jill, Hickory Dickory, Georgie Porgie, Old King Cole, Hush Little Baby, Twinkle Twinkle,  ABCs etc.).  Now, however, he fills it in with whatever random word comes to his mind and thinks it is soooo funny.  Did you know that Jack fell down and broke his rainboots and Jill came tumbling daddy?  Or Georgie Porgie pudding and Santa?  He really gets a kick out of this.  He also likes to rhyme words:  dock, sock, bock, mock.  And, sometimes what comes out doesn't sound too nice. 
He likes to "hide" and also look for other things and pretend he doesn't see it.  He will say: "Is it under there? No!"
It is really cute, he also replaces any word that ends with -"er" with "ie."  So, cracker becomes crackie.  Also, he is using the pronoun "you" for "I" and "me."  So, if he wants us to sit beside him, instead of "sit beside me," he is saying  "sit beside you."  Too cute!





His favorite books at the moment include Bernstain Bears, The Lone Ranger, The Gingerbread Man, Sammy the Seal, Richard Scary's Best Book, and Tacky the Penguin.  He can also basically request any book that he wants to read by name, now.

He is still nursing.  I was trying the gentle weaning approach for awhile, "don't offer, don't refuse."  However, he still asked for it pretty frequently.  I had to eventually just draw some lines and say we are only doing nunu when we wake up and before bed.  This has worked, and in the last few days we have cut it down to only before bed.  He still asked for it for a while, but he pretty much knows now.  He will ask for it and say "Nunu time? No. Aftee jomjoms."  HE is a smark cookie, so he catches on quickly.   The goal is to have him completely weaned by the new year.  He still wakes up once a night most nights and wants his nunu.






In other news:

I fulfilled a bucketlist item.  I saw Janet Jackson back in September!



Sam ran a 5K in October.  He was 4th out of 7 for his age group and 26th out of 200.

We checked out Chic-Fil-A for Halloween.  The Muppets were there, too.
 

 

We went to JingleFest downtown, and Henry got to meet Santa.  He sat on his lap...that is more than we expected! He really liked the bouncy house, too.  He is really into bouncing, especially on the bed.


We took a trip to Atlanta with my family to see the Braves play.  It got rained out.  We also went to Coca Cola World.

We went on a hike to Triple Falls.  Henry still talks about hiking to the waterfall.
















We also checked out the Nature Center.  Henry thought the otters were pretty cool!  Henry enjoyed playing in the barn, too!


Other big news, we are building a house! In Haywood County...  The process is going a little more slowly than we had hoped, but we are finally  (hopefully) going to close on our loan in January.  Initial grading has begun at the site, and we have bought our appliances, so it is all becoming a reality.  We hope to be in our new home in late summer.  Here is the link to our house plan: http://www.schumacherhomes.com/house-plans/car/new-haven/.  Ours will look a little different.  We are putting a big covered porch on the front. 











 Here is the land where the house will be:

Dear Henry,

Well buddy, these past months, I've been having a blast with you.  I've introduced you to the world of playing with cowboys and bandits, inspired by the book "The Lone Ranger," and as you know, I really like playing cowboys.  You've introduced me to the world of a sore back by getting so big.  Yet, I have a lot of fun seeing you laugh when we "jump on the bed."  We play this by me lifting you up over my head while you are on the bed.  Over and over and over.  You are much better at playing with toys now.  Just today you were rolling the cars, then saying the cars got stuck in a cactus patch, and you would rescue them by taking the cement truck and smashing them out of the patch.  I think this was inspired by a Cars book with Lightening and Tow Mater (Matey as you call him).  You will like to ride of the elliptical while I move it.  You've started playing on the keyboards a little.  We still go outside in the evenings when it's warm enough, most of the time until dark.  We started digging for treasure in the "jungle" which consists of a bunch of bushes and a lot of fallen leaves.  I bury a couple toys in piles of leaves and you find them and we shout "Treasure!"  Yesterday,  you helped me pick up sticks for the burn pile.  You like to ride on my "shouldies" (shoulders) and we run around the yard.  You like to go look at the mannequin in the yard next door.  You like me to push you around the yard in the wheelbarrow.  We also kick a ball around the yard a lot.  I think you might be a soccer player.  You and I go to Lowe's every now and then.  You like to look at the forklifts.  Yesterday we went and you liked looking at the inflatable Santa and other yard decorations for Christmas.  When ever you go to Gammy and Papaw's house, you love to play with the nativity over there, and you like reading Christmas books here.  You like reading a lot of books.  I usually read to you at night before bedtime.  It used to put you to sleep, but lately it's been getting you more awake.   If I try to turn the light off, you say "Light on!  'Nother one!"   Sometimes I'll be reading to you while you're in my lap, your eyes will be closed, you're mostly asleep, and you say "'Nother one!" 

Daddy finding more than a dusting of snow in his beard...

That's about all for know.  I love you so much, buddy.

Love,
Dad

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