What We’ve Learned: Christmas Edition
Henry is very quick to tell us what he likes and doesn’t like. He likes something, we’ll see windmill arms, flailing legs, and a smile as large as his head. Frowns, pouts, or the you-know-I-don’t-like-this-so-why-are-we-doing-it face means he’s not enjoying himself.
It used to be we could lay him down on his back — whether in his crib or on the floor or on his play mat — and he’d have the time of his life as we handed him toys and stuffed animals and let him grab at anything in sight. Now, however, there aren’t as many smiles when he’s on his back, because he’s discovered something better: sitting up.
Okay, he’s not sitting up by himself yet (Kristen or I have to help him with that), but he loves this new way of looking at things. His head whips around from left to right and back again, as he tries to take in everything that he possibly can. And you can just look at him, look at his face, and see that his mind is processing all these new things and all the old things, just at a different angle.
Our friends Katia and Steve, whose nearly two-year-old daughter Zoe has grown out of this contraption, gave us something we like to call the excersaucer (it’s actually called a Discover and Play Activity Center, but that sounds so sterile). Henry “stands” in the middle (not really standing, but supported by a large diaper-like object) and twirls around playing with various thingamabobs. Well, he doesn’t really play with them yet. He mostly just stares. And stares. And then smiles. And then looks all around. And smiles again. And stares.
We’re trying, whenever possible, to have Henry sitting in our laps or sitting on his changing table or propped up on the couch. Just by him doing this — sitting up with our help — it seems as if he’s matured so much, so quickly.
Really great stuff.
So what else have we learned this week?
We learned that Henry has ended his 4-month-long relationship with the ceiling fan. No longer is “she” the apple of his eye. Luckily for all involved there weren’t any prolonged arguments between the two, no he-said/she-said confrontations. They just grew apart. He says he’ll always love her. I believe him, too.
We learned that Henry, if the angle is right, can urinate on his own head. Already an accomplished pee-er on Mommy and Daddy, he took it to the next level the other evening when, while getting his diaper changed, decided that he couldn’t wait and let it go… right onto his once-smiling face. I say once smiling because he, although Kristen and I got quite the laugh out of it (while quickly cleaning him up, of course), had a mini-meltdown as soon as splash-down ocurred. Can you blame him?
We learned that the entire Internet is on sale. With the economy the way it’s been going (ie, the pits), every store and website is cutting their prices and having sales galore. This is good for a few reasons. First, although baby clothes, compared to their adult counterparts, are pretty inexpensive, Henry is growing so fast that we have to continually upgrade his sizes. He’s now wearing the 6 to 9-month sizes, which means those 3 to 6′s we have piles of are pretty much useless, which means we have to buy more clothes. So we hop on one website or the other, order pants and shirts and, voila, a few days later Henry is able to wear things that actually fit him. Another reason Internet sales are good is because we don’t actually have to leave the house to buy things. With the weather being horrible for the past few weeks (snow, sleet, cold, super cold, oh-my-goodness-I’m-about-to-die cold), we can do this all from the comfort of our own home. Finally, it’s good because we love to get packages delivered to the house. Who doesn’t like to get packages?
We learned that Henry is a good judge of Santas. A couple of weeks ago, we all bundled up and headed off to a local mall to get a photo of our child with the worst-looking Santa on the face of the planet. First off, he weighed about 130 pounds, which is just not right. Second, he had unusually large hands, which dwarfed Henry. And last, I didn’t hear a single ho-ho-ho from him the whole time we were there. Needless to say, after about 20 seconds of general unhappiness while sitting on his lap, Henry let out a wail that stopped everyone in their tracks. Next year, we’re going to do a little more research before heading out for his picture session.
And we learned that this is, by far, the best Christmas ever. Better than the time I got that great Lego car set and better than the time Kristen got her first Cabbage Patch Kid. Even though general exhaustion has meant that there is no tree or decorations and that for various reasons we’re unable to be with any family, Kristen, Henry, and I couldn’t be happier, and we wish all of our family, friends, and fan the best wishes this holiday.
December 27th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Henry is a doll! Glad your Christmas was good.