What We’ve Learned: Week 40
A short break from Ladies Week for our regularly scheduled “What We’ve Learned.”
As we’ve mentioned several times before, Henry is a terrific mimic. Stick out your tongue and out goes Henry’s . Say “dada-dada-dada-dada-dada” and he’ll reply with a “de-duh” (which is close enough to get a big hug from me). Click your tongue and he’ll click back. And, lately, he’s started to wave goodbye, which usually involves his hand outstretched and a nice twist of the shoulder.
Needless to say, I like this quite a bit. Again, just as Henry likely doesn’t know what “dada” means or why sticking out your tongue is such a fun thing, he probably thinks that waving is just another silly thing to do, but to Kristen and I, this is just another huge step in him going from being a baby to being a toddler.
(An aside: doesn’t he look like a toddler now? Sure, he’s not toddling yet, but he no longer looks like an infant or a baby. To me, babies are delicate little things, and Henry is certainly not that any more.)
We’ve been trying to have him mimic crawling as well. Kristen or I will kneel next to him and move our knees and hands forward, and this, of course, does nothing but crack him up. He keeps on getting closer, but just hasn’t gotten the hang of it yet.
Other things we hope he’ll learn through watching us:
1) Loading and unloading the dishwasher.
2) Folding laundry.
3) Taking out the cat litter.
4) Making me a waffle in the morning.
A man can hope, right?
So other than noting Henry’s keen observational skills, what have we learned this week?
We learned that our child hates — HATES — bubblies. Kristen bought this small bubble machine at Target last week and brough it home thinking that it would be a fun way to play with Henry. Uh… no. Henry instead screamed when the dozens of small bubbles floated around his head and broke on his naked arm. Thinking that maybe he was just a little sleepy and surely if he was well-rested he’d enjoy the bubbles more, we tried again a few days later. No go, with more screams. Now Henry never screams. Never. So we put the bubble toy away and will bring it out again in a few months. Not to be deterred, however, Kristen made some bubbles for his tub last Friday (a bit of a celebration to kick off the weekend), and even those — that floated on the water and not through the aid — made him very, very unhappy. (So unhappy that the bath had to be aborted mid soaping.) I suppose this just means it will be a while before we subject him an episode of The Lawrence Welk Show.
We learned that two more of Henry’s teeth are coming in, this time on the top, and the drooling has returned again in earnest. Always a fan of gnawing on anything within reach, he’s taken it to the next level. Unfortunately for Kristen and I, sometimes the thing he’s gnawing is one of us. And let me tell you — the bottom two teeth of his hurt like the dickens when he starts chomping. I’ve been thinking of fitting him with a mouth guard for protection.
We learned that all of the new and exciting solid foods we’re trying to introduce into Henry’s diet has gone over like the Titanic. We’ve given him small pieces of cheese and watermelon and these baby fruit puffs, but each time they get to his mouth, there is a near automatic sour-puss face and the food is spit out. So back we go to baby food and yogurt, which he eats quite happily.
And we learned that Henry’s hair, which was non-existant for a while, is now coming in strong and, in something of a surprise, with a bit of a curl in the back. Both Kristen and I have straight, lifeless hair, but Henry’s in wispy and fine and with a bit of a swirl. If, as it grows longer, the curls stay, he may never get a hair cut.
May 29th, 2009 at 6:14 am
In the second photo, it looks as though he has a mohawk. I like where this is going.
May 29th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Please don’t let his hair get too long. My nephew has never had a cut that I know of, he’s 3.5 and it’s braided down his back. Not a good look for a child.