What We’ve Learned: Month 14
Only writing these “What We’ve Learned” posts once a month has gotten me out of my rhythm a bit, so this may take a bit to get into.
This has been a month of illness, of trips, of walking, of talking. It’s been a month of bad nights (those 4 wake-up nights still happen on occasion), of great days, and of cold weather.
But, as every month with Henry, it’s been pretty wonderful.
So, what have we learned about Henry these past 31 days?
We learned that his vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds. The old stand-bys of “mama” and “dada” have been joined by “all done” and “cheese” and “kitties” and “CeeCee” and “kisses” and “arms up” (for when we take off his shirt) and “yeah” and “uh-oh” (which really isn’t a word, per se, but is awfully cute when he says it) and “car” and more that I can’t remember off the top of my head. He doesn’t always get it right when he’s talking — for example, he’ll say “all done!” as he proudly shoves some more food into his mouth — and he has to work on the enunciation (“cheese” sounds a bit like “cheesh”), but I’m okay with it. Henry’s voice is hard to describe. Of course it’s high, but it’s also pretty forceful. When he wants something or wants to say something (a real word or just gibberish), you can hear it well across the room (or the condo). I’ve been tempted to try and and get him to say something obnoxious so we can tape it and send it to America’s Funniest Home Videos (which, amazingly, is still on and is still wonderful), but so far I’ve held back.
We learned that Henry has yet to turn down any food offered to him. The boy is a Hoover. A HOOVER! Put some beans on a plate, and Henry starts to go at. He’s not a fast eater — he’s deliberate. He enjoys shoving a large amount of food in his mouth and then chewing for a minute or so. And to signal that he’s done eating, he’ll merely pull all the food that’s still in his mouth out and hand it to you. It’s quite lovely. And disgusting. But mostly lovely.
We learned that since Henry is now fully mobile (ie, walking) he has started to sneak up on you. He’ll be playing in the family room, engrossed in something with wheels, and you’ll be in the kitchen readying his dinner or a snack or doing dishes, and suddenly, you’ll turn around, and he’ll be just… standing there. Smiling. Holding a car. I like this. I like watching him walk around, squatting down to pick something up, and then walking some more. I like that he can run after the cats or waddle over and grab his cup to have a drink.
We learned that every time Henry goes on a trip, the week after he returns is hell on his sleep schedule. This means, of course, no more nights away from home until he 12.
We learned that Henry knows all his routines. What I mean is, when it’s time for his nap, and we approach with a SleepSack in hand, he holds his arms out. When we come up to him with a jacket or a hoodie, the same thing. When it’s bath time, we’ll tell him “arms up” and he sticks his arms straight in the air for easy shirt removal. So helpful. (Did you click on that SleepSack link? I wish they had those in grown-up sizes. It looks so nice and toasty and comfortable. And Henry loves them.)
We learned that if something has a wheel, Henry loves it. Toy trucks. Toy cars. Real trucks or cars. Doesn’t matter. Loves the wheel.
We learned that all of a sudden, Henry loves books. He’s always liked it when we read to him, but now, he’s started to grab his favorites and walk over to us and sit down in our lap, ready for story time. (That’s wonderful, I must say.) Other times, he’ll just grab books off his bookshelf and plop down and “read” them, turning the pages and yammering away. So what if the books upside down? It’s cute, darn it!
We learned that Henry can take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’. Today at the zoo, while walking in the monkey house, Henry fell flat on his face, biting the inside of his mouth (and drawing blood!) and getting a fat lip. He cried and howled, but only for about 10 seconds and then he saw some monkey doing a silly thing with his tail and completely forgot about his injuries. I suspect most kids are like this, but these things just roll off his back.
And we learned that after 14 months, it’s difficult for me to remember a time without Henry in our lives. I mean, I remember when we went out to dinner and to movies and had this thing called “disposable income”, but Henry has completely overwhelmed us, emotionally, physically, and, yes, monetarily, that I can’t comprehend what life would be without him. And that’s a good thing.
