17-month-old Henry

My boy is changing and learning a lot these days. He has been more often trying to repeat words, sometimes when we're reading books or pointing something out to him. I can no longer keep track of the words he can say because he's saying new ones every day. Hearing him speak is amazing and I absolutely love it. He mainly communicates what he wants with "eh!"s and pointing with his hand but uses a word when he can.

Henry still tends to be a very messy boy but has started to enjoy cleaning things up and putting toys away/together which is adorable. He gets such a cute expression of sweet pride on his face after he's picked up everything that was scattered and put them together.

He is a very silly boy and still insists on being in the middle of any affection happening - if I'm holding his sister or she's sitting on my lap he has to join but wants to be in the middle or closer to me than she is. He's a momma's boy and prefers to be held by me and likes to be held fairly often if I am up doing something, especially when I'm in the kitchen (and it's inconvenient), providing me with good arm-strengthening exercise.

As has been the case for most of his life, he loves his sister and likes to hang out with her or follow her. He does branch out to do his own thing fairly often but he's definitely interested in what his sister does, too. Emma loves being a big sister and I'm often impressed with how well she handles his attentions that are not always the gentlest. She seriously loves her brother, although she struggles with the normal tendency to not always want to share toys but usually agrees to share.

 

On the topic of sharing, Henry has started to develop the desire to share at times. A couple times recently, after he has taken a toy that was near his sister and she cries because she wanted it, he'll pause and look at her and hand it back (which warms this mother's heart). And he has started to share food at times - actually sharing and not just handing back something he thinks is gross.

In the way of teeth, Henry has had all 4 molars for a month or two now. Next will be his canines which don't seem to be all that close to coming which is fine by me. I love his sweet grin. We're more positive now that he's got a fused tooth (fused teeth?) on the bottom front which had been his very first tooth. So with his 4 front top, 3 front bottom, and 4 molars he really has quite an adorable grin.

Henry's pretty well fitting into 18M clothes, although the pants are a bit long and wide but most 12M pants are short on him. At his 15-month check-up a couple months back he was doing great overall, and right about the middle percentiles for size.

He is certainly very different from a year ago, and even from six months ago. Though he's still my sweet Henry boy.

(This picture is 2 months old but too cute not to share.)

Cute kids

About a month ago (around September 14th) Henry became a proficient walker and continues to get better and better. I can't get over how cute it is to watch him toddling around. It's especially cute to watch him follow his sister around.

The two of them have quite a bit of fun together and I absolutely love to see them make one another laugh. Sometimes when one of them gets upset, I can't get them to feel better but the other one can. This morning Emma came downstairs and hid her face in a pillow on the couch to "hide". She hadn't said anything and was being quiet and to herself. I put Henry next to her on the couch and he was thrilled to see her (he'd been awake for about half an hour which is fairly typical). He crawled right over to her and leaned against her - back-to-back. After a moment she tried to bump him away so instead he turned to face her and gave her a big hug around her back. She started to laugh and try to wiggle him off. They both laughed and it was total cuteness.

The moments they spend laughing or sharing with one another are highlights of my days. They have their hard sibling moments - one accidentally hurts the other or one wants what the other is playing with and doesn't want to share. So far they don't have too many hard moments with each other and I love seeing their relationship deepen and expand as they get older.

One other thing they do together that I love is putting their foreheads together which doesn't happen frequently but maybe every couple days. And sometimes they'll do it multiple times in a row.

It's lovely to see the affection Emma will sometimes show with Henry, like the forehead touches, since she generally doesn't like much physical contact. I'm sure the two of them were friends before they joined our family, and I don't doubt Henry was excited to follow his sister to Earth.

Henry's birthday

We were very glad to have family visiting us for Henry's and my birthday weekend. My boy is one!

Some of the cutest kids I know.

He got a cool new toy from his cousins.
I'm not sure why he made this face.

Thankful for my mom making Henry's cake while I was sick with a cold.

He was a big fan.

Emma cracks me up - these are the photos I got when I asked her to stand by her brother for a picture with him on his birthday... after she had been invited to go have a cupcake but before she was given one. She was VERY excited for cupcakes.

His sister helped open presents.

Henry, Emma and their cousins all enjoyed Henry's gift from Ama and Papa; a water table is very fun.

Yum. Lol.

Papa is a great baby catcher.

We're pretty cute if I may say so myself. Thanks for taking the pictures, sister!

Henry BOY

My baby is turning into a daredevil (aka a toddler boy). In the past week he has learned how to climb onto 2 of our couches and likes to attempt climbing and lunging off the back or side (I have been there to prevent him, so far). And he knows how to get down by going feet first, so that's good when he remembers to do that. In the past few days he has also had a tendency to want to stand up in his high chair seat, and yesterday managed to climb out of it in under a minute even having been buckled with the tray on.

He's crazy. But still oh-so-cute.

11-month-old Henry

Henry is coming up on the year mark quickly, it seems. He continues to crawl faster although with some practice he might be able to start walking soon. We're not too anxious for that, though, and he doesn't seem eager to try yet. The past month or so he has been improving his skills with standing and can stand for brief moments on his own, so he has pretty good muscle and balance.

In recent weeks he added some sounds to his vocabulary - "gum", "gub", "bub". He also enjoys mimicking sounds his sister makes. They do "ah! AH!" screams/sounds back and forth and it's pretty cute until it gets really loud.

He just started growing in his upper lateral incisors. He has 3 teeth on the bottom although we suspect his first tooth may be a fused one(/two) since it's fairly wide but we'll see with time. We got some dentist-family-member opinions and one thinks it's fused and the other thinks it isn't. Ha. So by his first birthday he'll have at least 7 teeth in.

Henry is developing into a funny little boy who certainly loves to laugh with others. He has been sleeping about as long as his sister at night (11-12 hours) for the past few weeks (most nights) and that has been a huge blessing allowing my brain to be able to function normally again.

He loves to share what we're eating although he hasn't liked everything he tries. Things he does like he will pick up and eat in a flash when he wants to. Emma loves sharing small pieces of food with him and it's adorable seeing her generous heart in action. Her generosity doesn't often extend to the toys she plays with but she does okay sharing toys sometimes. And she'll get toys for him when he's upset if I ask her to.

We certainly love our two little ones and are so glad to have them in our home. It is often challenging and tiring but they are beautiful little people and I feel so lucky to have them.

Hopefully I'll get pictures of them posted soon.

Milestones

On Saturday Bry and I celebrated our 6-year anniversary by doing sealings at the temple and then lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in Bellevue that was delicious.
Sunday was Bry's first Father's Day with 2 kids, as well as his first with a son.
Today Henry reaches 10 months old and today also marks 10 years since Bry entered the MTC.

So many good things. More of an update on Henry is to come. I will say he's a busy boy and he continues to be my happy little guy (except when teething is causing him pain).

Mother's Day 2018

I'm grateful for the little ones in my home that I get to call mine. They sure are cute and I learn so much from being their mom. 

First Mother's Day with my boy.

Ha. This is what Emma does when we ask her to get her hair out of her face so we can see her.
(Sometimes she wears hair clips.)

Standing boy

The closest we got to a perfect shot. Here's their faces!

Photo fail. 

Tickles from daddy are great.

Love that side look. 

Love for daddy.