December California Vacation (post #1)

We have been back for a couple weeks now but it took me a while to go through all the pictures I took. The four of us had a beautiful trip to California for Christmas and New Year's. Emma still asks regularly when we'll be able to go back to Ama and Papa's house, and I'm sad we don't have an answer to that at this point. But hopefully not too far in the future.

While we were there, Emma and Henry had a blast (literally) running around with cousins and playing. Usually outside. Emma also enjoyed following around Papa every minute of the day she could.

Henry enjoyed going for the remotes at least once a day. On the Sunday before Christmas we made graham cracker houses - Emma's first time doing so. She was more interested in eating the candy while watching the others make their houses. She did suggest gummy bears on the roof of her house so that's what we did.

  

One day when the kids heard on the baby monitor Henry wake up crying from his nap, they wanted to run up and see him. He seemed confused by the unexpected audience and just looked at me like "mom. Get me out of here."
 

  

Henry seems in awe of his sister's strength. Did I mention my kids had way too much fun just running circles outside? It was like magic.
     

Some of the expressions kids make just crack me up.
  

We drove up to Oakland to look at the temple lights, or lights on the temple grounds anyway. It was weird to see the temple as dark as it was since it's still under renovations.

   

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!