Christmas Day 2018

The kids both loved Christmas Day, enjoying time with their cousins more than the presents. Even after his nap, Henry wasn't really interested in getting into his gifts. Emma enjoyed playing with hers new toys for a while but I'm pretty certain she enjoyed playing in her cousins' backyard more.

 

Fun with daddy.
 

Cuties.

 

I'm not sure why she made the face in the picture on the left but it kind of cracks me up. It's not an expression I've really seen on her before and it makes her look like a kid crazy excited about Christmas.

 

  

The girls certainly like sitting with Papa. The picture of Henry seemingly going "ooo" over a piece of tissue paper cracks me up. After Henry's nap and gift-opening (he was too cranky to stay awake for gift-opening when the rest of us were doing it so he napped and then we opened his when he woke up), we headed over to Becca's house. Henry and Emma super loved the swing set in Becca's backyard. Henry was interested in his new cousin Jacob and wanted to hold him.

      
These faces are priceless. Henry enjoyed being pushed by his sister best.

     

Here's Henry entranced by Sophie. He said "dog" (the "g" is almost silent when he says it, so it's more like "doh") at least a dozen times.

 

Jelly Belly Factory Tour on Christmas Eve 2018

Landon is a good entertainer and loves babies. Henry loved him too.

 

They had some fun Christmas decorations, their usual Jelly Belly art and some scent machines.

   

  

Since we went before Christmas, they had their Santa photo set-up. Emma was kind of excited but didn't want to be too close to Santa (as usual) and Henry just seemed a bit confused like "wait. Who is this guy?" Charlotte was disappointed that Henry took her seat on Santa's lap and became more upset by the second. The photo set-up really was pretty impressive and their Santa is so nice.

 

Star Wars jelly bean art.

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.)