Thankful: Day 26 [Litte man is 21 months!]

It's the 26th, which means Henry is officially 21 months.  He will not be 22 months before he becomes a big brother. SO WEIRD.  I am so thankful for our sweet little baby and the 21 months we have gotten to be his parents.

This was taken today at the park. :)

Ignore the burnt orange.

We are sad it didn't get cold soon enough for Henry to wear this hand me down letter jacket more.  It's too small now.

Apologies for the ugly clothing he has on.

Taken a couple of weeks ago at the park.  He loves to hang from these rings.

I'll do my best to write a somewhat brief account of what he's up to these days.  But let's be honest, it probably won't be brief.  Those of you who are not great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, or uncles can feel free to skim and/or skip the rest of this post.  Although I can't possibly understand who wouldn't want to obsess over my child. JK.

Talking.  He talks so much, and is starting more and more to put words and phrases together.  He needs an interpreter (me or Matt) for about 50% of his words, but I definitely see some improvement in a lot of pronunciations, so that's good.

I think the funniest word he says is "cold."  He says, "duuuuuuke."  No one except mommy and daddy know that he is saying "cold."

Another popular phase is "hop duum" which means "hop down" which actually means "stand up from the chair you are sitting in and follow me to wherever I want to go."  He got "hop down" because whenever we sit on the couch and he wants off, I ask him if he wants to hop down.

He can also recall activities from the day.  For instance, after he and Matt got home from the basketball game the other night, I asked him if he had fun at the game, and he started telling me everything he saw there... "Band, slam dunk, Mary!!" ("Mary" is his aunt, and she dances on the drill team for her high school - so Henry calls all dancers "Mary.")  If they go to the park, he tells me about the slide and the swing.  I find it amazing that kids this age can already remember so much.

He mimics me... I realize how much I use the filler, "Ummm."   It's almost embarrassing because I'll be in a situation when I am about to say it, and he will say right before I was about to say it.

He also recognizes certain parking lots and places we frequent, so when we pull into the Taco Deli parking lot on Saturday mornings he says, "TACOS!"  He knows a lot of our familiar places.  When we leave the Starbucks drive through, he says "Eat!"  (This is because sometimes when I get coffee, I will get him a pumpkin loaf or something for us to share.)

Playing.  He loves to jump. Today we took him to an indoor trampoline park (for lack of a better description), and he LOVED it.  The kid was so excited.  He jumps pretty well on solid ground now, but also likes to jump off of furniture (dangerous) and off of curbs, etc.  And of course, he loves jumping on his bed.

He still loves his toys, which I am thankful for - they could easily feel like a waste of money AND space, but he actually will sit and play with them.  He also loves any and every kind of ball, blocks, toy animals and even stuffed animals.  In fact, he shows A LOT of affection towards his stuffed animals - hugs and kisses them a lot.

Matt's ipad has proven to be the problem toy - aka the toy he is most addicted to, and the one we have to actually hide from him.  However, I will say that the ipad is to credit for teaching Henry almost all of his colors and shapes.  They have tons of educational apps for all ages.  We are cheap, so we get the free ones.  Since he has colors and shapes (mostly) down, we are going to start working on letters.

Henry is also obsessed with books - so much so that Matt and I are ready for him to have some new ones... I'm pretty sure we have all of them memorized at this point. (The other night Matt was reading goodnight moon, but obviously slipped into autopilot when he said, "And there were two little mittens and a pair of kittens."  In case you don't have the book memorized, it reads, "...two little kittens and a pair of mittens.")  So yes, Henry will be getting new books for Christmas this year.

Eating.  Henry has a sweet tooth.  The two of us together all day makes for a very dangerous pair.  He loves his sugary condiments - jelly, ketchup, honey, brown sugar, etc.  The upside to this is that he also loves fruit.  And also, we can use some of the sugar to get him to eat healthy stuff (like I sneak veggies into quick breads and spaghetti sauce, etc.)

I would love for him to eat more vegetables, but for now I spend a decent amount of time figuring out how to sneak them into his food.  The best we've accomplished is getting him to eat a TON of spinach hidden beneath layers of cheese and sauce on a pizza.  I have also cooked and pureed mushrooms to add to pizza and quesadillas which has been successful.  Baby food veggies have also been added into soups and sauces.  It's the best I can do.  I would also love for him to eat more beans, nuts, etc.  We'll work on it.  He's skeptical of new foods, so it's difficult to get him to try new stuff.

Ever since I watched Food, Inc. I've been pretty picky about what kind of meat he gets to eat, but that's been easy since Matt and I are eating the good stuff too.  I am proud to say that he has only eaten at Chick-Fil-A ONE time since I watched that movie.  I really did not want him to, but we were going with a group of friends, and I'd rather eat Chick-Fil-A every now and then than be a psycho and sacrifice the community aspect of food.

He's also very independent when he eats.  Sometimes he won't eat if he's in a highchair because he just wants to sit like a big boy... or he wants to feed himself something that is so messy that we know will end up all over his hair and the floor.  This can sometimes be a problem in public - we are still trying to figure out which battles to pick with him.

Sleeping.  Still a great sleeper.  We are at about 11.5 hours a night (much better than this summer when he was sleeping like 10 a night) plus a 1hr, 45 min nap each day.  Doing great on the big boy bed - he's only woken up on the floor a handful of times. :)


I know I am leaving stuff out, but that's to be expected.  Once again, so thankful for this little man and the smiles, laughter, and joy he brings us every single day.