Sleeping Away His 8-Month Birthday

Henry turned 8 months old today (December 30). It is hard to believe that so much time has passed.

Yesterday (Saturday), Henry's cold got worse. He was hoarse and then lost his voice. He would try to squeal when he was happy or cry when he wanted food, but nothing but a little air would come out. So we've had to really pay attention to his nonverbal cues. Jeff and Henry spent the afternoon watching sports (football, I suppose), while I ran errands. Despite not feeling well, Henry is still upbeat, even if a little tired. He weighed 14 lbs 7 ozs.

In the evening, we went over to my parents' house for our belated family Christmas dinner. The party included my parents, Carolyn, Chris, Erin, Brian, Uncle Jim, Jeff, Henry and me and our furry family members Indiana, Ramses, Schroeder, Marley, Roger, and Wembley (the newest member of the family). It was a full house. As several family members said, "Henry's made out like a bandit." He has new toys, books, clothes...the works. Henry again really liked the wrapping paper. It was his favorite part. Erin and Brian got him a monkey toy that makes monkey sounds that he liked a lot...and so did the dogs; they were fascinated by it. I kept close tabs on it when Henry wasn't playing with it, because I thought that Indiana (border collie) would walk off with it if given the chance.

My mom gave Henry several Baby Einstein books. She was going to get the videos, but I'm not encouraging Henry to watch television. He gets enough just by seeing snippets of Law & Order in the weekday afternoons (which he ignores) and watching weekend football games (which he appears to like). Basically, I've read some studies, which suggest that children shouldn't be watching digital media until age 7. The researchers claim that watching digital media at early ages changes people's brain wiring (and not for the better). I buy their argument and evidence. However, in this day and age, it is unrealistic to think that I'm going to be able to keep Henry away from the television until age 7. Plus, by the time he reaches kindergarten, I don't want him to have no television experience (and end up being the weird kid who doesn't know what a TV is...elementary school can be hard enough as it is). I'm shooting for minimal television viewing for the first 2-3 years though. 90% of brain development occurs in the first three years of life.

Henry ate quite a bit yesterday, which was good.

Today (Sunday), we took Henry to my parents' house in the morning. It's been a while since Henry has had a Sunday with the grandparents. Henry's still hoarse. Before we headed over there, Jeff weighed Henry at 14 lbs 11 ozs. I stayed at my parent's house during the day and got work done (course prep); Jeff went home. For Henry's 8-month birthday, he decided to sleep the day away. I was a little concerned. My mom pointed out that babies usually take naps. It's just odd to see my baby take a 2-hour plus nap, because he doesn't do it at home. Jeff came back in the early evening. We stayed until 10:20PM. Henry didn't eat much throughout the day. In fact, it's the lowest total that he'd done in a long time. I don't think he consumed even 20 ounces. He came home and is still sleeping. I'm hoping that his body is just sleepy, because it's fighting off the cold.

Our New Year's Eve plans are rather simple. Jeff has to work (yeah!). I have to take a defensive driving course online (from a ticket back in September...that is bogus); I tried taking it today, but the system wouldn't let me register even though I talked with someone about it the day before and she said it would work. So I'll do that after Jeff gets off work. Then, I think that we're headed back over to my parents in the evening to watch the last of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, which Jeff and I missed when Henry was in the NICU this summer. At some point, we need to give Mr. Henry a bath. He hasn't had a bath since Thursday when Aunt Carolyn helped give him one. And, hopefully, we'll get one of our digital cameras working, so that we can start taking more Henry photos again.