Super Strong

Henry has been keeping us busy. I spent Thursday morning with him. At some point during the day, Henry started blowing raspberries again. We hadn't seen that trick in awhile. It is kind of interesting because our friend Jenny and Jon have a little girl named Izzy who was a full-term baby and is just short of a month older than Henry's adjusted age. On Izzy's blog about a month ago, Jenny had mentioned that Izzy had started razzing again (after that skill had disappeared for awhile). It's interesting because we'll read about Izzy doing a skill. Then sure enough about a month later, Henry does it too.

My mom came over in the late morning. When mom arrived, I was working with Henry on banging blocks together. Henry would bang the blocks and then my mom and I would clap and say "Yay!!!" Henry figured out that we'd do this every time he would make noise with the blocks. After awhile, my mom says, "Now Henry, your mom and I can't cheer every time you do it." I said, "Speak for yourself!" I continued to clap until Henry got bored and was ready for something else to do.

Grammy stayed until about 1:30PM, when my sister Carolyn arrived to spend some quality time with her nephew. Carolyn was in town for her spring break. I unfortunately had to go to school for some extra office hours as my research methods/statistics undergraduates had an assignment due today. They put off doing the homework as usual and were in panic mode. I missed a lot, but I'll try to recap what Jeff said happened. Apparently, my son rough housed with Aunt Carolyn. He pulled her hair (he loves doing that) and did a lot of kicking. She has long blond hair. I should have warned her to pull it back. I later talked to Carolyn; she mentioned that Henry was rather strong. He is.

Carolyn got to witness an exciting physical therapy appointment with Dorsett. Dorsett banged two plastic blocks together, and Henry imitated her. He did a little bit of toy banging at the appointment before, but this session just confirmed that Henry can imitate. She said block banging imitation is an 8 month old skill. It is a skill that not only demonstrates fine motor capacity, but also cognitive engagement. One has to observe and process things cognitively in order to then imitate a behavior. The second big thing that Henry did was go from being on his tummy to being in a sitting position. He did it once by himself. Then, she put him on his tummy a second time. He tried to do it again, but needed a little bit of help the second time. Big stuff! I can't believe that I missed it for extra office hours for students who put things off at the last minute. Argh.

In the late afternoon/early evening, I was still at school. Henry hadn't slept much. Jeff was sure that he was ready to crash. Took longer than he thought. He ended up feeding Henry who fell asleep in his high chair. Jeff sent me an email of the picture. A nice reminder of home while I was working. Isn't Henry super cute? He did wake up eventually. We ended up giving him a bath. He loves the water.

This morning (Friday), Henry had his synagis appointment. The nurse weighed Henry at 17 lbs 4 ozs. I said that it was great that he's gaining weight, but that also means he'll need two synagis shots, not one. The nurse said, "Well, we'll see." Henry played around on the tissue paper in the office. He tried to unplug some dangling cords nearby, while we waited. The nurse came back a few minutes later and said, "I guess that mom is right." Synagis is already a pretty big shot. We definitely were not excited that he needed two shots of it (one in each thigh). After she was done, I held him and he quieted down. We had hoped that this would be his last round of synagis shots. But it appears that RSV season is most likely going to extend into April, which means that Henry has to get the shots next month as well.

Jeff took today off of work. Veronica had called the night before, ready to start back. But most adults are contagious with flu for 5-7 days. So, we told her that we'd start back up on Monday. I headed to school for additional office hours. I came back mid-afternoon. Tara arrived around 3PM. Henry was a bit fussy with her. Don't know what was up with that. When Henry was sitting on the floor, he started to lean backward. He used his right arm to the side of his body to catch himself. I actually caught him before he needed to catch himself, but I was so pleased that his reflex is really kicking. in. When Tara was leaving, we waved to her and said "Bye Bye!" I moved Henry's arm to wave. As she was ready to head out the door, she said goodbye and Henry flapped his arm at her by himself.

Henry had a new food today: Carrots. He liked them. He didn't make the usual "What the heck is this?" face when I put the spoon to his mouth. He usually gives us an odd expression when trying something new. We think that the camera capturing his first bite was rather distracting for him. He does so love the camera!


We had a pleasant walk in the evening. There's not a whole lot else to report. Henry crashed relatively early this evening. His milk intake has been low today. I won't be surprised if he gets up in the middle of the name because he's hungry.