At Long Last, Henry Meets Jamie and Steve

We had a lovely breakfast with Jamie and Steve this morning at Tohono Chul Park tea room. Steve is my colleague from the U, who started at the same time I did. We have shared the ups and downs in our first years of teaching and trying to maintain active research schedules in our quest for tenure. Jamie and Steve have been very supportive over the last year. Jamie is the one who made those precious little hats for Henry that got so much use when we did skin-to-skin with him when he was in the NICU. When Henry got bigger at the beginning of winter, she made him another knit cap that we used on our walks. Although it is hot and Henry is too big for the knit hats, the hats still serve as a reminder of where Henry was and where he is now. Right before Veronica left for Texas, Jeff pulled out the hats to show Veronica just how tiny Henry was.

We ate in the back courtyard. Henry was pretty calm throughout the meal. He was given a kids menu with crayons. Steve said, "I bet those will go into his mouth." About 15 seconds later, Henry tried to put a crayon in his mouth. Guess we aren't quite ready for crayons yet. Henry tried Jeff's French toast. He also had some scone, fresh fruit, and a few black beans. It took him forever to swallow the French toast. It was the everlasting gobstopper of the meal.

Henry was much quieter than when we took him to Blue Willow Wednesday night. At Blue Willow, he chatted at all of the couples around us. Luckily, they thought he was cute. He was making all sorts of long sentences of syllables. Perhaps Karina is inspiring his speech patterns. She is very chatty. Today, the only time that he really got fussy was when Jeff put him down and he started to crawl under my chair. I picked him up because I'm still a bit concerned over germs. Henry was not happy with me and then turned to his Dad for a second opinion.

We walked around the garden. Henry touched the tree trunks, which he likes to do. Henry likes textures. He tried on Jamie's hat. And when Steve said "Baby Power!", Henry put his arms in the air. Very cute.

After breakfast, we took Henry to my parents' house, which is probably about a mile (or less) from the restaurant. He was tired and fell asleep in the car. I got him to his crib, which is in my old room (now considered "Henry's room"). Apparently, he slept for about an hour, which is a nice long morning nap for him. He usually doesn't sleep that long in the mornings (at least not for anyone other than Veronica).

My mom is of the opinion that I'm going to lose the walking bet. I came to that conclusion about a week ago. Grammy doesn't think that his balance is quite there yet. He has tons of strength and well-developed leg muscles, but I agree that his balance is lacking. I actually think that he can do it but lacks the confidence at this point. Besides, he is awesome at crawling, which hardly increases the incentive for learning to walk sooner than later. He has been pulling himself to a stand almost as long as he has been able to crawl, but clearly if he wants to get from point A to point B, crawling is the quickest way there. That said, when Henry decides that he wants to learn a task, he picks up on skills incredibly fast. So it wouldn't surprise me if he wakes up one morning and just decides to do it. He has been doing a lot of squats lately; he will release with both hands to sit down and control the speed with which he sits. Tonight, he was in a squat position and wasn't touching the cabinet as he began to stand up and then he grabbed a handle for support once he was standing. Long story short, I think I'll lose the bet, but I do think that he'll be walking before he is 12 months adjusted.

After his nap, Grammy said that he tore the house apart. I think that my parents use their weekday work loads to rest up for their Henry weekend visits. Henry got so dirty that Grammy gave him a bath in the afternoon. He got his feet dirty again after that. After Jeff and I came back, we all went for a swim. Then, we had dinner. After dinner, he had a bottle and put his feet on the table (see picture to left). Henry gave all of the signs of sleep (a little moody, and the two fisted eye rub), but he didn't fall asleep on the way home (at least not deeply). He crawled all over the house until just a couple of minutes ago. He is currently with Jeff, dozing off.