Christmas and the Day After

On Christmas Eve/Christmas morning, I switched places on Henry snuggling duty with Jeff a little after 1:30AM. I had cleaned up the kitchen from our Christmas Eve celebration and knew that Jeff would want to set up Henry's present before Henry got up in the morning. I gather that it took Jeff longer than expected. I don't think that he slept at all.

Henry arose some time after 7AM, called for Dada, and then headed out of the bedroom to look for "pics." He was a little annoyed at being called into the living room when he had his heart set on pics. But in the end, he was quite satisfied with his big gift: The Ball Pit and Slide!




We had a nice breakfast of French toast (or Freedom toast depending on how you feel about France) in the morning. Henry had three pieces of French toast minus the crusts. It's amazing how much he can cram in his mouth when he's hungry and likes what's in front of him. Afterward, we opened some gifts.



We went to my parents' house for Christmas dinner. Aunt Gloria (my dad's sister) and Uncle Joe and Aunt Carol (Joe is my mom's brother) came out from D.C. Uncle Jim also came for dinner. Carolyn arrived from Pullman, WA. Erin (E-gew) and Brian (Baggie or dude) were also there, along with their pups Winston and Wembly. It was a full house.

This morning (Friday), I was hoping that we'd get a chance to sleep in, but Henry got up around 7:30AM, his usual wake up time. We still had some present to unwrap that we didn't get to the day before. In fact, Henry is still only half-way through his stocking. I'm tempted to switch to a Hanukkah gift schedule next year.



At one point, Henry grabbed the camera from me and started shooting photographs. Here are a few of Henry the Photographer's first photos, which Jeff calls "A Henry's Eye View of the World"...


We went over to my parents' house this evening to spend some time with them, Uncle Joe, and Aunt Carol. Henry had a good time with Uncle Joe who read the story about Maisey the cow with him. Incidentally, Jeff and I learned tonight that Henry can identify "geese" and "donkey" from pictures.



Carolyn commented on how tall Henry is. When she left for Pullman at the end of the summer, he wasn't walking yet. And now he's walkin' and talkin'.

I'm still stunned at his vocabulary. He picks up things quickly. His enunciation is great, especially for a 16 month old. He started fussing near his toy bucket at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I told him that he needed to say "please" in order to get some assistance from Uncle Joe. He said "peas," Uncle Joe helped him, and then I asked Henry to say "thank you," which he did (in words and sign). He has been doing a lot of backwards walking the past couple weeks. Today, he also jumped off the ground partially (one foots got it, the other one is working on it). This evening, he was doing arms circles. Every day, he does something new.