Henry Turns 2 Years Adjusted!

Today was Henry's 2nd year due date day. Two years ago, he was still in the hospital. He was recovering from his eye laser procedure, which he had done in both eyes the previous evening to prevent potential retinal detachment from ROP Stage III. He was to have bilateral hernia repair two days later. He came home 5 days after his due date, having stayed in the NICU 109 days.

At 2 years adjusted, Henry is a very energetic child. He loves to climb and "fall down." Ever since he learned ring-around-the-rosie, everything is about "falling down." This month, his new skill is singing. I suspect that it has something to do with singing at his daycare. He surprised us the other day by almost making it through his ABCs. He kind of rushes through H through P but the general intonation sounded about right. Yesterday morning, he was singing the "Harold the Helicopter" song from Thomas & Friends from his Story Reader. This evening, he made it through a verse of "Five Little Monkeys" by himself. Henry is a very sweet child and loves to give "huggies." He is a bit of a daredevil and has an uncanny ability to block out my voice when I'm telling him to do something that he doesn't want to do. Recently, he's developed a habit for taking toys away from others (usually Miss R) so that the former possessor of the toy has to chase him. He loves to play "chase."

If I could only describe Henry in five words, those words would be: loving, energetic, loquacious, smart, and delightful. My sixth word would be: beautiful.

I asked Jeff to describe Henry in five words. He said: talkative, affectionate, cute, busy, and smart. Jeff also added a sixth word: fun.


Here is a picture of Henry from two years ago. He weighted about 4 lbs 13 ozs.








And here's a video of Henry doing a speed version of "Five Little Monkeys" with a bottle in his mouth. Jeff thinks that Henry's going to be on the speech and debate team in high school.

NOTE: Henry is saying: "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped his head, mama called the doctor and the doctor said, 'No more monkeys jumping on the bed!'"

My mom picked up Henry at school today. His teacher commented on how much he loves listening to stories. She said that he concentrates during story time and doesn't move a muscle. He sat through six books today. That's our boy!

Miss R had a bio family visitation today. The driver didn't think that the parents came, but her siblings were there. She's now meeting her bio family at a later time on Tuesdays b/c her siblings have school. So CPS picks her up at daycare, she will be having visits from 4-6PM, and then the driving service will drop her back at our house.

Our original plan was to go over to my parents' house for swimming as soon as Miss R arrived home. But she looked very tired, so Jeff went to my parents', and I stayed home with Miss R. She and I had dinner. Someone from CPS must have bought her a McDonald's kids meal. It was french fries and chicken nuggets. She enjoyed painting her tray with the BBQ sauce. She ate a good part of her meal. Then, we sat on the couch and laughed. She had a second wind after dinner and was in a good mood.

Meanwhile, at my parents' house, my dad was recovering from spinal surgery so he took it easy. My mom and Jeff took Henry swimming. My mom sat with Henry in the loveseat in the deep end. Apparently, Henry really wanted Grammy to take him to the steps in the shallow end. After badgering, she acquiesced. When she put him on the top step, he said "Finally!"

Jeff said that he and Henry sang "Five Little Monkeys" in the car on the way home. Henry was singing it when he came into the house. We played in the living room for a few minutes before brushing our teeth and heading to bed. I was in charge of putting the kids to bed tonight. It took me about 20-25 minutes. Jeff hadn't eaten yet, so he was starving. When he popped his head into the room, Henry was kicking his legs up and down and Miss R was on her knees hopping. I don't think that they found my rendition of "Good Night Sweetheart" very soothing. They eventually crashed. Currently, Henry is sprawled in the center of the bed, arms out. Miss R is laying upside down, which she did last night as well. Last night, Jeff decided to sleep in the kids' room until Henry cried for him around 3AM. That's about when I made my way to bed, having stayed up to work on a book manuscript due on the 15th.

That's all for now. Signing off...