Syrup Head

On Saturday morning, Henry took the dogs for a walk. It took some effort getting out the door. Henry lodged a protest by flopping on the floor. He wanted to look at pics instead. Yet, his cruel parents said "no."

Carolyn had spent the night. The four of us went to The Garland for breakfast. As usual, we had their little courtyard all to ourselves. Henry enjoyed pancakes. Carolyn was impressed by Henry's chipmunk impression. It is stunning how much pancake Henry can stuff in his mouth at one time. Henry decided to rub his syrupy hands through is hair. He was intrigued by how the hair stuck to them. It gave him a unique hair style...very modern.

Henry managed to climb onto one of the picnic tables in the courtyard all by himself. Jeff was close behind in case there were any missteps.








Henry had a lot of fun. He was adorable as always.



Henry fell asleep on the way to Oro Valley, so we decided to skip the park and head straight to my parents' house to drop off Carolyn. Then, we went back home. Henry and I took a long nap. Jeff fed him lunch when he arose. He let him watch part of the Cardinals game while being fed. Jeff taught him how to raise his arms to cheer and say the word "Cardinals."

We played hockey in the backyard in the afternoon and then went on our afternoon walk in the red wagon. As we waved to Swanee and Hal who were standing in front of their house with Annie and Luke, their dogs, three large deer came bounding through their front yard. Their dogs took of to chase the deer. I managed to grab Marley and Roger before they took off. It was amazing to see deer this time of year. Swanee took pictures of Henry in his wagon b/c he was looking super cute. I explained his hairdo. Swanee pointed out that a lot of celebrities pay lots of money for that look.

Carolyn came over for dinner and to stay the night. Henry seemed to fade particularly fast once it hit 8PM. That unfortunately meant that we didn't get a chance to give him a bath. That's definitely on tomorrow's agenda.

The Word of the Day is..."No!"

On Friday, Henry and I spent the day together while Jeff worked.

Henry surprised me on New Year’s Day when we had the following exchange…

KATE: Henry, do you want me to put you in time out?

HENRY: No.

I repeated that question Friday morning and got a similar response. I also asked him a follow up question…

KATE: OK then. Would you like to make an attempt at listening to your mother on occasion?

HENRY: No.

Jeff and I suspect that Henry’s spoken vocabulary is somewhere between 80-90 words. Those are words that he isn’t just repeating but which he also understands the meaning. Despite his large vocabulary, “no” hasn’t been a part of that vocabulary. I suspect the fact that I almost never use the word with him might in part have something to do with that. “No” is a first word or at least in the top five for most kids.

In the morning, I took him to Toys R Us. I got him a toddler camera because of his love of “pics.” He hugged the camera box as we walked through the store. We then went to Trader Joe’s. As we walked past some ginger cookies with a tiger on the package, Henry made growling sounds that were very cute. He wasn’t quite asleep as we got near the house so I drove up the street a little ways and he crashed.

In the afternoon, we had a visit from Shirley, his PT. Henry showed her his new skills. Not only walking backwards but doing it on command without being shown what to do, arms circles, going down his slide, diving into the ball pit, etc. She thinks that he is amazing. No disagreement here.

We went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in the evening to watch the Wildcats get beaten by Cal and have some dinner. Henry ate taco meat and beans, fed by Grandpa.

Later in the evening, Henry and I had the following exchange…

KATE: Henry, are you allowed to climb on the glass table?

HENRY: No. [Shaking his head as he slid his tummy onto the glass].

No question that he knows what the word “no” means. It was definitely the word of the day.

Henry the Tree Hugger

We got a late start to the New Year. Henry and I slept in until 9AM. We eventually made our way out the door and had brunch at the Paradise Cafe (not to be confused with Cafe Paraiso). My parents joined us at the playground at Harelson Elementary after brunch. We watched Henry play on the equipment and kick some soccer balls around. He did an excellent job dribbling the soccer ball. I was impressed. He went down the slides without us needing to hold his hands. One person stood at the top with him, sent him down by himself, while another person waited at the bottom. At one point, Henry decided to give a tree a hug.

We went home, and Henry took a nap. It was "Casual Thursday" around the house as evidenced by Henry's picture on the left. We listened to music and looked at pics of course.

Later in the afternoon, Henry visited Grandma and Grandpa and helped them sweep up leaves. He likes spending time in their yard. Grandma and Henry had different ideas of cleaning up. Grandma spent time trying to put leaves in a pile, while Henry thought it best to spread them around. Jeff and I went to the movies with Carolyn, Erin, and Jill; we saw "Slumdog Millionaire" (very interesting film).

We had dinner at my parents. Henry had some pizza. He showed Aunt Carolyn how he could spin around, and around, and around. He also showed off his backwards walk. At one point, he used a DVD player as a step off to make an attempt at climbing onto the glass shelf on which the flat screen TV sits. I asked him if he wanted to go into time out to which he responded "no." That's the first time I'd heard him use the word "no" (although he's shaken his head before). I also didn't know that he really understood what time out was. Guess the other day when I put him in time out twice within 10 minutes something must have sunk in.

We came home around 9:30PM. I took Henry to bed, but he wanted his Dada. He's asleep across Jeff's chest now. Tomorrow, Jeff is working. I'll be taking care of the Doodle Bug. I want to take him somewhere, but I haven't figured out what we'll be doing yet. It has to be relatively crowd-free. Outdoor activities are preferable. We'll probably go to the Desert Museum or to the zoo.

Happy New Year 2009!!!

Henry and Jeff spent New Year's Eve day together, while I worked. Jeff put together Henry's Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa...a red wagon! They played outside a good part of the day. Jeff reported happily that Henry was swinging his golf club quite well at times and got in some great hits. They also did a lot of reading. Jeff said that it has been a strange adjustment having Henry go from being very daddy-centric to being mommy-centric. Henry would cry if I passed by and he couldn't come with me. I'm actually not convinced that it's me that he really wants. I'm convinced that he sees me as a conduit to his beloved "pics" and "mic."

We went on a walk with the dogs in the early evening. Henry road in his red wagon, which worked out well. In our neighborhood, especially on our street, the norm is to have dogs off leash. In cold weather, Roger becomes "Off Road Rog" and decides to go deaf and ignore our commands, meaning that we end up calling out his name every few minutes in an attempt to keep him in check. Henry is now helping us in our efforts to call for the dogs. If he can't see them, he shouts "Mar-Dee!" and "Podgie!" (Podge is our nick-name for Roger).

Henry went over to the grandparents' house for dinner, while Jeff and I tried out a new Thai place and saw "Valkyrie" (which exceeded our expectations). When we returned to my parents' house, Jeff was the first to enter the family room. I was 10 steps behind him and heard an "Oh my!" as he entered the room, which was a disaster. Henry had an active evening. He ate a lot too: 2 servings of spaghetti, yogurt, turkey, pea crisps. He learned the word "noodle." Grandma reported that his enunciation was excellent. He was wide awake but ready to come home with us. He saw us, turned to the Grandparents, and said "Bye!"

2008 has been an eventful year. Looking back at our blog entries, it is amazing how far Henry has come. His physical abilities have flourished throughout the year. He has amazed his therapists on many occasions. In spring, we were seeing a PT and OT once a week. Today, he only sees the PT every other week (for monitoring more than anything else) and the OT every three months (which reminds me, we need to make an appointment). He graduated from the NICU developmental follow-up clinic in November. Dr. Thai said that she had absolutely no advice to give; he looked great. Dr. Bianchi, his pediatrician, has said on a couple occasions that if he hadn't read the file, he wouldn't believe that Henry was a preemie and had such a rough start.

Over the last couple months, Henry's verbal abilities have taken off. I assumed (incorrectly) that he'd be a late talker...between being a boy and being a preemie, I figured it was a given. But Henry has surprised me. We stopped diligently tracking words at 15 months adjusted, but I'm guessing that he knows somewhere between 80-90 words. Grandma has taught him the word "Normandy" for when they are looking at pictures of my trip with my mom to France in 2006. Carolyn was teaching him the word "Aunt." Jeff taught him the word "patootie" today (because knowing the word "butt" just isn't enough). He is starting to put objects and verbs together (e.g., "Bye Bye, doggie"). In addition to the seven body parts he knew at 15 months adjusted, we can add at least 5 more to the list. In addition to the six animal sounds he would make if you asked "What sound does the _____ make?" at 15 months adjusted, we can add tiger, bird, snake, goat, and horse to that list. He has more than "caught up" to his adjusted age (16.5 months); he exceeds expectations on many skills.

Henry has learned how to use language to persuade. His "pease, pease, pease, pics" accompanied by sign language and pleading eyes just melts my heart "almost" every time. He is working on his acting skills for when he doesn't get what he wants. His floor flops look a tad staged at the moment, but I suspect that he'll work on them to improve their authenticity in the near future.

Henry's comprehension exceeds his verbal abilities by far. He understands a lot of commands (not that he always or often follows them). He is a bit selective when it comes to commands. He has a knack for walking in the opposite direction that we want him too. Planning to attempt some reverse psychology this year...but I suspect he'll figure it out.

Amidst all of these physical, cognitive, and verbal changes, Henry's core has remained the same. He has remained a very sweet, delightful, and determined boy. We look forward to what 2009 will bring.

Happpy New Year!!!

Nee-uck Ise

On Sunday evening, Jeff and I had planned to go out to dinner and a movie with Carolyn. Things started off as planned. We had a lovely dinner at Saffron. At the end of dinner as we were gathering our things up to head to the movie theater, we got a call from my parents. They had received a call from one of Carolyn's neighbors. There was water streaming out the front door of her old house, which my parents still own. We ended up meeting them at Carolyn's old house. There was an inch of water in every room of the house. Everyone's shoes and pant cuffs were soaked. Henry was mad that we wouldn't put him down to play in the water. He went from person to person trying to get down, and when his holder didn't acquiesce, he'd call out for someone else to hold him...and the process would begin again. Jeff and I decided to call it a night while my parents and Carolyn waited for the restoration crew.

On Monday, I took care of the Doodle Bug in the morning but then dropped him off at my parents' house. He spent some quality time with Aunt Carolyn, who was swayed by his pleading eyes and dramatic "pease...pics." She said that she couldn't say no, so they looked at lots of pictures on the computer together. Carolyn reported that Henry was using the word "me" to refer to himself. He's been doing that for a couple weeks now, but I usually have to prompt him. I was pleased that he is doing it without prompting.









In the evening, we went for our walk. We stopped by Dakota and Outlaw's corral. Janice was in the corral cleaning up. She has been trying to get Henry to say "Janice is my favorite neighbor." Henry almost said her name.

At dinner, Henry wasn't that interested in the food, although he did have some of my onion soup, which he rejected a couple weeks ago. He decided to throw spaghetti on top of Roger's head. Roger didn't seem to mind. Henry also held out his hands for the dogs to lick them. I wasn't thrilled with that (after all, they eat horse poop off the road when we aren't looking) and told Henry to stop as it was "nasty." I guess I'd never used the word before and Henry found it hilarious. So he repeated the word "nasty" about 20 times. After dinner, Henry played on his slide and watched the Wildcats play Weber St. Henry learned Nic Wise's name (guard) and repeatedly said Nee-uck Ise throughout the game.

Henry turned 20 months actual on Tuesday. In the morning, Henry played on his slide and with the dogs. He was in a mischievous mood. He spent time with Carolyn again and gave her a good run for her money. In the evening, we went to Swenson's with my parents. Henry liked the french fries and even had some hamburger. I left before dessert as I had decided to rejoin WW to get rid of my post-baby fat.

Henry and I slept in this morning until 9AM. Jeff is off-work today, so he's on Henry Patrol.

The Experiment

On Saturday, it was very cold. Frost was all over the cacti when we woke up in the morning. Jeff bundled up Henry well for the morning dog walk. Henry even wore a hat...a Yoda hat that Jamie made him. So cute!

In the morning, my mom picked up Henry and dropped off Carolyn, Aunt Carol, and Uncle Joe. Jeff and I went with them to the Kitt Peak National Observatory, which is about an hour's drive SW of Tucson. It resides at 7,000 feet. Very cold but very interesting.









While we were at Kitt Peak, Henry helped Grandpa around the yard at the grandparents' house. Another freezing night was expected, so outdoor plants had to be covered. Grandpa reported that Henry followed commands and picked up rocks upon request.

The big "oops" of the evening was the discovery that we haven't had the gas tank refilled for a couple months. When we arrived home yesterday, I thought I smelled a trace of gas, but Jeff didn't smell anything. Then it hit him. We had been checking every two months, but our last check suggested things were A-OK. That was before we turned on the heat. Current status: No heat and no hot water during the coldest point of the year. We have a few fire logs from last season and a couple space heaters. We'll have to call on Monday to make sure that we get a gas delivery (usually on Tuesdays).

We had a quiet evening at home with the Doodle Bug. Jeff wanted to try an experiment. Henry doesn't eat as well for us as he does Grandpa. Jeff's explanation: the TV is almost always on at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Jeff carted the booster seat out to the living room. Turned on some football. Result: Henry ate a half tub of peas and several hummus crackers for Jeff.

I decided to try the TV experiment this morning. There was no football on yet, so I flipped on "Varsity Blues." Henry, however, wanted the real thing. He was, however, briefly entertained by the Dog Whisperer and ate a whole tub of orange medley with rice cereal, a whole sausage patty, and a whole hash brown patty. There might be something to this whole eat in front of the TV and zone out explanation. But is it a good thing or a bad thing?

We played around the living room in the morning. He did a nice kick with his Elmo ball at one point.









Jeff was wondering last night whether we have over Boyified him with Boy Toys. He has balls of every shape and size (soccer, basketball, football, golf). Jeff wondered if we should be getting him a doll or something. He understands the concept of the baby doll. Dr. Tsai used one during his last and final developmental clinic visit in November. Henry clearly identified "the baby." It has been much easier getting him sports toys than other toys in part because we had been working on motor skills initially. He has Backyardigan "action" figures. Because we don't watch TV (except sports...ugh), we've never seen the show. So I call the figures Pete the Penguin and Sam the Snail. He plays with them in the bath tub. He's gotten the idea of imaginative play for well over a month. Pete and Sam "walk" on the edge of the tub and do high dives off the side. That's sort of doll-like. Now that he is getting older and will be doing more imaginative play, we'll work on getting him less stereotypical boy toys.

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.

The Night Before Christmas

On Tuesday, Jeff worked while I took care of the Doodle Bug. It was a cloudy day. It had rained during the night and the outside was a mess. Henry was irked that we didn't get to go outside in the mud. We played. I took him into the bedroom for his nap around 10:30AM. He didn't settle down until 11:30AM. I took a nap with him. We didn't wake up until 3PM. It was nice. Grandma was waiting for us in the living room when we arose. She took Henry back to her place for a couple hours.

Jeff and I got the house ready for Christmas Eve. Jeff did an outstanding job on the lights. He also went to the grocery store. I worked on chores around the house.

Jeff picked up Henry in the evening, while I did some last minute shopping. Henry was still up when I got back at 10:30PM. Jeff was giving him a bath in our tub. Henry didn't go down easy.



This morning, Henry and Jeff went for a walk with the dogs. Henry gave Jeff a hard time with breakfast. I managed to get a little bit into him by doing a crazy dance in-between bites. Henry liked the dance and gave me applause for my efforts. Jeff made cookies, while Henry and I spent a long time outside. We spread bird seed around the backyard and fur-minated the dogs. Grandpa picked up Henry in the afternoon so that Jeff and I finishing straightening up the house before Christmas Eve dinner. Jeff made lasagna, which everyone said was fantastic. It had meat in it, so I passed. We had a lovely dinner with Erin (E-gew), Brian (Baggie), and the grandparents. Henry seemed quite taken with Baggie, but Baggie seemed unwilling to part with his much coveted set of car keys. Erin commented on how our house had changed quite a bit over the past two years. Our beautiful teak bar has been pushed against a wall, and the liquor bottles have been replaced with toys. Carolyn's (Caro) plane was late leaving Washington, so she missed her flight to Tucson. She was going to take a shuttle from Phoenix, which meant that she missed the dinner completely. But we'll hopefully she her tomorrow.

Jeff and Henry are sleeping now. I'm off to wake up Santa Jeff to see if he wants to set up the Playland or wait until morning.

Approved!

On Sunday morning, I received a call from Lora from "A Place To Call Home." She said that we are one of the couples that they are inviting to take their foster-adoption course. This is one of the major steps to getting approved to take care of foster children and/or adopt. We will be starting classes twice a week in the evenings Monday and Wednesday from 6-9PM on January 5. This is the class where we meet with our assigned case worker. We are excited about the prospect, but we also still trying to figure out how this would work in reality. Henry is a lot to handle as is. We are both in agreement that it would be much easier if only one of us worked and the other took care of the home (but which one, and how could we afford it?). My mom asked how we'd handle it. I said, "With the help of wonderful grandparents, I suppose." ;)

Henry took his nap a little later than usual. Jeff took Henry over to the grandparents' house around 3:30PM. Then, we went over there for dinner. Came back home. Snuggled with the Doodle Bug for awhile before getting up to do some work.

On Monday, Jeff took a vacation day and played with Henry in the morning and early afternoon. Then, Henry went over to the grandparents' house. They fed him dinner and then met up with us at the Tucson Zoo for the Zoo Lights extravaganza. The zoo was covered with Christmas lights, which Henry enjoyed. His favorite part was running around a large grassy area where other kids were running around. He said hello to two young gals (about 9), who liked him. He enjoyed dancing to Christmas music. When we came back, Henry was wide awake and wanted to look at "pics" and listen to "mic"..."peas." When he says please, I have a hard time saying no. Well, even when he doesn't say please, I guess also have a hard time saying no. I think that Henry's pegged me as the weakest link on the "no" front. Jeff doesn't disagree.