Henry Happenings

Well, our little H-Factor is nearly 18 months. Time has flown with this kid--when Jack was a baby, things seemed to go so slowly. Now with 3 kids (one of whom is a very busy 5 year-old) it feels like blink and Henry ages another month.

Let's get a few basics out of the way first. He weighs 25 lbs. That's somewhere between the 25th and 50th percentile, which my kids do not hit on the weight catagory between 6 months and 3 years. The other 2 have been in the 2nd percentile at this age...they didn't hit 25 lbs until well after 2 years. Henry is a pretty tall kid...I'm not sure how tall at this point (his 15 month check up was, like, 1.5 months ago!), but it was somewhere between the 75th and 90th percentile. You know, I could have told you when Jack was 16.5 months exactly what he'd weighed at each check up for his entire life, as well as his height and head circumference...Now, I'm lucky if I can find my car keys to take them to the doctor...I'm sure if I ever have another, that kid will be lucky to be taken to the doctor for check ups at all!

But this is supposed to be about Henry, not about my plummeting mental capacities!

He likes to play games. Like, the old "pull everything out of the bathroom drawers and drop it into the seat", or "climb us the slide and wave around the lightsaber", or "put sister's purse on the head and smile big". He's lots of fun.

So, in the last 2 weeks Henry has started WALKING! Hallelujah!!! He took his first steps back in February (around Valentine's), but didn't do much more until very recently. I look forward to not having to carry him everywhere--he's heavy! I do mourn the fact (a little) that my baby is not a baby anymore.

He's not only walking, but he's talking as well. He started trying to sing "Happy Birthday" at 15 months (we have a lot of March birthdays, so he got a ton of practice). It sounds like "Ah-bee-ay-oooo" but it's to the tune of "Happy Birthday" and he tries to sing it right along with us! We haven't worked on signing quite as much with our little H, but he does sign "more", "water", "milk", "banana", "eat" (he signs that A LOT), "bath" (probably his 2nd favorite sign), "dog", "cat", "cheese" (ok, he also really likes that sign), "book", "hat" (any time he sees someone wearing a hat he begs to have it on), and "fish". There are probably more he signs...but he's pretty proficient with the old "Point and Me" method. Yes, he actually says, "MEEE!" quite emphatically. His other verbalizations are "Whee" (which he says when he is swinging or wants to be swinging), "Mommy", "Daddy", "cheese", "please", "book", "ball", "Jack", "Leah" (like, Alex and Leah from Signing Time, his FAVORITE show that he tries to sing the theme song to and begs to watch all the time), and "hat". He also can spout of what sound like a string of profanity when he's not getting what he wants. I try very hard not to laugh, I'll be honest.

Henry is a climber. These days he can often be found on the kitchen table, scrounging for leftover; in the front window, standing on the computer; and on a chair at the pantry, again scrounging for food.

I do feed the kid, I really do...but then he's always asking for more food. He usually eats more than Sheridan does, and often out-eats Jack. It's like having a miniature teenager in the house!

Henry is a happy, happy kid. He has HUGE dimples and lights up the room with his smile. He dances if there's music (last month at church, they were learning a song about prophets that he couldn't HELP but groove to. The kids thought his little booty-wiggle was hilarious).

He's at such a fun developmental stage. We love our Henry-Boy!