The Little Things

Henry is already pretty much on a set schedule he goes to sleep every night around 8 pm. Then I wake him up around midnight or 1 am and change his diaper and then give him a bottle and put him back to bed. And then he stays asleep till around 6 am.

He’s still only four months old, put there are so many little things he does that make having him around special. For instance, I’m too heavy a sleeper to have heard it first hand, but Carol claims that when he wakes up in the morning he doesn’t cry, he just talks to himself for about a half an hour and then he cries. When I say talk, I mean he makes noises that are somewhat close to speech. Everyone calls it babbling, but Henry really seems to think we should understand him. He holds conversations. He’ll wait for you to stop talking before he starts and he’ll be quiet if you start to answer him. Sometimes I think I hear similar sequences of sounds. I think maybe he’s created his own language. My kid’s a genius!

He smiles whenever he sees me. So then I touch his foot or his nose and I sing him a line of two of whatever song is in my head and he seems so happy. I feel like we already have a bond. It’s a strange thing. I used to sort of dread having to take care of him for most of the day on Saturday when Carol goes to work. But now it’s no problem because I feel like I know what I’m doing. 

Sometimes he starts screaming at his daycare and I work just down the hall so I’ll go down to the room and they’ll hand him to me and instantly he stops crying. I think he knows if he screams long enough he’ll get to see his dad.

He really is smart. Sometimes we can give him his bottle and he’ll hold it and feed himself for a couple of minutes. And we let him play with this flexible plastic spoon and he’s seems to be starting to understand how to use it. And he’s is so darn close to rolling over on his own, but so far he’s only done it if I give him a little helpful push. He’s also playing on his stomach for longer and longer stretches. When I think about how much his head weighs in relation to the rest of him and how much effort it must be for him to hold his head up, I’m constantly amazed at the kids determination, but I guess we’ve all gone through it. 

One thing we started doing is putting him in a baby carrier. We strap him to my chest like a WMD (weapon of mass defecation). Well, we started going for walks with him in there and he loves it. He doesn’t scream at all, (where as if he’s on the floor or in his bouncer in the evening he usually starts to fuss) he just looks all around and makes little noises when he sees something new like bikes or trucks.

We started him in his Johnny Jumper and man does he love it. He plays in the thing for like an hour at a time, which in baby time is like an entire day for us adults. He never seems to tire of playing with all the knobs and doo-dads. I can’t help but think that he believes he is manning the controls of a rocket ship or something. Here is a video of the first time Carol put him in the thing. It’s a good thing she got it on film, because I have never seen him so happy before or since.