Henry's a Year Old Already

Wow, I feel like I blinked once and turned around and suddenly Henry is a year old. I can't believe it. And it really doesn't help that the kid changes so much everyday. Take today for instance. Henry sat and played with his mega blocks by himself for about ten minutes and he was actually stacking them about 5 high. Before this he'd only break up structures that we made. And I was also surprised by how long he focused on it.  Later, Henry learned how to open and close plastic food containers. Then, I took one of the baby gates down and he ran back and forth down the hallway in our apartment. [Oh yeah, he's walking. Like I said time flies and I only do these posts once a month. He figured out the whole walking thing about a week before his birthday. I hate to admit it, but technically Carol and I missed those first steps everyone always talks about. Carol was on the computer and I was watching some cartoons and Carol says, "Um..this is new" and I look at Henry and he's stopped playing on the floor and is walking across the room.] Anyway back to today, After he was done running up and down the hallway I taught Henry how to close the door to his bedroom. Unfortunately (or maybe it's fortunate) he can't open the doors because he isn't tall enough to grab the door knob. But once he had the hang of closing it Carol went in the bedroom with him and he closed the door over and over again. And then Carol would help him open it and I was right on the other side of the door making funny faces. Henry laughed every time he saw me. It was like peekaboo, only better!

The whole time Carol and I were whispering to each other "I think he might be too smart for his own good." I mean I know I use the term genius all the time, but what if he really is?... It's all part of the adventure I guess.

I'd like to take a moment to thank our family and friends. We keep telling you Henry doesn't need anything and you keep buying us stuff or giving us hand-me-downs. And you know what? We end up using the majority of what we get! And because of everyone's generosity we've rarely ever had to buy Henry any clothes. So we've had the luxury of being able to buy him are fun shirts like this Spider-man one or the super hero is training shirt up above, which has a cape in the back.

We had some friends and family over to the apartment for Henry's birthday and the highlight of the festivities was Henry having his first piece of cake. He was hesitant at first like he always is with new foods. But then he really went to town!

Instead of recovering from enjoying some New Years cheer, Henry and I rang in the New Year by both being sick with a virus. We both ran a temperature. I probably should have been in bed, but I couldn't sleep when my kid's temp was 102! They say it's not as dangerous for kids to get a temperature like that, but I still worried. I kept doing a cold compress on Henry's head (along with children's Tylenol) to bring the fever down. He crawled around with that towel on his head for two days. At first he kept trying to take it off. But I told him to leave it and he did. He really is amazing!

I'm all out of chronological order but I don't care, we got Henry one big Christmas gift, it's a radio flyer that he can ride in right now but as he gets older you turn it into a tricycle he can tool around in by himself.

He's not always perfect. Here he is after getting into one of the trash cans and pulling all the tissues out of it.

Carol taught Henry how to stick out his tongue. One of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time. At least he looks super cute! And no, he wasn't drinking ice tea, he was just playing with the bottle.

I work at the same church where Henry goes to daycare so I get to peek in on him several times a day. Thankfully Maxine who teaches him is happy to let me pop in whenever I want. And everyday around 3 pm I take some pictures of Henry and send one to Carol. It is such a routine now that if she doesn't get the picture by 3:30, she's is texting me "Where's my picture?" Here are some of the daily shots.

Henry is framed! For the most part he is so good-natured. Always laughing and smiling. It's been a good year, but the next one will only be better, right?