December Fun

Henry loves to climb and stand on anything he can find to support his weight.  Here, he found the top of the icebox to perch himself on. He was so proud of himself that he first was able to finagle the lid off of the icebox and then achieved climbing on top of it.

 Hmm....

Out and about with Mama and Sophie to view the neighborhood lights.  Henry loves Christmas lights, in particular this green tree in our front yard because they are apparently Mama's lights (which I indeed did put them up).  Every time Henry sees this tree, he points and affectionately says "Maaaamaaa."  A few nights ago we went and visited the house on Geneva (a house that is SUPER light up for Christmas in North Portland...a house Ryan started visiting when he was a kid) and Henry was in total awe.  Last year he enjoyed the train in the window (which he liked this year too).  This year though, Frosty the Snowman (which is at least 5' tall and just about as big around) and the nutcrackers were Henry's favorite. 

 Happy, happy, happy.

 Look, how cool am I.  : )

 Henry's new window seat.  Silly bear.

 Mama shared her eggnog (non-alcoholic and diluted with milk) with me, and it was YUMMY!!!! 

Word, words, words.  They are finally starting to flow freely.  New words every day!  Now, I admit, if you don't understand Henry's dialect (because most of his words are really just the first two or three letters of a word), you might not be able to understand him really well, but he legitimately has started to really talk now.  He now has words for: water, dog, wow, whoa, boot, bird, bed, red, lid, off, dump, dip, boat, door, uh oh, buzz, roar, woof woof, mama, owl, bowl, eye, butt, dada/baba, car, baby, no, beep beep, bauck bauck, boat, mine, go and garbage.

New tricks: throwing and kicking balls.

Favorite toys: trains, lego-style blocks, cars, boats and airplanes.  And BOOKS, Henry loves to read!

He also loves music and has been know to get his groove on to his favorite tunes.  He has a varied taste, there is no rhyme or reason as to what type of music he will particularly enjoy on any given day.  The mariachi music at the Mexican restaurant is usually good for at least a few head sways.

Footballs, the game of football and football players make Henry laugh.  The other day he was looking at one of his board books and every time he came across a picture of a football he would bust out into a full belly laugh.  Hilarious to watch.

Henry's big. He's 31 lbs and change.  Tall...but not exactly sure how tall because he is too squirmy to measure.  He wears 3T tops (and PJs) and 2T bottoms (and has been for some time now).  Size 6 shoes.   And, some of these sizes (depending on the brand) have already been retired!  Crazy to think my baby has already outgrown baby clothes and he isn't even two yet.  Yesterday, when we were at Costco, Ryan held up a 3 month outfit and said "remember this???"  I simply looked down at my cheery-eyed "baby" with big eyes and shook my head in disbelief that it really wasn't that long ago when he was TINY (at least in comparison).  He's even got muscles.  He was standing next to me earlier today and I was rubbing his back while he played with his cars.  For whatever reason, I decided to run my hand down his calf and I noticed he had toddler calf muscle definition (he was on his tippy toes).  Seriously!  Muscles! 

By far and away, my favorite thing these days Henry related is his giggles.  And more than that, that he makes himself giggle.  He'll do something goofy and all of a sudden start giggling at himself.  He also laughs when other people laugh, which just eggs on more laughter. He'll also start giggling when he is trying to get you to play a game of peek-a-boo or hide-and-seek toddler style...Henry hides and I find him without counting.  How he typically plays this game is he runs off and hides behind the couch, table or bed, without me knowing that he wants to the play a game.  A few seconds later when I don't see him anymore I will call out "where did you go, bubbie???"  He won't return and he will attempt to be quiet.  Then I will start hearing his giggle come from behind the couch, table or bed and realize I need to go find him, that we are playing a game.  So then, I will get up as I repeat, "where did you go, bubbie???"  He will then start to full on belly laugh and reveal himself, sometime squealing in delight.  Then we repeat the exercise.