Milestone Minutiae

Henry sits!

2009-11-10T22:13:00.000-08:00

Henry is having a great time learning to sit up.

Arrrrrrrrg.

2009-11-10T22:01:00.000-08:00

Pirate Emmett, ready for Halloween, plays piano.

Henry

2009-11-10T20:57:00.000-08:00

At night after putting Henry to bed, he usually wakes up about 45 minutes later. Lately I've been putting him back to sleep without nursing. At first I'd rock him and then get him back into bed. After just a week or so, I'm now able to put him back to sleep without even picking him up. I don't think he's waking up as completely, either. Tonight when I went in to help him back to sleep, he seemed to be actually fussing in his sleep. The noise was then waking him up.

I've been wearing Henry on my back a lot lately. It's useful to get things done, and I think he may be in that separation-anxiety stage that accompanies learning to crawl. To take him off my back, I'll sit down on the couch and remove the carrier so he ends up sitting on the couch. When I turn around to pick him up, he's always delighted to see me. It's so sweet.

Empathy?

2009-11-03T21:25:00.000-08:00

Last night Luke was sick and threw up many times between about midnight and 2am. Henry was awake most of that time, but each time I was out of bed helping Luke, he stadyed strangely still and quiet on the bed. When Luke settled back down to sleep and I got ready to return to bed, Henry would start to fuss a little. It seemed like he knew that Luke needed my help. It hardly seems possible, but it happened about five times.

Personality

2009-11-02T22:03:00.000-08:00

On Halloween night, Henry went to sleep just before we were getting into costumes to go trick-or-treating. I had hoped he'd stay asleep, but the excitement in the house was too much for him, not to mention the doorbell and the barking. I put him in the carrier and out we all went. It was so exciting to be outside walking around that he didn't go back to sleep. When Luke tired out, I started walking him back home while Emmett trick-or-treated with Oma and Opa. Henry was clearly tired and started slumping his head into my chest. I thought he would be asleep by the time we got home, but instead he started leaning back (away from me), and then he'd look up at me and laugh. I'd laugh back, and then he'd lean in again. He repeated this over and over, the whole way home.

Sweet

2009-11-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

Last night Emmett announced that he was going to get some candy. Luke called after him, "You can have some from my bag, Emmett!"

(This is after Emmett stayed out longer and had twice as much candy as Luke! We've combined all the candy into one bowl to share from today.)

Poser

2009-11-01T12:11:00.000-08:00

While crawling, Henry will stop and roll up onto his side. He bends his top leg, and grabs for his lower leg and foot. Is he just making sure his toes are still there, or does he miss playing with them?

Luke says...

2009-10-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

Whenever Emmett is bugging Luke, by jumping around making strange sounds in his face, for example, Luke will yell, "Emmett's doing a rude thing!" Sometimes when asking Luke why he hit Emmett, we'll get the same answer, "Emmett was doing a rude thing!"

Feeding Henry

2009-10-23T20:39:00.001-07:00

Henry is almost 6 months old, and he's been really grabby when I'm holding him and eating, so I brought out the high-chair and started trying to feed him. He likes to play with Cheerios on his tray, and over a few days has pretty much figured out how to get them into his mouth. They usually come out again pretty quickly. Once in a while he actually gums one long enough to eat some. By far the majority end up dropped on his lap, but Jenny has kindly taken to cleaning out the high-chair at the end of each meal. I'm also surprised how many cheerios will fit into his little neck folds.

I fed him some (tasteless) rice cereal and he didn't seem too interested, so I moved on to applesauce a couple of days later. When I got some into his mouth he made a face like I'd served him lemons. That was followed by bulging eyes, gagging, and spitting, like a cat with a hairball. I figured it was just a totally novel taste, so I've continued trying just a couple tastes of applesauce for a few meals. He gave the same reaction each time. This morning, I mashed some banana to see if he liked that any better, but no dice. Maybe he just doesn't want to eat?

Tic Tac Toe

2009-10-20T11:34:00.001-07:00

Emmett was playing tic-tac-toe with a boy he met at the park. They seemed to be having a great time, jumping up and down gleefully in turn, so I started paying attention to their games. They seemed evenly matched. I watched six games, and only the final one was a tie! Who knew tic-tac-toe could be so exciting and suspenseful?

Stop making that racket!

2009-10-20T11:32:00.001-07:00

Luke and Emmett have both started yelling, "Stop making that racket, I'm trying to sleep!" at each other. Usually no particular noise (above the typically present din) is being made, so it's pretty funny.

Left legged crawler

2009-10-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

Henry is belly-crawling all over now, but it's not the "arm-over-arm" army man crawling I've seen before. He throws both arms out and plants them on the floor, then he pulls in his left leg and pushes with it. I can't tell if he's pulling with his arms, or just using them to stabilize his torso when his leg makes the big push.

Yes, that's my Luke again.

2009-10-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

About 30 minutes before taking David to the airport, Luke wanted to paint. We keep the art supplies where they can reach them, so he brought over some yellow paint and asked me to open it. I told him I was sorry, but it was too close to time to go to the airport to start a messy project, and he'd have to wait until we got back to paint. He wandered off to play.

A few minutes later, Emmett came out of the hallway carrying paper with yellow paint on it. "Luke's painting!" he called. Where? "In your bedroom on the carpet!" ARGH!!! Once again, he had been very careful, and there was not a speck of paint on the carpet around where he was painting.

I've moved the paint supplies up (and told Luke why). But I guess I was wrong, both about how messy painting is* and whether or not there was enough time!

*at the table, Luke usually makes hand prints in his paintings, which is why I think it's too messy of course.

That's my Luke

2009-10-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

Luke's been digging in the dirt on the side of the deck with his orange shovel. I've been asking him not to make dirt piles on the deck, but not really nagging him about it.

Today I saw him in the house with the shovel so I told him it was an outside toy and asked him to take it outside. He gave a little Luke grunt, but he took the shovel outside.

A couple of ours later when David came home he found the shovel, full of dirt and carefully placed on our bedroom floor. After another grunt, Luke took the shovel and dirt back outside. (none was spilled on either trip!)

Spooky!

2009-10-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

Luke wrote on his belly and right foot with a ballpoint pen. When I asked him about it, he said it was for Halloween. He pointed to his belly and said, "See? Spooky!" Then he pointed to his left (clean) foot and said, "Not spooky," and finally pointed to his written-on right foot and said, "Spooky!"

To infiniti, and beyond!

2009-10-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday 18 inches, today 8 feet, tomorrow - the world!

Crawling is right around the corner!

2009-10-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

Today I saw Henry intentionally scoot about 18 inches in order to capture a toy. He'll scoot forward and then reach out with his hand, to see if he's close enough yet, and then scoot again if he's still short of the goal. It's the farthest he's gone with a clear goal while I've been watching. Time to get the gate on the stairs up!

Brothers three

2009-10-04T21:43:00.000-07:00

Today while I was making dinner Henry was in his bouncer, so Luke and Emmett decided to bring over a toy and play right next to him. Henry watched intently while Emmett played the xylophone (and Luke's toes). Luke and Emmett also like to play with the toys on Henry's bouncer, so they really do all play together already!

Brothers

2009-10-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

Emmett is a great big brother. I was watching while he and Luke wrestled on the grass outside. Emmett ended up pinning Luke several times, but as I watched I could see him roll over and pull Luke to the top of the pile. They each spent some time as top dog! Luke got upset a couple of times but never enough to come inside to get help from me, he always went back for more. I'm impressed by Emmett's ability to keep it fun for both of them.

And one with Luke, too

2009-09-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

Emmett playing piano

2009-09-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a test post with a video from the new camera. Did it work?

Two teeth

2009-09-23T16:24:00.000-07:00

Not that unexpected, but the second bottom tooth is in. Luke first bottom tooth was large and almost all the way in before his second tooth came in. Emmett followed a pattern like Henry's.

Just mobile enough

2009-09-23T16:06:00.000-07:00

Henry can scoot a little, so I never know just where I'll find him when he's playing on the floor (but always in a 7 foot radius or so). Today while he was playing, I went to the bathroom and then got Luke a snack. I the other room Henry had started fussing a little, so I was talking to him from the kitchen and hurrying. When I went to him in the front room, he had gotten himself under the leather chair from the waist up and couldn't figure out how to get out. No wonder he was fussing!

Bite me.

2009-09-18T15:27:00.001-07:00

Today I saw a small scratch / cut / injury on Henry's thumb. I think it's most likely that he bit himself with his brand new (tiny, sharp!) baby tooth.

This kid is well on his way to learning to crawl, by the way. Over longish periods of time (10 minutes or so) he moves several feet, regularly leaving the blanket that I put him on to play. Sometimes he does it by rolling, sometimes he just spins and somehow slides (this happens when I'm listening to him, not while I'm watching).

What???

2009-09-13T15:25:00.001-07:00

Henry was chewing on my finger, and I felt a tooth! The right lower incisor has broken through. He's 4 1/2 months old!

I should also mention that he's very comfortable on his belly these days. He rotates easily and can manipulate things with his hands. He reaches out and pulls toys in to play with (and chew on). Occasionally, he moves a few feet by rolling over. I'm not sure if he's doing that intentionally or not, though.