13 Months!

Sweet Henry,

    You are 13 months old and just get sweeter by the minute. We cannot imagine our family without you in it. You weigh about 21 pounds and wear 12-18 month sized clothing. You love to wear Jon Jon's because you can peer down at your belly button. It makes us laugh to see you so interested in belly buttons because Evie loved belly buttons too.

You have mastered many things this month! Walking has been your full-time mode of transportation for weeks now.  You still love to unplug nightlights and carry them all over the house.  You are able to drink from a straw and love a fruit smoothie.  You are talking more and more and even make sounds and say words back to us like a parrot. Daddy loves your "squirrel" noise the best.

Evie is one of your very favorite people. She makes you giggle and you stand at her door while she is napping hoping that she wakes up to play with you. We are beginning to have a little sibling rivalry as you and Evie learn to negotiate sharing toys. If you decide to hug me or sit in my lap then Evie decides it would be a good idea for her to sit with me too. You are quick to jump in my lap if Evie is with me so it works both ways. Sometimes, you grab a toy from Evie and run off as fast as you can while turning your head to be sure that Evie coming after you. Grabbing her chocolate milk when she's not looking and guzzling it down before someone grabs it back from you is a daily event.  Evie likes to take care of you and gets offended if someone does one of her jobs. She says, "that's my brother." She has assigned herself many jobs such as cup assistant, sound tech, snack helper and behavior monitor. It is her pleasure to fetch your cup, turn off your sound machine, provide you with snacks galore then tell you emphatically "that's a no- sir Henry." She is always ready to play with you except when she's not and then you are ready to play with her. That's just part of being a sibling. She says, "Come on Henry. Let's play" about 3 hundred times a day. I love this stage with you because it's common for you to play with each other for about 15 or 20 minutes without me.

You are really starting to mimic everything that we do including exercising, washing your hair or even dipping your carrot. It's amazing to see how attentive you are to the world around you. One of my favorite moments from this month was at Sky High watching you jump around with the biggest grin on your face. One of the employees was jumping and clapping with a sullen look on his face. You decided to jump and clap too right along with him and soon he was smiling just like you.

I love to see you dance and you have learned "touch down." You are very inquisitive and love to figure out how things work. If there is a ball to be rolled, a door to be opened, a toilet to flush; then you are there taking care of it. You love to roll your little cars, dump containers and put things back together.

All of this activity wears you out which means your sleep has improved tremendously. You sleep 11-12 hours most nights and are napping for two to three hours at a time twice a day. It's really nice when you and Evie decide to sleep well at the same time. You still are not on a rigid schedule, I just follow your cues putting you down about 8:30 or 9 in the morning and about 1:30 or 2 in the afternoon. You just lay down in your crib, roll onto your right side and fall asleep with Bun Bun.

You still love to eat and are willing to try most anything. If you dislike it, then it is quickly tossed off the side of your tray. Crackers, fruit and pizza seem to be some of your favorites right now. You will sit in your high chair for the longest time just grazing which gives me a chance to catch up on work around the house.

It's amazing to see how quickly you are changing. Every day, you seem bigger and stronger, than you were the day before.

We just love you to pieces! I kiss you hundreds of times per day because one day you will not be so fond of all these kisses so I am getting them while I still can.

You have the best personality of being happy and go with the flow about pretty much anything. Diaper changes are not your favorite but you are easily distracted. You must have food within minutes of spotting it so grocery shopping for your favorite foods can be tricky. Your tolerance for pain is really high because you can knock your head or skin your knee but that does not stop you from moving on to your next adventure.

We cannot wait to see what this next month holds for you. You will always be our baby boy even when you are taller than us and have your own baby.

Love Always,

Mama and Daddy

Here are a few shots from today. Not exactly what I had in mind but they are exactly what you had in mind!