1 Year, 1 Month, 2 Weeks, 1 Day

Henry seems to have the very tail end of the cold that we both shared for a few weeks. He just has a slight cough and i spent the weekend blowing the last business out of my nose. Especially because of all the flying things were stirred up in my sinuses, so i found myself blowing my nose a lot.

Henry has gotten very good at mimicking things we do and this blowing the nose business was no exception. If you hand him a tissue or napkin he'll hold it up to his nose and then making a blowing noise with his mouth. It's hysterical to watch because it sounds real and he looks very serious when he's doing it-- i just get this image of Charlie Chaplin watching him. It gets even funnier as he shreds the paper and continues to do it with smaller and smaller bits.

Henry had his first PT appointment with his new therapist which went really well. I'll fill you in on all the details tomorrow.

1 Year, 1 Month, 2 Weeks

I promised pictures and stories from our weekend, and so they begin.

On Saturday we went to Build-a-Bear workshop. Our friend had bought gift certificates for Henry and Samantha to pick out their very own stuffed animal, get it stuffed, and choose an outfit. Samantha (3.5) was obviously old enough to make an informed choice between the various bears, frog, cow, bunny etc, but even Henry seemed to make his preference clear. He was pretty fussy on our way to the mall and when we got there and started holding up various stuffed animals for him to peruse, he quickly latched on to the kitty and then began cuddling him and sucking his thumb. I showed him a few others and he pushed them away so a kitty it was.

While we were waiting in line for the kitty to be stuffed, we asked him what he wanted to name it. He looked straight at us and said something that we both interpreted as "Dan," and thus another great stuffed animal buddy was born.

After giving a wish to the his heart and putting it in along with the stuffing, Dan was ready for some duds. Again we gave Henry a few choices and he picked out quite an ensemble-- a fishing vest and waders, complete with fishing pole and shiny stuffed fish.

We're pretty sure Henry is teething again and possibly molars this time. He was drooling, fussy and threw up a little this weekend with a high fever. I gave him tylenol, sent him to bed early, and the next day he was fine. He's continued to gnaw on everything he can get his hands on and seems to focus on the back left hand side. I can't feel anything in there yet, but perhaps those teeth are coming next.

Here's a picture of Henry and Dan before Dan was dressed...

1 Year, 1 Month, 1 Week, 5 Days

We're back home after a Memorial Day visit to friends in Albany, NY. Henry and I went to visit two of my friends from Governor's school in high school. Laurie has a 3.5 year-old daughter and a new baby girl. Leslie lives in NYC and was able to take the train upstate and meet new baby Ella and Henry.

Our visit was wonderful, the flights were not. Going out wasn't too bad. Henry got an afternoon nap in before we left for the airport and although he wanted to get off my lap, i did manage to keep him entertained for the whole flight. At one point i realized that things were only holding his attention for a minute or so and my quick calculations meant i had to come up with 60 more things to stave off a meltdown.

Coming home was really pretty terrible. Henry would have been set to take his nap as soon as we got on the plane. The child is a wonderful sleeper nowadays, but only in his crib (or a similar stand-in). Sleeping on me, in the stroller, in the carseat etc. just doesn't happen.

So, thankfully the flight was only 1 hr 45 minutes, because most of it was spent trying to shush Henry as his cries escalated. I just felt so badly for him because he was tired and he just couldn't do anything about it. Despite my best efforts to soothe him with his stuffed animal and encouragement to suck his thumb, nothing really helped.

We have several weeks before our next flight which i'm going to need. Traveling with just one parent as he gets older is definitely more difficult.

That said, we did have a really fun visit. Henry loved Samantha and was so curious to see what she was going to do next. Samantha asked several times how Henry got so big. I think she's hoping the same thing happens to her "boring" 3 week old sister. Henry was crawling around and pulling up on things at their house and seems like he continues to get more comfortable with these skills in new environments.

We went to the park and build-a-bear workshop and have pictures and firsts to share from both outings later this week.

Mild to Moderate...

abnormality is what the visit to the craniofacialist yesterday revealed. I'll do my best to explain what this means and how it's connected to Henry's other issues.

Henry has torticollis due to tightness in his right-side neck muscles. In most cases they don't know what causes torticollis, but he was born with a tendency to turn his head to the left. Because he had reflux and was not comfortable on his stomach he didn't further strengthen his neck muscles as well as he should have. By laying on his back and with his head turned to one side more than the other, his head flattened a little bit.

The Dr. described a newborn's head as basically a rectangle with rounded corners. Because of the torticollis, Henry's rectangle turned into a parallelogram with the right top and bottom corners dropped. Instead of equally rounded corners some of his corners are more rounded and some are more flat.

The bottom line is that he has a mild to moderate degree of distortion in his head. He said that if we had come to him at 7 months he might have recommended a special helmet for Henry to wear. At this point the helmet doesn't do all that much good and he simply recommended Henry continue his physical therapy to stretch his neck muscles and encourage him to turn his head both ways and not tilt to one side.

The distortion is just aesthetic in that it does not impact cognitive development one bit. I swear i must just be a blind mama, but even after our Pediatrician explained that his head is misshapen, I still can't really "see" it. So needless to say we're fine with his imperfection and think it must just add to his charm. Also, i'm happy to report that Henry has officially crossed the 20 lbs. line! I knew that heavy cream was paying off.


Happy Memorial Day Weekend! (12 month pictures are up on Yahoo)

1 Year, 1 Month, 1 Week

My computer was offline last night so sorry for the delay in posting this.

Henry and i had a crazy afternoon yesterday. I ordered a whole bunch of flowers and vines for our backyard and they all arrived a few days ago. Yesterday was going to be my best shot at getting them in the ground, so i grabbed a big blanket, spread it on the grass and put Henry down with a few random toys.

He's really getting proficient at this crawling thing, so the first thing he did was start crawling towards the edge of the blanket. I only wish i had my camera for this part. He got to where his next hand placement would be on grass and as he started to put his palm down and felt the grass he wrinkled his face up like he was eating something terrible. Then he'd lift his hand up and start the process over. He did this probably 5 times before he decided that staying on the blanket was fine. He sat himself down and proceeded to play with the toys i had brought out and the empty plant containers as they became available, for an entire hour while i hustled to get the plants in before the impending thunderstorm.

1 Year, 1 Month, 6 Days

Although JT reported he was doing it yesterday, today was the first time i saw Henry really crawling on his hands and knees for a reasonable distance. He seems to have gotten stronger in his shoulders and abdomen, because it doesn't look as taxing for him to stay in that position or transition back and forth from crawling to sitting. We're his most vocal supporters, but Henry seems to get a kick out of it himself.

He did really well this evening as we had an early evening meeting with our financial planner, during which time he tried to talk to him constantly. Josh asked me if we can understand him and i said "not a whit." But it's so clear he knows exactly what he's saying.

After that appointment we hustled into the car to go pick up a new kitchen table that i purchased off of craigslist. Not only is it very cute, but it goes well with the rest of the house and the renovated kitchen we have planned in our heads. We're looking forward to feeding Henry in the kitchen which should improve the speed with which i can deliver his meals-- key in the evenings.

Henry and i continue to trudge on through our colds, but hopefully we're both getting better. I'm off to bed to do my part.

1 Year, 1 Month, 5 Days

Thankfully we had a wonderful return to normalcy today. Henry slept pretty well given the cough and stuffy nose he's battling. He woke up happy and eager to play (by himself!) and then enjoyed heading out to Brenda's. She said he had a great day, took normal naps and has gotten more aggressive pulling up on all kinds of things.

Brenda also told me that Henry has staked out the legos as his domain. When he first arrives in the morning, he heads straight for the lego bin and starts pulling up. They're the big blocks so he has a real go of it "building" things.

A new baby girl started with Ms. Brenda today 2 days a week. Henry wasn't quite sure what to make of another baby, especially one that was so much younger and more time consuming than he. She thinks he said "no" at one point while she was holding him, but hopefully he'll be able to adjust little by little since she's only their twice a week.

He seems to be doing okay staying up a little longer in the evenings which is great because it gives us a little more time as a family. We even had time for a walk in the neighborhood, and look forward to more as it gets warmer.

Return

I arrived home on Friday and unfortunately brought a cold back with me. Henry already had one of his own so we spent most of Saturday trying to rest and save our energy for the BBQ we had as a housewarming today.

I'm not entirely sure why, but Henry was extremely fussy today. I felt like i had an itty-bitty baby again today, except that he's too big for the sling now. He literally would not let me put him down and rarely put up with being held by another. By the end of the party he had made a little progress and sat for a few minutes between our friends Corey and Marc.

We hope to get back into the swing of things tomorrow...

1 Year, 4 Weeks

Chubbykins...

So i have some bad news to relate, i'm going to have to take a hiatus for the rest of the week from Good Intent. I'll be out of town for a conference and won't be home until Friday evening. We have swim lessons, a birthday party, and a BBQ to host so the weekend will be jam packed. I also will not have my computer with me in Atlanta, so posting from the road is unlikely.

Leaving is particularly hard for me because Henry came home from Ms. Brenda's today after he threw-up this afternoon. Of course once he got home you wouldn't know he was sick and he didn't have a fever, so we're hoping it's a fluke. Because he's presented this pattern before with stomach ailments, i'm not getting too optimistic. He went to bed fine and hopefully will have a quiet night.

Brenda said all of her kids threw-up when they were teething and Henry does have a new chopper that just started breaking through today on the top. I've never heard this before though, so i might have to chock it up to folk wisdom.

In other news JT and i were served a heart-attack on a platter this evening when we concluded our kitchen design session and were presented with an estimate of $20,000, just for the cabinets (installation and counter tops sold separately). Thankfully she said, "something looks wrong," pushed a button and the estimate was suddenly slashed in more than half, landing with a big sigh in our budget.

1 Year, 3 Weeks, 6 Days

Henry got a chance to get acquainted with his Oma and Opa this weekend. They came out for a visit and to help us during a very busy and short-handed next week. I'll be in Atlanta for the week at a conference and as it turns out, JT has a very big filing due on Friday. In case JT has to work some long nights, his parents have stepped-in to help out and spend some quality time with the H-man.

He had a great weekend honing his new skills of cruising around corners of the table, moving from the table to the couch and back again and going from a belly to sitting position. He's even gotten to where he can take 4, 5 or 6 "steps" in the crawling position before belly-flopping to the ground. The ear to ear grin he has plastered all over his face whenever he accomplishes one of these feats is impressive. He looks just as proud as i feel.

Here is Henry exploring our master closet...

1 Year, 3 Weeks, 3 Days

Sorry for the mid-week hiatus. I almost didn't get a chance to post tonight but i'm using a few minutes before bed to catch everyone up. Henry continued his string of good naps and good sleeps. In addition to learning his colors along with the older kids at Ms. Brenda's, today they were working on the number one, as in Henry is 1 year old. I'm not sure he's gotten the concept yet but i think it's amazing that he's surrounded by so much fun learning this early on.

It's cold and rainy here and is supposed to be stuck in the same weather pattern for the next few days. This is great news for the patchmaster i put down outside but not so great for the cats or Henry who were starting to enjoy exploring outside.

We had friends over again last night and the grill continue to perform admirably. We also inspected the work we agreed to do on our condo before we close next Friday. Hopefully we're moving toward tying up all the loose ends.

At PT on Wednesday Henry had his best therapy session yet. He was well rested and happy and was really showing off his new skills. Amy was so pleased to see him really exploring and trying things that clearly take him out of his comfort zone. We saw pretty clearly that it's still his weak shoulders really holding him back. He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth and even takes one or two shuffles forward and then his arms just crumble and he takes a face dive into the floor. It's not as painful as it sounds and it doesn't phase H at all, but we have to employ a number of tricks to get him to really use his arms and build that strength.

1 Year, 3 Weeks, 1 Day

Quiet day on Henry's behalf but nosiy day on the homefront. We had a work crew here for the better part of the day shoring up the beam issues that we uncovered during our initial inspection of this place. They seem to have completed everything we discussed and things look good. We accepted a bid for our kitchen remodel and have an appointment with a designer to finalize the kitchen layout and order cabinets this weekend. How quickly the cabinets arrive will dictate how soon we can get moving on the kitchen, but hopefully it won't be longer than the mid-June we're hoping for.

Henry had one of his first tastes of our backyard this evening. He and JT came out and sat a spell while i worked on the yard. Henry sat on my sweatshirt because he's not crazy about how grass feels on his skin. In general it seems like he is pretty restrained about putting things in his mouth but it was like he couldn't resist with all the seedlings, sticks and other fun stuff falling from the trees.

Tonight's picture isn't wonderful but it showcases one of Henry's new skills-- clapping and gives you a peak at our "Master Suite."

1 Year, 3 Weeks

Just a quick post to show you the photo documentation of the bookshelf destruction Henry managed to bring yesterday.

Today he had an uneventful day with a nice long nap at Brenda's. We seem to have gotten back on a more satisfactory sleep schedule. Instead of waking at 5:30 and being fully ready to get out his crib by 6, Henry is now grumbling a little at 6:30 or so and then not really waking up until 7:15 or so. The best part is that he wakes up really happy and instead of cries, you hear him talking to himself through the baby monitor.

1 Year, 2 Weeks, 6 Days

For those that pop-in infrequently, a few weeks ago i conducted a short poll of site viewers to get some feedback on how often people visit, their favorite part of Good Intent, and what they might want to see changed. The poll is still open by the way, and will remain so for the meantime, so feel free to take the survey if you're interested in letting me know about your
Good Intent feedback.

Although the sample size was small, the results were encouraging. The majority of readers check the site once a day, would like to see more pictures in posts, and appreciate the view into Henry's day the blog provides. Although those responses carried the majority, there were viewers that liked every part of the site and wanted more pictures, fewer pictures, more posts, fewer posts. So, i feel confident in just doing what i've been doing, feeling confident that someone will like it.

We had a busy but wonderful weekend in our new house. We successfully pressed the new lawnmower into service and actually have a decent lawn under all of that tall growth. We bought some "Patchmaster" to fill in a few of the bare spots. We also ripped out all of the existing weeds/day lilies that had taken over the flower beds so that when all of our new plants arrive we'll be ready to sow.

Friends came over on Friday afternoon and helped us purchase and transport a brand-new grill back to our house. Remarkably they managed to set up the grill and cook a meal on it all before 8 pm. Entertaining in our new house was wonderful although things will only be that much better when the kitchen is more workable.

Henry is on a mobility-streak. Over the weekend he started army-crawling from room to room. This was exciting and then meant that we *really* started to understand what baby proofing means. While i was working on Saturday's dinner, Henry hauled himself from the kitchen to the dining room and began pulling the books off the bookshelf. Unfortunately he managed to tear a page out of a book before I got him back into the kitchen.

This morning Henry pushed himself up to sitting from laying on his stomach. This is a very long-overdue skill that we've been working on with him in PT and daily so it was a very exciting accomplishment.

1 Year, 2 Weeks, 2 Days

I know Friday is normally one of my days off, but JT is attending a birthday party for a friend and i thought i would make use of some of my time home alone to post some additional pictures of Henry and the house. Tonights' pictures are from Henry's room.

Also wanted to say that Henry seems to be finally getting the hang of this mobility thing. This morning he army crawled from the sunroom into the kitchen where i was getting his lunch ready. This evening he crawled across the living room to an outlet at which point, i promptly located the outlet plugs we bought ages ago, but hadn't gotten around to installing. I even saw him get up on his knees a few times and rock forward and back-- just once or twice but that is a completely new development.

Also today Henry came home from daycare clapping. I saw him doing it in the car while i was getting gas and thought it was a fluke but he did it this evening and when we started getting excited and clapping back, he got to where he couldn't stop clapping.

We're looking forward to our swimming class tomorrow and hope we didn't miss too much at our real first class.

1 Year, 2 Weeks, 1 Day

Henry has been pretty cranky lately. It's no wonder, with the move, three new teeth to cut, and a presumed growth spurt. Still, it makes getting all the settling in a little more challenging when you can't put him down for longer than a few moments at a time.

We've been playing on the front porch the last two nights while we wait for JT to get home. We've met a few neighbors this way and the evening air seems to help Henry stay a little calmer.

With all of his teeth coming in he's really starting to look a little older. I think all the cream cheese and whole cream is starting to have an effect because he's never looked as chubby which helps preserve some of his "babyness."

His hair is really filling in and starting to curl around his ears. We'll be putting off a haircut for as long as possible-- i certainly don't want to force him to grow up any faster than necessary.

Our photo theme for the next bit involves Henry in each space of our house. Tonight's entries feature Henry playing in the living room. You can see things aren't perfect, but they're established enough to feel like home.

1 Year, 2 Weeks

Although i learned in the poll that i conducted recently that people like pictures hands-down the best, i have nothing new to show you. We've just been so busy in the evenings (tonight's exploits included getting a new lawnmower in the front seat of our Tercel,) that we keep forgetting to take new pictures. I do have an idea for pictures of both Henry and the house and hope to implement that next week.

Henry had PT today and it was not his most successful session. He supposedly slept quite a while this afternoon but was CRANKY for the entire hour. He seems to be getting at least 2 and possibly 3 teeth on the top though, and you can tell that it is just not feeling very good. He practically leaps towards the teething gel although when he tries to lick it off my fingers i'm not sure it's doing what it's intended.

We had a few contractors in today to give us estimates for the kitchen and some other work we're entertaining. Right now we're in dreamland, when the estimates actually come in in a few days, we'll have to start really prioritizing.

I promise, pictures tomorrow...

1 Year, 1 Week, 6 Days

Henry enjoyed being back at Brenda's and supposedly had quite a day of pulling up all by himself. JT said he did the most extensive army crawling yet this evening while i was grocery shopping. Army, or commando, crawling involves dragging your body across the floor without lifting your belly. It's called army crawling because the position looks like the little army figures.

We have contractors coming out to look at our kitchen tomorrow and give us an estimate on the work. I talked to two people today and both were optimistic about getting the work started within 4-6 weeks once we accept a bid. I was pleasantly surprised, but know it obviously takes some time to finish once they start.

We'll see what we find out tomorrow.