1 Year, 3 Days

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Bit of a crazy day... Things started off a bit off-kilter, as Henry woke twice during the night and then woke up for good a bit early. He enjoyed playing with JT so much that i couldn't sleep in like i normally do. I thought Henry was upset and crying but when i got up to check on him he was just so excited and happy playing with Dad. By 7:30 he was clearly tired so i put him down for an early nap. This delayed getting to daycare but i'm glad i did it because it may well have been his best nap of the day.

I picked him up in the early afternoon to take him for his 1 year Dr. Appointment. The appointment went pretty well. She was happy to see his non-physical development right on target, and said he was standing very well. He's also continuing to grow on his little curve and is up to 18 lbs 8 oz. We're supposed to switch him entirely to whole milk and cut down on the amount of liquid calories we give him. Instead, we are supposed to add things like heavy cream, cream cheese, butter, cheese, etc. to all foods that he eats to add calories to what he's already taking. We made a pit stop by the grocery store and hit the dairy aisle pretty hard.

She thought everything looked good though and just wants us to come back for his normal 15 month check-up. He received the Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Chicken Pox vaccine as well as was tested for TB and anemia. The anemia test came back negative right away, and we check his arm for evidence of TB on Saturday. The vaccine shot was not a big deal but he hated being held down and having his fingers pricked and bled for the other tests. It was the hardest he's cried in ages and not much fun to watch.

He played happily at home though and hopefully will have a decent night.

1 Year, 2 Days

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Although he only took a 20 minute nap at Brenda's today, he did pretty well with Amy at PT. He showed off his newfound ability to put objects IN something and did a little pushing forward to go after toys. He even cruised from his play table over to the coffee table all on his own.

I talked with the developmental therapist and she's going to come back out next week to do a 1-year assessment of Henry and see how he's doing in other areas. We're a little concerned that because he's still not really mobile he'll start to fall behind in other areas like language or cognitive development. We haven't seen any signs of that but we want to get a professional opinion.

Henry's one year Dr. appointment is tomorrow, so we'll get to see how much he weighs and get a medical perspective on him. His appointment is in the early afternoon, so at the very least he should be able to take a nice long afternoon nap at home.

1 Year, 1 Day

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Henry seems to be rapidly moving into a toddler tantrum phase. JT told me that he had a major freak out this morning when JT was trying to feed him breakfast. He would take a bite and then just go ballistic, throwing his arms around, screaming, screwing up his face, etc. When he told me i said something like "yeah, he gets upset when you don't feed him quickly enough." This evening he repeated the episode for me and i got to eat my smug words. It's not exactly that you aren't just feeding him too slowly, it's like he's beyond frustrated that he can't just absorb the food all at once and be done with it.

We played around in the living room when he got home from Ms. Brenda's and today he decided to alternately fuss and push backwards and get really determined and inch tiny, tiny bits forward to get what he wanted. He's not doing what i'd call "army crawling" because that implies real distance is being covered. But, if something is 2-3 inches out of his way he'll dig his toes in and propel himself forward.

Over the past few days he's figured out how to put thing inside something else. He had gotten really good at taking things out of containers but he got these nesting blocks for his birthday (thanks Corey!) and loves to take a smaller cube and put it in a larger one, and then take it out and repeat.

This same skill enabled him to figure out how to put his roll-around balls into the holes on the side of the dragon. Each time you put the ball in, lights and music play and the ball comes out one of the various chutes. Henry took a few times to master the motion and then just sat putting the same ball in the same hole over and over and over. He was over the moon with excitement and with 52 pictures to show for it, you could say we were too.

1 Year!

What with ballet and getting our place ready for the house inspection this morning (that's right, i'll provide details once things are further along) i didn't get a chance to post last night.

As Henry officially reached the one year mark, i've been thinking about this blog, it's format and future. Take a completely anonymous short 5 question survey and let me know how you "use" Good Intent now and what you'd like to see in the future (Click here to take survey).

11 Months, 4 weeks, 1 Day

Henry officially turns 1 year old tomorrow, but we celebrated with a small party on Saturday. Everything went really well. We had a nice number of adults and plenty of children to go around as well. It was just a really nice casual celebration. Henry wasn't overwhelmed and really seemed to enjoy having so many people to watch.

He dug right into the little cake that i made him. Eventually we had to take it away so he didn't go into a sugar coma. He loved the amazing gifts he got from friends and family far and near. We opened gifts from his party guests first and then the rest of the gifts after his afternoon nap.

Later in the day we drove up to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, which is now going to be within walking distance of our new house. We parked by the restaurant and enjoyed walking in our new neighborhood and passing by our new house. Just a little bit longer and that new house will really be ours!

11 Month, 3 Weeks, 6 Days

What a big weekend we have to look forward to! Henry is having a small birthday brunch party on Saturday and then Sunday we head to Tabitha and Cullen's house for Easter lunch and egg festivities.

I worked on Henry's cake last night and think things turned out pretty well. Tonight i need to cook a little more and wrap some gifts. It's been such fun getting all of Henry's presents! This early in his life i feel like i really get to share in the excitement of the gifts even though they're for him. Thankfully he's not to the point where he can request things i don't like (GI Joe! Bob the Builder! Elmo!) so i get to fully enjoy all the cute clothes and fun toys that he enjoys but doesn't exert much control over. I'm thinking that by his 2nd birthday this might be pretty different. Even without much tv exposure i'm told he'll start recognizing and requesting "characters." We'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it. I'm smart enough at this parenting-gig by now, to know that if i make blanket pronouncements i'll quickly be retracting my statements. So, here's to a fun birthday, a WARM Easter celebration, and cute and cuddly gifts!

11 Months, 3 Weeks, 5 Days

Henry had PT today and was just plain cranky. Perhaps he was hungry or tired or both and that contributed but he just would not accept any direction at all from Amy. We tried bribing him with fruit puffs which helped a little. After she left i gave him a full 8 oz. of formula in his new sippy cup (seems to be one he'll really take after some initial fits and starts with our old ones) and he drank it right down-- after throwing a fit that we were trying to get him to drink it.

Then he happily played on the floor on his own and even managed to push forward enough times that it didn't seem like a fluke. By the end of his play session he just seemed frustrated and would just point at what he wanted without trying to get it but hopefully this will be a springboard towards more forward movement.