11 Months, 1 week, 5 days

Henry had quite a language-filled day. He's been saying "mamamamama" for awhile when he's referring to me, but this morning when he got into bed with us he said "mama" while pointing at me. When i picked him up this afternoon Brenda said she thought he was saying "yeah!" When the kids get something right they all say "yeah!" and throw their hands up in the air. They were positive Henry was following along. When they tried to test him he just smiled at them but a few beats later he said "yeah!" again. We'll have to keep an eye for that one...

I didn't post last night because i went out with friends and then when i got home we had an offer submitted on our place. It was fairly low and when we countered the couple decided to just revisit it when one of them gets back from a trip in a few days. We're hoping that was the right decision to make but we have another showing tomorrow and 2 on Saturday (including one that's a repeat showing) so it seems like there's still some interest.

Things are moving forward with the house we're buying. The contract was finalized today and our final mortgage approval also came through.

Here's Henry working on his 4-point position.

11 Months, 1 week, 3 days

We had another showing tonight and things seem to be heating up. We'll see if anything comes of it, but i guess several people have been talking about submitting an offer. Keep your fingers crossed.

Henry had a great day at Brenda's and enjoyed the walk this evening while we got of the house for the prospective buyer. He's still enjoying waving and has taken to waving backwards-- palm facing himself. It's very, very cute. He also points at everything now and makes sounds like he's naming things or asking what things are called. Of course we tell him the name of everything and he then he gets really serious and says "do-ah" or something equivalent regardless of what we just said.

He looks a little stronger to me when he's on all fours but we need to make sure and get in his physical therapy tomorrow evening before we have another showing.

11 Months, 1 week, 1 day

Henry had his massage therapy session with the developmental therapist this morning. It actually went better than i expected. Henry was a wriggly worm but the therapist brought a doll so that i could practice when Henry didn't really want to participate anymore. However, much of the time Henry did not want to relinquish the doll. He couldn't get enough of pounding on it's head, gouging out it's eyes and trying to eat it's nose. I'm definitely buying him a baby for his birthday. He really did love having something that seemed about his size that he could manhandle.

We had another showing of our place this evening. I had planned to take H out on a walk but it was raining so i put him in the car and drove about a block. He was making it clear he didn't want to be in the car so i parked and let him play in the back-seat while we waited for them to finish looking at it. Our Realtor said that it was a great showing and the person was really interested and is planning to come back for a second showing this weekend. I didn't get many details on why she was waiting that long but she supposedly seemed very excited about the space, which was encouraging.

11 months, 1 week, 1 day

We've had a busy but good weekend. 2 showings on Saturday and two more tomorrow. Hopefully there will be more activity this week and some real progress after some additional people see our place (at least we think it's amazing!) I believe Henry and JT are both better. JT's stomach has been a little touch and go, but today he ate more than toast and seems to be holding his own.

Henry had a mild crying jag last night but then took very good naps today and went to bed easily. Hopefully it will be a quiet night and we'll be off to a good start this week. He was quite amenable to being on his knees so we encouraged his 'crawling' every chance we got. He babbles frequently now, it really sounds like his own language, because the cadence is up and down with different intonations. It's especially cute when he gets a hold of a book because sometimes he'll sit there and turn the pages and "read" out loud. That gets me every time.

Otherwise we spent a lot of time planning for the new house-- what we want to plant in the garden, what improvements we want to make and what we think we need to buy. We're really excited about the place and looking forward to getting settled in about a month.

11 Months, 6 days

I think we might finally be getting back to normal. JT was still home sick but he made it out to the couch and is planning on going back to work tomorrow. Henry had another good day at Brenda's and is more than making up for his light-appetite. For dinner tonight he ate a 6-oz jar of baby lasagne, a 4-oz container of pear puree, 1/4 banana,6 oz. of pasta and red sauce and a handful of veggie puffs. This is good because we need to rebuilt the weight we know he lost while he was sick.

Tonight's picture is of Henry's new favorite bath toy-- his toothbrush. My orthodontist has a two-year old and she told me that what's important now is just to get him used to me getting in his mouth with something, a soft brush, a pieces of gauze, etc. Henry is crazy for this kind of soft plastic and he loves to chew on the bristles. I usually do a quick pass over his upper and lower gums and then he keeps himself entertained with the toothbrush for the rest of the bath.

I have noticed that along with stranger anxiety H has started to develop a sense of fright. We have a soft bath toy that's an octopus. You can use it's undersides like a wash cloth or hold it under the water and squeeze it and water comes out of a spout at the top of it's head. It was in a drawer for a long time and tonight i brought it in to the bath with the rest of Henry's toys. He just watched me make the water spout a few times and then actively looked scared and upset-- beginnings of the bottom lip curling. I let the octopus go in the water and proceeded to wash Henry. A few minutes later the octopus came floating towards Henry and he looked at it like he would climb out of the tub if he could. I picked it up and set it on the rim of the tub and he just kept craning his neck around the fixate on the octopus. He wasn't back to happily enjoying his bath until i hid the octopus behind the shower curtain. Once he dries out i think that toy will have to go back to the bath for awhile.

11 Months, 5 Days

Brenda and the rest of the crew rejoiced to see Henry today. Brenda said that her sister was begging her to call over and find out how Henry was doing and when he'd be back. I think sending him was the best decision. She said he had a great day, took two good naps, and was all fine in the stomach department-- even took his soy formula. I'm hoping that it helped wear him out and he'll sleep well tonight.

Since he's been sick he's been waking up more at night and we've been tending to him. He's sick afterall and you can't let a sick baby cry. Well as Brenda said "room service!" now he's hooked. Of course it could be that, or hunger pains (he's just gotten back on his eating game), or the separation anxiety he seems to have developed while he was sick. Whatever the cause he's back to protesting again when we put him down and last night he was up off and on for almost two hours crying, screaming, sobbing, before finally going back to sleep. The fury unleashed last night at 10 so we're T-minus 10 minutes right now.

As Henry is better, JT is now sick. He spent the day firmly in bed. We just hope he makes quicker progress than Henry. At least it's easier to understand what he needs.

The photographer and layout sketcher came to our place today. Our Realtor thinks he'll have all the marketing materials ready to send out to folks by the end of the week. He can track how many times the listing is emailed out to folks through the MLS system Realtors use and how many times someone marked the property as "interested" since yesterday afternoon our property has been emailed 268 times and marked as "interested" 17 times. It would be amazing if some of those turned into the right buyer.

11 Months, 4 Days

Today was much less of a three-ring circus than we imagined, which was a good thing after how exhausting yesterday was. Henry was home with me again yesterday and actually seemed worse in a way. He didn't throw-up or anything but he was clearly upset and irritable all day. He slept a lot in the morning but then was awake but exhausted and fighting sleep all afternoon. I had called the Dr. and wound up switching his appointment from this afternoon to yesterday evening. I was concerned because although Henry's appetite was better yesterday he pretty much refused liquids.

The Dr. said he looked fine-- totally hydrated and re-iterated that this stomach flu is really bad and takes 7-10 days before it's really gone. Unfortunately my day was crammed with house-buying/selling business as well a live webcast. Luckily in the non-profit sphere the majority of people you work with are women, and therefore understanding of the challenges of "home/work-life balance."

Today, Henry seems to really be doing better. He's kept things down and we've been able to progress from the gruel he's been living on for awhile. He still won't drink his soy formula and isn't even too excited by the pedialtye so i've been trying to nurse very frequently.

I'm not sure about tomorrow, but it would be nice if he was able to be back at daycare. The cleaning ladies come at 8 and then the photographer and layout sketcher come at 9:30. Luckily no conference calls tomorrow, just work to be slotted around Henry's naps.

He has physical therapy tomorrow and i'm afraid he hasn't made much progress this week. With all the stomach upset he hasn't been on his stomach much and totally intolerant of his exercises. I know someday (probably not too far away) he'll actually be moving around and exploring, but it's impossible to imagine right now. Even as a total optimist, it's so hard not to worry about your baby...