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.