My Little Man

I recently read a baby.com or babycenter.com or baby something or another.com article that described an eleven month old's development as the beginning of seeing himself as a separate being.  This brief, matter-of-fact description somewhat fits our Henry for we are seeing his burgeoning independence and self-identity coupled with his strong personality.  It thrills me to watch Henry explore his world and to let us know with his one word commands what he wants.  "Book."  "More."  These days of shaky one and two steps make my heart jump with joy for my little man who is striving for more freedom from the constraints of floor crawling and furniture cruising.  At the same time, though, his efforts for independence tug at my heart, leaving me with visions of a kindergartner, driver, college student... the visions get out of hand! 

Henry's desire for independence must leave him with conflicting feelings much like my own, for he is clearly going through separation anxiety these days, wanting only his Mama, especially at nap and bed time.   It isn't easy, but I must admit some pleasure in being the preferred parent.  Tonight, I had to capture a photo of my sleeping baby who must still dream of me, right? 

WANTED: Guardian Ad Litem

Look at this poor boy with two bruised cheeks and a cut between his eyebrows!  We aren't sure how he got the original, smaller cut.  It was apparently worsened overnight, though, since I discovered an alarmingly larger cut this morning.  His fingernails were promptly clipped.  We hope for less than daily cuts and bruises going forward.

Bath Time Perils

What will 2009 hold for The Hughes Family?  What will we report as we track Henry's milestones?  Well, I have a feeling that we will be talking about falls, crashes, and bruises.  It only took a couple of days for Henry to experience his first face bruises--one obtained while on Christmas vacation and one, large cheek bruise from a cheek-first fall into the bath tub faucet while Mama and Daddy talked about the DSLR camera over which I continue to lust.  We acted quickly and wrapped him in his towel and held him while he cried very briefly until Mother Penny entered the room to make him giggle.  From that point on, however, he would not let go of me.  You can imagine Daddy's trials of diapering and dressing him while he clung to me and the quiet comedy of Daddy's Goodnight Moon narration from the ottoman as I rocked Henry in the glider.  

Despite the pending danger, Henry continues to love his bath time and having free range of the entire tub now.  He treats it like a small water park in which he is not obligated to follow the rules--especially the one about not standing so as to avoid injury.  (We also know that he pees in the tub as he stood to do so in his Grandma Hughes' bathtub.  Sorry!) 

This video clip is from Monday night, pre-fall.  It captures the typical after-bath Henry.  It does not, however, capture his newly acquired clapping skills as he seems to get very camera shy about it.  We'll keep trying to catch it!   

2008 was Great!

Cory and I are stuffed from our traditional New Year's Eve lobster dinner, and I am recovering on the couch with the MacBook in my lap, attempting to upload photos so that I can start 2009 with an empty camera.  The crazy thing is that I exceeded my free Google account storage and am in the process of upgrading right now.  Once the upgrade is processed, I will upload photos along with a video that should satisfy your Henry appetite at least for a while.

 

The lack of adequate storage isn't surprising.  2008 was an amazing year for us, and the massive amounts of photos, emails, blogs, and videos are only representative of the fun, excitement, and sheer joy of this year.  Cory and I both were hit with the funny "feels like just a couple of months ago" feeling as we prepared our 2008 lobster dinner.  It seems like not long ago that Cory was sticking lobsters in the pot while I covered my ears but kept my eyes on my pregnancy crossword puzzle, which, I might add, was completed rather quickly due to my extensive prenatal care knowledge.  Henry was still known as "Totch," and we were mixing yummy mocktails of ginger ale, cranberry, pineapple, and orange juice.  We were just one month away from the arrival of a life-changing cell mass turned little boy.

Henry made 2008 the best year that we ever had and better than we ever imagined a year could be.  We are delighting in being Henry's parents and getting to know this amazing boy who can capture an entire room with his uninhibited smiles and outcries.  Who knew that his first, brief, wide smile would make us grin for hours and his first words would make us talk about them for weeks?  He makes each day an adventure, and each week and month an epic journey worthy of a $20 storage upgrade!

Getting there...

I think that the best one word description for me lately is "behind."  However, I am working hard to change that description and am uploading photos from November and December to Picasa and will do a more detailed blog post soon... hopefully before Christmas.  This blog and the photos are a great joy of mine.  A tough semester, a really active Henry, and the approaching holidays forced me to delay partaking in these indulgences.  It is going to be so nice to delve into the latest photos and to relay our lives to you.  Thanks to our family and friends for wanting to keep up with us!

Breaking news, Breaking news!

I must pause from writing my research paper to let you all know that Henry took his first step today! Henry and I were playing on the living room floor after he and Daddy returned from Christmas shopping. My macbook was sitting on the love seat, so Henry crawled over, pulled up, reached for it, and then realized that he wouldn't be able to reach its intentionally selected placement. So he turned to face me and my beckoning for him to step into my arms. He let go of the couch, stood for a moment, then gave a giant smile and stepped into my arms!

Oh, what a feeling! One small step for Henry, one giant leap for our hearts!

Quick Update

We are busy, busy, busy here at the Hughes house! Henry is now standing for lengthy periods on his own and can even eat Purely-O's while standing and without holding onto something! He also now freely exclaims, "Mama!" whenever he is asked to do so or whenever he does not want to take a nap. He continues to add to his word repertoire, and his latest and most rapidly repeated is, "yeah." We are considering changing our own vocabulary to include more of "yes" as it seems less rude.

The funniest and perhaps the favorite trick of late is his head nodding. Henry gets a real kick out of shaking his head back and forth in the disagreement gesture. He first began doing it while staring at himself in the car mirror on the way home from the beach after Thanksgiving weekend. It was a treat to actually observe his learning and his enjoyment in a new skill. Of course, it's still funny to watch, but it is less funny when it comes after we are forced to say something like, "No spitting, Henry." He just shakes that head and laughs.

You probably noticed that I am failing to upload photos lately. Don't worry. I will upload and blog with a furry once I finish this semester and Henry's sinus infection clears!