11 Months Old!

I have reinstated the ban on talking about Henry turning a year old. It's not really happening...he will be cute and little forever.

He pulled down every single toy.

In Opa's hat.

But another month has somehow slipped through my fingers. Henhen is learning and growing so quickly now. The biggest and best change this month has been Henry's sleeping. We started his "boot camp" at the beginning of this month, and for the last several weeks he has been sleeping all the way through the night!!! (Yes, that is so exciting it gets 3 exclamation points). He seems to be doing really well with the new sleeping routine, and almost looks forward to going to bed at night. It's been a very big and very welcome change.

New climb-proof gate.

Playing with his favorite non-toy. My phone.

With Opa's hat and Grandma's keys. I used to suck on these same keys.

We have not noticed any change in his personality with the increased sleep. Henry still is very serious, and pretty grumpy. We still have plenty of days where he will spend hours on ending whining and crying for no apparent reason. And he still throws increasingly dramatic tantrums when he cannot have something he wants, or when I take something away. This boy also doesn't just give away his smiles or laughs, you really have to work for them.

Hen took a liking to our friends' dog Ruby.

Silly game, riding in the stroller in the house.

Although, this past month he has become a lot less shy. He warms up to new people pretty quickly, and will even let a stranger hold him. I think the outgoing part of him is coming out thanks to some new classes we are taking together. Henry and I are now taking baby swimming lessons and baby/mom yoga classes. This way we both get out of the house, and get to spend time around other moms and babies. Its been really fun, and I hope to do a separate post about this soon.

This month, Hen has had a language explosion. He now says banana (nah-nan-a), up, baby (bah-ba), puffs (pa-pa), hot, mama, and dada. He will copy pretty much any sound you make to him. He also started much more real sounding babbling, instead of just screeching and screaming sounds. Henry now will point to things he wants, or point to objects if you ask him where something is. He understands so much now. We can ask him to go get a specific toy and he will. We ask him to point out someone in a picture and he can. Its just awesome to be able to communicate with him, instead of just at him.

Hard to see, but Hen now has little ringlets over his ears.

Henry's favorite things to do is still to play with cars. But he has started to get a bigger interest in other things. He now really likes to play with puzzles, and read books. He will now pick books out and bring them to me to read, and actually sit and listen. He also super loves playing with his dog Scout and with his new baby doll. Henry seems less and less interested in his "patchy" again, and has pretty much stopped playing with all the "baby toys" he used to love. His favorite thing in the world is still his "alligator patchy" which he carries all over the place as if it were a lovey blanket. Hen also has an undying love for the show Wheel of Fortune, which he watches pretty much every night.

We put his "play diaper" over his regular one. He and Nettie thought it was an awesome game.

Physically, Henry hasn't changed much this past month. His growth has seemed to have stalled out a bit. He still wears mostly 6-9, and some 12 month, size clothes. He is still in a size 3 diaper. I keep hoping for him to grow some so we can use all the bigger winter clothes I have for him before it is too warm. The kid's been wearing the same stuff for 5 months. He might be the only baby ever to actually wear out his tiny clothes. Nothing has really changed with his reflux either this month. He is still on Prevacid twice daily. Hen is also still taking an iron supplement and orange juice for his anemia. He did not get any new teeth this month - thank God.

Playing with cousin Elliot.

Henry is eating more and more table foods now. We serve him some purees still but usually just to mix his medicine in. His favorite foods are bananas, strawberries, ham, toast, and graham crackers. It has been harder to get him to eat his veggies, so hopefully that changes soon.

Well, this has gotten long enough. I guess these monthly updates always do. I'll be back next month, writing Hen's second 11 month update. He's not getting older. We have a deal.