Little Big Things

One of the great things about being a parent is watching your baby develop. It really is fascinating to experience. One day your baby has no idea how to do something, or doesn’t have any interest in doing something, and the next day – blam – your child is all over it. Andy and I like to think that while he’s sleeping, the little neurons in Henry’s brain attach – albeit slowly. This may or may not be what actually happens. I’m not a scientist, though I was a big fan of Mr. Wizard.

While I was away for 9 days back in the States, it appears the Henbot went through a bit of a growth spurt. All of a sudden, he grew out of most of his 9 month clothes (and all of his 6 month clothes). He now weighs 20 lbs and is 29 inches long – approximately 13 lbs heavier since birth and 10 inches longer. That’s amazing. Can you imagine being 35 years old and growing 10 inches in a single year? Notice I didn’t mention the weight because that so still totally happens. Anyhow, I realize that his height and weight are a bit on the small side. He was in the 5-10 percentile for height and weight at birth but now he’s in the 25 percentile. So yes, he’s small, but he’s growing fine.

It wasn’t just the height and weight changes in this last growth spurt. A lot of those little neurons appeared to attach in his brain. The biggest feat I think occurred is the stacking. For months now, when I played blocks with Henry it was always the same. I’d stack some blocks, he’d knock them down. Repeat this process 50 times per day for 4 months. We had a running joke that Henry was Anti-Stack. “There shall be NO STACKING in this house!” All of a sudden this week, I stacked some blocks, he’d knock them down THEN he’d try to stack them again. He wasn’t very good at it mind you, but he was trying. He also started stacking the ring tower with great success. As with learning, he’s trying different stacking combinations. He has 4 plastic cars that stack and fit together – sometimes, he’ll try to take one of these cars and stack it on the blocks or rings. It’s quite funny; especially the face he makes when he realizes it’s not working.

Another big thing he does now is push cars around on the floor. Well, he pushes anything with wheels, not just cars. He’ll be pushing along and will ram his car into me while I’m sitting on the floor. This is his way of saying, “move”.

My family will remember that I attacked the crane machine at the bowling alley when I was back. The two stuffed animals I took back home with me – an owl and a parrot – are quite popular with Henry who has never been big on stuffed animals before. The first time I played with him with the owl and parrot, I made “hoo hoo” noises. Now I just have to say “hoo hoo” and he’ll go searching for one of them to give to me.

Henry’s eating habits have also changed. One day this past week, I was trying to feed him some Ella’s Kitchen packet food with a spoon. He kept batting away the spoon. I admit I was a bit frustrated, so I just gave him the packet and made a sucking noise. It didn’t take but an instant before he was sucking his food from the packet leaving me some extra time to do some dishes. I admit this has to be one of my more preferred development since he’s starting to become a very picky eater. He was never very keen on baby food from a jar but now he wants absolutely nothing to do with it. The only pre-packaged food he’ll eat is the Ella’s Kitchen vegetable purees and baby brekkie. While it’s for the best that he doesn’t eat much pre-packaged food, there are sometimes when I’m stressed on what to feed him since what we’re having wouldn’t be suitable for babies. This unsuitable covers the unhealthy (pizza) and the impossible (salad with lettuce and hard vegetables he doesn’t have the teeth to chew). I will note that at this time his favorite foods are: blueberries, chicken, bread, cheese, yogurt and my Quorn based (vegetarian) spaghetti bolognese.

Not Henry, but he's totally doing this now.

Last but not least, this growth spurt has left us with quite a mess. That is to say that Henry is into everything. If there is a room full of toys in the dining room\kitchen with everything dangerous tucked away except the trash can (because I’m cooking and using it), he will go for the trash can. If I leave him in the room upstairs that is technically an office\wardrobe but has since morphed into his play room, he’ll take out all my folded shirts and socks. You can not leave this child with a box of Kleenex...or paper towels…or anything paper-like that you want to keep intact. He does get very excited when he manages to get into some paper. His arms start waving and he does a “hee-hee-hee-hee” and he’s tearing the paper to bits and sticking little bits in his mouth.

This is Henry.  This is Henry's face when he's getting into something.

It's not Christmas yet, little man.

I’m really glad I have a blog to write these things down. The bits I mentioned, well, I suppose they all seem very little in the grand scheme of things. As a parent though, they’re huge. It’s your kid growing and becoming a little human one little step at a time.

Which reminds me…no, he’s not walking yet. Soon though…soon.