Happy 8 Months, Henry!!!

We've been having a great last couple of weeks with 4th of July activities and just fun things around the house and town with the kids during the day!  :)  (Okay, so I wrote that on Henry's 8 month birthday, July 12th...here's to finishing it about a week later!)

We love our little man, Maeuschen, so much!!  That's my nickname for him and Claire uses it too.  It means "little mouse" in German, which I understand is not at all cute in English.  In fact, when I translate it, it just seems weird, but it's like saying "sweetie" for us.  :)  Here are some updates...

Annabelle and Claire had so much fun jumping in this pool in Okoboji!  Jump, jump!

Here he is - my Maueschen!  Hanging out in the stroller on a road trip with Mami, Claire, and Grandma!   It was HOT this day and he was watching Claire run through a sprinkler.

Candy!  At the 4th of July parade with Markus, Dani, Maximillin and Katharina.  :)

Henry is chilling on the boat with Daddy, Spencer, and Jeff in Okoboji!  :)

 

• Two top teeth and two bottom teeth.  His toothy grins are so cute!  He has only clamped down a few times while nursing, so I'll consider that a win.
• Drool - machine!  I wonder if he's getting more teeth.  It's a lot easier to just have him play in his diaper and wipe the drool off skin than to deal with wet onesies and bibs.  Can you tell this is our second? ;)  God was really thinking when he made skin waterproof!
• ONTHEGO!  Henry never stops moving!  We have to watch him super closely or before you know it he will be in the bathroom playing in the toilet water (yes, this did happen at Romber's...where's Henry?...moment of panic as I searched around the entire kitchen and hallway and living and dining rooms when he had JUST been in the hallway...laughs from Amber...found him!  playing in the toilet...you're very welcome Amber for grabbing your face with my wet hands when you picked me up!).  Seriously though, this kid is on the go.  Usually I try to put him down standing up next to something because he's slightly slower cruising along furniture than crawling.  Oh, and his crawling went from army crawling to up-on-the-knees crawling about a month ago.  At first during the transition it was this cute little scoot...scoot on one leg, knee forward with the other, scoot on one, knee forward with the other.  Adorable!
• Sleeping!  Much to my heart's dismay, we have been letting Henry cry to learn to put and keep himself asleep.  Before this, his routine was to nurse to sleep, stay in his crib a couple hours, wake up wondering where in the world his mama was when she was just here a second ago, then be comforted back to sleep nursing with mama in their bed, and snuggle with mama all night after that.  Believe me, it was the life!  (Go ahead and chastise me now, I know you're not SUPPOSE to sleep with your child. However, I'd like to record for future reference how it really was.  Also, go ahead and tell me everything else I'm not doing by the book.  ;)  Then I'll tell you that we do what works and thankyouverymuch but I don't want your opinion!  Hehe.)  Back to the point...Henry has been crying more the past two weeks than he has in his whole life and it breaks our hearts.  But, it was time.  We were doing what worked, but I was starting to sleep more deeply and didn't think it was safe for him to be with me anymore.  I think my body was telling me that I'm getting exhausted and needed that deep sleep after months without.  So we took the sleeping plunge!  Longer story now only long, he cried for almost two hours the first couple nights, but the last couple of days has been showing lots of improvement and we're finding again what works for us - nursing to sleep, waking up only a bit when transferred to crib, then staying in the crib and falling back to sleep alone upon little wakings.
• Claire speaks German and English to Henry, depending on what she's thinking at the time, I guess.  I just wanted to record that because the 'sibling language' is always interesting to me.  :)
• Henry is still just as happy as ever!  He kicks his legs a lot when he's excited - it's adorable!  About a month ago, I told him we were going outside to see the "Katzen" and he got really excited and starting kicking and wiggling in my arms!  I really think he is starting to understand a few words, in this case, cats!  He also has said "mamamama" when he wants me but is not consistent at all, so that may just be in my and Aunt Lori and Matt's heads (they heard it too!).