My kids are great! I'm in love! It seems like tragedy has been evident lately. It really makes me appreciate that we are healthy and happy and safe. Here are some of the wonderful updates that I want to record before I forget.
Thirteen months is so fun! I love my little Henry and can't believe he's now a toddler. He's been walking since about two weeks after November 12th, his first birthday. He toddles everywhere, quite quickly actually! Big cooking spoons and whisks are his favorite. He loves to carry them around when he's on the move (which is pretty much always!).
(Unless you want details of our routine, skip this paragraph. I'm typing it more for myself, to remember what I love about this time with Henry, but it may bore you...)
My favorite time with him is before nap time or bedtime. We moved him from our room to Claire's room about a week before Christmas because we really wanted him to learn to sleep on his own and having his crib in our room was just not working. He learned so quickly, literally in about two nights, that we're thinking we maybe should have moved him sooner! ;) He soothes himself by laying on his belly and kicking his feet against the mattress, so cute!! Since moving into his big boy room (meaning he's not with mama and daddy anymore) we have started a sleep time routine that I love, because it's all about him! It's the one time in the day when I can give him my undivided attention. Claire usually stays downstairs and plays while I'm putting him down for nap, and then she and Daddy read books downstairs when I'm putting Henry to bed. Henry knows exactly what to do when we go upstairs to his room. He heads over to the books, and pulls a few down that he 'wants' to read. He really loves books now! He loves to look at them and turn the pages. His current favorites are a peek a boo book with holes and a favorite things book with holes in the pages. While we are reading, he pulls down the sock basket and dumps them all out, sometimes over his head like it's raining socks. Then he wears the basket as a hat and also gives me a turn, handing the basket over. We sing the "Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken..." song and play with and read books in between. He also loves pulling Claire's clothes out of the dresser drawers while we're upstairs. Then we have our cuddle nursing time and sing "Der Mond ist aufgegangen" and "Guten Abend, Gut' Nacht" before I put him into bed. "Ich liebe dich, bis zum Mond und wieder zurueck, mein Maeuschen."
Henry is so fast that he can disappear in seconds. He's getting good at playing independently for a few minutes at a time. Often when he's all of a sudden gone, our best bet is to look upstairs. Lately he's been sneaking up there and opening all the dresser drawers and emptying Daddy's clothes out of them. He also loves to snuggle up in Claire's bed with the big comforter (which right now is a mattress on the floor in our room).
My little guy has such a sense of humor! We play this game where he makes a noise and then I imitate him. Each few times of doing this and he starts to giggle, and of course I encourage him by joining in the laughter. He laughs so much and it's so good for my heart! I need to record it. :)
One of the things I love about thirteen months is that he is starting to understand and communicate so much. A few days ago, he finally started saying mamamamamamama. It hasn't been totally clear that he is referring to me specifically, but I'm pretty sure he means Mama when he says it. I can tell that he understands some simple questions and phrases. Today we were watching Daddy outside as he was going to the burn pile, and we were talking about Daddy and then the cats and I could tell Henry was following what I was saying. He likes to do "Wie gross ist Henry? SOOO gross!" (How big is Henry? SOOO big!) and to do 'so big' with me in reference to other BIG things. He is also making sounds that we think are words, like ba for ball and uuh for up. He knows the signs for 'more' and 'all done' and sometimes uses them. Yesterday Matt gave Henry a tiny piece of brownie, and he immediately and enthusiastically signed 'more!' And on top of that, he definitely communicates in other ways, like lots of pointing and noise making if he is trying to tell us something or isn't happy! ;)
Henry loves to CLIMB! We've known this for a while. Even the church nursery staff have made several comments about his super climbing abilities. Tonight, he climbed onto the fireplace brick. I set him next to the table and told him to climb onto that instead (which he understood...yay!). So, he climbed onto one side of the table, crawled across, turned around, and climbed down the other side. Then he walked back around to the starting side. He did this probably a dozen times and was having so much fun with it!
Big news for Henry is that his very own big boy room is almost done! And it's the exact same big boy room that Matt had. I have to admit that it's pretty cool that we're now on the family farm and we can create memories here with our little family, and that Matt has so many good memories of growing up here. Matt replaced the cardboard tile ceiling with drywall, hung a new ceiling fan, and gave it a couple fresh coats of bright green paint (what could be better for a kids' room!) and the carpet is being installed this week! A beautiful and bright dinosaur quilt that a very talented friend sweetly made will finally be hung to decorate the wall, and it will be complete! I am more excited than Henry. ;)
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