One Point Five

Henry is 18 months old today. I remember looking at piles of baby clothes thinking 18 months was centuries away. But now he is very munch one and a half years old. Reportedly he said "Henry" for the first time today. We are also hearing and thinking we're hearing more small phrases. "What izzit?" is a favorite. Last weekend he embraced "ei-ei-o" and he is "singing" lots of songs - sometimes he even throws in a word or two. ;) Henry loves the Alphabet Song. On our trip last weekend I found some great iPad apps and Henry is starting to really "get" them. The biggest tech challenge so far is trying to convince him not to press the Home button which interrupts whatever he's doing. He is starting to make the connection. He's also getting better at tapping at things on screen instead of just slapping the screen. This all means that he is really enjoying watching an episode of one of his favorite shows and hearing the children's songs played over and over. He is running, dancing like a free spirit, and doing a pretty good job of feeding himself with a spoon. He still doesn't feel very adventurous about food but we keep offering him different things. Last night he thought he'd skip the midleman and he applied yogurt directly to his belly. He has started to match up items in books and to point to things when we name them. He loves dropping his stuffies and toys over the baby gate. He is just wild about stairs. When I imagined this post yesterday, the title was "18 Months: Insufferable." He has a pretty good tantrum for us just about every day. Do NOT take that toy away, leave the room, fail to pick him up, fail to grasp what he wants, try to make him eat that thing! He is also going at the speed of light and grabbing everything possible with his hands. Henry is a wild flirt and loves to smile, wave and giggle whenever possible. This month he also embraced slides and goats. He went from having us gently move him down small slides to climbing the steps and launching himself down the slide in one afternoon last week. We stopped to see goats on our trip last weekend and Henry went from fearing them to merrily hand-feeding them and trying to climb into their pen. Today we scheduled Henry's heart surgery. He should be fully recovered by Memorial Day. Right now that day feels too far off but I am sure it will be here sooner than we expect.