Can you believe this little cutie is one year old now?
He's such a sweet little boy. He has three words: "mama," "dada" and "hi", which he especially likes to use when talking on the phone (anything small enough to be held up to his ear). And he gives me this look sometimes when his sisters are being crazy. It's like a wide-eyed, "can-you-believe-they're-doing-this" look that is pretty hilarious. I like to catch his gaze whenever they're around to see if he has anything to say about what they're doing.
And he could walk if he would just let go. He pushes chairs or doll strollers or pretend shopping carts all over the house. And he'll just stand there on his own with no support. But he absolutely refuses to take his first steps on his own. He's a lot like his big sister, Ellie, in that way. He's been content to just crawl for six months now. But he's getting so heavy. I, for one, would really love it if he started to walk. Especially so we can enjoy the quickly-approaching summer.
In general, he just loves life these days. He loves his batmobile. He loves being squeezed as tightly as possible. He loves grapes and bananas and anything edible, really. He loves when I sing Wheels on the Bus and he laughs so hard when I do the noises dramatically. He loves to go to the park and swing. And swing. And swing. He loves when I am holding him on our way to the park and I start to skip. He loves doing anything silly he can think of to try to get us to laugh. He loves to throw his head back and fake laugh. He loves to snuggle hard (so hard that my nose has been pretty assaulted by his intense snuggling). He loves to climb on anything and everything that he can reach. He loves wearing his grandpa's hat and being sung to by his Papa Dennis.
He really loves the elements. He giggles with delight when it's raining and he gets wet. Or when the wind blows on his face. He gets really excited about every little thing.
And he would love to spend all day, every day playing in the bathroom! I'm always reminding his sisters to keep the door closed, because he can sense that it is open from 100 yards away and he'll come rushing toward that toilet in a full sprint. Why do babies love bathrooms so much?
We had a little birthday party for him a few days after his actual birthday and it was such fun. My family came from Idaho, so Henry got pretty spoiled with affection from almost all of his (many) grandparents, aunts and uncles. It was great to have so many family and friends come. (That, and when you invite my family to come, they not only make the 6 hour drive and stay the night, they also mow the lawn before the party and clean the house afterward. They're pretty awesome like that... love you guys!)
If only we had a bigger house I would have invited everyone we know. Because I love throwing parties. And because I love Henry. And so throwing parties for Henry is double the fun.
My favorite part was watching him open presents. I don't know if it's just because he's seen his sisters do it so many times, but he seemed to really understand the whole process, and got very excited about his new toys. And now he likes to find them around the house and hug them with the biggest grin on his face. It's always fun to make your baby so happy.
Well. We made it. One year of Henry's life. There were some long days. And some short days. And so many very good days. And I love him so much and am looking forward to this next year so much. The funny thing is that I'll write less on here about him this next year, but I actually look forward to it more. I can't wait to hear what he has to say. I can't wait to take him on all our adventures this year. I can't wait to hear his laugh as often as possible and tackle him and tickle him and enjoy everything about my baby boy.
