It's been ridiculously long since I've posted anything, even though I vowed I'd stay current with this. Days and weeks and months seem to fly by, and Henry is all of a sudden almost 10 months old, which means we're fast approaching his first birthday. His hair is starting to grow out thicker, and is chaning from blond to red to brown and back to red again. And he's had his first two bottom teeth for months now, but after weeks of a river of drool running down his chin, he's starting to sprout a few on top as well! It looks like the two top middle teeth are coming in a bit behind their neighbors, which should make him look a bit vampire-ish but adorable. It's all very exciting, but I can't help thinking he's fast on his way to becoming a toddler -- teeth, hair and all.
I put some photos up here from his trip to England at the beginning of March, which was a perfect time to travel with him -- 6 1/2 months. He was great on the plane -- slept the whole way over in my arms (which meant I didn't sleep much) -- and loved meeting all his extended family over there. He trudged across the English countryside in our handy backpack and took the wet weather in stride, and had lots of fun sitting around pubs playing with coasters. We even met up with his friend Jack (and our friends Virgil and Caroline) in London, where they were passing through on their way to a poetry reading Virgil was giving. It was so funny seeing the two babies out of Greensboro and sitting around a hotel lobby together, then off for a trip to a noodle house where they were treated to table-mounted high chairs. I remember being amazed that Jack, who is three months older than Henry, was eating solid food like noodles. At the time, Henry was fairly new to baby food, but it really wasn't more than a couple of months later that he decided he'd had enough of pureed food and wanted some real stuff. He's a great eater, and likes just about anything, which makes feeding him a pleasure. He usually has some of what we're having, along with his staples of yogurt, bananas, avocados, applesauce and scrambled eggs.
More recently, we headed out to the Outer Banks for a week, where we rented a house with four other couples, all of whom either had kids or are expecting. Virgil and Caroline and Jack were there, and Henry and Jack had a wild time playing in the sand -- just sitting in the foreign substance was enough for a while, and then Caroline filled a large bucket with sea water, which they proceeded to dump toys into and splash around in. Henry got several facefuls of sand, and swallowed a bunch more I'm sure, but it didn't seem to bother him. I think Henry really liked the ocean; he's had this noise machine on his monitor and also on his swing since he was little that has ocean sounds, so he's spent the past 9 months falling asleep to the very same sound. When we first crossed over the dune and onto the sand, he had a look of recognition and puzzlement at the same time -- the sound was so much bigger and clearer and came from all around.
Henry's favorite thing to do other than stand up and cruise around the coffee table is to look at people, and he's developed a real fascination with other children. He's now big enough to ride around in the front of the shopping carts, and I've realized how many places have shopping carts with toddler seats -- places I never would have thought of, like Office Depot or the CoOp. He turns himself around as best he can to face forward despite my efforts to face him the right way -- I think all those months of being in the Baby Bjorn got him in the habit of looking around in front of him. Even when I carry him, he's happier being held in front and facing outwards than on my hip. On Saturday we went to an end-of-the-year party at Mary and Phillip's, and there were a ton of kids around. He was particularly fascinated with Elijah and Nicholas, who at four years old were running around together and catching lightening bugs. He's an awfully good sport, and a very sociable and flexible baby.
The other thing that I'm excited about is that he's started to look at books as you read to him, and seems to be getting the idea. Until recently all he wanted to do was put them in his mouth (which is still his favorite part), but now he'll sit quietly on your lap and look at the pictures on first one page and then the other. This is the part where I could really go over the top, flooding him with more and more books to chew on. He's got a whole host of wonderful children's books from our "fashion and literature" baby shower, and I can't wait for him to really delve into those, though of course I simultaneously want to slow time down and keep him just as he is at the moment...happy, somewhat mobile, interested in everything around him, smiling at strangers, focusing on the tiniest things, entertained for eons by a pinecone and a stick, giddy with happiness when either Christian or I walk into the room.
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