Henry's First Birthday

Amid trips to St. George...

playing ball in the park...

and visits from Grandma...

...This little guy turned one year old!

He celebrated with a ball birthday party (no pictures yet) with some of his closest friends and family. He had to fight off big sister to open his presents and then later to play with his toys.

But he did get to play with some of his toys at the end of the day. Some of his favorite toys? A powerwheels Buzz Lightyears ATV, an awesome slide, a car course that Henry loves sitting in, and BALLS! He's loving being 1.

The doctor gave Henry a thumbs up at his check up. He's 24lb 3oz (87%), 31in (88%), and a 48cm head (92%). ROAR! He's 12 months!

Henry has always been such an easy going baby. Now though, he's gotten a bit of spunk in him. He throws fits like you've never seen!

Above, it seems he just didn't want his picture being taken on the floor. He calmed down when placed in a chair. Below, he saw a display of balls at the grocery store and sobbed pointing at them and yelling 'NI' until we were several aisles away.

Also, sometimes you just don't want to have a nap with your pants on! Checking on him during naptime, Henry had ripped off his pants and thrown them out of his crib. See you later, pants!

He's finally grown more teeth! His two bottom teeth have been augmented by three more teeth on top. He isn't walking yet, but he is standing on his own and taking a few tentative steps. Any day now!

Henry's verbal skills are getting better and better. He's repeating as many of Olivia's words as he can. His favorites are dog and dada! He points at most people and call them dada, including a picture of Jesus he saw at church...

Happy birthday, little buddy. We couldn't be happier about having you in our family and we love you so much!

Henry - Monster Man!

Look at Henry, our adorable monster man! He's such a wild a crazy boy and we love this guy.

He finds himself in all sorts of trouble, whether it be some new wonder he's found to shove in his mouth (pictured here with a spool of thread in his mouth) or some new obstacle he's climbed up. (He got on to that chair via the automan all by himself.)

He just plays as hard and as fast as he can until he passes out with exhaustion. One afternoon he had skipped his nap and had gotten so tired that he just crawled onto his mom's lap and fell fast asleep. Ridiculous!

Henry has fallen in love with eating. He's pleased with anything that he can hold himself, especially things he can slurp up and/or hold himself! He's definitely got a healthy appetite.

Snowshoeing with the family! Quite picturesque, no?

Henry still loves being around his sister, but they find themselves fighting over things quite often. She usually knows just how to push his buttons.

Henry's verbal skills have really exploded this past month. He doesn't babble like Olivia did, he usually only speaks deliberately when he wants to communicate something. He's got 'Mama', 'Dada', 'Numnums',  'drink', and 'dog' down. Surprisingly, he doesn't say Olivia's name. Perhaps because it's kind of long and difficult and when she says it these days is sounds something like, "Lalivlilah."

Our sweet little boy. Though he's been a bit of a handful this past month, being sick almost continually, we still love being around him. He's 100% boy with his head-butting, growling, climbing, and throwing things. Olivia and Cassandra tried to teach him how to hug stuffed animals like girls do. He picked up his giraffe and hugged it close. Then he looked at it and threw it as far as he could. Classic, Henny.