More mischief

Hmmm, what can I pull down from the coffee table? Maybe a yummy book?

Or a squeaky bracelet?

Or how about a whole basket of little toys?

Swinging

We wedged Henry's blanket into the swing with him to keep him upright. He's still a little small and sometimes arches his back, but he seems really to enjoy it. Can't wait till springtime.

A walk in the park

East Rock Park, Sunday afternoon:

Solid food

Should we feed Henry to the dinosaur?

Peabody Museum

Today Uncle Joe was in town and we went to the natural history museum. Henry's a little young to be into dinosaurs, but we all had fun anyway.

This giant turtle weighed as much as six Ford Festivas!

Joe and Henry looked at a fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex skull...

And various primates (we like primates!)...

And Inuit dolls...

Mischief

When we were in Chicago, my advisor said Henry has intelligent eyes. And doesn't he?

Now it's 13 minutes past bedtime, but I'm not tired of him yet. He's crawling around the living room floor (not, as above, in his crib). Recently his favorite game has been to pull down the wicker basket of small toys that we keep on the bottom shelf of the coffee table, scattering teething rings, finger puppets, rattles, etc., all over the floor. Then he crawls around retrieving some of them and putting them in his mouth. He can do this for quite a while -- half an hour maybe -- without getting bored and yelling for attention. He bangs the squeaky frog toy on the floor to make it squeak.
He can also retrieve his pacifier and put it to use. I love that he remembers what things are for. Or maybe he just puts everything in his mouth, and the pacifier also.
He's also vocalizing a lot these days -- eghe, agha, but not a lot of consonants. He's already such good company, and he can't even talk yet.

Grrr! (bedtime games)

Henry shows off his cool dinosaur pajamas.

He's gotten really good at the pacifier game.

Grrr! (Thanks, Uncle Joe and Aunt Anita!)

Chickpeas

The other day we thought we were going to make some hummus.
So we soaked and boiled some chickpeas and, just for fun, let Henry try them...

...right out of the food processor:

To our amazement, he started SCREAMING for more!

So we canceled the hummus and reserved the chickpeas for Henry.
Now the babysitter reports that he isn't actually that into them -- she has to mix them with squash before he'll eat any. Hmmm. Maybe he just likes the idea of grownup food?

Squash nose?

Here's Henry taking a nap in our bed early yesterday morning.

(He's been waking up around 5, then nursing/sleeping in our bed till 7 or 8... makes it really fun to teach at 9am.)
Do you think his nose looks yellow in this photo? We've been feeding him a lot of squash, along with other things (hummus, yogurt and banana, and of course lots of milk). A few weeks ago Ann noticed that his nose seemed to be starting to turn yellow from excess carotene. So we started mixing the squash with peas -- less of a favorite, but he'll still eat it. But I think his nose is still a funny color. Maybe it's related to the cold he's had?
And is his hair getting darker?

Unclear on the concept

Water, water everywhere, but...

...perhaps it's still a little early for the sippy cup?

Ahoy there, matey!

Finally, here's Henry trying on Zaiah and Elijah's pirate hat:

A stop in Allentown

Yesterday we started heading back east. We stopped for the night in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with our friends Mark and Sharon and their two adorable boys Isaiah (age 5) and Elijah (2 1/2). Elijah enjoyed playing with the baby and showing him some of his toys.

Mark got to pose with Henry, still conveniently handheld and portable.

Meanwhile, Zaiah was doing scary acrobatics on Sharon.

I look at these two smart and good-natured and very rambunctious kids and think, oh boy, this is what we'll be in for one day. Henry can just about locomote (via erratic crawl), but he's not seriously mobile yet. But any day now.

Bathtime at Anya's

We went over to our friends Anya and Nick's house for supper. As usual, Henry got to splash around in the kitchen sink while the grownups got the food ready.

Anya and Nick said they would print out this photo and hang it above the sink to remind it of the best day of its life.

Later Henry sat with us at the table and even ate some hummus. He wasn't too excited about the first bite, but after a while he really got into it. A new food for the Henry repertoire? Then he went to sleep on a blanket on the floor in Anya's study. We are amazingly lucky to have such an easygoing kid.

John's place

In Chicago we stayed at our friend John's new place in Hyde Park. Look at his great view -- very Chicago! -- of the Metra tracks.

Henry got a chance to help John with his exercise routine of running, stretching, and babylifting. Should come in handy when John is working hard at the South Pole next month (not to mention next time he runs the Chicago Marathon).

Aunt Sis

Last Monday we stayed overnight in Wilmette, Ill., with Ken's Aunt Sis and Uncle Ed. It was great to visit and introduce them to our little guy! Here's Sis with Ken and Henry. (He seems to be teething. That dragonfly toy he's munching, a present from Sis, is really good for chomping down on. No sign of an actual tooth yet, though.)

Baby present

The bright and snuggly blanket is a present from Ken's aunt Suze and uncle Tom. The ribbon came with it. Henry lost no time in gift-wrapping himself!

A beer in Madison (Jan 7)

 

Home at last

We drove home from Chicago yesterday, stopped with friends in Allentown, Penn., for the night, and got home this afternoon. Plenty of laundry and unpacking to do. How better to procrastinate than by posting lots of photos from the last week of the trip....

On the road again...

We're in Chicago, on the last leg of what has been an extremely long and fun but also hectic vacation. We haven't been home since Dec. 20. We had to come here so I could give my doctoral lecture, the last official rite of passage associated with my graduation. It's over and went very well - hurray! We drive home tomorrow.
The point is that Henry has been a trooper through three-plus weeks of nonstop travel, visiting, socializing, big meals, late bedtimes, car trips, being fawned over and adored, etc. I wonder how he will readjust to our boring little life: the park, the babysitter, walks around New Haven. Look forward to finding out.

The pacifier game

Henry is inching ever closer to learning to crawl. He can push up on his hands and knees, and he can reach forward -- just not simultaneously. We've been trying to incentivize crawling by playing the pacifier game. If one of us puts the pacifier in our mouth, he loves to try to grab it away from us!
Come on, Henry! Can you reach it? Can you grab it?
Yay! Got it!

Do-si-do with Dad

Record high temperatures

You might have heard about the ridiculous weather we had on Saturday -- temperatures in Boston were in the mid-60s. Here we are at Spy Pond Park in Arlington.

Henry had his first ride on a swing. He seemed to be pretty pleased with it. (Later when Ken was pushing him harder he was laughing and laughing.)

Meanwhile Veronica rode on the big-girl swing with her mom: