Childproofing - expulsion from paradise

Today Henry helped me unpack our last crate of books, which had been standing under some other crates in our bathroom closet (!) since last August. This was, in some complicated way, related to our effort to childproof Henry's room and the bathroom and kitchen.

The baby gate really annoyed Henry. We needed it to keep him out of the kitchen while Ken put plastic locks on the drawers and cabinets. You can't see much of the construction site in these pictures -- but here's Henry, on tiptoe, lobbing Legos over the barricades.

Potty time?

Today we bought Henry a second potty chair: the first is for kids "age 2 and up" and is too big for him to feel comfortable sitting on it. His feet don't touch the ground. This one seems to be a bit smaller and the box is labeled "12m+" so we hope it might work better. So far it's a great success: he loves removing the pull-out yellow bowl and stirring around in it with a plastic spoon or pushing it all around the kitchen floor. (Before we moved it to the bathroom.) He has yet to be persuaded to sit on it, of course. I wonder if there's a better way. He's so eager to please us these days, so obviously taking in everything we say and do, and so often responsive to requests. ("Henry, please give your daddy back his glasses.") That ought to be good for something. Experiences with "early start" potty training, anyone?

Gardening

Can you believe that just a few days ago we were wearing sweaters or jackets? Now it's regular summer here.

Our greens are starting to come up (that's broccoli in the foreground, peas in the background, mostly arugula in the middle).

Henry is growing as well. He has much better coordination these days, and a fine sense of balance. He reaches for things with real confidence and what at least appears to be a sense of purpose. He often waves bye-bye when you leave, and can bring you a book when you ask him. ("Henry. Bring me a book. Yeah, that's right, bring me the book." Etc.) He can stand up on his own for more than 10 seconds at a time. (Have I already mentioned this?) Of course every baby goes through these developments en route to not being a baby anymore, but we are not taking any part of this for granted: every bit is miraculous to watch.

Soon he will be walking!

Intrepid!

Visit with Anya and Nick

Hurray! Our friends Anya and Nick are moving to New Haven in August. They were in town just for a couple of days to find an apartment. Henry enjoyed their company a lot. He especially liked bouncing on the airbed we had inflated in the living room.

Plus, four whole adults making much of him! Boy will next year be fun, he must have thought.

Eyelashes

More Andover pix

Lunch in Commons. Henry was okay with the cafeteria food...

...but really just preferred to eat a banana (his favorite these days).

Then we went for a stroll down Elm Walk...

...and posed in front of SamPhil, the language and history building.

Sunny day at last

We're in Andover for the weekend. On Saturday Henry got to meet his great-aunt Irene, visiting from Israel (no photos, sorry -- silly Mommy's batteries died).
Yesterday, our friend Mira and her five-year-old, Abi, came to visit. It was fun to watch Abi and Henry playing together; they were really into each other. It's the first time we've seen Henry really engage with an older kid. She just fascinated him.

In the afternoon, after days of rain, the sun finally came out. So we went for a walk.

We played on the big see-saw in the Sanctuary. Abi discovered she couldn't tip the balance, even by jumping.

Or even with help from Ken and Henry.

This is the view in front of the Log Cabin where Ken's and my wedding pix were supposed to be taken (had it not rained).

Someday Henry will understand how special this place is to his parents.

Happy Mother's Day!

Who's not in these pictures? Mommy! And also Daddy! They've decided to celebrate their first Mother's Day by sneaking off to a matinee of The Tempest at the Folger. (The play was great. Highly recommended.)

Fortunately, Grandma and Grandpa and all the other grownups took good care of Henry in our absence. They took him for another long walk, fed him yogurt and a banana, and sang him to sleep for a nice long nap.

He was a happy boy all afternoon, as you can see.

Of course he started crying when he saw me again in the evening, but that was just for show. To make me feel needed and stuff.

Never too tired to party

The occasion for our trip to Maryland was a birthday party Saturday night. A big celebration; my parents were in town too. Of course, with all the visiting and traveling (including getting on the road at 5:30 on Thursday morning, long story), Henry's sleep schedule was completely off. By 5:30 pm he was clingy and cranky. In general he is going through a bit of a whiny mommy's-boy phase lately: very gratifying if you're the mommy, but probably kind of trying otherwise. When Ken took him out for a walk in the backpack, he fell asleep. The party started at 7. What to do? Was this a late nap, or was he out for the night? We certainly didn't want to sit around at our friends' house while everyone else was at the party. But what if we woke him up and he was miserable? Parents can spend an hour pacing around a portable crib and discussing all the pros and cons of this kind of thing. At 8pm we finally decided on a ridiculous compromise: pick up the sleeping kid, bring along the Pack&Play, walk to the party, and hope we could sneak him in and put him to bed in a side room.
Of course Henry woke up as soon as we walked in. Fortunately, his extroverted nature kicked in right away, and soon he was making the rounds of his admirers and dancing happily with his grandma.

Silly parents got to dance a bit, too. Hurray!

A walk around Lake Frank

When we went out for a walk on Saturday around noon, my dad insisted on wearing Henry. Good thing, too - the kid probably weighs between 22 and 25 pounds these days.

Henry, unable to nap all morning, soon fell asleep in the backpack. He slept right through a snake sighting...

...and a stream crossing.


He must have been out for about 40 minutes.

But, as usually happens when non-parent people are around, he was very sweet as soon as he woke up.

Bathing babies

As Ken said, "Henry, enjoy this. It might be a long time before you get to take a bath with a girl again."

Visit with Ari and Lily

Their baby, Liel, is 13 months old (she appeared in this space last September and November; this time she seemed less into grabbing Henry). What a big difference just two months can make! She walks around with confidence, can climb off the couch by herself (properly, facing backwards), and has something like four teeth already (Henry doesn't have any yet). In general she is quite a self-possessed little lady. Ari told us a story about how she took to tearing pieces of leaf off the family houseplant. Whenever he said NO, she looked around briefly and kept doing it. But she would hide the pieces in her toy wagon. Then one day when he said NO in earnest, she went to the wagon, pulled out a piece of leaf, and went up to the plant as if to put it back on.

A visit with Kate

Lunch at Franklin's with Kate, the lovely authoress of the personalized Henry t-shirt (see www.cluttershop.com for details). Henry showed a lively interest in French fries, a form of potato he had not yet experienced. In general the kid has never met a potato he didn't like.

Is that Mommy over there with the camera?

A little trip

So we went to Maryland for a long weekend with family and friends...

Henry is just at that delightful age where, as soon as you pack something, he begins unpacking it. And of course he had to try climbing inside the red suitcase.

First haircut

Cutting an 11-month-old's hair is a terrifying prospect. But Henry was starting to look disheveled and embarrassing. There was no putting it off any longer.

Unfortunately, Ken forgot to lower the length guard on the clippers, producing a big bald spot on Henry's left temple.

"Dad, you're making me look totally uncool!"

Overall, we think it's an improvement. But should we consider a combover for that bald spot?