Lucky duckie

More from Aunt Sis and Uncle Ed: a super-cute duckie bath towel.

Henry loves splashing around in his pool. When it's hot out, he can do it for an hour at a time. In general being naked makes him really happy.

Hi, Mom!

In the pool at Grandma and Grandpa's

Photo from last weekend. See? He's wearing his hat!

More fun than watering the garden...

Watering Henry!

Back in the garden

Ken's Aunt Sis sent Henry a watering can. It's his new favorite bath toy. Today we tried taking it out in the garden. He's still not quite clear on the concept:

This is the first full day we've taken care of Henry alone in over a week. Wed-Fri he's at the babysitter; last Saturday through Tuesday he stayed with my parents while Ken and I escaped for a few days to poke around Amherst, where he'll be teaching in the fall. Henry did just fine without us. In fact, he had a great time. He splashed around in an inflatable pool, learned to wear his hat in the sun, and behaved beautifully for his Grandma and Grandpa. (All the whining was saved for us when we got back.)

Now the circus begins. Just as our tomatoes start to ripen...

...and these mysterious things, whatever they are (squash? watermelon?)...

...we are leaving town for nearly two weeks, Ken to the Midwest and I to the Mideast (quick research trip to Cairo). When we get back it will be almost time to start thinking about fall classes. Oh well. It's been a lovely summer. Can't complain.

Words

Henry seems to understand almost everything we say to him. Today I was reading him "The Hair Book" and asked him where his hair was. It wasn't something we had ever taught him, but he grabbed a handful of it right away. Then of course I pulled out the "Teeth Book" (this is some kind of series we got as a hand-me-down) and sure enough, he showed me where his teeth were. Alright, so he's only got one tooth. But anyway, I was impressed. I wonder what else he understands??

Black-cap jam session

At breakfast time Henry gestured to the fridge. I opened it and let him choose what he wanted for breakfast. He grabbed the jar of Grandma Nancy's blackberry jam. Delicious with toast and peanut butter.

Nice hands, mister!

Back in the garden

 
 

Henry and guitar

So Ken came upstairs today and found Henry bopping up and down as I played some not very tuneful chords...

Quick visit from Uncle Joe

We have baby pix of Joe, and it's uncanny how much they look like Henry. We'll try to scan them in soon. Meanwhile, here are uncle and nephew enjoying an intimate moment of hamming it up for the camera...
 

Muggy day

One of the first really hot, sticky days. We've resisted bringing up the air conditioners from the basement. By the time Ken finally got Henry down for a nap today, it was close to 5pm -- and here's how.

Just like the old newborn days. Any wonder that the kid is only now (10pm) ready for bed?

Carrot face

Today we took Henry swimming for the first time, in a small lake (really more a pond) about 15 minutes up the road. He loved splashing around, being towed through deep water by the hands, and even sort of paddling his hands as we held him under the chest. He also enjoyed playing in the sand, of course.

No sooner had we come home and given him a bath, of course, than he wanted to try some of our carrot juice!

Squash blossoms

The healthiest, most flourishing plants in our garden happen to be the squash (pumpkins?) that volunteered rather than anything we intentionally planted.


And here is Henry on a morning frolic among the squash blossoms.

And fleeing the scene of his deflowering of the pansies that our landlord so carefully planted.

Yeah!

Relaxing with a drink (of milk) after a a hot afternoon at the playground.

Henry's in an affirmative mood these days. Anything Grandpa Ken asked him, he would say, "Yeah!"

Sally's Pizza

A New Haven classic.

At the Stony Creek playground

For future reference: a really great playground, and empty.
Henry's first time on the slide.

They had this great tube for crawling through. Great echo, too.

Light at the end of the tunnel.

Peek-a boo!

Thimble Islands with Ken and Nancy

Henry's grandma and grandpa are in town. Today we went to Stony Creek (part of Branford, CT, just 20 mins away). We had lunch, walked around on the town dock,

...and took a little boat tour of the Thimble Islands with Captain Dave (note the whiskey-flask belt buckle!)

Apparently the Thimbles are home to some pretty eccentric zillionnaires, including two families who stay there year round. The accommodations range from this...


...to some pretty fancy mansions with manicured gardens etc. (all built on bare rock of course). At any rate, Henry thought the noise and motion of the boat were the perfect background for a nap.

Feeding Dad applesauce...

...with a spoon!

13 months

Henry finally has a tiny tooth. It's on the bottom center right. I can feel its little sharp corner when he gives me a great big kiss (i.e., opens his mouth really wide and bites my nose - I don't know where he learned to do this). Other developments:

• He can wave hello and bye-bye, meep noses, sign "more," "all done," "sleep," and sometimes "bath." He can understand (but not always follow) suggestions like "stand up," "sit down," "come here," "why don't you take a sip of juice," etc. To the question "Are you all done with your bath?" he will sometimes sign "all done," pull out the drain plug, and wave bye-bye to the bath water.
• He can say "Yeah," in a very convincing human voice at appropriate times. It's freaky.
• He can often point to where he wants to go in response to the question "Where?" Usually it's the kitchen.
• His fine motor skills are incredible. He can screw on the top of a water bottle, pull weeds (and sometimes oregano leaves as well), separate a tiny piece of bread into crumbs (to feed to Ken one crumb at a time for maximal comic effect), put sand through a sieve at the playground, and put together/take apart Legos.
• He can dance and clap his hands to music. Pretty good rhythm, too!
• When we're outside he notices butterflies, squirrels, cats and dogs, and all kinds of birds. Not insects yet.
• He likes to play tag. He'll take off in some scary direction (like toward the top of the stairs, where we still don't have a gate up; or, in the sandbox, he'll head over the little concrete barrier toward where the big kids play) and keep looking over his shoulder to make sure you're going to catch him.
• He can lie to us. We noticed this during Ann's last visit: he would be sitting in his highchair, finished or bored with breakfast, and he'd suddenly, deliberately start grunting in a "take me to the potty right now" kind of way. We would duly drop everything to rush him upstairs, take off his diaper, sing our potty song, etc. But he would just laugh and run (well, crawl) around the bathroom naked. It was pure theatre. By contrast he rarely indicates when he actually needs to poop. And he has never yet gone actually into the potty, though he has been known to pee into/onto it (standing up, big-boy style; refuses to sit). The potty thing is only a matter of time. That he uses it to manipulate us proves that he knows how much we care about it.
• Kid can't even talk yet and he has an attitude. The other day I said, "Henry, bathtime," and pointed to the tub, which was already full. He was in the doorway between our bedroom and the bathroom. He gave me a big smile, WAVED BYE-BYE, and took off crawling and laughing in the opposite direction!

It's a wonderful age. We're becoming disturbingly aware that he understands everything now, so we have to start acting less like his unconditional fan club and more like serious parent figures. But what to do? Most of the time his miscreancy sends us into fits of laughter. It would do the same to you.

Hat games

We are trying to get Henry used to the idea of wearing a hat in the sun. So I dug out my old hat -- here are Ken and Henry playing with it.

Doesn't it look cute on Henry?

But he has other ideas. Sharing!