Henry at Ten Months

Dear Henry,

Right now Month 10 feels like a hard one, since you have been so sick for the past couple of weeks.  We have spent a lot of time reading books and cuddling and visiting the doctor...and a lot of hours in the night rocking and rocking and rocking.

But when you're well, you are so much fun!  You are a good eater, devouring any number of things we put in front of you, and if your obsession with chicken taco meat is any indication, you seem to have your daddy's taste--the more flavor the better.  I feel like feeding you takes up most of our day again, since you like to feed yourself (yay for Mama getting to eat lunch, too!), but you take your sweet time.

You've finally added a front-scoot to your backwards crawl.  It is hilarious.  You have to work pretty hard, so you only use it when you really want something, and it makes you look like a guy out of a Western who has been shot and is dragging himself to water.  You've also discovered the joys of throwing something and watching it bounce...or, in most cases, watching Mommy or Daddy pick it up again for you.

After months of mastering one sound at a time (ya-ya-ya, ma-ma-ma, buh-buh-buh), you are suddenly a babbly chatterbox.  I suspect that is why mealtimes take so long...  And you are SUCH a fan of your daddy.  I try not to be offended when you attempt to leap out of my arms and into his.

While you love your daddy (and your mama, I know), you are in full-fledged stranger anxiety mode.  Extra fun, since we not only had lots of friends visit recently, but you just started with a new nanny.  It takes you a bit of time to adjust to someone new, but so far your nanny, Lissette, is proving to be the answer to prayer we needed!

We love you gobs and gobs, Henry.

Love,
Mama

As it should be.

We had a weekend full of good moments.  Our dear, dear friends the Kings and the Gambills were, impossibly, both in town, and I feel happily filled up with good conversation, laughter, baby snuggling, and cozy friendship.  I have felt a bit adrift as these families, who have been such a big part of our lives for years, moved away, and having them all in my house again for an evening...well everything was just as it should be.

Kind of like this, only better.

Steven, Amy, and boys stayed with us, and we spent Friday ice skating at the Sculpture Garden rink on the National Mall.  Light snow, picturesque backdrop, warming up with hot chocolate--only Amy could have planned it all so perfectly.

 

Henry snuggling up to Amy

Friday night Brent, Tilly, and crew joined us for dinner.  It was little boys and babies all over the place!  We had three new additions since we had been together last, and it was so fun to see all these babies--who were born 12 days apart from each other--together at last!  Henry, who leads a pretty quiet life most of the time, was not. sure. about all this chaos, especially since his little friends are crawling all over the place while he watched uncertainly from a secure seated position!  In spite of his reticence, some of my favorite moments of the weekend were watching Hudson and Carter, both two, hug, kiss, and play kindly with Henry.  I love watching my friends love on my baby and getting a chance to snuggle their kids in return!

Babies on the go

 

Nora and Rusher

Tilly, Amy, and I put the kids to bed and settled in for a good chat while the guys headed to Jason's hockey game, where they were joined by more of Jason's fan club.  While they lost in overtime, Jason's team had a roaring fan section cheering them on!  And somehow Amy and I were still up when they got home from a post-game visit to IHOP...

Jason with his fan club

Reading with Carter and Hudson

We spent Saturday night with other friends from church, and it felt so fun and normal to laugh together!  Everyone in our little group had babies in a little over a year, and the two- and three- and four-year old crowd quickly became fast friends again.  So fun.  And today everyone was in Sunday school, and Amy told a funny story and I heard Brent laughing across the room, and ah.  It warmed the cockles of my heart.

Kiddos galore!

 

It has been hard to lose these friends, with whom we've celebrated and prayed and laughed and grown.  But it was nice this weekend, as we started planning our next time together, to be reminded that we haven't lost them at all.  I have begun to see that God has been creating space in my life for relationships he is calling me to, but that I get to keep these special friendships, too.

Sick Week

I'm boiling binkies right now, and washing blankets and scrubbing toys, trying to get the "sick" out of this house.  Poor Henry.  We spent all of last Thursday night trying to manage a blazing fever, rocking and rocking in the chair, and ever since then his face has been oozing tears and snot and drool .  It's been a tough week for him...and his mama and daddy.  It's like having a newborn again, and we, who thought we were past the worst of the sleep deprivation, find ourselves ill-equipped to handle it this time around.

This is how we've spent the week, since his fever hasn't gone away in days (though the second round of antibiotics seems to be working...finally).  He's a miserable little creature.

Sick days provide an opportunity gauge how I am coming along as a mother.  It was encouraging to find that it was easy to give up my list of things to do and people to see on Friday and instead just sit in a chair and hold Henry while he slept.  Newborn Mama Missy would have tried to make it all happen and then felt like a failure when the floor wasn't mopped.  I've learned that sick babies are for snuggling, and Snuggly Henry doesn't come around often.

Maybe it's just because now I have a kid and am paying more attention, but I swear all the kids I know around here have been sick for the entire winter.  I felt like perhaps we'd had a reprieve, but now I've joined the list of moms praying for spring...

V-Day

Happy Valentine's Day from Henry.