1 year old.

This is the last of my monthly updates for Mr. Henry. Goodness gracious, how exactly did we get here?

About a week before he turned one, he started talking and really taking steps on his own. As of today, he can walk about half the room by himself, but when he's not practicing walking by himself, he is walking around everywhere, holding on to every single thing and trying to figure everything out. He says ball, mama, dada, go, dog, more, and bubble. He can tell you what a dog, kitty, cow, and monkey say. He flirts with all kinds of people (mostly women) by cocking his head back and forth and being all cute or just practicing his royal wave. It kills me. He's eating pretty good - he loves avocados and cheese and bread and likes sweet potatoes, apples, broccoli, lentils, yogurt, and occasionally pears. He still takes 2 naps, and I'm in the process of trying to give him whole milk which he thinks is crazy. He takes a sip, stops, and looks at the cup/bottle like "ummm nice try lady."

Henry lights up our life so bright and brings us so much joy. He has turned into a little charmer and makes me laugh all day long. I'm so proud of the little guy he is and grateful to be his mother. Sometimes I just sit and watch him reading a little book or dancing around or singing a little song and I try to soak it in because I'm realizing how quickly these little ones change. This week, with Mark out of town, I tried to teach him the art of snuggling. And today I can proudly say I have a cuddler on my hands. As long as he has his bear - his true love - and his paci, he will sit with me and let me snuggle him. IT MELTS MY COLD HEART. I miss baby Henry, but I am totally in love with little Henry. He's a riot and has the keen ability to endear almost anyone to him, including yours truly (obviously).

Christmas Crafternoon.

Last night, I hosted our little sort of annual Christmas craft party. I had planned on a few ladies coming over for a somewhat quiet night of making garlands and ornaments and gift tags, but word got out (and I'm glad it did!), and we ended up having more than half the ladies in the ward (and then some!) over for crafts, delicious food, and general merriment. It was like a surprise party for me (and the Gods of craft?), and I was thrilled to have a perfectly raucous group of ladies at my house! I know everyone is busy this time of year, so I was extra pleased that so many girls in my hood equally recognize the importance of girls night and Christmas preparation. I already want to have another crafternoon tomorrow, especially if it involves chocolate butter and challah bread and GOAT BUTTER and cranberry walnut bread. How had I never had goat butter before last night? I am forever indebted to you, Libby.

Anyway, onto more important things like how talented everyone is.  And how I just stole everyone's instagram photos for this blog post. Your welcome! And thank you. We had a blast. It was the first night I could remember actually completing a craft (let alone even starting one) at craft night. Hurrah. Success for all. And now I am officially in the Christmas spirit.

Not traveling.

Mark was in Kenya last week. For Thanksgiving. For the record, it stinks having a husband away on business for holidays. Also for the record, Henry is teething and is letting me know by screaming at nights and wanting to cuddle during the day (bless him). Needless to say, a clingy baby and a missing husband has resulted in me getting absolutely nothing done last week. We did, however, manage to watch a bit of The Sound of Music. Halfway into the opening scene with Maria twirling around singing, Henry turned to me and smiled this huge closed mouth grin, and I smiled back at him, then he turned around and watched for another few minutes. Then he was off again...cruising. Fitting into tight Henry-sized spaces. Clearing off the bookshelf. Opening and closing all the doors he can find. Sticking his little fingers through the mail slot. Boy is busy these days. It is exhausting. I am grateful today for the time we had to spend together last week, but thank goodness Mark is back! I'm a tired momma.

Henry's 1st Birthday Party

Henry turned one. On his birthday, we shared a mini cupcake with him that was met with a sort of uninterested dismissal of the sugar bomb. He doesn't like to be forced to do anything (I wonder where he gets that from...).
That sort of prepared me for his birthday party, where he was sitting in front of a few more people and seemed to be more interested in playing with his friends than eating a dumb old cupcake (his words, not mine!).  His birthday party was a super fun little celebration for all of us. Happy to have him in our family, happy he is growing into such a fun little bug, and happy to have-all of us-survived and thrived. We thought it might be fun to get our food truck to cater the party, and luckily it worked out perfectly! So I didn't have to worry so much about feeding lunch to 30 people, instead they just waited outside for a few minutes, picked up a gourmet hot dog, and came back inside to party. It was a dream and I'm glad Dave was available to cater!
I'll let the photos do the talking. They tell a pretty good story.

 Totally uninterested. He was like what the heck is this mom. Gross.

 We switched cupcakes in the middle thinking maybe he'd like chocolate better?

 Hey ok, maybe he does like cupcakes! Way to go chocolate goatee, nice look!

Just kidding, he hated it. Just nonchalantly shoving cake in my babies face while he sobs. Mom fail. At least Hunter thinks it's funny.

 The afterparty. Playing with toys and bonding with family and friends.

 Henry with his little friend, Gray Gray. They hang out every day and are best buddies...most of the time. :)

 Loves his new firetruck. Thanks Papa!

Happy birthday, Henry.

 Henry.

It's been a year since that day you changed our lives forever, made our hearts triple in size, and left us a little bleary-eyed and absent-minded for a while.

You made me a mother. You're growing up every single day and I am so proud of you and I hate it all at the same time. It doesn't seem fair that I carry you for 9 months in my belly and then you are only a snuggly sweet smelling baby for 2 seconds.

But oh, to live in those 2 seconds was like a dream. Everyone told me - enjoy these moments they pass so quickly, but I couldn't comprehend it until it happened. Even though those first few months are a complete whirlwind, I look back and think of the peace and gentle kindness you brought into our home.  How lucky we are to have you in our lives. Happy birthday, little Henry.

Sleeping + Henry hits some milestones.

Last night I put Henry to bed at 7pm. He was exhausted, fussy, throwing tantrums, and just generally freaking out, so it was to bed a little earlier than usual. After he went down, I thought, gee I'm a little tired myself, so it was off to bed for a little cat nap that turned into a full nights sleep, waking up at 5am, which was when our sweet little Henny woke us up. His first time sleeping through the night in over a week since he got a pretty bad little cold, so we were all grateful to the little guy for giving us a full nights sleep, even if he did wake up at bloody five o clock am. But I did get a pretty solid 9 hours of sleep which has happened never since baby came along, so I was feeling really grateful this morning.

We woke up, he started crawling all over us, hitting dada's back (so funny, right Mark?), and it was off to his room for some morning play. We read books, practiced walking, and I watched him deftly leap from chair to crib to ottoman in his favorite game of "cruisin for a bruisin".

Even though these mornings come early, there really is no better way to start the day then a sweet little snotty nosed face laughing and looking at every ball-shaped thing and saying "ball. ball. ball."

Oh, right, Henry said his first word last week. Ball. The next day I was leaving and said Buh-bye Henry! And he waved and said "buh-bye". Um, what? Then an hour later, he said "mama". I think he must be figuring it out now. My heart leaped out of my chest to know that we were starting our first verbal communication with each other. It's just a new kind of love. Every new thing he does introduces a new kind of love to Mark and I and just opens up our hearts further and further. Can you tell how swoony I am over this little baby? Must be all that sleep I got last night!

ps Monday, he took his first steps. Things are about to change over here!

Henry's first Halloween

Well, well, well. It was quite a different Halloween for us folk'n down here. Usually Mark and I scramble last minute to put something together and most often end up wearing a trash bag or something equally hideous to any halloween parties we attend. This year, Henry and I schlepped it to the fabric store 2 weeks ago, I broke out the sewing machine, and MADE our costumes. The first - and last - year that I will probably do that. When you are a lousy seamstress, like-a-mahself, you do whatever you can to make it work. Full time employment and full time momming and full time costume maker is just asking for it. As it were, with my trusty hot glue gun by my side and some trimmings to hide the uneven stitches, I made our little Henry George king for a day.

He won best costume at our friends halloween party last weekend, and he helped me give out candy last night in our neighborhood. And he may or may not have chewed on a twizzler for some of the night. It's halloween, people. He was bouncing around the whole night, waving at everyone who came to our stoop, and even flirting with another little queen. Boy is on top of the game.

Kudos to Mark for making the coat of arms, modeled after our actual family coat of arms. And kudos to Henry for actually keeping on his tunic the whole night, despite his strong preference to just wear the bowl of candy.