Henry's taken a number of big steps forward since I last wrote!
Indeed, that's the big news. No, he's not walking yet--at least not unassisted. But he is crawling! Little Hank crawled for the first time during Halloween weekend (on Saturday, Oct. 30, to be exact). And not only that, but the day after his first crawl, he sat up for the first time by himself! The little guy's making big strides!
(He also has an impeccable sense of timing. His first crawl was witnessed not only by Tara and me, but by his Aunt Kim, Uncle Mike, Papa Pete and Mama Betty! And he mastered the art of sitting up at his Grandma Murphy's house.)
The three of us--Tara, Henry and I--were in Southern California on Halloween weekend to see my sister Kim. Kim, who is about 8 months pregnant, was having a baby shower.
The trip marked Henry's first-ever plane ride. That too went well. Well, he fussed a little when we first got on board, but that had more to do with him being hungry and a bit tired (our plane took off at 7 p.m. at night--dinner time for Henry), than anything else. After he got to nurse a little, he was fine and had fun grabbing the shirt of the man sitting next to us and looking all around the plane.
Indeed, Henry was far crankier on his drive over to the airport from his Aunt Anina's house than he was on the plane ride itself. And he was even better on the plane ride home, basically sleeping the entire way.
We have video of Henry's first crawl, which I plan to post soon. And we have plenty of pictures from that weekend, which I also plan to post in the near future. So look out for them!
That Halloween weekend was quite an experience for little Henry. He got to meet his Grandma Murphy for the first time, and that was fun for all of us.
Henry is often very reluctant to be held by anyone other than his mom, me or Chandra, his baby sitter. But Grandma Murphy swept him out our rental car as soon as we arrived at her home and Henry didn't protest too much. In fact, by the time Tara and I stepped inside, Henry was sitting on Grandma Murphy's lap as if they'd known each other for some time!
The little guy also seemed to have a fine time over at Kim and Mike's house. He played with his Grandma Betty and enjoyed the new toys and clothes that she and Papa Pete gave him. Tara and I plan to head to their house for Thanksgiving, and we are all looking forward to that.
Since Halloween weekend, Henry's been busy practicing his new sitting and crawling skills. He's still not an expert yet--he'll often mixes in lunging on his tum with his stretches of crawling-- but he's getting there. Hopefully we'll get the house babyproofed before he really gets going around the house!
Henry's also been practicing standing up and walking. The standing up he can do on his own. He's become very adept at using the edge of the couch, storage bins, his parents' legs, you name it to pull himself into a stand. Now, he can't yet stay in a stand unassisted, but he will lean against the couch, storage bin, etc. and stand for quite a while these days.
In fact, one of the things that he enjoys a lot is to pull himself up using the couch in his room in order to see if his mom and dad have left anything fun on the couch that he can play with.
Speaking of playing, Henry's favorite game these days is peek-a-boo. He loves it! Having Mom or Dad hide and then--peek-a-boo--reappear sends him into giggles guffaws.
Another thing he really enjoys is swinging. Chandra takes Henry and her son Eli to our nearby park fairly often to swing. Tara and I took him for the first time ourselves this past weekend and Henry just loved it! He swung with me, then on his own, then played in the grass, then swung some more. He got a big kick out of it when Tara or I would get close enough to him that it looked like he would crash into us on his upswing. He giggled in high pitch as soon as we would quickly duck away to avert a collision!
All in all, the Little Guy's doing great--and amazing us by how quickly he's growing up!
--Troy
