Toilet Paper, Cheesecloth, and Diapers

Toilet Paper. Cheesecloth. Diapers. Today, these powers combined to create one heckofa cupid.

Being the kept woman that I am these days, any gift I have to give Hank really is coming out of his cash stash, so I decided to up the ante by creating this little scene:



It really helped make the presentation of my "gift" to Hank more of a momentous occasion than what it otherwise would have been, which was a massage, paid for by his hard-earned money.

Henry is such a good sport. He woke up early out of his nap, let me strip his warm clothes off, gurgled at me as I wound stuff around his toes (which he hates to have touched), only spit up once on the props, and managed to look super cute as he tried to poke his own eye out with his bow and arrows.




(In case it's not obvious, those white blobs at the bottom are clouds, and the sticks are his arrow quiver-quiver of arrows?)



Happy Valentine's Day, everrbody!

Henry's Neighborhood

Here's a not-so-awesome-completely-unedited video from Henry's 'hood. I thought this was going to turn out way better than it did, but the rain, snow, umbrella, shopping bag, baby, wind, puddles all kind of got in the way of me realizing that half the video is of the umbrella pole whacking Henry in the face.

But if you've read this far, I'll bet you're still going to watch the video, regardless. This is real life, people! In Queens, no less!

Still laughing...

First off, I know I'm really good at keeping up on this blog of mine, so there's no need to tell me, thanks.

But now that over a month has gone by, I feel the need to keep the masses informed that Henry is still cracking up. It seems like the prospect of getting his face eaten up by larger life forms is a favorite catalyst to laughter, as you'll see here:



On the flip side, he really hates it when I make him roll over on the floor, which is what we were about to do when I shot that video of him. I'm pretty sure that Henry the Tank would be perfectly content to never learn how to move around on his own if I let him get away with it. Which I don't, so we've been practicing our rolling-over skills, much to his dismay. I mean, come on...he's nearly 5 months old already!

He'll be running up the side of snow-capped mountains in Russia with a giant railroad log across his shoulders in no time, Rocky IV style...

Henry's got a real laugh

Ok, so the boy has been smiling accompanied by sharp intakes of breath that resemble a laugh for some time now, but it wasn't until yesterday that he perfected the art of laughing. So far, he has only laughed for Hank, and that's cool because that means I get to enjoy the show. The sound of his laughter is probably THE most joyous thing I've yet experienced in my life, and I'm including the day he was born in there, because the day he was born was painful, gross, traumatic...

Sorry about that.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, Henry's laughter. It makes my heart jump for joy. And here's a little video documenting his 2nd time really laughing. It's sideways, and has a bit of footage of Henry not quite laughing,but rather being distracted by the phone that was filming him, but it's worth watching.

Enjoy!

Henry and his jury rigged play yard

Nothing exciting, just my boy, some hand-me-down rings, and half the toys he owns. He loves his crib gym that I made!




Try not to fall out of your seats with excitement as you watch this clip.

Henry Scoots

Thanks to everyone who could make it (online, in person, or in spirit) to Henry's Blessing! He truly is a blessing in my life. He inspires me to really grab every day by the...horns...and embrace life. Plus, he's got a great sense of humor.

Some stats:
At 12 weeks, Henry is 25 inches long and 15 lbs, 8oz. He can laugh, he is beginning to mimic my speech patterns, he likes to kick (pretty hard, too!), oh yeah, and here's his latest trick- Hank discovered it last night as we were entertaining ourselves during a glitch in the Christmas Broadcast.

As Hank so aptly put, it's like a wheelchair for babies!





This baby is hours of entertainment.

The Science of Speech

Henry is growing up, and it's awesome. I usually torture his eardrums every night before I put him to sleep by singing to him, and he's humored me through it all like a good boy. A couple of weeks ago, he started this thing where he'll throw a fit, and then conk out in the middle of it, provided I hold him tight enough through it all. The fit-throwing included screaming.

Last night was different. Last night, in place of the fit, in place of screams, he made these proto-speech noises in time with my proto-singing-in-tune noises.

It was FABBB-U-LOUS! I loved it, although to the "untrained" ear, I'm sure it sounded just horrible...

And then there is the issue of Henry speaking in complete, coherent sentences. I could swear it happened, and though in retrospect, I see that it happened while I was dreaming, it still was amazing. He was telling me secrets to the universe and laughing and for the first 5 hours after it happened, I would have put money on it that he really did talk to me and that it was no dream.

One more for the road:

He found his thumb. Big Time. Although it's not accurate enough to say he found his thumb--Homeboy found his entire hand, and seems to be favoring his palm the most.

I heard some loud smacking sounds after Hank came home last night, and upon investigation, discovered that they belonged not to Hank as part of his daily ritual of kissing the crap out of Henry's face, but to Henry himself as he sucked on his hand.

So for your viewing pleasure, I present...

Henry Sucks His Hand

(No auto-tune necessary)



Long Live Henry!