Naps: one nap, beginning between 1:00 and 1:30pm and lasting for almost 2 hours

Clothing: 18-24 month

Bedtime: 7:30-8:00pm

Eating: Henry eats three meals a day and typically has a snack in the afternoon once he gets up from his nap. Occasionally he will ask for a morning snack as well.

Henry’s favorite foods are fruits of all types. He also has a growing liking towards spicier foods. He doesn’t particularly like things with curry powder, rosemary, or vinegar.

In the last half of the month, Henry started to lose interest in eating as much. He would be eating well at a meal, and suddenly decide he was done. Sometimes we were able to convince him to continue eating and other times not.

Sleeping: It is so nice to have our good sleeper back! Henry goes to bed easily again, and sleeps soundly for almost 12 hours consistently. It’s so fun listening to him singing to himself in the morning through the baby monitor rather than waking up crying.

Development: Henry started asking to use the potty about halfway through the month. Adam and I think it might mostly be that Henry wants us to read him books or that he’s announcing when he is going, but it’s a step in the right direction that we’ll take.

We had our first temper tantrum this month. Henry wanted to take his snack of Cheerios into the tub with him, and didn’t appreciate being told that he couldn’t. He sat and cried and kicked and slapped the water for awhile but eventually got over it. There have been a few since then as well.

Henry started to use the word “no” to share what he does and does not want. He doesn’t verbally use “no” though, rather he shakes his head. This pattern matches other words that Henry has learned, namely that he only vocalizes words that he doesn’t know how to sign. He’s just starting to try to say words that he knows how to sign, like “ball” and “more”.

Henry is really getting into trying to say words. He likes trying to say things like “pout pout fish” (ba ba bah), “rice” (ahice), “popper” (popah), and different colors such as “blue” (bwoo), “yellow” (geckoh), green “gjzee”, and purple “pupah”.

Likes and Dislikes: Henry loves to dip his foods in sauces. It doesn’t matter how strange the combination is, if there’s sauce and food to dip it in, he’ll try it.

Henry has a special fascination with his poppers. He loves running all around the house while pushing a popper, or sometimes both of his poppers. He wants us to follow and chase him with a popper as well, but that can only last for so long before our backs are shot.

Chase is definitely one of Henry’s favorite games right now. He loves being chased, and chasing us. His favorite is surprising us when he comes around a corner and crashing into us while giving a hug.

 

Henry has really developed a love for reading books. If the book has vehicles or flaps to lift it’s almost a guaranteed winner, but he also likes books that have a certain sing-song cadence to them. Little Blue Truck Leads the Way and The Pout Pout Fish are his favorites right now.

Henry still really dislikes his snow gear. He will and run away in the opposite direction while yelling and shaking his head “no” if he thinks he’s going to have to put on his snowpants and boots.

Henry loves to do art projects at home. I think painting is his favorite, but he also loves using markers.

I made Henry a rice sensory bin that he loves to play in and explore.He’s pretty good about containing the mess, but if it’s close to his bedtime all bets are off. If he does spill, he will run to get his little broom and dustpan to sweep it up.

New This Month: Henry started two classes this month. He started an art class for one-year-olds that meets once a week. He is so engaged with the teacher and likes trying whatever she shares with the class. We have done a variety of activities including finger painting, bead stringing, and making different types of marks with crayons.

Henry also started an ECFE class this month. This has been his first experience with separation and being left with a “stranger”. We’ve only done one week of separation so far, but as far as I know there were no tears.

Other Notes: We traveled back to Eau Claire to visit with family for a few days this month. Henry’s level of comfort in new places and around new people has certainly changed since our last visit. Henry had no problem around people he’s usually pretty hesitant with. He even went to bed with no fussing and extra clingy-ness despite it being a “strange” room.

Mama and Papa Update: Everyday we are amazed by something about Henry. It may complete bias, but we see him as being so much more emotionally mature than most kids his age. The temper tantrum mentioned above is just one example out of no more than a handful. (And, no, he’s not always getting his way otherwise.) There are times where he really seems like a little adult. He will pick up a random scrap of paper he finds on the floor and take it to the trash can, or show that he wants to put his dishes in the dishwasher. His level of understanding is hard to believe. Just when we think we’ve tricked him and asked him to do something that he won’t understand, he proves us wrong.