Milestones and Updates

I have two big events to post about -- our recent trip to New Mexico and Henry's baptism weekend -- but first I wanted to just update on the boys in general. I have lots of pics so I will do multiple posts to break it up a little.

Henry has really stepped up his eating over the past couple of weeks. He is 5.5 months old now. He is eating cereal several times a day, and would probably take more than that. We started him on veggies the other day--peas to be exact--and he wasn't a big fan at first. But last night he did better, so maybe he's coming around. I remember Charlie didn't like baby food peas either. Next we will try squash and I bet he gobbles it up!

Henry spends a lot of time jumping in the Jumperoo and playing in the Exersaucer. He hit a major milestone last week -- he can now roll over from back to front! Charlie did not do this until well over 6 months. He just figured it out while we were on vacation and now anytime he's on his back, he is obsessed with rolling over. Of course then he's frustrated because he doesn't know what to do once he's on his tummy. It is only a matter of time! We are also working with him on sitting up but he still needs lots of support.

Henry is sleeping okay at night. Still much, much better than Charlie ever did at this age. He is still in his cradle but he's getting pretty big for it, so we will need to make a change soon. He goes to bed around 8 or 9 PM, and usually sleeps soundly until around 3 AM. Then he starts to get restless and we either get up and put his paci back in about ten million times, or we rock him back to a sound sleep, or we give in and let him sleep in our bed until around 6 AM. He continues to get more and more interactive all the time, and he loves the "Up, up, up...down, down, down" song from Yo Gabba Gabba. Here he is playing with Lil Ray and sleeping in his high chair.

As for Charlie, he recently turned 23 months old. I cannot believe he is almost 2 years old! He looks so, so big to me now. We got his school pictures back and he absolutely looks like a boy. But he is so sweet (most of the time) and we are enjoying immensely how he is learning every day. We can understand most everything he says but we still have to interpret for others. He is starting to use pronouns when speaking, subject-verb sentences, inflection...and his vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. He loves to talk about friends and family. (Daddy go work? Gigi go work? Mama go work? Papaw go work? etc) Every time we get in the car he asks where we are going by listing everything he can think of and seeing which one we confirm is right. (Play gym? Mamaw-Papaw's house? Sam house? church?) He also very clearly has preferences now and can choose between simple options (chicken or fish? go to bed or rock?)

Here is the big news with him: he went poo-poo in the potty! Yea! it was last week just before our trip. He knows how to "toot" now and the tub seems to facilitate things, so we tried putting him on the potty and there he went! He was so pleased with himself, but we have been unsuccessful since then. This is a s l o w process.

While his friends are obsessed with cars and trucks, Charlie remains obsessed with light switches and taking lids on and off. It is actually very interesting to observe what he is naturally inclined to do. He loves to take things apart and put them back together rather than just playing with them. I wonder what this indicates?

We took the boys to the annual Bikes, Blues, and BBQ event a couple of weeks ago. Henry got to hang out in the carrier for the first time, which made him very happy. He was mesmerized by the bikes! Charlie liked it too but wasn't a fan of the loud noise ("too loud!"). It is always a great event and they will enjoy it more and more as they get older.

Here is an awesome picture of Charlie gazing up at his role model, Max, after a football game...