Life is a medley

Betwixt the songs I'm always singing and the new ones coming home from the playground, our life sounds very much like a musical these days. It's only a problem when I forget myself at work and sing to the copier and my very amused coworkers. Ah well, this is life with babies.

Here is a wonderful medley from Lucy. Don't mind the shirtless-ness; it's just my way of managing watermelon season. And no - I did not think we would be hearing this particular tune so soon but it does feel somehow inevitable.

Wardrobe by Hemingway

I think they make children's clothes in tacky animal prints just for me. I simply cannot help myself.

Little Fur Child

The Little Fur Child has become one of our favorite books. So much so that I could probably recite it backwards. Today, you put on this jacket and called it your "Fur Child Coat." Aww. Melt.

You're one of us!

Henry, you proved you belong in our clan by taking your first enthusiastic bite of food at Cha! Cha! Cha! I've been trying to feed you rice cereal for a week now but you're having none of that. Refried beans are apparently the way to go. They were one of Lucy's first foods too and a regular staple in our house.

Welcome to the family table. ¡Buen apetito!

Helmet - 7 weeks in

Henry, your head is shaping out nicely. We started with a 13 mm difference between one side of your head and the other. Now, we are down to 6 mm - very good news!

The strange thing is that I recognize you better with your helmet on than off right now. I'm so used to seeing it on you that it's quite a shock to see your black hair again. It has grown out a little and unlike other babies, you don't have any bald spots in the back. You look like such a little boy. I can hardly believe you are growing so fast. Slow down won't ya!?

The helmet still smells - increasingly as they day goes on. Washing it every day with baby shampoo and a toothbrush certainly helps. And just like everything else I associate with you, I'm growing attached to that silly odor. Heaven help me, I'm attached to the smell of sweaty helmet.

During the hour you have it off, we have your bath and then a little play time. You snuggle your head right into my neck, come up to smile at my face, and then dive back down into my neck. I dare say you miss that as much as I do and my heart melts every time we play our snuggle game.

Oh Henry, I am so happy you are in our family. Nothing could have been complete without you.

It's a patio summer

We have gone through several boxes of chalk making wizards of oz, rainbows, yellow brick roads, clowns, and grinches on the patio this summer.

Typical Henry - jump jump, stop and suck on The Hands, squawk, jump jump. Repeat. Repeat.

Any typical Lucy - testing every surface with her paints, crayons, and chalk. I'm sticking with only washables and keeping it all outside so we don't have to argue about it.

Not quite terrible two

Lucy, you and I are growing through another set of challenges lately. You are trying on your independence and wanting to push every limit and boundary. Totally typical for your age. Still totally exhausting for me and I've come close to losing my temper with you more than once.

I feel like I get the brunt of it but others are seeing your angst as well. Apparently, you performed a full-on, laying on the ground tantrum at school. I am not sorry I missed that episode.

I feel for you and really do want to help. I can see that you are really frustrated with the limits of what your body and mind can control. And there isn't an easy fix. We can't just skip over this part. Every step is important.

So we are just working our way through. Some days better than others. Both of us growing up in big ways.

Last week you couldn't hop; this week you can. Last week I thought my limit was there; now I know it is at least here.

I won't say it's pretty but we are making progress. Aren't we? I really, really hope so.

Lucy sings

Some of our favorite books are song books like this one. I've read/sang them over and over to you hundreds of times. All the way from the The Itsy Bitsy Spider on down to John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, I'm pretty sure we've covered at least all of the basics.

Today, when I was on the phone, you were looking at this song book yourself and sang most of the words to each of the songs. (!) You would never do this for me (I ask you to sing with me all the time and you say "I want Mama to do it") so I just pretended to be on the phone after my call finished so I could listen in.

Amazing! It has been sinking in this whole time. And there is more - I've caught you singing other songs too.

This book (along with your special love for all things princess) has taught you a whole suite of songs. There are about 20 in there and you know most of the words to these too.

Of course, you know all the Wizard of Oz songs now. I have really learned to love these songs. The tongue-twister words (We hear he is a wiz of a wiz, if ever a wiz there was) are fun to sing and the melodies are great.

And there are even more including Christmas songs you pull out of nowhere and even a few primary songs.

It is just amazing to me that all of this is now wired into you and already starting to build in Henry's brain. You may not have memories of these early years but you will probably remember these tunes all of your life.

Childproofing continues

It takes about 5 minutes to put Henry down for a nap. Turns out that's plenty of time to make a GIANT mess.

Bye bye board games. Hello more childproofing.

Sitting at 5 months

It's easy enough to sit up when you are built like a teddy bear.