Bed Bath and Beyond

There is nothing Henry loves more than taking a bath. He'd stay in the water all night if we let him. In fact, once he hears the water running, he does anything he can to get into the bathroom...we can hardly get him out of his clothes fast enough. This clip shows his determination to get into the tub. Not shown is what happened about 3 minutes before this when he crawled to the tub and tried to climb in fully clothed. (Warning: this video is rated TV-M and may contain full-tushy nudity.)

Eleven Months

I know it's been a long time since we last updated this blog, but there is a very good reason. Apparently Henry was not amused by some of the pictures that have shown up here, because he broke our camera. Granted, he only dropped it from the height of his own knees (about six inches) but that did the trick. But! Problem solved...we now have a new camera with even more megapixels to dazzle you with. These pictures, however, were taken with our friend Christal's camera who came to the rescue when Henry turned eleven months old while our new camera was still en route from Amazon.

Thanks to a late-arriving Hanukkah gift from his cousins Shelley and Peter, Henry had a present to open on his eleven-month birthday.

The wrapping paper provided some predictable fun, but he really liked the police car inside.

"Hmmm. This looks like the perfect thing to put in one hand and push all over the house."

Before Henry turned eleven months old, he helped his friend Ford turn one year old. Happy birthday, Ford!

Hanukkah Henry!

Tonight, we celebrated the first night of Hanukkah and Henry helped light the candles and say the prayers.

Happy Hanukkah, everybody!

Unwrapping his first present. Seven more nights of this? Not a bad deal!

We ended the celebration by eating latkes (potato pancakes), a traditional Hanukkah food. Mikey likes it!

Thanksgiving in Chapel Hill

Henry's first Thanksgiving at his grandparents' house in Chapel Hill included some traditional foods (turkey, stuffing) and some less traditional items (Cheerios, yogurt). It also included many other things that make Thanksgiving so great including football, naps and a plan of attack for Black Friday.

At the kids' table?

In his obligatory "First Thanksgiving" bib, with Tia Fabiola and cousin Aliza.

We normally don't let him him watch TV, but it's the holidays, right? Here, cousin Luigi introduces Henry to Elmo, Grover and the rest of the Sesame Street gang.

With Aunt Pat.

Helping his great grandfather Marty sweep the deck.

Noah shows Henry how to rearrange the magnetic letters on the fridge. But Henry thinks the "Q" tastes better when you actually it put in your mouth.

Ears Lowered

Recently, the back of Henry's hair has been getting out of control. It's gone from the so-bad-it's-good mullet to the so-bad-it's-a-carny-redneck rat tail. So, to make sure no one mistakes him for a member of Blink-182, we decided to give him a trim. We are not counting this as his official "first haircut"--it consisted of exactly one snip--but it did tidy him up a bit.

BEFORE:
DURING:
AFTER:

Big Ten

Henry celebrated his ten-month birthday in style Saturday at the last home football game of the year...


No way around it: Henry loves hats. If you ever see me in a hat, look for his tell-tale slobber marks on the bill.

Henry enjoys the tailgating in his second video appearance...

Scattered, Smothered and Covered

One of the great things about living in the South is, of course, Waffle House. On Saturday morning we introduced Henry to joys of waffles and hash browns. He loved the food but was even more interested in the people and the commotion. If his career as a major league baseball player doesn't pan out, he may have a future as a short-order cook.



Burt's Chili will have to wait but until then, pass the waffles!

Learning to Share

They say that an only child tends to have trouble learning to share. Not sure who "they" are but obviously this does not apply to a boy and his dogs. This is definitely the most elaborate thing Henry has done simply because he thinks it's funny. He laughs when he slaps his hands on chairs and makes funny noises and things like that, but the idea of feeding his bottle to his dogs really cracked him up.

A little for Julep...and a little for Daphne.

Video Killed the JPEG Star

It may not be as ground-breaking as the Buggles' MTV debut, but with this post, Henry's blog has entered the world of video. We're sorry about having to crane your neck to the left, but Olympus does not let you rotate video. So...lesson learned. These pictures were taken this morning at Avent Park in Oxford where Henry played on his first slide, swing, xylophone and giant-replica-of-a-courthouse.



This is video of Henry's first time in a swing. The first couple of minutes may have been the happiest of his short life.

Gran Gran gets things started with a push...and then gets out of the way.

We called this composition "Chaos in the Key of C."

It's one o'clock...do you know where your giant baby is?

The Lion King

Henry spent his first Halloween as a lion. But not the cowardly kind--think King of the Jungle meets Willis Jackson...


We spent most of the night at Jennifer, Michael and Ava's (see pumpkin, below) handing out candy to an endless stream of trick-or-treaters.

Finally, Henry got some candy of his own when he knocked on our friend Lesley's door. In typical kid fashion, he shunned the quality (read: chocolate) candy for a Twizzler and a Blow Pop. Don't worry, he'll learn.

Baby got back!

License to Drive

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit this weekend and gave Henry a really cool present--a new car! And a convertable, no less.

It has to be pushed from behind to "drive," but what it lacks in battery power, it makes up in eyeballs for headlights and ample hood storage space.

Yeah, I'd say he likes it.

Today was a beautiful day for a family walk.

Okay. While the Tupelo airport undergoes a complete overhaul, baggage claim is temporarily located in this tent. (Although "temporarily" has turned into a year and a half.) This is Henry's sad goodbye to his grandparents.

Bye Grandpa, see you at Thanksgiving...

Why Don't They Call It a "Teethbrush"?

It's never too early to fight tooth decay. Now that Henry has four (!) teeth, he brushes them every night before going to bed. Our dentist said that you can "brush" a baby's teeth with wet guaze or a washcloth, but Henry did NOT like that. So we got this cool new baby toothbrush and viola! He loves it!

Our friend Mindy came to visit last weekend. We were having too much fun to stop for pictures until Henry took a nap. So here is Mindy with Daphne and Julep...and Henry's duck blanket.

Party Like It's (Nineteen Ninety) Nine

As of today, Henry has been "out" as long as he was "in." Yep, it's Super's nine-month birthday, and here are the pictures to prove it...

This last one has nothing to do with Henry's nine-month birthday. But it has everything to do with his eating blueberry pancakes for the first time ever!

8 Months, 26 Days: Henry's First Football Game

Writing about the larceny that transpired during this year's Ole Miss-Alabama game is probably a subject more appropriate for a different blog.* And I'm not even sure that curse words are allowed to be used as part of a web address. But all of that aside, Henry attended his first football game on Saturday. He was great the whole time, thanks in large part to the shade we enjoyed for most of the game. He was pretty interested in his surroundings and napped for maybe a grand total of 20 minutes. But as you can see, he was quite happy...

For the uninitiated, the red Solo cup is as much a part of the college football season as internet message boards and cheese straws. Here, it looks like Jonathan is trying to help Henry get over the sting of the loss with a little sip of something frothy. Don't worry though, Henry turned it down and enjoyed some pureed squash instead.

The next morning, Henry and his buddy Ford Lewis took a trip to the pumpkin patch. They were greeted by perfect weather and pumpkins of all shapes and sizes...

Ford put up a good fight to defend the pumpkin he chose.

One of these things is not like the other.

* Memo to Southeastern Conference officials: the word "indisputable," as used in, say, the term "indisputable video evidence," is defined as "not disputable or deniable; uncontestable; incontrovertible; evident, apparent, obvious, certain."