Happy First Birthday!

Tonight, we celebrated Henry's first birthday!

Of course, that involved opening some presents, all of which he loved.

He was so excited to get this lego-holding wagon from Jonathan and Carmen, he did a somersault into the box. But here, he's decided there's not enough room in one box for a lego-holding wagon and a one-year old boy.

Blowing out (actually, staring at) the candle...

Henry doesn't get much sugar in his normal diet. None, basically. So he really enjoyed this huge slice of his mom's homemade birthday cake. The icing alone called for one pound of confectioners' sugar.

Mmmmm. Sticky.


And the sugar kicks in right about....here.

Children of the Corn

So that's what those front teeth are for! Henry tried corn on the cob for the first time last night...and loved it, natch.

Almost, but not quite...

That's more like it. It's too early to tell whether Henry is going to eat his corn by employing the "typewriter" method or the "rotary" method, but one way or the other he likes the challenge of eating it off the cob. We had to pry it out of his hands when he was finished.

Nightlife

Here is a group of pictures that shows Henry's typical night time routine. First, dinner. As you can see, Henry's menu has expanded far beyond strained carrots. Chicken, broccoli and cheese are now a typical dinner, but recently he's also enjoyed things like chicken pot pie, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and spaghetti. In fact, about the only thing he's tried that he didn't like was a Doe's hot tamale (which actually made him cry). I'm sure his Delta roots will kick in though and one day soon, he'll be scarfing down tamales with the best of them.

After dinner, a little play time while Alexis and I finish our meals.

For some reason, our cookbooks have always been an endless source of fascination for Henry. From the time he was nursing he has stared at the row of books on the shelf above our kitchen table. We think he may want to be the next Barefoot Contessa. And that's only partly because he's actually barefoot.

Before getting into his PJs, a nice warm bath. Bathtime has become more fun since Henry now has enough hair to do this with.

Southeast Regional Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

This winter, our friends Jonathan and Carmen invited us to spend the week at Jonathan's parents' house in Punta Gorda, Florida. We had a great time relaxing, swimming and piña colada-ing. What follows is a very small sampling of pictures from the trip, which included Henry's first boat ride and his first time to scramble for a touchdown in a Div. I football stadium. Suffice it to say, when you combine owning a new camera with taking a trip to a location that is 45 degrees warmer than the one you left, the result is an obnoxious number of photos. For those gluttons for punishment, the full story of our winter vacation can be seen here:

If images of sandy beaches induce feelings of frustration during winter months, do not click here.

Christmas Eve at (where else?) Canton Cooks in Atlanta. Henry learns to appreciate Hong Kong-style wonton soup. Not sure why he was trying to smoke the spoon in this picture, but from the look of his eyes, it seems to have worked.


Finally, the beach.


Cap'n Jonathan takes us to an uninhabited island off the coast of Florida. But don't worry, there were no signs of polar bears, hatches or the Others.

First boat ride!

Picnic on the beach.


Relaxing in his ducky towel.

One the way home, we stopped in Gainesville, Florida for lunch and to let Henry get some energy out. For those that have no experience breaking into football stadiums, it may be news that the University of Florida keeps its stadium open during the daytime so that joggers can run laps through its concourse. Long story, short: Henry crawled all over the field, rushing for about 35 yards on three carries. The happy result was that he slept in the car for three straight hours afterwards. (I assure you that the fact he is wearing orange is a total coincidence.)

At New Year's Day brunch, Henry is impressed with my Vito Corleone/orange slice impression

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!