11 months

Henry turned 11 months last Monday and I didn't post mostly because I'm in denial about the whole thing...by here is a quick update:

Walks/runs everywhere
Points and wants you to name and/or give him whatever he points at
Loves books, monkeys, clocks, coloring, peek a boo, and doors
Climbs EVERYTHING
Drinks from his cup is obsessed with his brother and sister
Wears 18-24 month clothes
Weighs 23 lbs
VERY opinionated

Aquarium

 

Last week Avery had a few days off of school and we decided to make the short drive to Tulsa and visit the Oklahoma Aquarium. It was lots of fun...everybody enjoyed seeing the beautiful fish and especially the shark.

 

we just arrived and are ready to go in!

everything was at a really great height for kids...there were even low benches to climb up for a better look

almost every area had a low 'touch tank' area for kids to reach in and touch the sealife...they got to hold shrimp, touch an urchin, horseshoe crab, starfish, sharks, and sting rays

these fish are bigger than me mom!

petting sting rays!

cutest group in a shark cage EVER

haircut!

I finally broke down and cut little Henry's hair off. I think I was in denial about how long it had gotton until one night in the bathtub it was down to the middle of his back!!! It turned out cute, but definitely makes him look more like a toddler and less like my little baby!

Avery-isms

"I was more excited than a worm eating French pie"

"That made me more scared than a bunny rabbit hopping out of a hat on Halloween night!"

"You (to Lincoln making some obnoxious sound with his hands over over his mouth) sound like a bug dying to death and making his farewell peep."

Sweeping

After we finish taking Avery to school, we come home put Henry to his morning nap and then Lincoln and I do our morning "jobs". One of these is sweeping the dog hair off the floors with the Swiffer. Lincoln always likes to help (and who wouldn't want to sweep with Iron Man?) but this morning he says, "mom, does our house grow hair? Because we always have SO MUCH hair to sweep up!" I explained about our big hairy dogs but it was so sweet!

Bedtime...roomates

Henry and Lincoln are such buds. Unfortunately at nap time they are TOO good of pals. We have had a real struggle over the last couple of weeks to get these two "roomates" to quit playing with one another and go to sleep! They continue to talk, giggle, jump, and play together for one hour plus at nap time (all from the comfort of their own beds of course). I have even caught Lincoln reading him books!!! Hopefully this is only a phase and the novelty of it will quickly wear off, but for now it is completely trying my patience.

I can't really blame Lincoln though, since Christmas Henry has been getting more and more fun! He is such a little person (complete with attitude). He walks everywhere, points to what he wants, copies any and every noise you can make, plays chase, follows us everywhere, stacks blocks and then knocks them down, looks through books and can find the mouse in Goodnight Moon, eats whatever we eat at the table, and so much more fun almost-one-year-old things!!!!

One of my favorite times of day with Hen is bedtime. After he finishes his bottle, it is just me and him in his dark room. We stand up and I rock him and sing to him. He is so sweet, he lays his head on me and hums along then periodically lifts his head off my shoulder looks straight into my face and gives me millions of open mouth baby kisses. It is THE BEST!

Weekend

As I sit here, toys are scattered throughout the house, a basket of clean laundry lays unfolded in the basket, a stack of mail is unopened, I've yet to shower for the day and well...you get the point. It seems like whatever my grand ideas for the weekend are as far as getting caught up on things around the house (while Kevin is home to help with the kiddos) it NEVER happens. In fact, weekend after weekend I actually get farther and farther behind on my "chores". Why is it that with extra time and extra help the clutter and jobs around the house don't get done? I'd like to think that this meant that we spent our weekend doing exciting things like taking a road trip, shopping, or finding fun kid attractions in the area....Nope. So what is it that we spend our weekends doing? NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. Half the time we end up getting dressed and brushing our teeth right before we sit down for lunch, and the only reason we do it then is because I'm too embarrassed to have dirty, pajama wearing kids still hanging around after lunch-time. It sure is fun though :)

Cuteness

I think babies win contests for photos like this, yes, maybe I'm a little bias but I could totally eat this guy up!!!

Super Purrly

Avery has the most active imagination of anyone I have ever met. Ever. I would say that 95% of the time she is someone else or completely absorbed in some pretend story that she has going on in her head!! Love that about her. Here is the scene that she had set up when I came in and got her at the end of her rest time.