he’s a super freak, super freak, he’s super freaky yeahh…, originally uploaded by lloyder2020.
Dear Henry
Oh how you LOVE to dance! You discovered this about a month ago, so we have what we call a little “dance party USA” in the living room regularly. You do like children’s music, but you are equally happy with a little disco or hip hop. Here’s a sample of your fine moves….
Love
Mom
Dear Henry,
You are surprising me with how tuned into Christmas you are this year… you are so excited! I didn’t expect you to grasp the concept of Santa Claus and Christmas trees quite yet, but it’s just about all you talk about. Yes TALK about. I love it! You have started referring to anything Christmas as “ho”… that applies to Santa, Christmas, or ho ho ho. One of the three things you could say last year this time was “ho, ho, ho” (other two being mama and dada). It’s interesting because you are having a hard time with that this year. We are getting just the one “ho”. That’s apraxia for you, I guess.
You love all of the lit up trees in the neighborhood and you now call them ” ho tee” for “Christmas tree” . If you even see a triangle shape anywhere, including your sandwich, it is now a ho tee. We are going to cut our tree down again this year and we will probably go this Saturday. Fingers crossed that you will enjoy it more this year than last year. At least I know you will ooh and ahh and appreciate our ho tee once it’s all decorated.
We took you to Mohegan Sun tonight because they unveiled their 24 ft gingerbread house and Santa was there too. You had never been there before and you absolutely loved it…the lights, the music, the people! You didn’t want to leave! You danced and skipped and entertained everyone. You even sat on Santa’s lap and gave us one of your signature “cheese” smiles. You are such a ham! We have so many fun events coming up the next few weeks and I’m excited to see that you are at an age where you can really enjoy them and participate. Your mom loves Christmas so maybe some of my excitement is rubbing off on you.
On a non-holiday note, you also had your very first piece of pizza tonight which you ate in your typical way…picking any dot of anything off of every component and eating the ingredients separately. Sigh. I can’t wait until one day when you have your perfect bite of something, when you get all the flavors together at one time. At least you are eating, I know some toddlers don’t eat much at all!
Love you buddy,
Mommy
Dear Henry,
This may not seem like a big deal to you, or to many people actually, but you can finally say “Mooo!”. It just popped out the other day while we were looking at a farm book. Do you know your Mommy and your therapists have been working on this word with you for over a year? Your mom has been running around mooing like a cow hoping one day you could put the “mmmm” with the “oooo” and you did it! From a motor planning perspective this is a huge gain, but in general it’s just plain awesome and you love saying it! I see your pride and I think you realized what you’ve accomplished. You’ve been wanting to say it as much as I was waiting to hear it. Sigh. I’m so happy.
Love you
Linda
Dear Henry,
Oh, how I have neglected this blog and gotten so lazy about writing down all of the wonderful things you are saying and doing! We have had so much going on that, well, I haven’t taken the time for the little things. I’m going to go back and fill in as much as I can and will try to be better about updates.
Love you,
Mom
Dear Henry,
Well, hello my little two year old!! You have three new spontaneous words that sum up much of the supposed “terrible twos”… “NO!”… “ME!”…”MINE!” It was necessary to put these words in caps and with exclamation points because that is exactly how they are delivered by my dear, innocent and cherubic little boy 
With your recent burst of language development in the last two weeks we have definitely seen a more pronounced personality emerging. You loves being able to assert yourself and make choices and I’m so happy for you! We can see the pride in your face and I can’t help but smile even when you are talking in not such a nice way. Helloooo…did you read what I just wrote?? “Talking”! That’s right! I love every word word out of that your mouth… garbled or understandable, whispered or shouted… it’s all music to my ears. We are so proud of you! We know these words didn’t come easy… Love you!
xoxo
Mommy
Dear Henry,
Music to my ears! You said your first “I love you” to me tonight! We have a routine of reading books before bedtime, followed by a couple of songs with you sitting on my lap facing me. Usually you signsor gesture along with the songs or offers up a sound here and there. Tonight when I started to sing, you stopped me and started to sign “I love you” except this time you spoke along with your signs … “I la ooh”. This is your closest approximation. You have never put these sounds together in a row before spontaneously. So this was a huge accomplishment for you! Never mind that it is my most favorite thing to hear! I’ve been saying it hundreds of times a day for two and a half years and it’s pretty gratifying to hear it back.
As I’m typing this, you are in your crib talking to your baby. You seem to be practicing your “b” sounds. I’m hearing something like this : “ba ba, baby, bye ba, bye bye, ba boo, ba ba ba… ” etc. You are finding your voice for sure. I think you like hearing it almost as much as I do.
I la ooh too!!!
Mommy
Dear Henry,
You continue to be enamored with all things ball (or “baw” as you like to say it). And I mean any sport involving a ball. You are really good at throwing the ball, kicking the ball or hitting a ball with any given object. In regards to catching, well… we are working on that. You currently run at it with no attempts to catch it, but you have a complete blast anyhow.
By accident one day you found your dad’s snowboard helmet and have been obsessed with it ever since. Of course it is huge and heavy and, well, for snowboarding…but to you, this is your football helmet. Oh and you like to wear it backwards. You couldn’t be any cuter! Now you wanted to sleep with it, bathe in it, and eat while wearing it. We find ourselves hiding it when you aren’t looking. Sorry buddy… we are going to find you a real football helmet in just your size very soon!
You are lucky enough to have two cousins, Kyle and Connor, playing football right now. So we have the opportunity to catch games pretty regularly. You LOVE this. From the band, to the scoreboard, to the crowd and of course to the game itself…it’s all fascinating to you. I’m amazed at how you are participating at the games. It seems like you are really watching…and you are paying attention(more than Mommy actually)! You clap and cheer and yell “BAW!” repeatedly whenever you see it. You are equally fascinated with the cheerleaders. At one point you were waving and smiling the opposite direction of your cousins. When I asked you who you was waving too, you signed “girls” and pointed to the cheerleaders. Your father is so proud
Love you buddy,
Mommy
Dear Henry,
New Jersey gets a bad rap sometimes, thanks mostly to bad television and terrible hair dos. There are, however, gorgeous areas in New Jersey including along the shoreline where we met up with your west coast gramma, Uncle Jamie and Aunt Karen and your cousins Ava, Declan and Oliver. We hadn’t seen everyone in almost a year so it was a reunion of sorts. We stayed at your Aunt Karen’s dad’s house and we had such a blast! We went to the beach almost every day, which was walking distance, and shared some amazing meals. You had such a great time with your cousins. I was so amazed at how quickly you were at ease with everyone and you were such a ham! I wish I had taken more pictures…but here are a few…
Love,
Mommy
Dear Henry,
I had never given it much thought until we went to a friend’s birthday the other day… but you had never run through a sprinkler! Why hadn’t I thought to give you this simple joy sooner? We have had plenty of hot days…somehow I just forgot about it. I guess because you have been so enamored by the pool lately.
Anyhow, we were in the middle of quite a heat wave. A sprinkler at this party was a great idea for the little ones, but I hadn’t planned for it and didn’t have a swimsuit or swim diapers with me. So what the heck, we let you run through in your regular diaper, which quickly absorbed enough water to weigh about 20 pounds. You had the best time! I was so glad I had my camera because you were hysterical. I had to share these pictures…
Love you,
Mommy
Dear Henry
Up until a few weeks ago you hated the water. We tried swim classes this past winter at the YMCA, and while you tolerated it after much coaxing and reassurance, you never enjoyed it. I know your sensory issues came into play there, but we kept on trying and it’s paying off. It’s summer now so you get to go to Grammie and Papa’s outdoor pool where there are tons of toys and often a cousin or two to play with, which are great incentives. You became very daring lately and have been jumping in the water (and going under mind you) even with no one to catch you. The problem is you can’t seem to master closing your eyes and mouth. When we tell you to close your mouth, and show you by example, you just open it up wider. Plus, the joy of the jump makes it impossible to stop yourself from laughing, or in the least smiling a big wide grin. So there is a lot of water swallowing going on. Of course this worries and panics your mother more than it should, I can’t help it, you are still my baby.
We took things to a whole new level in the pool when we got you the best floatation vest ever! You can swim around basically unattended if need be (which of course we don’t). No matter what position you are in or what you do your head stays afloat. This gives you a whole new confidence in the water and you have become truly addicted. It’s become a real scene getting you out of the pool. Can you say “total and complete meltdown”? The only lure we have had is getting into your hooded superman towel kindly donated by your cousin Kolin. Overall we are thrilled with all of this…it’s nice to be able to cool off and have fun with you this summer! You are having such a blast! Here are some pictures… you love wearing the goggles!
Love,
Mom
