Dear Henry

Dear Henry,
I thought I would write you a little note to let you know all of the cute things you are doing at almost sixteen months.  As of today, you are not walking.  You are cruising the furniture, but you have not stood alone yet or taken any steps.
 
In the last week or so, your talking has really taken off.  You say ball, bye-bye, bath, mama, dada all of the time.  You say meow when you see a cat, and make a kkk sound as well.  You have said Pup-Pup for your stuffed animal in your bed, but you don't say it often.  You know the milk sign, all done, and more, but will never do them when I ask.  Screaming over and over is your preferred way to communicate.  It's wearing pretty thin, because you are very loud. 

Mary Catherine is blessed to have such a sweet brother.  When she crawls into the room, you light up with excitement and crawl right to her.  Sharing with her comes easy to you, for now.  The two of you are rarely separated.  All day you will play right near each other, looking at books, playing with balls, destroying my bookshelf, hiding behind my curtains, crawling after Coconut, etc...

You are a sweet boy who loves to be tickled, thrown in the air and sung to by your sisters.   Although you are sensitive to noise, and will cry if something loud happens, you are also fairly laid back and easy to please. 

We love you very much and cannot wait to see how much you change by the next time I decide to write you a note. 

Crazy Babies

I love my babies. 

I cannot imagine my life without them.  I know it would be so much calmer and quieter, but who needs that?  Okay... me.  I think people assume because I have five children that I just love noise and chaos, but not really.  We have a small house and inside voices are necessary for my sanity. 

Anyway, that wasn't what I came on here to write about, so consider that a commercial, as Pastor Jeff calls it. 

Some nights when I am attempting to pick up toys in their room I will put both of the babies in one crib for a few minutes so they can play and hang out without destroying my hard work.  They LOVE it.  They act like complete maniacs tackling each other, cuddling on blankets, sharing pacifiers, stealing stuffed animals, etc... They run from end to end screaming. 

I could just stand there and watch them forever.  

I know this would be so much cuter if I had a video, so I'll work on that, but for the sake of historical note taking for my life, this will work just as well.  Videos don't show up in blog books.

ugh...one nap...

The babies have dropped their morning nap. 

*sob*

I keep trying to force them to take it, which isn't working.

My mornings just got a lot more complicated and a lot longer...

BALL!

Henry has been saying Mama and Dada for awhile and I think he's said a few other words here and there, but today he is crawling all around saying, "BALL! ball...ball...ball... BALL!" so I guess since there is no debate as to what he's saying, I would consider this his first word.

I never count mama and dada b/c they start babbling that so young I'm never sure when it became a real word. 

Funny thing is that I'm pretty sure it was Jack's first word as well.

the beginning of the end...

Mary Catherine just took her first few steps today.

*sigh*


I'm sure Henry won't be too far behind.  It's the end of babyhood and the beginning of toddlerhood.  We all know when they start walking there comes a sense of independence that starts a streak of rottenness that only a mother could love.

In the past I have always wanted to donate my children during the age of 18-24 months, and I'm wondering if it will prove true with the twins as well. 

Good morning! Happy first day of school...

I can hardly blame him...

I can hardly blame Henry for biting Mary Catherine.  I hate to say it, but sometimes she is downright mean to him. 

For example, she'll be opening up the cabinets and drawers in my bathroom and he'll come along and do the same thing with her.  No siree buddy!  She will crawl her little self over to his cabinet or drawer and force it closed and squawk at him until he stops. 

I just watched him lean down and bite her arm so that she would move it off his cabinet.  I corrected him of course, but honestly, who can blame the little guy? 

She's like a 17 lb tyrant and this does not bode well for the future of their relationship...