We've had great progress in eating solid foods - some of his favorites these days include meatloaf, mac and cheese, pancakes and any kind of fruit - peaches, pears, blueberries, strawberries - you name it he'll eat it! He did enjoy some cake, or mostly frosting on his birthday too - so I guess that's a favorite too! We are attempting a dairy elimination diet here in the next few weeks to see if we can determine if there's any correlation to dairy and his skin issues - things are under control with medications but we'd hate to be making things worse or causing it if it's truly related to the food he's eating. So a few weeks of no dairy and then letting him binge on it for a day - we'll see if we discover any linkages!
Henry continues to cruise furniture and is trying to keep up with big brother these days. We still think it'll be a little while before he's walking. He's picked up a lot of speed with his crawling and we need to be careful to make sure baby gates are closing behind us or he's trying to escape. He definitely has developed the typical separation anxiety at this age - if we leave a room he's in tears and throwing a fit. James went through the same stage so we know it's only temporary. Henry gets the biggest thrill out of playing with James' toys - so of course the large box of infant/toddler toys mostly goes untouched at the house - he'd much rather be checking out what James is up to/playing with/etc. One of his favorite things to do is get into James' secret drawer in his bedroom - it's where all of James' stuff is kept - "stuff" he doesn't want Henry to play with. Everything from markers and paper and cards to his "makeup" (i.e., chapstick). Henry makes a beeline for that drawer every day when no one is looking as he knows he shouldn't be in there and when you tell him "no" he collapses to the ground on his butt and bawls. He's definitely learning the meaning of no these days - as he's trying to get into and climb into/over/onto everything.
He can say "Mama, Dada and mo (his word for more." He can also sign "more." Daycare teachers are working with him on saying brother and we swear we hear it sometimes, but he isn't consistent with it yet. He shares kisses (open mouth slobbery ones) and blows kisses, claps his hands and just recently starting doing the actions and responding to, "How big is Henry?"
We continue to be amazed at his sleeping skills ... and we hope it doesn't come back to haunt us in the future. He sleeps 11-12 hours at night and recently has found his groove in taking one afternoon nap (albeit sometimes it is a short one!).
We are starting to wean him from the pacifier - first thing to go was with bedtime this week - so far so good! He's quite attached to it so we're picking our battles! Next thing to go is the bottle - all in due time!
