LaTour Creations

Okay, I’m starting to think this kid is taking some kind of perverse pleasure in refuting everything I proclaim on this blog! Two days after I posted my last entry saying that Henry still wasn’t crawling and it looked like he was going to skip crawling altogether and just start walking…he started crawling.

Last Thursday, I was checking my email and looked over into the livingroom to check on Henry. He was sitting up! Now, this is not an unusual occurrence because he’s been sitting for months. What was weird is that I left him on his tummy. He had never figured out how to get into the seated position from his tummy until that day.

By the next day he was making tentative creeping/crawling motions…and by Labor Day weekend he’ was pretty much crawling, albeit very slowly. Now, he can crawl pretty quickly and straight for whatever he’s aiming at (usually Mommy, Daddy, or some enticing piece of fluff on the carpet).

Of course there is no progress without pain. And HEnry got his share of bumps, scuffs, bruises and scrapes. The worse occured on Saturday when he tried to lean on (or crawl over) his bongo drum and it tipped on it’s side. Henry went spilling over and bumped his mouth on the wooden side of the drum. There were many tears (his and mine) and we even witness our first bloodshed as he had a small cut on his gums.

And speaking of gums…Henry now has fewer of them. This weekend Henry cut two more teeth (top left front and second right front)! We have one more tooth to go in this round of teething and it’s very close to breaking thru the surface. Here is a better picture of Henry’s lower teeth. It is very hard to take a picture of his top teeth but I’ll get some eventually. :^)

In other news, Henry has also discovered his pincer grip and has been practicing feeding himself Cheerios (actually the generic Oats & O’s). We are all very proud!

This here is one of my favorite expressions of Henry’s…I call it his “inquisitive monkey.”

Wow! I have been very bad about updating our blog lately. I can’t believe two whole months have passed without a peep from me. (FOR SHAME!)

Well, I learned my lesson. No more bragging about how great Henry is doing in the sleep department because it is a jinx! Not a week after I last posted my glowing review, Henry completely forgot how to sleep. For real! The whole month of July is just a sleepless blur.

Apparently, Henry was teething (which we suspected) because our former sleeping angel became Rosemary’s baby. There was one week where he was literally waking up every hour or two! Nothing helped. (Usually if we think Henry’s going to have an ultra-cranky night we slip him the Motrin and get him to sleep for four blissful uninterrupted hours…but this time, even that wasn’t working)

By the time Henry cut his second bottom tooth (this all lasted about three weeks) , John and I were seriously considering abandoning the child in the nearest cabbage patch for some kinder, more patient soul to find and care for. But, finally, the worst seemed to be over and he went back to a more manageable sleep schedule, only waking once or twice a night.

That lasted about five days. Now he just cut his third tooth (right, top tooth) and seems to be working on his fourth. Will the torture ever end? Luckily, Henry seems a tad less cranky this time around and is only waking twice a night (usually). I just want to get this over with so we can go back to trying to train him to sleep thru the night.

You’d think that Henry would be chomping at the bit (tee-hee) to try out his new chompers, but he’s still not all that interested in solid food. I’ve decided to step up his feeding schedule and try and feed him his baby food twice a day instead of just once in order to stretch out his breast-feeding schedule (the kid still wants to eat every two hours). But sadly, adding the extra mealtimes doesn’t make him want to skip a breast session. And, as he still won’t drink his milk from a bottle…I’m stuck being Henry’s 24-hour buffet.

In other news, Henry is making progress in the sippy-cup department. He does need help as he hasn’t figured out the whole tipping-your-head-back-to-drink thing…but there are days when he’ll drink 4-8 ounces of juice or water. I’m hoping that eventually we’ll be able to slip him some breast milk or formula this way. But, for now, it’s still very hit-or-miss.

Henry is still not crawling. He’s creeping (sort of), he’s a champ at sitting, and is VERY interested in walking (if he had his druthers, he’d stand for hours)…but he just can’t get the hang of the crawl position. And, as he still hates his tummy-time, when I try to “train” him to crawl he just winds up flat on his tummy fussing and whining at me.

He also refuses to roll from his tummy to his back. He did it once or twice in the early days but then decided that fussing and whining until mommy or daddy give in and rescue him works much better. This is probably the most annoying development because if he rolls over onto his tummy in his crib he will start crying and wake himself and his parents up. Nine times out of ten, when Henry is crying in his crib it is because he’s flopped onto his tummy and can’t roll over. Sometimes he does this an hour after we’ve put him down and John has to bounce him back to sleep on the Yoga ball.

Uh-oh Henry’s whining for me…gotta go. Will write more this weekend

YAY! Henry turned six months old on Father’s Day and he’s given us a very special gift: The gift of sleep.

In the past two weeks, Henry has slept 8-plus hours on five separate occasions. In fact, last night Henry slept an unprecedented 9.75 hours (from 9:15 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.)! WOW! And the last two days he’s also taken morning naps that last for two hours. (Unfortunately, our afternoon naps have not been faring as well).

All this sleep makes for a very happy Mommy and Daddy as we were just getting to the point of having to try the “tough love” method (i.e. letting Henry “cry it out” if he woke in the middle of the night). We are really horrible at “crying it out” and are glad that Henry caught on before we really had to test our resolve.

Of course, now that Henry seems to be settling into a great nighttime routine, we have to disrupt it. Sunday evening we are attending a wedding in CT and have to bring the kid (and his Nana…for babysitting duties) with us.

The reason we can’t just leave him at home with Nana is because he still refuses to drink from a bottle. We have made some headway with the bottle using applejuice…but it’s a no go with milk. And really, he hasn’t drank more than 2 oz. at a time (and even that is a struggle). Oh well…I guess he can’t be perfect at everything.

In other news, our six-month check-up was another healthy one. Henry now weighs 18 lbs. 10 oz. and is 28 inches in length. (No wonder Mommy’s back hurts!)

Okay, I hate to brag (yeah, right!). But our kid is a genius.

Last week I decided to concentrate my efforts on teaching Henry to sit. So I decided to have a practice session every day. The first afternoon I sat him up inside the Boppy pillow, held onto his little outstretched hands, and told him he could let go whenever he was ready.

Eventually he let go, wobbled a bit and then righted himself. After a few seconds he seemed to realize he was sitting on his own because he got really proud of himself and started giggling as if to say, “Look, Mama, look at what I can do!”

By the third day of practice, Henry was sitting for up to fifteen minutes at a time. He was even correcting his balance and reaching for toys dropped at his feet and then righting himself back into the sitting position.

Now, he’s a regular pro. He rarely falls over in normal circumstances but if he gets too excited and starts kicking with glee, he can topple over onto his face. So I don’t leave him alone without surrounding him by pillows first. ;^) But he does enjoy a good jam-session on the bongos.

This weekend we also started Henry on solid foods for the first time. John got the camera ready, I mashed up a banana and shoveled in the first mouthful. At first, Henry didn’t really seem to enjoy it much…he made the funniest face, his expression saying, “What the hell is THIS you’re trying to feed me?!” But after a while, he got used to it and even opened his mouth for more. Yesterday he ate almost an entire banana on his own. Next…sweet potatoes.

Henry also seems to be discovering the joys of feet…both in the mouth and as useful tools for sucking, kicking and walking. I think he’s going to skip the crawling and head straight for walking.

As promised, we have a new video of Henry for you all to watch. See him get a real kick out of one of his favorite toys! Not only that, but it is posted in our brand new Video Showcase.

Videos are still in Quicktime format… as I still don’t have the time to format them in any other way. Enjoy!