Pulling Up to Stand

Henry is fed up with the whole crawling thing. He is ready to walk. In the last week or so, he has figured out how to hold on to furniture and pull himself up to a stand.

Henry can even hold on with one hand. . . usually while he's trying to reach one of Nick's toys.

He's really pleased with himself, too. Henry knows he is showing off when he stands up, so he always grins at me as if to say, "Check out what I can do!" He is even starting to scoot sideways a bit, especially when he wants to reach something forbidden. I believe he was trying to climb the stairs in the picture below.

Here is some more video. I don't want to forget this stage in Henry's life, because I'm pretty sure he'll be walking (and running) very soon.

I looked up a video of Nick when he started to pull up, and I was amazed. Nick was several months older than Henry. But I see such a resemblance between them. I think Henry's starting to get chubby like Nick was during his late babyhood.

Dancing on the Dishwasher

My boys require very little urging to shake their respective groove things (or would it be a collective groove thing?). In any case, I guess watching daddy do dishes inspired some serious happy dancing.

Nick and Henry are certainly happy little guys. I remember Nick used to love to pull up on that dishwasher. Now Henry is doing the exact same thing. Observe and behold the dancing sensation:

I need to remember this video the next time I'm in a bad mood. How can anyone feel sad after watching this?

The Artistic Development of Nicholas

I find it quite intriguing that in the last few months, Nick's drawings have changed so very much. Where once I saw only scribbles, recognizable figures are emerging. He is now 38 months old.

Nick said he wanted to draw last Friday, so I bought him a brand new giant box of Crayolas. There's something about the smell of new crayons that I still love, even as an adult. I cannot resist coloring with brand new crayons. We drew together for more than an hour.

Here is the close-up of his picture, along with a description of what he drew. I asked him to tell me about his picture. It was interesting to hear what he had to say. The blue lines in the center are water, and under the water Nick drew a fish.  (The fish is the circle with eyes and a mouth.) He drew two more small fish that are blue circles. Nick drew a purple sun in the upper left hand corner, and yellow birds flying across the sky.

The Museum of Science and Industry

A few weeks ago, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. I took quite a few pictures, but didn't have time to post many of them. So here they are for your enjoyment, starting with the one of Nick sitting on a cow.

Here is Nick enjoying his ride on the combine.

I think Henry was a little overwhelmed by all of the Christmas trees. Actually, I'm just guessing. I have no idea why he looks freaked out in this picture.

I think Nick's favorite exhibit was the Idea Factory, where Grandma Toni and I watched him shoot water. "I like the shooting things!" said Nick. Yup. We know.

I love the picture below of Nick. He looks either fiercely determined or moderately constipated. Either way, it's cute, but he was actually trying to turn that gear.

Henry was, for once, not left out of the museum experience. MSI Chicago actually has a part of the Idea Factory that is just for babies, and Henry took full advantage of this place of joy.

That is a look of joy. . . drool, as well, but the joy is just behind the drool.

I wish I could find a baby obstacle course near my house to take Henry. He loved this one so much.

All in all, it was a pretty decent day.

The baby cage is BACK. . .

. . . and, strangely enough, both boys seem pretty excited about this "new" development in the living room.  Henry doesn't seem to mind at all being behind bars.

I bought the baby cage when Nick was a baby, and it was a very smart purchase. Once a child starts crawling, it is impossible to relax even for a second. With the safety of the baby cage, I can visit the bathroom or even (gasp) start dinner without worrying that my child will immediately find and swallow the most dangerous object in the vicinity.





Nick can get into and out of the baby cage in much the same way as I can remember climbing chain link fences as a child. It's not graceful, but it works.

Thus far, I haven't heard many complaints from Henry about being caged. That will change soon enough, I'm sure, as soon as the novelty wears off.

Snow, however fleeting, was welcomed by Nick

Nick jumped for joy when he found out it was going to snow last Friday. He wasn't quite so pleased with the 2 hour + drive home Friday evening, though. About every three miles, Nick decided to announce, "I don't want to be in the car, Mommy. I want to be at home." Yup. Me, too, kid.

 Just guess what his first question was Saturday morning? "Can I go outside and play in the snow?"

Greg took this picture on Saturday, while they were shoveling. Yup, that's a rake he's using. Nick and Greg might have saved themselves the trouble--nearly all of the snow melted when it rained last night.

Greg said that this snow still wasn't "good packing snow," whatever that means. Nick couldn't make a snowman with his daddy because of that, so they drew a snowman in the snow instead. This snowman is only 2D instead of 3D, but he's still cute.

In the course of the last few weeks, our weather can't make up its mind. We went from highs in the 50s and sunshine to wind chills in the teens and tons of snow, back to temperatures in the 40s with rain. Then, this afternoon, the temperatures dropped and all of the puddles froze.

Doesn't it look. . .

as though Henry is conducting some sort of session? He reminds me a little bit of Lucy in the Peanuts Cartoons when she's charging a nickel for a psychiatric therapy session. I wonder if Henry will follow in his daddy's footsteps. I can just imagine him saying, "And how does that make you feel?"