my favorite things.

This boy loves a fire truck.

But, what exactly constitutes a fire truck?

According to Henry....

School buses, garbage trucks, large suv's, and all red vehicles

fall under the category of a

"woo woo woo".

Here kitty kitty. Here kitty kitty.

Will Henry ever realize that to win the affection of a

fleet-footed animal,

kicking and hitting is not the way to go?

Hunting what?

The event started with a very shy boy.

Too many people at a strange place and an uncomfortable button up shirt.

Not even his buddies, Lawson Joy and Katherine, could coax a smile.

Slides? No fun.

His favorite big girl, Lawson Joy?

She just wasn't doing it for Henry.....

What finally made this little boy happy?

"Ba's ba's ba's"

Maybe you don't have a toddler and need me to interpret for you.......

Balls!!!

Henry was convinced that the Easter eggs were balls and they were all there for him!

not running away?

My parents' dogs must have felt a bit safer with my dad in the chair.

Their normal reaction to seeing Henry is

RUN RUN RUN!!!

a signing fool.

At 19 months, Henry has a smattering of "words". They are definitely not clear to non-parental ears and usually, not very clear to me. He is within normal range but just not a traditional talker....yet.

He blabbers complete nonsense all day long and he signs. I first tried out signs when he was around 9 months old but he didn't pick them up and I got bored and felt silly using signs to a baby that had no idea what I was talking about.

Fast forward to around 14 months old and we have a little signing fool!!! He picks up new signs immediately and he makes them his own by tweaking them to his little needs.

A sample:

"help"

"please"

"cow"

"pig"

"cat"

We were at a Mexican restaraunt and he loved the salsa...

Can you tell?

"thank you"

"more"

I didn't have pictures of : bird, cereal, I don't know, bee, up, light, fan, sun, star....maybe later!

Summer. Fall. Winter.

Hmmmm. Where to begin?

Needless to say, it has been a busy last 7 months and I have been a miserable failure at documenting our daily events for my many many fans.

Do I want to do better? Yes.

Is this the rebirth of the life and times of the Dearman family? Why, yes, it is.

Since so much time has passed, this post shall henceforth be organized by seasons.

SUMMER

You know we love our bulldogs!!!

He was so tiny little and his hair was so short.

Not so much many anymore!

My most favorite outfit ever.

How precious is my child?

Do yall think he is as cute as I think he is?

His father was responsible for dressing his on this fateful morning.

Yes. His overalls are on backwards.

"Pick me up, dammit!!"

Think I get this look a lot?

Ummm, yeah.

FALL

We had a blast at Starkville's downtown Halloween festival.

Too bad I didn't get a picture of Henry sitting on the hay bale by himself.

It was too sad to document for posterity.

In retrospect, the scared look on his face should have warned me that an independent picture wouldn't go so well.

His first taste of juice. Yes, I am mean like that.

I figured that if we were all drinking mimosas so early in the morning,

Chicken Little deserved a treat too.

Doesn't every ridiculously long blog post need the obligatory 'grits on the head' photo?

Fall means nothing without a picture of a sweaty little boy at the pumpkin patch.

WINTER

Christmas presents were a huge hit!!!

I think his favorite presents were his new toothbrush and toothpaste just from me

According to Taylor, I am the next "MawMaw" with my gift giving abilities.

A future Picasso?

Very doubtful.

The only interest he has in crayons is shoving them and pulling them out of the box.

And, of course, pitching a fit when that thin little cardboard box self destructs from the abuse.

According to Taylor, Henry picked out this combo himself.

It's probably a good thing you can't see the too-small Robeez he is wearing as socks under his squeaker shoes.

Can you tell we love Baby Legs?

Big Boy sitting at his side-of-the-street find table.

A fresh coat of paint and we have a new kiddie table!

The Cotton District is so good to us like that.

Playdate with Joan, a fellow skinny mini.

Henry is definitely not a climber but he finally managed to get on top of the kitchen chairs.

Of course, I think "hallelujah, now I don't have to hold him up to flip the light switch on and off".

This worked for approximately 24 hours...

The very next day, he climbed on top of the coffee table, fell off on his head and started vomiting and falling asleep

-- the classic signs of a concussion.

An MRI showed no bleeding of his little baby head.

Now, I am a bit more aware of the delicate nature of a toddler's head.

One cool dude at the rodeo with his new cowboy hat!

There you are. The last 7 months of our life in a nutshell. If only pictures and my funny funny captions could sum up the craziness of these last few months....not even close.

I have a lot more to say about our little life. Stay tuned.

12 month check up.

Henry is still chugging along on his very own growth curve...at the very bottom of the chart....

Weight: 18 pounds and 13 ounces -- 5%

Height: 27.5 inches -- 5%

Head: 50% --not sure about the inchage

He got his 12 month shots and I am very glad that we chose to vaccinate on schedule because my mother has the whooping cough! So, get better Mama and we will see you soon!

Happy Birthday, Henry!

My favorite picture of the day. I made that cake myself and very proud of it!

This was the best attempt to get the kids all together for a picture. Henry was the only one not cooperating.

Pops playing with children in Henry's room.

Balloons are festive.

Still so proud...

Thanks for everyone who made the trip to Starkville for Henry's birthday party. Henry told me that he had a lot of fun playing with his new toys and books.

Lizbeth, Mama, and Daddy,

Thanks for all the help. I was so glad to have yall for weekend!

num yummy.

Can you tell that he is covered in corn from head to toe???

I'm listening.

henry's best friend.

playing at the park in May

play date at the union in February

dinner date at our house a few weeks ago

Henry loves Amelia. She is 4 months older than Henry and she is very good at showing Henry what he needs to do when he gets bigger. Her mama, Carmen, and I always have a good time together and our babies really are best friends. Henry can spot Amelia in a crowd and then he has to go knock her down and grab at her face. Apparently, that is how he shows his love to girlfriends. Hopefully that trend will end soon.......

Dueling Great-Grandparents.

exploring a great-grandmother's face
vs.
exploring a great-grandfather's "playroom"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

crawling
vs.

walking
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

fussing about posing for a picture
vs.

fussing about sitting in a baby swing

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

green plaid

vs.

green gingham

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AND THE WINNER IS ............................

long time no blog.

I know. I know. It's been my longest blogging absence ever. Henry has been keeping me super busy during the day and I have been napping while he naps (not sure that rule still applies at 11 months) and just plain lazy after he goes to bed at night. With that being said, let's move on to my boy.....

Henry started walking 2 weeks ago. He is into absolutely everything he can reach with his grubby little hands. We are still in the process of babyproofing -- our guest room looks like a library storage room with books and 35 years of National Geographics piled up everywhere.

Our little boy is finally saying 'mama' and 'dada.' I am pretty sure that he knows 'dada' is Taylor but he doesn't seem to know that I am 'mama.' But, I'm satisfied that he is at least said 'mama' first even if it still doesn't have the understanding behind it. Taylor said this morning Henry said 'cat' when he opened up the back door for them to visit Jimmy the cat. I've had my suspicions that he has been saying 'kitty' for a while so I suppose 'cat/kitty' is his first real word. Pretty cute, huh?!?

He loves watching animals. When all else fails to make him happy, we will stand in the front yard and watch the college kids walk their dogs. He yells at each dog he sees. It makes me sad that we don't have little Juhu and Maggie in our lives to entertain this kid. I can just see how much he would have loved those dogs.

It's amazing watching this boy grow. He understands more everyday and is communicating in his own little baby way-- hollering, hitting the table, throwing his body down to show discontent, etc. He is also developing very strong opinions about what he wants to do and about what he doesn't want to do.

This is a pretty jumbled up post. But, I promise to do better in the future!