What I do remember is that he was SO mellow. He would entertain himself all day going from looking at books to playing with toys to standing outside just looking around. All I really had to do was feed him, change him and put him to bed. Speaking of bed, he slept like a maniac. He still does, but it was even more insane. By maniac and insane I mean he started making up for all those sleepless nights he caused me. He would usually go to bed around 8:00 or 8:30 and I would eventually wake him up around 10:30 or 11:00, sometimes even noon. Then he'd still nap for a good 2-3 hours. Bliss. Now he sleeps about 13 hours at night, sometimes more, and naps about 2 hours. Still bliss. And he has started to be less mellow and more assertive. He throws tantrums and complains when Jane and Jack are taking his things. But when he's alone he's still pretty mellow.
Hank hasn't had too much to say. His talking has come slowly, starting out sometime around 14 months I would guess with words like ball, bubbles and belly. And he learned to sign please and thank you. But even words he could say he wouldn't say very often. The first word he used a lot was fire truck, pronounced "bire truh", in a very deep and breathy voice. He used it all the time. Definitely for fire trucks, and usually for any vehicle at all. And even for any pictures that had black circles on it that could be mistaken for tires. Now he's talking a tiny bit more: the usual animal sounds, body parts, etc but is still very selective about when he wants to say it. With how little he talks I think it's hilarious that some of his chosen words are wee wee, poo poo, and snot (very fitting for our family). He also says iPad, Elmo, bat for batman, and baboo for popsicle. Baboo was an early favorite. Thankfully I have some little silicone otter pop-type molds that I put plain juice in that he thinks are a popsicle so I can give him baboo's a little more often than usual. And another favorite is uh-oh, pronounced, "uh-hooo".
Lately when he wants something to eat he says "teeth" and points to his teeth. Which couldn't be any cuter when you think about it.
When Jane was little she had a sound she would say a lot- adoobadoobadobye. It was just her thing. Hank's thing has been something that sounds like beeyabah. It's debatable whether he's saying "be right back" or "be at bat."
He says no all the time now. But the best thing is how he communicates yes. He never says it. He never nods. He laughs. It's so awesome. Hank, do you want bread? No. Do you want yogurt? No. Do you want cheese? Heeheehee. It took me a little while to figure out he did it every single time to mean yes. But now that I've figured it out it's gotten a lot easier to figure out what he wants! I think it might have transitioned from when he could talk even less and trying to figure out what he wanted was totally confusing. Then, when we would finally guess what he was wanting he would do a little happy jig and laugh with delight.
There is a time that he communicates with a head nod though. When he's eating, if he likes it, he gives a very serious and pronounced head nod. Speaking of eating. He can be crazy. You don't dare leave him alone. He can go from this:
to this:
in a matter of minutes.
He has been quite the mama's boy. Although for a long time he consistently called me dada. He called Matt dada too. But now he's started to call me mama. After figuring it out he spent several days practicing when we were both around. He'd point to both of us back and forth and say, mama, dada, mama, dada. I was hoping the mommy obsession would fade before the baby came but it seems to be getting worse. He insists on only me carrying him. It's so annoying being 8 months pregnant. He only wants me to do everything-get him things, wash his hands, etc. Even when Matt tried to hand him fruit snacks Hank kept yelling "Noooo!" He kept pointing at me and finally I just gave in, grabbed the fruit snacks and handed them to him. He did his happy jig.
When he waves hi or bye he turns his hand towards himself. So strangers really aren't sure what he's doing. But I love it.
He came up with ways to communicate without talking of course. He usually would just push on our legs or pulls on us until we started walking. Then he'd walk in front to show you where to go but every couple steps he'd look back to make sure you're still coming.
Hank likes to have things in their place. If he sees cabinets or drawers open he'll shut them. He likes to throw trash away. He will carry shoes he finds to the shoe basket that we have. And one day when I was going to run to pick Jane up from school I was going to leave my purse but Hank insisted I take it before we left the house.
He also isn't too keen on change. When we moved into our new house we ditched our old clear bath mat that goes inside the tub. Hank all of a sudden HATED baths without it in there and we had to work hard to get him to like them again. Then, several months later we got a new bath tub mat and when he saw me filling up the tub with it in there he was pointing at it and crying/complaining. I tried putting him in there anyway and he FLIPPED OUT. He was going crazy as soon as his foot touched the new surface. Now we have to take it out completely. One day I was filling up the tub with it still in there and he came in, excited, saying "bath! bath!". Then he saw the mat, got very serious, said, "bye bye" and shut the bathroom door.
Hank has been and is the best hugger. He will hug any of us when we ask. And he even adds a little back pat when he hugs. He did it all the time when he was younger but now he'll do it on request. And when he's ready for a kiss he throws out the biggest pucker face with his huge lips. It's so funny. His pucker is huge. And he does it way in advance before even reaching you. Sometimes he'll be in his high chair and want to kiss me so he throws his huge lips my way until I walk over to kiss him. Then, he'll throw his lips towards the room that Matt is in and Matt will have to come kiss him. And, in true mommy obsession fashion, if Matt asks him for a kiss he always makes sure to kiss me first before he'll kiss Matt.
Hank likes babies. He likes to point them out in books and when he sees them in real life. He has a couple baby dolls he plays with occasionally. He'll cover them with a blanket and feed them a bottle. Then we went to Sharon's house and my nieces 4 month old baby Vai was there. I couldn't believe how Hank reacted. As soon as I put him down and he saw the baby he threw out his pucker and went right over to her to kiss her. He was obsessed. He wanted to kiss her right on the mouth over and over and over again. He'd also pet her and hug her. He'd spot her across the room and throw out his pucker until you walked him over to her. I thought I'd test how he'd do when I held the baby. He actually did quite well. He just sat by me and hugged and kissed on her. But when I held her up closer up against me he started to get concerned. He was whiney and not sure what to do. Then I let him sit on my lap, too, and he went back to loving on the baby.
He still loves books. We read them before nap and bedtime and the first thing he would do when getting out of his crib was grab a book and convince you to read him another. His favorite book lately has been The Wheels on the Bus. He can sing along to "round and round" and do the actions. Pretty cute stuff. He also likes Harold and the Purple Crayon, Goodnight Moon, Mr. Brown Can Moo, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear.
Now when he wakes up he is more likely to get down, run to Jack's room, grab 2 hot wheel cars and then he's ready to go downstairs.
He loves his stuffed animals. He always sleeps with a little dog, a Goodnight Moon bunny, and a gorilla. He also has two baby dolls we keep in his crib. I've seen him pretend to give his dog milk. And one time when he saw me slip his dog into the washing machine he kept asking, so sadly, "woof, woof?"
He started going to nursery at church. At first he would bawl and cling to us. Then he would stop crying after we left but would bawl as soon as we'd pick him up. It got so bad that he started bawling just at the sight of the church building. But we persevered and a few weeks later he started going without any crying at all. And they say he's even started to smile in there.
He loves to go for walks in stroller. It's one of his mellow times. He'll just sit and look around forever. If he sees the stroller sitting outside he'll climb in and try to convince someone to push him around. Anytime he hears the word, "walk" he perks right up and starts to get his shoes and head outside. One time we were going upstairs for his nap and I said, "Oh do you want to walk up by yourself?" He whipped around and said, "Wah (walk)?" And tried to get back downstairs.
Hank is a serious snacker. He loves the snack cabinet where he can pull out boxes of crackers and cereal. Then he goes and grabs a plastic bowl and either gets someone to fill it up or resorts to doing it himself. I have started to barricade the snack cabinet door. It makes him furious. But I have to teach him to eat meals!
When the cold weather first came we discovered that Hank HATES jackets and coats. There were several days we had to just let him be cold. Then during a very cold outing to SLC he decided it was worth it. He slowly got better and better and now he doesn't protest. Maybe it all started when he was about 12 months old and saw me with a green hooded sweatshirt on. I had the hood on and he was absolutely terrified of me. Even after I took the hood off he was crying and running away from me. Since Matt wasn't home he had nowhere to go. I eventually had to take it off completely before he would calm down.
When we first moved into our house he would go up and down the stairs by himself. But if you've ever seen our stairs you can imagine the death-defying tumbles he's experienced. So then for months he made us take him up and down. Then, this past month he became willing to climb up the stairs if someone was right behind him. Before long he started going up and down by himself. Then, last weekend, I heard a "ba boom ba boom boom" and sure enough my sweet Hank had fallen down the stairs. He was crying really hard but I finally got him calmed down. He would be fine and then point to his mouth and whine. I checked his tongue thinking he bit down on it. Then he pointed to his mouth again and I looked closer. His poor teeth were cracked and broken. His front top tooth was very broken and another top one was chipped. Two bottom teeth were chipped in half. I BAWLED. Then I composed myself and called the dentist. He met me right away and was surprised the damage wasn't worse. No teeth needed to be pulled and the dentist quickly put some filling type stuff on the teeth to make them be and look less jagged. So far they have held up okay, but his top tooth is still noticeably short and pointed to one side. We still don't have any pictures of his new grin, but I've got several others to share.
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