Metal Meredith

I have read this book no less than 23 times in the past three days. And amazingly, I am not complaining about it.

From very early, we read to Vivienne. She would sit in our lap in our big red rocking chair and absorb every word. She wasn’t interested in turning the pages herself or eating the book. She liked to have us read to her.

When we tried this with Henry, we found ourselves wrestling the book from his grip. We removed it several times from his mouth. We rescued it from being torn, folded and turned inside-out. It wasn’t enjoyable to read to him and he didn’t enjoy the act of being read to. Until now.

This week, he started picking up tiny board books and paging through them. I sat amazed at the lack of destruction while he did this. Then, to my surprise, he handed me a book. I turned the pages and read the words, “Hand Hand Fingers Thumb One thumb One thumb Drumming on a drum” and he sat still. At one point, he turned to me and gave me a small head butt, which is his way of kissing me (or more to the point, getting me to kiss him.)

Since then, he has brought this book to me many, many times a day. He will grunt and put it in my hands. I have read the book so much that I am thinking millions of monkeys drumming on drums will show up in my dreams this weekend. It is a small price to pay for a boy who might just end up liking books as much as his sister and I do. 

I have talked a lot about Vivienne as of late but have given no updates on the dear, small Henry.

Well, Henry is not small, for one. He is a whopping 30lbs. He is wearing 2T clothes and tomorrow will be 15 months old. For those of you who don’t speak “baby age”, that is one year and 3 months.

He is now walking full time, only crawling when he is unable to get on his feet or going up stairs. He waddles and stumbles and flaps his arms to gain his balance and each time I find myself giggling. It s just so fun to watch. We bought him his first pair of ‘real’ shoes and they look huge on him. Poor thing. Hopefully we can get him some sandals that aren’t so bulky.

Yesterday, he picked up a ball and gave it to Friedrich, who was so excited (not), and said “Here you go!”. He likes to bend down to talk to kids taller than him and sometimes me, if I am sitting on the floor. He is in love with his toothbrush and his pacifiers. He likes when he gets on my bed and I push his face causing him to fall backwards. Not sure why, but it is pretty humorous.

He goes to bed without a fight each night and wakes up in the morning happy. When he sees me open the door, he says “HEY!” In fact, he says that to anyone who he sees throughout the day.

Darnit, he is the cutest kid.

Vivienne was on Spring Break this past week. Add that to the previous week where she was off 4 days for the tonsillectomy, she has had just too much time with her little brother. I was too often hearing that she just didn’t like him and then letting out a big disappointed sigh when he was brought downstairs in the morning or after a nap.

Yesterday, when Henry was on the sofa watching something riveting like “Barney”, Vivienne surprised me by plopping down next to him. At first it was a no-go with lots of elbow fighting and whining.  Soon things settled down, as seen by my attempt at getting a photo where they were both looking at me and smiling.

Sorry, he is just a funny kid and I don’t have anything interesting to sit down and write out at the moment. (or the time, really)