Metal Meredith

It has been a while since I bragged on the Big Butterball, so I am taking this opportunity to do so.

Henry is about 25 lbs. When you look at him, he looks big. But when you pick him up, it is obvious that every cell in his body is storing some food for later. He is solid and his little legs are as thick as those turkey legs you can buy at the state fair. Blessed with the double combination of Hertzler/White genes, he has stumpy little legs and no butt. Sad, sad white man’s back with a crack.

This is my favorite time in a baby’s life, when he is just starting to really learn his own feelings and wants and needs. When he is so obviously thinking and explaining, even though it doesn’t sound like anything but practicing Vietnamese. Unlike Vivienne, he is loud and talks a lot at this age. He sings, repeats sounds and mimics everything around him that catches his ear.

He has started recognizing that objects have names. He sees his ball and will crawl toward it repeating “Ba...ba.....ba....ba...” until he reaches it. If he sees Phil, he will say “Da da da da”. There are a few others, but you really have to be listening and observing the repeated sounds a few times to get what he is trying to say. He breaks out in song in Target or the grocery store and if there is an echo, there is no stopping the performance.

Like any good parents, we have taught him a handful of ‘tricks’ that we like to make him to on our whims. We have taught him to clap when anyone says “yay!”. Phil taught him to raise his hands above his head when someone says “wheeee!”, making him appear to be on a roller coaster. This did come in handy last week, when I was changing a particularly liquid diaper of the normally solid kind, when his hands would wander southward. Each time, I said “wheeee!” and he immediately raised them above his head.

We have yet to injure him too badly, or allow him to do himself harm. I think he fell off the second stair a few weeks ago. Yesterday, I shut his little foot in the car door. He is resilient as can be and bounced right back from all of these. With only a few real bumps and bruises, I wonder what kind of daredevil activities we are in for.

Henry’s main motivation in life is food. If you have it, he wants it. If you are cooking it, he smells it and will barrel toward you begging for it. Crack open a soda, beer or take a sip of water, he wants that, too. Put a pile of food in front of him and watch how quickly it vanishes.

Vivienne was walking at 11 months and 1 day. I have a feeling Henry will take a little more time and we are a-ok with that.