First trip to the dentist

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We donned our green today and did something real exciting to celebrate: we went to the dentist. Hank had his first dentist's appointment and it went pretty well. He happily explored all the gadgets and tools and even listened to the dentist talk to him. But when it came time for him to open his mouth for a quick inspection...he wasn't happy about it. The doctor was able to get a look inside his mouth but when he was done, Hank turned around and gave me the biggest hug and wouldn't let go of my neck. He was a little upset and the crocodile tears were flowing but I was happy to get the big hug! And just like that he was back to normal and trying to get down and start exploring again. He was really happy when they gave him a new toothbrush to take home.

Everything is looking good in the dental department for Hank! He's got another tooth coming in and we can see a little piece of it poking through the gums on the bottom near the back.  This tooth can only be seen when he is yelling.  :) 

Happy about his milk and his new SpongeBob toothbrush.

-a

15 months

Hank is 15 months today.  Here are his stats from his doctor's appointment today:

Height:  32.5" (88%)
Weight:  21 lbs 9 oz (12% - moving on up from 8% in December!)
Head:  19"

Here's what's going on with him right now:

He can drink his sippy cup all by himself and even finish his whole "bottle" of milk in the morning without our help to hold it up.  Since he didn't have many bottles before we went to whole milk, he didn't really get much practice holding a bottle.  It took him a while but for the past couple of weeks he's been slinging his cup around like a pro.  He likes to chug!

Teeth #5 and #6 are in.  

He isn't saying too many words that sound like English.  Ellie, shoes, socks (both of the latter two still sound like "shh") and "hah hah" (his word for dog - it is like a panting sound but he's really mimicking Ellie's quiet bark) are the only words I can really make out consistently. 

His comprehension of commands and words is so fun and amazing.  I can ask him to do so many things and he actually does them.  He is also good at gesturing for the things he wants or using words that aren't English but I can figure out what he means. It really is so satisfying to actually feel like we are communicating! 

He's really loving the birds and squirrels that hang out in our yard and in the trees outside his bedroom window.  When he wakes up in the morning and from his naps, he points to the window and wants them opened so he can see the trees right away.

He's still sleeping like a champ.  Two naps a day and about 11 hours at night.  He's finally returned to sleeping at least until 6 am.  For a while there I thought we'd never sleep past 6 am again. (But of course it was from teething...any time his sleep gets whacky there is always a tooth discovered soon after.  This time it took one month for said tooth to finally break through.)

He likes to eat all the time.  Current favorite food:  clementines.  He wants them at every meal and every snack.  I keep them in a big display bowl on the kitchen table.  He points at the bowl all the time and does his little grunt which means he wants something.

Most of his pants are either too short or too big in the waist.  Tall skinny mini.  Still looking for some pants that will fit him right.  In the mean time we're expecting a flood over here.

Climbing anything and everything is his number one past time right now.  The couch and the kitchen chairs are tied for his favorite things to climb.  No toy can occupy him.  He will only do other things if you physically move him to another room!

He loves to cuddle with us to read.  All day long he is bringing me books to read to him.  (Of course this is when he isn't standing on the coffee table or doing something else like that!)  He has a bean bag chair in his room that he got for his birthday.  This is where we sit a lot to read together during the day and at bed time.

Speaking of cuddling, Hank is by no means a cuddler, but over the past month, he has started resting his head on my shoulder whenever I am holding him and standing at his crib to put him down to sleep.  Recently, he started patting my back as I patted him for just a minute before putting him down.  I am loving this new "cuddle bug" and soaking it up as long as he'll give it to me.  Even if that means standing there for a few minutes.  (Normally, I'm of the drop and run mind set when it comes to going to sleep.  ha ha)

This little guys is so much fun.  We love being his parents!

-a

Tricked out ride

 

Hank's stroller has been tricked out with some new camo accessories. While on a shopping trip with me this week he was very bored.  He took it upon himself to start chewing the safety bar that goes across the stroller.  He bit out chunks of the black squishy stuff that is wrapped around the safety bar.  He looked up at me with black stuff all in his teeth and just flashed me a big smile.  Thanks for the smile...no thanks for the destruction your little teeth continue to cause!

To hide this eyesore and so he would not ingest anymore of the black stuff I decided to make a cover for the bar.  While I was at it I whipped up some new shoulder strap covers to coordinate.  I made a super hero cape out of this camo fabric for one of my nephews a few years ago and I also had enough velcro on hand so I didn't have to make a dash to the fabric store to get any of the materials for this. Yay!  And I was able to finish it all during Hank's morning nap today.  Double yay!

 
-a

Squirrely little guy

Do you know how hard it is to get these pics???  This is the best one we could get last week.  It now takes two of us to get these mediocre results.  I guess it's perfect though since it is exactly his personality right now.  He is so squirrely - he flips over the instant we get him all straightened out on the blanket.  I love his huge grin in all it's snaggle tooth glory!  Sadly, his snaggle tooth days are numbered...the other top tooth started breaking through over the weekend.  Perhaps this is why he has been waking up in the wee hours of the morning lately?  (That's what happened with each of the other teeth.)  Perhaps that is wishful thinking?!?

A close up of the snaggle for your enjoyment before it's gone.  I really love this look.  I'm going to miss it.

-a

Adorable little snaggle tooth

We have been enjoying Hank's adorable little snaggle tooth look.  It is too cute.  The other tooth on top is starting to come in so we had to capture this look before it's gone!

-a

Table teether

Our kitchen table came with the house so it has been used by many, many people before us.
Therefore, it grosses me out so bad when I catch Hank using the table as a teether.  I have been working on telling him "no bite" ever since he gnawed up his crib but it's still a work in progress.

One of his top teeth broke through over the weekend so he's been looking for things to chew on in a real bad way!

-a

Sew baby sew

Helping mom sew.

I finished the crib rail protectors - yay! I love finishing a sewing project and Brett loves it when I put away the sewing machine and get it off the kitchen table.

-a

Toothy grin

Can you see the two little white spots on his lower gums?

At the fair on Saturday, Hank finally flashed a toothy grin for the first time. It was a ton of fun to see this for the first time and to have our friends all there to see it at the same time as us. He kept flashing his new pearly whites over and over. I was a total proud momma saying to everyone "oh my gosh we can see his teeth now - did you see that - how cute is that - oh wow look at that - he is so big, look - we can see his teeth!" Everyone indulged me for those few minutes, thank you friends! They all acted amused at being present for this big event.

Brett and I love seeing him smile with those little tooth buds showing. This afternoon, while Brett was making him laugh, I was finally able to snap a picture where you can see the teeth. This picture is a little whacko but it cracks me up and I'm too impatient to wait until we get a pretty shot.

As for the crib, he has done a lot of damage in the last two days. Wow. The kid can chomp! I have one rail protected with something I whipped together today but I ran out of white thread (seriously???) before I could finish the pieces for the other three rails. Hopefully, I can finish them tomorrow. Today I learned that I can sew and watch/play with Hank at the same time. I'm not saying I'll actually finish all of my sewing projects any time soon but it was a nice discovery none the less.

-a

Update on the grill

No pictures of Hank's first tooth yet. He's staying pretty tight lipped these days. BUT I have discovered that it's not one tooth, but TWO teeth coming in right now on the bottom. They are completely cut through the gums (they are super sharp and hurt when he uses my finger as a teething ring) but you still have to be close to him to see them.

I'm convinced his new teeth are messing up his morning naps. They have all been one hour or less for about a week now. That is bad news for me. I am not very good at taking care of business as soon as I put him down for a nap. I usually "dilly dally", as Brett calls it, for a while then I start getting to the business at hand - like take a shower, do the dishes, clean house, etc. This week Hank has been blowing up my morning plans by blowing up his naps. Oh well, it's kinda cool when he gets up early because then we can get out of the house earlier than normal and I LOVE getting places in the morning rather than the afternoon. Anyway, his afternoon naps have been fine and we've really had a fabulous baby when it comes to napping so I can't complain too much!

Since the first tooth broke through on Monday, he hasn't woken up at night at all. In the days leading up to that, he would stir in his sleep and even wake up a couple of times, which was not normal for him. Since the tooth broke through, he hasn't woken up at night at all. Fingers crossed that his night time sleep doesn't get really messed up from teething.

Unfortunately, the dreaded teething bi-product has happened. The dude chomped on his crib today. I have had this dread hanging over me for a couple of weeks thinking I should look into some sort of teething rail for the crib because he had been sucking on the rail for a couple of weeks. Well, today I go in to get him from his nap and see that he has used his new tools to create little gashes in the wood and has scratched off some of the paint. I'm bummed because I knew I needed to put something on there to prevent it and I hadn't gotten around to it. I guess that means my next sewing project needs to happen ASAP.

Maybe this weekend I can get a picture of Hank's new grill since I'll have Brett around to help me entice the little guy into a smile at the same time as when I'm holding the camera!

-a

First little chomper

It's official. Hank has his first tooth. This morning I thought I saw a little something in his mouth when he was eating breakfast so I stuck my finger in there. Sure enough, an itty bitty sharp edge has finally cut through. We figured it had to show up any day now because he was drooling like crazy yesterday, hasn't been taking long naps, has been a little fussy and waking up at night (although he's been falling back to sleep on his own). Now we have an explanation!

This picture was from our SC trip and has nothing to do with his tooth other than the fact that I have been trying relentlessly today to get the little guy to make a smile as big as this one so I can get a picture of the little chomper.

I am pretty good at getting him to laugh hysterically but the hard part is snapping a close-up picture at the same time!!

-a