Henry is now going to nursery each day. There is a nursery at my school and the students' parents provide care for the teachers' children who are not in school. It has been SO wonderful. I had some anxieties about the whole thing, but it has been great. Henry is happy there and the nursery workers love him and talk about how happy and content he is and what a good sleeper he is. I truly believe that God has called me to that place, and when He calls, He will equip! I am thankful and honestly amazed that it all worked out the way it did. I am able to be a mother AND a teacher, both of which I love (who knew??!!). The school has graciously worked with my schedule, and it looks like this:
I work MWF from 8-12:30, and I get to go nurse/visit him at 9:30 and 11:45
I work TTH from 8-3:00, and I get to go nurse/visit him at 9:30, 11:30, and 2:00
Sometimes I feed him, lay him down for nap, then come back after teaching for 2 hours and he is still asleep or is just waking up, so I feel like I have not missed any time with him at all! Today, for example, I dropped him off at 7:45, came back to feed and lay him down at 9:30, and he was still asleep at 12:30 when it was time to go home! Anyway, enough about that.
Speaking of Henry's sleeping, he is still a good sleeper. We bathe him each night and try to lay him down around 8:00. After a few minutes of rocking/swaying him, he goes to sleep on his own in his crib. I would say he cries half the time and just plays and falls asleep on his own half the time. If he does cry, it is not for long. Lately, though, he has been waking up at about 4:15ish. He is pretty easily patted back to sleep, but it does not last much more than an hour (if that). When he wakes up around 5:30, I feed him and he falls right back to sleep. He is still sleeping when I go in at 7:00 to get him up for the day. which I hate doing, by the way....there is something SO wrong about waking up a sleeping baby. But you gotta do what you gotta do. If he is allowed to just sleep, he usually wakes up around 9:00 or so. That is what he has done this past weekend anyway.
Henry still eats around every 3 hours and still takes a bottle when necessary, although he does "play" with it for a bit before actually taking it. We started rice cereal this weekend and it went great! I think he is going to be an eater!
We think his favorite color is orange. NOT because we are UT fans, but because he really does seem to be drawn to it! He lunges especially for that color...we even tested it by holding up several different colors and switching up hands and everything, but he pretty consistently went for orange. Pretty funny, because orange is one of my least favorite colors!:) Oh, well.
Henry has been "talkative" for a long time now, but he has taken it to a new level recently. He growls, screeches, and really moves his mouth a ton....moving his lower jaw is kind of a new thing. He gets on a sound and does it over and over, like "Mmmmmmm" or "Dadadadada". He can get quite loud! We have notices, though, that he does this mostly in the privacy of his own home and is kind of quiet when we are out. He does a LOT of observing when we are out! On Sundays, we take him to the church svc with us, and he just stares and stares. He does not nap like normal due to this, so as soon as we get in the car, he conks out! He is also super ticklish, and I can get him going pretty easily by tickling his ribs and insides of his little chubby legs.
Henry loves his toys, loves his feet (as you will see in the pictures below), but his favorite "thing" to stare at is still his pup. He is mesmerized by Maggie. He lunges for everything now, and it goes straight to his mouth. He is sneaky and somehow gets by us a lot! He is always grabbing at our face, too, and gets rough!He got his first tooth a month ago, and his second on came in about a week and a half later. One thing people always comment on is how much hair he is growing. It is really coming in now! He is sitting up now, and doing great with it. While I do not walk away and leave him yet, I can see it coming soon. He is getting more and more control each day and falling over less and less. It is so cute and makes him look like a little person all the more. I know there is a ton more going on with him, but I have written WAY too much stuff and if you have gotten through it I am sure you are bored out of your mind, so sorry!:) I write all this so I can remember it! I have been shocked at how easily I have forgotten when all the little milestones have occurred in his life already.
