Dear Henry - Month 4

Dear Henry,

Happy 4 month birthday!

I think we may have officially reached the stage where each new month is going to be my favorite.  Thus, this has been my favorite month so far.  Your personality has blossomed so much and you have become so much more  fun and interactive.  You are a happy, smiley guy.  You are easygoing and can keep yourself entertained for a much longer amount of time than I would have thought possible at this age.  That said – you don’t give us much warning when you’re bored, hungry, or tired.  There’s very little warm-up before you reach full on rage.  There’s some debate as to who you inherited that from, but I’m afraid it might be me. 

A little bit of mischief...

This month held a lot of adventure for you -- your first St. Patrick's Day and your first Easter.  There's not much Irish in your bloodline, so we didn't do much to honor St. Patrick's day (although your mom and dad enjoyed the heck out of some Shamrock Shakes), but you got to celebrate Easter with both sides of the family and I think you charmed them all.  You were on your best behavior.  Even though you were extremely tired, you didn't want to sleep and miss out on the activities.  You are a party guy, apparently.  We will have to watch out for this in the future. 

1st Easter.  Mom celebrated by putting me in a chicken hat.  Dad not amused.

You are happiest in the mornings.  Your dad and I both want to be there for those first couple minutes so we’ve constructed our morning routine so that we both come in to get you at the same time –  neither one of us is willing to miss those first smiles!  Sometimes you’re already awake just laying there quietly, or talking to yourself (lately you’ve learned how to stick out your tongue and blow, so we hear raspberry sounds coming through on the monitor), sometimes we have to wake you up.  No matter what your sleep state is, it is the best way we have ever found to get the day off the ground.   Better than coffee.  Better than pancakes, even.  Your whole body wiggles and your million watt smiles occasionally turn into giggles and I don’t think there’s another human being on the planet who has ever been so happy to see us. 

BEING AWAKE IS SO COOL!

You’re so much more alert these days – everything catches your eyes.  You like to watch the dogs run and play, and you’ve recently discovered your hands and how you can move them.  Sometimes you’ll just sit and stare while you open and close them.  It’s so fun to watch you learn how you work.  You’ve also discovered your legs.  You LOVE to kick off of things – and sometimes that’s not always super convenient or – you know – safe.  We had a bit of a situation when you tried to do that in the bathtub the other night.  Everything is totally fine, but you gave us both a mini heart attack.  We try at least once a week to put you in your Johnny Jump-Up, but so far you've still been too little for that.  Once you're big enough, I think you're going to love it!

You like to kick your legs everywhere but in in the Jumparoo!

You love making fart noises, hearing fart noises (see the blowing raspberries thing above), and talking about poop.  This is all the evidence we need to know that you are your daddy’s child.  We struggled with a yeast rash on your little butt for the first couple of months of your life.  I stocked up on all kinds of creams and salves in my commitment to get on and stay on top of that rash and then you immediately stopped pooping.  You went from pooping 10+ times per day to pooping once a week.  I would ask you where your poops went while changing your diapers and you would laugh and laugh.  Then we lived in fear of when the poop finally returned and, indeed, it was epic and awful.  I think the pendulum has started to even itself out a little bit now so we don't have to be quite so fearful.  It's amazing how much of our lives are now dictated by your tiny butt.

there's a fairly good chance that this conversation involves fart noises.

You’re welcome for talking to the whole internet about your poops.  Please know, it is our job to thoroughly embarrass you as often as possible.

Speaking of - we need to talk about your hair.  When you were born you had this beautiful man sized head of hair on your bitty little body.  Everyone commented about how much hair you had and we strutted around all proud of our baby with the full head of grown up hair on the bitty baby sized body.  And then, after a while, it didn’t seem like it was falling out.  So I started telling everyone that I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to fall out – you’d just grow hair around it.  And – I don’t think I was wrong about that, exactly, but I was unprepared for how that might actually play out.  You see, I don’t think you’ve actually lost much hair, but you haven’t really grown any either.  So what’s happening is that your head is getting bigger and the beautiful grown up sized hair that you were born with has separated into continents of hair.  This has led to bald spots (oceans?) spread about your head in patterns that appear to be both male pattern and completely spontaneous.  Also, the hair that does currently exist on your head defies gravity.  The result is a comedic patchy mess of spikes and mohawks scattered haphazardly about your head.  Oh, kid.  I’m sorry.

Your hair has a mind of its own.

This too shall pass!

Also, it’s nothing to worry about because every single thing about you, including your ridiculous hair, is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. I know, I’m a little biased.  It’s not cool to tell people your mom thinks you’re handsome.  It’s okay, cuz I tell everyone anyway, so you don't have to.  You are handsome.  You are smart.  You are unbelievably sweet.  I can't imagine a world without you in it and I can't imagine all that you will bring to the world.  You are my little adventure, my sweet sunshine.  It has been a very, very good month.

Love and kisses all over,

Mama