Nine in, nine out

Henry is now nine months old! And as my sister pointed out, this means that starting now he will have spent more time outside of my body than in it. Wow! Time has moved a lot more quickly with Henry on the outside. Nine months of pregnancy is a looonnng time. You have all that time to wonder about the little person growing inside you. Nine months to want to meet him or her. And in our case, to speculate whether it was a him or her (I almost always thought Henry was a boy). It's hard to imagine that for all those months Henry wasn't "Henry," but instead he was "the baby" or "the little g-unit." All those kicks, all that movement, all the sleepless nights while "the baby" rumbled inside of me; it all makes sense. Because knowing Henry as we do now, he's not the type to have been a quiet little being, content to grow inside of me in slumbering peace. No, not our little boy. He's always on the go. Always moving. Always exploring. He's just the baby that he was inside of me. Those who were there for Henry's birth and the many, many (oh, so many) hours preceding it may remember how active Henry was before making his entrance into the world. When I was hooked up to the monitors, we were able to witness that Henry moved constantly. Really. The only time that he stopped moving was when I was bouncing on my exercise ball. Otherwise, the monitors revealed non-stop movement. Those little markers on the printout seemed to amuse the nurses, who remarked quite frequently about what an incredibly, unusually active little baby we were about to meet. And so it began, nine months ago yesterday.

In these nine months, Henry has grown to be a bright, curious, and fearless little boy. He's long and lean, weighing 21 pounds, 10 ounces, and measuring 29 1/2 inches in length. And he still has a humongous head atop his narrow shoulders. Thank you, Gemborys genes. ;) Henry puts the big brain inside his big head to good use, figuring out how the world around him works. He loves exploring every wheel, button, lever, or other gadget he can get his hands on. And he can sure move quickly to get his hands on these things. His current favorite places to get into are the dishwasher and the refrigerator. Open either one of those, and he'll be at your side faster than you can imagine. Henry also "talks" a lot more lately. We don't think he's using his sounds discriminantly yet, but I would bet he's close. At times it seems like he says "na na" (night night) when he's ready for his nap, but it's one of those things that I might be imagining. Henry's other favorite "words" are "ma ma" "da da" and "ba ba." He's also recently learned how to make a "pah" sound, and a "ffffuh" sound. The "pah" involves a lot of effort, and even more saliva. He kind of spits out the sound. It's adorable. Other fun feats include continued climbing, crawling, cruising, clapping, and waving.

This weekend we went to a local park with a free farm. Of the birds, pigs, sheep, goats, llamas, and pony, Henry liked the little horse the best. I think the feeling was mutual. The little pony kept pawing at the fence and nudging Henry's feet with his nose. At first Henry was a little startled by all the attention, but he soon began to enjoy the experience and laughed when the pony reached out to him. I'm sure this will be a place that we will frequent regularly now that Henry finds it interesting to look at animals.

A lesson to all you kids out there: brush your teeth or you'll wind up with llama mouth! And no one wants llama mouth.