Breakfast
Even more eating photos! He's getting closer to tolerating this.
Henry: Hinting at Eating
Jenny called today to let me know that, finally, at eight months old Henry has willingly put food in his mouth. She said he was gumming a banana. And while some was being pushed out, it's more than we've seen before.
General Update on the Kids
Henry is a swell kid. He's pretty miserable due to his concurrent arrival 6-8 teeth. His tongue is perpetually wedged in (his) left side of his mouth, scraping across his teeth, and a steady stream of drool can be found streaming down his chin.
He wants to move -- he can lower himself to his belly from a sitting position -- he's been sitting by himself for many weeks now - and can wiggle his way around the room on his belly. When in his crib, he likes to pull himself up and grab on to the railing, bouncing himself up and down while making percussive chants.
His voice is wonderful. He makes deep grunts of pleasure and is also capable of soaring, pretty hoots when he's happy. His laugh starts deep in his diaphragm. And he's discovered his screech mode and made it clear that he has an ear-piercing, glass-breaking talent.
He is fond of games with his Sis ("can you see me now?") and really likes swinging on the baby swing at the park. His taste in toys is skewing towards those with wheels, and has shown a knack for mastering the mechanical -- he takes after his sister.
His determination to not eat solid foods only exceeds his sister's by the strength of his gag reflex. He does not like food. We're trying a new strategy and hope there might be some relief for Jenny's breasts sometime in the near future.
Olivia continues to be a generally wonderful girl. We've had some slight issues with the four-year-old temperament. Its been challenging for all of us, but we're learning some new strategies which seem to be easing the conflicts.
She continues to love Cars, trains and dress-up clothes. She's been showing interest in lettering and reading -- her favorite program is a PBS/Department of Education program called Word World. We try to read lots of books to her, and have recently tried to introduce chapter books, but she lost interest pretty quickly. We'll try again soon. She's becoming a bigger fan of Dr. Seuss books -- we recently bought The Lorax, which she loves.
She really likes to ride her bike. She rarely wants to go to parks that are outside of bike range. She likes to ride way out ahead of us, and then waits patiently at the end of the street. She's still a little fast and loose, but her technique is improving. She lost all the fear that she picked up when I had set-up her training wheels incorrectly resulting in many crashes (thanks dad!).
She loves to help in the kitchen, and loves making fun, food-based experiments (think water, flour, catsup, salt, food coloring, etc.) and asking us to save it when she needs to leave or take a break.
She loves treats. Chocolate is still king. As far as food, she likes to eat pasta, eggs, cheese, yogurt and has recently developed a taste for sushi rice and seaweed.
Both the kids are snugglers, and love to cuddle up. Liv is especially cuddly in the morning and at night. We have a bed time ritual where we talk about what she is going to dream about. She doesn't want to pick the topics and asks me to help her pick. We talk often about chocolate, snow, walks in the woods and other non-nightmare inducing scenarios.
She's incredibly verbal and picks up new vocabulary quickly. She's a challenge to keep up with when she starts negotiating and trying to convince you of her point of view. She can be very stubborn, but also very welcoming.
There's really too much to write up, but thought it would be good to jot a few things down for the record.


