A big week for Henry (and mom and dad)

Last week marked a lot of exciting new developments in the life of young Henry Voorhees. He took his first steps on Tuesday, in the presence of his aunt and uncle and mom and dad. Pretty lucky for all of us. He was shaking his booty to "In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry and he got so excited he took steps towards his daddy. Proud we are.

Henry also said a new word, "Cracker". He's said it 4 times but I can't get him to do it again. He also started being able to identify body parts/objects. If I say, "Where does the hat go?" he puts his hands on his head. I never even taught him that....he just saw us wear hats so much and he put two and two together, I guess.

He also now does the sign for "all finished". This is the only sign I've consistently stuck with. I've done several others but so inconstantly that there's no way he could learn them. I just forget. I feel like not doing them anymore since I want him to talk but a lot of people say that teaching signs actually gets them to talk sooner. Who knows...

Justin taught Henry the gesture of shrugging your shoulders and putting your hands out, palms up--meaning "Where is it? Where'd it go?" or "I don't know." He'll chuck one of his peas in the air and then shrug his shoulders. Or toss a fork across the room and then immediately--and I mean instantaneously--throw his hands up in confusion over where the fork went.

Last week was also the first time in 8 months I've left Henry alone with another person besides daddy or his aunt and uncle. Three moms and I formed a little co-op where we drop our kids off with a teacher we hired and she watches the 4 of them for 4 hours on Tues and Thursdays. (I say we but I actually did none of the work--so I can't share credit for this genius idea). Henry and one other boy are sharing a shift however, so he only goes 2 hours. But I can get A LOT done in those 2 hours since the co-op location is 5 min. from my house. So far I've only left him there for an hour because I was so nervous about how he'd react, but next week I'm bumping it up to two. He seems to be very happy there (so far). No crying or sadness, so that's a relief. The fact is, the boy likes to be around other kids and this nursery is huge and filled with awesome toys, and all his friends. How can you beat that?