Big boy

Henry has truly become a Merrill boy.  Something I remember from living at the Merrill house for a few months with Scott and his brother and cousin is the sound of Guinness, our dog, licking away at one of the lucky boys’ feet.  Well, I’ve noticed that Henry now sits in front (or on top) of Guinness and shoves his foot in Guinness’s mouth for a few licks and then shoves in the other foot and says “other foot”.  Hmmm, and why does Guinness put up with this?  No. Why does Guinness love to do this?

Things have been fun around here. We’re still hearing replays about dreams with elephants swimming and boisterous laughs while Henry is chased around and around and around the dining room table.  One other thing we hear if Henry gets a little down time is signing.  Since a little before our trip he started singing his ABCs, albeit skipping a few of the letters but who’s to judge, but he especially belts out “Now I know my ABCs; next time won’t you sign with me.” How can we not sign along?  Also, along with the Itsy Bitsy Spider, we also hear Happy Birthday To You.  Learning this song was inspired by celebrating my brother’s birthday combined with me trying to keep Henry entertained during a flight.  His personal touch is signing by emphasizing the phrase with “Happy birthday… TOYOU”.

Is it okay to say more Henry news?  …  He has gone through many changes in the past week.  We switched him from the crib to the next stage towards a big boy bed. Let me tell you he was proud of the surprise!  He was grabbing everyone from across the hall to run with him back to his room to watch him climb into bed.  When Shilpi came a few days later he couldn’t wait to show her as well.  It’s fun to watch him climb into bed after book time and then plop down for his night of sleep.  Perhaps catalyzed by this switch to a big boy bed, for the past two days Henry has been using the potty and wearing underwear – without any accidents!  This evening while Henry and I were on a walk Scott got home from work and answered the door. As soon as Henry saw Scott he shouted “Henry pee in the potty!” and then enticed us to run with him to his potty for a display.  We’ll see how long this lasts; we’ll certainly encourage it while it does.