2009.02.28

He's sleeping (yay!) on the couch. We struggle with naps on weekends, so this is cool.

Grandpa says when he (Grandpa) came downstairs this morning, Henry spontaneously ran to him and gave him a hug - something he's not done before.

Henry also pooped in the potty last night, which was cause for great celebration (and chocolate, the best bribe).

I weighed and measured him last night; he's 34 inches tall and weighs 24 pounds. He's about the size of a two-year-old rather than a three-year-old, BUT his BMI is at the 11th percentile for kids his age, so that's great (anything between the 5th and 85th percentile is considered healthy.)

The somewhat scary thing is, he's dead average for an Ethiopian child, based on Ethiopian growth charts. However, the World Health Organization publishes a chart of child growth standards, based on how children world-wide grow if given clean water and proper nutrition, and he's very under height and weight on that chart.

Basically, he's a little guy and probably always will be. His birth parents may have been small; he certainly was affected by lack of clean water and food for his first year and a half of life (The woman who originally found him fed him sugar water). But he is growing steadily and proportionally now, and for that I'm grateful.

2009.02.27

Wow. Nice up to date blog, eh? Anyhow, I've decided to use the blog to keep notes of Henry as he grows up. He's 39 months old now (turned 3 in November)



and has changed SO MUCH in the 20 months since he first came home.




We've already left so many cute things behind us:

• He used to be able to walk under the TV trays without ducking.
  
• He used to call himself "Hella" as in "No Mommy! Hella do it!"
  
• "Baba" used to be his word for both Grandpa and John-Pop.
  
• When we was really upset, he would sob and wail "Ah-gaaah!!!"
  
• He never really played with toys, except as projectiles.
  
• He no longer sleeps in a crib.
  
• He would never sit through a whole book, even a short baby book, until my Uncle Hugh sent us a book with dogs: 1 on the first page, 2 on the next, as so forth. That was the first book he ever allowed me to actually read to him.
  
• He was always "off the charts" on the low side for his age for height and weight (he has since made it onto the height chart, but fell off again...)
  
• He wore age 6-9 month clothes (at 18 months!)
  
• "Sesame Street" was "Ga-ah Geet", then progressed to "Sesa Geet."
  
• "Music" was "mifu"
  
• He easily spent upwards of 30 minutes playing with a little toy piano given to him by one of my taekwon-do students - it was one of very few toys he did NOT throw.
  
• If I was available, no one else would suffice. If I was not available, Grandpa or John-Pop were ok.
  
• His word for "frog" started with an F but is not family-appropriate.
  

Fun things about him now:

• Recent quote: "Don't worry, guys! We can be green like frogs!" (Said just like that, with no context at all.
  
• He has seen the movie "Nemo" and this has led to his pretending EVERYTHING is a child and its dad. Like crayons, rocks, Tupperware containers, and his hands. We make llamas with our hands, and his always calls mine "Dad." He was tossing a container around one day, and it rolled under a chair. "Where's my dad?" he asked. I asked him if he is sad that he doesn't have a dad:
  H: I don't have a dad.
  M: Who do you have?
  H: Mommy! And Bampa (grandpa) and John-Pop. And Uncle Jo!
  
• He thinks he can do taekwon-do, and asks people to hold things for him so he can break them. He knows how to stand when I say "Choombi", "fighting stance," and "baroh." He knows that "se-shut" means "start fighting" and that "kyoon-ye" means bow.
  
• If he cannot pronounce a word, he'll say "I can't say that" and try over and over while you pronounce it for him.
  
• He recently started drawing things "on purpose" - before, he would draw random marks and if asked what his picture was, he'd see what it looked like and then tell you. (He was quite pleased when one of his random scribbles looked like a dolphin!) Now he draws a circle, puts two lines out to the side for arms, and two dots as eyes. If you notice there are no legs, he will add them. Sometimes as many as five of them. Check out my favorite art incident.
  
• He loves the sound of the letter K, and this has led to many fun words like "kajammies" (pajamas), "kajaffe" (giraffe), and others.
  
• He likes to make plurals. "Mommy, I'm wearing my bootseses!"
  
• He has started to make up stories.
  
• He likes to give clues and have you guess things, e.g. "Who's the black guy that says "Meow"?
  
• He frequently sings to himself. Sadly, without a recognizable melody - but he's got rythm!
  
• He likes to conduct music (e.g. at concerts).
  
• He LOVES to watch himself dance in the mirror.
  
• His best friends at school are Reegan, Alison, and Mario.
  
• He loves to use "day care teacher talk": "Mommy, that's not ok! You walk away now!!"
  
• Said to Grandpa in the car "You shoo away from us!"
  
• Said of a child who has bitten him twice: "Can we put Oscar in the basement?" (where we put our dogs when they are naughty...)