Nine months

Henry is now nine months old! He is as precious as ever and he has a smile that can melt your heart. He loves to laugh and squeal when he is happy and he is quick to show you his pouty lip if he is unhappy.  He specifically dislikes the word "No".  As soon as you give him a stern "NO" he turns to you quickly, gives you THE lip, which then turns to a cry, making the second NO a little harder to say and definitely not as stern:)

He loves to eat...not much change there.  He has about three food meals a day and bottles in between.  He now spits his pacifier out as soon as he sees food or a bottle coming...it always makes me laugh.  "Move out of the way paci...Henry's gotta eat;)"  Lance and I went on a baby food making craze and filled our deep freezer with gallon size bags full of pureed fruits and veggies.  He really loves his fresh food compared to the jars..but we still keep those handy.  Henry has also started to love yogurt as well...even straight unsweetened greek yogurt. I was kinda surprised..but then again this boy can eat!  We are working on him feeding himself.  He can eat and he can put everything else in the world in his mouth...but he won't put food in his mouth...we are working it;)

Henry is also a man on the go.  If he isn't sleeping he is moving.  Lance has to remind me that all the action is good..specially when all I want is to snuggle for like five minutes on the couch:) He is great at crawling and can crawl up the stairs (thank you Uncle Forrest and Aunt Catherine).  He can pull himself up to standing alone and with the help of the sofa can maneuver himself for a few steps.  He always has the biggest smile when he stands up!


Another new thing is his love for windows.  He can see out of all the windows in our house when he stands up...so that is his new favorite activity.  He just stares outside and fogs up the window.  He also loves pulling off people's glasses and putting them up to his face.  I know it is very bad to laugh at and reinforce but I can't help it.  He always laughs so hard when he does it!!

He can now dance on command..a trick we like to show friends.  It started with my little song "Clap your hands" which resulted in a little bouncing on cue.  Now any tune can get our little man to do a jig.

Am I not supposed to climb on everything?

 We finally had to take away the firetruck from Christmas.  It was becoming a bit of an obsession..hopefully he will be just as happy with it when we bring it out next December.  Henry now loves his bear from Costco.  Every evening when we go to his room to head to bed he squeals as if he has never seen it before...he crawls up to it and dives into it and starts eating its nose.  It is soooo funny!

Henry still loves his bath..but bath time also means soak time for mommy.  Henry loves to splash and usually holds one rubber ducky in his mouth and one in each hand as he splish splashes all over everywhere.  He still HATES getting into his PJs after his bath.  It has become a lowlight of our day because it usually results in crying and screaming until he gets his bottle.  He is still sleeping from 7pm til 6:30..which is great! He is still taking two naps a day although they are getting shorter and shorter. 

His favorite toys right now are: his ABC train, his music panda, and his carseat...no joke...climbing  in and out of his carseat can keep him pretty occupied. He also loves the TV remote...Lance and I do a great job of keeping it away..my parents..not so much! He also looooves opening and closing doors...funny at first.  Now we just try to keep all the doors closed.  Because of his need for speed..we have now put most of his toys in a playroom upstairs.  It has greatly reduced the bumps on the head and tumbles because it is carpeted and has limited distractions. 

The Smith house is always on the move with little Henry around and we couldn't be happier!

New Years with the Smiths

To celebrate the New Years, Lance and I went to Atlanta with his parents for the Chick-fil-a Bowl.  I had never been to a bowl game so I was really excited.  I'm not a huge fan of massive crowds...so I was a little nervous too.  We had made our plans a little late so we had trouble finding a hotel room close to the Georgia Dome.  We did manage to find one room at Comfort Suites.  It was a perfect little walk to the dome and because it is right near Underground Atlanta, it had a perfect view of the Peach Drop at New Years. 

We had a delicious dinner at Ruth's Chris before the game.  We then strolled to the dome and I was so impressed that Lance's mom managed the walk with us.  She is awaiting her surgery to fix her knee...and spent the whole evening in a leg brace.  What a trooper!

 When we got to the the entrance of the dome, we ran straight into our friends, Kate and Jonathan...what a small world!!! I had just texted Kate to tell her we had just arrived at the game but didn't think we would get to see them. 

 The game was so much fun and a great way to celebrate the New Year's.  We left a couple of minutes early so we could beat the crowds out of the dome.  Our plan was a good one...until we ran into this crowd....

Not exactly part of our plan...we then had to make our way through the 100,000 people gathered around the peach drop.  Wonderful! Please picture this, the four of us (Darlene in her leg brace) moving inch by inch through all the crazies that had hunkered down in their chosen spot to ring in the New Year.  We finally made it so the Comfort Suites was in sight, only to see the police barracade that surrounded our hotel haven.  If only we had something to bartar with the thousands that remain between us and our "comfort suite":)  Judging all the 'smells' that we could smell as we made it through the crowd, I'm sure we could have found something to trade for a couple of feet closer (if you know what I mean...)

 FINALLY, we ran into a hotel employee who was wheeling an elderly man in a wheelchair through the crowds.  For a second, I pitied him a little more than us but then I saw it as an opportunity.  We quickly linked up with them and made it safely through the doors of our hotel.  With a huge sigh of relief and a couple of laughs, we stated the obvious...."we need a drink!" We made it to the elevator and were joined by a fun couple that had obviously been celebrating the end of 2011.  The woman so graciously sprinkled each of us with 'good luck glitter' for 2012 and wrapped mardi gras beads around Darlene's neck!  On any other day, I would have quietly hid behind Lance to avoid eye contact with this couple, but that night...I bowed my head right over so I could get a huge helping of the glitter. I needed all the good luck I could get;)

The fun didn't end when we got up to our suite...we had a perfect viewing of the peach drop and also two big fights that erupted in the massive crowd below.  It was both exciting and a little scary that we were just venturing through that exact spot.  We toasted the New Year's quietly in our room...thanking God for another year and for our survival of the exciting evening! What an INTERESTING way to ring in 2012!



On a deeper note...I feel so blessed by all that 2011 had to offer us.. a healthy and beautiful baby boy, a new home, a new path for our future in Gadsden, wonderful friends and family, and most of all we are blessed and excited for what 2012 holds for our little family! Happy New Year's to you and yours:)



Eight months old

Henry turned eight months old last week! I feel like we were JUST taking those seven months pics.  He is such a sweetheart and changing so much everyday. 

 For starters he is EVERYWHERE.  If he is awake he is moving.  He has definitely mastered crawling and I feel that he is almost bored with his new talent and wants to move on.  He pulls himself on everything and is getting better with staying standing longer.  He can maneuver himself around the couch slowly and even uses his teeth to get a better grip if he is close to falling. 

His new favorite toy right now is the around-we-go activity station from Bright Stars that my parents gave him for Christmas.  He loves to run around in circles and it is the only toy that will keep him in one place for longer than five minutes.  He still is in love with his firetruck and I don't know how we are going to put it up after Christmas. For his first Christmas Henry received soo many toys-this boy is blessed.  Some of his favorites were: the alphatebet express train, pull and learn car center, thomas the train talking Henry, and fischer price go baby go poppity pop.  He got so many more and we plan to hide those until he gets bored with his current favorites.  It's like Christmas everyday;) 

Right now his favorite food is lentils and rice.  He still loves all the others, but that is the one I can't feed him fast enough.  He loves to drink out of a cup...not his sippy cup..a real cup.  He isn't a fan of his fun kid colored (pricier) kid cup..oh no..his favorite is a plastic Mamma Goldberg's cup.  Of course he can't drink out of either alone but he definitely lets you know which he prefers. He still loves bath time and when he hears the bath running he starts crawling towards the shower with a huge smile on his face.  He also loves to brush and floss his two teeth.  We've made it a sort of game and he actually smiles when he sees that toothbrush and floss coming:)

There are definitely things he doesn't like...He hates getting into his carseat.  He is not a fan of getting out of his bath and into his PJs.  He doesn't like to sit still and cuddle on the couch unless he is VERY sleepy.  Other than that Henry is pretty laid back. 

The last eight months have gone by so fast and I can't believe I have started to throw around ideas for his first birthday party! Time flies when you are having fun.

Christmas in the Smokies

This year we celebrated Christmas in the Smokies again! Last year we found a fabulous cabin for us, my parents and aunt, and Lance's parents.  It was so special when we got to cut into our gender reveal cake to tell our parents that Henry was a boy! This year was just as special, since we got to celebrate Henry's first Christmas. 

We almost didn't make it on our trip though.  I came down with something that kept me in bed for a couple of days before Christmas.  I was sad to miss out on all we had planned in Gadsden for the holiday week, but it was a rough couple of days.  And let me tell you...being sick and having busy body Henry is not an easy thing! Luckily my parents were there to help.  Lance's mom is also going through some knee issues right now and my mom, some back issues, so needless to say we weren't the healthiest group up traveling up to Tennessee for Christmas!


Despite our issues, we did manage to have a nice relaxing Christmas in the cabin and we did what we do best...eat! Henry did great during the day but night time was a whole different monster.  Henry did not enjoy sleeping in the pack-n-play and went straight back to his every two hours of waking up (something we haven't done since June 24th to be exact!)
 For Christmas Eve dinner we went to the same restaurant as last year, the Cherokee Grill and Lance and I had our favorite...prime rib.  This restaurant did not disappoint again and Henry behaved like an angel.  We did let him try a lemon...not to sure about that!

Henry got to spend some quality time with his grandparents who catered to his every need (and want). 

Henry opened most of his gifts in Gadsden before we left but we saved a couple for our trip so he could open them Christmas morning.

We had Christmas day brunch at the Apple Barn where Henry got to see Santa AGAIN!

 Getting a little to familiar with Santa, Henry decided to press his luck and pull down Santa's glasses.  Mrs Claus got a kick out of it! Hopefully that didn't put Henry on the naughty list for next year:)

With all of Henry's new toys, his favorite was this homemade wagon made of Abigail's(Lance's parent's lab) leash and a box from costco.  We took turns pulling him around and he was almost hypnotized by the ride and Savannah just followed us around.  I'm sure in the hopes to get walked by the leash herself!

Henry was in a very playful mood every evening.  And you would think that would be enough to make him sleep through the night...not so much but it was worth it!

Merry Christmas!

Six Month Photo Session

We had our six month photo session with Heather Swanner a few weeks ago.  She was amazing and Henry was a handful.  He is crawling around everywhere and I was amazed she got a single shot of him sitting still.  To top things off he bit his lower lip 90% of the time.  His teeth were acting up that day and we have all these pictures to remember.  Despite the obstacles, Heather managed to capture some great shots of our little guy.  So precious. 

Here is the link to the whole session...

http://www.heatherswannerphotography.com/juliesmith/

Merry Christmas from The Smiths

More Christmas fun in Gadsden

We have had so much Christmas fun over the last week.  Lance's mom came to visit last weekend and enjoyed relaxing and playing with Henry.  We actually got to watch a couple of movies at home which is a rare thing now-a-days.  We watched The Help and Bridesmaids...and enjoyed both!  Lance's mom is a bit under the weather right now due to a bad fall and still managed a trip down to visit us and Henry.  When we went to pick her up in Birmingham friday night she had a couple hours of delay so we got an excuse to visit Aunt Morgie and Uncle Curry for a bit.  So much fun! Henry had a major breakdown once we finally got to the airport and until we got home...he was not a fan of us interuptting his schedule. Lesson learned;)

Waiting on Grammy's plane

During the day on Saturday we hung out at home and Henry played with his newest obsession...the bell on his firetruck.  He will sit there forever ringing the bell and then head to the tree to attack the skirt. Saturday night we cooked dinner and enjoyed some much needed family time. 

This week I attended my second book club party...or as I like to call it ... wine club.  It was great to catch up with old friends and make new ones too.  This month we had a dirty santa book exchange and filled a christmas jar full of coins to go to someone in need.  Catherine had a wonderful nomination and we all can't wait for the money to go to such a deserving person.  We also discussed the book of the month..Redeeming Love.  It is a great book and if you haven't had the chance to enjoy it..definitely do!

Thursday night, Lance, Henry and I joined my parents for the Gadsden Regional Hospital party at Noccalula Falls.  They went all out with delicous food, cookie decorating, smores, train rides, and pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Henry was an angel but didn't quite understand the night time train ride through the park.  Lance and I enjoyed it much more! He did however enjoy smearing green icing everywhere while decorating a cookie with Mrs. Claus ;)

Cookie decorating with Mrs. Claus

Henry has started to pull himself up on EVERYTHING! You name it and he is crawling up it...the tree, the sofa, your leg, Savannah...He is getting into everything too...electrical chords, Sav's food, any cup in his view, drawers, cabinets..the list goes on!  You definitely can not take your eyes off him for a second!

Enjoy his gift (the wrapping paper) from Gigi and Grandad Richard

Sav's not too sure of her new reindeer

Henry's favorite new hangout..his truck and the tree!

There goes the skirt...

Friday night, we attended Santa Claus Society at the Country Club.  We had so much fun catching up with our friends and seeing everyone in their Santa suits.  Though we are members this year we missed the summer deadline to order Lance's santa suit...Henry and I can not wait to see Lance all dressed up next year!!

Today we visited the First Methodist Church in Gadsden and it was wonderful.  We saw so many friends there and the choir was fabulous! After church, we joined my parents for brunch with Santa at the Country Club.  It was delcious and they had a great Santa for Henry to take pictures with...Henry has met Santa so many times this year! We also took Savannah and Henry for a stroll around Martin Wildlife Refuge.  Savannah was thrilled to get out of the house.  So much fun!!! A busy holiday week in Gadsden ahead then off to the mountains for Henry's first Christmas in the Smokies!

Brunch at the Club

Have I been naughty or nice?!