Saving Mama Duck

This is Mama duck. I think it was one of the first toys we got before we had Henry. You can see three little circles on her back that can hold three little baby ducks. It's pretty cute. Mama duck has a problem though. She easily sucks up water but it is impossible to get it out of her, so she gets all moldy and gross. The mold finally got out, but the bleach remained. It would occasionally drip out and ruin whatever it happened to drip on. I had thought about throwing her away several times and very nearly did. I decided to make one last life saving attempt. I decided to try a tracheotomy. One large nail through the throat, a wiggle around, and I was able to squeeze all of the bleach out of her (after a million squeezes). Mama duck has been saved! Hooray!

Big Boy Bed

Towards the end of April, we took the front off of Henry’s crib. I still have not decided if this a good thing or not, but I’m starting to lean towards it being good. We did this for a couple of reasons.



Reason #1
Henry is not the type to happily wake up in his bed and play or even let us know he is awake. It does not matter if it is night time or nap time. If he wakes up in his crib and no one happens to be there in the room with him, he gets ticked! He just screams this heartbroken, abandoned scream until someone comes to rescue him. When you do finally rescue him from his terrible prison, he cuddles in until I guess he feels like he is loved again. I like that part, but not enough to torture him on purpose, so the crib railing is no more.


Reason #2
He likes to end the night/start the day in our bed. We thought that if he can get himself out of bed and come to us, we’d have to wake up less for the process. That part has worked. Now, instead of screaming Henry needing to be rescued, we have cute Henry dragging his favorite blanket and monkey into our room then standing on the floor by our tower height bed going “eh, eh, eh” ‘til we lift him up. This is happening later and later most mornings, so that’s good. A lot of mornings he doesn’t come to our bed until just after 5 and I have to get up shortly thereafter anyways, so it was cute. Henry hugs is a nice way to start the morning.

**Note his Care Bear blanket and pillow. He actually has two Care Bear blankets, but this one recently got dragged through the mud, so it is in the laundry. His Care Bear blankets (both, which were mine when I was little) and his monkey are his favorite things. When he comes to our bed every morning he has to bring all three things with him. He will bring in two or three of the three, go back for whatever he left behind, shut his door, then he will reach up to us. The pillow (also mine when I was little) frequently makes its way to our bed too even though he RARELY sleeps on it in either bed.

18 Month Henry

Henry had his 18 month check up earlier this month (Make that last month. I write them then post when I can.), so I decided it was time for an update. He is such a sweet little boy are so glad that we have him! Here are a few things that are worth writing down.




He is such a good helper. He likes to do everything that we’re doing. If I’m cleaning the toilet, he’ll grab a rag and go “scrub” the bathtub. This grosses me out a little bit. I just make sure that when he’s done helping, he gets a good hand washing.

He has started saying “te-ta” (Thank you). Most of his words sound similar (have t’s and/or d’s in them), but he is really good at inflections, so we’re sorting out all of the differences. He also says “te-di” (bye-bye), then he does this “Uueuuh” thing that we haven’t decided if it’s “See you later” or “I love you”. Sometimes it sounds more like one, sometimes the other. Either way, it’s cute.


He LOVES being outside. For Christmas, Henry got a push tricycle that he loves! Every time he sees it or hears the word “trike”, he wants to go for a ride. It has been kind of cold and rainy for the last few weeks and I think that has been a great source of frustration for him. Every time I open the door to let Teddy outside (in the rain), Henry makes a run for it and then is heartbroken when I don’t let him go. Maybe I’m a mean mama, but I’m just not going to go out in the rain when it’s 40’s outside. Not my idea of a good or even tolerable time. Let’s hope it warms up soon! (A month later, I am still hoping for this. Weatherman, if you're reading this, please make this cold stuff stop!)