Henry: Celebrating 14 months

If I was looking at Henry for the first time I might wonder who won the fight. The cut on his eye is from a war he fought with himself one night and the fingernail won. He also has various bruises on his head from running into and falling on things. His hair also has a mind of its own; coming in slow but sure.

Winter has caught up with Henry in the last 2.5 weeks. We first went to the doctor's for a possible ear infection and had also had him check out a cough that would not go away. We walked away with a Nebulizer and a prescription for Amoxicillin and Albuterol. The breathing treatments proved a little challenging but cleared up the cough and the ear infection also cleared, so we thought. At the follow-up appointment he was prescribed Plumicort as a maintenance breathing treatment to be used the rest of winter. Last Tuesday, Henry came down with a fever and the cough also returned. The fever broke Thursday afternoon but returned in the evening. By this time Henry had no appetite either. Mike took him in Friday. The ear infection returned and we found out he lost 9 ounces in one week! This time he walked away with a stronger antibiotic. The cough has subsided for now, his appetite is slowly returning, and he is starting to return to his normal self. As for as the need for breathing treatments, the doctor is just labeling Henry as having reactive airway disease - whether or this means he will have asthma we do not know yet. Winter may not have anything to do with the ear infection as his first ear infection came last September, almost to the day his first tooth broke through.

Henry's teeth count stands at two on the top and two on the bottom but I thought I saw some teeth getting close to popping up in a few spots though I'm sure it'll take longer than I think. He is definitely drooling.

Henry's coordination and motor skills have continued to improve. He walks nearly all the time but will resort to crawling if he knows it will get him to where he needs to go quicker. His verbal skills are still lagging behind. He does make plenty of sounds; just does not form any intentional words. He does like to "point" to where he wants to go when being held. He'll stretch out his arm in the direction he wants to go and then point all fingers down.

Henry will brush his hair with his baby brush. He knows what the brush is suppose to do but does not always have the bristles in the correct position. He is also helpful when putting on mittens by stretching his hand out one at a time. He likes putting other's shoes/slippers on his hands.

Last Sunday, when we thought all of Henry's ailments were on the mend, we were going to try a new technique to get Henry to sleep better. Since he got the fever two days later we did not get a chance to wholeheartedly try it. We've been trying to get him to take two naps a day while he has been home from 'school'. For both naps today, either Mike or I laid on his floor, back facing the crib while he went all out. This was not the technique we were going to try but a few people have suggested it, might as well try it.