Happy Birthday Henry

Our little Henry (or as photos now prove, not so little Henry) celebrated his first birthday yesterday. He partied at Taronga Zoo with his cousins Aisling (3) and Rory (2). Henry and Rory share the same birth date. The kids had a great day playing, having a picnic lunch, and seeing the odd animal or two. Again the giraffes for a favourite, and the chimpanzees were also a hit.

Later in the day we returned to Chez Hobson/Bartley and watched Henry and Rory open their presents. Not soon after we gathered around the joint birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday. This was Henry's second encounter with a chocolate cake......... there is no need for further words, the photos say it all.

364 days on...

With only one more sleep left until our little man turns one year old, he attended a friend's birthday party on the weekend and got his first taste of chocolate cake. While the cake was being cut and distributed to the party guests, our Henry patiently stood guard waiting and wondering if he would receive a piece. In the end he got a small sliver of cake which he devoured. But it didn't stop there, he picked up all the crumbs from the cake box and enjoyed every mouthful.

These are a few of my favourite things

While Henry is not quite the performing seal, he has added a few new tricks to his repertoire. He can poke his tongue out on demand - "Henry's where's your tongue?", and out it pops. Yes, very polite and an important skill to have have in life.

He can clap his hands. Mum was very proud when this started, as she had invested a good five months in trying to teach him clapping and he can now clap his hands together when asked.

He is very close to mastering shape sorters. He has managed to insert a variety of shapes in their correct holes a number of times, but hasn't quite been able to do it correctly all the time. It doesn't matter to him if he gets it right or wrong, he get's excited about trying to do it everytime.

He is becoming quite domesticated. He helps put clothes in the laundry basket, and is very good and pulling his toys out of his toy box and then putting them back.

His favourite song is "Hung Up" by Madonna. Without fail he taps his legs in time with the music and bounces up and down with a big smile on his face.

And at last some more photos for you....

Another trip to the zoo and yes, another silly photo. This time it's Henry as he would have appeared in the documentary film "March of the Penguins". Oh well, we'll add this to his portfolio of photos for when the next audition call comes up through for young penguins or if Anne Geddes needs some inspiration.

Next up is young Mr Henry playing with some large Lego type blocks at Nannoo's place.

There's nothing like a naked baby in a bath photo. When we ask Henry to splash in the bath he goes berserk and we all end up wet.

Henry is a big fan of peek-a-boo.

Don't look now but we've almost got a year under our belts.

Just a few quick shots here... will post more soon in the lead up to birthday #1.

Triple table spoon for main followed by a yoghurt seconds..... and he sticks the landing. Nice work there young lad.
















Standing is all the rage these days, and is just as easily accomplished in either colour or black and white.

Henry and the peach

Recently Henry had a confrontation with a peach... a poor, unsuspecting peach that whilst I'm sure did its best took a savage, savage beating. The following sequence was captured on high speed film and covers a time period of around 0.002 of a second, well at least you would think so judging from the carnage in the last shot.
He is also standing. We are of course very impressed and a little scared by that too, but we really did have to show what can happen if you leave yourself lying around near young Henry, and you happen to be food.

On the move..

Sorry for the delay between postings. What a busy month it has been.

On Boxing Day Henry started to crawl... well sort of. He looks more like a wounded animal as he drags himself along the ground; but nonetheless, he is now mobile and quite efficient at his 'commando crawl' and follows us around the flat squealing with excitement everytime he rounds a corner. We've now had to invest in some security gates to stop him from crawling into the kitchen or out onto the balcony. He loves crawling into the bathroom and bashing the bathroom scales or trying to tip over the bin. We don't know what it is about the bathroom, but it is always the first room he trys to crawl to. We don't want to shut the doors to all the rooms because it is his home too and we want him to explore it.

A few days after New Years Henry produced his first tooth, closely followed by his second tooth. He now has two lower central incisors. They both arrived with no fuss and hope all the others will do the same.

Tiff started back at work part time mid January. We are sharing child care duties with our best buddies Moz and Dave. They have a little girl (Allegra) who is six weeks younger than Henry. Between the four of us, we are all doing a day of care looking after the two youngsters. Henry has transitioned well and doesn't seem to notice we're not with him all day. Allegra is very playful and likes to crawl after Henry. He is loving the social interaction. They are very cute together, watching each other, taking toys off each other etc.

Henry started swimming lessons on the weekend. He loves the water and didn't mind too much when he was dunked under. He just needs to learn to close his mouth when putting his head underwater. He came up spluttering, but no tears. Once we get some decent photos of him in the water we'll post them as well.

Today we made our way to the zoo so Henry could get a closer look at some of the animals from his books, bedspreads, shirts etc... and he seemed suitably impressed. His favourite were the giraffes and he was very excited when we got him a little one to bring home with him.

The first Noel

A few shots from our Christmas day.

Santa is coming...

...as we're keeping one of the good little boys here with us.


With Christmas only a few short sleeps away we're all looking forward to catching up with family, or parts there of, plenty to eat and drink, and of course watching Henry open up all his presents and then playing with the paper. We are at home this year with Jackie, Corin and Yin. Corin will be playing Santa courtesy of a birthday he had a couple of weeks ago where Henry treated him to a fancy red outfit just for the occasion.
Henry has had his first trip to the pool in recent weeks. He seemed a little hesitant at first, probably trying to work out why his bath was so cold, and big. He soon got into it though and happily splashed about until it was time to get out. We expect to be spending more time in the water in the coming months as it warms up in this part of the world.

Merry Christmas to everyone !!

Lunch Club

Recently we caught up with a couple of friends for lunch. Thanks to Jase for some great food, and for putting us to shame in the photo department.
After lunch we all took turns in having a cuddle and our photo taken with Henry. This is normally Kates' job, but she couldn't make it on account of her current travels. Hello Kate and Ed if you are reading this from some exotic far away place. We had saved you some dessert, but then Jase made us eat it all.






Henry and Jase





Henry with Jen

The Karate Kid

Grasshopper... poised to strike, here is Henry dressed in his commando gear, ready to protect Mum and Dad, or take them out.

Henry now weighs in at 9.1kg and is 68.5cm long. He certainly looks like a little bruiser. An elderly neighbour squealed with delight when she saw him this week, exclaiming "he's as fat as butter".

Henry's latest tricks include poking his tongue out, rolling everywhich way, sitting up in his highchair for meals, outgrowing his clothes, and finally......sleeping through the night.

These cheeks were made for kissing

Here are the latest pictures of Henry boy and his very kissable cheeks. We are pleased to report that he now almost sleeps through the night. He does wake up briefly, but is able to resettle himself quickly. This has made Tiff very happy, as she realised the other day it has now been one year since she had an uninterrupted sleep.

This picture was taken today. Henry has started rolling over and enjoys flipping from his back to his tummy. Problem is he can't get himself back again. He digs his toes into the floor, so it won't be long until he crawls.

Hello! Henry is waving to you with a face covered in sweet potato. It's funny how we find bits of food in his ears or up his nose - no matter how diligent we have been with cleaning him up post feed.

This photo is for Tiff's Aunt Kathy. Finally he fits in what is now known as the "Hugh Grant at the cricket" outfit.

Finally, here is Henry with his Mum and Dad. Please post comments as to who you think he looks more like.