Park life

One chilly morning last weekend saw us up and about earlier than normal. After breakfast we decided a visit to the park was in order, or "Pat Rafter" park as we now call it (see previous blog entry). To our surprise we had the whole playground to ourselves. Henry wasn't that interested in the slide and swings that morning. Now that he had found his feet he was keen to waddle around and discovered what fun could be had by collecting winter leaves and a twig or two.

Cheeky boy and a celebrity encounter

We guess it has been a steady and gradual process, but it does seem as if we are suddenly in the company of a little boy, and left wondering where that baby got to. Henry's walking has improved and is now his preferred way of getting around the flat. His front top four teeth have now arrived, which he uses to great affect chewing through his food. Henry loves eating and eats everything. He is now 12kg and 77cm tall.


Henry's has a large box full of toys which he doesn't really show much interest in. He loves music. He has an assortment of musical instruments that he plays with daily. The maracas and xylophone being his favourites. He also loves to dance. He bops up and down, sways and can do the twist. Any music will do.

His other great love is books. He likes being read to, but sometimes he is just happy to go to his book shelf and pull out one book at a time, sitting quietly turning the pages by himself.

Henry is an outdoors boy. He likes going for walks in his stroller and visiting the playground. It was only on Tuesday when we were at our local park that a fellow parent was asking me about Henry as our two children were jostling for positions to go down the slide. I hadn't looked up to see the dad I was talking to, as my eyes were fixed on Henry who wasn't sure if he wanted to go down the slide backwards or on his tummy head first. The dad was trying to coax Henry down the slide, calling him Superman, and Henry happily slid down arms stretched out front, head first. I looked up to give the fellow parent a proud smile that said "that's my boy Henry", and met the gaze of Australia's favourite tennis star - Pat Rafter. I don't know why, but I was slightly embarrassed and quickly picked up Henry and moved on to another area of the playground.

Reaching milestones

Sunday night at 8.15 pm (May 28), Henry took his first steps.
Henry has been 'cruising' the furniture for some time, and has walked a metre or three holding our hands or pushing his car; but this time he was standing holding on to the lounge and decided he'd just walk. He didn't even hesitate or stop to think about what he was doing - he just did it, unprompted. At first he was just walking on the spot, but then he started moving forward. We were so stunned and excited, when he squatted down to start crawling we immediately stood him up to try to get him to walk again.


He's also said his first word. He can say mama and dadda but he says that to anything, so his first word said in context is ........... boo! Not surprising really, as he loves to play peek-a-boo.

We often hear that Henry seems such a happy lad... and he is really, but of course there are occasionally times when balance must be restored to the universe. Please don't think we did anything to provoke the reaction below, and nor did his little friend Allegra really. She may have touched him or is perhaps even just standing a little bit too close for Henry's liking.

Another party... another cake.

Henry's "official" first birthday party was held last Saturday, 22 April 2006. It was a typical Hobson/Bartley party - boozy - but a special day that we could share it with our friends. It was made even more special that both sets of grandparents made the trek to Sydney to join in the celebration. Tiff made the giraffe birthday cake (for the record Michael would like it known that he made the sun). Thank you to everyone who has sent birthday cards and presents. We are blessed that we have such great family and friends who support us and enjoy and love Henry as much as we do.



Henry and Allegra with Michael.


Henry and Grandad Bartley (Tiff's dad). Uncle Steve Hobson looking on in the background probably wondering if Henry is ok with the drunk old guy.


Henry and GrandJan (Michael's mum).



Well done Henry boy! Congratulations on making it through your first year.

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.