P.S.

We now have high-resolution digital files of every one of his 13-month pictures, so if there are any you would like to have, just let us know!

1 Year Pictures

(Actually 13 months when they were taken, but 1 year sounds better.)

http://www.henrys.photoherald.com

Password: ducky

Dancin' Video

VIDEO - Dancin'
Originally uploaded by Henry William

Finally got a pretty good video of Henry getting down. I had to catch him sometime when he didn't notice I had the camera, because he gets distracted by the camera - as you'll see in the video once he notices I'm filming.

New Stats & First Step!

The King had his 1-year check-up today. Here are the new stats:

Weight: 28lb 4oz, 97th percentile
Height: 30 3/4", 90th percentile
Head Circumference: 19 1/2", 97th percentile

We are currently in negotiations with the Chiefs for Henry to become the new linebacker.

At the check-up, Laura was showing the doctor how she tries to encourage Henry to start walking on his own. She has him stand up with his back against her legs and wiggles her fingers out in front of him in the hopes that he'll take a step towards her hands. It hadn't happened - until today! He just barely lifted up a little foot and put it down the tiniest bit forward. First step!

He also got four shots...he wails hard the moment he's getting the shots, but recovers very quickly. (He's been asleep ever since we got home, so we'll see if there's going to be any soreness this evening and night. He's always done fine in the past. I got a flu shot, and am proud to report I didn't cry at all.)

-Aaron

Birthday Boy

I'm not sure Laura and I completely believe it, but yesterday was King Henry's first birthday. Laura was able to get the day off work, and we both worked hard throughout the day baking and cleaning for his party that we threw for KC-area relatives. Laura made three different kinds of cupcakes plus taco soup, and my mom brought white chicken chili. We gave him our gift, a baby doll, in the afternoon. He loves pictures of babies, so we thought he'd like a doll. He was a little underwhelmed, but he did give it a hug. We dressed him in some cowboy gear for a Halloween costume, and took some pictures quickly, because it didn't stay on very long. Guests starting arriving around 5:30, and as usual, Henry loved having lots of people around to charm and get attention from. We put a candle on one of the vanilla cupcakes and sang happy birthday to him, then waited for him to dive into the cupcake...but he took it pretty easy, eating it in fairly small bites. He seemed a little curious as to why everyone was so fascinated by watching him eat. He of course polished the whole thing off.


Next came the presents, with a little help opening from Mom & Dad. He got lots of great clothes, books and toys. He liked making toys make noise, including a potty training book that includes a button to push that makes the sound of a toilet flushing. Everyone seemed to have a great time, including the honoree.

Every parent we talk to tells us how fast he'll grow up, but there's just no understanding it until it actually happens. It's both thrilling and a little sad to me that he is already one. Part of me doesn't want him to grow up, but a bigger part of me is excited to see what's in store for him and us in the future. There's no shortage of love for the little guy, so he should be alright :)

-Aaron

Never enough pictures, right?

Click here for some great pics from my cousin Matt that include King Henry.

-Aaron

I miss one day and he becomes smarter

Last night I had to work overnight on the Hematology/Oncology floor. Aaron said that after coming home from his grandparent's house, Henry appeared to look for me and started crying when I was not around. Hearing that made me sad. I really wanted to be there, especially now that he is expecting in and remembers things. I got home today around noon and he was sleeping. When he woke up I grabbed him and he just clung to me for the longest time giving me a hug. I could tell he genuinely missed me. It was so sweet feeling his little hands around my neck.

Tonight when I was with him, he started doing two new things. First off, he wanted to eat something very specific so he would sign "more" and then point to what he wanted. Does that count as a two word sentence? He did this on two separate occassions (and yes I gave him what he wanted). Then, Aaron and I were discussing whether or not Henry smelled like poop (he did). While we were talking about it, Henry signed diaper. I've never seen him sign it so clearly, and we didn't even say "diaper change," he just knew it. What a smart guy. Oh, another thing I forgot. While we were looking at a book he had "boo."

Man, new things are happening every day. I think we are about 6 months behind in his baby book, and if he keeps this we'll have to hire a secretary. Hmmm, that would be nice on so many levels.

Alright, my post call body requires sleep.

Good night

Almost one year

It's been a while since either Aaron or I wrote. I guess things are just happening too fast. I had a wonderful month. I'm in outpatient cardiology. At work I only work 8 hours or less, and the best thing is I'm learning new stuff constantly. When I get home I still have time and energy for Henry. Even better is that I had most weekends off. It really makes me look forward to being finished with residency. Really, it's less than two years away.

Ok, onto the part the blog is about... Henry. He really has been doing great. This month he has been very happy. We went to Mpls earlier this month and while we had a good time, it seemed to screw up his sleep schedule a bit. Once we got home he kept waking up at night. Now that he is older, his screams seem more harsh and more desperate. Still it's hard to listen to him cry, even though I've done it before. I lay awake in bed trying to convince myself that he's okay and is just wanting attention, but then the doubts creep in. What if he tossed his blanked off and he is freezing? What if he peed all over himself, what if he is really hungry? I actually slept upstairs for one night. It didn't help much, I could still hear him. I did let him cry for over an hour before Aaron finally hit his limit. Then I feed him and he instantly went back to bed. It's been better recently. I was talking to other mothers and I really should be happy that he sleeps so much. At night he will sleep a total of 12-13 hours.

Yesterday I took Henry swimming for the second time. At first when we got in the water he was apprehensive and cold. I let him stay in the shallow water a bit and he was sitting in my lap splashing in the water. Then an elderly woman came over and sat with us. She reallly liked Henry. I couldn't blame her, but it felt a little weird. She then went off to swim laps, but frequently checked on Henry. Henry seemed to like her too so I guess it was fine. We went into deeper water and Henry really seemed to enjoy himself. I put him on his back against my arm and started to move him. Automatically he started kicking his legs. Also, he inadvertantly dunked himself, and he was okay! I've signed up Henry for swimming lessons starting next week. I'm excited.

Well, that's enough for now. I always like to include pictures of Henry with the post, but I don't have one now. I apologize.

Laura

More pictures

More pictures from Dean & Val at Shutterfly!

New professional pictures

Hello all. Sorry we've been slacking on updates. No news is good news in this case, as things have been great in the world of Henry. He's really thriving, and is in good spirits just about all of the time. He has a couple of new tricks, including waving, clapping, and raising his arms above his head when you ask him "How big is baby?" (At which you say "So big!")

Nine month pictures that were taken at Target are online now. Follow this link, and enter the guest name AARON STILLEY to view them.

Edit: pictures are no longer online

The Best Thing

Henry has been doing great with going to bed.

We do our little routine, which now inlcudes brushing his teeth (he loves it).
I sing to him and put him now.
When I lay him down on his back, he looks up at me and smiles.
I rub his cheek, he smiles again,
then I leave.

What could be better.
-Laura

Happy Baby

Aaron checking in...Things are great in the life of HWS right now. He's been wonderfully happy for quite some time, and is developing like crazy. He gets around with ease, moving between crawling, sitting, pulling up and scooting like a pro. He's stood without support for a few seconds a couple of times.

Nights are going well I think - Laura pretty much deals with the nights on her own now, so I don't always know how they go, but I'm pretty sure he's just waking up once to feed, and only after having been asleep for 6-8 hours. He did have a solid week where he wasn't waking up at all during the night, but he's gone back to wanting one feeding.

He had his 9-month checkup a week ago, so we got to check his growth progress. He's still a big boy: 24lb 10oz, which puts him around the 95th percentile. I can't remember what his height was, but he jumped from the 50th to 70th percentile since his 6-month checkup.

Grandma Val has been visiting for a whole week, and Grandpa Dean came down for last weekend. It's been a great time; Henry loves having a full house. Grandma & Grandpa seem to like being around Henry OK too.

Henry vs. Sleeping

Hello everybody,

Just to let you know, two big things happened last night. I did my usual bedtime routine with Henry and then laid him down, and guess what, no crying! He was awake, but just not crying. Then, he slept through the night! He cried off and on, but never enough to get Aaron and I up or for him to wake fully up. It was very nice, especially since I worked over 100 hours this week.

Other news is that Henry took his 9 month pictures yesterday. They didn't go as well as previously. When we sat him down, he started crying and saying "mama." We got a few shots, but nothing like before where he just sat and smiled. We haven't officially ordered any, but I expect we'll show you all them sometime.

-L

News

First off, we'd like to thank all of you who actually voted in the little quiz. The right answer is that he liked all of them. He was ok with beets and he really loved Zucchini and Nectarines.

Henry has been doing great things. First of. He says "Da Da." I'm pretty sure Aaron likes this fact. Last night the whole family went to Aaron's roller hockey game and when sweaty old Aaron came back Henry put his hand out and gave a little wave. At first we weren't sure if it was an acutal wave, but he repeated it. It's amazing watching all of his firsts.

Henry is cruising like a crazy man. We'll post a video soon. If we would allow it, he would walk all the time. When he has to crawl he'll do it, but he'll whine as he does it. It's pretty comical.

I'm sure there is more, but I can't think of it.
All in all he is a pretty happy guy and I'm enjoying him more than ever!

Phase Two

Hello everyone,

It's been a while, sorry about that. My work at home and beyond is very encapsulating. For an update, the sleep issue is getting better. We've been giving him a consistent night time routine (at least when I'm home). I read to him and then sing to him. When we start walking to his room he already starts to cry because he knows what is going to happen. Usually he'll cry for about 10-15 minutes and then sleep. I wish that were a lot less, but I guess for now I'll take it. He is only waking up one time at night. If he wakes up another time I'll ignore it and he'll fall back to sleep. Now, when he wakes up, instead of crying, he is yelling "mama." I guess I should feel happy that he knows my name and he knows what he wants, but it makes it a little harder to ignore him. All in all, it's an improvement.

Today I had a day off to spend with Henry. We went for a nice walk in the park and then I bought some new fruits and vegetables for him. These are apricots, plums, nectarines, zucchini and beets. My mom would say that beets are not a good idea, but I decided to go for it. I'm curious to see how he'll react with these. I'm going to try to set up a quiz for everyone to guess if he'll like them all or not. We'll see if it works.

First Word! and Sleep Update

I can't believe he's already talking, but he's definitely started saying "Mama" in reference to Laura! I don't really know when the various milestones are to come, and I had no idea he'd have a word so early. He's just a baby! Babies don't talk! But apparently Laura had her first word (also Mama) at the same age as Henry (8 months). My dad always says I was talking when I was born, but I don' actually know when my first word was.


The great sleep struggle continues...we're still doing "phase one," in which Laura will feed him on demand during the night, but put him down immediately after. Happily, he has quickly adjusted to this, and really doesn't fuss at all anymore when she puts him down. BUT, he's getting up three times a night! It makes things pretty easy for me, because he doesn't keep me up crying and I don't have to take turns trying to sooth him. But Laura just cannot get rested between all the night feedings and the 60-80 hour work weeks. So it needs to move on to phase two (only allowing him one feeding per night) soon. Maybe even tonight (I'm on duty while Laura is at the hospital overnight).

I don't know if it is related to us putting him down during the night or not, but he has stopped going to sleep in our arms. He'll be obviously tired, and I'll try to sooth him to sleep like we've always done, but he just can't settle all the way down. So we're putting him down while he's still awake but tired now, which is just going okay - he cries between 5-15 minutes before going to sleep usually (sometimes more), which isn't very fun to listen to. We've been doing this for probably a week now, and it doesn't seem like he's getting any quicker at it. I'm sure he will though.

Overall though, things are great, and he just gets more and more enjoyable as time goes on.

Pictures From Dean & Val

Lots of great Henry photos from Dean & Val on Shutterfly.

Letting Him Cry

Alright,

So I (Laura), am ready for Henry to cry through the night. It's been getting worse to where he is staying up after I feed him in the middle of the night. I suppose it's my crazy schedule and he never knows when I'm being around. I dream of someday waking up refreshed.
So we've decided to try it. We are currently on Phase one of the plan. For now when Henry cries in the middle of the night I will feed him, but put him back in bed. If he cries after that I will not pick him up. Phase two will be feeding him only one time a night. Phase three is a full night without food or intervention. By looking at his belly it is obvious he is not deprived of food and does not need his little midnight feeds.
Last night was our first attempt and it actually went pretty well. He woke up around 2 or so, I fed him and put him back. He was pretty mad and cried pretty hard for about 20 minutes, but then did okay after that. He woke up again around 5, and I did the same thing, but he only cried for a little bit. Then, he actually slept until 10am. I don't think he's ever done that.
We'll keep you posted. If this keeps going well there maybe more blogs because I may actually have energy.
Keep your fingers crossed!

Walking With a Little Help From Grammy

No news is good news?

Well, really not much new to report in Henry land as of late. He's been a happy little guy for the most part. Keeps getting more and more mobile. Wants to be up on his feet most of the time, and needs surprisingly little support in order to stay up. He's started "scooting" some too (taking steps while holding on to something). His nights haven't been very good for several weeks now...waking up once or twice a night for the most part. He does go right back to sleep after eating, so it's not like we're up walking him around, but some solid nights' sleep sure would be nice!

Sort of crawling...

Laura thinks it counts as crawling, but I'm not so sure...

I call it "lunging." Either way, it's pretty cute:

6 Month Pictures

Target finally got his pictures online after a kick in the pants from me. Unfortunately the pictures online are small and low resolution, but you can check them out and order by going to thesmilestation.com, entering username AARON STILLEY and password LTTT0893101600TAR.

Edit: pictures no longer online

Henry Loves His Mama!

So, before my folks left Kansas City, I gave them a little tour of the hospital. I wanted to show them a hospital room, but I didn't want to take Henry up there (because of all the sick kids and what not). I handed off Henry to another resident and left. When we got back, he was still playing well with her and did not have any inkling of stranger anxiety. I was standing behind them on the couch talking to everyone. While I was talking Henry was doing fine in the resident's arms. It was time to leave, so to Henry I said "It's time to come back to Mama." I did change my voice a little, but I didn't move my body or anything. After I said that, Henry immediately looked at the resident holding him and started crying. I picked him up and he was fine. I thought it was really strange that he was content until I talked to him specifically and then he got upset. I suppose he could have thought I was the person holding him, but my voice was in the same location the whole time. It's making me think that my little Henry is smarter than I realize. I look forward to the days that he can clearly communicate his feelings. He might be signing the word "milk" right now, but it is still unclear.

So, to help me figure out what Henry knows, I posted a little poll. While creating this I also changed some preferences that makes everyone able to make comments without signing in (something both our mothers will like). So feel free to guess and answer and make a comment.

Grandma & Grandpa Solyntjes came down to visit for the long weekend, and we had a great time. On Saturday we spent the afternoon and evening at Grammy & Grandpa Stilley's house and pontoon, and it was great for all four grandparents to get to enjoy Henry together. Grammy prepared quite a dinner for us all.


Henry had a solid week of amazingly good nights, but he's regressed a little bit, and is back to waking up once or twice a night. Mom is working nights five times a week right now, which might be a little confusing for him.

A second tooth has popped through on the bottom. Teething pains really weren't bad, just some extra fussiness for a couple of days. You can just make them out in this picture:

He's been off of his acid reflux medicine for several weeks now, and is symptom-free! Hooray for developed stomach sphincters.

The Target pictures still haven't come online; I'll call them tomorrow and hopefully get it straightened out. In the meantime, there's always Flickr.

Henry continues to be an amazingly good eater. We're introducing more and more vegetables, and we've yet to find one he doesn't love! I'm not sure I like the increased diaper messes with solid foods however.

Dean & Val gave us a web cam, so if you have the technology, you can get a live look at the little man. You don't need a web cam yourself to see us, just an instant messaging program. We use AOL IM with the screen name suedehead6. If you want to try it out sometime, give us a call and tell us to get online!

-Aaron

Big (little) News!

Yesterday Henry was chompin on my fingers like he always does and I felt a little sharp point. Yes, Henry got his first tooth. It is the lower right front. I can't see it's little nubbin yet, but Aaron has. You heard that right, this is Laura. This is officially my first blog entry. Aaron's been bugging me for a while. I'm supposed to talk about my "feelings". I prefer factual content right now.
Another little thing that I love about Henry is the fact that he loves the picture I painted of Aaron. I did such a good job I'm not sure Henry knows that it is two dimensional (or not his father). He also loves looking at curtain rods and sucking on foam doors, so maybe it's not such a compliment.
We finally got our new camera in the mail. Look forward to crisper prettier pictures.
-Laura

Four nights in a row with at least a 7 hour stretch of sleep...

Per chance to dream

The little man has slept through the night not once, but two nights in a row! And when I say through the night, I mean 9pm-7am! Let's hope he can keep this up...

New photos on flickr

Lots of great new photos from Grammy on the flickr site!

Not sure what's taking Target so long to get the 6 month photos online, but they still aren't up.

Professional Photos

We just got prints back from Henry's 6 month photo shoot, and we got some goodies. They will be online within the next few days for viewing and ordering. I'll post the link when they go up.

In the meantime, you can check out and order 3 month photos here.

Welcome to Henry: The Blog!

We decided we should start a blog for Henry, mostly for the out-of-towners who don't get to see him anywhere near as much as all of us would like. Hopefully you'll get to feel a little closer to him.

Latest news: Dad and Henry went for his 6 month check-up on Monday, which went well (after the 65 minutes in the waiting room). He's up to 20lb, 6oz, which puts him in the 90th percentile! Big boy.


He's gotten to be quite the accomplished sitter (as you can see above), and is very strong at standing, as long as he has something or someone to hold on to for balance. He's tried quite a few vegetables now, and loves them all! Unfortunately he's not getting any better at sleeping through the night...the pediatrician said she's decided breast-fed boys take forever to figure it out.