17 months old

Happy 17 month old birthday to our boy!

Where, oh where, is the time going?!?!

At 17 months, Henry has hit all of his normal-kid milestones and he's getting lots of 'Wow, he's truly ALL boy' comments. He's reckless and spastic and likes to throw things around. He wrestles with his daddy, jumps on my bed, and he's finally figured out how to climb up on every piece of furniture I own. All of those things give him the giggles. He loves Christmas - most especially our 'wow wows' (Christmas trees) and the Christmas lights that are adorning many of the homes in our neighborhood. He also loves snowmen, and he talks and waves to them like they are real people. Still hates Santa Claus (pics coming soon). One of his favorite things to do right now is 'hold hands,' and he especially loves holding hands with two people at the same time. My mom discovered that he likes to try to 'sing along' to slow, operatic songs, so lately, we've been opera-cizing every song we know for his enjoyment. Jared is the only one of us with any kind of vocal talent, so we're breaking windows left and right for our little angel's pleasure.

Speaking of singing, he has several favorite songs. We've sung "You are my Sunshine" to him for his entire life, he likes "Itsy Bitsy Spider" still, and the "ABC's" and "Silent Night" are in the mix too. Well, since he knows that we all know these songs, if anyone starts singing one of them, he immediately stares down anyone in the room NOT singing. If his stink-eye isn't enough to prompt the singing, he'll start babbling and squawking at the offender (often calling them by name in the middle of the scolding) until he gets the full chorus he wants. Hello, bossy!

His vocabulary is growing by the second, and he's stringing lots of words together. I've noticed that most of the sentences he can make are bossy too...i.e. Mommy hand! (Mommy, give me your damn hand so we can hold hands and walk), Uhh dattt? (repeated louder and louder until an answer is given), Fall down! (hello, idiots, don't you know this is the part of the song where we ALL fall down!), etc. etc. We've also been introduced to our sweet boy's new favorite word - NO! He says no about things that he doesn't want to do (get into his carseat, have his diaper changed), to things that scare him (dinosaurs that roar and stomp too much), and about things that he anticipates but doesn't like (i.e. if we're following him walking in the street, he starts looking back, thinking we're coming to get him to take him inside, walking faster, and saying NONONONONONO!).

He's very passionate these days about firetrucks, and he can make the woooo-woooo siren sound perfectly. He knows where our local fire station is, and he starts talking about it a mile before we ever come to it on the road. The other day, he spotted a parked firetruck across a crowded (with cars and people) parking lot from his carseat. It took me several seconds to figure out what all the squawking was about, as my grown-up eyes clearly do not see the magic halo that surrounds all firetrucks (said: I could barely see it). He has several firetruck Christmas ornaments which he prefers to hold...rather than hang. We've heard that Santa Claus knows about Henry's firetruck love, too, so we think Christmas morning will be extra exciting for him.

Moreso than any other time, he has become a little buddy and companion to me. With his growing ability to communicate and 'do' things, we've been out and about a lot lately. The 'getting out' has been great for both of us, and our daily adventures have become so precious to me.

Oh, and saving the best news for last, he spontaneously asks Jared and me for "uggs" (hugs) all the time now, and if we're extra lucky, he throws in big huge unsolicited but much appreciated open-mouth kisses.

In our lives together as the Chesser family, there just hasn't been a better time than now. We love 17-months old...

**pics from our recent snow day!**