Little moments here and there

This post has pictures of little events that show Henry's personality.

Going to Target.
Henry loves books. Probably more than toys. Is that unhealthy? We actually have to hide his books and only let him have them occasionally or else he would just sit and look at books all day. Seriously. We have a book worm on our hands.
I needed to run some errands and he had a book in the car with him. I was trying to encourage him to let go of it and leave it in the car, rather than take it inside with us but he started to throw a fit. So...he brought the book with him and held onto it the whole time.

Walk in the park.

I'm trying to go on a walk every day while the weather is still nice. Towards the beginning of our walk I gave Henry a leaf to look at. I was really impressed that he didn't put it in his mouth the whole time. About 10 minutes into our walk, Henry stops jabbering and I stop to check on him and this is what I discovered. 

Fast asleep. Still holding his leaf. 

General Conference

General Conference was very challenging this session. Henry had a bad cold and everyone was pretty miserable because of it. Here he is paying full attention to Elder Oaks talk. He also paid attention to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. 

Picking Sam up from work

Being a one car family, we get to pick Sam up from work. When we get there early enough and the weather is nice, we park and sit by the fountain. He is such a happy little boy!

September fun

While my sister was here, I think I explored St. Louis more than Sam and I have explored it since we moved here. Here are a few of our adventures. 

Gateway Arch

We rode to the top of the Gateway Arch. You have to climb inside this tiny pod. The glass door closes and you can see inside the arch as you go up, and up, and up. It feels pretty insecure and shaky. And there are no seat belts! We finally reached the top and could look through the little windows. 

Henry liked the ride up to the top, but was uninterested once we got there.

630 feet is about 2 redwood trees on top of each other!

Gooey Butter Cake

We also tried out gooey butter cake, which I guess is very popular here. I had never heard of it before but people told us we needed to try it. They can come in all sorts of flavors but we just tried the original. I won't lie; it wasn't the best desert I've ever had. I'm pretty set on deserts having either chocolate, peanut butter or fruit. Gooey butter cake doesn't meet my requirements. But I can check it off my list as having tried it. 

We did take Jacie to Ted Drews Frozen Custard, which I think is pretty delicious. Their apple pie custard is soooo good!

Jewel Box

The Jewel Box is a greenhouse inside Forest Park. The architecture is probably the biggest attraction. The plants inside are a bit underwhelming, especially because they aren't labeled. Good thing it was free admission. They did have a really pretty water garden in front though. I've always loved water lilies for some reason. 

On her last day, we visited the art museum. 

These were some of my favorites:

Henry's Birthday (Part 2)

I'm not sure if I can say that Henry got the hang of opening presents. We helped him open the first present (blue paper), but for the second present (green) he thought it would be better to tear the paper with his teeth than with his hands. What a funny kid!

Henry wants to thank his grandparents for the cool gifts! He plays with them all the time! 

On his special day, we went to the St. Louis Zoo. It was a neat experience because other times that we've taken him to the zoo, he looks at the people more than the animals. But this time he actually looked at the animals and enjoyed them. He really liked big animals, like the rhino, elephants and giraffe. 

Latter that night we went to the Great Forest Park Balloon Glow. It is where all the hot air balloons that will participate in the race are set up in the park and lit up. You can walk around and get right up close to hot air balloons. 

I didn't take this picture but it's just so you get the idea. 

 We took these ones:

They were blowing them up on the lawn! We had our picnic dinner while we waited.

My sister, Jacie, was visiting us from Oregon!

Every few minutes, a loud horn would blow and all the hot air balloons would turn on their burners, which would light up the balloon. That way they would all glow at the same time and you can take pictures. When we were walking around, we weren't even that close to the burners and yet we could feel their heat. They are super hot!

Elephant Rock

We're trying to squeeze in as many nice-weather activities as possible before summer ends so we went on a hike to Elephant Rock State Park. It took about 1.5 hours to get there but it was well worth the drive. There are so many of these huge, red granite rocks scattered all around this area. The area was partially mined in the early 1900's. Red granite from this area was used to build the St. Louis City Hall. 

The Big 1.0

Henry had a birthday

Shout hurray!

We're going to sing to him today.

One year older and wiser too.

Happy Birthday to you!

It's hard to believe that this little boy has been in our family for a whole year already. He is such a happy boy and puts a smile on everyone's face. 

Here are some of his favorite things:

Playing in grass

Reading books

Ripping paper

Clapping

Pat-a-cake

Popcorn Popping

Going on walks

Playing in water

Bubbles

Flipping switches

Bob to music

We've been working on baby sign language with Henry and he is starting to pick it up now. He can sign "milk", "food", "more" and "bye-bye". This is such a fun age! He is so proud of himself when he accomplishes something and he'll clap and smile. He snuggles right before we put him in bed. He plays chase with us and tries to catch us as we crawl. He loves being vocal and there is rarely a quiet moment when he' s awake. He likes to bang on pots and make music. He crawls really fast and loves to pull himself up to standing. He isn't afraid of anything (that we're aware of). He is really close to standing unsupported and walking. 

Here are some cake smash pictures. I don't think it would be necessary to say that Henry thoroughly enjoyed himself.