A Crawl in the Park

On another beautiful day (we luckily have a lot of those here in So Cal) we headed to the park for some play time after our idea of a walk on the beach got nixed because apparently everyone else in LA had the same idea. The park was a lot of fun though. Henry went on the swing, crawled all over the structure and he had fun chasing and popping bubbles we blew for him.

Santa Monica Aquarium

As Henry has gotten a little bit older and more interested in interacting with things we have had fun exploring new places. Recently we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to Santa Monica. There is a little aquarium there and we walked along the beach. It was a great day and Henry really liked the fish! He even touched a sea star.

Double digits!

Henry has hit double digits- he is now 10 months old! Can't believe it. We're already planning his first birthday party - exciting and a little sad at the same time. Some pics from his 10 month "birthday." Having to use two numbers is definitely a little trickier.

A Boy and His Doggies

Henry loooooves his doggies. They pretend like they don't love him but they really do. Lily is a little aloof, won't let him get close but she'll come sit in his room when he is going to bed. Oliver realizes that to be close to us it means being close to him so he puts up with the petting/pulling from Henry (see pictures below which I can't believe I am sharing because of my horribly unattractive pj pants - the things I'm willing to do for this kid).

Lately, Henry has really been showing signs of his love and interest in the doggies. Early on, Henry let out one of his first real giggles when the dogs were playing in front of him. He still finds them so funny when they run around and play in front of him. He has even started imitating them - carrying toys in his mouth when he crawls  (pictures below) and he will sometimes take his cereal puffs out of my hand by putting his mouth down around it like the dogs get their treats out of my hand. He also likes giving the dogs hugs and snuggling his head against them (grainy cell phone pic below).

And the latest, we are pretty sure his first word is going to be doggie. (Well I count that he already said mama and dada but his first real word). He has been talking a lot lately and one of the noises he is making right now sounds a lot like doggie. And he said it after Brendan called Oliver in the room and Henry saw him. So fun!

Henry Smiles

Love this little boy's smiles. His toothy little grin is just the cutest.

Beach Day...In January

We are having some absolutely beautiful weather in LA right now. I am totally one of those people who complains about the lack of seasons, blah blah but I'm getting over that when we have weekends like this. I'll admit, one of the perks of living in LA is that we pretty much have nice weather year round - we went to the beach in shorts and a tshirt in January.

We decided to take advantage of the warm, sunny weather and spent a lot of time outside this past weekend. We took Henry for a walk on the beach and when we were done we let him play in the sand for a little bit. This was really his first time on the beach (he dipped his toes in the stand in Maui but was really too young to do much else). Well, he was a fan. He had fun letting it run through his fingers, crawling around in it and eating it (oops)! Here are some pics from his first visit to the beach. Many, many more visits to come!

 Surveying the scene before digging in.

 And he goes for it.

 Having fun playing with it.

 Right before the face plant...

 and right after.

 Mmmm... yummy sand.

And this was how our fun, warm day ended. There may be a number of things we don't care for in LA, but we do like living by the beach.