Hmm, so that is what these are for!

Henry is now an expert walker. Actually, he now knows how to march too and has worked it into his dance repetoire. It is so cute, and he is so proud of his Denny Terrio like abilities. I was very excited for him to learn to walk well; I thought it would open up many new things for us to do. NYC is a VERY dirty place and I hated him crawling around on the floors and playgrounds wherever we went.

It is so fun to see what he is interested in, but his basic routine is to follow me around or do laps around the apartment. Up and down the hallways, through the kitchen, loops around the coffee table and the bed, he is a boy in perpetual motion. He was sick last week and he actually sat in his toddler rocker. Granted, he had a bowl of goldfish and a glass of milk to keep him entertained but I was shocked that he was actually sitting. I don't think he has done that in months and I am being completely serious. I was so shocked by it, I decided to take his picture. Of course that ended the sitting because he was lunging for the camera.

That brings me to my main point. The most surprising part (why I didn't think of this, I don't know) of the walking is how it has freed up his hands for mischief making. He pulls on every cabinet door. He is tall enough to grab things off of tabletops. I frequently find him with handfuls of change or swinging a cell phone charger. He was walking around recently with an empty coffee mug, taking pretend sips. We were at a friend's house the other day and she came out and asked "Do either of your babies know how to open doors knobs?" Hmm, yes that would be Henry Richard Schnell. He had opened their linen closet door when walking past. He frequently hides in his room or the bathroom and shuts the door on me. I even found him in the china cabinet the other day. I discovered he was in there after I heard the crash of a Waterford wine glass breaking on the floor. No sooner than he had let that one go did he have a martini glass in his hand and he was banging it on the shelf of the cabinet.

He also shows Herculean strength. At the Y where I bring him to a little program, he likes to push one of the little chairs around the room. He even leaves the room occasionally. When he hits the reading rug, he just hoists the chair up to his chest and tries to carry it. The boy is freakishly strong.