Henry's day of surgeries at Children's Memorial Hospital was without incident. He has new tubes in his ears and his testes are in place. The MRI was disappointing but not surprising. His brain has experienced quite of bit of atrophy. Although his shunt is functioning properly, his ventricles remain large as cerebral spinal fluid fills much of the space that was once occupied by brain tissue.
Believe it or not, this photo was taken before anesthesia:
He continues to make slow and steady progress with his therapies. One of his favorite weekly activities is his music class, Wiggleworms. We attend the 6 - 12 month old class and sing songs that involve lots of clapping and body awareness.
We finally found an outdoor activity that Henry can enjoy visually – Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo.
Aunt Cara and Uncle Joey stayed with us for Hanksgiving. Here we are getting ready for a delicious breakfast at Over Easy:
Here is Henry trying on a birthday outfit from Cara and Joey:
What Thanksgiving would be complete without a deep-fried turkey? (Do not try this at home.)
Backing up one holiday, we had a great time haunting the streets of Park Ridge with cousins at Halloween. Henry wore an adorable frog costume – er, well, it would have been adorable if Henry were about 20% smaller. We'll find a better-fitting costume next year.
We got to spend a morning with Henry's friend Owen. Owen is an impressively mobile and curious fellow these days.
I gave Meade and Henry a much-needed break and hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon with Mike, Zach, Susan, and Peggy. We had a fantastic time.
Henry is still not enamored of his high chair. He has developed a couple of tricks in hopes of taking his meal in a lap, as nature intended. One of his tricks is falling asleep and refusing to eat. Once removed from the chair, however, he miraculously awakes and finishes his meal. Jennie took this photo one afternoon at dinner time:
Here is another sleeping shot, although this one was more genuine:
Henry's head control is getting better. Some of the techniques that we use to help him improve his head control are...
his arms braced on our chests:
crawling position:
and sitting:
Here are some posed pictures intended for holiday cards.
Finally, Henry has been doing quite well in his gait trainer. We made a couple of videos of the first time that he completed multiple trips (6!) up and down our hallway without needing help from us.
