Henry is smiling, Samantha not sick (she mimics)

Well, Henry is nearly 7 weeks old and I have been meaning to write down some good reminders about his early life so I thought that his more consistent smiling would be a good reason. First and foremost, he has been a wonderful baby, just a true blessing to us during this busy time. This became even more important when Samantha got pretty sick about 2 weeks ago (more on that later!) Henry just seems to go with the flow. He can sleep anywhere, eat anywhere and is really quite comfortable in any locale or in any carrier. We don't really have to revolve our day around him at all, he just comes along for the ride...which is great for trying to keep his busy older sister happy. Really there are only a few things he doesn't like and they are pretty basic things like cold, wet and most certainly hunger. Henry has a very adorable way of venting his frustration...he doesn't cry so much as give out a raptor yell to state he is unhappy. I call it his warning shot screech "If you don't come change my diaper NOW I really will make it much worse for you!" We truly do appreciate the warning because we can usually get over to him before he really starts squawking. Also, he doesn't have to have constant stimulation. He is very content for long stretches in a swing or especially in his vibrating bouncer. This amazing little machine is jaw-dropping/eyes-staring entertainment on the one hand and comfortable sleeping area all wrapped up in one.
As for his overall development, he has been growing by the hour it seems. He is changing right before our eyes. I know it sounds cliche but with every child it still amazes you. Within weeks he has gone from this helpless little ball to a big, arms flailing, eyes wide open, kicking, cheek sagging, and SMILING little guy. Yes he has really started to show some gums. Initially just a few little sideways smiles but over the last couple of days he has given us some open-mouth full gum shots. This is most likely to occur as he is getting sleepy but still watching you. He has also given some adorable smiles while focusing on the cats! His head control over the past few days has also gotten really good so we can even prop him up more in our laps to look around. It truly is just crazy what happens in such a short time...I mean we already moved to size 2 diapers and he fits into 3mo clothes. His nickname "small fry" just doesn't seem to apply to our chunkster!
Henry initially seemed to want to sleep more during the day, but over time has become a pretty consistent night sleeper from about 9-10pm to about 3am. He then has a quick feed (the guy can chomp it down!) and USUALLY goes right back to sleep. Sometimes he has been known to pop up wide awake at 3am after eating, so we have had to put him in his favorite bouncer and move to the living room!! But he just hangs out there in the dark while his parents snooze away on the couch or futon and intermittently bounce him.
Thankfully we have some very quality one on one time with Henry after 7:30 pm when Sam goes to bed. We get a solid couple of hours to focus on him, snuggle with him, and try to get his tummy and schedule set for a good night-night. We felt so bad because last week we had to put so much time and energy into Samantha when she was sick we felt like we were neglecting poor little Henry :( Two weeks ago Sam got a runny nose and cough that seemed to start like any common cold. She had fever and poor eating and basically just acted so sad and tired (initially it was fun for us to snuggle with her while we watched some videos though!) However after 4 days of not getting any better and then slightly worse, we took her to the local urgent care and sure enough she had pneumonia! She got some antibiotics and literally within hours was acting more like herself (but still very tenuous for imminent meltdown at the slightest fall or problem) . However, it took all of the next week to get her back to eating like her old self. It was quite a long 2 weeks, but at least during the worst of her illness Jen was still off for maternity leave so she could be there with her. But what an exhausting last week for poor Jen!
But all is good now and our little girl is back and better than ever. She is doing so much cool stuff it is hard to keep track of. She can sign many more things and her new favorite is help (which is a very exaggerated hand clapping that can be heard throughout the house whenever miss princess needs us to get something for her...clap clap clap all day long). She is making more verbal sounds but still not very close with language except she tries to say Hot and she repeats Si. Her comprehension is very good though and we can explain things to her to do and she will do it. But her FAVORITE activities are: playing with Bruno's collar and mimicking our actions. For some reason she has taken a fascination to carrying Bruno's collar around and trying to put it on every animal/doll/stuffed animal in the house. She will do it for hours and multiple times a day. It is so adorable and quite a good activity because we can work on dinner and chores while she is engrossed with that. Along those lines she loves to push her dolly around the house in her stroller and she puts her shoes and socks out the cat door (see earlier video). In terms of mimicking she has picked up some hilarious habits of ours. Most ridiculous is that she takes the plastic bags and leans over in the house and on walks TO PICK UP DOG POOP!! Luckily it is there imaginary dog poop but we have had the thought that maybe we could take it one step further and she could do our dirty work for us!! She also mimics changing diapers on her dollies and even herself, carrying the leashes around the house like she is on a walk, and bouncing Henry in his bouncer or putting his paci back in his mouth (sometimes very forcefully). So many new things and not enough time to write them. But what a joy our little kiddos are for us. Sorry for the long post but things are happening here at the Thompson house. Love to you all.