Fishy

Tonight in the tub Henry laid out on his tummy and told me that he was a mermaid.

"Henry mermaid Mama."

"Oh yes, I see, Henry is a mermaid. Beautiful. Good job baby."

"Look Mama, Henry fishy tail" and he reached his arm back and pointed to his bottom. "Fishy tail Mama. Right deir."

Feet in wind

Henry and I walked to the park yesterday afternoon. After some climbing and sliding we decided to do a little swinging. It was a perfect fall day-breezy and sunny and we could hear the leaves moving in the wind. Henry likes to swing next to his playmate and luckily there is usually big swings right next to the baby swings, so I always give him a good few pushes and then run over and hop on the grown-up swings for a minute or two and then run back over once he has slowed down and give him a few good pushes to get him started again. This time after I popped back over from my swing Henry told me "No shoes Mama. Henry shoes off." I took off his shoes and gave him a push. He straightened his legs, leaned his head back and flexed his feet so his toes were spread out as far as tiny toes can go. "Mmmmm, windy" he said. "Mama swing." So, I ran over to my swing but before I could get going he said "No shoes Mama." I kicked my shoes off, straightened my legs and spread out my toes as far as they would go. Henry grinned and nodded his head. "Mmmm wind Mama" he said, "bare feet in wind."

I highly recommend it.

Shades

Henry loves his pink shades....but he is willing to share them with Grandpa.

A few more patch pics

Little Boy

I took these photos last week. They are scanned in from my 35mm film, so they are a little grainy but I love them too much not to share on the bean blog. He is a little boy!

Some people like to give us a hard time about Henry not looking like his parents. Our response varies depending on how rude they are....but it always surprises me because to me it is easy to tell that this little boy is our kid. And these pictures are evidence of that fact. He is a perfect mixture of his Mama and Papa. In the last picture I think he is just the spitting image of Wade.

Advice

Henry has had quite a bit of advice for me this morning.

In the bath he told me- "Don dink da wader, Mama. Full of pee."

While changing his diaper he warned me- "Don touch the poo poo. Watch out."

At the store he suggested "Jut box? Open it? It okay. Give money and open it."

When saw some of the spooky Halloween items he told us "Buy it? Okay. Pooky. Henry like pooky. "

Video

I took 2 dozen photos this morning and every last one was blurry. The kid just moves too fast for our digital camera. So, rather than trying to slow him down (impossible) I decided to just take some videos. There is no sound and the quality isn't great because it is on our digital camera not our camcorder. But it is still fun.

Spin & Swing

The previous owners of our house tied a jump rope to a branch on the tree in our front yard and then tied a stick to the other end. I am not sure what they were using it for but Henry came up with his own way to use it.

Hop

Wade is very good about finding, or creating, places for Henry to climb and explore. When I got home on Thursday they had taken some old boards and a door and were making bridges and ramps in the yard. This morning Henry woke up feeling a little better and insisted on going outside in him PJ's to climb on the ramps. My favorite part of the video is the dismount :)

Tools

I was going to post this a few days back but got busy and didn't get around to it. Of course before I started filming he was working on the bike with a wrench and then once I got the camera going he picks up the hammer and sits there...

He loves to work on his trucks and Papa's bike with the tools. It is one of the only things that keeps his attention for more than a couple of minutes. I wish they made a kid version that looked more the like the real thing.

Buggy

Henry is not feeling very well today. When I came home for lunch he was glassy-eyed and lethargic. He had a fever of 101.6. He took a long nap and woke up feeling better but still not 100 percent. During his nap Wade was working on organizing the study and he had the attic open and the ladder down. Henry woke up and ran in to see Papa. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the ladder. "Hole" he said. "Yeah Henry that is the upstairs, wanna see?" Wade asked. "Uh-huh" Henry said. So the two of them climbed up and down the ladder and peaked in the attic several times.
At dinner Henry mentioned the hole and the ladder at least a dozen times. He said "Hole? Henry climb up ladder." "Dirt (insulation) and wood up there." "Henry climb up all himtelf."We asked him questions about it and talked about it throughout the dinner. At the end he said "Oh ladder. Henry miss it." We cracked up....and then took him in the room to climb up the ladder again.
His fever came back this evening, the Tylenol wore off and he was really not feeling well. So we gave him some Motrin, took a bath and did some quiet activities. One of his favorite things to do is color. He can find yellow and pink crayons, everything else he calls green. He loves to have his hands and feet traced and to try to trace our hands and feet. After a while he seemed to be feeling much better and it was off to bed. He isn't acting like he caught a bug, but I am not sure why he would have a fever without catching something....we'll see. I will keep you posted.


{I love how he curls his toes in this last one}

Countdown to Thanksgiving

This is Henry and his cousin (of sorts) Jaiden playing last November. Jaiden is a great playmate for Henry, he is gentle and doesn't seem to mind Henry's tendency to want to hug other kids. We are hoping that we will get to see Jaiden again this Thanksgiving when Susie and Ted are in Kansas.
This is Uncle Ted with his nephews, they are all such cuties (Ted too!). This was back when Henry had one chunk of hair on the top of his head that would not lie flat no matter what we did. It was the start of his curly hair. :) 28 days till you guys get here.....we can't wait!

Monster Mash

Henry got a package today from Aunt Susie and Uncle Ted. It was full of Halloween treats-goldfish crackers, gum, animal crackers, stickers and a Halloween Mr. Potatohead. Henry just calls him Meeser Tatoheed. I tried to get Henry to wait to open it until after we could get a hold of Susie and Ted but he just told me "Henwe open it, okay" and tore right in. He is definitely ready to take on his birthday gifts. Thank you Aunt Susie and Uncle Ted. Henry LOVED his package.
Happy Halloween!

-L

Patch

We visited the pumpkin patch this afternoon. It was the perfect day for a trip to the patch, cool and sunny with a nice breeze. Henry has changed a lot since our last visit.



These are Wade's picks, I'll post mine soon.
-L

Here go

When Henry is tired he chews on his blanket. When he is feeling generous he will offer up a corner to you, "Mama's blankie. Here go." Often it will be the corner that he just finished chewing on so it is nice and damp. Today he was so tired he fell asleep with his blanket in his mouth.

Check it

Wade and Henry went to the book store yesterday and found this book. Wade bought it because he said that it was pretty much all that Henry wanted to look at the whole time they were at the store. I highly recommend it for people with toddlers. I read it to Henry 4 times in a row yesterday evening and then Bapa read it 2 more times before bed. Even if you don't have a toddler, the artwork is really wonderful and the little girl in the story is adorable.
Lisa, I'm putting this in your baby shower gift package....I know it's early but one day I think your little potato will like it ;)

I was rocking Henry to sleep tonight and after about 10 minutes he settled down with his head on my shoulder. We rocked for a while longer and then I quietly told Henry that it was time for bed-

"Okay, time for night-night" I said.
Henry shook his head but I couldn't tell if it was a nod or a no.
"Baby, time for night-night. Time for Henry's bed."
He nodded again, lifted his head, turned right into my face and whispered
"No way Mama."

5 Years

Today is our anniversary and my Mom's birthday. Happy birthday Mom. We love you.

A funny kind of hide-n-seek

Henry took my hand this afternoon, pulled me into our bedroom, pointed at our bed and told me to "hide right here Mama". I put him up on the bed, crawled over to the other side and slid under the blanket. Henry moved to the center of the bed, sat up on his knees and put his hands over his eyes.
"One, two, tree, four, five, dix, deven, nine, ten, leven, ready or not, ready or not."
He was quiet for a moment. I stayed under the blanket, waiting to be tackled.
"Mama? Where Henwe Mama? Where Henwe go?"
I peeked out from under my blanket and he was sitting there with his blanket over his head, waiting...
"Maamaa," he sang. "Henwe right here. Henwe unden blankie over here Mama."

*sweetness

Oh Bapa

"Where Henwe go bapa?"
"Where Henwe go?"

"Henry, just because you can't see us doesn't mean that we can't see you. Henry is right there in his chair."

"Oh, Bapa....where Henwe? In da bath? No. In da bed? No. Where Henwe bapa?"

not just a color...

Today Henry and I went to a park we hadn't really been to since the end of last winter. Turns out it is still one of his favorites. We chased each other and ran and crawled through tunnels and played on the swings and jungle gym until we were drenched in sweat. We stopped and rested for a while in the shade and drank some water. Then we played some more, ran up the slides and slid down them, hopped down stairs, climbed up hills and scooted sideways down them. At one point Henry just crawled under the platform of one of the play structures and laid down on the ground in the shade for a rest. But he still didn't want to leave when I asked him. About the only thing that made him decide to leave was the prospect of getting to "drive the vroom vroom." (pretend to drive the van) I wonder what passersby think when they see a little person comfortably at the helm of a 3/4 ton conversion van with a 50's style straw fedora on and a grown man sitting behind him in a car seat holding a sippy cup...hmmmm.

Anyway when we finally got home we had a snack. I decided to try out something new along with his usuals (cheerios, graham crackers, juice, yogurt, etc) so I brought over a HUGE ripe orange on a plate and sat down next to him as I began to cut it. Curious and interested he sat down very close next to me and pointed, "Punkin Bapa?" "No, it's not a pumpkin mr. henry, it's an orange." He just sort of looked at me puzzled. I could see that he was trying to process our recent work with colors; trying to resolve the conflict of the color orange on a page with this sweet-smelling thing in front of him. He poked his finger into the flesh of one of the pieces I had already cut and put it in his mouth. A wave of happiness washed over his face. "More orange Bapa" he said quickly and began devouring the slices. Even after accidentally biting some of the rine off and chewing it up, he didn't even slow down. He was hooked and dedicated. After only a few pieces his face, hands, arms, lap, and bare feet were covered in sticky juice and he was in heaven. After seeing Henry's ravenous attack on the fruit I decided I deserved a piece for my troubles. I popped one of the slices in my mouth and said, "mmmmmm." Henry stopped what he was doing, looked me in the eye and very seriously told me, "Henmy eat whole ting Bapa." The kid wasn't messing around. I didn't eat anymore after that.

Henry is so amazing to me. It's impossible to document all the things he does that amaze me every day. I guess as a parent you just eventually accept the fact that you are going to be amazed for the rest of your life by things that may not even be that amazing to other people. I will no doubt be amazed again with every awesome new "orange" Henry discovers. -W

Toot toot Bithday a coming....

I love birthdays and lucky for me one of my favorite people is about to celebrate one. Henry is almost 2! I have been told by the birthday boy that there needs to be a chochie cake so, with a little internet searching I was able to find this----
So, I am calling in the cake decorating troops....and by that I mean all of Henry's Aunts that are going to be in town for his birthday---Better brush up on your star tips and lettering because for this cake I am going to need reinforcements . It looks me like a fun post thanksgiving dinner- stuffed to the gills-half watching football-half napping kind of activity.
Any other fun train ideas? I was thinking of making conductor birthday hats.

You just never know

I know quite a few parents that are dealing with what I call "chicken nugget" children. These are the 3 and 4 and possibly 5, 6, and 7 year olds that will only eat chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, hot dogs and will only drink juice. This is something I have really worked hard to avoid with Henry. I am constantly throwing new foods at him and trying old ones that he wasn't too sure about. There have been a few surprises along the way but I think I can say with confidence that he is not a chicken nugget child.

His recent favorite foods that surprised his parents-
Salad (He eats one every night)
Veggie burgers (His favorite is made out of brown rice, bulgar, carrots, spinach, and other veggies)
Mustard
Horchata
Bok choy
Quinoa
Fish
Artichokes

Oldies that surprise me every time-
Broccoli
Spinach
Black olives
Coffee (although he only gets a taste of Gigi's decaf)
Cantaloupe

Foods Henry spits out-
Avocados
Potatoes
Italian dressing
Bananas (unless he is at Gigi's, for some reason he will eat them there)

We make faces