Hike to California

Friday is my favorite day of the week. Friday is Mama-Henry Day. We spend a couple of hours doing practical stuff like cleaning up and going to the store, and then once the boring stuff is finished we head out for an adventure. Yesterday we went on a hike. Henry discovered that he really loves hiking. We rode the bike trails to the dirt path and then walked up the dirt path to the top of a hill with a bench looking over the lake. Once we got to the top Henry said “Wow I love hiking. I can’t believe we just hiked all the way to California.” On the way back down the hill we picked some wildflowers, spotted some pretty cool looking bugs, and touched a tree that had been struck by lightening. We also rode our bikes through huge puddles, mud puddles and make some serious skid marks. It was a windy, cloudy, perfect day.

We also had Parent Teacher conferences yesterday afternoon. Overall Henry is doing great. He is making a lot of friends and is becoming a little bit of a social butterfly. Ms. Stephanie said that he is the leader of the class. Which is great but he has also had a few bossy moments. Stephanie said that sometimes he finds herself just talking with Henry about things like he is a coworker, which just cracked me up. She also said that he can count to 60, maybe higher but they just didn’t have time to keep counting. He is reading 4-5 letter words and doing a very good job of sounding out longer words. He is ready for the afternoon class of 4-5 year olds. She did say that he did not know the shape of an oval. He insisted that it was an egg shape.

Soccer was great this morning. Coach Fernando is a wonderful and patient guy. Henry didn’t score any goals but he did cheer for Adam when he scored a goal. This is progress for Henry since he has no experience with team sports and did not understand that Adam’s point counts as his point since they are on the same team. He feels very important when he gets to drink a Gatorade at the end of the game. Today he told me, with a bright red Gatorade mustache, "Oh Mama, it is fun to be a real soccer player." Henry works so hard at practice, he goes to bed at 7:00 on Saturdays. I’m thinking we are going to have to get some soccer goals for the yard.

Hope you have a great weekend. The lilacs in the yard are blooming. The sun is shining. Be sure to stop and listen to the leaves blow in the trees….advice Henry gave me when we stopped to take a break on our hike.