More sonogram pics

Here she is with her legs over her head. Yes, those are her legs and you can see her little, 1 1/2 cm foot kicking me. She stayed like this for much of the sonogram. I think she was asleep. And here's that foot again.

Henry wisdom

Remember today when you and Papa were smiling in the car and I was smiling and we were laughing and I was talking about the clouds and that one that looked like Papa with a beard? I was looking at the sky and at the pavement and at the grass and just thinking to myself: What a wonderful world. What a wonderful life. I mean, I was really thinking that the whole time, Mama. Well, except for the pavement, that was actually a little boring.

I was four my whole life

That's what Henry told me this morning when I asked him how it felt to be turning five. "Sad. Poor four, " he sighed. "I will miss four. I was four my whole life."

I admit, I am going to miss four too. When Henry lines up against the wall after a growth spurt or his 5T jeans fit like highwaters only 2 weeks after we bought them, I share in his excitement about growing bigger and feel thankful to have a healthy kiddo. But birthday's are a different kind of measurement. This morning I snuck into his room and snuggled up next to him for a quick birthday snuggle: his curly hair was matted on one side, his fat baby cheek squished up against the pillow, and I wiggled my finger into his fist and thought about the fragility of it all. I reminded myself that it is essential that I relish every moment with my little boy. I remembered back to when he was just a few weeks old, not sleeping through the night, crying for what seemed like no reason at all, Wade and I beside ourselves with fatigue, anxiety and frustration. My Mom told me not to worry, that he would probably start sleeping through the night at around 6 months. SIX MONTHS! That's forever. But it is not forever. In fact it was 4 1/2 years ago, and it flew by.

Tonight, at Henry's birthday dinner, we pulled out a piece of paper and pen and wrote down everything that we could think of about being 4. His favorite color: Green and pink (together). His favorite book: Transformers. His favorite game: Uno. His favorite song: Anything with a good beat. His favorite food: Pizza with spinach and olives. His least favorite food: Soup. His favorite smell: Cinnamon. His favorite toy: Transformers. His favorite number: 10. What he likes do at school: Ride bikes and make art. What he wants to be when he grows up: A paver. His favorite friend to play with:Utah and Papa.

Then we made a list of all the great things that he can do now that he is 5: Ride roller coasters. Go to kindergarten. Be older then some of his buddies. Ride a bigger bike. Read books. Eat more food. Grow bigger muscles.

I told him about the day he was born. How we were sure that he was going to be a girl and had convinced our families and all the nurses. How surprised we were when found out he wasn't. How Wade ran out to the waiting room, threw his arms up in the air and proudly said, "Well, it's a boy." and everyone jumped up and clapped and gave each other long hugs. How lovingly his grandparents looked at him when they first got to hold him. How he had dark hair with little blond tips and the nurses joked that he looked like he had just come from the salon. How Wade did not let him out of his site the entire 2 days we spent at the hospital.

We celebrated the day he was born with a cake and ice cream and more presents then he even knows what to do with. And he blew out 5 candles and told me his wish:

"That we always love each other." -Henry, age 5.

10 things I love about Henry

1. He is soft all over. From his blond curls to what's left of his baby thigh roll.

2. He loves to make us laugh. He'll stick with a joke for hours as long we are laughing.

3. He is fully committed to play. It reminds me to slow down, stop cleaning and enjoy life.

4. He likes to sit on my lap when he eats, and I let him, even if it means that I will have orange Nacho Cheese Doritos powder all of my shirt.

5. He tells me every night that he loves me 150 million hundred times, to cyberspace (a little confused on that one) and back and that he will live with us until he is 100 years old.

6. If the music is right he will start dancing anywhere-restaurants, the store, the sidewalk.

7. He likes to help me fix dinner and pretend that we have a cooking show. He says that I am the Head Chef and he is my "Sushi Chef".

8. After he uses the potty he yells "Clean up crew, wiping system".

9. He really loves people and he tells them he loves them and shows it every time he is with them.

10. He calls the piano "the pea-an-yo". It kills me.

From the Archives

I was digging through our photos today and I found some old videos. They are two of my favorites. Watching these is bittersweet, on the one hand it is so amazing to watch Henry grow and get to know him and on the other hand I miss him at almost every age and these videos are a reminder of that. But I'm still so glad that we have them.

Prayers

One of my favorite parts of the day is bedtime. Henry likes for me to rub his feet and we say prayers. It's usually something like: Hi God, it's Mama and Henry. Thank you for a great day. Please help me to not be scared of monsters or have any bad dreams. Thank you for Lego's. Amen.

But lately he has really been chatty during prayers and it is giving me some wonderful insights into how his day has been. It's hard to be away from my baby all day, and when he does get home and I ask how his day was I usually get "It was good." So, tonight when he said his prayers I just sat back listened:
Hi God. It's Mama and Henry. Or Laurie. Or Laura. Thank you for a great day. Thank you for show and tell. Thank you for playing pretend no pants guys with Utah at school. Thank you for snack. Thank you for Bagel and Gigi. I love Gigi. Thank you for the house we built in the living room. Thank you for cupcakes. Thank you for transformers and Lego's. When you see Santa ask him for some new ones for me. Please make me not be scared of monsters. Amen. Also thank you for chocolate milk. Amen.

Mama's Day

Hope you had a special day all you Mom's out there. You do so much.

This pic is from my first Mother's Day. Happy First Mother's Day to my friends Lisa and Amy.

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.

Soccer

Soccer started on Saturday. Henry LOVED it. The first thing they did was huddle up around the coach and introduce themselves. Henry’s coach is named Fernando. Then the coach lined the kids up and they ran, single file, around the field 2 times. Henry was grinning from ear to ear. When he passed us on the second lap he yelled “Now I have 6 more friends.” Then the kids did jumping jacks, which when done by 4-5 year olds, is either jumping up and down with your legs together while moving your arms, or jumping up and down with your legs open while moving your arms, or no jumping at all, just arm moving. After the warm up the kids did several kicking and scoring exercises and then it was time for his first game, which was pretty hilarious. Henry scored 2 goals and was so proud of himself. And in the end he even got a snack and juice that comes out of a pouch. What a great morning. I have a feeling that we will have many more Saturday morning soccer games to come. Our little boy looked the like a real soccer player out there.

And another

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day, I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return."

I read this the other day on a blog that I recently discovered thanks to my friend Kenna. I don’t know who said it, but it resonated with me. I’ve noticed, since becoming a Mom, that much of my time is spent doing mundane, every day tasks and it is easy for me to get fed up with the “Normal day” routine. But time goes by quickly. Henry is 4. He started taking showers and is washing himself. Our days of taking baths together have passed. He is starting to read and some day soon I wonder into his room and find him with his face in a book and no desire to snuggle up for our bedtime stories. Pretty soon he will sleep in on the weekends and our Saturday mornings together watching cartoons and eating cheerios will be over. Soon he may not be interested in baking cookies with me or painting our faces like cats or pretending that we are being chased by pincher trucks on the ride home from Gigi's house. But for now he still holds my hand and buries his face in my thigh when he is nervous. And he still likes for me to rub his feet after we turn the lights out at bedtime. He still likes to sit on my lap whenever we eat dessert and he still calls for me at night when he has a nightmare. With all my might I am fighting the tendency to go into autopilot on a Normal Day. I’m pretty sure, in the end, they will be the days that mean the most.

LOVE

Happy Valentines Day to all our blog friends! Our Valentines Day celebration started on Thursday night. While I made dinner Henry sat at the table and wrote the names of all of his friends at school and his own name on each of his 21 Valentines. He made his Valentine envelope at school on Monday and, once again, the teachers told to us that he spent the most time of all the kids creating his envelope. He loves art and will spend all of his center time (the time at school when they do art) creating beautiful paintings. He was very excited to get Valentines from his friends at school.
This year we are celebrating by spending the whole day together, doing some of our favorite things-like baking, painting and bike riding. We are starting the day out by letting Papa do one of his favorite things: sleeping in. Henry and I are making heart shaped waffles, fruit and facon-bacon for breakfast...we are hoping the smell of good food will wake our late sleeper. Last night I made Henry a choo-choo train sweatshirt for Valentines Day. Papa gave me a delicious German Chocolate Cake (my favorite). And Papa is getting lots of rest, his favorite dinner and a beautiful painting by Henry.
Yesterday we made cupcakes and cookies...


We hope your Valentines Day is full of sweet treats, warm snuggles, your favorite things, lots of rest and, most of all, that you are surrounded by love. Lot's of love.

The good stuff

Last weekend as we sat around our dining room table eating dinner, Wade was what we call in our house "actin' a fool", which basically means slapstick humor, funny faces, falling out of his chair...if you know him then you know exactly what I am talking about. Henry was cracking up. Pink cheeked, food leaking out of his mouth, incredibly loud laughter...if you know him then you will also know exactly what I am talking about. It was one of those wonderful moments as a parent when you look around at the life you are trying to create and feel a sense of pride and immense joy. Of course, Henry then began the difficult task of trying to follow-up Papa's jokes with some of his own, which mainly consisted of him mimicking the things that Papa did. One of his jokes was "You know what's a good joke? You are." Of course he did not mean it in the way that grown-ups take it, which is what made it so funny. The best part was every time he would make a joke he would throw his slice of pizza down on his plate in victory. Like -"Yeah, I know that was a good one". Awesome.