Tory time

Henry telling the story of the 3 little pigs

Once pon a time there 3 little pigs.
Build a house of straw.
And the wolf came.
And blow house down.
{Huff huff huff big blow}
House of sticks.
And the wolf came.
Blow house down
{Huff huff huff big blow}
And stones
And the wolf came.
Blow house down.
{Huff huff huff big blow}
He could not blow down the house.
Henry, what happened to the pigs?
They go into the forest.

I recorded him telling this story but cannot figure out how to post a .wav file on the blog. If you want to hear Henry's version let me know an I will email it to you.

Even with slippery boots

Here he is riding his bike. I love that he stops half way through to point out where he is going. What you don't know since the video has no volume is that he is telling me the whole time that he is going to ride his bike "down dere". I guess that just telling me wasn't enough, he had to point it out. Wade and I call that a little bit of baby OCD. ;)

More of the same

So last week I wrote a post about Henry doing two new things-using the potty and peddling his bike. Well, he been working on both of those activities this weekend and this time I grabbed the camera.

He has already gotten into the habit of taking something to "read" with him when he uses the potty...And yes, the pottty is in his bedroom. This was recommended to us by our pediatrician and it has really helped him get comfortable with using it.
It has been bitterly cold this past week so when we woke up today and saw some sunshine we were determined to go outside no matter what. I also took a video of him riding his bike, I'll post it next.

Quite Literally

E: Henry you are a smart cookie.
H: I am not a cookie. I am a boy. A big boy.

Hair cut

You can't really tell in these pictures but the puff has been trimmed a few inches and with that went a lot of the blond hair. His hair coming in is much darker. The curls seem to be sticking around though. Top picture is pre-haircut (and the photo is cut off so you can't really tell much). Bottom photos are post-haircut.

9:00 pm. Rocking. Henry says-

You know Mama, ders oder tings we could do. We could make scooby dance, play music, read books. That's a idea, yeah. Uh-huh.

Sunday was big...HUGE really

Henry had a pretty good weekend. The warm weather brought us outside, which was good for all of us, but Henry seemed especially in need of some fresh air. Being couped up inside the house for weeks because of the snow and freezing temperatures has left him a little frustrated at times and his high energy level is sometimes a little challenging to keep up with. On Sunday we took a short road trip to a friends house in the country to pick up her washer and dryer boxes for climbing in and fort building. This was Henry's first time in the country. We walked around their 7 acres and Henry stomped on puddles and dodged some horse piles (probably his favorite part) and climbed on tires and checked out the pond. He really seemed to enjoy himself. Once we got back home Henry hopped on his bike and started riding....yes he peddled his bike all by himself! I knew the he had grown when on Saturday I put him in a pair of overalls he hadn't worn since Thanksgiving and I had to loosen the straps by at least an inch to get them over his shoulders but it still surprised me when his tiny little feet reached all the way out on those peddles. After some serious celebrating Henry reached another milestone when he used his potty for the first time. I have never seen such a proud 2 year old (or such crazy parents running and jumping and yelling and generally make a huge deal about his accomplishment). It was great. We are going to try again tonight. We are really excited about potty training because once he is trained he can start going to preschool. He would definitely benefit from spending some time with other kids. Right now he gets so excited when he sees another kid that he just wants to hug them and that sometimes freaks them out a little. The other day at the store a little girl passed by and Henry pointed to her and tried to touch her and yelled "Mama, another kid!" This guy needs some friends :)

Other Henry news. He is still counting everything, although when he makes it to 15 he always starts over at 4. He can sing the alphabet song, but makes up a few letters along the way. He is also able to recognize a few letters-P, M, W, H-he knows those for sure. In fact, my Mom called me on Thursday to tell me that Henry saw a signature on a picture on her wall that started with the letter H and Henry pointed it out to her and told her "H is for Henry".
He has most of his colors down and his favorite color as far as we can tell is pink. We saw some pink shoes at the store over the weekend and Henry really really wanted them. They didn't have them in his size though, so no luck.

He is singing all the time. Christmas carols and hip-hop seem to be his favorites. He also started making up songs. They usually start off with lyrics about Mama or Papa or Bagel (the dog) but then end up silly make up works and funny noises. He loves being read to and likes for us to read the same books over and over again so lately we take turns, he "reads" a book to one of us and then we read a book to him.

Of course, he has spent a little time in the No-No chair recently, but it seems to be an effective punishment. After his 2 minutes are up he always goes over to the parent that did not put him in there to tell them what happened. It generally goes like this "Papa Henry sit in No-No chair. Henry put choo-choo train in the potty. Henry didn't listen. Make Henry cry.

Sleeping has been a challenge lately. He never wants to take a nap. He tell us "It is morning. Sun is up. Henry not go night-night." The biggest hurdle is night-time waking. He is up usually 3 times a night which has been hard on us.

He is still a very good eater and since we are on a mostly plant based diet he gets a lot of opportunities to try new veggies and fruits. Plus he falls for the "You can't eat a bite that big" routine every time.

For two people who really have no idea what to expect from a 2 year old, Henry surprises, delights and makes us laugh every day.

This is fun

Questions, questions, questions....Henry has a ton of them. What's that? What you doing Mama? Where we going? What you want to do today? But the best part is throwing it back at him. Tonight Henry asked "What you want to do today Mama?" I said "I don't know, what do you want to do Henry?" His response, all in one breath: Play with green choo-choo train, get out cave, watch Stuart Little, drink soy-nog, read Hop on Pop, eat pizza and (breath) take bath with Super baby (super baby is Henry's doll that he washes in the bath tub. Henry came up with his name).

Using his viewfinder.

Henry at lunch, explaining how to wink.

A few Christmas photos

We didn't take nearly enough photographs this Christmas. I think everything just flew past us, trying to keep up with Henry-rapid gift unwrapping extraordinaire-who will open all gifts, with no concern for whom they belong to, in the blink of an eye. I think other family members might have more photos.

Henry enjoyed Christmas. We left treats out for Santa and his reindeer and when Henry found Santa's note in the morning he was pretty excited. Gigi and Grandpa gave him this horse which he has named "Cinnamon Sugar". He got some other pretty great toys and clothes and books...enough to keep him busy for quite a while.

Happy Holidays

I didn't get around to sending my holiday cards this year but click here to receive our Christmas greeting. (there is sound)

Mama at 2

I was feeling nostalgic earlier this week and decided to look for old photos of Christmas Eve at my Grandparents house. While searching I found this photo and saw a little of the Bean.

The stockings were hung by the chimney

I finished Henry's stocking last weekend. I think it turned out pretty good. I did make a few changes (big surprise). Along the top the pattern had big peppermint candies in addition to the candy canes, stars and flowers. I didn't add those but instead just made three extra flowers . It still looks a little cramped, but not nearly as busy as the original design.

It has taken almost two months for me to make this stocking, much longer than I anticipated. There was a lot more bead work and embroidery involved, I think I was expecting everything to be stamped on. In the end the embroidery looks much better than a stamp. Here are some photos of the details.

Henry's favorite part is the candy cane that the snowman holds. He likes to pull it out and hang it on the tree or pretend to give it to Santa.

Henry's explanation for why we did not have power in our house for 2 days-

Needs new batteries Mama.

Exactly

We put up some Christmas lights outside this afternoon. Before we went out Henry and Wade checked to make sure all the lights were working. Wade plugged in the star with blinking lights. Henry looked at it for a minute and then told Wade
"That tickles Bapa."

Snow

We put on our boots, mittens, hats and coats and headed out to stomp in the snow. The first thing Henry did was grab a handful of snow and throw it at me. We stayed out until our noses turned red and the snow stuck to our pants. We came into the house, drank soy nog and Henry sang Walking in a Winter Wonderland for the rest of the night.

Be Happy

We put up our Christmas tree today. Henry was curious. He loves Christmas music and has surprised us twice, the first time when he started singing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" on the way home and the second time when he started singing "Jingle Bell Rock" while we decorated the tree. We played with the ornaments, danced, drank Soy Nog, pulled strands of lights around the house....it was great fun!
I finally got around to making a stocking for him (it's only his 3rd Christmas!) which I will post pictures of later, my camera is a little iffy right now. Henry doesn't understand what this stocking business is all about, but he loves his stocking. It is Santa hugging a snowman, perfect for the little boy that loves to give hugs. Tonight he asked to see his "docking" several times. He first removes the candy cane that I have not attached yet and then he says "Hello Santa. Hug?" and he gives the stocking a big hug. Tonight at one point he even told Santa that he loves him. He seems to be getting a better idea of what all this hugging and all the I love you's are all about. He watched the last 10 minutes of How the Grinch Stole Christmas the other night and in the car tonight he told us "Better not touch Grinch, Mama. He too grumpy." A moment later he said "Grinch be nice, needs a hug. Henry hug Grinch. Be happy."

{Sorry the photos are so blurry, I only got in two before the camera died, so this is the best I could do. We have more ornaments to put up so I will try to catch more later. }

Reach it

The sun was setting and the sky was full of pinks and yellows. Henry said

Looks like ice cream Mama.
Henwe eat it.
Need stool and spoon please.