Weekly Update 7.31.10

This past week has been jam packed full of fun with family in from out of town. Henry was ecstatic to see his Aunt Annie last Saturday. His primary objective was to spend as much time educating her in the ways of Transformers, and I think he accomplished that goal. I am fairly sure Annie walked away with a solid knowledge of the major players in the world of Transformers and I personally witnessed her successfully transforming level 2 (age 4+), which is better than Mama or Papa did after just a few training sessions. Aunt Annie does have a PhD, which could explain it. Next time we see her, we'll work on the level 3's. Henry also spent a lot of time playing with his Aunt Susie and Uncle Ted. I think he really enjoyed having the whole family together.

But playing Transformers with Papa is also pretty great. Unfortunately, I managed to go all week without taking a photo of Henry with his Aunts. This is all I've got, a crappy, camera phone photo of the ladies getting their toes done. Notice the wee little bean running the massage chair controls on Aunt Annie's chair...Note to self: pedicures are not as relaxing when a 4 year old has control of the massage chair. One of the ladies pointed out that there were little treasures hidden in the brick wall on the North side of the room and Henry had a great time finding the treasures and taking pictures of them with Annie's phone. Other things to note:
-Henry loves root beer. Real beer, however, tastes like "trash". Let's hope that sticks.
-I completed my Microbiology coarse on Thursday by taking a 3 hour final exam. I learned a lot. Now, go wash your hands.

-Wade has been busy at work this week. He had a Turnpike interview on Friday night so if you have local channels, check it out. I can't watch it because it makes me nervous, but I hear he's pretty good at it.

-Henry has taken to calling people by their first initial-Dog (example: Papa is P-Dog) thanks to the creative efforts of Kelly and Cooper. He called Grandpa G-Dog and Grandpa became very confused and asked What is happening with the dog? Does Henry want a hot dog? He also gives the peace sign when he leaves.

-Tomorrow Wade is helping his sister move to Lawrence. Our lucky little boy with have another fabulous family member living near by. I tell you, this is one lucky kid. Surrounding by people that love him.

Well, off to bed. Later Dogs.

Dinner Attire

Weekly update

It has been a hot July in Kansas, my friends. All week the heat index hovered around 105-110F. Right now it is almost impossible for me to get Henry out of the house. But when there is a promise of splashing Mama involved, well, it helps. This week has been super busy, as usual. I had class in KC on Tuesday and Thursday nights so Henry and Wade had fun visiting friends and eating Mexican food. Henry is in summer school too, in the mornings. He comes home every day soaking wet from playing in the sprinkler and with lots of fun and interesting art projects.

Today Henry and I headed up on campus to stick our toes in the fountain for a quick cool-down. Henry knows how to work those fountain sprayers and it wasn't long before we were both soaked.



And afterwords he said, "Now that I put my toes in the fountain, I'm a real jayhawk."

Last weekend Grandpa and Grandma B came to visit to celebrate Grandma's 60th birthday. Grandpa calls Henry "Henry-O" so I've been calling him "Grandpa-O", we'll see if it sticks. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of the three of them together. Henry also got to spend some time with his Aunt Lillie and Uncle John, two of his favorite people.

Tomorrow Aunt Annie arrives and Susie and Ted will be here on Monday. Should be a great weekend. Later Gators.

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.

Tonight Henry was shucking an ear of corn and said, "Whoa, this corn has more hair on it than Grandpa."

I thought Henry was in bed, asleep, when I heard a noise in the bathroom and then, through the monitor I heard, "Whoo-hoo...my poops comin' in for a landing."

Happy 4th

Holiday weekend fun

Easter

It occurred to me today that I have not posted any pictures from Easter. I grabbed the camera and realized that we only took 4 pictures on Easter. Oops. Well...at least they are good ones. Henry thought dying eggs was super fun and we have done it 2 more times since Easter for no reason except "funness" (as Henry would say). And the bottom picture, well, it's just a little shocking for me. I feel like he is WAY too tall and looking WAY too kindergartenish. Yikes!

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.

Prayer

Hi God. It's Henry. Thank you for a great day. Please help all the sick people and people that have ouchies. I'm sorry for trying to scare the cats today. I have one question for you. Is there a problem with me eating all the candy when I get to heaven?

A- (points to himself) men (because he is a man, of course)

Coats back on

Happy first day of spring. 4 inches of snow.

Weekend

Wade injured his back on Friday and has been totally out of commission. So this weekend it has pretty much just been me and the little bean (with a few hours of back up assistance from the Amazing Gigi and Grandpa). I really don't know how single parents do it. I realized at about 8:00 tonight that I haven't showered all weekend. My house is still a mess. I spent about $60.00 more than I usually do at the grocery store because I am too easily persuaded to buy things like a Tigger electric toothbrush or a box of sidewalk chalk the size of a loaf of bread. I had at least 2 mini-breakdowns and made more baked goods then any family of three could ever eat (stress baking, passed down from my Mom). But there were plenty of good moments too. The kid is always changing. It blows my mind. Here are a few of my favorite Henry quotes:

On the radio we hear a song that says "You're hot and your cold, you're yes and you're no...."-
H: Mama she says yes when she means no. M: I heard that. That's silly. H: No Mama, that not silly, that is Frustrating!

On a bike ride-
M: Why are you riding so slow kiddo?
H: It's a beautiful day, Mama. I HAVE to ride slow so I can see all of it.

Unloading groceries at the store-
M: Henry those are too heavy, why don't you get the light stuff?
H: No Mama. I will lift the heavy stuff so that you don't have to.

Sitting in the sunshine with the cats-
H: Cats have good ideas. I think people should sit in the sunshine every day too.

Henry's world

A few of Henry's favorite pics from his camera.