Weekly Update 11.27.10

Happy Thanksgiving friends. We hope your day was relaxing and filling and that you got to spend it with loved ones. We spent Thanksgiving with Gigi and Grandpa and Aunt Kelly. Gigi made a feast, at least that is what Henry and Aunt Kelly called it. And Henry was very curious about the roast beast Gigi made (he had just watched The Grinch).
We have had a jam packed couple of weeks and I am afraid it is going to get worse before it gets better. But we only have a couple of weeks to go before finals are over and we can celebrate Christmas, so we spent a little time this weekend preparing for it. But first, the little man turned 5 this week. We had a little get together with the family to celebrate. We did not have a buddy party because Henry had was completely booked with his friend's birthday parties. Sofia, Utah, and Estrella all had parties this week/weekend. Henry was the only boy to attend Sofia's princess party. She told her mom that she wanted to invite him because "He is a wonderful man" which we all found very sweet, and hilarious. He seemed to have had a good time, although he did mention that girls squeal and scream a lot. :) This was the year of TRANSFORMERS, so he had a Decepticon cake. Lemon icing, vanilla cake and strawberry ice cream: all his choice and not a bad combination, I have to say. On Friday night Santa arrived in Lawrence. His reindeer dropped him off on the top of the Weavers department store and he helped the city count down to light up down town. Henry sat on Papa's shoulders and waved to Mr. Claus with the sweet look of excitement and magic that only comes from Santa Claus. Then firemen came in and rescued him, which was also pretty cool. On Saturday we decided to put up our lights. We dug all the Christmas decorations out of the attic, put up the tree and then discovered that our big ceramic outdoor lights did not survive the summer in the attic. So we headed to Target to get some new ones. This time we went with small multicolored LED lights. Wade climbed all over the roof, making my legs go numb over and over again, which Henry found completely hilarious, and we ended up feeling pretty happy with how it turned out. Last night we drove around the neighborhood sizing up the neighbors and listened to Christmas music. Today we are headed to Sears to pick out a new bike, which was a birthday gift from Henry's Nana. He has been talking about it since he woke up this morning. If the weather is nice this afternoon we'll take it for a spin and I'll post a picture. Have a great week.

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.

Weekly Update 11.7.2010

Welcome to this weeks edition of: Blurry Camera Phone Blog Posts. Apparently no one felt the need to drag along our actual camera this week, even though we actually had lots of fun, photo-worthy moments. The work week was pretty standard. Both Wade and I had to stay extra hours this week to keep up at our jobs. Unfortunately, that meant that we had to do what we call in our family "Divide and conquer", which leads to not as much time together. But it's only temporary.......5 weeks people, we are counting down!
So, Susie was in town this week. Which, I have to say, is fun for people of all ages. Susie is like a breath of fresh air. Henry LOVES her, well we all do, but Henry is especially fond of her. Occasionally over the weekend he would just sigh and say, "Aunt Susie is awesome."

On Saturday evening we all got together to make applesauce. Henry chopped and peeled and was a big help.He worked so hard that he had to take a break with Grandpa. Here he is learning all about football. He cheered for the purple team, which is unheard of in our house.

I worked all day so Henry and Papa went on an adventure at the lake. This was the first day of Henry's new "style": wearing shorts over pants. I'm hoping it is a phase, like the rainbow suspenders that were tragically lost recently. ;)

On Sunday I did a little shopping in KC while Henry and Wade cleaned the school and went on even longer bike rides. The kid can ride miles on his bike, it's really cool. But the best part of the weekend was last night when Henry read a bedtime story to me, front to back, with only a little help. :)

This week is going to be pretty busy. I have an exam on Thursday. Wade has a TON of work to do and we have parent teacher conferences on Friday. Here's hoping for a good report.
Have a great week!

Weekly Update 10.31.10

Happy Halloween! I'm going to start off this post with a pic from last week's fundraiser. I love pictures of Henry with his buddies. Okay, now on to the week....Henry got to wear his costume to school twice this week. Here he is with his friends Ellie and Sophia. Sophia is not feeling it. And then there's this...hum......
The weather has been amazing and Henry has been up for some super long bike rides. For a kid that just started riding his 2-wheeler two weeks ago, he blows my mind. He loves riding along the levee because he can make skid marks in the gravel. He also likes to go with no feet. And it's extra fun because every mile or so he says, "Man. This is awesome. What a great day." Last night we carved the pumpkins. Henry was the designated scooper. He got creative with it. Henry designed his own pumpkin: 3 eyebrows, 1 eye, 2 mouths. Papa did a Decepticon symbol. Henry saw it, gasped and said "Oh Papa. It's so beautiful." Henry was a Transformer for Halloween.

We went around the neighborhood and came home with quite a loot. At one house I overheard Henry say, "I'll pick this candy bar because it is my Mom's favorite." Then he came over to the sidewalk and gave it to me. Such a sweet little guy.
We've got an easy week ahead of us. Wade is playing music and Laurie is going to classes, but midterms are over (whew!). Parent teacher conferences are coming up soon as well as Henry's school pictures, which I'll be sure to post. The little man turns 5 in just a few weeks. Time goes by so fast, friends. Make the most of it.

Hope your Halloween was exactly what you wanted it to be. Have a great week.

Weekly Update 10.24.10

Busy week, friends. This post is going to be quick.
This weekend we headed out to the pumpkin patch. Henry took his pumpkin' pickin' pretty seriously. He found the perfect one....or make that three. I hope Papa has been working out his forearms because he is going to have a lot of carving to do this weekend.

On Sunday LCNS has it's annual fall fundraiser benefit concert. Wade's band played. The kiddos watched. I now understand the origin of the mosh pit.

Uncle John really needs to work on his silly face.

And this pic is from a show Wade had last week. It's a good one so I thought I would throw it into the mix.

These are more picks from the butterfly bio dome.

Hope your week is going well. I have an exam tomorrow and then midterms are officially over! I promise a better update next week.

Quotes

I've been cleaning out my computer this week. I have a document that I saved that I would use to keep Henry quotes. I think he must have said them in the last year. Hopefully they are not a repost.

"What this Mama, I'm incorporating some danger into my dance moves."
"Do cat bottoms taste good? Is that why they are always licking them?"
"Why did Santa make germs?"
"How do I get my nails to shoot out like cat claws?"
"Dear God, please make the Earth healthy. Please help it stay green. Please make tailpipes that do not release CO2."
"Stop at this station Papa. This music is nice. It makes me feel good. It smells sweet, like flowers."

Weekly Update 10.17.10

This is big time folks. Henry is riding his bike without training wheels! Just last week we were talking about giving it a try and he was still feeling pretty nervous. I figured we would go for it next spring. But on Friday, when I pulled up at Henry's school, I saw a tall blond boy ride past the front of the school on a bike with no training wheels. When he rode by again I realized that the boy was my boy. I asked him, "Henry, did you realize you are riding a 2-wheel bike? No training wheels?" "Oh, it's Braden's," he said. Like that made a difference. We went home, called 10 people to share our news and then headed outside to remove the training wheels from his bike. He is so excited about it and I think he actually likes riding more now. Every day this weekend we went for at least 1 bike ride.
Sadly, except for the bike riding and spending some time playing today (Sunday) I haven't gotten to spend much of the weekend with my boys. I worked 10 hours on Saturday and late in the evening on Friday. Today we put a lot of time into picking up the house and we made a long trip to the library. I'm afraid that the next 2 weeks I may be too busy to make a post. Midterms are coming at me rapid fire and I am feeling a little unprepared. I'll try to squeeze something in but it may be like this post: very few photos, a little boring, and short.
Have a great week friends.

No training wheels!

Weekly Update 10.10.10

A self-portrait by Henry B Kelly.

Happy 10-10-10 blog friends. This week and weekend were jammed packed again. But that's okay, we had a great time. The week was busy with the normal shenanigans of the Kelly household. Laurie worked 12 hour days to close month end and survived another week at school. Wade put the final touches on his EP. Henry had fun at school and with Gigi and Grandpa. Overall, I'd say we were a pretty productive bunch. But then the weekend came and the fun really began. For starters Mama and Papa went on their first date in 4 years. It took a little while for us to get the hang of it. We had a few moments where we slipped into Parent Mode and started talking about schedules and winter clothes...but for the most part we kept the conversation "date-ish" and by the end of the night I think we both felt rejuvenated and ready for the next date night. Hopefully it will not take another 4 years. Henry got to spend the night at Gigi and Grandpa's, something that he has been talking about doing for months. I hear he had a great time. I know he ate pizza and stayed up until 10. I imagine there were some sweet treats in there, but I've learned to not ask too many questions :) He suggested that he spend every Friday with Gigi and Grandpa. We haven't heard back from them about that...humm... Anyway, Saturday morning Mama worked, Henry played and at noon we headed to the LCNS FALL FESTIVAL. Which is basically a mini-carnival. Our school is the cutest school on Earth already, but with balloons, well it's just almost more than I can take. Henry helped make the signs and was very excited about the treasure hunt. It was our first stop. I think he walked away with 3 spider rings, 2 pumpkin erasers and a page of unicorn stickers. Not a bad haul. After that we headed to get his face painted. He requested a tiger. And not just a face on his cheek, he wanted to be a tiger. Julia's Dad did an excellent job. Unfortunately, a tiger face is no match for 2 hours in a jumpy castle. But before we got busy jumping we picked up a green balloon dog and a green sprinkle cupcake.

And we got busy dancing to the Minivans! (Henry isn't actually in this picture because he will not dance in public anymore. Very sad. But he was still feeling it, even as a wall flower.)


I love this picture because Rachel is actually down talking to her preschooler and playing the guitar at the same time. Ahhh parenthood. Personally I'm amazed she could do it. If only we could all be so talented. Next stop, the bouncy castle. It took some persuading to get Henry in there because just as he was taking his shoes off a little girl climbed out crying. He thought that kids were going in healthy and coming out with broken limbs. But we finally convinced him and I have never seen a mind change so quickly. One jump is all it took. This picture looks incriminating but I promise Henry did not just knock down those kids. The tiger face post 2 hours of jumping. Henry closed the place down in that bouncy castle. (This picture also reminds me how tall our child is. Now I know why people don't believe me when I say that he is 4.)
*
Today was equally as fun. Henry, Gigi, Kelly and I headed out to Pendletons to check out the butterfly Bio-villa. Like any good trip to a farm, there was a hayride. Henry, once again, gave me the one eye smile.

Then we headed inside the bio-villa. Lots of butterflies. The yellow ones were Henry's favorites.
The obligatory photo opt. Henry's head has been too big for these things since he was about 3 years old.
Next, the cool stuff. Like riding tricycles that can go off-road and ram into things.
And Aunts that will play along.

And a little squash catapulting. Way more fun then you would imagine.
After that it was back home for a long soccer game with Papa while Mama went to work AGAIN and a spaghetti dinner followed by an early bed time. Next week is going to be a busy one. Wade helps at school on Monday and I get to do field research in a stream. Tuesday is our 8 year wedding anniversary which we share with the birthday of my beautiful Mom. Wednesday Wade has a show in KC. On Friday we are going to an amusement park with Kelly and Cooper. And then on Sunday we are all going to poop out and be lazy all day long. Yeah right. Anyway hope your week is great. Henry should have some school pictures to check out pretty soon. And we have some great pictures from John and Lydia's wedding a couple of weeks ago. The little man managed to not give the photographer the squint eye. So grateful for that :) Click here if you want to get a preview. Anyway, have a great week!

ps I apologize for my inability to remain consistantly in either the first person or the third person for an entire paragraph. I also apologize for my lack of commas, not using spellcheck, and other grammatical mishaps. I'm throwing this post up at lightening speed so that I can get back to studying.