Henry will be a big brother soon.

There are so many things Henry will show his little brother.....

There are so many adventures they will go on....

Henry is such a big boy now.

Letters and Numbers

Henry has been learning his letters and his numbers. He is better at the ABC's than he is with numbers as he refuses to accept that one comes first, and will count this way, "two, three, one!" We have been visiting playgrounds recently because the weather has been so out of sight, and he goes to the big slide, positions himself, and says, "two, three, one - wheee!" He is fearless about these slides (some of them are shockingly steep, by the way), even though there have been times he's gotten to the bottom and fallen face first onto the ground. He just dusts himself off and says, "yes, Mommy" when I ask if he's ok. Then he says, "more", and heads back up.

As for letters, he repeats the letters in his name, and when asked what it spells he proudly shouts, "Henny!!" (Well, yeah, sort of...) He likes to listen to us singing the alphabet song and will occasionally chime in with a letter coming up. He knows the beginning and end quite well saying, "ABC, XYZ".

lil stories

Henry played peek-a-boo with himself in the mirror tonight and had a BLAST. In fact, I think I might try it some time - he made it look so cool. He kept sneaking up on himself, and then laughing and whooping it up. Maybe this should be a therapeutic technique for people trying to overcome depression...

Well past his bedtime last night, Henry was standing in the kitchen messing with the hem of his shirt. I asked him what was going on, and he lifted up his shirt to show me that the tip of his penis was sticking up out of his diaper. Very proudly, he pointed to it and said, "this my penis."

"More Water PEAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Henry understands that if he says "please", his request is more often attended to. So, being obsessed with water, bathing, and the like, he finds his ladel, goes to the bathroom, stands on his stool and hollers, "More water. More water, peas." Sometimes it sounds closer to, "More water, cheese!". And then, as the frustration builds because we sometimes inform him that he has played enough and we don't waste water, the tone turns substantially more demanding: "More Water, PEAS!!!!!!!!!!" - and a short, sweet meltdown ensues.

Our Child is Amazing

Yep, I said it, he is amazing. It was time for bed, actually past time, and I was trying to get him to help me pick up his toys which were strewn all over the living room and kitchen. He had other plans, mostly including continuing to play with his toys, and I walked out saying/thinking: forget it, I can see you're not going to help tonight, I'll just go get ready for story time.

So, I am in our bedroom getting the appropriate books, all the while calling him in for story time. Henry, however, is doing things in the living room, and then I see him in the kitchen with the utensil drawer open. He shuts it, and runs back into the living room, is busy again. I begrudgingly go into the living room thinking that he has been pulling out every toy that wasn't already out of his toy box - and am stopped in my tracks at the living room being completely picked up - even what was on the far end of the living room - he put his spatula away (he plays with kitchen utensils, not usually with the knives tho...), and he says to me, "one more", and pulls his toy basket out in order to reach the few items behind it.

I am in complete and utter amazement. I love this child - and so what if he did get some of my obsessive traits...

Henry's sick, so waking up around 5 am coughing up phlegm, and having difficulty falling back to sleep. So, I brought him in bed with me, which means I'll be sick next week, and he crashes out on my chest just long enough for me to almost fall asleep, and then wakes again hacking.
Poor Monkey.
Then, around 12ish, he starts informing me that he doesn't need a nap, "no nap, no nap", which is extremely telling since I wouldn't have normally thought of a nap for another hour or two anyway. We were at the grocery store around 1, he shared that a nap was not in his immediate future, and was asleep in his carseat before we got home.

I asked Henry to sit down to eat the other day and he replied with, "no thank you", and I realized that I made a mistake - a common realization these days. While politely requesting is a nice thing to do, and something I don't often hear from parents as they speak to their children, I am also learning that directives are much needed, and sometimes, more to the point - as in this situation. So, feeling foolish and also somewhat bolstered, I replied thusly:

"Ok, thank you for being polite, I appreciate that. Now, let me tell you why you will be following Mama's direction: 1) I am older and wiser than you, 2) I am more skilled than you, 3) I have more experience than you do, 4) I have more patience, and 5) I'm Mom, and ultimately, I decide."

Ok, so the first one is just bogus - and who cares how old I am; and the last one is just pathetic - a last ditch effort to sound important and in control - but I figure I don't have long to be able to use these arguments without his starting to question them.

Feeling proud once he was in his chair, I thought about adding to my list that I receive money for what I do, and then it occurred to me that Henry is way ahead of me there - he receives money for just existing, while I have to work for it and also pay the government for my existence. That sort of put some things into perspective for me in a way that made me no longer feel very bolstered.

You may speak now......

Posted by Kevin......


Our son had his 24 month well baby check today. While Stace and I got ready to go to the doctor's office, Henry strolled throughout our home continuously enlightening us with his profound musings on life and love and all the things that are (or should be) most important in our lives.

"Tractors! Vroom vroom! Tractors big. Cars.....cars small. No way! More cookie Daddy please. More cookie! Moooooore cookie? Yes? Ah-ha."

I tried to explain to our beautiful persistent boy that to have more cookie means that you already had some cookies in the recent past. And seeing how this was 8:00am and I'm not so bad a father as to feed my child cookies for breakfast and since a cookie to a toddler are like a gin and tonic to a 40 year old, I told him he would have to wait at least until after 11:00am.

"Henry, say 'Hello doctor'" I said. I was coaching him for our visit, knowing that this exam was not just about Henry's current physical health but also an opportunity for "them" to gauge his development as a person and of course our fitness to even be his parents.

Sadly, most parents worry too much about whether their child is lagging behind in developmental milestones. However, keep in mind that there is a developmental "sweet spot" where your child should be at this critical juncture. If, for example, your child is ahead of these milestones and is close to mastering Bach's cello suite, then he will immediately be whisked away from you (Social workers! God love 'em.) and relocated to foster parents in Switzerland.

"Helloooooo tractor" said Henry. He then pointed to the John Deere tractor in his toy box.

"Good boy." I said.

At the office, the doc really was more interested in physiology as it turned out. He was glad to hear Henry jabbering on about the lights and his blue shoes and stickers with characters from the movie "Cars". But he could see from the smiles and laughs that this was a happy and healthy little boy. Until......

"Looks like he needs his second H1N1 shot. An his next Hep shot. Also, how do you feel about a blood test for lead?" But, you see, I told Henry he would not be getting any shots today.

Henry looked me square in the eye as I held him by the shoulders and reclined him back onto the exam room's table. The nurse pulled down his pants and held his legs. "Daddy! NO!"

Then he began to cry.......for about 45 seconds.

When it was over, he seemed more frustrated about having his pants pulled down than anything. I wanted to tell him that when he gets to be my age, he should just wear warm-up pants with side zippers to the doctor's office like I do, because it's always "That will be a $20 co-pay and TAKE YOUR PANTS OFF!"

The blood test for lead was a prick on the finger, and to everyone's surprise Henry watch the whole thing in silence. Not so much as a peep! The nurse didn't seem to be helping with her comment, "Do you know your colors Henry? That's red. See? Red here. And more red here. See?" I think I blacked out around this time.

Henry got a Band-aid and smiled. "Boo boo box." This is what he calls our first aid kit at home. Any time he does something that might hurt himself, we say "If you get hurt, what will happen?" and he yells "BOO BOO BOX!!"

After the doctor visit, he was rewarded with blueberry juice and a scone from Goodbye Blue Monday, then a brief visit with his friends Erica (3 yrs.) and Julia (4yrs.) to see their new baby sister. "Baby girl!" he said as we introduced him to Maya.