I think Henry remembers Jesus

You know how we all believe that babies remember the pre-existance and that they see angels and ancestors, but they slowly forget just as they might be able to tell us what they know? Well, I seriously think Henry remembers Jesus because no matter how abstract the art and even if he has never seen it before, he always knows if it's Jesus. I think he must just feel the his spirit when he sees the paintings and drawings. Henry has a toddler Bible that he makes me read to him every night. Every night as we walk up the stairs to his room he starts yelling, "Jesus Book! Jesus Book!" and I've actually had to limit reading it only at night and not for his nap because he never wants me to put it down and often we look at it for over 20 minutes when he should be sleeping. So far he knows the story of Adam and Eve, Noah, David and Goliath, Daniel and the lions, and Jonah and can recognize them all by name. His favorite pages are Eve eating the apple from the snake and Goliath who he calls "Go-wy-fuf." haha! After we go through the Old Testament stories he starts chanting, "Jesus, Jesus!" and loves hearing about him helping people, especially the little children. When we ask him "what does Jesus say?" we taught him to say, "follow me" and now whenever he sees Jesus with his hand outstretched in any photo he points to it and says "follow me." It's so adorable. There is one really cute illustration in his book where a blond boy about his age is being held by Jesus and it's just them together and no other kids, so it looks really personal and special for that boy. I always ask him who the boy is and he he says that it's Henry and then I tell him that Jesus loves Henry and he repeats it back to me, "Jesus loves Henry." I really wouldn't have guessed that he could understand so much at this age, but they are smarter than we think. Henry is already starting to count everything he sees and he understands how to do it! It just blows my mind sometimes. Well, I'm going to start really emphasizing the presence of Christ in our lives by talking about him more often when I point out things in nature or when I try to help him understand why we need to share and be reverent. I think he'll really respond to it since he seems to be gaining a great respect for our Savior.

I also found out earlier tonight that our wonderful Prophet, President Hinckley died. I was shocked and couldn't hold back my tears. It occurred to me that Henry wouldn't ever remember living under President Hinckley's time as Prophet like I did and it made me feel sad because he was just inspirational beyond what words can describe. I'm sure President Monson will be just as fabulous, but we'll surely miss our beloved Prophet who loved us so much and did SOOOO much to bring this church into such a positive light to the rest of the world to see. We love you President Hinckley!