The worst sunny day I've ever had

Today's high got up to 67 here in Pittsburgh and so we decided to go to the park all day. I woke up early this morning to make bread because we had none and for some reason the bread wasn't rising, so I had to put it in the freezer for later. Right before we left for the park Henry coughed and sneezed at the same time which made snot come out of both his mouth and nose and was so gross that he gagged himself and threw-up macaroni and cheese all over the carpet, his clothes, the chair, and the wood floor. He had no other clothes to wear so I just scrubbed everything up and he smelled like throw-up for the rest of the day. That's what I get for making macaroni and cheese. I felt guilty making it since it's so processed and fake and now I'm paying for it! THEN when we got to the park, I accidentally locked Bea in the car with the keys still inside. Luckily it was still cool outside and I was in the semi-shade and we have AAA coverage. We called them and they came promptly and opened my door, but messed it up in the process and now when I go out tomorrow I fully expect water from the rain outside to leak into my passenger's side door. Volvos are the hardest car to break into, apparently. Even though it was a bad morning, the sunshine made all the problems seem like they weren't mine. I love the sun and so does Henry!

Pee in the Park

I know, I know. You're thinking, not another post on pee pee or maybe, could it get any worse than it already has? Yes, my friends, it gets worse...

If you read Beatrice's blog you'll know that we just took an 8 day road trip to CT, NYC and Philadelphia. So imagine us in Washington Square park and to give you an idea of our surroundings, this park is frequented by some of the most beautiful, affluent, and fabulous women and children that you have ever seen. Every child was wearing designer clothes, had fabulous hairdos and attended by an equally fabulous and attractive mother. They were all standing around their children as they played in the sand. I was sitting on a bench turned slightly away from where Henry was playing. I could see him out of the corner of my eye and I would glance over occasionally to make sure he was okay. He seemed to be doing fine so I kept talking to my friend who met us for our play date. All of a sudden my friend puts her hands up to her mouth and gasps in horror. I turn around only to witness Henry standing in the middle of all the beautiful children with his pants around his ankles, exposing himself, and peeing into the sand where they were all playing. All of the children had stopped playing in the sand and were all staring at Henry. The mothers were standing with their hands over their mouths, some were shielding their childrens' eyes and some were laughing hysterically. All I could do is bury my head in my hands and wait for him to finish. We went over, pulled his pants, apologized to all present and covered the wet spot with more sand. After I covered the last bit of pee with sand, I looked up and said, "I am so sorry about this. Don't play right here for a while." All the mothers burst out in laughter. I was grateful for their understanding.

I can only imagine what's next.

Henry's belated Birthday Party Recap

I can't believe I haven't written about Henry's Birthday party yet. I usually feel like it's so daunting to write about trips or Birthdays because there is just so much to say and I know people don't read those entries so it's not as fun to write about.

So to quickly document what we did...

We had a bug party. I made bug cages from scratch that were really cute. We had a bug hunt. Played the cocoon game which is wrapping someone up with toilet paper and then emerging like a beautiful butterfly (think mummy). We played "buzz, buzz, sting" like "duck, duck, goose". We marched to the ants go marching all around the house. Then we watched Henry's third Birthday slide show and sang Happy Birthday and the kids ate bug cupcakes. While all this was going on I served the adults like 10 different gourmet creations of which we didn't get any photos. Such a travesty. The best thing was the coconut sour cream cake which I will hopefully, eventually, put up on my food blog which has also been neglected. We opened presents and let the kids play. Henry also got a nice bike from my dad and a cute guitar from my mom. He was really good that day and even went #2 in the potty in the middle of all the commotion. He's such a good little boy.

Urine for an Adventure

Henry has been standing up to go pee pee in the big toilet recently and really enjoys not having to support himself with both of his arms in order to not fall in the toilet, plus it's quicker. He also, with the example of his father, has gotten the idea if there's no potty within 10 yards of where he is standing he is free to just drop his drawers and go outside. Yesterday I caught him peeing off the deck and just a couple hours later he climbed over our fence, wandered into the neighbor's yard and and did the same thing in their back yard right in front of Justin. I warned him that his liberal attitude about peeing in nature was going to come back to haunt him! These boys just have too much fun regressing to their primitive state.

I have to recount the story of what happened last Saturday. I was so disappointed at the time that I didn't want to write anything about it, but now I'm over it. Anyway, I went to the Young Woman's basketball tournament(I was our team's coach) expecting to play a couple hours of basketball which is one of my most favorite sports ever and after I'd played maybe 25 minutes I sprained my ankle and was out for the rest of the tournament. My ankle got so swollen, turned black, blue, yellow, looks like an elephants foot and is now referred to as "the kankle". Anyway, so as I was trying to nurse Bea, and keep ice on my ankle I was trying to keep an eye on Henry who was making a huge mess with the snacks I brought. As soon as it was over I was packing up to leave someone brought Henry over to me and he was soaking wet with pee pee. As soon as he saw the look on my face he ran away only to return with no pants or underwear on and his shoes, which were filled with pee, nowhere to be found. Here I was in excruciating pain, hopping on one foot, carrying two bags, a basketball, a screaming baby in a carseat, and a naked, pee covered boy and his pee covered clothes. I needed like five people to help me out to my car. The drive home was filled with tears. Me because I missed my only chance in two years to play basketball and I let down my team (we got 2nd place), Henry because he wanted to stay and play with his friends and the pee was burning his skin, and Bea because she was hungry and neglected. It was a really bad morning.

Really appreciating the Book of Mormon

Today we didn't go to church because I majorly sprained my ankle playing in the YW basketball tournament and can barely walk and Justin had to work today so we spent the day doing Sundayish activities. We read his Book of Mormon comic book, watched Mr. Kruegars Christmas and the Christmas DVD, Joy to the World. While we were watching the scenes of Jerusalem Henry noticed that they were dressed like the people in his comic book and he asked, "Mom, where's Laman in this show?" I had to try to explain that he lived like 600 years before Christ, but yes, this was the same city. He's so observant. I just can't tell you how much he's enjoying the comic book. He even went to get a drink while I was reading this morning and I asked him if he was done reading and he said "no, I just need a drink." and we kept on going. If any of you are trying to read scriptures with your young children I have to say that reading in the morning is significantly easier than when we read with Justin as a family at night from the ol' standard children's Book of Mormon. I think the comic book is also way more exciting to look at as well. We're also planning of Book of Mormon party when we finish reading it. I am currently researching things we can do for our party. I have about 48 days to prepare. Any suggestions?

Three Year Update

So here's what the doctor had to say about Henry at his 3 year well child visit...and I have to admit that it might seem like I'm bragging, but this blog is ultimately for him so I have to be honest for posterity, right:). Henry measures at almost 41 inches tall which is over the 100th percentile on the growth chart. He'd be taller than every 3 year old his age and half of the 4 year olds. He's in the 85th percentile for weight, but has almost no fat on his body so it's mostly muscle and just plain solidness. Basically he's a big boy! This might have to do with the fact that Henry eats anything and everything. Since I've banned candy and snacks in my house after his cavity fiasco, he only eats fresh fruit and veggies for snacks and only occasionally some crackers. He has always eaten every vegetable I set in front of him and always appreciates my gourmet cooking even if it has strange ingredients like strong goat cheese and super bitter radicchio. Tonight we had steak, purple heirloom potatoes and purple yams (yes they really are bright purple) with rice and cauliflower and he ate a adult sized portion of them all. Looks like we've created a foodie! He has excellent verbal and physical skills and is now 100% potty trained! He's been in underwear for the past week without any accidents. No more poopy diapers for me! What a huge blessing.

Since I finished painting the house and don't have giant projects on my plate right now I have been able to spend more playtime with my kids and I've seen a real turn-around with Henry's behavior. He has almost returned to his wonderful old self (pre-Beatrice) and is now more stable emotionally and even communicates even better than ever. I find myself amazed at the long, grammatically correct sentences he constructs and the abstract ideas and thoughts he comes up with. He's really taking the world in, discovering, learning and understanding more of what life is all about. He is especially interested in Jesus Christ and his roll in this world. He frequently makes up songs about Jesus on his new guitar he got for his Birthday and comments in the car that "Jesus died and people were really mad" and that "Jesus is in heaven with the Prophet and my brother Georgie" We read the scriptures every night together and very often in his Book of Mormon comic book (so cool- a must have for boys called The Golden Plates). This is such a great time to get him used to thinking about Christ in everything he does...which puts a lot of pressure on me! His passion inspires me to be a better Christian and a better mother. Thank you Henry for your pure and sweet spirit. We love you!

Song Lyrics

For Henry's Birthday he got a little guitar from his grandma and he has started singing more and more often around the house, making up songs and strumming his cute instrument. Today while watching out the front window waiting for Justin to come home he started singing Book of Mormon Stories and the chorus went, "given this land, thank you man, right-ous-ly". I guess he figured that "thank you man" rhymed better than "if they lived" and I totally agree.

Oh and a couple weeks ago I took Henry to look for some new shoes and I had them measure his foot. Turns out that he's now a 9.5 and should be wearing a size 10. I had his poor little foot jammed into size 7.5 or 8!! Every once in a while he would complain that his feet hurt, but not every day, but there were the telltale marks all over his feet from his socks being squeezed into his skin. When did he grow so much? We're going to his 3 year appointment on Thursday so we'll let you know how me measures up. I'm thinking he'll be more normal this time and not such a giant for his age.

In these photos Henry is drinking V8 juice in a skull cup which ended up looking like a head filled with blood. You can't really see it though. I was just amazed that he drank an entire V8! He's my little tomato lover!

Henry's big ideas

Conversation:

Henry: Bad snakes eat rats and they get mad.

Mom: You're right Henry. Hey, that rhymes like Dr. Seuss:) Is your name Dr. Seuss?

Henry: No, I'm Dr. Poop!

Mom(thinking to herself): Yes you are Henry, yes you are...

Anybody Home Pee Pee?

This Saturday I have Henry signed up to take his first swimming lesson and his Birthday is coming up so I told him that he needed to be a big boy and get potty trained. Until just a couple days ago he didn't seem ready and was having accidents right and left. He even pooped in his underwear last week and told me that he wanted to see it as if it was something cool. Yesterday he had his first perfect day and even woke up this morning with nothing in his diaper and he even went #2 in his potty chair all by himself while I was in feeding Bea in the other room! I was so thrilled that I cooked him some bug shaped cup cakes that I'm going to use at his party. Since church was postponed until 2pm there was a lot of time for celebration this morning and he even stayed dry all through church! Yea Henry. The climax came when this morning he was in with Justin, standing up at the big potty, waiting for something to come and after he waited for about a minute without any success, he looked down and said, "Hello?! Anybody home pee pee!?!" We all laughed hysterically.

January isn't so bad!

This month has been surprisingly eventful for us and I thought life was going to be boring in Pittsburgh in January! Since all the holiday preparations are over, we've been spending more time together doing productive things, especially pretend play. Henry loves playing doctor with Bea, but she's never too keen on the idea. He has been painting, writing in workbooks, playing outside in the snow, sledding and spending time with his cousins for Chinese New Year. All in all, it's been a pretty fun month!

I bet your story isn't better than this one...

Today I had to go to the pharmacy to get some prescriptions and while we waited in Rite Aid Henry was on his usual rampage picking up candy, playing with the wind-up cars and asking what the name was of every candy and type of cereal. We finally picked up our prescriptions and I was paying for them at the check-out counter when Henry put a nice package on the counter-top for me. Yup, his poopy diaper was off his bum and sitting open and on the check-out counter. The people behind me were shocked, to say the least, and since the teenager checking me out was half way done scanning my items I sent Henry to the corner to wait for me and he shuffled over with his pants down to his ankles and a nice smudge of poo in-between his cheeks. I hurried back over to pay for the stuff and a couple women asked me if I needed them to hold Bea, but I didn't want to hand over my baby and have them run off with her while I was wiping my other child's bum. Then a couple redneck looking hunter guys came in and were cracking up and saying, "I remember when you used to do that Billy Bob!" and were laughing and pointing at him standing in the corner. The worst part came when I finally got to where Henry was standing and to keep himself occupied while I was paying for our stuff, he was painting on the wall with his finger with the poop left on his bum. I was horrified. I cleaned Henry up and the poop painting, gave the wrapped up poopy diaper to the kid behind the counter to throw away, which he didn't want to do, and we left the store. I don't know if I ever want to show our faces in there again. I dare anyone to top this story.

Moment of Truth

Today in church we were singing the Sacrament hymn, "While of these Emblems we Partake" and the second verse starts, "The law was broken, Jesus died, that justice might be satisfied..." and miraculously Henry was listening to the words of the song and turned to me and said, "Mommy, Jesus died?" and I told him that, yes, he did. I almost cried when I had to say it into his large, innocent, inquiring eyes. I know we had told him before, but I guess it was just his time to really understand it. We talk about Jesus all the time, about his life, about how much he is alive in our lives, but probably only a couple of times about his death, so I bet he was a little shocked when he heard that he had died. I guess we need to review that part:) He has such a sweet little spirit and we're so grateful for his presence in our home.

He also bolted out of nursery today to find me and when he did I asked him what he needed he said, "Mommy, I need somebody." I had to hold back my laughter because he was so serious. He probably said it because this is the first Sunday his best friends and cousin weren't in nursery because they moved up to Primary and left him behind for another year. I know he's not ready to move up, but it makes me sad to see his buddies move on, sitting in the chairs, singing the songs and being so mature, and then seeing Henry in the nursery playing on the ground with toys in his diaper. He'll be a baby for one more year, I guess.

Thank you for my children

Henry has stopped taking suggestions from me of what to say while saying his prayers and now he thinks up many interesting things to be thankful for. Today he said, "thank you for my children." then immediately stopped and looked up at me with a big smile and a giggle, and I of course had my eyes open and couldn't hold back a smile. He knew it was funny and that he didn't have children:) I do wonder where he got it from though because Justin and I always refer to our children by name in our prayers and I don't think I have ever just said that we were thankful for our children. He is a silly boy:)

Since Bea has been sick and up all night, I have taken a couple naps on the couch while Henry was still awake only to wake up to find he has gotten into my purse and is eating candy or gum(from my stocking. Thank you Santa). I caught him with my pack of gum and he immediately said, looking rather nervous, "mommy, these are all together, like mommy, daddy and me!" with a huge smile. That was very observant and I really couldn't be angry at such a sweet comment. I asked him if he had already eaten one and he looked at me with his huge eyes, pulled up his shirt to expose his belly and said, "they're already down there." And yes, he had eaten more than one, possibly three. I'll never know.

One more Christmas come and gone...

Wow, I can't believe Christmas has come and gone so quickly and now Henry's Birthday is just around the corner! That means that I have kept this blog for almost two years! That's dedication for ya!

Christmas was full of fun, adventures, presents, sniffly noses, good food, family (who we miss dearly already) and lots of smiles. I'll let the Christmas photo album do the talking. Highlights are Henry being Joseph and Bea being the Baby Jesus in the live nativity scene, Henry's awesome Darda race track from Santa, the day after Christmas being over 70 degrees and sunny, making pizzas with family and friends, driving all the way to Punxsutawney and everything being closed and Phil hibernating for the winter, singing carols in the rain on Christmas Eve to our friends who weren't home and lots and lots of good food and cooking. Thanks to Grandma Lynn who did most of the dishes:)

Mad Santa

I took Henry to the mall yesterday to see Santa and since I've never done this before I wasn't prepared for the $24 minimum for a photo in a really gaudy frame or some lame snow globe so I asked if it would be okay if I just took a shot with my own camera because I really wasn't going to buy any of their stuff. The kid working the line was like, "well, we just ask you to buy a package, but I guess you can do whatever you want, I dunno." So I just hopped down in front and took some photos with Henry and when the huge flash didn't go off, Santa asked angrily, "well, aren't you going to take a photo?" to his elves and they shook their heads "no", he rolled his eyes, pushed Henry off his lap and didn't want to give him a candy cane, but did anyway. I guess I understand that he's just trying to make a buck, but that price is just not something I will pay at this point. They should make it a little more affordable for those of us who are poor and on a budget!

Wild Man

Instead of just jumping off of the furniture to pillows on the ground, Henry has started trying to jump from couch to chair. They are pretty far apart so he basically lands with his arms over the arm of the chair with his face slamming over the side. He seems to like it and hasn't gotten hurt yet. The furniture is getting a pretty good beating, but part of me hopes he ruins it so we can get something new! haha! Oh, and an update on his teeth...they haven't turned brown, yea!, and have come back down to almost normal level. His scar, however, is not as small as I had hoped, but luckily it's the winter time and so it will fade to white quicker.

Some funny things he says... "cinderella" instead of "mozzarella", he answers "no, I'm not" to every question no matter if it makes sense or not, and he's starting to say, "like" all the time and I'm realizing that I also say it a lot and need to stop! Ugh! I just have to keep reminding myself that at least I don't use profanity. I don't know how those parents do it.

He's still so tender and sweet with Bea. He calls her "Bea B" and he always hears her crying before I do and is so excited to rush to her aid. He even comments on how cute she is all bundled up and he's always lying on top of her, trying to make her smile, which isn't difficult, and loves to see her smiling face. He is getting frustrated with all this winter gear because he can't find her hand under her gigantic winter bunting so he has to revert to holding the empty sleeve that her arm doesn't quite fit into yet.

The pink water is from this foam soap I got at the dollar store. He used an entire can....

In Dallas with Nanna B

Until we left for Nanna B's house, Henry had been counting down the days and now he asks when we're going back to Nanna B's house every few hours. Poor little guy. He just LOVED being there. My mom's place has two red poodles, a swimming pool with hot tub, lots of toys and movies, Uncle Will whom he adores, and really good food. Henry was in heaven! He played with his cousin Jefferey many times and had some fun adventures at his favorite baby store Cutie Atootie (Cutie Patootie). One of the nights we went country line dancing and ate delicious steaks. We also spent Thanksgiving down there with the best food in the world and spent some time with our good friends, Justin and Amy Evanson. Henry was also fabulous on the airplane and I think we're getting to the point where I don't have to worry about him anymore on the plane. Bea also sleeps the whole time so I guess I'll just savor the easy travel moments until she gets older and more mobile.

Quick Road Trip

Henry, Bea and I decided to meet up with our friends Christi and River for a couple days out in Amish Country this weekend. Christi found the most awesome Mennonite family on couchsurfers.com who let us stay at their place for free and even fed us dinner and breakfast. We learned a ton about them and their life and surely made some lifetime friends:) They had three darling daughters who were just the age of our kids and Henry had fun reading and coloring with them. One thing they did that we wanted to adopt into our daily routine is singing songs before eating dinner. That was really fun. I totally regret, though, that we didn't get a photo with our host family! Anyway, thanks to Ernie, Elmina, Evelyn, Erica and Emily for your generosity.

To keep Henry happy on the drive out there I told him we were going to the world's largest pet store and when we got there we found a gigantic rabbit and lots of really cool reptiles. Henry loved it. While we were in the area, we basically hit all the places we could find that had anything to do with food. The Amish stores out there give out samples of everything they make so we found ourselves not even needing to buy much food because we snacked all day long. On Friday we went to Lititz, PA to tour a chocolate factory with an museum of antique chocolate making items and then got a tip about a pretzel factory just up the road, which was the first place to commercially sell pretzels in the nation and I finally found out how to make pretzels! If you want to know, you have to check out hohlfoods.blogspot.com. They let us roll out dough. showed us the antique brick ovens and then we ate samples of all their interesting flavors. My favorite was pretzels with a hint of cinnamon sugar baked right into the dough so it wasn't really desert-like, but you could still taste it. I was also inspired to make peanut butter topped pretzels covered in dark chocolate. They were really expensive so I'm just going to make them. Yum!

On Saturday we spent time in Intercourse(yes I know you're giggling)going to the touristy places, eating more samples and freezing our fingers off. Henry in particular didn't want to wear his gloves or his hat so after about an hour, he was crying from the cold. I hope he learns his lesson about bundling up! We were also noticeably younger than the average tourist, like 20 to 30 years younger, and we had a hard time moving from place to place without having to show our babies off to all the elderly folk. Henry especially loved the petting zoo where they had a llama, miniature goats, sheep, horses and chickens(not miniature, though that would be totally cute). We decided that it was too cold and so we headed up to Hershey, PA for yet another food adventure and spent our last hours there. Most of what's there at Hershey is free, but we splurged and went on the trolley tour of the town to see the Hershey's kiss street lamps and the Hershey mansion. Henry met Santa Claus and didn't freak out, which was good, and got a little ornament from him. We left in a gigantic blizzard and found our cars covered in at least two inches of snow, but it stopped as soon as we got on the road, thank heaven. Then it was a long four hour drive home in the dark. Yea for Amish Country. I love eastern PA.

Teeth Diagnosis

Before

after
Well the dentist did not have any good news for us about Henry's teeth. One of his front teeth is cracked at the root and both front teeth will most likely have bruising/discoloration. On top of that he has six cavities and that's just what he can see. Since he's so young we have to go to the hospital to have them filled and that's not covered by insurance, so we're looking at over $1,000 to have everything fixed. Merry Christmas.

Accident Prone

It's finally happened, Henry has fallen backwards in the kitchen chair and really hurt himself. Friday night was when it happened and this is definitely the worst accident to date we have had. As Henry fell back in the chair, he instinctively tried to counterbalance the falling chair which brought him to a sitting position (sparing the back of his head from hitting the ground) but as the chair hit the floor, he got a sort of forward whiplash and he completely bit through the skin half-way in between his lip and his chin. The cut was almost an inch wide and went all the way through. What was worse is that his front teeth hit his mandible so hard that his teeth are now jammed up into his gums - one more than the other - so his teeth are now half as big as before and uneven. We have plenty of dentists in our ward who told us many possible scenarios ranging from, worse case, his teeth dieing and turning black and possibly damaging his permanent teeth that are forming in his gums to, best case, his teeth naturally re-emerging after a week or two back to their original position. So far the teeth are still white but haven't moved. He has a dentist appointment tomorrow so we'll see what the x-rays tell us. After the accident, Justin used surgical glue to close the wound and we've kept it clean and closed for the past few days and it looks good. Then on Monday while playing at my sister-in-law's house, he fell down the stairs doing what looked like cartwheels all the way down. Apparently he didn't get hurt or hit his chin because he didn't cry much and stopped crying for a piece of candy - telltale of faking it. Today he fell off his kitchen stool while sitting on it and bumped his head in the cabinets and ran into a shopping cart at Costco being pushed by a woman who couldn't see him over her large load. I am so sad to realize that he inherited my genes for being accident prone. Poor Henry. I just hope Bea is more careful with her face!

Halloween Enaflent

Even though he mispronounces it every time I never correct him because it's so cute the way he says it. Most people don't understand what he's trying to say, but he'll say it correctly soon enough. Henry was the most darling elephant in town in his costume and it was nice and warm so he didn't even have to wear a coat out trick-or-treating. He made out with a ton of candy, which Justin and I are eating after he goes to bed each night, but still had a hard time with the concept that he was supposed to collect the candy first and THEN eat it later. He was pretty intent on eating the candy as soon as he got it. We went around with a huge group of kids: our in-laws, Henry's future wife, and many other friends. It was such a nice night and the kids were all pretty good. We love Halloween in our house!

Beach Bum

Ever since we got back from the beach (Lake Tahoe and Monterey Bay) Henry has been asking to go back to the beach. Nothing is more fun to him than playing in the sand and waiting for "the big boy wave" but then getting caught in the "daddy wave". In Tahoe Henry played on the beach all day long, even after the sun went down and it was under 60 degrees outside with wet clothes. His five or six year old cousin Wil was the only kid to play with, so they spent a lot of time hanging out together, although I think he got sick of Henry following him everywhere and wanting to play every second. We were hiking one day and Henry was yelling for Wil who was way ahead of us, but when we caught up with him Wil only wanted to walk with his mom and I could see Henry's confused and sad look when he got ditched. I feel so bad when he's stuck here all day long with no one to play with and now I'm so busy with Bea and THEN when we go on vacation he finally has a buddy to play with and he gets tired of him. He's not annoying or anything, but he gets really excited and talkative and maybe a little bossy. I think it's darling.
Anyway, Henry went on many hikes, climbed on rocks and caught a ton of crawdads, which are his favorite new creature. Before Justin joined us, Henry only had one pair of shoes AND socks (forgot to pack them) which he kept running into the water with and they were constantly wet. My dad even removed them before they got soaked one afternoon and he took them and threw them into the water himself and when I asked him why he did that, he had no idea. Just wanted to do it. We also took a detour to the redwood forest and Henry climbed into the center of gigantic trees. Check out the album for photos.

Henry is such a good little traveler now. He never cries in his carseat, takes naps on the run, and sleeps through the night wherever he goes. He was very good on the plane (for a two year old) and doesn't mind hour after hour in the car. He's much improved from his jealous behavior, although Bea sleeps like 18-20 hours per day, so he's now getting most of the attention anyway. He LOVES his little sister and I always find him holding her hand, trying to get close to her and giving her little kisses. He thinks it's so funny when I put her in bed with him, or let her lay on his tummy for a while. Sometimes he hugs her so tightly she cries, but I know he's just trying to get as close as he can. He really is a good brother.

Meltdown at the zoo

Today I took Henry to the zoo. We had a great time until he took his shoes off on the spiderweb rope thingy and somehow they got lost or stolen because they were nowhere to be found. We searched and searched, even enlisting some older kids to look, but after they announced the zoo would be closing I told Henry that he would have to walk to the car with no shoes on and he started crying because we were leaving them behind, then he fell and scraped up his toe really bad and was screaming, "I need a band-aid" over and over again as he followed me to the car. I was trying to make an impression in his mind about not taking his shoes off without giving them to me, but it backfired. Ugh. He cried himself to sleep in the car and I took him to the hospital where Justin was waiting with some surgical equipment and fixed it up while he was passed out. He now has a gigantic wrap on his entire foot, appropriate for someone who has just had a foot transplant. I've been trying to get him to go to sleep for about two hours now, but he's still humming the ABC's under his door. What am I going to do with this boy?

Hiking Master and Ladies Man

Henry went hiking twice in less than 24 hours this week and he's loving it! Justin came home rather early (5pm) from work on Monday night so we went on a fun hike at the National Audobaun Society of Western PA reserve. He went inside a mud wigwam, swung upside down (or upside up as Henry likes to call it) on a vine and played with pond scum while he looked for tadpoles. We tried to catch a frog but they were too fast. Then that next morning we went with a group of people from church, which happened to be a gigantic group of girls and Henry. He's a lucky guy! One of his best friends, Thomasin, is so fun and darling. They really enjoy holding hands together. We're excited that we'll have all these fun photos to show at their wedding someday. lol.