Bahama Boy

Last week we took a trip to the beautiful Bahamas where Justin presented a total of 8 minutes of information at a conference at the Atlantis Resort Hotel on Paradise Island. We made it into a week long jaunt and I have to say that it was the first vacation since I had kids that I wasn't totally ready to go home at the end. I could have stayed an extra few days...weeks....forever maybe. Aaahhhh. The luxury of relaxation is a lost concept in my life at home. Anyway, back to Henry. Henry found his new love, which is snorkeling! I had to threaten him with staying home with a babysitter if he didn't give it a try because at first he wouldn't even put the mask on his face, but after I fitted him just right and shoved his head under water he was hooked (after the initial freak out until he opened his eyes and saw all the fish). For the first day or so I was so lonely out there by myself. I had to find a buddy and Henry was my target. One of us had to stay behind with Bea so Henry and I had snorkeling adventures together almost daily for at least an hour at a time. Our best adventure was a snorkeling trip out to Rose Island where some of the most spectacular scenery and fish in the world were and Henry had fish swimming all around him, close enough to touch, and he was in heaven.


We all had a great time playing in the sand on Love Beach, a private beach that we found with almost no people on it, and it also had the best snorkeling right off the beach. We met quite a few locals, very friendly people, and even got some great contacts for next time we go over there, namely the manager of a billionaire's private island who invited us to come whenever we wanted. Um, yeah, we'll be back for that. Some noteworthy things are, that we went to an awesome pirate museum, saw a giant shark fin right off the beach one day(so scary), the car we rented was such a lemon that the hub caps kept falling off and the one zip tie that was keeping them on only made 9 people in one day honk and yell at us to fix them. And get this, mangoes and bananas are more expensive there and they grow wild! The guys selling them on the side of the road told us that "farming is really hard here". Like you farm them! $3.50 is what they charge. I can get them here for about $.75 at Stan's Market on the Strip. That brings me to my next question, why is everything so expensive in the Bahamas? We've been to other islands in the Caribbean and they don't have high prices. What makes the Bahamas so inflated? There's got to be a lot of corruption because most of the island is totally divided between really wealthy foreigners and luxury resort hotels and seriously poor islanders. With all the money coming in from travel, that whole place should be wealthy. I heard how expensive it was so I bought a ton of stuff before we left and packed it with us wherever we went.


The first half of our trip was spent in a two bedroom condo on the main island, which was nice since the kids did not sleep right next to us and then we upgraded to the Atlantis Resort which is really indescribable. The resort itself is like a small city surrounded by an water amusement park with something like 30 pools and is all surrounded by beach. They have their own resident aquarium there with incredible habitats, giant manta rays, sharks, a lobster tank, ugly grouper, beautiful tuna and every other fish in the area.
The marina had yacht after yacht parked in it and I heard they charge around $200 per foot per night to park there. Henry actually got us on one of the most beautiful boats when he made friends with the son of the boat owner. After a few minutes we realized that some sort of family problem was happening and we had to leave. After we left Justin told me that the boat owner told him three times that he wasn't addicted to prescription pain killers for his back problems, which meant that he totally was. He could hardly have a normal conversation he was so drugged up. And he had little kids! So sad. We played in the pools, rode the crazy wave river, relaxed on the beach, made sand castles, snuck our snacks to save money, and got take out at NOBU. The spicy tuna was excellent. Yum! We brought home a bunch of nice shells, some of which still had hermit crabs and snails in them that actually made the trip home in a ziplock bag. They have all died though. Poor little creatures! I wanted to bring home the baby gecko I caught one night, but I knew he would somehow die too.


Henry said it best when on our way home we asked him if he ever wanted to come back and he said that he wanted to go back "today". And still asks us when we're going back to live in the castle, which was our hotel. He also asked today if we could go back to the pirate museum. I think he really loved the Bahamas.

Bribing leads to first joke

Henry's grandma, Nanna B, came to visit this week and as any normal three year old has turned into a stubborn stanley and wouldn't do anything we wanted him to do like learn how to hit the tennis ball for instance. We had to bribe him with gum at the end if he stood there and hit the balls like we wanted him to do, otherwise he would just run around the court playing a sort of tennis hockey. He even tattled on us to Justin. Oh the shame. The best part was Henry's first real joke and it was funny! We asked him if he had fun playing tennis and his response was, very matter-of-factly, "not really". We were shocked that he didn't have fun and that he actually said that but then he said a couple seconds later, "No, I said, not really, Ha Ha, and that meant I was kidding". (us) "So you really had fun?" (Hen) "yeah, I had fun, (smirky smile)." He was so good at faking his response. He's good at faking other things too. I should have guessed.
Anyway, Nanna B helped him learn some tennis, played at the pool with him, read him stories, babysat a couple times for us while we exercised for our impending triathlon (THANK YOU SO MUCH!) and made delicious sugar cookies which we took with us to the park and were gobbled up by all the kids. We also ate amazingly well with all the food she bought us from Costco. Henry and Bea were enjoying blueberries, strawberries, fresh roasted vegetables and fresh tortillas all week. Delicious! Thanks for all the yummy treats Nanna B!

Daddy is not coming home tonight....

Tonight at the dinner table Henry said the prayer over the food and said, "thank you for Daddy is coming home tonight" and then he turned to me and asked me, "is daddy coming home tonight mommy?" and I told him that he wasn't. Henry looked concerned and said, "but I already said thank you that daddy was coming home. OK, (continuing on) thank you that daddy is staying at work and is not coming home tonight, but I'm going to be really sad." It breaks my heart. Poor little guy. Today we just lounged around on the grass in the back yard together with his head on my stomach. We also played frisbee for a little while, picked strawberries, checked out our huge raspberry patch, but then Henry requested that we lie on the grass again and just rest. What a sweetheart.

Later on today I heard Henry doing something in the bathroom and I caught him trying to clean up a huge puddle of pee on the ground with a few squares of toilet paper, shloshing it around and stepping in it. As soon as I looked in the bathroom I noticed that there was urine all over the walls as well. I asked him if he peed all over the walls and he looked at me and said, "mommy, I'm never going to do that again." and did his best to clean up the whole thing. Needless to say I spent a good 20 minutes scrubbing down the entire bathroom tonight.

Camp Wormy

Any of you who know me know that I love bugs and it's really hard to gross me out when it comes to bugs. Even in our ghetto apartment in New York City I would nonchalantly pop baby cockroaches with one eye open in the kitchen in the middle of the night while I got a drink. Our Friday night camping experience, however, is still making my skin crawl and sometimes I feel like I want to vomit. As we hiked about a mile into our camping spot in the Laurel Highlands, we noticed something strange. All the trees were still bare and it literally looked like winter. That's because there was an inchworm infestation of gigantic proportions that carpeted the forest like an old school horror movie. These worms were EVERYWHERE and it seems like they are programmed to just climb up to the top of whatever they were on because on top of everything, billions of them were congregating. Every time I looked at Justin, he had twenty of these things mangled up together on top of his coat collar with no where else to go. They were all over our clothes, Bea was picking them up and trying to eat them, they were dropping in our food, and were our entertainment as we ate dinner, almost unable to eat our hot dogs with the mass of worms on the pole in the middle of the fire pit. The grossest part was realizing that all the drops we heard on top of the tent were, in reality, worm poop dropping all night long and not rainwater. About twenty of them managed to get into our tent that night and they crawled up to the very top of it and were hanging above our heads all night long while their comrades on the outside of the tent squirmed on top of the skylight. Basically, it was freaking sick. Henry was even grossed out by them and now I'm seriously reconsidering my life long dream of being an entomologist and I'm not looking forward to pulling out the tent and finding billions of tiny worm carcasses everywhere. I'm still shivering from it all. Blech!!!!!

On a more pleasant note, the ferns on the forest floor were amazing, especially since they grew in perfect circles and I found this totally awesome transparent flower on this strange plant. I have to look it up. We spotted some wild strawberries but they weren't ripe yet. Supposedly there are a million blackberries in that area during blackberry season.



Henry had a blast hiking around, playing with rocks, bugs, and both he and Bea slept perfectly through the night. When we finally got out of there we had a nice hike at a rock climbing area called Beam Rocks and then ate lunch at a fabulous place called Out of the Fire Cafe. We ate smoked salmon, soft shell crab, and a carrot/ginger/coconut/curry soup that was to die for. I'm going to try to make it this week so check the food blog for more details.

Phone trouble

Today in the car I was talking to my sister-in-law on the phone about some important matter when Henry decided to throw a "you're not paying attention to me" tantrum in the back seat. The stickers on the play phone he was playing with came off so he got mad and decided he didn't want it anymore. I tried to tell him to wait until I was done talking a few times but he got more frustrated and was thrashing back and forth and kicking my seat, waking Bea up, and was screaming, "I don't want this phone!!" over and over. When I finally got off the phone and turned around. He said with a fake pout, "I don't want this phone." So I took it and threw it out the window. Henry was mortified. Just then a little boy with his mom was walking by and I said, "oh look Henry, that little boy will probably find your phone and take it home with him." Henry was in such a state of shock and agony about it that I don't think he took a breath for over a minute. He started wailing, "I want my phone now, I want my phone now!" I know how much he loves his play phone so I pulled into the parking lot and picked it up (Luckily that boy didn't take it) and told him that next time, I wouldn't go back for his phone. Needless to say, he was an angel for the rest of the trip and the rest of the day.

Sunburned Son

The sun has been beating down hard on Pittsburgh this spring, which is very unusual for us. My garden has been suffering and I'm sure our water bill will be sky high. Henry loves playing in his water table which has now turned into a mud table where he usually makes things and bakes things for the family. His favorite thing to make is cupcakes or maple syrup. The other day he refused to put his shirt on and wouldn't let me put sun block on him and then the next day it happened again. I am trying to not force him to do things anymore and let the natural consequences take over, but the burn he got exceeded the severity of the defiance and now his back is horribly burned, I think second degree in a couple spots. I feel horrible. The good thing is that he will never fight me again when I tell him to put on his shirt or sun block. What a price to pay to teach a lesson. Goodness Gracious.

Pittsburgh to DC bike trip trial

Last Saturday we drove down to Ohiopyle to do a section of the new Pittsburgh to DC bike trail with the kids in tow in the bike trailer. We eventually want to do the whole thing this September. Anyone want to join us? The trail is on an old train track and the scenery is absolutely beautiful.



One of the greatest parts about this trail is that it's never more than a 1.5% grade so that means NO HILLS! which is unheard of in the Pittsburgh area. They started constructing this bike trail in 1978, finally connecting all the parts last fall making it a 30 year long project.

Henry was awesome and even took a nap in his trailer. Bea screamed the whole time, but if we get a trailer with shocks and make sure the seat belts don't bug her ears I think the thing is doable. It'll probably take us 5 days to complete, camping along the way, and then we can just take a rental car from DC back home, which is about a 4 hour trip. We are very excited and hope that things will all work out!

Buy some money?

Today Henry was asking me if we could go to our favorite Italian ice place, Ritas, which is also pretty expensive and since I started this all cash budget I tried to explain to him that we needed to save our money to buy real food like vegetables and fruit and that we don't have money for that sort of thing all the time. He then said, "well, we should just buy some more money!". Ha! Why didn't I think of that before?? Genious!!!

Does it get any better than being a Mother?

Wow, every day should be Mother's Day. This morning Henry thanked Heavenly Father three times that it was Mother's Day during his breakfast prayers. At church we got a CD, a measuring cup filled with chocolates and a nice card with a professional photo of Henry on the front and filled with things he thought about me on the inside. I also gave away a couple hundred of my tomato plants, so everyone else got an extra special gift and I was SO happy to send them to loving homes. I listened to my CD on the way home, had Justin make me dinner and just relaxed while he did the dishes. Bea was perfect as usual and Henry gave me plenty of hugs, kisses and talked about Mother's Day non-stop. It was a very nice day...and the sun was shining. Thank-you my dear, sweet family.

DC Trip

Well we went to DC to visit Christi, Dave, and River for about 5 days even though Bea had a fever, which was probably the swine flu (what in the heck is the big deal about that anyway!?) and we had a great time hanging out with their awesome family, playing in their gigantic back yard, exploring the area and me sneaking into a fancy Gala where I ended up talking to Phillipe Cousteau about worm composting (yes, as in Jacque Cousteau) and mingled with Saudi Arabian Royalty. Too cool. Henry and River loved getting dirty and wet since it was over 90 degrees down there! Our bodies weren't ready for that much heat, especially feverish Bea. Henry and River get along great and are already creating a nice little brotherly bond.

Out of the routine

Henry got the 24 hour flu that's been circulating and so we canceled our Earth Day garbage pick-up in the park and I quarantined him in his room so he wouldn't infect Bea or me and it seemed to have worked. This afternoon I was finally convinced that he wasn't sick anymore and I let him touch Bea and the two of them were overjoyed to be able to interact again. They were wrestling, playing and laughing like they hadn't seen each other for years! It's so wonderful to see how much they missed each other. Henry took such a long nap yesterday that he didn't go to sleep until midnight! I was reminiscing back when he wouldn't get to bed until sometime between midnight and one am when we were waiting for Justin to get home. I can't believe he actually had that schedule! I made sure he didn't take a nap today so he went to bed at the normal time of 8pm. I left him in his room to unwind while I put Bea to bed and when I went back in there, he was nestled in his bed ready to fall asleep when I peeked my head in to say good-night when he said in a tired, scruffy voice, "we need to read the Book of Mormon". I had totally forgotten! We sat together and read the story of young Nephi and Lehi while they were missionaries and were protected by a ring of fire and converted all the Lamanite prison guards. He LOVED the story. I can't wait to go down to Washington DC tomorrow and go to the LDS bookstore so I can get some fun things for our Book of Mormon party when we finish. We're going to have a great time. Thanks for inspiring us to read Henry. We love you so much!

American Idol Prayer of Thanks

Lately we have been encouraging Henry to say something new in his prayers since they've begun to get really repetitious. We usually pause before our prayers and tell him to think of the things that we did that day and to thank Heavenly Father for being able to participate in the many fun activities in our lives. It just so happened that our ward had an American Idol night that was an almost exact replica of the show with videos, Ryan Seacrest, the judges, professional stage lighting, a giant disco ball, and 10 fabulous contestants. The activity was awesome and went off without a hitch and since I was on the activities committee I worked hard for months to get it all put together. I was also IN the show....and actually WON the show. I sang "Love Story" by Taylor Swift and played the guitar with my brother-in-law, Franklin, on the piano. I am really flattered that I won, but was more embarrassed because I basically created and won my own show. Anyway, so after Henry saw me win the show I told him that I was the American Idol and I think he really took it to heart because the next night he said in his prayers, twice in the same prayer, "thank-you that mommy is American Idol". Justin cracked up during the prayer, but I was grateful that my son was proud of me:). And for the first time EVER He didn't complain when I told him we were watching it last night. I think he fully expected to see me on the show this week. Now I bet I've really confused him.

Easter Saturday

I tried this year to make the crazy sugar overloaded Easter holiday on Saturday this year instead of Sunday and it worked out so well that I think we'll do that from now on. I am keeping up the tradition that my family started of giving socks and underwear at Easter time and Henry got a ton of new socks, which he needed badly, and some cool new underoos along with a bunch of white undershirts for when it's hot in the summer. We hung out all weekend with our friends, the Romney's and their darling son, River, and had a fun Easter egg hunt and picnic with them in the city next to the river. The weather was fabulous and so was the company!

Also that day we went to the Children's Museum in the morning, went to the Strip District for delicious cheese and bread for our picnic, and then went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival screening that night. Henry, River, and Bea got babysat for five hours and were very good. Easter Sunday we had about 20 people over for dinner and had a wonderful time! Thanks everyone for helping us make such great Easter memories!

Another adventure at Rite Aid

So you remember what happened the last time we spent quality time at Rite Aid? Well this time we went to drop off a prescription and to buy a pull back car with Henry's hard earned money from doing his chores which you would think would be a simple task. First of all, I was looking rather shabby, had not taken a shower in two days, had just worked out, was wearing no make-up and had really greasy looking hair. Henry was in his sweats, a stained shirt and boots that are falling apart, plus he's crying as usual from being cold at swimming lessons. We walk into the store and go back to the pharmacy where Henry drops his ceramic piggy bank and it shatters all over the floor. Pretty soon all the employees are there helping us pick up all Henry's nickles and dimes and making sure no one hurts themselves on the shattered pieces. The owner of the store, through Henry's sobs, looks up at me with a sincere look and says, "I think we have piggy banks on sale." and so I agreed to look at them. He took me to the isle with the lawn ornaments and other hideous items and shows me the kitchiest looking fish/frog piggy bank, something you would expect to see in your grandma's garden right next to the fake flowers sticking out of the ground, and even though it's on clearance at 50% off I tell him that it's too expensive. I was not going to pay $4 for something that hideous. I started walking down towards the check-out counter when the store owner taps me on the shoulder and whispers, "It's okay, I'll give it to you for a dollar", and at that moment I realize that he probably thinks I am some poor white-trash mother that can't even afford to buy my son something that costs so little. Needless to say, I can never resist a good deal so we took the piece of junk and took it and Henry's red truck up to the counter to pay for them. I knew I couldn't argue with their perceptions of me the moment I brought out the plastic bag filled with nickles and dimes to pay for our items. I could feel all the employees give me that look that would translate to, "I know times are hard but you just keep on saving those nickles and dimes and you'll move out of that trailer park someday (imaginary hug)" One thing I can't figure out is that they didn't recognize me from the poo wall painting fiasco, and now I don't want to go in there looking like I usually do because they might think I was faking being trailer trash to get a free piggy bank. But alas, I have no choice since they didn't have my prescription in stock, so I have to go back tomorrow......

Hygiene Kit Henry

We've finally finished the rest of the hygiene kits that we set out to do in the fall. We had so many to finish that we needed to find people to donate toothbrushes because we couldn't purchase hundreds ourselves but through the efforts of the lovely families in our ward and some fabulous dental students(who get discounts) we were able to pull them all together and we assembled the last ones last night together as a family. Henry loved making sure they were all complete with two bars of soap, a tube of toothpaste, four toothbrushes, two hand towels and two combs all in a gallon plastic bag.

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.