Chef Henry?

You never know. Henry might just grow up to be a chef. All of Henry's daycares (past and present) have had play kitchens, and he's spent a good amount of time each day playing with them. As soon as I dropped him off, he would head straight for the play kitchen. He likes to walk around carrying whisks, spoons, and other assorted kitchen gadgets. I decided that Henry needed his own kitchen, so I've been watching Craigslist.com to find the right one at the right price. Many of the play kitchens are pink and girly, so I've been looking for a more masculine kitchen. I finally found one yesterday. We picked it up from a nice family whose four children had outgrown it. The 7-year-old girl kept saying, "Look! He likes it! He likes it!" Her mom warned me that she might cry when we left with it, but she seemed genuinely happy to pass it on to Henry. They even threw in a play shopping cart, dishes, and some fake food. As soon as we got home, Henry got right to work in his new kitchen. I usually update my blog when Henry is napping or after he's gone to sleep for the night. But, I am updating my blog right now, while Henry is still awake, because he is currently busily playing with his new kitchen!

First he had to go shopping for fresh groceries.

Next he got to work in the kitchen. Close the refrigerator door!What's in the microwave?

Henry checks on his food, making sure not to burn anything.

Of course he does the dishes when he's finished cooking.
Chef Henry knows his way around a kitchen! Bam!

Baths are Fun...and Necessary!

Henry is a messy eater! He picks up food in both hands and mashes it into his mouth. Sometimes when he has a FULL mouth of food, he'll decide that he doesn't really want that food. So, he'll reach into his mouth and scoop out the food, flinging it all over the place. He usually ends a meal with food all over his face, and often in his hair! When you're a messy eater like Henry, you need a good bath after a good meal. It's a good thing Henry loves baths.
Henry laughs, "swims," and plays in the tub. Here he is having lots of fun taking a bath. Maybe he eats the way he does so that I'll HAVE to give him a bath every night. Henry, I'm on to you!

Summer's Coming Soon!

Being a teacher, I am very aware of how far away summer is at any given time. Right now we only have 7 weeks of school left before our summer vacation. The weather is getting warmer, the kids are getting restless, and the teachers are getting excited. I am looking forward to having time off, warm weather, being outside, but most of all, spending my days with Henry. This summer I will have the added bonus of spending lots of time with Jeff, too. He got "fired" from his job. The rest of the world, outside of the railroad, would say that he got "suspended." He stopped the train about 50 feet beyond a signal (not on a road where cars travel) and got caught. So, he is "fired" from his job for 120 days... WITH PAY! I see that as a very good thing. A four month paid vacation! He wasn't too happy about it, but I think he's starting to enjoy himself. Part of his time off and my time off will overlap, so we will have about a month and a half off TOGETHER! HOORAY!! All three of us! (I know I'm using a lot of exclamation marks, but I think they're warranted). Now I am REALLY excited for summer!

Even though it's not summer yet, the weather has been nice, and we've been spending lots of time playing outside. Now Henry wants to go outside all the time.

Henry loves to swing!

He also loves this watering can. He carried it in and out of the house a bunch of times. While I sat on a bench outside, Henry periodically ran up and buried his face into my lap, laughing. I love him!Here's a video of some outside playing. Henry plays with a truck, tests out some patio furniture, and says "Bye!" Watch Henry's legs when he sits in the chair. He's like a beetle that has been turned over onto its back. He cracks me up.

Photo Shoot

I took Henry to get his 18-month portraits done yesterday. Actually, I took him last weekend, but I wasn't happy with the results, so we rescheduled. Last week Henry was grumpy, the photographer wasn't very good with him, and the proofs were just o.k. I thought we might have better luck if we waited a week. However, in the past week Henry got sick with a cold that turned into an ear infection (again). He's on antibiotics and seems to be feeling better, but he's just not himself. So, yesterday's photo shoot wasn't stellar either. There were a few cute pictures, but nothing fantastic. I decided that it was the best we were going to get at this time, so I ordered some anyway. I was told that 18-months is a hard age for portraits. Maybe they were just trying to make me feel better. Or get rid of me. Henry looked so cute in his new outfit that I decided to take a few pictures of him when we got home from the portrait studio. My photo shoot didn't go so well either.

This is the best picture I got. It's actually pretty cute.

Now Henry's getting bored. And impatient.

Now he's getting grumpy. And his nose is runnning.

O.K. I can take a hint. We're done!

It must be the age.

Catch-up Pictures

I didn't post the few pictures that I took at Gymboree last Saturday because they were kind of blurry (it's hard to capture a moving kid), but I'll post a few anyway. Henry LOVES all of the balls at Gymboree. He has to have a ball with him at all times no matter what else he's doing.
Daddy helping Henry to walk on the balance beam(with a ball).
Henry crawling through a tunnel (with a...you guessed it...a ball).
My friend, Kristin, brought her 9-month-old son, Carson, over last week. When Henry was out of the room, Kristin put Carson in Henry's chair. When he returned, he showed us that he doesn't quite get the concept of sharing. He didn't care that Carson was already sitting in the chair. He sat down on the chair anyway...on Carson. Luckily Carson didn't mind (too much).

Little Fashion Plate

Henry's a pretty stylish little guy. I used to love buying clothes and shoes for myself, but now I spend most of my clothing money on Henry! I just recently bought him a cute little pair of Crocs. They're pretty popular right now, and I thought they'd be great for summer. Yesterday afternoon Jeff brought Henry to my work, wearing his new Crocs, and everyone commented on his cute shoes. Today I dropped him off at daycare wearing his Crocs, and his babysitter oohed and aahed over the shoes. I need some Crocs...oh wait, I already have the best fashion accessory...HENRY!

Playing Catch-up

I haven't posted in almost a week! Jeff has been home a lot, so we've been playing games, going out to eat, and just hanging out together at home. I haven't had my usual posting time. So, that's a good thing...but not for people who want to hear about Henry more often.

Last week I started taking Henry to two different classes. The first one is called "Explore Music Together" and it's offered through our local parks & rec department. It's for ages 18 months through 36 months. Henry is 18-months-old today, so he's the youngest in the class. The class meets on Thursdays from 6:05-6:45 in the evening. The first time we went, Henry spent most of the time walking around the room and trying to open the door to leave, while the rest of the little toddlers sat in a circle on their parents' laps. During a quiet lullabye song, Henry started crying...loudly. When the teacher brought out a big plastic tub of instruments, the rest of the children took turns selecting instruments. Henry sat in the tub. I thought he was probably tired, and he might need to get used to the setting and the people. This past Thursday wasn't much better. He again spent most of the class trying to get out. Do you see Henry in this picture? Look waaaay over to the left. By the door. He did enjoy picking out an instrument. For about 5 seconds. Then he wanted any instrument that someone else was already holding.It wasn't until class was over, and almost everyone was gone, that he was interested in listening to the guitar.I'm hoping Henry will like the class better as time goes on. I've already decided that we'll try it for two more weeks (It's a 9-week class). If he still spends most of the time crying or trying to leave, I'll take that subtle hint, and we'll stop going. The other class we started last week was Gymboree. My dad gave Henry a gift certificate to Gymboree for his birthday, but we just started going last Saturday. Again, Henry wanted no part of the organized activities. He loved the equipment and the balls and he had a great time exploring, but he didn't join the rest of the kids during the "circle times." He wandered over and looked at the bubbles and he checked out the parachute time, but he spent most of his 45-minutes there being Mr. Independence. This was o.k. with me since he wasn't crying or trying to leave. The Gymboree teacher said it was fine if he didn't participate in the group times. She said that most kids will usually join in once they're comfortable. We'll see if that happens. We're going again today. I didn't take any pictures last time, but maybe I will today.

Another recent development is Henry's verbal skills. He's starting to talk more and more. Most of his words sound like "dada" but they can mean lots of different things. Some of his most recent new words are "Okay," "Wow," and "Wow-wow" for "Bow-wow." We have a book about Clifford (The Big Red Dog) and at the end of the book, it says What does Clifford say? Clifford says "bow-wow." So now when we ask Henry what Clifford says, he will answer with "Wow-wow!"

Here's a morning conversation from a few days ago:

If you can't view the above video, try clicking on this link: http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f101/jociecub/?action=view&current=Apr102007.flv

Happy Easter!

Henry doesn't understand the concept of holidays or gifts yet. But I've been waiting a long time to do all of the fun holiday things with a child, so whether Henry understands it or not, he "celebrates" all of the holidays already. This morning, there were Easter baskets waiting on the fireplace hearth for him. There was a cool dinosaur basket from Grammy Lannie and a pail filled with lots of sand toys and bath stuff from Mommy...um, I mean...The Easter Bunny. Since Henry's too young for candy, there were cheerios and his morning bottle tucked into the baskets. He participated in his first Easter egg hunt yesterday. His new daycare had a barbecue/potluck Easter egg hunt in the afternoon. Henry picked up a couple of eggs and put them in the basket, but mostly he just watched the older kids run around gathering eggs. He likes the sound the candy-filled eggs make when you shake them.

Checking out the dinosaur basket.

Wow, cool pail! Too bad Henry doesn't like sand.Eating his cheerios from The Easter Bunny.
Moments after taking these pictures, Henry fell down and hit his mouth on the fireplace hearth. He got a bloody lip and screamed for a while, but he's o.k. Thanks, Easter Bunny!

The BEST playground

Now that Henry is old enough to like swinging, sliding, climbing, and playing on playground equipment, Jeff and I have started searching for the best playgrounds. Over Spring Break, we took Henry to the Washington Park playground near the zoo. Henry and I went to Washington Park last June when my friend, Riva, and her son, Shane, were visiting. Here's Henry swinging at Washington Park nine months ago...

Henry swinging at the same park last week.

The boys were only 8 and 9 months old when we took them in June, so they couldn't do too much playing, but I remember looking forward to the time when Henry would be old enough to enjoy it. He's now old enough! It has, BY FAR, the best playground equipment of any park I've seen. The play structure is giant, with at least 5 slides, several swings, and lots of climbing features. There's even a sandbox, which Henry ventured into, but didn't like too much. Jeff and I were both climbing on the equipment with Henry, and enjoying it almost as much as he was.

Henry loved the slides and usually laughed the whole way down.

The boy loves a steering wheel! This play structure had at least 3 different steering wheels...Henry's dream.

Another steering wheel....And yet ANOTHER steering wheel....

Henry had fun swinging with Daddy!

Taking a snack break with Mommy....

Henry made a friend. This little girl attached herself to Henry, and kept taking his hand and trying to lead him around the playground. He didn't really cooperate.

We had a great time. But, this particular park isn't terribly close to our house, so we started looking for nearby parks that we can take Henry to more easily. We both did internet searches, and I started asking around to find out which parks other kids and parents like. We were given a few recommendations that we'll follow up on in the near future. We went to another playground on Sunday that was closer to home, but it was just o.k. Henry wasn't nearly as entertained or enthusiastic about it. We'll keep looking!