Spaghetti Dinner

Spaghetti is great!




Clothing and fork optional!

Clothes? No Way!

Henry is happiest when he's wearing little to no clothing. Since it's summertime, he's been spending most of his time at home in his underwear or his birthday suit. As long as we're at home, that's fine. However, yesterday I took him to an indoor (air conditioned) playground to escape the heat. He was running around and playing on the play structure and checking in with me every few minutes. When I hadn't seen him for a short time, I started looking for him, and found him stripped down to his underwear climbing on the jungle gym. In order to get to him, I would have had to climb a rope ladder or scale a wall, so one of the workers kindly got him dressed for me.

I don't mind if he strips down to nothing at home. Even for dinner.
Or other clothing-optional activities. Like baths.
Hopefully we can get Henry to stay clothed in public from now on, though.

Swimming

Henry has been going to swimming lessons every Tuesday and Thursday for the past three weeks. He's been in swimming lessons before, but not since he was a baby. When he had lessons two years ago, I had to be in the water holding him the whole time. Now he's old enough to be in the water alone. That was scary for both of us at first!
We have a swimming pool just about a block from our house, so it's very convenient. Our swimming pool has a viewing balcony, and the parents have to drop their kids off in the pool and then go up and watch the lesson from the balcony. During Henry's first lesson, he cried the ENTIRE 30 minutes. That was extremely painful. During his second lesson, he cried for the first 10 minutes and then he was fine for the remaining 20 minutes. For Henry's third lesson, he seemed pretty happy and excited, and he didn't cry at all when I dropped him off at the pool and walked up to the viewing balcony to watch. The little kids stand on top of a special table that's placed in the shallow end so that the water is only waist high. While Henry was waiting for his turn with the teacher, he kept looking up at me and waving and bouncing around excitedly. As I watched him and chatted with some of the other parents, all of a sudden I saw his little blond head disappear under the water. He had bounced right off of the table into water that was over his head. By the time I stood up to scream at the lifeguard (who stands DIRECTLY behind them), he had already pulled Henry up and out of the water. Henry coughed a little bit, but after about 30 seconds, he was back in the water swimming. I was so proud of him, and so thankful that the lifeguard was on top of things.

Even after Henry's rescue adventure, he has been great in the pool. He doesn't like it when the teacher dunks his head underwater, but other than that, he's o.k. I think I'll keep Henry in lessons throughout the year, and hopefully soon he'll be a swimmer!

Fall River

We spent 6 days and 5 nights in Central Oregon last week at a beautiful place called Fall River. The weather was beautiful, we spent time with friends & family, we ate delicious food, and we relaxed. Other than the legions of mosquitoes, it was wonderful!

Oaks Park

We just got back from 6 days in Central Oregon on Wednesday evening, and I haven't even downloaded the pictures from my camera yet. But, I have a few from last week that I'll post in the meantime.

Last Wednesday I took Henry to Oaks Park, a small amusement park in Southeast Portland. We met our friends Steve and Tressy and their kids, Xander and Lucy there. Last summer Henry hated Oaks Park, but this year he loves the rides. On the way there, Henry said, "I don't want to go on the roller coaster! I only want to go on the airplane ride! I don't want to go on any other other rides!" As soon as we walked into the park, Henry pointed at each and every ride and said, "I want to go on that one! And that one! And that one!" He went on a lot of rides, and liked almost all of them. He even went on the tilt-a-whirl three times. I went on the tilt-a-whirl zero times because I wanted to throw up zero times.

Henry went on the roller coaster with Xander.
Henry drove Lucy around in the purple car. Henry rode on the rocket ships several times. Henry rode in the green rocket with Lucy. Then he rode in the purple rocket with Xander behind him in the orange rocket. Henry and Lucy were the only ones on the Frog Hopper. It looked like fun. Until it started. Check out that scowl! We ended the day with a ride on the 100-year-old carousel. Henry was looking cool riding on the rooster and wearing my sunglasses. Another fun summer day!

A Day Out With Thomas

On Saturday, Marianne and I took the boys to "A Day Out with Thomas" in Hood River. Jeff and I took Henry last year, but I think he enjoyed it more this time. Being a year older makes a big difference, but the fact that it was about 15 degrees cooler this year made a huge difference too!

The boys enjoyed the 30 minute train ride on Thomas.



After the ride they played in the bounce houses together.


They got to pet goats and llamas. Henry told me that his favorite part of the day was the petting zoo.
They also loved the hay maze, and ran through it over and over, until we practically dragged them away.
Even though both boys have their own train tables at home, they wanted to play at the train tables with the hordes of other little boys.
We ended the day with a late lunch at a restaurant in Hood River. There was a cool fountain right outside.
It was a fun day! We might go one more time next summer, but I suspect after that they'll be too cool for Thomas.