Henry is...

Happy

Serious

Inquisitive

Studious

Silly

Opinionated

Thoughtful

A typical male (notice the hand down the pants).

Some things never change

This morning Henry & I went shopping at Fred Meyer. I let him ride on the horse outside of the store, and as soon as it started moving, he got a HUGE smile on his face. Several people who were walking by smiled and commented on how cute he was. When the ride ended, Henry immediately started signing for "more." I put in another quarter, and as he was enjoying his second ride, a very elderly woman walked up and stood there watching Henry. It was very sweet to watch her watch Henry. She told me that her children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren have all enjoyed this type of ride. Then she smiled and said, "It's nice to know some things never change."

**This is the first time I've ever used a picture from my camera phone on the blog. I just figured out how to do it.

Henry's Buddy

A couple of days ago Henry had a playdate with his friend, Kaden. We went to a fun park that has a big sand area with a water feature. Unfortunately Henry STILL hates sand and the water wasn't working and it was 92 degrees by 11:00 a.m. Oh well. We'll have to try again soon.

Snack Time

"Let's Go, Mom..."

It's soooo HOT!

It was 103 degrees today! We Oregonians are not used to this kind of weather. I've been keeping the air conditioner on, and the sliding glass door closed. But, Henry won't let that stop him from going outside. This afternoon, I left the room for a couple of minutes, and came back to find Henry gone. The sliding door was still closed, so I knew he must have gone out through the doggy door. I ran outside to find him, fully clothed, wading in his kiddie pool. I really don't want him outside unsupervised, so I'm going to have to start using the doggy door shield to keep him inside.

After swimming this afternoon, I drove through Dairy Queen and got an ice cream cone for Henry. He's had bites of ice cream before, but never his OWN cone. He had the best time eating his ice cream! It was quite messy, but Rocco and Stella didn't mind helping with the clean-up.

Watch Henry eating his ice cream cone in the video below....

Funday Monday

Henry and I had a fun day today. We started out by going to his art class. There was a tub filled with water and floating toys, and the first thing that Henry did was to step right into the tub. Then he sat down in the water! His shorts were soaking wet for the rest of the class. He liked playing with the foam dough. It was like colorful rice krispie treats, but not quite as sticky. He tried to eat some, but quickly realized it wasn't too tasty. He also liked the finger paints on the mirror, but he didn't actually want to paint. He just wanted to stand on the mirror and get paint on his shoes. It was 90 degrees out today, so after dinner I filled Henry's swimming pool with fresh water so that he could splash his hands in the water. Up to this point, he's never wanted to get INTO the pool, so I didn't bother putting on his bathing suit. Of course today was the day he decided to get into the pool...fully clothed.
He LOVED playing in the pool! I took a video of Henry splashing and playing. It's kind of long (almost 3 minutes), but I'm sure the grandmas will want to watch the whole thing. He laughs and sings and spins around. He's so cute! I just want to freeze time and keep my baby this age forever. I love him so much, and I love spending these summer days with him.

Home Sweet Home

We just got back from Seattle today, and it's good to be home! With our beach trip and our Seattle trip, we've been gone for a week, with only one night home in between. We had fun visiting with Jeff's family and spending time with Jill and her family, but it's hard being away from home with a toddler. Of course Henry was doted on by his Grammy and his Aunties, and he just LOVED playing with Madison's toys. But, after a short time at Jill's house or Kathleen's house or a restaurant, Henry would start saying, "Bye? Bye? Bye-bye?" I guess he was wondering when we were going home. He doesn't sleep very well away from home, either. At home he goes to bed without a single tear between 7:30 and 8:00. While we were away, he didn't go to bed until 9:00 or later, and that was after lots of crying. The drive home today was HORRIBLE. During the 3-hour drive, he only slept for 40 minutes, and he SCREAMED and CRIED the rest of the 2 hours and 20 minutes. I even pulled over to make sure there wasn't something hurting him, but he was fine. As soon as we got home, he ran outside and ran into his castle. He was as happy as can be playing at home in his backyard.

He had a great time playing and laughing in the bathtub.
I put him into his crib at 7:10, and I left the room for a moment, and came back to find him fast asleep.

I think Henry is very happy to be home!

Beach Getaway

We spent Monday and Tuesday night on the coast at Lincoln City. It was so nice to get away for a few days. I spoke to my high school friend, Jill, last week and she told me that she and her husband and daughter would be in Lincoln City for a few days. So, we decided to crash their vacation. We got a hotel room right next door to theirs. We swam in the pool, sat on the beach, went out to eat, went to a park, gambled a little at the casino (not Henry), Jeff swam in the ocean, and we had a really nice time. I took LOTS of pictures.

There was an indoor pool at the hotel, and we went in right after arriving. Henry didn't cry at all. He seemed to love it. We stayed in the pool for over an hour. Jill's daughter, Madison....
Henry still hates sand, but I think we made some progress. The day we arrived, Jeff took Henry down to the beach in the wagon while Jill and I watched from the hotel balconey. I took several pictures of Jeff and Henry on the beach using my camera's zoom feature. When they got back to the room, Jeff told me that Henry cried the entire time. He hated the sand, and cried his shaky-chin cry from the moment they stepped onto the sand until the moment they stepped off. We tried again the next day. This time we spread out a sheet on the sand, and I sat with Henry reaading books while Jeff swam in the ocean. After a while, Henry actually ventured off of the sheet and took couple of steps in the sand before quickly returning. He had a minor meltdown, but it didn't last long. Here's a great example of Henry's shaky-chin crying on the beach:

On our way back up the beach, he held my hand and walked a little bit, and he was o.k. I think if we had more time, he'd get used to the sand, but who knows when we'll be at the beach again. We took the kids to a really cool park that was several blocks away from the ocean, but it was on a lake. It had a huge wooden castle play structure that Henry will probably love in a year or two.



Daddy & HenryCalvin & MaddieJill & MaddieIt was a fun little getaway! Just in case Jill, Calvin & Maddie haven't seen enough of us yet, we're heading up to Seattle tomorrow to stay with them for a couple of days. Jeff is going to paint his sister's house, and Henry & I are going to visit with Jeff's sisters and his mom and Jill's family. We'll be back on Saturday or Sunday.

Yard Work

Four years ago, the summer after we moved into this house, I planted a garden. I had tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, beets, carrots, corn, zucchini, onions, peppers, basil, beans, snap peas, and maybe a few other things. It produced some nice tomatoes, but a lot of the veggies weren't worth the cost, time, water, etc. Besides, then we got the dogs, and then we had Henry, so the gardening went by the wayside. Ever since then I haven't done any gardening. But, this year I decided to try again on a small scale. I have tomatoes, zucchini, lemon cucumbers, squash, and basil. That's it. Also, my friend Becky gave me a gift card to a garden store for my birthday, and yesterday we went shopping. We bought flowers for the front window boxes and for the planter around the tree in our front yard. We planted them yesterday, and this morning when I was watering them, Henry got in on the gardening action (while still in his jammies).

After his nap today, Henry did some more gardening in the backyard.
Is he too young to mow the lawn?