Swimming lessons

Henry had eight days of swimming lessons these past two weeks (well, five since he missed 2 days due to roseola and 1 due to an excessively sleepy household). He absolutely loved it.




Since Johann is the swimmer in the family, he volunteered to be the parent for the parent and tot swimming class. I must admit it was fun to watch that section of the pool full of women and babies and...Johann. haha.






Henry's "certificate." They accidentally put Johann's name instead. =)
I'm so glad he finally likes swimming. Such a change from last summer when he couldn't touch the water in a big pool without bursting into tears and screams. Good thing too because he was able to go with his aunt and uncle to Seven Peaks this past week. He loved that even more than swimming lessons. Every day since he went with them he has woken up and the first words out of his mouth are, "Nani, Bryan. Big slide. water. FUN!" Hopefully he'll be able to go with them again soon. *wink, wink. nudge, nudge*

Shameless

Anyone who wants to buy this for me, I will accept.

That is all.

4th of July

We have been trying to be better about living in Provo as opposed to just being here for school. We decided this year to go to Provo's Freedom Festival instead of hiding inside all weekend to avoid the crowds. Luckily Johann's sister and her husband planned on going as well so Friday night we headed out to Center St.

I am SO glad we chose to go on Friday. Crowds were about half what they were on Saturday and Monday. They had a lot of activities for little kids and so we spent the majority of time watching Henry play and just checking out what they had. Aside from Henry's "whale meltdown" ie, wanting to ride the whale ride, we had a lot of fun.







His favorites were by far the big slides and the snake. He also did a painting craft but my camera battery died so I'll have to get those from Natalie.

Saturday we went to the park with Bryan and Natalie, went to dinner and then to their apartment to watch the fireworks from their balcony which was a fantastic spot.


If you look to the top left you can see the fireworks from the stadium of fire were right within out view.
Henry loved the fireworks and the next day at church decided to regale everyone with, "fire, hot, pretty, hot, hot, fire."

On Monday we went with Bryan and Natlie to take Henry to see Toy Story 3. He did alright, he mostly wanted to stand in the aisle though because it was so crowded we couldn't find him his own seat, we even had to sit in separate rows for just the couples. At the end of the movie during the "tender moment" he spilled his bag of M&Ms...oops! At least people laughed instead of mobbing us. His best move though was taking a bad step and falling head first into the couple in front of us. Luckily the fellow was very quick and kind, caught him and returned him with a "no problem." ha.
We liked the film and Henry loves to yell out, "NEW TOYS" anytime he's playing with Buzz or Woody or sees new toys now. Next time though, we're making sure to get to the theater early enough to get him his own seat.



It was a fun 4th weekend. Maybe next year we'll try to do something more traditional and patriotic, but we enjoyed just being able to spend time together as a family this year.

Roseola

I decided to do a post on Henry getting roseola because it was through one of my friend's posts on her son getting roseola that I knew what Henry had. It helped me freak out a little less (fevers and rashes are scary), so maybe this will be helpful to someone else.
Last Wednesday we came home from the grocery store and Henry had a bad fever. He'd been feverish on and off earlier but I figured it was because of some teeth coming through. Yeah, he is still working on getting all his teeth. ha.
He begged to go night night (which, I'm sure you can imagine, is not a usual scene in our house) and after a quick call to the nurse, a bath and some tylenol we got him into bed.
The next morning he woke up with his fever still high so we kept him on tylenol and motrin to keep it down. The worst part was trying to keep him happy in a hot little apartment with a broken air conditioner. I think the picture below sums up how Wednesday night through Friday night went for Henry:




Bored. Sad. Tired. Hot. Poor little turtle. I don't know why he wanted to wear that hot costume in addition to the fever and hot apartment, but I let him because he was just so sad.
Then, Friday afternoon he woke up from his nap and the tired, sad, feverish boy turned into the VERY GRUMPY boy with a yucky rash that started on his tummy and spread to his back, face and thighs. Textbook roseola, a 2-3 day fever that then breaks and is followed by a rash.





One second he was crying, screaming, throwing, kicking, hitting and the next, pleading for you to cuddle him. He'd ask for milk and then be completely upset when you handed it to him. "BLUE CUP!" Oh, I'm sorry Henry, how did I not foresee you would now want a blue cup when you have been using a green one all day. My bad. Oh. Friday afternoon until this Tuesday was NOT a fun time.
Since his rash took a little longer to go a way than usual and we wanted to make sure he was ok to go swimming, we saw the doctor on Tuesday and he verified it was roseola and that he was ok to go back to swimming. According to him he could have gone even when he had the rash since they are not really contagious and he said I would have done the parents a favor by giving it to their kids so they could get it over with. Yeah right. I'm sure they would have voted me favorite parent there for that. Silly doctor.
Now Henry is all better, thank goodness. So dear parents who have yet to have their child have this lovely little virus, good luck. At least it is nothing too serious. =)

Information on roseola here

A domestic rite of passage

Yes, for the first time in my life, I baked bread.
Now, I've baked banana bread, cookies, pies etc before. But for some reason I had never baked bread. And again, for some reason, it was just a different experience.


Ah, isn't it a thing of beauty? Now those loaves aren't too well formed but I'll be darned if I didn't tell Johann that I wanted to throw down some eggs, cheese and butter next to those loaves a paint a still life.




It seems to me there is something so essentially domestic in baking bread. Its not something extra like pie and cookies, but its not something you can whip up over the camp fire either. Its the warm, versatile and still so very basic bit in the food pyramid, much like the home is in the pyramid of life.
Now if you think I'm getting carried away, well,you are probably right. Welcome to the life of my poor, poor husband. =)
Now, I think I'll go enjoy a piece of bread. With some butter. Maybe a tid bit of jam. mmmm.



Here is the recipe for this deliciousness:

(Yields 3-4 loaves)
2 C scalded milk
3/4 C honey
2 cubes butter
10 C WW flour
3/4 T. salt
6 eggs
1 C warm water
3 T. yeast
1 t. honey

First put yeast into warm water with honey to proof.

In mixing bowl mix scalded milk with honey and butter and 1/2 of flour with salt. Then mix in eggs one at a time. Add yeast mixture. Add remainder of flour one cup at a time. Knead for 10 minutes. Let rise until double. Put into loaves (3 to 4). Loaf pans should be greased. Let rise until about double. Bake for about 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Check bottom of loaf to make sure completely cooked.