Make the bed

This morning Henry came into the bedroom and asked what I was doing.
"Making mommy and daddy's bed."
"You are?"
"Yes, I like to have a nice tidy bed to get into at night. It feels good."
"Yeah, it does. I can make my bed!"
So he scampers off to make his bed. About 2 minutes later he calls for me to come see that he made his bed too:



Yeah, not so great, but darn it, he was very proud of it.
Hopefully he'll have the same enthusiasm about making the bed tomorrow, and when he's 13. =)

Happy Birthday, BIG Henry!

As of Saturday, May 14th, Henry is officially "this many."

Henry's birthday celebrations began on Friday when we took him to see Seussical the Musical at BYU followed by a trip to Spoon it Up for some frozen yogurt, "with cookies," as he always adds.

Suessical held his attention pretty well and he loved every second that "cat in the hat" was on the stage but overall this production seemed a little low budget or a bit too symbolic for kids. They really should have gone more literal and used actual feathers to represent the birds feathers rather than clothes tied together. I don't think many kids got or appreciated that. Either way he sat still the whole time and still likes to tell people how he saw the cat in the hat and had ice cream.

Henry with Spiderman on our way to see Suessical.

Spiderman and Henry going to bed after Friday's festivities. Yes, my son has a thing about pinatas which you may review here if you so wish.

Moving on. Saturday was a crazy day. I had a relief society activity to help with, left part way through for a bridal shower, all which Henry enjoyed and was spoiled when people learned it was his birthday. By midday he already had tons of sugar in him and a balloon from the shower to boot. After the shower I was able to drop him home with Johann, help clean up at the RS activity, run to a couple stores for last minute supplies, head home and finish decorating for the party. And this was all on 4 hours of sleep. Whew. So, scenes from the party day which was Batman/superhero themed per Henry's request:

We had just a couple of friends over. Johann and I are really bad at making friends with people who have kids Henry's age. We'll need to work on this. Anyway it did make life easier in that I only had 3 capes to make for the kiddos.

Henry seeing his party which he had been asking for all day and getting pretty excited.

Opening gifts at a kids party, always a communal thing.

He got great gifts this year too. Two books that he now asks to read each day so far for both nap and bedtime reading; robots in all forms-superhero, learning, dinosaur and space; Hi-Ho Cherry-0 and some new summer clothes. Which he'll be able to use someday, I hope, when Provo decides to get with the season! Anyhow, needless to say, he has been a content little player since this birthday weekend.

Cupcake and toy admiring time.

Time to bust open the pinata. Get your game face on.

*Thwack*

After all of the kids had multiple times bopping the pinata, Charlie broke it's neck and Bert decapitated it. We were happy to see that Henry didn't take it too hard, though he did ask later that night for Johann to put spiderman's head back on him.

Enjoy the candy and toy guts!!!

Which they did.

It was a crazy day and it's interesting to see how quickly your apartment becomes tiny when you squeeze a kids party into it. I am glad we did it though despite the time/effort and sleep deprivation because Henry still talks about 'my party' all the time and loves to see the pictures.

As far as turning three, "he's not a toddler anymore-he's a preschooler," seems to be the biggest thing to blow Johann's mind. I have to admit, it is strange that he is definitely no longer what can be deemed a 'baby'. A little sad, but all the same, it's exciting that he is learning and growing and since it's going to happen no matter what I do, I can just do my best to enjoy it.

I'm so happy that we have this 'big boy' in our family. He brings so much joy and I have learned more about the capacity to love and desire for another than I believe I could have otherwise. I hope I can be the kind of parent he needs and help him fulfill his potential. He is such a thoughtful, funny kid, I am happy to know he's in our family forever!

Cinco de Mayo & Mothers Day

Henry loves doing 'crafts.' He is always asking me when we can do another one because though I would like to be a fantastic mom and have one for him to do every day or at least every week, I usually don't that often. Cinco de Mayo rolled around and he was again asking to do a craft so we decided to make construction paper tacos.

Coloring his tortillia

Putting in the lettuce, tomatoes etc

He said he wanted a picture of him eating his taco. If nothing else this is proof he was born in Utah. Okay, okay so I guess they do it everywhere.

On to mothers day.

First, a shout out to my mama who really is a wonderful mother. She was able to be here in Utah with us when I started to miscarry and it's humbling to realize that no matter how old you are, there are just certain times when you want your mommy to be there too. I really can't think of anyone else who could have been as good a mom to me as her. Love you, mama!

What the day looked like here in Provo:

Trying to get a good picture with Henry before church. This is what motherhood really looks like most of the time for me.

What it looks like on those rare but precious occasions where your child decides to cooperate.

We have 9 o'clock church which means a nice breakfast is pretty much out of the question, so Johann decided to make breakfast for dinner

Henry helped with his favorite portion of preparation, mixing.

French toast, eggs and bacon breakfast. mmm.

*Sidenote: I was SO SO happy to have a ridiculous free Mothers Day sacrament. You know what I'm talking about.
Also, I find it funny that to celebrate Mothers Day, we, as mothers are suppose to relegate all our mothering (and housekeeping) task to our husbands for the day. It doesn't quite make sense. Yet, I'll still let Johann make dinner. =)

Gymnastics

Today was Henry's last day of Tumbling Tots, aka, gymnastics for kiddos 2-3.

They each took a turn showing their favorite trick and then got to stand on a little podium to receive their certificate and 'medal'. It was actually pretty cute.

Henry proudly showing his certificate

After everyone got their medals, the teacher called for party time and whipped out some goldfish and animal crackers and the kids sat together for a snack and then got to have free time.

some of the kids from the class having their 'party'

What I learned from taking Henry to gymnastics follows:
1. He is really good at the beam. He rocked that beam.
2. He is terrible at somersaults.
3. He is really good about being kind when he is interacting with other kids in general, and when they do things like take his turn or push him etc. Most of the time he just shrugs it off.*
4. He can be a pretty darn good listener for a two, almost three year old.
5. I need to be better about taking him to groups with other kids. He loves it and I won't lie, I love getting to be around and talk with other adults!

Hopefully wherever we end up we can keep having Henry involved in some fun community activities like we've been able to do here.


*Funny story: the first day of class one of the girls was being really pushy and you know, acting like a 2 year old kid can act. We have a very strict no hitting kids back policy for Henry, though I was tempted to rescind it with this girl a few times, so he would usually move away from her or say stop. Well, I guess he was sick of it when it started happening on day 2 again but instead of hitting back, this little guy, and he was indeed little compared to her, decided to use, here it comes, presence. He walked right up to her and just stared her down and wouldn't budge. I wanted to die laughing. The funniest part- it worked! She left him alone and pestered other kids instead. Ha! She eventually mellowed out too and was fun to have there. I think she was just a little over-excited the first few classes!