Onward, Upward, and Outward

Henry is growing.  My belly is growing.  Our new house is growing.  The only thing not growing is the grass and the garden because it is too hot at too dry.  It is all happening.  There is no turning back time now!

 
 

Henry turned two years old on May19th.  He had a birthday celebration at El Que Pasa on his actual birthday.  He enjoyed bean and cheese burritos, rice, a nice birthday cha-cha song from the staff, AND ice cream.  Yum!  This was followed by the opening of a few presents from Mommy, Daddy, Gammy, Papaw, and Nana and Pa Ted. 

 

We topped off the evening by throwing some sticks on the burn pile. 

We also had a birthday party for friends and family the following weekend.  Henry was very glad that his friends could make it, and he continues to ask where his friends are that brought him presents.  Although he is shy at first, he really enjoys the company of others his size and observing them. 
 

Henry is a trip right now.  It seems like overnight he has become such a big boy.  In the last month, he insists on doing many things by himself including opening doors, going up and down stairs holding the hand rail, and sitting at a chair at the table instead of his high chair.  He is also becoming braver.  While he still lives life on the cautious side, especially in comparison to other little boys his age, he is getting his nerve up for climbing and jumping on things he wouldn't have normally tried by himself.  He can now stand up and walk across the high balance beam at Little Gym by himself. With all of this new found independence also comes learning boundaries and self-discipline.  He is a very sweet child, but we have begun to witness him trying to see how far he can push and what he can get away with.  For example, if he sits at a chair at the table instead of his high chair, he cannot get up and play whenever he wants to, but has to sit and eat his food first.  We have also been met, especially when he is tired, with some temper tantrums and screaming, but he seems to move on from it pretty quickly most of the time.  One day, he was mad at me for three hours because I made him put a shirt on a take a nap.  As parents, we have really been trying to stay consistent, but also try new strategies for dealing with the obstinate behavior and yelling voice. I think the most effective approach is to stay calm and carry on.  Afterwards, he is usually able to process it, identify it as not being nice, and say "sorry,"  or if we ask him what he could do to make it better he can come with "I could sing you a song." or "I could share my toy with  you."  A couple of times when he gets mad, he will tell us he is mad, and when he starts to lash out with screaming, we tell him to go be by himself a couple of minutes, and this seems to work alright.  He is just trying to figure out who he is and how this world works.  He does a pretty good job 90% of the time.

Chocolate mustache

His language, vocabulary, and awareness continue to blossom.  His favorite question to ask right now is "why?"  We hear this at least 1000 times a day.  He uses many adjectives in his sentences now (ex. slithery snake, twinkling star, giant and huge trucks).  His sentences on average range from 5-10 words, sometimes more.  He can tell his own stories and have pretty detailed conversations.  In the last few weeks, he has begun to use words like "perhaps," "mostly," "a while" and "because."  Examples of how he uses these words-1.  Me:  "Henry, a cow doesn't say oink."  Henry: "Perhaps it does."  2.  "Mommy, this towel is mostly dry."  3.  "Daddy, we haven't used this chalk in a while." And while he has been able to answer why questions, he has started using "cause" in front of his answers.  He sounds like a little adult.  Out of the blue he will ask you questions like "Mommy, are you ok?"  "Are you comfortable?"  He will also comment and say things like "Oh, that's great."  "How about that." There are no limits to his language at this point.  He picks up new vocabulary words daily and quickly picks up on how to use them correctly.  One day, I don't exactly remember what we were talking about, but Henry may have used an irregular verb incorrectly like "I buyed that at the store."  It took just one recast of saying "Oh, look what you bought at the store." for him to begin using it correctly.  His little brain is a sponge, and it is amazing.  Maybe I over analyze.  It's the language-loving speechie in me.

He has also started to come out of his shell more.  He talks to more people and is wide open in large groups now.  It is fun to see him let loose a little.  He also has a very silly sense of humor.

"Do you like my hat?"

He is really into playing with cars, stacking things, drawing with chalk on the porch, and reading books.  He likes to watch Clifford, Paw Patrol, and Tumble Leaf right now.  We have been taking weekly library trips this summer and looting home 12+ books each visit.  By the next week, we have read all of them multiple times.  He has a voracious appetite for books.  He is also getting into playing school.  He will work puzzles or do some activity where he learns something.  He still isn't showing much interest in potty training.  Although, he did use it once, maybe by accident.  He still just uses it as a hat and calls himself "Sir Topham Hat."  We will work on this as he shows more interest and starts to ask more questions.  He is still pretty young for this. 

 
At his 2 year doctors appointment he was in the 90% for his height and weight.  He stayed in the same percentile for weight, but shot up from the 50% to the 90% for his height since his 18 month appointment.  The nurse reminded us that while he talks well and is on the bigger side size-wise, that he is just 2, and that we need to not expect too much from him.  He is a good eater.  He has started to eat more of a variety of vegetables and meat.  He will now eat hamburgers.  He also likes corn, peas, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, and kale  and broccoli if it is mixed with something.  He has also started to eat some eggs, although, this still takes some convincing.

Caps for sale!

A quick peak at some of our summer fun so far:

A visit to Mommy's "work"!


Splashville!
 


A visit to the Hendersonville Airport Museum!

Seasame Street Live and a trip to the Haywood Mall to check out the new Cheesecake Factory!  He was not comfortable enough to take pictures with the characters, but they came off stage and danced in/with the crowd.  Henry said "They are too tickly."

 
 

Thomas the Train! A trip to Boone for lunch and a ride on Thomas. 

Pool time in the backyard!  He is getting brave with this and will now go down on his stomach

















Father's Day!  Father's Day breakfast of french toast casserole, eggs, bacon, strawberries and blueberries.


7th Anniversary!   A day out furniture shopping, dinner at Brasilia (meat overload- totally walked into this one blind and out broke and bloated- 16 meat courses), and seeing Dirty Dancing at the Orange Peel's free movie event (Sam's first time).

My belly is really growing!  I am 22 weeks along, now.  It's a boy!  We found out during week 19.  It took us both a moment to process that we are going to have two very energetic boys to keep up with, and then we remembered how awesome Henry is, and we quickly and excitedly accepted our fate :)  So, we are pretty set on Charlie for the name.  We are still deciding on a middle name.  Henry insists that his name is not Charlie, but "MoMo."  Where he got this name, we know not.  I first started feeling him kick somewhere in week 17, just little flutters.  His kicks are getting much stronger and more frequent.  Sam has been able to feel them on several occasions.  Charlie's favorite time to kick right now is anytime I am still.  While I am typing right now, reading or watching tv in the evening, and of course in the middle of the night. 

Henry is very inquisitive about the whole pregnancy thing.  He "pets" him often, and asks "What is Charlie doing right now?"  The other night we were having a conversation about it, and I told him that maybe Charlie was eating, and Henry replied "but he can't, he doesn't have a high chair in there."

20 weeks

I have had so much more pregnancy symptoms this time around.  For one, my tolerance to summer heat is pretty low.  My back and hips have been much achier.  There was a point where I felt like I got really big, really quickly.  I feel better now that I am out of school for the summer.  I was having to sit a lot at work, and that just made me feel lousy and sore.  I have more time to exercise and am just up and moving more around the house and with Henry, and my energy and body feel much better.
 

The house is really coming along!  Things are moving quickly.  The last few months they have had one thing lined up after another.  We have siding, walls, interior and exterior doors, trim, and cabinets.  We have been told that it should be finished by the end of July.  It is exciting to see it in the finishing stages, but I don't know if I am ready to think about moving that soon!
 

 With a beach trip at the end of the summer, more to check off on our summer fun list, furniture shopping, and preparing for an impending move, the rest of the summer is stacking up to be pretty busy, but as long as we are spending time with our little guy, we wouldn't have it any other way!

Ultimate stacking

Getting brave in the pool!

Developing some cool dance moves!

Such a silly kid..and daddy!