Henry's Day

For Henry's birthday, I wanted to do everything that he likes. So naturally we started our day off with my famous "melt in your mouth" pancakes. He doesn't get the nickname "syrup breath" for nothing.

Then we moved on into the living room so he could play with his toys and sit in the drawers.

Henry playing with one of my new camera lenses.. I only let him play with it for a second, then took it away. I can't let him do everything he wants.

Then I put him down for a nap, which as you can tell went really well.

Those sleepy eyes can't fool this mom.

When Henry woke up, we went downtown to the Discovery Museum in the Gateway.

I'll let the pictures do the talking, but in short.. it was AWESOME.

Later that night we had brownies and ice cream and sang to the big boy.

He was SO cute when he blew out his candle. At first he tried to grab the flame, but luckily Alan stopped him before he got to it. After we were done singing, Alan showed Henry how to blow it out and sure enough he got it. The look of surprise on his face was classic, it was then followed by him clapping for himself.

There's a funny story about his gift. Alan and I have already bought him his gift (just one because I'm embarassed by how much we did for Christmas) and are planning on giving it to him at his friend party. So the day of his birthday comes along, and I am feeling SO guilty that I don't have something for him to open. So while at the grocery store getting ice cream, Alan saw a tool set and on an impulse, we bought it. Turns out, Henry loves it. Solid purchase.

Can't decide who likes it more..

Happy 2nd Birthday!

I think that Henry's birthday will always be an emotional day for me. I will never let this day go by without feeling blessed that he is in my life. I love you Henry J more than life and am grateful to have you as my baby. Happy Birthday!

It's that time of year again..

For some reason I am beyond excited for Henry's birthday. I think that everyone is sick of me talking about his party coming up and all the fun little details that I've thought of, but I'm the mom and I get to do what I want!

I wanted to do this post about Henry and everything he's doing right now that I love (and don't love). I am sure that on his birthday I will do another post, so just prepare yourself for all things Henry J for the next week.

One of Henry's favorite thing to do is sit on the bed while we fold laundry. That's all fine and dandy until I have a nice stack of folded clothes and he decides to reorganize them.

Still love that squishy face.

Henry has been a little slow with talking, but it seems that lately he says a new word every day. These are the words that he has been saying for the past month or so:

Baby

Uh Oh

No! (This is his favorite and most used)

Oh Man! (Normally used when he drops things)

Ball

Mom

Dad

Woof Woof

Meow

Fishy

Poopy (Which is then proceded by him grabbing his diaper butt.)

Bye Bye

Night Night

Some other funny things about Henry that I don't want to forget are:

- When we take off his diaper and we tell him to "let 'em breathe" he fans himself off.

- I ask him where his "nuggets" are and he lifts up his shirt.

- When we ask him if he wants to take a bath he starts running towards the bathroom.

- While the water is running for his bath, he checks the temp with his hand and says, "Oooh".

- LOVES LOVES LOVES to watch me cook. This can be really frustrating at times because he will pull at my legs and won't stop until he can see what's going on. He then points his little index finger towards what's cooking and again says "Oooh".

- I can pull funny faces at him, and he attempts to make them right back at me.

- He is very wary of new people and new places, but once he feels comfortable he is completely different.

Terrible 2's

While we haven't officially hit the "terrible 2's" Henry sure has been getting ready for it. There is a funny, well maybe not funny if you ask Alan, story to how marker got on our printer.

I was at work so it was just the boys at home, which don't get me wrong.. Alan does a phenomonal job with Henry, I'm just setting up the story. Alan is in the other room doing manly stuff I'm sure, and realizes that it's been too quiet for too long. He went walking from room to room looking for Henry and when he walked into the computer room Henry was standing on the chair with a Sharpie coloring all over the moniter and printer. Alan immediately took the marker from him and removed him from the room. Alan then went into the kitchen to get some cleaning supplies to try to wash off the marker. Luckily it came off the screen, but no such luck on the printer. After he was done, he went back into the kitchen only to find HJ dumping an entire can of Ajax on the floor. (No need to fret cuz he hadn't ingested any!)

That same night as Alan was telling me the story, I looked to the side of our dresser and noticed Henry's "artwork". I didn't want to say anything to Alan because he was already mildly frustrated but it was too funny to not point out.

I already know that this kid is going to give us a run for our money, so it is a good thing he is so cute! How do you not love a cheese smothered face?

Doors!

Before!

We have put in a lot of hours and money into our house and we've started to make it look like ours. The one thing that has always bugged me though are the doors. They were old and dark brown with mismatching handles. So with our tax return we decided to spruce them up and put up new doors.

Alan has turned into quite the handy man (or the "good enough" man if you ask him) and was able to cut down the doors to fit and hang them.

I got the fun job (with the help of Rachel) of painting the doors.

Don't think I didn't put the boy to work either.

After!! It didn't cost that much money (especially with us doing all the labor) and it has made a huge difference in the house!

Daddy's Boy

I thought I had the favorite parent title in the bag when Henry said "mom mom mom" first, but as he gets older it's pretty obvious that he is a daddy's boy . At first I was a little sad about it, but how can you be upset when you see how stinkin cute they are together?

He wants to do any and everything that Alan does, and it's so cute to watch Henry mimick him. The cutest thing is watching them play basketball together with his little mini hoop. I'm pretty sure Alan enjoys it more than Henry though.

And as a little side note, I pulled out my food processor the other day to make some dinner and found a toothbrush in it. Only in the house with a toddler does that happen. I am going to miss these days for sure.

12 Months..

Wanted to give proof of how skinny my child is. No, I did not pull his pants down nor did he pull them down. They just slid off his tiny little butt.

It makes me wonder how big a 1 year old is really supposed to be? Cuz Henry is 23 months old (20 months corrected) and these pants are for 12 month olds.

When I was trying ot get his picture, he wouldn't turn and look at the camera. Apparently he's shy.

We've recently added the Carnation instant breakfast shakes to his daily intake, and still adding a yogurt or pudding at the end of his lunch and/or dinner but it doesn't seem to be helping. He stepped on the scale the other day (I think we've given him a complex) and it said 22 pounds. We have an appointment for his 2 year well child next month so it'll be interesting to see where he is on the growth chart. But until then.. we are counting down the days till we are officially in the "terrible twos". Heaven help us.