Widespread v. Allman Brothers

We took Henry to Charlotte for the Widespread Panic and The Allman Brothers Band concert on Sunday evening. Henry actually wore his ear plugs through most of Widespread. But he got really into The Allman Brothers, dancing and even shouting, "Music!"I didn't get to take the camera into the concert, but here's a picture of Henry and Daddy waiting to get into the concert and a picture of Mama and Henry reluctantly leaving while The Allman Brothers were still rocking out.
I love it. I totally won. Mama's boy!

ETA: Daddy says he won, too. He thought The Allman Brothers Band was the most rocking band that night. Guess we are all on the same wavelength.

Prickly Goes to a Football Game

Grandjoe puts on a very nice tailgate for the CBSF group at Furman, and last Saturday, Cory provided some delicious barbecue. Cory likes the tailgate arrangement a lot. It gives him a chance to see how many pork butts he can smoke all at once. The rest of us love it since we get to eat a ton of mouthwatering barbecue along with delicious Cory-made sauce. Henry digs Daddy's barbecue.
Henry had a blast running around on the Furman mall, hanging out with David and Grandjoe, and dodging the yellow jackets that seemed particular attracted to his Daddy. (Cory got stung.)
The day was made even better, though, when we realized that Evan's caterpillar, Prickly, managed to stow away in David's luggage and attend the football game. The spiny larvae was quite the fanatic, settling on our shoulders to watch the game only after lots of flipping all around.
The game outcome stank--had to turn our heads from the field.
Henry, though, requested attending a football game several times this evening. He loved, loved Saturday at Paladin Stadium and is also looking forward to visiting with Prickly in a few weeks.

Fatten up, kid!

Henry's really skinny.  Come on, Henry!  Eat more doughnuts!  

H. Hughes, M.D.

We made a visit to Surfside to help Henry's Granddad recover from recent surgery since we believe Henry's laughter to be the best medicine.  We arrived late last Friday evening and quickly realized that we were the tired ones. Henry's Granddad seemed be doing quite well and made our dinner on Saturday evening.

Being somewhat biased, I happen to think Henry's pending visit contributed to some speedy recovery.  Perhaps his hugs provided maintenance, too.

We had a busy weekend.  The Cherinkos and an abundance on no-see-ums joined us for some playtime at Huntington State Park. 

Penny has a new BFF.

No trip to Surfside would be complete without a Murrells Inlet marsh walk--especially since Henry loves boats, bikes (there was one), and birds.  It was perfect Sunday stroll for him.

We left Surfside feeling pretty confident that Henry's visit offered the right medicine.    

Momentous!

We just got back from a trip to Surfside, and Henry, despite the lack of a nap, stayed awake for almost the entire trip.  Of course, he fell asleep right as we passed the first Simpsonville exit.

He always falls asleep just before we get home, and he never, ever stays asleep during the transfer from car to house.

Guess what.

He stayed asleep!  I unlocked the house, Daddy gingerly lifted the little guy out of the car seat, and I tip-toed behind with the blankets.  He has a wet diaper, sticky hair, and fuzzy teeth.  But he stayed asleep, people!

Motor Mouth

Yesterday's daily log from school included a note from Mrs. Jennifer saying, "Henry talked a lot about his new shoes today!" She said that he talked to her about his "new shoes" all day and woke from his nap talking about his shoes and socks. Today, she and I agreed that he pretty much says whatever he needs or wants to say at this point and clearly understands most of what we say.


He also repeats just about everything he hears, so we are trying to check ourselves before saying a few of our seldom thought about but less than appropriate words like "stupid." I actually find myself selecting more appropriate words in all settings now, but it's just a matter of time...


Some of our favorites lately are:

• "Bush a bees!" (Brush your teeth)
• "No, David!" "Be ki-ette, David!" (He's a huge "No, David" fan and randomly quotes it.)
• "Poop a poddy!" (Usually just after a messy diaper but before running towards his bathroom)
• "Don' 'ike" (Usually heard at any meal and just before he drops some morsel of food on my arm, refusing to even try it)
• "H-E-fii-sis-semmen!" (spelling "Henry" mixed with some numbers)
• "Monster shirr, monster pans!" (Requesting his "Monster Party" pajamas)
• "More hand?" (Requesting some more deli ham)
• "Mama's at race!" (I went grocery shopping last night, and Henry apparently thought I went to a race since I wasn't there to kiss him good night.)
• "Where arrr uuu?" (Where are you, followed by the person or object in question. For instance, "Where arrr uuu, soap?")
• "Hursh, Penny!" (He thinks it's his job to get Penny to stop barking now.)
• "Henry do it."
• "Mama do it."
• "Daddy do it."

Actually, a lot of his sentences and phrases begin with "Henry" now. Here is his recount of our vacation:

• "Henry ride a bike." (Not true)
• "Henry ride a hair-mane." (Referring to the airplane)
• "Henry ride a boat!"
• "Henry frow a-norns in a wadder!" (We did a ton of acorn throwing.)

He has lots of short commands that we follow without question:

• "Fu-ball!" (Pointing to the TV-he likes to watch it.)
• "Wheels!" (We're to immediately start singing "The wheels on the bus go round and round...
• "P-ple say?" (We're to immediately start singing "The people on the bus say shhhhhh... )
• "Milk say?" (We're to immediately start singing "The milk on the bus goes... " Yes. That's right. Milk. But you better start singing, no matter the oddity, be it milk, hats, cats, dogs, cars, trucks, or we do not have a happy kid in the backseat!)
• "Babbits!" (The Annie's brand snacks mostly come in the shape of rabbits, and he loves the snack mix. We do, too, actually.)
• "Out-sii?" (He does NOT want to come back inside. I'm sort of happy that Mrs. Jennifer has to also practically drag him inside from playing outside. Sometimes I think it's just me.)
• "Les'go fas!" (He can really be slow walking sometimes, so it's nice when he picks up the pace.)
• "Help?" (I'm so glad he asks.)
• "Nudder book." (Henry, Daddy, and I read a lot of books each night. A lot.)
• "One, Two!" (He tricked me into thinking that he and Daddy gave Penny two treats each morning, but we just discovered that it's just me letting him give her more than one.)

Wow. I'm reading this abbreviated list and wondering how we knew what to do with ourselves before Henry came along.

Foul Mouth

Henry's teacher told me this afternoon that he was cracking her up and that she hoped not to offend me but wanted to describe the situation. I assured her that I wasn't easily offended so long as it was funny.

Henry was standing atop the the classroom slide, pointing out the window and telling his buddy Sadie about the truck outside just beyond the playground. Sadie was apparently not paying quite enough attention for Henry repeated "Truck! See it?" Sadie, still not understanding the value of Henry's observations warranted several more excited repeats of "Truck! See it? See it?"

Henry can't pronounce the "tr" sound. He replaces it with the "f," or, if we're lucky, the "fr" sound. Henry also sometimes combines words, slurring them together when he gets emphatic. The word "see" can sometimes sound like "she" quickly followed by "it."

Let's hope that Sadie didn't do any of her own repeating at dinner tonight.