Party by the lake

We attended a birthday party two Saturdays ago, and the location was just off Lake Hartwell in Anderson.  Before the party got into full swing, we walked on the dock and enjoyed the beautiful day.  Henry also let me take some pictures. 

I like this one... the scenery is both tough and beautiful.

Extreme closeup where it's evidenced that the legs may be getting longer and skinnier, but the cheeks are still there:

Once the party really got started, Henry ended up being a very helpful present getter.

Just a cute pic of Henry who cannot stop digging around at those back molars he's cutting:

Does anyone remember that Henry used to be terrified of balloons?  It was a long time ago, but you've come a long way, Henry!

The balloon (a cute green with white polka dot sphere just outside the frame) stayed with us for several days until he announced that he popped it during what was supposed to be a nap time.

Our Boy

We had a parent-teacher conference at the yW two weeks ago, and here's what we garnered from our session...

• Henry knows all of his letters and sounds and, even though it's not part of the formal assessment, provides example words with some animation
• He can count to 20 but can get really excited about getting to the end and sometimes just skip a lot of those pesky middle numbers
• He talks.  A lot.  With long sentences and remarkable clarity.
• He has trouble with some fine motor skills such as holding a pencil or eating with utensils
• He's not very interested in arts and crafts
• He does like to practice writing his name, and the tracings showed an amazing progression from light, shaky sketches to more determined and even graceful lines
• Henry vocalizes some concerns with the way some of his classmates perform their daily jobs.  For instance, he sometimes takes issue with the book picker's or the felt story board picker's selection and just might refuse to back down from his position
• He keeps Mrs. Hannah and Ms. Nicole laughing
• He plays well with others
• He almost always chooses the trains center until recently when some new, really large wooden blocks and car ramps were added to the classroom.  He also likes the large train puzzle.

There were no surprises, really.  I always just figure H will eventually realize that girls get grossed out when he eats his macaroni and cheese with his hands in the high school cafeteria.  We can pick out his artwork among his classmates from way down the hall.  His trademark?  White space.  What he lacks in enthusiasm for traditional artistry is more than made up for with his gift for clever gab and his artful expressions.  He loves to guess what letter words start with and is typically accurate.  He knows some sight words like "the" and "end" and writes his name in the shower steam.  Even though it wasn't discussed, Cory and I adore going to his classroom for group time.  He gets very excited about us being there with him, and he has this pure joy for certain activities and rituals like Monkey See, Monkey Do and the "Open and Shut Them, Open and Shut Them" and "Skinamarinkadink" songs, and we know he frowns upon deviation of rituals.  He likes to be the book picker, snack helper, and the weather teller and is a hard worker.  We're also often the subject of Henry's defiance and oppositional opinions.  He. will. not. back. down.  He still loves trains and assembles puzzles with striking ease and speed.  He genuinely cares for his friends and talks about his classmates and church friends frequently.  Their joys are his.  Their pains are his, too.  Or not--depends on his mood.

Henry tells me that, "I think you're pretty and I think you're smart."  Right back at you, Henry!

Suburban Dictionary

Henry told us a really good story this morning.  (As opposed to the story he told about having already brushed his teeth.  Dear Henry, morning breath will always give you away.)  The gist of the story was that once upon a time, a little boy named Henry and his mama and his daddy went to the circus.  All sort of things were there, but the main attraction was a rhinostronaut. 

rhinostronaut: (noun) massive powerful herbivorous odd-toed ungulate of southeast Asia and Africa having very thick skin and one or two horns on the snout and equipped for space exploration

Funny kid.  I love you.

Eavesdropping

Overheard this evening...

Henry: "You're broken!"
Toy Screwdriver: "I'm broken!  Ohhhhhh Nooooo!"
Henry as the narrator: "'(evil laughter) Ha, Ha, Ha,' said the man"
Henry: "I'm sorry you are broken, screwdriver.  Here's a semi-circle thing."

Oh, yeah. And trick or treating

A week and a half of Halloween related activities finally culminated in a round of trick or treating in our neighborhood.

We started the evening off with a front yard cookout with neighbors, and, as you can see, the frog suit was out for another appearance.

The smell of Cory's deliciously marinated chicken on the grill and the assortment of toys that made their way from inside to the front yard made for some lingering trick-or-treaters, so by the time we rolled out, it was already dark.  Some of our neighbors take this holiday veeeery seriously, so their decorations (Note the LCD eyes in their windows, and you can't even see the life-size animated grim reaper.) made Henry a little nervous.  It was slow going up this driveway, and we kept telling Henry that he didn't have to go.  Even the homeowner offered to bring the candy to him, but he persisted, citing that "I want to get the candy."

And he did get the candy... lots of it.  And whenever he clarified that he was a triceratops, he got a few extra pieces.  There really is just something terribly adorable about Henry saying, "I'm a triceratops!"

It was a real treat to hang out with my triceratops for the evening, although he did trick me into eating more than the allotted amount of candy before I caught on to his clever game.  He told me that he changed his mind about the selected and allowed two pieces of candy only after they were already half eaten on Halloween night.  I realized I was being tricked after he told me that he changed his mind for the second time, and he reached for a fifth and sixth piece.  Trick me once, Henry...

Define busy.

I admit that I sometimes catch myself giving flat and predictable responses to some of Henry's requests.  Today, it became perfectly clear that I am not catching myself often enough when Henry responded to my instruction to eat six more peas with, "I can't.  I'm busy!"

Adventures in Babysitting

 

We were given the opportunity to hang out with my coworker's nearly one year old girl on Friday night, giving her parents the opportunity to hang out with some of their friends.  Henry was so excited to have S over to play and showered her with spider rings and offerings (thwarted by me) of candy and performed some pretty fancy "tricks" that started and ended with freeze frame poses.  S, though, was a little stoic until we let Penny come bounding out of her box to greet her.  It was only after Penny made her grand entrance that S let loose with giggles, chatter, and tons of huge smiles.  

The quality of this photo is awful, but it's a testament to a new friendship: 

And, S, now that you know we're dog people, we do hope you will come visit again.