Up, Up, Up... and then a little down

Yesterday was such a good parent day. Elgin was in a wonderful mood after being very, very sick for five days. Henry read a new dinosaur book to his class. My heart was full and at peace.

You have to sit through this video. He's truly reading--no memorization for this new photocopy book. Henry wants to be a reader, and I think he succeeded! I love how he handles his friends and how they handle him. It's really hard to imagine him anywhere else with any other teacher! We are school-spoiled.

From H Reads

Now let's cover how today went. Elgin woke crying and didn't stop until we got close to the school. He was very hoarse and could barely cry out, "buuussss!" as he does each morning in the school parking lot. It came out more like, "uu-s," and I was worried that his throat, recently coated with a thick film of puss, was in bad shape again. Henry also began coughing. Later, I took them both to their "well" checks with Dr. Song. She and I discussed at length that Elgin continues to be sick more often than not, and that he seems to have a case of chronic congestion. We finally decided to go ahead and refer him to an allergist to check for a lurking milk allergy through a skin test. It's likely a minor allergy if present, but it will be helpful to know. My heart hurts for him. He's skinny, skinny--weighing less now than when he went for his 15 month well check. We don't know if his decreased appetite is due to a myriad of viruses and general yuck, or if food might be truly bothering him. I'm glad to have a date to rule in or rule out food allergies as a potential culprit for weight loss and illness, but I mainly just want him to be OK.

Meanwhile, Henry's probably just working on a cold--hopefully a minor one. And he marveled Dr. Song and her nurse with his conversational demeanor and recollection of his daily activities. It's so fun to sit in with Henry in an assessment of any kind. He just takes in the question, shrugs his shoulder, and answers with something like, "Well, I'm not really sure. She either gave me Motrin or Dimetapp."

Throughout his assessment, Elgin cried and begged for "mook," which is Elgin for "milk." He ended up with two popsicles, and Dr. Song reassured me that there was no more puss coat. The whole time, though, I really wished I could present him with a cup of milk, and now I'm wondering if he should even have milk! Good grief.  The Ups. The Downs.

Let me tell you, though. They are some cute mo-fo's! I love them dearly--can't even remember life without these sweet, smart, fun, hilarious boys. Henry never stops with the off the wall hilarity. Elgin loves "big cars go vrrrrm... vrrrrmm.. beep beep!" and has been singing, "baa baa ba sheep," all evening.

You know, now that I think about it, I might be feeling a little down because an old lady in a Baptist church gym fussed at me for taking someone's Zumba spot tonight. Baptists. Thanks a lot for watering some deep rooted issues for me, lady.

Don't worry reader. I'll go back to Zumba. To the exact same spot.

Here are the checkup stats from today:

Henry, Age 5 and almost 1 month

Weight: 37 lb, 23%
Height: 43.5", 63%
BMI: 13.75, 4%

Elgin, Age 18 months and 4 days

Weight: 21 lb, 10%
Height: 34", 93%
Head Circumference: 19.29", 89%

Note: BIG BRAIN!

I feel so much better now.

Five Fun Years

Henry is five. My son is five. I have a five year old. Henry is already older than just five. Can you believe it? It happened over a week ago, and I can barely believe it myself. Part of me feels that there's no way my little guy can be all of five years, but another part of me cannot believe he's not fifteen--he's been going on thirty for the past two years! 

Henry, you made our lives fun beyond reasonable, enjoyable past what should be allowed, and hilarious bordering on hysteria. You made us family. We love you. 

Graciously agreeing to an early morning birthday picture...

 Daddy's annual birthday CD for H...

 Star Wars!

 Lucky Charms! This gift was later declared his favorite gift. Sugar cereal... ahhhh...

 A bike suitable for a five year old...

 So handsome...

 Can you hear him laughing?

 You, there... let's get on with the party.

 Plate of Cheetos...

And Funions, too!

 Junk food face!

Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog... note the addition of broccoli.  Yep, his birthday dinner menu was hot dogs, cheetos, funions, broccoli, and chocolate & strawberry cupcakes.

 Satisfied...

The addition of chopped strawberries to the chocolate icing made for a mess, which was somehow fitting. I like to think that it looks like some kind of sludge from far, far away.

More gifts... he's a spoiled five year old.

Helper...

 Special guests...

 Cheese!

We partied hard to celebrate five good years--sugar cereal breakfast, lunch together at school, a haircut complete with photography (pictures to come), special dinner, and a trip to Great Wolf Lodge with Nana, too! Yes, Henry, you brought so much fun to our lives--ridiculous amounts of fun for the past five years. 

A little catch up

I'm simply not blogging enough, and I need to capture a few memories. I'll have to blog with pictures later. My overloaded computer memory makes picture uploading a chore and a half.

• Halloween was a lot of fun. H wanted to be a ghost then later asked me if he could be a zombie, to which I replied that he was too young to be a zombie. I'm not sure why ghost is more age appropriate, but he bought it, only after he proceed to zombie-walk all over the house and critiqued my own efforts with, "You're not supposed to bend your knees!"
• Elgin was a recycled and adorable sock monkey, although he really just looked like a boy in a grey, speckled coverall since he wouldn't wear the hat. No, scratch it. He apparently looked like a girl in a grey, speckled coverall since our neighbors kept saying, "She's so cute." 
• I have pretty boys.  It's true.
• EW needed a hair trim
• We don't see our neighbors enough for them to remember the sex of our children. 
• We already turned in an application for a real 5K kindergarten. I cannot believe time is passing this quickly. Can Henry really be on the cusp of turning 5?
• When you ask Elgin what a cow says, he says, "Booooo."
• EW is insanely upset about having to still ride in a carseat, and I haven't figured out how to lessen the hardship. It wears me out, but Henry tries really hard to distract him and make him laugh when I put him in after school. He's such a good big brother!
• Elgin's favorite toy is any type of ball.
• Elgin's second favorite toy is anything he can climb.
• I found him sitting on H's captain's bed--just sitting with his adorable legs sticking out over the side.
• EW requires food and drink immediately upon entering our home after school. Immediately. No room for error. Peel the banana and put it on the tray.  Quick! 
• Henry is beside himself with Jedi giddiness after we let him watch Star Wars Episode 5, 6, and 1. We'll let him watch 2 and 4, but I'm not so sure about Episode 3. 
• Henry also wears his new Darth Vader PJ's every night. Cory told him that Anakin Skywalker turned into Darth Vader after he wore Darth Vader PJ's everynight for too long. 
• Henry is "Star of the Week" at school this week. He took his camera with him on Monday, two Mo Willems books on Wednesday, and two more favorite books today. He's taking his RC Spiderman Motercycle tomorrow. His week was cut a little short due to the election.
• Elgin and Henry were great while we waited in line for an hour to cast our vote. It was Henry's second time to vote for our president. Again, time is passing too quickly.
• Henry chose to go into Cory's voting booth, and they wrote in Henry for State Senator. H left the booth cracking up and saying, "Mama! I didn't know that you could vote for yourself!"
• H was very pleased with the election results, especially since he "heard on the radio that Mitt Romney killed somebody!" Ahhhh... politics.
• EW correctly points to our nose (and says nose), our mouth, and then takes it a step further to insist on scratching our teeth. 
• Elgin had his first haircut on Election Day. It was the only change I thought I was comfortable with, but then even that small snip made me nervous enough to call off the shears. Amanda ended up shaping his bangs.  They're a little more manly now.
• I have been way too sick lately--a cold turned brutal. It facilitated a reminder that Cory is an amazing husband and daddy. Thank you, Cory. You do more than your fair share, and even more on days like these recent ones. I love you.

More on the subject...

Turns out that, during a language arts group activity, H gave the class monster an extra appendage, but "we just turned it into three feet, instead." I asked Ms. Susan about it, and she had no idea that the third foot was actually something else.  Ms. Kelly did know, though, and it was her idea to change the anatomy.

I gave the class artwork collaborative a critical look this afternoon, and I would say that it looks a little different than a foot.

Can't forget...

EW and H stayed home from school yesterday and today due to colds that wouldn't go away and coughs that were worsening. (Henry was the blood work champ, taking the finger prick for him and his brother to test for walking pneumonia, which, thankfully, was negative. They're being treated for sinus infections.)

Henry went to my office with me on Monday morning since he woke as I was preparing to leave early, and I wanted to make sure that Elgin could sleep in as long as possible while Daddy stayed home with him for a short while before I returned. Henry was beyond excited for this rare opportunity to hang out in my office. He quickly dressed and brushed his teeth and was especially thrilled that we packed him a breakfast of Count Chocula cereal.

Once there, he settled in a chair beside me at my desk, selected my brain eraser-topped pencil, and drew pumpkin faces and ghosts and managed to ask a lot of questions about my work while chowing down on some sugar cereal. As the morning passed a few coworkers were made aware of my little assistant's persistent coughing. One particularly nice but somewhat naive coworker popped her head in to say hello to Henry. She told him that she hoped he felt better, to which Henry replied, "I'm drawing a lot of penises on this ghost."

WHAT?!?!

I just burst out laughing, and I don't know if Patty's brain registered his bold statement, or if she was just laughing because I was laughing. I hope it was the later. My work can be very entertaining, but it rarely makes me laugh that hard that early in the morning.

After we got home and Cory left for his office, Elgin stood on his little red table then fell off onto a couple of baskets. Then, later, he was running towards me and tripped and fell face first on my shoe. We were visited by some Jehovah's Witnesses shortly afterwards. Thank you, God, for sending me signs affirming my working mom status.

The boys stayed home again today with Cory, and Cory reported some additions to Elgin's language development.  EW's no longer just standing in our chairs. He now crawl on them, stands, and says, "'it down!"

When I called Cory this afternoon to tell him I was on my way home, Elgin heard the phone ring and said, "hello?"

Their appetites are back, their spirits never dampened. They're off to school tomorrow and hitting the sidewalk to beg for candy tomorrow evening.  Let's just watch what comes out of those sweet mouths.

More wagon fun

We have a cute, classic, wooden, Radio Flyer wagon for our boys.  It belonged to the Josh and Caleb, but since they're not using it right now, we pull along in our neighborhood in a Pleasantville fashion. Cory had to work late a few nights ago, so before bedtime routine stuff, I suggested that we get outside and pass some time with Elgin rolling in the wagon and Henry riding his bike. (The boys were just coming off a very successful trike-a-thon, and H was getting back into the bike riding rhythm.)

All was euphoric. A neighbor stopped with her dog to catch up, and H pedaled back and forth, up and down the sidewalk. Elgin declared her pet a "dawg" a few times while reaching to pet it. Then, in a classic EW move, he stood up to yell, "DAWG!" as the furry friend walked away. From there, he stood taller when I asked him to sit back down, he arched his stomach up when I tried to sit him down myself, then he turned himself into a board with side gripping hands when I tried to lie him down in the wagon. I stopped to catch my breath and try to safely position the wagon, which gave him time to stand back up and crawl over the side to plant his feet on the ground.

So, again, I was faced with a choice: chase my boy who was sure to bolt after the dog or try to park the wagon to keep it from crashing with either Elgin or my other son who was happily oblivious on his bike.

I parked the wagon.  I know the perils of a runaway wagon.

Elgin bolted to the street.  I grabbed him when he reached the middle of the intersection across from our house.  When I tried to pull the wagon out of a neighbor's yard, he squirmed his way back down to the ground and tried to run back to the street. Another neighbor came outside and asked if I needed help. I declined for unknown reasons and made it back to the driveway to ditch the wagon and just "walk" Elgin behind H. He was more inclined to stick to the sidewalk when he had a brother on wheels to chase.

My goodness! I'm feeling a little leery of wagons and thinking I'll lay off on solo wagoneering.  It's not for me.

Utensil prowess

We discovered on Sunday morning that Elgin is more comfortable using his fork to eat certain foods than he is using his fingers. It's pretty cute that our 13 month old boy insists on a fork but not quite as cute that our 4.5 year old shuns utensils daily. The differences are already so apparent!