Social spurt

Henry has been able to freely converse with us for quite a while now, but we are taking a special liking to his recent burst of social skills and the accompanying quips and quotes.   Here are a few recent reasons for us to crack up at the boy:

• Henry was supposed to be sleeping but could be heard singing Wheels on the Bus throughout the house, so I had to intervene and remind him to go night night.  His nonchalant response? "I just singin' songs, Mama."
• He thinks it's funny to yell out, "Lady Ga Ga!"  (I think he overheard Joel and Cory's conversation about her talent while tailgating in Columbia.)
• Regularly requests and then sings along to "Fight for Right."  (You Gotta Fight... For your right... to PAR-TAY!)
• He can only handle so much affection from friends, and when the oh-look-it's-Henry!-finally-here--for-school-much-later-than-his-classmates-due-to-his-need-to-sleep-no-less-than-12-hours-per- night hugs get too numerous, he is quick to stick his hand out and declare, "Stop, guys!"
• He counts among his good friends some older kids--especially Ewwa (Ella-4) and more recently enjoying the company of Elizabeth, who is 3.  We had an impromptu dinner with Elizabeth's family on Saturday night, and Elizabeth taught Henry how to to stretch before running all about the restaurant.  Thanks to her, Henry was not sore on Sunday.
• He has a dance for everything, and his moves are getting even more fancy.  The most recent "potty dance" went all the way down the hall and culminated in a "toothbrush dance."
•  I love the way he greets me with specifics now, "Hey, Mama!  You shopped!" or "Hey, Mama, we're watching race cars!"
• He will argue about songs on the radio then declare, "This is my song.  I like it," after realizing that it is, indeed, a decent tune and thus has to stake his ownership.
• Conversely, he knows a certain song is "Imma Be" and bops along to it.  Keep in mind, it's while Daddy is driving.
• He really gets into games and encourages us to play along, taking my hand and saying, "Now let's run from Daddy!"  
• We had U-verse installed today, and the at&t guy was still here when Henry and I got home.  Henry loved seeing the big truck with ladders in our driveway, and I can only imagine that the tech guy felt watched as Henry followed his every move in our house saying, "He's in our house!  He's fixing something! Oh!  He's fixing the TV!  He's bending down.  He's putting something over there... "
• Our neighbor gave us some flowers to plant, and Henry is thrilled to talk about how "Laura shared her flowers with us!" 
• He will do something, like pick up a toy, then look at us and ask, "Did I make you happy?"

Yes, Henry.  You make us very happy!

My Helper

Henry really is a helpful little guy.  Two weekends ago, while David, Stacy, and their cute kids and accompanying toys were visting, he helped me put together a Dora the Explorer puzzle.

Actually, it was more like Henry put it together while making sure that I didn't try to help too much.  "It goes this way!  I got it!" And he did get it.  He was proud!

Then, last week, he made dinner for us--biscuit pizzas.

Cory says that he ate a lot of biscuit pizzas growing up, so he was eager to share the recipe.  Sadly, Henry liked helping create the pizzas and eating the ingredients, but he wasn't a fan of the result.  Henry's palate is sophisticated, but perhaps not sophisticated enough for Pilsbury. 

Then, later, he helped me finally plant some flowers in our pots.  In fact, he helped pick out the flowers, too, including the ageratums, which are among Grandjane's favorites. 

On Sunday, Henry eagerly helped water the plants, but if you look closely, you'll note the pallor and that he was hard at work despite a fever that spiked several times up to 103.9 while on Motrin.

I have to commend him for sticking with his commitments despite an illness.   He also managed to get in some painting but required that the race car repair truck aid his efforts.

Do not worry.  His fever/ virus was completely gone--just in time for his doctor's appointment on Tuesday.  Thanks for helping us to feel silly, Henry!

Good point, Henry!

Today, on the transit from school to dinner at church, Henry and I discussed being scared/ not scared of bears.  (He brings it up from time to time, most recently declaring "No, I'm scared of bears," when my unrelated question to him was, "Are you embarrassed, Henry?")

I realized where the "frightening bear" talk was coming from when he started giggling from the backseat and said, "They say they are not scared, but they run from the bear!"

Ahhhh... I see.  One of Henry's favorite books, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, is all about a brave family who turns out to be not so brave when they finally encounter the bear they were pursuing.

Excellent point, Henry.  Excellent point.

Easter'ish

Grandjoe broke out the Donald Duck voice on their stop by the house on Easter Sunday.

Ducks sort of fit in with Spring and Easter themes, so it was an appropriate way to crack up the boy!

He is risen!

Happy Easter to our friends and family.  The beauty of this day, in the midst of a troubled world, was a great reminder that God's grace will stop at nothing.

What a gorgeous, fun, exhausting day!  My heart is filled with gratitude. 

Don't let the hat fool you...

Yes, there was some mixology happening. 

And gorgeous, bold concoctions filled sparkling lowball glasses.

 But it wasn't really a fancy party--just casually dying some some eggs and wearing an awesome Easter hat.

A delectable dinner of Daddy's signature smoked turkey breast followed a festive evening of dying egg cars.

Preparations for tomorrow's fete are already under way.

Pedal Power!

Thanks to the beautiful weather, a weed-ridden flower bed, and tomorrow's trash pick up date, Henry got a chance to flex his independent tricycle pedaling skills this afternoon while, at first, we weren't paying him a whole lot of attention.

He can pedal on his own now!  Sure, the neighborhood trash cans served as insurmountable obstacles on this first day of fledgling pedaling. 

 But Henry pressed on. 

The downhill slope was his favorite part of his ride, and he picked up some serious speed.  Good job, Hendricks Johnson Hughes!  (Henry's loving pronouncing his full name to all who ask, or happen to be around, these days.)