Vogue

Some of my favorites from Thanksgiving Day...

More than meets the eye--figuring out an old Transformers machine.

Some of the strangest from the day came during the end of our post-lunch walk.  Henry suddenly began striking poses and asking me to take a picture...

Blue Steel

Thankful

I am thankful right now that I can settle down in my heated home on this cozy bed with my macbook to type this blog.  How privileged am I?  Very.  I also have a family that I love and who loves me back.  I am thankful for all of you.  The love, silliness, and support keeps me going--not always pleasantly--but at least going.

And on Thanksgiving Day, I was thankful that our travels went lightly and that we actually managed to get one good family photo.

A special thanks goes to:  Aunt Laura for hosting our wonderful lunch in Florence and to Grandjane for keeping us well fed from Thanksgiving evening to Sunday morning at Sunset.

Practice Feast

The two preschool classes at H's school hosted a Thanksgiving Feast on the Friday before Thanksgiving.  The feast was to begin at 11:00, and when I got to Henry's class at 11:05, they were still waiting for the feast to be set up, so the kids and parents were stuck waiting in the classroom before we could enter the dining area.  Henry saw me walk through the door and threw his arms and upper body across their snack table and said, "Nooooooo... I still need to eat!"  I assured him that I wasn't there to take him home but to eat the feast with him.  The boy has a stomach schedule, for sure.

His disposition didn't improve even when we entered the sofa room with all the other kids and parents...

It did improve, though, once we got our food.  The macaroni and cheese was his favorite, followed closely by the apple slices.

We both ate well and were prepped for our upcoming week/ weekend of bountiful feasting.  Thank you, Henry, for inviting me to the preliminary feast. 

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."