Poky Little Henry

Henry and Evie were up in the office with me today for a bit and Evie started crying.  Henry started running around her in circles "to get gee-vie to 'top cwying".  He ran circles and circles and daddy came in to ask what he was doing.  He said to him, "I wunning wolly-polly, dumble-pumble, bell-mell."  In case you've forgotten, that's how the Poky Little Puppy climbs up the hill (roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble).  Matt also asked him today what he had for lunch and he said, "I had so much and no more.  Just like Otto."  That's from Dr. Seuss' Fish out of Water.  What a clever little boy to remember all that!

Aunt Stevie's Beach

We were in Florida this past weekend for Aunt Stevie's graduation from Nursing school.  The ride was loooong but the kids were very good.  Aunt Stevie and Uncle Eric took us to the beach on Saturday.  It was Evie's first beach trip and Henry's first time catching a fish!  What fun!  We dressed him kind of terdish, but the wind was wicked and the sun super hot and our ridiculous outfit kept the sand/sun/salt out of his eyes and the shirt and long shorts kept the sun off his skin.  He didn't get burned or have eye trouble when we left, so, while he may get beat up, at least he was safe from cancer.

 

Crib Bumpers

Anyone who has had a baby in the past 5 or so years and has read anything about having those babies knows that we're not supposed to use crib bumpers.  Young babies can suffocate on them and older babies can use them to stand up on and fall out of their cribs.  They're a big no no.  So we never used one.  Grandma got one for Henry but we never installed it because of all the bad press they'd gotten.  And we never felt like it was the wrong decision.  Little Miss Genevieve, on the other hand, has proven herself to be a little bit different.  I awoke this morning to her SCREAMING and it wasn't the "come get me, mommy" or the "oh man, I'm so mad" or even the "I'm super hungry, please quit ignoring me" cry that I'm used to.  This was, "I'm in pain.  This hurts.  A lot."  I ran up and found her wedged in the back corner of the crib with her chubby little right leg stuck between the crib slats.  And I mean stuck.  I couldn't get it out.  She moves backwards really well nowadays and must have gone back, got a little stuck, then kept pushing backwards in an attempt to get loose.  Poor little thing.  :(  I was, obviously, able to get her loose after a minute or so but I was getting really scared.  So now, against all expert advice, Evie has a crib bumper in her bed.

Cool

On the way home from school the other day, my precocious little two year old was telling me about the caterpillars they had at school and how they'd become chrysalises and that one of them had come out of its chrysalis and was a full grown butterfly and how after they all came out, they'd fly away and meet other butterflies and become mommy and daddy butterflies.  Aside from how impressed I was that my 2 year old understands the life cycle of a butterfly (not to mention how well he said the word 'chrysalis'), I was very enthusiastic about how enthusiastic he was about letting them go.  "Wow!  Cool, bubby!  When are you going to let them go?"  He has a little bit of a preschool stutter because his brain works faster than his mouth is able to form words, so in his little 2 year old stutter, he said to me, "Ma-mommy, pwease-pwease don't... pwease don't say 'cool'.  You can say, 'howey cow' if you want."  He'd told me earlier in the week not to say 'holy Moses', so this wasn't the first time I'd heard him correct me, but it was the first time he'd asked me not to say cool.  That's a word he'd been using for a long time, so I don't know when or why he decided it wasn't polite any more.  School maybe?  I prodded him about it, asking if maybe Ms. Nancy had asked him not to say it and he said, "No, Daddy say don't say cool."  Which is completely ridiculous, so I think he just made it up and decided he no longer wanted people to say it.  Ha!

Holy Moses!

Today on the way home from school, Henry was pointing out road signs to me.  He pointed to one and said, "yook, mommy, a diamond!"  I hadn't seen it so when it showed up in my rear-view mirror, I gave him the praise he was looking for.  "Holy Moses, Henry!  That IS a diamond!  Great job!"  My precocious young man responded with, "Don say 'hoey Moses', Mommy.  It not nice."  Having had no idea that 'Holy Moses' was so 'not nice,' I asked him what I should say instead.  He thought about it for awhile before saying, "well, you can say 'hoey cow.'"

Manos

We hired a Colombian nanny (Elba) in the hopes that our children would be able to learn Spanish organically, in the same way that they learned/are learning English.  She speaks to Evie exclusively in Spanish and works on Spanish words and phrases with Henry.  She's been less successful with HT because he thinks she's messing with him when she tells him what things are called in Spanish.  For example, she'll point at an airplane and say, "avion," and he'll say, "no, Ms. Elba, dat an aiw-pwane."  Anyway, yesterday, she told me that GK (who is now 7 months old) understands 'mano.'  I thought she was crazy but this morning when I was changing her diaper, I said it to her a few times.  Each time I did, she gave me her hand.  I'm not entirely convinced it wasn't because I was reaching toward her, that maybe she's reacting to my reaching rather than the word, but it was pretty cool to see.  And it made me think that maybe our plan is working!  I don't expect them to come away from the experience fluent in Spanish or anything, but even just the exposure at this age has to help with their mental flexibility, I would think.  Or at least hope.  Henry told me yesterday that the Spanish word for 'apple' is 'azana.'  I thought that was pretty good for a 2.5 year old.  Manzana is a big, hard word.  Though, he's been saying 'excavator' pretty well for the past week or so, so maybe I shouldn't be so impressed.

Evie - 7 months

"Wha shoo bake-a fo me?'

We stopped giving Henry afternoon snacks in order to ensure that he eats a good dinner so now, he's generally quite hungry around 5 pm.  The other day, he came out to tell me that he was hungry.  When he saw me making dinner, he said, "Mommy, I hun-gee.  Where my din-nin?  Wha shoo bake-a fo me?"  I about lost it.  What you bakin for me?  hahaha, oh that boy.

ABCs

I always sing the ABC song when we wash Henry's hands and have done it since... forever, I think.  On this day, just because, I asked if he wanted to sing with me.  Rather than sing with he, he took off on his own and sang the whole song.  Beginning to end.  I had no idea he knew it.  I shouldn't be surprised because I've sung it to him multiple times a day since he was born, but I was really shocked.  So I grabbed the iPad and asked him to do it again.  That's what you're seeing.  He laughs a bit in the middle, I think because he's a little embarrassed that he forgot where he was or what comes next, but once I get him back on track, he just keeps going.  I love this.

"Dop yaf at me!"

Again with the whole, "I don't know where he gets these things" thing.  Matt, Henry, Evie and I were sitting in the living room the other evening, just talking and playing and spending a bit of family time together before bed time.  Matt told a funny story and we both started laughing when dear little Henry stopped what he was doing, got very indignant and yelled, "Dop yaf at me, Daddy!"  We both stopped laughing and looked at him for a second before I lost it completely.  Matt laughed a bit but composed himself very well and told him, "I'm not laughing at you, buddy."  Laughing, I assured him that I WAS laughing at him and he got soo mad!  He looked almost like he was going to cry before I started tickling him and got him to forget it.  But where would he have heard that?  Why does he know the concept of "laughing at someone"?  Doesn't he seem a little too young to know what that is?  It's crazy what a clever clogs that boy can be sometimes.  :)

"Thank you so very much"

Henry loves a British cartoon called Peppa Pig.  He likes all of the characters but I think Daddy Pig is his favorite.  Being British, they obviously speak English but they have some different sayings than we do and it's so funny and wonderful to hear Henry use them.  Most recently, it's been Daddy Pig's "thank you so very much" or "you're most welcome."  Imagine thanking a 2 year old for listening and having him respond, "you're most welcome."  It's such a delight.

Naughty Mr. Dinosaur

Henry loves his dinosaurs.  Specifically his T-Rexs.  I wrote before about the Grandma dinosaur with the booboo on its side, but Santa also brought him a big T-Rex for Christmas.  That has been his new obsession lately.  It's kind of taken on the life of Henry's alter ego and is responsible for all of Henry's evil deeds.  If Henry is accused of making a mess in the living room, he points out that Mr. Dinosaur has done it.  If Henry spills his spaghetti on the floor, he assures me that Mr. Dinosaur is responsible.  Usually, Mr. Dinosaur is kind enough to apologize with a deep voiced, "saw-see, mommy" but one day, he was being particularly naughty and Henry decided that Mr. Dinosaur's apologies just weren't enough.  So he got sent to time out.  I cannot describe to you how darling it is to see a 2 year old put a dinosaur into a chair in the corner and tell it that it has to sit there until it is ready to follow directions and listen to mommy.  Three times Henry sent Mr. Dinosaur to time out that day.  And he hasn't misbehaved since.

"Daddy pooped?"

I just asked Matt if he has ever tooted in front of Henry.  I asked because I did the other day while he was rambling on and on about nothing.  In the middle of his little toddler chatter, he paused for just a moment and said, 'toot' before continuing on with what he was doing.  You know, just to acknowledge that he knew what had happened.  Haha, it was so funny.  But not as funny as what he apparently says to Matt.  Matt's response to my question was this:  "Yes, I have tooted in front of him before.  And more often than not, he'll say to me, 'Daddy pooped?'"

Taking Care of Henry's "Fwiends"

Aunt Amy gave Henry a set of Finding Nemo bath toys yesterday.  It's a set of Nemo's friends, including Dory, the little squid (Pearl), the little turtle (Squirt), and the Great White (Bruce).  Henry calls them his "fwiends."  "Mommy, my fwiends come, too?"  He can't seem to bear to be separated from them for even a minute, so they clearly went into the bath with him last night.  After his bath, he spent an unusually long time loitering in the bathroom (he usually bolts out naked and we have to catch him in order to get him dressed).  I went in to find him standing next to the tub with his hooded towel draped over his head and his back facing me.  I went around to his front and found him with a dry wash cloth, meticulously drying off each of his "fwiends."  Every single drop of water.  And talking quietly to them as he was doing it.  After he was satisfied that they were dry enough, he ran and put them on the carpet then ran back into the bathroom to dry off the next one.

Mr. Dinosaur's Grievous Injury

Grandma has an old Jurrassic Park T-Rex with a bite out of the side from when her kids were little.  Henry LOVES it.  It was the whole reason Santa brought him such a big, nice T-Rex for Christmas.  He's just obsessed with it (Grandma's) and yesterday, Grandma let him borrow it for a little while.  What a lucky boy.  On an unrelated note, he woke up this morning with pink eye, so we got him into the doctor as quickly as we could.  While packing up to go, he asked if he could bring his "fwiends" (a set of Nemo's friends that Aunt Amy got him) and his "Grandma din-saur".  On the way to the doctor, he kept saying over and over, "Enny have boo-boo, din-saur have boo-boo, mommy no have boo-boo, Dordee (Dory) no have boo-boo, little one Pearl no have boo-boo, little one Squirt no have boo-boo, big one shark no have boo-boo."  Then he'd start over with "Enny."  When we got into the exam room, he showed the nurse that his dinosaur had a boo-boo and she reacted appropriately dismayed.  It was cute.  Then the doctor came in, did her usual exam on Henry (during which she exclaimed no less than a half dozen times how good he was, even going so far as to ask him if he wanted to come back and teach her other patients how to behave during an exam), and went to leave the room to get his paperwork.  When he realized she was going, he shouted, "no!  'Top, doctor!" and he shoved his dinosaur at her.  The dinosaur had a boo-boo, too, you see, so he needed to make sure the doctor checked him out, too.  Because,  as he learned at the ER when we thought he broke his wrist, doctors make us feel better and fix our boo-boos.  And what a lovely doctor she is.  She assessed the dinosaur and decided that he needed a "big one bay-bay" [band-aid], so she went and got one and bandaged him up.  Henry was VERY pleased.  And so is mommy because our boy truly believes that doctors make you feel better.  I'm going to write the doctor a thank you note because it was just such a kind thing to do and I really think it helped reinforce that going to the doctor is good and not always scary and full of shots.  

"Tenteen"

A lot of times, Henry will tell me that he has to go potty, only to absolutely refuse when I say, "ok, let's go!"  My method of quelling the tantrum that generally follows this is to tell him that we'll just go real quick, that we'll just sit down on the potty, count to ten, then get off.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but it's what I try each time.  The other day was one of the days it worked and after we counted to ten, Henry kept going.  I had no idea he could count past ten, so I let him go to see how far he'd get.  "Eleven, twelve, firteen, fourteen, sisteen, sessenteen, eighteen, nineteen..." then he paused and said, "tenteen!"  I'm not sure I've ever been prouder of anything in my life.  Yes, he skipped fifteen and no, tenteen isn't what comes after nineteen, but the thought process was so clear and logical and it illustrated to me that he really gets it.  He didn't just memorize a bunch of numbers but he truly understands the how they relate to one another.  If he's still saying tenteen when he's tenteen, then we'll have a problem but for now, I was one proud mama.  :D  Clever clogs.  :)

Crush

As noted in previous posts, HT is enamored with Finding Nemo right now.  If you recall, in Finding Nemo, there's a sea turtle named Crush who speaks with a gnarly surfer accent.  Mr. Henry has taken to mimicking him.  See the video for examples of him saying, "righteous!  righteous!" and "duuuuuude..."

"My Blue Cross"

I hadn't realized it, but I guess our boy has had a lot of occasions where other people were getting gifts and he wasn't.  Since Christmas, there's been Aunt Allie's, Brooklyn's, Alexander's, Uncle Geoff's, and his friend, Daniel's birthdays.  We've baked cookies for Uncle Geoff and the neighbors who had a new baby.  We bought Valentine's Day gifts for Brooklyn and Carter.  He made a Valentine's day gift for me at school.  We gave Daddy some Valentine's Day cards and a box of chocolate.  But I guess I hadn't really thought about the fact that there haven't been gifts for Henry in that time.  The sweet little guy was up in my office playing the other day and he found a sweet blue Precious Moment's cross that Nana had given him for Christmas (that I haven't hung on his wall yet).  He picked it up and asked, "What dis, Mommy?"  I told him that it was a special cross that his Nana had given him for Christmas.  He said, "For Enny?"  "Yes, Bubbie, for Henry."  His little face lit up and he said, "Not for Mommy, not for Daddy, not for Gee-gee, not for Ca-ger, not for Brookie, for Enny!"  And then he proceeded to hug it.  Such a sweet little guy.  And really, he's been so good about giving other people gifts that I hadn't thought about how it was affecting him and what he was thinking about it.  The little sweetheart.

Sad Bear

A couple of months ago, HT had a spell of rough nights.  He'd go to bed fine but after I left, he'd start crying really hysterically.  And he wouldn't stop for 30+ minutes.  The first night it happened, Grandma and Grandpa were here and they weren't able to console him at all.  I couldn't figure out what to do about it and after telling Aunt Amy, she suggested giving him a new bear to "take care of."  She said that a lot of times when she can't get Carter to calm down, she gives him a stuffed animal who is scared or sad and needs to be taken care of.  Carter is so sensitive that he completely focuses on helping out the stuffed animal and forgets what he was so upset about.  So she gave us a bear to try it with Henry.  He stopped having trouble going to sleep before she gave us the bear, though, so I just saved it in case it happened again.  I had it in my office in a plastic grocery bag sitting under my desk.  A couple of days ago, HT went into my office to get his Nemo while I was in changing Evie and came back holding the bear.  He said, "What dis, Mommy?"  "Dang it!" I thought to myself.  "Why would you leave that out?  Stupid, stupid, stupid!"  To Henry, I said, "That's a sad bear, Bubbie.  Aunt Amy brought him over to our house because he's so very sad and he needs someone to take care of him and help make him happy."  Henry looked at the bear for a minute and said, "I hold for Gee-gee?"  Smiling, I said, "Sure, Bub, you can hold it."  And he held it for a sec then said, "For Gee-gee?"  "No, Bubbie, it's not for Evie."  "For Enny?"  "Yes, baby, it's for Henry."  Then his face lit up like a Christmas tree and he hugged the bear with all his might.  "I yuv my Sad Bear, Mommy, I yuv him."  And he didn't leave a room without taking Sad Bear with him for about a week.

"Daddy Rescue Me"

HT got his first black eye yesterday.  Apparently, he was running around the "big kids'" playground with Carter after school and he ran behind the swings while kids were on them.  I guess he got kicked in the face by a little girl and was pretty hysterical about it.  As he should have been.  It's a pretty ugly injury.  See below for pics of my little bruiser.  Anyway, last night, he was pretty obsessed with it and kept wanting to look in the mirror.  Nobody was allowed to touch it but he kept wanting to look at it.  After he'd look at his "red boo-boo," he'd say, "Guwl huwt me.  By swings.  Ca-ger go too.  Daddy rescue me."  Daddy rescued me?  The first time he said it, I got a big lump in my throat and my eyes welled up.  How does he know words like "rescue?"  From Finding Nemo?  Maybe.  I don't know.  It was the sweetest, most endearing thing I've ever heard a 2-year old say in my entire life.  And of course his daddy rescued him.  I told him that his daddy would always come rescue him because he loves him so very much.  He said, "Yeah.  I yuv Mommy so much, too."  <cue tears> That boy of ours.

  

The end of realistic animal sounds :'(

We were reading a story the other day and in it were a bunch of farm animals.  Any of you who have heard HT's animal sounds will know just why this is my favorite part of reading stories.  I pointed to the cow and asked him what it says and he said, "moooooo" like he usually does.  Then I pointed to the horse and asked what it said.  He said, "neigh."  I paused for a second and asked him to repeat it and sure enough, he said "neigh" again.  Then I asked him what the pig said and he said, "oink-oink."  I was able to coerce him into doing the realistic sounds that we've come to know and love but it wasn't easy.  In fact, it was hard enough that I kind of think they must have been doing animal sounds at school and he got embarrassed or something by doing his usual sounds.  It broke my heart to hear those 'ordinary' animal sounds coming out of his mouth.  I guess I didn't expect our influence over him to wane quite so quickly.  :'(  Big little guy.

"Don't bite my bum!"

Henry and Daddy were playing Henry's favorite "I'll Get You" game, which is essentially tag.  With the difference that you yell, "I'll get you!" before you start chasing each other.  Mr. Dinosaur was playing this time and was helping Daddy was "get" Henry.  Henry tried to escape by getting up on Mommy and Daddy's bed, but the wily Mr. Dinosaur tracked him up there.  When he caught Henry, he started biting his bum.  Henry admonished him with the following: "No!  Don't bite my bum, Mr. Dinosaur!  Too full of poopy!"  Mr. Dinosaur promptly ceased his bum-biting activities.

Mr. Ray

Henry has been enamored with the movie Finding Nemo for a few weeks now.  A year or so ago, the Timons got him a Finding Nemo bathtub set which didn't mean much to him at the time, but was a HUGE success when we rediscovered it.  Nana also got him a giant sting ray stuffed animal to keep in his under the sea bedroom.  For about the past week or so, he's been placing Nemo and various fish on the back of his "Missa Gwey" and carrying him around singing his version of Mr. Ray's "Let's name the zones of the open sea" song.  It's quite possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen.

"Mama no sing!"

I was singing to Evie.  Because she likes it.  She lights up as soon as I start, no matter what it is that I'm singing.  So, while I was making dinner last night, I sang to her.  Henry was playing on the iPad and Evie and I were grooving to any variety of songs of my choice.  After about 10 minutes, Henry turned around and said, "Mama, 'top," and held up his hand, palm facing me.  You know, telling me to stop.  I didn't.  I kept going.  He waited maybe another minute before saying, "Mama!  'Top!  No sing!"  I looked at him and said, "Henry.  Mama is going to sing.  Baby likes it when mama sings."  Then my little brat said to me, "No!  Mama no sing!  Yucky!"  I stared at him for a moment before asking him, "are you saying that it's yucky when mama sings?"  "Yeah.  Yucky.  Mama no sing!"  I need to learn not to ask questions I don't want to know the answer to.

Down the slide

This is from an email Aunt Amy sent on 3/27/2014:

Today while cousins and siblings played, temptation proved to be too much for Mr. Henry. We have a “no pushing” rule at the Terlizzi playground and for the most part, all three children are very good about this rule. For the most part. 

As you can see below Brooklyn is looking down the slide, deciding whether or not she wants to go down head-first.  It’s risky. Mulch in the mouth is always a possibility. Notice Henry behind Brooklyn….

Henry decides he has no choice but to seize this golden opportunity and gives his cousin a “helpful” push down the slide so she no longer has to make the tough decision for herself as to whether or not, to go down head-first. (see Brooklyn’s “Whoa” face, and Henry’s complete delight in his decision):

HENRY: She’s. not. laughing. 

HENRY: I’m gonna hang up here for awhile.

CARTER (climbing up quickly): Don’t go down there man. 

Uncle Geoff's Cookies

I told Henry we were going to make cookies for Uncle Geoff's birthday. He said, "I bake cookies?" I said "yes."  He said, "Enny eat cookies?" I said, "well, you can eat a few but they're for uncle Geoff." And he said, "Enny eat unka Jess cookie all gone!" Then mimicked Cookie Monster gobbling cookies.  I was only able to capture the below video, though I tried to get him to do the cookie monster thing again.

"I Love My Dollhouse"

We were sitting in Henry's room, mama in the chair rocking Evie and Henry playing in his dollhouse when he stopped, gave the house a big hug and said, "Mama, I yuv my dah-haus."  I told him that he needed to tell Aunt Amy thank you for it.  He said, "Dent-dou, Aie Mai-mee."  I smiled and said he needed to tell her what he's thanking her for.  So he said, "Dent-dou, Aie Mai-mee, I yuv my dah-haus."  I told him that he needed to remember to tell her next time he saw her and he said, "no.  Now.  On phone."