Henry's Going to School

Our little Henry is starting school tomorrow! He'll be going to a program at a church near our house on Monday mornings from 9-11:45. And I'm a nervous wreck!!

I've heard a lot of great things about this particular program from some other moms that I know whose children have attended since they were toddlers. I just found out at the end of August that they have a program for 2-year olds and after talking with Patrick and praying about it we decided that it would be a great chance for Henry to be out of the house, interacting with other children and learning some preschool-ish social skills. They didn't have an opening when I called to ask about the program, so they put us on their waiting list. Then last week they called to say that they now have an opening and Henry can come. I went last week to meet with his teacher and the school's director and to check out the classroom and get a feel for the program. I really like his teacher, she seems really sweet and didn't seem phased when I told her I thought Henry might cry (there's also an assistant in the room and only 10 children, so a really good ratio). Of course, I'm a worried mess. Part of me is thinking, will Henry think that he's getting a brother and now I'm sending him off and abandoning him? But then rationally I think, this will be fun for him and also a great chance for me to have some time with the baby and also to go grocery shopping or other errand running with just 1 child. And it's one morning a week...perspective, I know.

He has to bring a backpack (!) with a change of clothes and his diaper bag and we get to bring snack once every other month or so. This month his classroom's theme is "Fall Extravaganza" and they're doing finger painted pumpkins, handprint spiders and painting real pumpkins. Also on the last Monday of the month the parents are invited at 11:30 for a fall festival and the children are going to sing the songs they've been learning. So all of those things will inevitably be showing up on my blog! I'm excited for him and I really do think he will love the chance to play with other children his age. I'm just super nervous and could really use prayer in dropping him off tomorrow.

What should we name brother? (a video)

This video is from last month....one morning Henry and I were sitting at the table eating breakfast and unprompted I asked him what we should name brother. This is what he said without any coaching from me. This is actually the 2nd time I asked him, I went to get my camera to record his response and asked him again.

It's just amazing what they pick up...

Apples and Pumpkins

Yesterday evening Patrick, Henry and I went to the apple orchard/pumpkin patch. Henry had the most fun playing on the playground/swingset there and also riding on these cars (as pictured above). (It wasn't easy getting him to leave those.) There was also a bouncy house set up which he jumped right in and loved. We didn't pick any apples though. We bought some apple donuts and let Henry pick out a couple of pumpkins. After picking up almost every big pumpkin he could, he ended up choosing 2 small gourds to bring home! They're cute, just not carvable. I absolutely love the apple orchard and it was great to see Henry loving it so much there, too.

Mistaken Identity

So we just had our first case of public embarrassment. On Friday Henry and I were at the park when a person went riding past us on a bicycle. This person was decked on in a fuchsia sweatshirt, red sweatpants, some glasses and a white bike helmet. As this person was riding by us Henry shouts out, "boy!" and points to the person on the bicycle who turns and says, "I'm not a boy, I'm a girl", and keeps riding on! I sort of laughed and said, "he calls everyone a boy!" Which is totally not true!! But I didn't know what to say and I felt bad that this person heard him and also felt compelled to shout out her true identity. The other thing was that she wasn't a girl either, she was a grown woman! Anyway, I know it's probably just a first of many more to come.

36 Weeks

And no news! I went to the doctor today to start my weekly exams. There's no news to report. I'm not dilated or effaced yet. I'm not surprised, but a little disappointed because I thought maybe I would be surprised and find out I was dilated to 4! I asked about induction and she said that my cervix has to be doing something before she can induce.

My mom was here this weekend and helped me so much to get the baby's room all set up and ready. She did tons of laundry for me and helped me to organize his clothes and all of my baby supplies. We also went shopping and picked up any baby necessities that I'll be needing. So I'm feeling pretty ready now. In 4 weeks (or less, but maybe more) we'll be meeting this new baby. I'm definitely feeling excited and anxious all at once. Our lives are definitely going to change. I'm also getting emotional about not being able to give all of my time and attention to Henry. I'm feeling like I'm having to let go of something, but really I know we're just adding to our family and it's going to be such a blessing. It's just all still the "unknown".

Height Predictor

I get emails monthly now from babycenter.com, and in this months email they included a link for a height predictor. Believe it or not, I put in Henry's information and our information and it predicted his height at 18 to be.....6 feet 2 inches!!! They note that it's just a prediction (obviously) but do say that there's a 50% chance that the child's height will be within .8 inches of the predicted height and a 90% chance that it will be within 2.1 inches. For a Vance, that is still ginormous!

Here's a link: http://www.babycenter.com/child-height-predictor?scid=mbtw_post26m:20070917:0:0:0

Strong Man

Dan and Sara recently put up a post of Gabe writing some letters...Henry wanted to keep up with his cousin, so look what he did....

You have to get one

A Pumpkin-Spice Latte at Starbucks. Mmmmmmm, there's nothing like ushering in this great cool, fall-feeling weather like a delicious Starbucks Latte. The pumpkin-spice is delish. Just thought I'd pass that along...

Getting Closer...

I had my 34-week doctor's appointment today. It just made the baby's arrival feel so much closer. She told me that his head is down and she thinks it will probably stay that way now. Also, the next time I go is at 36 weeks and they will start internal exams then (yuk) and then I start going weekly. It's just crazy because I know that means that technically once I reach that point, the baby could be here at any time. Also she said that she doesn't want me traveling out of town after 35 weeks. It just all made it feel so close. I get really excited butterflies thinking about it. I just can't wait to meet this little baby and introduce him to Henry and have him be a part of our family.

Our New Closet

Our former closet (I know, it's bad!) Note: Patrick's hook to the right
Patrick (and Henry) building the new closet

The door leading into the new closet
Here you can see the door to the new closet is open and behind it is the old closet door
Patrick's side-sure beats just a hook!
My new side--space for clothes (even my maternity clothes have a special rack), purses, jewelry, love it!

Patrick's been at it again...he just built a walk-in closet in our master bedroom. Our former closet had a slanted shape from the way the roof curves just above it and had just one long bar which my clothes completely took over. Since we've moved into this house, Patrick has had just one hook in which to (try to) hang all of his clothes. He built a wall into our bedroom and dry-walled it and then hung all of the closet organizers and voila! A new, spacious closet! I'm sure it took more work than that, but he did it pretty quickly-about 2 weeks start to finish. In the pictures above I know it probably just looks like a closet, you're probably thinking, how boring? However, it represents organization to me and I have been loving getting things organized and having the extra space. Our former closet we're now using as a storage space which is really handy for bulky stuff (luggage) and baby stuff (the swing, baby bath, bouncy seat, etc). He also painted the trim (white) and walls in our room. So our master bedroom is now a finished project.

Feeding the ducks

One of Henry's new favorite things to do is go to a park close to our house and feed the ducks. Actually, Henry thinks it's fun, but secretly Patrick and I are obsessed with duck feeding. It's so fun to watch them all swim over and be so competitive for the bread pieces. Last week when we discovered the duck feeding at this park, we raided our bread supply and used up everything we had including hot dog buns! Then this week, I bought 3 loaves of the cheapest bread I could find just for the ducks. And they love Henry because he throws in whole pieces for them, he's not really into tearing bits off. It's been fun going in the evenings, especially since the weather has been cooler (i.e. more bearable).

A Bug's Anatomy

Yesterday Henry and I were at the museum and at this exhibit where you can make bugs using different plastic pieces. He was putting things on his bug and I was asking him what he was making:
Me: What's that piece Henry?
Henry: arm
Me: Oh and what's that one?
Henry: Pee Pee
Me: What is it?
Henry: Bug's pee pee

It definitely made me crack up. I'm totally amazed at where this stuff comes from. I know that I have never labeled a bug's parts for him, especially those...