Henry's last day of school and parade

Monday was Henry's last day of school! He has really grown and changed so much in the past several months. He started school last October, just a few weeks before William was born. He still seemed so little so me then. I definitely still felt like he was my baby. When I dropped him off at school that first Monday, my eyes were filling with tears before I even left the building; once I got into my car and closed the door I burst into tears. I composed myself enough to go to Wal-Mart to do some grocery shopping but got teary again watching other mothers shop with their children in their carts. I counted down the minutes until I could pick Henry up and when I went into his classroom to get him, he was smiling, happy and so proud to show me the picture he made. We decided to try it another week and even though the first few Mondays Henry had a hard time saying "goodbye" to me too as I dropped him off, he was always so happy when we picked him up and was so excited to tell us about school. He's grown so much and is such a big boy. Now when I drop him off, he hugs me and walks into his classroom carrying his backpack usually greeting his teachers and settling into a center. He especially loved playing with the rice/water table. He talks about his "friends" at school and usually says "hello" to them, too when we walk into his classroom. Several times over the past few months he will start singing different songs that I haven't ever sung to him and I know he must have learned them at school. He beams with pride when I ask him about them! His hands-down favorite song is "The Wheels on the Bus". We sing that at home, too but I know it's a classroom fave. We have been really happy with the program that he's in and I think it has been perfect for him.

Henry on his first day of school - 10.1.07Henry before his school parade. Henry on his last day of school - 5.19.08 He has definitely changed so much! Henry in his classroom on his last day. It was "Beach Day" and the children got to wear their swimsuits. Since it was raining that morning his teachers brought the pool and a beach umbrella inside and they filled the pool with a little bit of water. When I picked up Henry his teacher told me that he was in the pool the very longest of anyone and that he didn't get out until he absolutely had to get out. He loved it! My mom was visiting us and after school we took Henry to Culver's to celebrate his last day. He loves going to this particular Culver's because they have a huge aquarium in the dining room.
Henry and Oma checking out the fish. William just hanging out in between bites of green beans.

On Thursday Henry's school had a last day parade and all of the children paraded around the school on the sidewalk. Henry seemed thoroughly confused and unenthusiastic about the whole thing, but he was a good sport and went along with it. Here is he parading, holding Miss. Jennifer's hand (she was one of Henry's two teachers). Each class has a matching t-shirt that their teacher's decorated for them. It's very cute: tye-dyed yellow with a sponge-painted sunshine. They also gave all of the children matching star sunglasses and he chose green, but he decided not to wear his.

Open Gym

A few months ago my friend Lori who has a son, Joey, that is Henry's age invited us to open gym at a nearby gymnastics academy. Henry absolutely loved it and spent most of his time bouncing on one of the many trampolines. Since then we've gone back several times, and Henry has progressively gotten braver and braver. There's a big pit with foam blocks that children can jump into, several large trampolines, a long running trampoline, a rope for climbing or swinging, hula hoops, huge balls and lots of other things. The floors are all cushioned and soft. Still Henry's favorite thing to is to bounce on the trampoline, although now he will jump from something on to the trampoline below. He also will jump from different platforms (all different heights) into the foam block pit. The trickiest part is helping him get out - I'm usually holding William and Henry gets stuck in there. I'm excited to see William play there once he starts moving some more. It only lasts an hour and initially I thought that wasn't very long, but I'll assure you that it is plenty of time. Henry is always sweating and worn out when it's time to go. I wish I'd discovered it sooner; it would have been a perfect way to break up the winter. I think I'm going to enroll Henry into a beginning gymnastics class this summer. I think he would love it.

Henry jumping from a big block on to the trampoline.

Crumpets and birdhouses

The weekend before Mother's Day we went to Rockford to celebrate with my Grandma. The ladies in our family took her to lunch at one of her favorite places, a restaurant called Crumpets in Genoa. It was an adorable restaurant that served different soups, sandwiches on croissants, muffins, and fruit among other things and had delicious desserts. We ordered a few and shared them! I liked the cozy, Victorian atmosphere and loved having lunch with my Grandma, a few aunts and Sara and Sandi. After lunch we went to Steve and Barry's and did some shopping - everything was $8.98! It was my first time there and I had lots of fun and tried on lots of clothes! I got a few things that I really like. One of them being a SJP "Bitten" brand dress that I love. And for $8.98, such a deal!

My Grandma

Meanwhile the boys went to my Grandma and Grandpa's house with Patrick, Dan and my dad where my grandpa had arranged for them to build birdhouses and had all of the supplies cut and ready to go. I love the pictures of the boys with Great Grandpa working on these birdhouses. They both turned out great and are so adorable. Henry is waiting for a wren to come live in his house.

Henry and Great Grandpa working on Henry's birdhouse.Gabe building his birdhouse with Great Grandpa.Gabe showing off his finished product. It sounds like the boys had a great time being in Great Grandpa's basement. It's like man's land down there!We think Henry looks alot like Grandpa Hogan. It's the shape of his face, I think. You can kind of see it in this picture.

We all gathered at Grandma and Grandpa's house for pizza after the ladies got back from lunch and shopping. It was delicious! Then we surprised my dad with a belated birthday celebration complete with cake and gifts. Gabe and Henry helped blow out the birthday candles and open the presents!

That night Patrick, Henry, William and I spent the night at my dad and Sandi's house. Henry loved waking up there on Sunday morning and was anxious to play with Papa Bug at 6 a.m. when he woke up! He was sad to say goodbye and when we got home on Sunday evening he said, "no, I don't want to go home. I want to go to Papa and Grandma Bug's house!" (very adamantly) He definitely has a special bond with his grandparents.

Henry, Papa Bug and William blowing bubbles on the front porch. Notice all of the other toys - Henry loves to take out everything.

*Note: I borrowed the pictures taken Saturday from Sara. Patrick had our camera but he used the video camera to tape the birdhouse building extravaganza instead. And I'm glad he did, it's a great video and I'm thankful to have those memories. Thank you Sara for these pics!

The new toy shelf

A few weekends ago when my mom was visiting we stopped by a yard sale just down my street. That's where we found the shelf below:
We negotiated the price and my mom bought it for Henry's room for $15! My vision was to repaint it, add some baskets for storage and voila a much-needed toy shelf. As we were asking about the "toy shelf" the woman having the sale said, "oh, you mean the doll house". Oops. Still I had a vision and could see it working in Henry's room. Henry helped with the painting of his new shelf, although after a few splatters of paint landed on the driveway, we decided to wait and finish during his nap.


My mom helped me paint the shelf and I found some red canvas baskets that are sturdy but soft so they won't scratch the paint off the shelves. Here's the finished product:


Henry demonstrating how the new baskets work. He loves having his foam blocks so accessible and plays with them a ton. It's also really easy for him to pick them up and put them away now. (Which is good because there are 100 of them!)
Henry took this picture! I like that it's from his perspective. I realize that it looks a little bit cluttered, but it's an organized clutter. I love having a place for everything and finally having his toys where they are accessible to him and not shoved into the closet. There are still a few things I'd like to do - 1. take pictures of each basket showing its contents and labeling it and them laminating the label and attaching it to the appropriate basket, I think using a clothespin. That way Henry will know what's in each basket and will be able to clean up his toys, and keep them organized. 2. I might paint the outer two sides of the shelf with magnetic and chalkboard paint. I'm not 100% sure, and magnetic paint is a little pricey, so for now it's done and is very useful.

Mother's Day with Oma

We celebrated Mother's Day with my mom (Oma) the weekend before the actual day. We met my mom, and Dan, Sara, Gabe and Caleb at a park where we had a nice picnic lunch and then spent the afternoon together. It was a nice park with lots for the big boys to do and some playground equipment I've never seen before that Henry loved. Like the slide in the picture below; it's made of all of these little rollers (the blue things) and reminds me of the rollers that the food slides down at the checkout of a grocery store. Anyway, we had a great time and it was a fun way to celebrate with my mom.

First the boys got to play together.

Then we had our picnic lunch. I love these pictures of Gabe with his food!
Oma and Caleb
After lunch the babies went for a ride on the swings. I stuffed a jacket around William so he'd be sturdy. He loved swinging! Meanwhile, the big boys played some more.
William fell asleep just before we left. Here he is snoozing with Oma.

Washable paint

Henry got some new paints as a party favor from a little boy in his class who celebrated his birthday at school on Monday. They're Elmer's brand "Squeeze and Brush" - the paint is in the brush and you squeeze it out and then use the brush to paint with. They were in his backpack and he forgot about them and when I took them out yesterday he begged me to paint. I was just getting ready to put William down for his nap, so I told him that once William was sleeping we could paint together. I put William down and came downstairs and got Henry all ready to paint; even though the paints said "washable" I took off his pj shirt and figured we'd eliminate a mess on his clothes and I could just get him dressed afterwards. We started squeezing and painting, Henry was mostly squeezing though. Fast forward a few minutes, William started crying and was pretty upset so I told Henry that I was going to check on him and that he needed to stay at the table until I came back since his hands had some paint on them.

I returned about five minutes later and this is what I found:

He decided to paint HIMSELF! I was definitely shocked but had to laugh. After all I did leave him--alone--with paints. Lucky for us, it was washable and this is what just a little soap and water did:

Henry the photographer

Here's Henry being photo director. William has no interest! I love William's expression in this one. He's looking at Henry like "what are you doing?"
Finally, Henry gets a good one!

Tonight after dinner we went to the park; Henry rode his bike and we pushed William in the stroller. When we got home we were playing outside and I decided to try to play photo shoot with the boys on Henry's little bench in the backyard. Both of them were sitting so nicely next to each other so Patrick ran inside to get the camera; when he came out with it Henry jumped off the bench and ran inside yelling, "I'm gonna get my camera, be right back." Moments later he came outside with his camera from Grandma and Papa Bug. So it ended up being a solo photo shoot of William. I thought it was sweet that Henry wanted to take pictures of William. I still want to get some of both boys though!

William's 6-month stats

William went to the doctor yesterday for his 6-month check up. A little late, he's just a week shy of 7 months, but he was on an antibiotic when his appointment was first scheduled and then I rescheduled it twice more because I've been putting it off for various reasons.

Here are his 6-month stats:
Height: 26 inches, 40%
Weight: 19 lb 3 oz, 75%
Head Circumference: 17 3/4 in, 85%

(a note: when I took him to the doctor just a few days shy of 6 months he was 18 lb 4 oz so that may be more accurate.)

He's a big boy! But he's healthy and I'm so thankful. He is such a sweet, happy little baby.

Something interesting that I learned at his appointment is that now it's ok to start egg whites and peanut butter before 1 year. My doctor said to still wait until a baby is over 1 to start honey, but the other two are now ok. I think I'll still wait. I don't like how things keep switching, it confuses me and makes me question the validity of the rules in the first place.

E-I-E-I-O

Last Saturday Patrick arranged for his parents to watch the boys so he and I could go see a movie and have a relaxing afternoon. It was very sweet and very much appreciated! We brought the boys out early so we could spend some time with them on the farm. Henry couldn't wait to ride on all of the big farm machines. By the end of the day I think he had been on everything except for the combine. He "drove" the grain truck (above) - mostly he beeped the horn, he rode the forklift with Patrick's dad (Grandpa Tractor), rode in the new sprayer, helped mow the grass on the riding mower, and sat in the big red tractor. He had lots of fun and William had fun taking it all in. I kept thinking that next spring little William's probably going to be riding along with his big brother. It's fun watching Henry there. It's a magical place for him - all of his tractor toys come to life. He adores the farm.

Henry with his Grandpa Tractor on the new sprayer.
Riding the forklift.
Henry watching Grandpa Tractor park his tractor in the shed. I need to do an "excited-face" montage!
Driving the red tractor.

Free coffee

I stumbled upon an ad on the web for a free Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee and I feel like I should share the good news.

Go to Dunkin's this Thursday - May 15th- for your free 16 oz!

Details here.

I'll be there for sure getting my fave, an iced decaf caramel coffee add cream and sugar. Mmmm!