Holidays - Part 1

Here are just a couple recent holiday pictures - Henry with Santa at the Oswego Lake Country Club and Henry picking out our Christmas tree. He's had lots of fun decorating the house, picking out presents and even helping wrap a couple. He's seen Santa twice so far (tomorrow will be another visit on the Mt. Hood Railroad excursion)...and I hope that he's not too disappointed when Santa doesn't bring him what he keeps asking for - a skateboard with wheels. The wheels distinction is necessary since he currently has a skateboard without wheels. We'll see on Christmas morning, I guess!

Top Three Reasons Henry Loves the New House

3. We have a chimney. This is more of a pre-requisite that a reason he loves it. I think he would have been devastated if the new place didn't have a chimney...how else would Santa get inside?!?

2. A bathtub he can practically swim in...and with jets for bubbles!

and the number 1 reason Henry loves the new house...

BUNKBEDS! We just put together his new bunkbeds and he is loving them!

Children's Museum

A couple weeks ago Henry and I went to the Children's Museum. It had been awhile since we'd last been and the thing he remembered the most and was most excited for was the vet hospital. In fact, he kept calling the Children's Museum the Doctor Museum before we went. Of course, once we got there we headed straight to that section of the museum, but after we satisfied his doctor playtime he had just as good of a time in the grocery store, cafe, construction site, and all the other exhibits as well!

Fall Roundup

Now that I've finally uploaded all my recent pictures, here are some more fall-themed pics I especially like. We've now gotten fairly settled in to the new house, but before we moved we got to enjoy all those beautiful, sunny autumn days at the old house with the huge oak trees. Here Henry is having fun throwing handfuls of leaves into the air and letting them cascade down onto him. Also another picture of him with his favorite Forest Ranger, Crystal, at Tryon Creek State Park during their weekly children's program. (Can't say enough good things about this program - it is really fabulous.) And, finally, playing hoops at the elementary school near the old house. We don't live within walking distance of a park or school anymore (unless you count the cemetery, but since there is neither a play structure nor a basketball hoop to be found there, I don't); however there is a basketball hoop in our new driveway, so hopefully that will make up for the lack of nearby parks.

Halloween Pictures...Finally!

Okay, we are moved and more or less settled in. More in that all the important stuff is unpacked; less in that we still have a ton of boxes with un-important stuff left to be unpacked. Really makes you realize how much extraneous stuff (aka crap!) you have.

Here are the Halloween pictures (now that it's December and all). Henry was a firefighter for most of his Halloween activities, but for Trick-or-Treating he was the Fire Chief since Mom (me) forgot to bring his helmet. Here he is posing with Uncle Mike the Sushi Chef, Trick-or-Treating, posing with our Jack-O-Lanterns, and playing games at the two Halloween carnivals we went to.

Where have all the posts gone?

New posts and pictures will be coming! I haven't forgotten! We've been super busy packing and getting ready to move...more on that later as well.

Build-A-Bear

Henry has been earning rewards to Build-A-Bear lately and I thought I'd share some of the pictures. It's an awesome reward because he really loves to take his bear (Charles Bearkley) and give him a "bath," then choose the new outfit, then get him dressed. All the people that work there are so into it too and ask him questions about his bear and the new outfit so it really seems like a big deal to him. He will soon have the most extensive wardrobe of any bear...so far Charles has a baseball uniform, basketball uniform, hockey uniform, football uniform, soccer uniform (see a pattern here?) tae kwon do uniform and a firefighter outifit. He also randomly has golf clubs which Henry chose as a reward once. I made him a little golf course to go with that but no golf outfit yet. He has his eye on a fishing outfit (which comes complete with a fishing pole and fish) and a policeman uniform next.

The Little Gym Video

As promised, I've got a video of Henry at his new gym. It's a highlight reel of sorts, with short clips from his two sessions there. I have to shoot through a window, so it's kind of difficult to get good shots, but you get the idea. :)

Bits and Pieces

A bit of a random update... We've been busy trying out lots of new activities for the last couple weeks. Come to think of it, most have been sports/athletic related (go figure, right?). The first order of business has been something that I've been working on for the last few weeks, and that was to find Henry a new gym to take the place of Gymboree. He's been staying in his class at Gymboree even though he's been technically too old for it for the last six months. At first it was fine, he was still getting a lot out of each class but it was becoming more and more apparent that the classes weren't challenging him any more. So we went on a quest to find a new gym class. After trying out a couple different places, we settled on the Little Gym in Lake Oswego (near Bridgeport). I think it's a great "next step" for him - it combines the pretend play of Gymboree with much more challenging gymnastics. An added bonus is that his dear friend Inari also goes there so he gets a built-in play date every week with her as well.

We also tried out Pump It Up for the first time last week. It's a bunch of those inflatable bouncy houses all in one place. We bought a 4 pass Groupon for it, and boy am I glad we did. There were only about 3 or 4 kids there on the morning we went so I "jumped" right in there with Henry and we both had a blast - and got quite a work out too! The video below is a montage of Henry playing in the various houses and he and I going down one of the big slides. The pictures above are of him climbing a wall there and in the basketball court (where we spent most of our time, as you can imagine).

And finally, I just discovered a fantastic (and free!) weekly program for preschoolers at Tryon Creek State Park. Each week they have a different theme and the park ranger reads the kids a story, leads them in an art project and then takes them on a nature walk all focusing on that theme. Henry had a blast and I am just so disappointed that I only found out about this now that we're entering rainy season! Hopefully we'll be able to get at least another visit or two in before the really cold and wet weather arrives. The two pictures of him at that event show him pointing out a mushroom growing on a nurse log (our theme was mushrooms) and him listening to the ranger tell them about some other mushrooms growing on another log.

Fall has arrived

The fall weather has definitely arrived. We went very suddenly from long, lazy days spent outside to cool, rainy days wondering what we should do. Henry had gotten into a routine of playing, playing, playing all day outside and is taking the rainy weather a bit hard. He has asked a number of times over the past week if it was bedtime because it was dark outside. We enrolled him in a baseball class at the community center and he went to the first class this past Monday. He loved it but unfortunately there aren't enough kids enrolled to keep it going, so unless 3 more kids enroll this week they will cancel it. We are also in the process of finding another kids' gymnastics class for him to take since he is quickly outgrowing Gymboree. We've tried the Little Gym so far and are going to try a couple more places before making a final decision.

The picture of Henry in the wagon is pre-haircut; the picture on the top is post-haircut. Cary gave him a little faux-hawk and I'm loving it. Isn't it cute? He's dressed up because he spent the morning at Bumpa's work and he insists on getting dressed up whenever he goes to the office. :)

We had Dad's 60th birthday this past weekend and found out something new about Henry - the kid loves the microphone! We couldn't keep him off of it. I'll have to look through my pictures from the party and see if I can find one of him on the mic.

End of September

Oh boy, I am getting terrible at this! My weekly updates have somehow morphed into monthly updates. I really do resolve to get back on track with these.

I also have been slacking in taking pictures. Terrible, I know. The last few weeks have been spent doing lots of different things - trying to take advantage of as much of the nice weather as we can for as long as it lasts. This very evening after dinner Henry asked if we could go outside and play baseball, then he looked out the window and said, in a very perplexed voice, "it's getting dark out?" I tried to explain to him that, yes, it is and that's what happens in the autumn and winter. Sad. :(

Here is a picture of him in his firefighter's uniform. He loves it. We've totally entered a new phase of interests - p0lice, firefighters, and paramedics. He absolutely is intrigued by every aspect of those professions. I think he might want to wear this as his Halloween costume although I'm not sure since last night he was stomping his feet, clapping his hands on his thighs and sticking out his tongue. When I asked him what he was doing he replied he was a Maori dancer and he needed to have his face painted. So maybe he'll want to be a Maori dancer...although that would be a rather chilly costume!

Summer Wrap Up

I can't believe it's already September! I have totally slacked off on posting lately - I'll blame the lazy days of summer. Actually, they haven't been very lazy at all...we've been out and about keeping pretty busy and trying to squeeze in as much activity as possible before the rain begins.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last couple weeks of summer.

Starting at the top: Henry downtown outside the main library. He was so excited this day because he got to wear his jersey without a shirt on underneath it for the first time - just like a real basketball player!

We went to the Sandy River on one of the really hot days - had a blast. I'd love to get back out there for another day if the weather stays hot. Henry loved the calm, shallow water and that there were lots of other kids there to play in the sand with. In this picture I asked him to show me a "normal face" and that's what I got.

Henry, Gigi and I spent a cold, rainy and windy day at the Oregon Coast. Still played on the beach and had fun despite the less than stellar weather.

At Director's Park in downtown Portland - one of our favorite spots on warm days. It's right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of downtown (across from the Fox Tower) and is always full of kids playing in the fountain.

We went down to Pioneer Courthouse Square to see the Stanley Cup and join in the Winterhawks celebration. Henry got to meet three of the new Winterhawks and shoot some pucks too.

And, finally, Goofy! Goofy came to the radio station for a meet and greet. While a little cautious at first, Henry warmed up and enjoyed meeting him.

Hawaii 2011

I am finally getting to posting some Hawaii pictures! We've been back for a week and two days, but I just hadn't gotten around to it until now. While we were in Hawaii, I didn't have regular internet access, so I wasn't able to make updates during the trip. Anyway, we had a wonderful time! I can't believe how quickly 2 weeks flew by; I could have easily stayed another 2 weeks! After the first night, Henry settled right in and loved his daily routine of swimming, beach, swimming, etc., etc. His water skills greatly improved with the daily swimming - he went from barely able to jump into the pool while holding on to both of our hands to running and leaping into the pool after telling me repeatedly to "move back! move back!" I have it on video somewhere...at some point I'll get it posted on here. He did equally well in the ocean riding on the same boogie board we got him last time - with a clear viewing window so he could see the fish just like we were while snorkeling. We saw lots of wild dolphins, sea turtles, a sting ray and of course fish. He really, really wanted to snorkel like the rest of us...maybe next time! Other than being in the water, he loved playing in the sand with all his sand toys. He also loved the nightly "nature" walks he went on - usually with Bumpa to look for toads, frogs and whatever else they could find. And of course, playing Angry Birds (that's what they are doing in the picture of Henry and Bumpa on the couch...).

All in all, we had an amazing time. I think all of our most favorite part was just spending the time together...as sappy as that sounds!