Basketball

Today was Henry's first basketball class at the Southwest Community Center. He has been waiting for almost a year to be able to take these classes since you have to be three years old to enroll. From the time we started going to the Community Center, he would watch the other classes and want to join them. Last spring we took a gymnastics class that unfortunately took place on the other side of the gym from one of these sports classes (in that case, baseball). He spent the entire class - every one of the 6 weeks - just sitting at the edge of the divider and watching the other class. I could not tear him away to participate in his own class. Well, the wait finally ended today. I joked that unless there was a kid in there who's birthday was today, he would definitely be the youngest. This is the first ever class he has taken that is not parent/child...quite a milestone. Of course the parents stay in the gym, but they don't participate like all the other classes we've taken so far. He did so amazingly well considering he is probably about a full year younger than the other kids - at least. He did so well listening to his "coach" and following the instructions, I was so proud of him. Some skills, such as waiting for it to be his turn will still need some work! There are only 3 kids in the class which is super fortunate because I can't imagine him being able to wait much longer between his turns! We scheduled the class so Brett could take him on Monday evenings, but it is to darn cute to watch that I am going to have a tough time not attending.
(There's another, longer, video on Facebook which allows the posting of longer videos than Blogger does!)

Henry's 3rd Birthday!

I almost don't know where to start with this post because there is so much to talk about and so many pictures worth sharing...

So, let's see - on Friday, Henry had a party with three of his friends. Small, yes; but it ended up being just perfect in my opinion. We had a sports themed fete (what else, right?) during which the kiddos played a bean bag toss game (courtesy of Uncle Mike), found hidden sports-themed Easter eggs and played, played, played. Then on Sunday, we had the entire family over for another celebration. It worked out well to do it this way because I just kept all the decorations up from Friday's party and didn't have to do much in preparation for Sunday. Henry had a blast celebrating with everyone and (once again) received some amazingly generous gifts. He has so many people that love him so much - he is a very lucky little guy. I think it might be best to let the pictures tell the rest of the story...

From the top - the pictures are: the beanbag toss game and decorations, Henry with the cake from his friends' party, Henry and his friends hanging out, enjoying the cake with his friends, singing Happy Birthday at the family party with the baseball cake Gigi made, opening presents, and saying how old he is with the second cake from the family party (also from Gigi!)

Mid-Week Update

I'm feeling guilty about the dearth of posting lately, so here goes a mid-week update!
Henry is getting V-E-R-Y excited for his birthday parties! We celebrated a bit early last night at Chevy's and had the servers sing Happy Birthday to him. We saw them singing to another person and so I asked him if he would like if we told them it was his birthday too (I didn't want him to freak out if he didn't), and he did - he loved it!
We got his 3 year old pictures taken today and Henry did amazingly well. He followed the photographers directions and actually smiled quite a bit. We did a change of clothes in his Blazers jersey and I cannot wait to see them printed out - they looked great. In fact, they asked me to sign a release so that they could use them in promotional material for the store. Once I get the prints I'll scan them and post them here so everyone can see them.

The picture of Henry on the camel is from last week when Cary, Henry and I went to OMSI. We tried to see the Egypt exhibit, but only lasted a couple minutes...basically just long enough for a quick picture on the camel and a brief look at the mummy. Seems he's not quite ready for the ancient world.

Weekly Update

Late and brief...that's the theme tonight. I have been busy, busy, busy trying to get everything ready for Henry's birthday party. And of course I've scheduled a bunch of appointments for the week leading up the parties, so no rest for the weary, I suppose. I will have more to say and pictures coming soon...stay tuned.

Weekly Update

A week of firsts for the little guy! We went bowling, rode the streetcar (and MAX, but that wasn't a first), and eating his first coconut. Sounds like quite the random mix of things - but they were all things that he's been wanting to do for awhile! The picture of him laying down on the sidewalk is exactly what it looks like...we were downtown walking around and all of a sudden he decided to take a little rest and lie down right in some store's stoop.

We're gearing up for his birthday. I've got the "games" figured out for the party with his friends ( thanks to Mike! ) and decorations pretty much figured out. It hasn't been difficult to plan since there will only be 3 guests; the last piece of the puzzle is the cake and then I think the planning for that will be finished. We're having family over on his actual birthday and Gigi will be making another cake masterpiece for that! (Right, Mom?!?)

Weekly Update - Tomahawk edition

Today was basically a dream come true day for Henry. As part of the Dr. Seuss birthday celebration and Read Across America, Tomahawk (the Portland Winterhawk's mascot) came to Gigi's classroom to "read" to the kids (actually I read, because Tomahawk doesn't speak, but he did help hold the book). Henry was right up in the middle of it all - saying the words to The Cat in the Hat along with me as I read and trying to show and tell Tomahawk all kinds of things. He helped pass out the bookmarks at the end of the event. It was so, so, so exciting for him. Then, to top it off, he got to go to the Winterhawks game tonight at it was....wait for it....mascot night! So he got to see all the mascots play a hockey game in person. We've watched lots of mascot videos on YouTube and so he was really looking forward to it.

Earlier this week Henry and I went to another Mr. Ben show. I still cannot say enough about what a great kids performer he is - if you have little kids, definitely try to catch one of his shows. He has a great, mellow yet upbeat style and is so engaging with the kids. Best of all his songs are really pleasing to both the kids and adults. He plays a guitar or ukulele during his show and lets the kids try playing it at the end. So the day after we saw him perform Henry and I were at Fred Meyer and he saw a guitar for sale and he told me he wanted to buy it. I told him, no, we were not getting a guitar today and he said "But, it's on sale, mom!" As Brett said, he's obviously a Winder....he loves a good deal. :) (Too bad it wasn't actually on sale or I might have been persuaded by his argument!)

Planning his birthday party....he's having a small get together with 3 guests. Basically just a playdate with a cake. Oh, and a sports theme (what else would it be?)!