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.