Quick Bragging Story

Sorry if this is annoying...but I totally have to brag for a minute...

I asked Henry to get a ball for Wilbur and when he did I jokingly said "Now, Wilbur, tell Henry 'thank you'!" I laughed and said "that's silly, huh? Wilbur can't say thank you." Henry signed 'thank you' and said "Wilbur, hands." I said, "Oh, Wilbur could say thank you with his hands? Could he say thank you with his hands?" Henry thought for a minute, held up his hand with his thumb folded down and said "no thumbs!"

:)

Washington County Fair

Henry riding the kiddie rides at the fair...

Finally I am getting around to posting the pictures and video from the fair that Henry and I went to last week. This video is of us in the sheep exhibit. Henry was pretty worried or even scared at first because there were so many sheep on all sides of us and they are so loud. I think he's used to seeing the goats at the zoo which are so docile and quiet in comparison. We saw so many animals - the only ones he seemed to be really comfortable around were the ones that were kept in cages... he didn't want to get close to the horses, calves or any others that weren't inside a pen of some sort.

He did so well on the rides. Technically he wasn't tall enough to ride them, but all the operators let him go anyway. I wasn't sure if he'd freak out being on them by himself, but he didn't at all - he seemed to really enjoy them.

Weekly Update

I can't believe it's already August! Of course part of the reason I can't believe it is because the weather hasn't been very summer-like. But thankfully the last few weeks have been nice and warm which means we've been able to spend a lot of time outside playing in the water, which Henry absolutely loves!

This first picture (the black and white) was taken last Thursday at a park in Wilsonville (I think it's called Memorial Park). We met Henry's friend Inari for a petting zoo and show by "The Reptile Man." It was so much fun. After the animals we enjoyed the water fountains they have there - totally awesome. They have the fountain Henry's playing in as seen, and then a super long, river-type water feature that the kids can play in too. The second picture Henry is getting his courage together to pet the lizard. He was hesitant at first, but later when Inari petted it, he jumped right in. He also got to pet a ferret, rat, bunny, and looked at a snake, but wouldn't touch it.

The last picture is of Henry at Grant Park by the Ramona Quimby statue. Another fun day playing in the water! Gigi was with us then - Henry was able to spend a lot of time with her in the last couple weeks which is great since now she and Geoff are off on their great South American adventure in Peru (and Costa Rica for Geoff).

Last Friday Henry and I went to the Washington County Fair which was so much fun...animals and rides - he loved it! I'm going to do a separate post about that because I have a lot of cute pictures and a little video too.

Henry is still making a lot of progress on the potty. I think he's at about a 90% success rate as far as trying to go on the potty before his nightly shower. We're not pushing him to go unless he asks, which is almost exclusively only before bathtime.
So, the other day I was trying to get Henry to role play being the daddy and mommy and I said "you be daddy and I'll be Henry...what does daddy say to Henry?" He thought for a minute and then said "No, no, no, no, no!" I asked him the same question for mommy and he gave me the same answer - "No, no, no, no, no!" Yikes! Brett and I are now trying to phrase things more positively! :)

Weekly Update

More summer appropriate weather! Hooray! We spent a lot of time outside again this week. Today we went to the Portland Farmer's Market downtown - Henry loves the strawberries (although, from the look on his face in this picture it looks like he got one of the more sour ones!). I took Henry down to the South Waterfront to wade in a fountain - he really enjoyed that. The water was freezing, but it was so hot out that it felt really nice. The other two pictures are from last weekend when we went to Dickinson Park for the Movies in the Parks celebration.

Henry is getting pretty good at peeing on the potty. I think it might be almost time to really start with the potty training. He asks to go pee just about every night before his bath (or shower, as they've been recently) - some times he is successful, sometimes not...but he does ask to try. He is still wanting to do everything himself and is bossing us around a lot. For instance, he wanted me to hand him something, but I was busy so Brett handed it to him instead. This caused a big fuss that was only remedied by me taking it and then handing it back to him. The kid wants what he wants, when he wants it and the way he wants it! Typical two year old. :)

Mannequin Man

Dad (Bumpa) took this picture of Henry at Old Navy. :)

Build-A-Bear

I realized I never posted the pictures we took at his recent Build-A-Bear outing. Charles Bear-kley has become a real part of our family - Henry puts him to sleep at night, tucking him in and giving him a kiss. I am really trying to encourage an attachment to the bear as a means to de-taching him a bit from me (at night). We'll see how it goes.

So here we see Henry choosing the carcass...uh, I mean the un-stuffed bear...then choosing the clothes (baseball uniform of course!)...next up is the bear's bath...then getting the bear dressed and presenting him with the appropriate baseball accessories...finally, Charles joins Henry and I for a lovely lunch of Thai food. :)

Weekly Update

Another week of beautiful weather! Our days consist of lots of outdoor time - I think we were outside for nearly 3 hours today all in all. This top picture was taken at the skatepark across the street from the library where we went to storytime today. Henry is in love with skateboarding and every long, narrow surface (think curbs, benches) becomes a skateboard as he turns his body lengthwise and navigates down it, stopping occasionally to do a jump.

He is becoming more and more vocal, but sometimes this causes frustration as I can't always understand what he is trying to tell me. He will still use signs sometimes, but what he wants to say has far surpassed his knowledge of sign language. Speaking of frustration, he has definitely entered a moody phase. Talk about frustrating...for his parents!!

The bottom picture is of him racing down Gigi's driveway...the kid loves speed. He starts saying "higher, higher, Mama!" as soon as I put him on the swings before I can even start pushing him! I am debating taking him to the Washington County Fair in a couple weeks so he can ride some kiddie rides - I think he'd love it. Plus he'd love the animals...