Happy Fifth Birthday Henry!

This has been another fabulous year for you Henry. You started school and learned so many new things (most notably, Spanish). You impress us each day with things you tell us. When we ask where you learned that you tell us in your “oh duh” voice that you learned it at school. We can tell you’re torn between being a little kid and turning into a big kid. Embrace all those little kid moments as much as you can but learn from and enjoy those big kid moments too.

You made a lot of new friends this year and it has been so much fun to watch you interact with each one of them. We have watched you gain your independence as you go on ‘play dates’ and attend birthday parties without me and dad. You often negotiate to stay up later by trading in stories so you can play with your friends (“I want zero stories tonight so I can play outside with Murray and Leo”)

You are the best big brother anyone could ever ask for. Felix looks at you in awe and wants to be exactly like you. You are so great at calming him down when he gets crabby and I’m always impressed by your ability to make him laugh when no one else can. I hope you continue to learn from each other and hold on to that deep love and respect you clearly have for one another.

You have become so great at communicating. Just the other day you told me you sometimes get frustrated (building legos) but that you know it’s better to stop and take a break than to scream and cry in frustration. You’re funny. One of your current phrases that always makes us laugh is “one never knows.” (“Will mom read stories tonight or will dad? One never knows”) You really listen to everything going on around you and you’ve always been great at understanding the context of things.

Your favorite toys right now are legos. You love to follow the directions and build huge things but you also love to take a random pile and create something all your own. It’s amazing to watch your creativity and patience as you build. You love books and you’re starting to read a few words. We read the Diary of a Whimpy Kid series most nights before bed and you try to read many of the words along with dad and me. Your favorite show is “Drake and Josh” and I’m fairly certain the entire family has seen every episode. Other favorite things right now are magic tricks (you put on quite a show!) and you still love superheroes and cars.

Dad picked one of his favorite quotes and put in on our calendar for this month in honor of your birthday and I really love it. “When they tell you to grow up, they mean stop growing” – Tom Robbins. I hope you never stop growing.

A rambling update

A few months ago Henry announced to us that he could write his name and proceeded to do so. He's been practicing at school every day and waited until he knew the whole thing before he decided to share it with us. We're so proud of him! He's been writing a lot more every day and is slowly showing an interest in reading the words he sees all around him.

Meanwhile Felix seems to always be peeking around every corner.

For our holiday card Bill caught some great shots of the boys. Getting two kids to look at the camera at the same time AND smile? Truly an impressive feat. Brotherly love is best portrayed through pictures.

Cousin Lily came to visit us over Thanksgiving and the 3 kiddos went to see Santa. Unfortunately Henry and Felix came down with a little sickness the night before but they pushed on through and made the trip to the mall.

Henry is an aspiring rock star.

Felix is usually up to no good :)

Henry went on a fabulous trip to St. Maarten with gma and gpa!

Sailing on the pirate ship and loving every minute!

Felix specializes in making silly faces. This has to be our current favorite.

Henry with his self-applied face paint at the Children's museum:

he wanted to wash it off as soon as we got home. He's growing up way too fast.

Happy 1st Birthday Felix!

You are daring. Far more daring that your brother which is really saying something. I hope you always keep that fearless attitude toward life and continue to try new things without hesitation. (but please stop trying to climb to the highest point in the room, thanks!)

You are sensitive – not only about what you eat (hopefully you’ll get to try dairy for the first time very soon!) but about every aspect of your life. If someone looks at you wrong you’ll burst into tears and I love this about you because it makes you who you are.

You are loving. You love to be loved and always show us you love us by cuddling or snuggling or kissing us. If any one of us finds ourselves lying on the ground you are always quick to come over and attack us with your slobbery kisses. Your love for your brother is probably one of my most favorite things. I really hope you two never lose that connection that you clearly have.

You are expressive. You have very few words (mama, dada and yeah are really the only ones you seem to somewhat grasp the meaning of) but you still say a lot. Your smile lights up a room and your “angry face” can stop us in our tracks. You have 6 teeth, you can crawl at warp speeds and we’ve seen you take a few steps when you thought no one was looking.

We faced a few challenges this year with you, first when I had to learn what to eat to make sure I didn’t make you sick and then there were many many times I wondered if I’d ever sleep again. It was in these moments that I realized you’ll never need me as much as you do right now and I cherished every minute. I cannot wait to watch you become more and more independent but will always miss those late night meetings we had together.

Just like with your brother I hope to watch you become who you’ve always been without any of us changing your path. It’s been clear from day one that you have your own unique personality and we really look forward to finding out who you are. I feel so lucky and proud to be your mom.

I can’t wait for our next trip around the sun together.
Xo
mom

Turns out having two kids is extremely time consuming

I've been a horrible blogger lately and hope to get back into the swing of things. So I'll start with a few cute pics from the last few months.

I just love this one of the two of them:


Felix has been standing unassisted (yet to be caught by a camera) for awhile and has even taken a few steps!


And I don't know whether it's because Felix is the 2nd child and therefore less supervised or if he's just way more mischievous than Henry was, either way the kid makes a lot of huge messes!

It's dirt from a plant:


I'll finish with a cute Henry story. He has really been interested in letters lately now that he's in school and he can recognize all of them and write many of them. So he and I were saying the alphabet together as he pointed out each letter on his floor mats. We got to the end and he said "w, x, y, m, z...mom, where is the m?" I told him that it was "y and z" he was happy to know the answer but seemed a little annoyed. Sorry dude, I think they just put that "and" in there to confuse small children.

Henry's first day of school

Henry started school at Windom Dual Immersion School Spanish/English this year in their "High-5" (pre-k) program. Here he is on the first day of school:


Waiting for the bus:


Ice cream after school :)

Happy 4th Birthday Henry!

This has been a huge year for you Henry. You became a big brother, a role you have embraced from the day Felix was born. He already looks up to you and his face has always lit up when you talk to him. I can tell you two are going to have a lot of fun together (and maybe get into a little trouble too :)). I couldn’t ask for a better big brother to Felix, you are caring and compassionate and set a great example.

You’ve always been a good talker but this year you learned how to use your words in more than just the obvious ways of communication. You learned how to make jokes and be sarcastic, you asked in-depth questions about the things going on around you and you began to try and “make conversation” with complete strangers.

You’ve always been friendly and outgoing but this year you encountered situations that in your own words “made you feel a little shy.” And that is OK buddy, we all feel a little shy sometimes. Your dad and I are so proud of you in those situations as we watch you slowly open up as you become more comfortable.

You continued swimming lessons this year and have been swimming short laps in class doing real swimming strokes (frank and murrays :)) with no help from the teacher or any type of flotation. I hope you never lose your confidence in the water. You also started soccer this year and we watched as you got frustrated playing on a team. You’ve told us you never want to play again but I think you just might change your mind.

This year you started telling stories and asking us to tell you stories. You want to hear stories about when dad and I were little (“ tell me a story about a time someone was mean to you when you were a kid” “tell me a story about a time you did something nice for someone”) and we do our best to remember the details of our childhood so we can share it with you. During these stories you often share your worry with me that you’ll have trouble finding a wife and that you just don’t understand why I can’t be your wife. I cherish these little moments we have because I know one day soon you’ll feel completely differently about this subject.

Your love for superheroes, especially Iron Man, has been so interesting to watch this year. You’ve never seen the Iron Man movies but through bedtime stories and books you have asked us all to tell you the story of Iron Man (and others). I love that when I’m telling stories you want to know all about Iron Man’s girlfriend, something you never mention to your dada.
Your love for your family is truly beautiful. You love your grandma Deb, grandpa Jack and grandma Aka with no condition. You get excited at the mere prospect of seeing one of them and we know this is because they are so good to you. Kids see the truth in people and you’ve always been a good judge.

So as your 4th year of life comes to a close I want you to know how proud I am of the person you’ve become and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings. You have taught me so many things and I am so very lucky that I’m the one you call mom.

An adventure with Felix & Henry

Two weeks ago Bill and I flew to Boston to visit Bill's sister Sarah, her husband Mike and their gorgeous new baby, Lily. We decided it was best to go without the boys so we could actually spend time with Sarah, Mike and Lily and also because the thought of flying to Boston with both boys made me want to pull my hair out. So my parents generously offered to watch the boys for the long weekend we planned on going. In a moment of some sort of insanity they decided they would take the boys to Kansas City to visit the Brockways and Hayes. So Felix took his first flight and Henry went on the first flight that he remembers (St. Maarten '09 was his last one, he can't really remember it). Needless to say, they had a blast and so did we. Here are some of the fabulous pictures uncle Dave took of their weekend.
Fishing with Bryan:

Eyelash boy:

Bubbles!

Hanging with Jenny:

Brotherly cuteness: