2.5 years old!

Oh my goodness that sounded old when I typed that title just now. I'm used to months, not years. This child is growing up too fast! H is napping right now, but I will take pictures of him and post those later.

Henry,

Today you are 2.5 years old! You have changed so much since you first turned 2 I told your Daddy today that I don't know what you'll be like 6 months from now when you turn 3!

You love to help Mommy (or anyone that asks you) around the house with chores and you love to have a special job. I really love this stage of joyful helping in you! You can help me with the laundry, you love to help me with the Swiffer, you put your toys and books away when asked (most of the time!)

You tell us about everything! You are very observant. You like to figure the world out around you because you will tell me what people are and aren't doing, "Mommy's upstairs, Henry's upstairs, Daddy's not upstairs, Rouge is not upstairs." You are repeating sentences we say or phrases and if I tell you to say something like "come back soon or I love you", etc. you say things without any hesitation. You have come so far in just the last 6 months. We are so proud of you! You know all your colors, shapes, letters, and numbers. You can also read your name as well as the words stop and go. You're a smart boy, Henry!

You can finish almost all the sentences in the books that we read. You are really into puzzles. You can do 24 and 48 piece puzzles with little help if any help at all. You can even do the puzzles you're familiar with upside down (your Daddy taught you that one) You love to play with trains and tracks and set up a whole set of tracks yourself. You love to give your friends sweet hugs and wave to people. You are always wanting us to sit down and do a puzzle or play with toys with you. You really love quality time with the people you love and get so much joy from playing with others. You love dancing and music. You know a lot of the different instruments. Just this weekend we were strolling down the street and there was a pair of musicians playing a guitar and violin together. We were too far away for you to see them but, you exclaimed, "violin!" because you knew what the violin sounded like. I was pretty impressed you knew the instrument by sound!

You are going through a shy stage- it is no surprise to me! Your Mommy and (especially) your Daddy were both shy at your age (and older). We encourage you to not be shy and you always seem to come around. You have weekly playdates with your buddy, Hudson, and you both get along really well together! You are definitely a person who needs to feel comfortable with others before you show them your fun, sweet, and silly side. But Mommy and Daddy are/were the same way too, so we know how you feel! :) You go to the two's class at Mommy's Bible study at GIG each week and you have a lesson and play. I love that you are getting such good time in church. You also go to your class at our church Sunday mornings. You go to playgroup each week and we also sprinkle in some playdates with your other buddies when we can. You love to go on errands with me and go to restaurants. You love to play outside. You take longer naps sometimes two hours or more and some days in the last couple of months you don't take a nap but still have quiet rest time in your crib.

You are in 3T and some 4T  for Fall/Winter. You trimmed up and got taller so you wore a lot of the same things this past summer that you wore the summer before and the same goes for the Fall/Winter this year for separates like pants and shirts. You are in an 8.5 shoe and wear size 5 (3T-4T) pullups. We haven't started the potty training yet, but you know what a potty is and you have one that you sit on if you want to. You know that everyone goes to the potty and we have books that we read about the potty. I wanted to wait to start potty training with you until January-February when we don't have much going on. Thinking about squeezing potty training in with our busy schedule just doesn't seem worth it to me right now. I don't even think you're interested in it enough right now anyway. You have started having timeouts in the past month and you have responded really well to that.

Henry, we love you SO much! Our lives are definitely more full because of you and I cannot imagine this world without you. You are our greatest joy! We are so proud of you and we're so thankful that YOU are our son!

Update

So it's been so long since I've updated that Blogger has a completely new way to make a post! But I like it. Henry is almost 2.5 on the 9th of this month I can hardly believe it! I will do a post on him at 2.5. I have been on an unintentional blog vacation. Every time I put the blog on my 'to do'  list something else would come up. I do want to keep updating though! I have tons of pictures since April and lots of stories to go with them. :)

Growing, growing...

13 Months

14 Months

15 Months

16 Months

17 Months

18 Months

19 Months

20 Months

21 Months

22 Months

23 Months

24 Months

Henry is two!

Henry, today you are two years old. In so many ways I can see you as a two year old, but it's still hard to wrap my mind around the fact that you are officially two. You are so handsome, smart, funny, and sweet.


You love to study everything around you-toys, nature, books, puzzles. You love to find matches with your surroundings and it constantly stops us in our tracks when we observe all you can do!

You love to wrestle with Daddy and I love to see you two have so much fun together. You love to go on little errands with me to the store or the library. You like to go to church and get excited when you see the building. You love to dump all your toys out onto the floor and pick them up again.

You are very particular about things being put away or finished. But to you it's just how you play. If there's a mess, (which you love to make messes and see if you can get away with it) you'll say 'Uh ohhh' and stack things back the way they belong. You are silly and love to dance. You have always found rhythm everywhere around you and like silly songs and love to dance to both. You can turn the light switch on and off.

You love to play with all your little friends and so many people love you so much. You still love Bunny soooo much and don't see him as often since he stays in your crib upstairs, but whenever it's time to sleep you get excited to see him again. :) You love to throw and kick balls. You love to play with your construction toys. You love your Magna Doodle and enjoy coloring. You love to explore things outside and rip apart leaves and flowers and dig in the dirt and the gravel. You always bring me huge rocks you find at the park.

You are constantly counting things around you, making matches, and naming your letters and learning colors. You're back in a books phase so we spend time reading together. You're my little wanderer and don't like to stay in one place. You're always, always exploring.

Henry, we love you so much and can hardly believe you're already two years old. The Lord has given us such a special gift to have you as our son. It thrills us to be your parents. You are so much fun! Every day is filled with laughter, hugs, and kisses from you and it's so fun to wake up and spend time with you each day! We love you sweet boy!

Easter Sunday

Moving upstairs

I have been meaning to post pictures of Henry's room upstairs since January when we moved him up there. We went cold turkey with the move and he did great! We turned his nursery downstairs into an office on one side of the room for Caleb and Henry's play"room" on the other side of the room. It's worked out great and Caleb and I are really enjoying not having to whisper or tiptoe around after Henry goes to bed. It's been a great transition for all of us and makes our small house feel twice as big. We moved my loozieloo space upstairs to the loft and I have LOVED having that space. That's for another blog post though. Here are pictures of H's room.

We painted the walls the same grey as most of our house and used all the same nursery furniture and accessories and I added a couple of little things we already had to personalize it. Whenever he's old enough, I'll redo his room with a big boy bed, new colors, etc. but for now all his current furniture is all he needs!

View from the door. His crib is to the right behind the door and the full bath is on the left.

Looking back to the right

This is on the left of the room. It's an L shaped room around the bathroom.

Henry enjoys his chair from Granna & Papaw!

And that's the tour!

23 Months

Henry, you are 23 months old. You have little responsibilities that you help me with each day. You feed Rouge treats and get the biggest kick out of it. You're both gentle with each other in those moments (although you will accidentally kick or swat Rouge and not even know it) but she's super patient with you and knows how to stay out of the way. You can put your cup in the sink when you're done. You like to help me get Rouge in and out of her crate (Rouge jumps in and you watch and help me zip up the crate) when it's time to leave or we get back home. You are great at helping me to clean up toys with some gentle instruction from Mommy, but you're quick to catch on. Sometimes you even surprise us by picking up everything you're playing with at that moment and putting it back all on your own without me even asking!

You love, love, love to be outside and explore anything you can get your hands on. Sometimes I feel like I am begging you just to come in the door (after I've waited on you for forever already it seems) so I know you love to tear flowers apart, find sticks, pick flowers, grass, clovers, sort rocks from the grass, behind bushes and explore nooks. You love to dig around in the dirt.

You ask to color more now and your coloring has some longer, wider strokes than just lines like it used to. You don't pick your crayon up off the page as you used to you understand how to go from side to side. I've seen your latest work and you included some loops too. You like to make dots as well. You love to visit the library and help me return the books by putting them into the chute.


I've mentioned this Will.I.Am video you love to watch before and lately you have got the motions down and do those with the video and have picked up on the echoes and usually repeat at the right time if you're in the mood to do so. So cute. You're working hard to go up and down steps like a big boy without my help. So far we've had one big tumble (down 5 concrete steps...) at the playground, but otherwise you've done great! You have gone down a big boy spiral slide all by yourself and stayed upright by the end haha and this was after you climbed up the playground steps all by yourself too! I was proud and sad at the same time to see how much you're growing up!


You like to test me sometimes, but overall a you're a great listener. You're in a books phase again and enjoy being read to a lot. You love to have the same book read over and over and over again. You clap at the end of each song on the radio and get upset if I have to turn the music down to talk to someone.


You love being with people, but you also need your downtime too. You walk yourself to your nursery classroom now and you're so proud of yourself you strut down the hall (unless you're running and then you're just a blur.) You know what our church looks like and always point and smiles and say "eee" at it and get excited when we pull into the parking lot each Sunday.

You love to sit between us before meals and holds our hands and pray with us. You love wrestling with Daddy. You're in a Dada and Baba (Mama) phase right now, which is fun! We'll go for your 2 year (gasp) appointment next month, but for right now you're in some 2T separates, but mostly 3T for jon jons, etc. size 5 diaper, and size 8 shoe.

You're getting your 2 year molars and have done pretty well so far. You are taking shorter naps (an hour once a day is an accomplishment) and waking up early again (5-6am). Hoping you'll get back into your old hours of an 1.5 hour nap and sleeping until 7am...one can hope. You still love to watch the Grinch from the 1960s and is into The Cat in The Hat and Curious George on PBS as well as Sesame Street and Super Why. You can say the sounds for M,W, and Z now. You count everything in sight and make matches all the time. You're our smart boy! You are also beginning to pick up on your colors, which is fun to see you learn!

(telling me he's almost 2)

We love you so much, Henry and celebrate your precious life each and every day!