Happy Birthday, Henry! The Big 2!

Today was Henry's birthday. Alicia made him pancakes for his breakfast. Karina didn't come with Alicia b/c she wasn't feeling well.

I had a meeting at school at 9AM. As soon as it was done, I came back home because we had an appointment with Patty Cakes, which is a company that makes molds of children's hands and/or feet and then bronzes them. When the person from Patty Cakes arrived, he showed us different layouts and such. Henry was fairly patient during this process, although I did give him a "time out" warning when he tried to climb the glass shelves in the dining room. The Patty Cakes fellow commented on how it shouldn't be too hard as Henry seemed like an easy-going child. Jeff and I paused and then said that he was "some times" an easy-going child and to expect him to act otherwise when asked to do the molds. The man laughed. He said that was good to know. He anticipated that it would go well b/c of our warning. Had we said it would be no problem at all, that's when he'd expect problems. He told us not to ask Henry to do the molds. It would go more smoothly if we just had him do it with no "question" offered to him given his age. And the process did indeed go smoothly. We should have prints of Henry's hands and feet back to us in 8-12 weeks. We're planning to have his Wall-E crocs bronzed too, but we had left them at Grammy and Poppy's house. Those will have to be done later.

In the afternoon, we went to the park. As of late, Henry's been making request for the "park" almost as often as requests for "o-tube," "computer," "pictures," and "Jungle Book." Henry had a great time. He even went on the really big slide that's incredibly steep on the big jungle gym for 5 to 12 year olds (with Jeff's help). Sigh. Luckily, I didn't see it. It probably would have stopped my heart. I was swinging Miss R at the time.

We met Grammy and Poppy at Swenson's. This was Miss R's first trip there. Henry was pleased that the train that travels around the restaurant was working. Miss R was mesmerized by it. They spit a children's menu grilled cheese sandwich and fries. Miss R loved the meal. Henry enjoyed birthday cake ice cream. Miss R wasn't that excited about it, much to my surprise. But she drank tons of water.

Afterward, we went to Grammy and Poppy's house so that Miss R could get used to the idea of going to their house. She wasn't a big fan of Indiana, who was trying to lick her. She has a slight fear of dogs, although she has overcome this to pet Roger on a few occasions. Henry got landed in "time out" for lightly kicking Ramses. It wasn't hard, and I suspect he was just trying to push our buttons. He didn't stay in time out long b/c the time out location is the crib and he was trying to figure out how to climb out of it. He'd hurt himself if he succeeded getting over the railing. Double sigh.

Henry announced that he had to "potty" to Jeff with 23.7 seconds left in the Chicago-Boston playoff game that was in triple overtime. Turned out that he didn't really have to go potty; he just didn't want to watch b-ball.

We came home b/c Miss R was really tired. I put her into the crib b/c Jeff frowned when I suggested putting her directly into our bed. Henry watched some of the Jungle Book. I talked with Carolyn on the telephone, asking about dogs and air travel. When I got off the telephone, Jeff had already taken Henry to bed. I went to check on them. Miss R is in my spot (guess Jeff changed his mind), and Henry is dropped on his Daddy pillow on the other side of the bed. They all look comfy.

It is hard to believe how much our lives have changed in the past two years. Henry has changed so much in the past year, let alone two years. He still looked like a baby this time last year. Now, he is tall and has hair (enough to get a haircut!). Not only can he walk, but he can run and climb. His vocabulary is stellar as is his enunciation most of the time. I'm just as dazzled by him now as I was last year, probably even more so if that's possible. He amazes me all of the time.

Henry is also getting into trouble more often...that's for sure. My mom claims that all kids do that. In her words, he is "typical," and I was no picnic as a toddler. I'm not sure that he is "typical." He seems to be a bit more of a handful than other children we've encountered on the playground. I was tempted today to entitle the engraving on his hand/foot print plaque as "A Handful of Trouble" (instead of "Handful of Joy," which was one of the suggested sayings). He is perhaps "typical" on steroids. And I'm not sure that the latter part is true regarding me being no picnic. I'm inclined to think that's just revisionist history. Her storyline on me used to be that I was independent and liked to be left alone in my playpen, which is a lot different from Henry. Henry was never very tolerant of the playpen. He is independent but wants his freedom too. Being an extrovert, he also wants an audience most of the time. He also tends to do the exact opposite of whatever we ask. Frankly, I wasn't expecting so much opposition until he hit puberty.

On tomorrow's agenda, I'm going down to Miss R's parental hearing to determine the outcome of whether or not she remains in foster care. In the afternoon, Shirly, Henry's PT, will be coming for her monthly visit.