The Henry Alert

On Friday, Grammy and Poppy picked up Henry and Miss R. Henry's teachers told them that they had a bit of a scare with Henry. As the kids were rounded up on the playground during their water activities as it was "water day," Henry was missing. They had to sound a missing child alert and look around the school top to bottom to find him. Apparently, he had climbed onto the big kids playground equipment without them noticing and was laying down on a high platform, not easily seen. Other than that, both Henry and Miss R had good days. They ate all of their meals. Miss R enjoyed watching the water but didn't want to get wet.

On Saturday morning, Miss R was the first person up. That's a first. She got up at 6:30AM or so. I made the kids pancakes...very good ones if I do say so myself. We gave them a bath because Miss R's hair had been in braids. The braids were looking unkempt, so they had to come out. It just works out better if I condition her hair after the braid come out. While in the bath tub, I asked Henry about school and what he did yesterday. He talked about Miss Lulu and Miss Stephanie.

After his bath, he announced that he wanted to go shopping.

HENRY: Shopping.
KATE: You want to go shopping?
HENRY: Uh-huh.
KATE: What do you want to buy?
HENRY: New toys.
KATE: Well, we'll have to do that later. Today, we're going to the mountain.

As we packed the kids and Roger into the car, Jeff was holding a Trader Joe's bag of supplies. When Henry saw the bag which had "Trader Joe's" on it, he said the name. Again, this raises the question of whether or not he can read. We've only taken Henry there a couple times. And every time that I'm the one taking him there, I've forgotten the reusable bags (so that doesn't explain why he could clearly identify the bags).

We went to Grammy and Poppy's house to meet up with Aunt Carolyn and Aunt Erin. We caravaned up to Rose Canyon. The Twins were super loud and crazy in the car until we put in a lullaby CD. Then all was quiet. We may have to run it through a permanent loop in our home speaker system!

Rose Canyon was packed, but we walked around the lake. Henry got compliments on his eye lashes and monkey backpack/leash. Miss R insisted that I carry her most of the way, but then she had an inspired independent streak. She walked whichever direction she chose (ususally the opposite of where I wanted her to go) and if I tried to persuade her to head another way, I received a resounding "No!" response.








We headed up the mountain a couple more miles to some picnic spots after we walked around the lake at Rose Canyon. Rose Canyon was too packed to attempt to find an open grill. We found a nice spot near Loma Linda. We were all hungry by this point. Jeff got the grill started, and Carolyn grilled veggie hot dogs and Boca burgers. I brought vegan potato salad, which I made; Miss R liked it a lot. The kids had lots of dried strawberries. Henry enjoyed swinging from a branch of a tree near Erin. Miss R liked walking up and down hills and looking at pine needles.









On the way back down the mountain, Henry, Miss R, and I took short naps. When we got back home, the kids were again full of energy. They had a decent sized dinner. Henry really wanted pureed green beans from the cupboard. Not only did he eat all of his portion, but he also did an excellent job with his spoon. Miss R made a huge mess. We played in the playroom (formerly known as the dining room). We went for a walk around dusk and ran into our neighbors. When we returned home, we gave the kids another bath. Henry and Miss R had dirt on their bodies and faces. We read in the living room. Then, the kids went to bed. A very full day.

Tomorrow, we are probably going to Joel's for breakfast and to the zoo (which was a Henry request). In the late afternoon, we'll head over to Brian and Erin's for Brian's birthday bash.