Two Year old Check In

On Monday, I took Henry to visit with his doctor for his two year old check in. She said he was doing great and looked perfect for his age. He was a little shy, but did enjoy talking with her. She was very impressed with his ability to articulate words and make sentences.

He did very well while she examined him, even though he did want to hold my hand the whole time. The funniest thing he told her was when she went to listen to his heart. She showed him the stethoscope and said let's listen to your heart and offered him to touch it and he put my hand on it and told her, "midwife listen to mommy's belly baby first". Dr. Helton thought it was pretty cute. he has been talking about listening and see the baby at the midwives now for a few days so, I think the appointment after next we will have to take him with us.

Here are is I guess doctor official two year old stats. He is 25 pounds and 12 ounces and is 34 inches tall. If you have heard the old wives tales about height then he should be about 5 foot 8 as an adult, which is probably about right, but we will have to wait and see.

Henry's First Day of School (sort of)

Today was the first day of Tiny Tigers for Henry and he was super excited about going to school like Papa. Tiny Tigers is a playgroup type program run by high school students at Urbana High, which is one block from our house. It is on Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour and half for about 8 weeks in the fall and spring. It is nice that it is so close by and just a short time. I think Henry is going really going to enjoy going as he is ready to go back already.

Henry was very excited to pack his new backpack with his things and head out the door to school. He proudly told the neighbor that he was going to school today. He enjoyed the short walk over to the school and talked about going the whole way.
Henry was happy to go right into the room and start playing. He wanted a tractor, but settled for a bus to play with when we got there. I left him shortly after filling out the paper work, because he was happy and he stayed for the rest of the time on his own. He actually told me before we left the house to go, "Mommy stay home, Henry go to school."

He was glad to see me when they brought him down and they said he had a great time. He was happily showing me his paper plate artwork and declared he was ready for a snack. He had a lot of fun I think. Here is conversation we had about his time at school on our walk home:

me: What did you do at school?
Henry: Snack, crackers, graham cracker snack, Henry eat it all up, om
Translation: They had a graham cracker snack that he enjoyed.

me: Did you read any books?
Henry: Sure, mouse and cookie
Translation: We read if you give a mouse a cookie.



Me: What did you make?
Henry: Henry draw Henry's eyes
Translations: They drew pictures of their faces on paper plates.

It was fun to have a conversation with him about what he did. He is growing so big and loving learning everything around him.

Henry's TWO!!!

Henry turned two, and I still can't quite believe it. It has been and amazing two years with such great growth and changes. I know his third will be just as wonderful!

Henry was so excited about his birthday this year which was lots of fun. He enjoyed inviting his friends to his Tractor Birthday and talking about it for days before. He would tell people there was going to be a tractor cake with two fires.

On the morning of his birthday he was so excited to see the Happy Birthday Banner hanging up and had to touch it and show it to anyone in the room. At breakfast we lit the birthday ring from his Mamu and he was very excited to blow out the candles. These were the only candles he would blow out all day. After that he just wanted them lit so he could watch them. He even requested that Daniel light the fireplace, but we told him it was just too hot.


He opened the present from us that morning and was so excited to find his "Farmhouse" finished. He loved pulling off the paper. He put his animals in it and his tractors and even tried to get inside himself.



It was so much fun when his friends arrived that evening for his party. He wanted to show them all his things and actually did very well sharing. They all seemed to enjoy finding animals in the hay and just playing together. I think the best part for Henry though was the tractor cake, even though he did not eat any. He loved sitting with it, with the candles lit and all of us singing to him. He learned the Happy Birthday song and walked around most of the evening singing, which was pretty cute.

Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us and in spirit. Henry had so much fun!

Food Processing

Checkout: Food Processing with Kate and Ben,

for some pictures of our Sunday afternoon with our friends and the picture of 100lbs of peppers only shows about 80. There were a lot of peppers when we start, a lot, but we managed to grill them all. Henry and Asher help moving and eating the raw peppers. The pizzas were great, and the bacon was awesome. I am looking forward to enjoying the cherry tomatoes.

We are growing around here

Henry, our amazing about to be two year old, has grown and changed so much just in the last few weeks it seems. He is truly becoming a big boy. He has stopped nursing and is doing very well with going potty , even though we still have a long way to go there before officially being done. He is talking, telling stories and singing songs which are all so much fun to watch and hear. Well, he has one more big growing up thing he is learning about too, that we thought you all might be interested in knowing. He is learning about being a big brother.

Yes, it true we are hoping to welcome a new addition into our family in March. We are all very excited. We will let you know more about him or her as things progress.

Garden plot

Henry loves collecting things from the garden. His favorite thing to pick is green beans and he will declare as soon as we drive up at the garden, "Henry pick beans." He can pick the low ones with some help. Normally, he puts them in the basket or bag after I (Daniel) give them to him.




In the last few weeks it has been time to dig up our potatoes and that has been loads of fun for Henry. He enjoyed crawling through the dirt last fall as we dug potatoes, but this year he does even more.



He tries to use his shovel just like Daniel. He is always excited to find one in the dirt and put it in the bag.



Our garden is starting to wind down with summer crops and we are trying to get ready for a fall crops. We hope to get a nice fall crop of Kohlrabi, lettuces, greens and hopefully some sugar snaps. It has been a lot of fun to have this little garden plot and we have learned a lot about what works best out there.

Henry 23 months

I can't believe Henry will be two next month, but I thought before it happened I should let you know what he is up too.

He has really been fine tuning most of the skills he has already gained. He can walk up and down stairs without holding on if needed. He can put on his shoes, even though sometimes on the wrong feet. He can help more with dressing and undressing. He can Run too!

His verbal skills are ever increasing. His vocabulary is still growing by leaps and bounds. He asked us to "Get on Board" his carbon-board box airplane yesterday. It is just amazing the phrases and words, he learning from his environment. He can make sentences with 4 to 5 words and almost always communicate, what he is trying to say.

It is also wonderful to see his imagination growing and developing. He is beginning to really get into pretend play. Daniel found him a cardboard box the other day that has been a parking garage for his Bobby car, a boat, and most often an airplane. He also was pretending to go to the store and would some back with different groceries for you (mostly moo, milk, and animal crackers). He pretends to cook in his kitchen still and will cook you up and egg and cheese sandwich or some asparagus if you ask. I did not realize how amazing it would be to watch his play change and grow.