my two year old

I really didn't expect to be sad on Henry's birthday, but I was surprised... All day I just couldn't get over how big he is, and that I have a TWO YEAR OLD.  Oh time, slow yourself down... unless it's 4:30PM, then time needs to speed up until Matt gets home... then it can slow down again.  I don't want you to grow up and turn into a stinky little boy.  Stay a toddler please.  Oh minus the tantrums and getting potty trained would be good too... okay, I guess you can grow up, but promise to still love me when you get married.  Sweet, sweet Henry.

Henry is HUGE!  He is 37 inches tall (even greater than the 95th percentile).  So if we do the "double your height at age two" calculation, he will be 6'2" when he's fully grown.  Taller than Dad.  He is 31.3 lbs. That's the 85th percentile.  And his head, as usual is up there in the 95th percentile.

Besides the fact that he doesn't eat veggies and probably drinks too much juice (and chocolate milk), the two year well check was fabulous, and Henry is doing great.

I just love my little man.  I love that he loves to cuddle and "howold hands."  He is so affectionate, potentially an introvert, but will show off and come out of his shell when he discovers he can get a laugh out of someone.  That sounds like me... minus the affectionate part. :)

We still love our "abooboowa" games.  That's Henry for Basketball.

Henry and Benny on the bday.

Ummmm... Look at that form!!!  Impressive if I might say so.

He is from Austin, friends.  JK he was trying to climb the tree, but instead it looks like he is hugging it.

the glory days

I willingly admit that I am not nearly as funny as I once was.  Vain as that comment may be... it's true, particularly on this blog.  Perhaps it's because I no longer have all day to get into the creative "flow," perhaps it's because caring for little ones is a serious job and it takes me awhile to get out of serious mode sometimes... or maybe I'm just getting older and more mature... Nah.

Anyway, sometime last week, I looked at some of my very first posts, and I remembered what it was like to be funny.  Ha. Jk. Sort of.  Anyway, for those of you who might be newcomers, I am going to link a few of my favorites from the very beginning of this blog.  (Note: Somewhere along the way, I imported another blog, so if you look on the side, it appears that my first posts were in 2006, but that is actually not true... the first posts on Gibbizarre were in 2008.)

I narrowed it down to five.  And they are mostly short - I've gotten long-winded in my old age.  But I promise they are funny... or funnier than mom-Leah's posts.  Hard to believe it's almost been FOUR years since I wrote them. ENJOY!

1- about Matt's refusal to put his shoes where they belong.  http://gibbizzle.blogspot.com/2008/08/youd-think-we-dont-have-shoe-rack.html
2- about some confusion with a meat thermometer. http://gibbizzle.blogspot.com/2008/08/meat-thermometer.html
3- about my unfortunate bout with donuts... http://gibbizzle.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-happens-when-leah-eats-donuts.html
4- about the time I drove a PT cruiser voluntarily... http://gibbizzle.blogspot.com/2008/09/cruisin-together.html and more about how I regretted it. http://gibbizzle.blogspot.com/2008/09/regretting-pt-cruiser-decision.html

negotiating and other stuff

Henry likes to negotiate.  Before bedtime, we will tell him he can pick "one" book, and he will say, "HIVE (five) books!  TEN books!"  He knows that five and ten are greater than one, so he is always asking for "five" of everything.

He is learning to count to ten, but he almost always forgets number 2... after that, it's fifty-fifty on whether or not he remembers the numbers 6 and 7.

Alphabet is coming along.  He surprises me with the letters he knows... mainly because I haven't taught him anything except for H-E-N-R-Y. :)  I will thank Matt, the iPad, and his Mimi for teaching him letters.

Oh, this is cute.  I sometimes (or a lot of times) get diet coke from McDonald's.  Well, I have given Henry sips...  I ask him, "Do you want a sip?"  It occurred to us recently that Henry actually thinks that the diet coke is called a "sip."  So the other day he was drinking his water, and I said, "Take another sip!"  That was the end of it with the water... he thought I was offering him soda.  So whenever he sees me with my soda he says, "Mama's sip."  So funny.

Since we always ask Henry, "Do you want me to help you?"  Whenever he asks for help he says, "Help you... Mama."  Which really means, "Mama, help me!"

He still loves his mega blocks.  He is past towers and now wants us to build animals.  So we'll sit there and "decide" what to build and Henry will go, "How aboooooouuuuuuut... a girafe!" "How abooooouuuuut.... a PIG!" Etc, etc.

So lame that it's blurry, but I love him in his batman shirt.

Sweet little profile.  Someone needs a haircut.

The "giraffe" we built with his blocks.

He often lays down in the middle of the floor... this is in the middle of our driveway.  Safe, I know.

heart

Henry likes for me to draw pictures for him, which is comical considering my artistic abilities... but I can handle hearts, basketballs, and snowmen.

Awhile ago, I was drawing a heart and said, "Henry, do you know what a heart represents?"  He waits... "A heart represents LOVE!"  And Henry's response was, "JESUS!" So precious.

Another morning, Henry actually slept a full night in his bed, and then in the morning he came in our room, and we said, "Henry, did you have a good night's sleep in your bed?"  And his response was, "Yes!  JESUS!"  Of course we aren't sure what that meant... maybe he dreamed about Jesus, who knows.  So we said, "Was Jesus with you last night (or something along those lines)?"  "Yes," he responded.  I don't know, but I loved it. :)

And while we're on the topic, one time when we were coloring I asked Henry what I should draw, and his response was Jesus...  Uh, that's hard for me.  But I can draw stick figures... so I drew Jesus on the cross, and tried to explain to Henry that he was sad... but then realized that Henry doesn't understand death, so Henry was under the impression that Jesus was sad because he was "sleeping" on the cross.  Then I had to try to explain that now he was happy again because he didn't stay asleep forever.  Probably botched that, but thankful that the effectiveness of the gospel doesn't depend on my eloquence... or my artistic abilities. :)

wait a minute!

This is one of Henry's new favorite phrases...

He will be walking through the house, say, like when we are getting ready to leave to go somewhere and he will stop and say, "Wait a minute!"

The other thing he's into right now is batteries.  He wants to take the batteries out of all of his toys that have them (those screw on battery covers are a blessing and a curse, in this case a blessing).  And if something takes longer than .05 seconds to turn on, like the iPad for instance, he will say, "Oh no!  It's out of batteries."  (Which really sounds like, "Oh no, sowa ba-ee...")  So Matt and I are the only ones who would ever know what he was saying.  Anyway, usually after the iPad turns on, he will say, "That's better!"  (Has be-er.)

He's also really into things being broken.  Crayons, toys, etc...  "Oh no, it broke!" is a phrase we hear often.  He says it with the sweetest little concerned/frowny face.  One time the HEB buddy bucks machine was broken (travesty, I tell you), and now whenever we talk about going to get buddy bucks he says, "It broke" with a frown on his face.  If it weren't for the fact that he refuses to perform his tricks in front of a camera or other people, then Henry would be a great actor... lots of drama (no idea where he could possibly get that)!

The last thing for this post is that the other day, I was driving through Starbucks of course, and Henry started to say the things I normally say about a half of a second before me.  I guess I am a creature of habit... and he is paying attention.  So when we pulled up to the intercom to order, he said, "Hi," literally like two seconds before I was going to say it.  Then when we pulled up to the window again, he said "hi" and "thank you" just right before I was about to say them.  He also tries to repeat my order, "Grande coffee with cream," but he's not quite there yet. :)

life before children. a fading memory.

After Henry was born, I remember people asking me, "Do you ever remember what it was like before you had kids?"  And at the time, I could honestly say that yes, I remembered.  But I'm not gonna lie... my memory of our life before kids is becoming hazy.  I do often think to myself, "What did I DO?  What did I do with my time?"  I'm sorry if that statement is annoying to some of you pre-kid people.  I definitely was not overly gracious to my friends who had children before me, so if you want to hate me, I probably deserve it. :) If I was in that position now, I would offer to babysit, ask tons of questions, and not be so naive.

We are coming up on two years of life as mommy and daddy, and life has not been and will not be the same.  It's harder, but it's a good hard.  And I am so thankful for my sweet boys every single day.

One of the sweetest things Henry does is that when we are cuddling (you know, in the middle of the night in mommy and daddy's bed), he will take my hand and put it wherever he wants me to scratch him... usually behind his ear or neck, or a lot of times he wants me to hold and stroke his hand while he falls asleep.  I just love these sweet little moments and try to remember them and be thankful for them.

I wasn't feeling so hot this weekend, and I started to tell Matt that I thought it would be nice when the boys are old enough to sit and cuddle through an entire movie... then I realized that when they are both that old, they might not WANT to cuddle anymore. :(  So I am going to treasure this time while Henry is still a momma's boy because I know it will not last.

growing up so fast

Henry is going to be two on Sunday, and I can hardly believe it.  In honor of our little man, I am going to post this week about some of the two-year old things he is doing... the things that are so sweet that I do not want to forget. :)  So this is mainly for me, but if you're interested, by all means, read on.

One of our favorite things he does right now is that he will be begging for something, then when we acknowledge his request, he responds as if he was never begging for it and we had just offered it out of the blue... best explained with an example dialogue.  It normally goes something like this.

Henry: "Miiiilk!  Millllllk!  Miiiiilk!"
Mom or Dad: "You want milk?"
Henry" "Otaaay."

(I realize it's not nearly as funny when I type it out.)

The other funny/sweet thing he says these days... If Sam is crying in the other room, he will go, "OH NO!  Hammy crying!" (Hammy = Sammy, clearly)

The last thing for tonight is that he is really into the sizes of things... like if something is big or little.  He and Matt throw rocks at the pond, and he wants to find and throw BIG rocks.  When he finds a big rock (or a big anything else for that matter), he says "A BIG ONE!"  But it sounds like "a bug one."

fake babies

Last weekend Matt and I hauled the boys to a dance competition that my high school-aged sister in laws were performing in.

I noticed while we were there that there were not many young children or babies- I guess most families with high school aged kids have that generational gap where there are no babies around.  But not if you belong to Matt's family... when he was in high school his sisters were babies, and now that they are in high school WE have babies who get to come around and watch them.

So ANYWAY.  I had actually noticed to myself that I was in a place with no children for once (unlike the other places I frequent, church and Target). BUT as we were leaving, I spotted from a distance another infant car seat!  I said out loud, "Yay! Another baby!"

But as we approached the baby, and I proceeded to try to make eye contact with the mommy, you know what I noticed?  It was a PRETEND baby... and the mommy was a junior high student!  Home economics 101!  Lame.

It took everything in me not to scare the 13 year old by asking her if she wanted to practice with the real thing.  I never took a home ec course or got practice with a fake baby, so I guess I can't be sure, but I'm gonna assume that those fake babies are nowhere NEAR as challenging as the real thing.

I mean, surely they are not smart enough to wait till they have clean diapers on to poop in them.  I doubt they have blowouts.  I doubt they have gas.  I doubt they flail their arms and legs because they have no control of them and need to be swaddled in order to sleep.  I doubt they are smart enough, once swaddled, to then immediately poop so that mommy must unswaddle them again.  They definitely aren't smart enough to start crying without fail the very second that their two year old brother is going down for a nap.  No way.

Of course they don't smile either, so I highly doubt they are anywhere NEAR as fun!  They probably don't "coo" at you or talk to you or steal your heart!

Dear Sammers, I wouldn't trade you for a fake baby in a million years.

Forgive the red eyes - I was too lazy to correct!

my husband is a show off

Romantic is not me.  But I'll take Valentines Day.

I was walking through Central Market yesterday, and I saw tons of red roses... it occurred to me for the first time that I do not really like red roses.  (Like I said, not a romantic.)  True story, Matt gets me red roses often.  So last night I confessed to Matt that I don't really like them and told him not to get me red roses for Valentines Day.

This afternoon I tried unsuccessfully for almost two hours to put Henry down for a nap.  In fact, I was starting a blog post after I thought he had fallen asleep, only to have to put it away because he was still awake. (Did I mention that those door handle cover lock thingys were good for about two weeks before Henry figured out how they worked?  I want my money back!)  So we're back to square one with the naps.

Anyway, as I am holding Henry's door shut, imagine my delight when I hear husband coming through the front door! (Of course that's only after being somewhat frightened that it was an unwelcome intruder and not husband.)  Imagine my delight FURTHER when I saw he had ORANGE roses in his hands, chocolate covered strawberries, and he told me he was home FOR THE DAY... like staying here, not leaving to go back to work.  It couldn't have come on a better day... a day when toddler decides he's not gonna have a nap and baby's having trouble too - mainly because toddler is really loud.

I hope Matt knows that he doesn't HAVE to be awesome on VD... cause I truly do not have expectations, but like I said, I'll take it.  He is such a show off.

So I'm not an artist.

Today I was coloring with Henry.  I decided to draw his eyes.  Then I kept going...

Leah: "Should I draw your nose?"
Henry: "Yes!"
Leah: "And here's your mouth, with your teeth.  Here's your ears. Should I draw your face?"
Henry: "Yes!"
Leah: "There's your face, now let's draw your hair... look, all done! It's Henry!"
Henry: "A MONSTER!"

I think he's right.  It definitely looks more like a monster than a little Henry.