Sunday, January 30, 2011
Soccer Game #2
We had our second soccer game yesterday. While there was a remarkable dropoff in enthusiasm for most of the Panthers compared to last week, Henry and Moses gave it all they had (seen below running their hearts out.) The game started 4 on 4, but there were many times when it was 2 on 2 or even 1 on 3. i9 sports is great for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that it is perfectly reasonable and acceptable for most of the kids to tune out when and if they choose. Henry scored three more goals (thereby surpassing my entire soccer career's total) and won the medal that is given out each week for a different value. This week's was respect, but I think it was more given to recognize the fact that Henry played as hard as he could. I am so proud of that boy.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Henry learns to ride a bike...
On Thursday I went to Academy and bought the cheapest 12 inch peddle bike they had (Huffy, Pro Thunder, $27). It doesn't even have real tires. The reason for buying a bike that's actually too small for him is if he starts to fall he can just put his feet down and stop himself, which is exactly what he did.
While Justin was out running 18 miles this morning (gah!) we had some time on our hands. We went outside, I got out the bike, I put E in her swing, and Henry and I went into the street (we have no sidewalks). I put my hands on his sides, underneath his armpits and told him to pedal. Once he got going I let go and just ran beside him. That was it. He rode up and down the street and then when dad returned, we went over to the parking lot near our house. He was riding up and down the ramps, all over, doing turns, going fast, slow, stopping, starting; yelling at me if I came near him.
The tires are already bald. The bike is a total piece. But it did it's job.
Henry is very excited he can join his friend Lowell, who inspired us all by learning to ride a bike months ago.
While Justin was out running 18 miles this morning (gah!) we had some time on our hands. We went outside, I got out the bike, I put E in her swing, and Henry and I went into the street (we have no sidewalks). I put my hands on his sides, underneath his armpits and told him to pedal. Once he got going I let go and just ran beside him. That was it. He rode up and down the street and then when dad returned, we went over to the parking lot near our house. He was riding up and down the ramps, all over, doing turns, going fast, slow, stopping, starting; yelling at me if I came near him.
The tires are already bald. The bike is a total piece. But it did it's job.
Henry is very excited he can join his friend Lowell, who inspired us all by learning to ride a bike months ago.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Park yesterday...
I couldn't find Henry playing with his friends and then I looked over and saw he was playing with his sister.
The other picture is Eleanor, Jane, and Joe, with Truly on the other side.
[slideshow]
The other picture is Eleanor, Jane, and Joe, with Truly on the other side.
[slideshow]
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The haps...
I taught Henry how to fold towels yesterday.
This morning I would not let Henry watch his hour of TV because he woke up too early. I think he's been waking up earlier and earlier (today 5:50) in anticipation of TV watching. After I made him lay in bed with me till 6:45 he asked if he could play his video game and I said no, but you can get dressed. He yelled, "I don't get to do anything special!". Sometimes I think my parenting decisions in the early morning are made more out of anger (revenge?) then out of good sense. I didn't get to sleep, you don't get TV. So there.
I'm not proud.
I taught Eleanor a body part. I say, "Where's your nose?" and she points to it. I am going to teach her the rest this week. That took 2 days of asking a few times a day.
Eleanor can repeat words, which is like a little window into the future. For instance, yesterday we were outside and a grackle was right next to us squawking, and I said, "Bird" and she repeated it exactly. She says, "book", "Kitty", and "Yes" too but she mainly is sticking to daily usage of "this" and "that" "mama" and "dada" and "key" (for kitty) and "dog". She is signing "more" and "milk" and yesterday I began teaching her the sign for "chicken" b/c when Henry did that sign it made Justin and I burst into huge smiles. It's the cutest sign ever.
Eleanor is a picky eater. She eats good portions but not a terribly wide variety. Definitely a sweet tooth and she goes for junk (health food junk, I guess). Her dream meal would be veggie booty, cheddar bunnies, squirtable fruit/veg, mac and cheese and yogurt bites. Add some raisins and frozen blueberries and that would be her ideal. She'll eat eggs, yogurt, tomatoes, oranges, grapes, kiwis, strawberries, melon, avocados, olives, cheese and crackers, sometimes rice, and lots and lots of oatmeal. She'll eat cod. That's about it.
We're no longer vegetarians. I call us meat-avoiders. We eat it about once a week. Fish and grass fed-beef only. There's been occasional exceptions for halal lamb, but only because the place down the street makes a slammin gyro. Henry ate it like candy yesterday. The real reason for our meat back-sliding is Franklins-which we get about 2x's a month and Quality seafood's fish N Chips. And because Henry loves sardines. We're not really preparing any meat at our house, except for the occasional organic, nitrate-free grass-fed all beef hotdog. I don't feel good about the hotdogs but it's only about 2X per month and they're just so easy to prepare.
This morning I would not let Henry watch his hour of TV because he woke up too early. I think he's been waking up earlier and earlier (today 5:50) in anticipation of TV watching. After I made him lay in bed with me till 6:45 he asked if he could play his video game and I said no, but you can get dressed. He yelled, "I don't get to do anything special!". Sometimes I think my parenting decisions in the early morning are made more out of anger (revenge?) then out of good sense. I didn't get to sleep, you don't get TV. So there.
I'm not proud.
I taught Eleanor a body part. I say, "Where's your nose?" and she points to it. I am going to teach her the rest this week. That took 2 days of asking a few times a day.
Eleanor can repeat words, which is like a little window into the future. For instance, yesterday we were outside and a grackle was right next to us squawking, and I said, "Bird" and she repeated it exactly. She says, "book", "Kitty", and "Yes" too but she mainly is sticking to daily usage of "this" and "that" "mama" and "dada" and "key" (for kitty) and "dog". She is signing "more" and "milk" and yesterday I began teaching her the sign for "chicken" b/c when Henry did that sign it made Justin and I burst into huge smiles. It's the cutest sign ever.
Eleanor is a picky eater. She eats good portions but not a terribly wide variety. Definitely a sweet tooth and she goes for junk (health food junk, I guess). Her dream meal would be veggie booty, cheddar bunnies, squirtable fruit/veg, mac and cheese and yogurt bites. Add some raisins and frozen blueberries and that would be her ideal. She'll eat eggs, yogurt, tomatoes, oranges, grapes, kiwis, strawberries, melon, avocados, olives, cheese and crackers, sometimes rice, and lots and lots of oatmeal. She'll eat cod. That's about it.
We're no longer vegetarians. I call us meat-avoiders. We eat it about once a week. Fish and grass fed-beef only. There's been occasional exceptions for halal lamb, but only because the place down the street makes a slammin gyro. Henry ate it like candy yesterday. The real reason for our meat back-sliding is Franklins-which we get about 2x's a month and Quality seafood's fish N Chips. And because Henry loves sardines. We're not really preparing any meat at our house, except for the occasional organic, nitrate-free grass-fed all beef hotdog. I don't feel good about the hotdogs but it's only about 2X per month and they're just so easy to prepare.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Eating with a fork
Eleanor's daycare just sent me this and I have watched it about five times in a row....so, clearly it needs to go here.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Soccer!
Henry finally got to play his first game for his new team, the Panthers, after two weeks of rain outs. Moses and Mae are also on his team and it is going to be a lot of fun. Today was a "practice game" and the Panthers got creamed by the other team....but Henry scored two goals, including the first one for his team. He told me about four times on the way home that he had fun. That's good.
Henry (43) and Moses (41)
Henry (43) and Moses (41)
Thursday, January 20, 2011
I think I have blog-writer's block.
What's up? I love Henry. I love Eleanor. I love my time with them just as much as I love my time without them. Eleanor is taking it easy on me lately. She played alone in the closet for an embarrassingly lengthy amount of time this afternoon. As I was finishing up in the kitchen and heading over to check on her, I imagined a cross examiner shouting at me about the length of time in between checks. She was fine. Always fine. Let's keep it that way. ABC. Always Be Careful. This mantra is in the back of my mind on a constant basis ever since I became a mother. You can't get sloppy. You can't rest on your laurels. Don't count your luck. Proper planning prevents poor performance. Deep breaths. Everything's okay.
Work is less enjoyable lately. I keep getting subpoenaed by upper middle class white people. Litigious, they are.
Here's some pictures.[slideshow]
Work is less enjoyable lately. I keep getting subpoenaed by upper middle class white people. Litigious, they are.
Here's some pictures.[slideshow]
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Dancing Eleanor
What's funny about her dancing is this happens the second she hears a single note of music being played anywhere. Grocery store, a musical montage on tv, a cell phone ringing.....
A lot of the time I won't even notice there is music playing until she suddenly starts flailing her body everywhere and it's like, "Oh, there must be music somewhere."
Monday, January 17, 2011
January catch-up...
The biggest downside of potty training Henry almost a year ago, is that he wakes up every morning very, very early, because he needs to pee. We take him before we go to bed, but still, that's about 8 more hours he has to go without peeing and that's a lot for a little bladder.
My solution is teaching Henry a rudimentary method of how to tell time. He can recognize 1-12 so that was the first step and know he's starting to figure out what time feels like, in terms of seconds and minutes and hours. That's a pretty hard concept and I don't expect him to get it anytime soon, but he's becoming familiar. He has a giant wall clock and after I take him to pee sometime between 5:30 and 6:00, I give him the clock and he knows he has to stay in his bed until the long hand reaches the 5 (6:25). PBS Kids doesn't come on till 6:30 so that gives us a few minutes to cuddle before he glues himself to Word World and Sesame Street for an hour. He's pretty cute with that clock. It's really large so when he emerges from his room clutching it and saying, "Mom! It's on the 5!", I always laugh.
Eleanor is quite the party girl. She loves music just like Henry did as a baby. Always shaking her booty to the beat and flailing her arms around in joy when she hears anything musical. She'll laugh and squeal on top of that which makes the whole music experience pretty great. Eleanor, when not sick, has reminded us what an independent little girl she is. She's perfectly content for incredibly long stretches of time, without us. She likes to be busy filling and emptying just about anything she can get her hands on.
Eating and sleeping are pretty good. I'm guessing she averages about 15 hours per day--sometimes more, sometimes less. 12-13 at night and about 3 hours worth in naps. She is still taking two naps a day. Henry will sleep 10-12 at night and take a 2 hour nap if at home--he refuses to nap at school anymore. Only 2-3 kids in his entire class still take naps at school so he doesn't want to.
Henry has become confident on his balance bike. Yesterday we took the kids to an empty parking lot and he could go very far and fast balancing, suggesting that if we had a bike his size with pedals we could probably teach him how to ride by the end of the day. That bike has really changed everything for him. He rides it every single day and does not even get upset when he falls. Eleanor enjoyed walking for long stretches on her push alligator; stopping only to shove pebbles in her mouth. (Memory: The wacky hording lady stopping to shout that her ex husband John Howard achieved the land speed record back in his day.)
Uncle Karl and Aunt Rachel were here this past long weekend and he took a zillion pictures that I'm currently wading through. Stay tuned.
My solution is teaching Henry a rudimentary method of how to tell time. He can recognize 1-12 so that was the first step and know he's starting to figure out what time feels like, in terms of seconds and minutes and hours. That's a pretty hard concept and I don't expect him to get it anytime soon, but he's becoming familiar. He has a giant wall clock and after I take him to pee sometime between 5:30 and 6:00, I give him the clock and he knows he has to stay in his bed until the long hand reaches the 5 (6:25). PBS Kids doesn't come on till 6:30 so that gives us a few minutes to cuddle before he glues himself to Word World and Sesame Street for an hour. He's pretty cute with that clock. It's really large so when he emerges from his room clutching it and saying, "Mom! It's on the 5!", I always laugh.
Eleanor is quite the party girl. She loves music just like Henry did as a baby. Always shaking her booty to the beat and flailing her arms around in joy when she hears anything musical. She'll laugh and squeal on top of that which makes the whole music experience pretty great. Eleanor, when not sick, has reminded us what an independent little girl she is. She's perfectly content for incredibly long stretches of time, without us. She likes to be busy filling and emptying just about anything she can get her hands on.
Eating and sleeping are pretty good. I'm guessing she averages about 15 hours per day--sometimes more, sometimes less. 12-13 at night and about 3 hours worth in naps. She is still taking two naps a day. Henry will sleep 10-12 at night and take a 2 hour nap if at home--he refuses to nap at school anymore. Only 2-3 kids in his entire class still take naps at school so he doesn't want to.
Henry has become confident on his balance bike. Yesterday we took the kids to an empty parking lot and he could go very far and fast balancing, suggesting that if we had a bike his size with pedals we could probably teach him how to ride by the end of the day. That bike has really changed everything for him. He rides it every single day and does not even get upset when he falls. Eleanor enjoyed walking for long stretches on her push alligator; stopping only to shove pebbles in her mouth. (Memory: The wacky hording lady stopping to shout that her ex husband John Howard achieved the land speed record back in his day.)
Uncle Karl and Aunt Rachel were here this past long weekend and he took a zillion pictures that I'm currently wading through. Stay tuned.
Friday, January 14, 2011
School updates...
For the next few weeks we will focus on a winter unit. We talk about the changes we see in the weather and the environment. We'll learn about animals in winter. We'll learn about migration and hibernation. Our cooking activities will involve warm comfort foods like soups.
This week we made a batch of snow dough. We've had fun using it to build snow people and pretending to make animal tracks or having our cars and trucks get stuck in the snow. We've painted winter pictures at the easel with blue and white paint and added silver glitter for a snow effect. We have also been gathering sticks to make winter trees pictures. Tomorrow we will paint with ice paint.
We've been reading and listening on cd to different versions of the folktale Stone Soup. Tomorrow we will make our own stone soup.
This week we'll read Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup with Rice which is a fun story that introduces the changes of the seasons as well as learning the months of the year. We'll also make a batch of chicken soup with rice. I expect it to be a bigger hit than our stone soup which was fun to make, but not so very appealing for some of the friends to eat.
Today we read Katy and the Big Snow. We had a fun sensory experience using shaving cream as snow to drive the cars and trucks through.
We learned a couple of new games. One is a memory card game with winter pictures to test our recall skills and the other is an alphabet game to help us work on letter and sound recognition. We put together our winter bulletin board by tracing our arms to make trees and paint white paint with cotton swabs to represent snow. We are making ice collages to hang on the trees. We put different pieces of nature in pans with water. Then set them outside. We hope that with tonight's freezing temperatures they will turn to ice. We learned that it has to be below 32 degree for the water to start freezing. We'll check on them in the morning.
Yesterday we read The Snowy Day and talked about what fun things we would like to do in the snow like the little boy, Peter. Today we read Chicken Soup with Rice and practiced saying the months of the year. We talked about which month our birthdays were in and took turns standing up when our month was called.
Next week we will read two of my favorite stories, The Little Red Hen and Bread and Jam for Francis. We'll also attempt to make our own homemade bread.
We've been talking a lot about winter weather as well as experiencing it first hand. We have been looking at pictures of Alaska and igloos. Today we made our own igloos with sugar cubes and glue. We pretended the cubes were blocks of ice. Amazingly, no one tried to sample the blocks. The igloos are drying on the sensory table and can go home with you. Have a great long weekend. See you on Tuesday. We will start to talk about animals in winter.
This week we made a batch of snow dough. We've had fun using it to build snow people and pretending to make animal tracks or having our cars and trucks get stuck in the snow. We've painted winter pictures at the easel with blue and white paint and added silver glitter for a snow effect. We have also been gathering sticks to make winter trees pictures. Tomorrow we will paint with ice paint.
We've been reading and listening on cd to different versions of the folktale Stone Soup. Tomorrow we will make our own stone soup.
This week we'll read Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup with Rice which is a fun story that introduces the changes of the seasons as well as learning the months of the year. We'll also make a batch of chicken soup with rice. I expect it to be a bigger hit than our stone soup which was fun to make, but not so very appealing for some of the friends to eat.
Today we read Katy and the Big Snow. We had a fun sensory experience using shaving cream as snow to drive the cars and trucks through.
We learned a couple of new games. One is a memory card game with winter pictures to test our recall skills and the other is an alphabet game to help us work on letter and sound recognition. We put together our winter bulletin board by tracing our arms to make trees and paint white paint with cotton swabs to represent snow. We are making ice collages to hang on the trees. We put different pieces of nature in pans with water. Then set them outside. We hope that with tonight's freezing temperatures they will turn to ice. We learned that it has to be below 32 degree for the water to start freezing. We'll check on them in the morning.
Yesterday we read The Snowy Day and talked about what fun things we would like to do in the snow like the little boy, Peter. Today we read Chicken Soup with Rice and practiced saying the months of the year. We talked about which month our birthdays were in and took turns standing up when our month was called.
Next week we will read two of my favorite stories, The Little Red Hen and Bread and Jam for Francis. We'll also attempt to make our own homemade bread.
We've been talking a lot about winter weather as well as experiencing it first hand. We have been looking at pictures of Alaska and igloos. Today we made our own igloos with sugar cubes and glue. We pretended the cubes were blocks of ice. Amazingly, no one tried to sample the blocks. The igloos are drying on the sensory table and can go home with you. Have a great long weekend. See you on Tuesday. We will start to talk about animals in winter.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Plenty to say...
...and no time to say it. My brother made the mistake of sending me "Mad Men" and we've been having epic marathons of this show. Also, I'm really enjoying the new Franzen novel.
First, a Christmas break re-cap: We had two weeks of no school for Henry, and one week off for Eleanor, and basically two weeks off of work for me and patchy but generous time-off for Justin. I'm incredibly fortunate enough to have mom-friends who are much more organized and forward planning than I am, and so most of the time-off was booked with stuff-to-do. Henry spent two mornings with his friend Archer at the Little Austin Yoga House . It's run out of an old guest house, behind a huge house, in Clarksville (really cool neighborhood I wish I could afford to live in) and it was just a pretty young teacher named Abby and the two boys, from 9-12. They did yoga of course, but also lots of fun things like make New Years Resolutions, which Henry taped to the wall in the living room. His resolutions for 2011 are: Eat lots of Strawberries, Have a Happy Family, and Have fun!". You can't really beat that.
There were several play-dates at the park with friends (a highlight for me because it provided all us mom's an opportunity to curse and moan about our lack of childcare), coupled with unbelievably mild winter-weather. I am not even sure it's fair to say 60's and 70's is mild for winter. But the sun shone almost everyday and there were lots and lots and lots of bike-riding trips around the neighborhood. Henry got something called a balance bike (AKA a Glider). It's an incredibly genius invention that will all but guarentee he will be riding an actual pedal bike (sans training wheels) before his 4th birthday. He LOVES that thing. It actually teaches you how to balance on a bike, which is the whole hurdle of learning, by designing the bike low enough to the ground that you push yourself on the bike with your feet and then you rest your feet on these bars, and then you're essentially riding the bike--w/o training wheels! I think within the next decade training wheels will be obsolete and children will all learn to ride bikes before age 5. We've begun a nightly tradition of going around the block at night, before bath. It's pitch dark by 6 but he eats dinner and then we go back outside and he's so fast on the bike I actually enjoy the walk, unlike the beating it was to snail alongside him on the training wheels bike.
Henry's other favorite Christmas gift was a bike too. But this bike I truly despise. Coincidentally my mother and my MIL bought this for him (we had to send one back) so they share blame evenly. But it's a video game bike. It hooks up to the TV and you ride it as if you are competing in races (against Thomas the Train, or Batman, or what-have-you). He is so earnest on this thing and wants to do it all the time and perhaps it would not be so bad if he didn't constantly want me to witness every moment of his success or recognize each and every victory (which happens about every 15 seconds). I'm hoping this particular toy gets it's 15 min and we move on, as he does with all his toys (except for cars, blocks, books, bikes, and balls).
Eleanor received several dolls for Christmas, which she pays no attention to but Henry loves. My heart has melted a few times this week already, watching him put them down for a nap, giving them paci's, holding and rocking and singing them lullaby's. He wants them surrounding him at nap time too, it's very cute. I've already told him he is going to be a great daddy someday and that made him feel pretty good.
As I've mentioned before on this blog, Henry really loves Jesus. Eleanor received a pink teddy bear that sings "Jesus Loves Me" and Henry will not stop playing it, singing it, holding it, singing it on his own, signing along with it, etc.
Henry has fallen deeply in love with the cat, in tandem with my falling out of love with Kitty. When Kitty is not embraced by Henry, he is chasing his tail, groaning, hissing and darting to and fro. I am constantly letting him out, letting him back in, and contemplating having him put down. If it were not for Henry's love and devotion, Kitty would be in an urn right now. A vet friend has recommended Prozac, which I would consider if it did not take four people dressed in something that looks like they should handle eagles, holding him down to get a pill in his body.
Henry and his dad went to Dallas for a few days and had Christmas there, while Eleanor and I stayed back. She was way too ill to transport her. It was really really hard for me. Eleanor needed to be held all day. She had a fever, an enormous amount of snot and so she was waking up a lot because she was uncomfortable and couldn't breath out of her nose, and the days were just very very long. Since I did not go to Dallas, I can't really comment but I think Henry had a lot of fun running around with his cousin Maggy. He also got a horse for Christmas, slept in a trailer (winnebago, or whatever you call them) and Justin brought a little Christmas tree to light up the trailer with.
Eleanor is fully capable of walking alongside me while holding my hand but she goes a few steps and then wants to sit down. We also catch her standing on her own and then she realizes she's doing it and then immediately sits. She's funny--always smiling, playing, and if we're outside, completely independent. She will crawl off on her own without a second thought of anyone else. At home she'll do this if Henry is around but if it's just 1:1 she likes to be near, or held. She just has the two little teeth on the bottom but eats just about the same food we do. She even eats nuts. She got her first bang cut a few weeks ago. She LOVES bath time with her brother (well, anything with her brother). Sleep has been pretty weird. She is taking a long morning nap at 9 or 9:30 and then fighting her afternoon nap or not taking it at all and then has to go to bed by 5:45. And then of course she wakes up ridiculously early (6:00). It seems like this has been going on since I moved her crib a few weeks ago but I can't move it back because her room is an actual room now and not just a space where she sleeps. It's pretty cute--I'll take pics and post one of these days.
The last thing I want to comment on about Christmas break was New Years Day. We went to Mayfield park to meet friends and Mae's mom brought champagne. I don't need to say much about that, just want to note it in hopes the memory remains in tact. That was very cool.
Here's some pictures of that outing
[gallery]
First, a Christmas break re-cap: We had two weeks of no school for Henry, and one week off for Eleanor, and basically two weeks off of work for me and patchy but generous time-off for Justin. I'm incredibly fortunate enough to have mom-friends who are much more organized and forward planning than I am, and so most of the time-off was booked with stuff-to-do. Henry spent two mornings with his friend Archer at the Little Austin Yoga House . It's run out of an old guest house, behind a huge house, in Clarksville (really cool neighborhood I wish I could afford to live in) and it was just a pretty young teacher named Abby and the two boys, from 9-12. They did yoga of course, but also lots of fun things like make New Years Resolutions, which Henry taped to the wall in the living room. His resolutions for 2011 are: Eat lots of Strawberries, Have a Happy Family, and Have fun!". You can't really beat that.
There were several play-dates at the park with friends (a highlight for me because it provided all us mom's an opportunity to curse and moan about our lack of childcare), coupled with unbelievably mild winter-weather. I am not even sure it's fair to say 60's and 70's is mild for winter. But the sun shone almost everyday and there were lots and lots and lots of bike-riding trips around the neighborhood. Henry got something called a balance bike (AKA a Glider). It's an incredibly genius invention that will all but guarentee he will be riding an actual pedal bike (sans training wheels) before his 4th birthday. He LOVES that thing. It actually teaches you how to balance on a bike, which is the whole hurdle of learning, by designing the bike low enough to the ground that you push yourself on the bike with your feet and then you rest your feet on these bars, and then you're essentially riding the bike--w/o training wheels! I think within the next decade training wheels will be obsolete and children will all learn to ride bikes before age 5. We've begun a nightly tradition of going around the block at night, before bath. It's pitch dark by 6 but he eats dinner and then we go back outside and he's so fast on the bike I actually enjoy the walk, unlike the beating it was to snail alongside him on the training wheels bike.
Henry's other favorite Christmas gift was a bike too. But this bike I truly despise. Coincidentally my mother and my MIL bought this for him (we had to send one back) so they share blame evenly. But it's a video game bike. It hooks up to the TV and you ride it as if you are competing in races (against Thomas the Train, or Batman, or what-have-you). He is so earnest on this thing and wants to do it all the time and perhaps it would not be so bad if he didn't constantly want me to witness every moment of his success or recognize each and every victory (which happens about every 15 seconds). I'm hoping this particular toy gets it's 15 min and we move on, as he does with all his toys (except for cars, blocks, books, bikes, and balls).
Eleanor received several dolls for Christmas, which she pays no attention to but Henry loves. My heart has melted a few times this week already, watching him put them down for a nap, giving them paci's, holding and rocking and singing them lullaby's. He wants them surrounding him at nap time too, it's very cute. I've already told him he is going to be a great daddy someday and that made him feel pretty good.
As I've mentioned before on this blog, Henry really loves Jesus. Eleanor received a pink teddy bear that sings "Jesus Loves Me" and Henry will not stop playing it, singing it, holding it, singing it on his own, signing along with it, etc.
Henry has fallen deeply in love with the cat, in tandem with my falling out of love with Kitty. When Kitty is not embraced by Henry, he is chasing his tail, groaning, hissing and darting to and fro. I am constantly letting him out, letting him back in, and contemplating having him put down. If it were not for Henry's love and devotion, Kitty would be in an urn right now. A vet friend has recommended Prozac, which I would consider if it did not take four people dressed in something that looks like they should handle eagles, holding him down to get a pill in his body.
Henry and his dad went to Dallas for a few days and had Christmas there, while Eleanor and I stayed back. She was way too ill to transport her. It was really really hard for me. Eleanor needed to be held all day. She had a fever, an enormous amount of snot and so she was waking up a lot because she was uncomfortable and couldn't breath out of her nose, and the days were just very very long. Since I did not go to Dallas, I can't really comment but I think Henry had a lot of fun running around with his cousin Maggy. He also got a horse for Christmas, slept in a trailer (winnebago, or whatever you call them) and Justin brought a little Christmas tree to light up the trailer with.
Eleanor is fully capable of walking alongside me while holding my hand but she goes a few steps and then wants to sit down. We also catch her standing on her own and then she realizes she's doing it and then immediately sits. She's funny--always smiling, playing, and if we're outside, completely independent. She will crawl off on her own without a second thought of anyone else. At home she'll do this if Henry is around but if it's just 1:1 she likes to be near, or held. She just has the two little teeth on the bottom but eats just about the same food we do. She even eats nuts. She got her first bang cut a few weeks ago. She LOVES bath time with her brother (well, anything with her brother). Sleep has been pretty weird. She is taking a long morning nap at 9 or 9:30 and then fighting her afternoon nap or not taking it at all and then has to go to bed by 5:45. And then of course she wakes up ridiculously early (6:00). It seems like this has been going on since I moved her crib a few weeks ago but I can't move it back because her room is an actual room now and not just a space where she sleeps. It's pretty cute--I'll take pics and post one of these days.
The last thing I want to comment on about Christmas break was New Years Day. We went to Mayfield park to meet friends and Mae's mom brought champagne. I don't need to say much about that, just want to note it in hopes the memory remains in tact. That was very cool.
Here's some pictures of that outing
[gallery]
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