Two

Henry had another birthday this week. Geez kid. To celebrate, we had some friends and cousins over. I made him a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and trucks. His reaction: "coooooool!" And then he proceeded to eat 3 pieces. So I think it went over well.

This picture perfectly captures his attitude towards presents when cake is around. "More choc-o pease."

 

All of the choc-o and attention made him a bit goofy. I had to capture this moment because it reminded me of a photo of me when I was about 1.

He did enjoy his presents (mostly trucks and cars, which he was thrilled about). He got a musical guitar from Ben's mom that he strapped on and started rocking out to. He even used some of the cardboard it came in as an arm band.

The minute everyone left, Henry crashed. Ben did too. I love Henry's ability to entertain and interact with other people. He usually saves his exhaustion for us, which I like, because then everyone can think our child is perfect.

A few unorganized thoughts and facts about Henry:

He talks all the time, though a lot of it is still babble, especially when he gets excited. But he does often narrate his playing ("zooom, airplane, I fly, oh no!")

He absolutely loves his dog, even if he is a bit rough with Albee at times. He is always trying to get Albee to sleep with him in his bed.

He is a really good helper. He is good at picking up his toys, unloading the dishes, putting clothes in the dryer, and any time he sees garbage, he says "trash!" and has to throw it away.

His favorite foods (other than chocolate) include most kinds of soup, blueberries, bread, peanut butter and mac and cheese.

He loves church. All week he asks for church and nursery and, occasionally, even the sacrament.

He is very good at entertaining himself, but he loves to play with others. He'll often grab my hand, say "come" and then drag me out to the living room where he points to the ground near his toys and says, "sit."

His favorite song right now is "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home" complete with actions (my favorite is when he pumps his fist in the air and says "joy!").

He loves to brush his teeth. Throughout the day, he'll bring me to the bathroom, point at his toothbrush and say, "teeth!"

He's really awesome.

Елка

One of my favorite Christmas memories from growing up is when we would go to the Mule Tree Farm and cut down our own tree. Then afterwards, while my dad was paying and helping wrap up the tree, we'd have hot chocolate and candy canes in the little shop.

This year was the first time since we've been married that we've lived somewhere that doesn't ban live Christmas trees. I dislike fake Christmas trees and we only own one because it's better than nothing.  For the past year I've been talking about cutting down our own tree, even though we won't actually be spending Christmas here (because Geoff is coming home from his mission!!!). Luckily I have a husband who likes to indulge me.

So the day after Thanksgiving, we drove with visiting family (my parents and brother, Ben's sister and brother-in-law, plus Ben's brother and his family from Canton) about an hour north to a cider mill/tree farm and picked out a beauty that Ben cut down all by himself.  This place was quite large and very efficient. We were pulled around by a tractor and they hauled our tree back for us. Ben's favorite part was probably watching them shake out the needles and wrap the tree up. 

I enjoyed the cider and stuffing my face with doughnuts, which have been a craving of mine that I haven't indulged (I tend to get a sweet tooth during pregnancies, and I swear I'd be happy eating nothing but sugar for the next few months. Happy and large).

We decorated our tree this weekend, after all of our visiting family left. In other words, Ben put up the tree and helped me with the lights and then I put on the decorations while he guided from the couch. Everyone has their traditions. 

Henry loves the tree, especially the lights. We're teaching him to call it a елка, pronounced "yolka," which is Russian for Christmas tree. His favorite ornament is the one pictured below. I explained to him who it is, so now he runs up to it and yells, "Dad!" and giggles. I giggle too, but for different reasons. Just look at that face.

It's a girl!

When we found out Henry was a boy, I wrote the post all in blue. So I have to keep up the tradition. We had our ultrasound yesterday and got to see those fun, fuzzy, indiscernible pictures that mean you're seeing your child for the first time. The best part is when you see the little baby move on the screen and simultaneously feel it in your belly.

Henry was fascinated by the images and kept saying" baby." I'm sure he doesn't understand what's going on or that he's soon going to have to share our attention, but we are still teaching him to say "sister" and "baby" while pointing at my belly. I think he thinks it's some kind of game.

According to the doctor, our little girl looks healthy and is right on track for her due date, which is April 17. Which is good, because her big brother always measured a couple of weeks bigger than he was supposed to, so I'm hoping this means small baby. Really, she can be as big as she wants as long as she comes out on her own.

We've got a few names in mind, though I doubt we'll choose anything until she's born. For some reason we're weirded out by the idea of choosing a name before a baby is born. It's completely irrational, but everyone has their own parenting quirks. Ben's limited me on the number of outfits I can buy for her, though I'm not sure how well I'll stick to that; girls' clothes are way too cute. In the mean time, I just keep getting bigger. And bigger, and bigger...

Halloween Happenings

Halloween this year did not go exactly as planned. We spent the bulk of our trick or treating time in an Urgent Care facility in St. Clair Shores. Intrigued? Read on.

We had our ward Halloween party on Saturday (props to Ben, who was in charge and did a great job, even though he had just gotten back from a scout camping trip). Henry was a cute little fox, and Ben even taught him to say, "rit dit dit dit dit dit dit." The best part of the party was the "Just Dance" room, where kids could play the wii game. Apparently Henry loves this game. That kid sure can dance.

We did some pumpkin carving this week while listening to a great Halloween Pandora station that got my thumbs up as soon as it played "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah." We pride ourselves on our pumpkin creativity. Ben's was much more detailed but it didn't show enough light, so he had to cut a few pieces out. Can you tell what mine is? You can't really see the wheels from this angle, so maybe not. So I'll tell you. Cinderella's carriage! I know, right? So clever. Princesses.

  

Henry and I did a bit of trick or treating Halloween afternoon, which was hosted by the shops of downtown Grosse Pointe area (and can I just say--disappointing haul. What's with all the dum dums and hard candies?). Also, it rained alllll dayyyy longgg, which I usually don't mind. Unless I'm outside trying to carry a 2 year old, his candy bag with a broken handle, and an umbrella. Which makes the next part only slightly disappointing.

When it came time for the actual neighborhood trick or treating, we took Henry to the house across the street, where he performed beautifully, saying both trick or treat (kind of) and thank you. But after that all he wanted to do was sit on the wet sidewalk and eat his one piece of candy in the rain. The concept of going on to more houses didn't make sense to him.

Meanwhile, Ben, who had been feeling sick for awhile with what we suspected to be kidney problems, had decided that he needed to go to Urgent Care asap. Since we weren't getting anywhere with Henry, we chose to all go together. And that is how Henry and I came to be sitting in the warm, dry waiting room, playing with the iPad while Dad had his checkup on Halloween night. Luckily we weren't there for very long and Ben's medication already seem to be working wonders.  And I'm pretty sure Henry was happier with the way things turned out than he would have been walking from house to house in the rain.  We ended Halloween the best way possible--snuggling, eating popcorn and watching a Halloween episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Spooky, Scary.

Up North

I'm quite behind on my blog posts. It's all these vacations I keep going on. Tough life.

A couple of weeks ago, Ben and I took a lovely vacation, just the two of us, for the weekend. One of his coworkers was getting married in Charlevoix (pronounced char-le-voy, which drives my French-speaking father crazy). So to use the popular hand-Michigan map, we live down in the thumb joint and Charlevoix is basically on the tip of the ring finger. Way up there.

We had heard good things about northern Michigan, and let me say, it met and even exceeded our expectations. Seriously, it's a gorgeous place. I would easily live there if it wasn't hours from everything. Except awesomeness.

The wedding was at Castle Farms which is considered the oldest castle in America (so I've heard). Beautiful ceremony and reception. Delicious cake. Slightly awkward being at a wedding where you don't know anyone, including the bride, and have only met the groom once or twice. But fun nonetheless. I enjoyed getting all dressed up, since these days that doesn't happen very often. And let's face it, I can be pretty cute.

Backtracking a bit, on our way up north, we stopped at the Renaissance Festival. We had mediocre expectations, but we were highly impressed. It was a lot of fun. 

I was expecting dinky booths and basically lots of cheesiness. It was really well done. We enjoyed walking around the booths (I was highly tempted to buy a flowery headdress or a fairy wand) and eating the food (the pickle was awesome, but we both thought the turkey legs looked disgusting). 

The best part was the shows. We saw a hilarious comedy show, an impressive fire juggler, plus a falconer and jousting. We could have stayed there all day.

Idaho

Camping

After talking about going camping all summer, we finally went. Henry's first time. We went with a couple of other families to a nearby park. Henry had fun playing with the other kids and sitting by the fire, but he did not sleep well. And so, neither did we. But we had some good dutch oven food, which is really the best part of camping.

This one isn't from camping, but it's really cute and shows how grown up he is now that he is 21 months.

Zoo

We took a trip to the Detroit Zoo this weekend (which is actually in Royal Oak, a very hip suburb). Henry was a bit more interested in the animals than last year, but mostly he just sat in his stroller and scowled (it was during nap time).

 One part that both he and Ben did enjoy was the kangaroo jump. They have markers measuring how far you can jump compared to a kangaroo. We had to pull Henry away--his new favorite thing is jumping. Plus those signs were his height, which was exciting for him.

Ben did pretty well too.

Here, Ben is expressing his mild interest in the bison. After getting caught in a stampede on a narrow road last year in Yellowstone (okay, maybe not stampede, they were walking, not running, and we were in our car), bison in a zoo are only slightly impressive.

Ben even took a 30 second nap while I looked at (and ooo'd and aah'd over) my favorites, the giraffes

And of course, even though Henry was half awake at the end, we had to stop and play at the playground for awhile. That kid cracks me up.

A trip to the park

Henry wouldn't nap today, so I took him to the park. He is getting more adventurous, though his favorite thing to do is watch other kids play. One group in particular today, he kept slowly creeping closer and closer, hiding behind poles and peering around corners, until he sat down in the midst of them. They were nice and tried to talk to him, but, as is typical, he just stared at them unblinkingly. Yep, that's my awkward child. And yes, he is wearing one shoe in the splash pad. One fell off and he couldn't be bothered to pause for a moment so I could remove the other one.