Henry: Getting a little bigger

We surprised Henry with a "big bed" tonight complete with Cars sheets and a "big pillow". We hadn't talked to him about it and when we went up to his room tonight he was speechless but the look on his face was priceless. The twin bed is just laying on the floor next to the crib. The crib was left in the room on purpose; if the freedom of a "big bed" is too great he'll go back in the "little crib". He may have just been extra tired but the bedtime escapade was minimal tonight. We went through our normal routine of singing songs while he is in bed, then I sat on his floor for a bit. As I was starting to wonder how I would get to leave he declared he had to go potty so we went. I told him I'd dump it out after I put him back to bed. I closed his door (not shut) and left to take care of the potty . . .and took my time expecting to see him at his door when I opened our door. Very surprisingly, his door was still shut.

Friday morning update: Henry slept all night! He was not very happy this morning when he discovered the baby gate at his door and cried "open the gate."

Weekend update: Henry requested the security and safety of the "little crib" Friday night only to wake up around 12:30 wanting the "big pillow" on the big bed. I told him he can only sleep with the pillow if he sleeps on the "big bed" so I put him on the "big bed", sat on the floor for a bit and left.

Naptime Saturday went off without a hitch for Mike.

Naptime Sunday was a complete flop for me. Henry finally discovered all the freedom that comes with a big bed. He threw his blankets and clothes over the gate into the hallway, he opened his toybox, pulled out toys and played with them, he discovered he could see Ralph in his room and yelled for him. He then got put in the crib to help him regain his focus of naptime but then pleaded for "no crib" so i put him back in bed hoping the threat was good enough but it wasn't. He was put back in the crib and finally fell asleep for 30 minutes . . .about 1.5 hours after the 'fun' started.

Midweek update: I knew Henry would wake up in the middle of the night sooner or later. Sure enough, Monday night I met him at the gate at his doorway around 1:30 and 5:30 am. He is getting tougher to put to bed as he keeps getting out of bed to hand me a blanket to cover him up or some other request. Tuesday night I tried sitting outside the gate for awhile instead of in his room and he kept coming over to check on me. I am hoping to not get in the habit of sitting/laying on his floor until he falls asleep since it is so time consuming but we'll see . . . .

One more sign my baby is getting bigger! Now if we can just get him potty trained!

Ralph: Celebrating 4 years!

(photos illustrating the many faces of Ralph)

I’ve been thinking the past few days about just how little we knew four years ago we knew became parents – from those first diaper changes and feedings to swaddling and comforting those sometimes unexplainable cries to his first words and, finally, walking we were learning day by day, sometimes hour by hour and minute by minute right along side. There were times of frustration and stress followed by joy and wonder. Somewhere along the way little Ralph has grown into the boy we have today. He is caring, thoughtful, sharing, timid, anxious, bright, argumentative, sensitive, and imaginative. He has a great memory. He does not know the definition of “hurry up” and tends to take his sweet time.

His favorite day of the week has shifted to Friday (show and tell day) but Tuesday (garbage day) remains a close 2nd. His favorite color remains green but he likes red and blue too. He can write his name and asks to spell words . . . one letter at a time - he'll write about 1/2 the letters and they won't be in any particular order. He likes trying to jump over various items like rugs. He is playing more independently but still likes someone to play with him. He likes most fresh fruit - blueberries, strawberries, grapes, apples, clementines but will hardly touch any vegetables except broccoli and carrots these days. He is fairly predictable in his eating habits and does not have much variety but every once in awhile he'll surprise us by trying something new. I think its just a little luck but he has been doing better lately not coming into our room in the middle of the night. He still tends to wake a little earlier than we'd like most days.

His imaginary bunny hibernated for awhile but has returned in the past couple of days. Bunny now has a name - Ralph S. Henry. Birdy has joined Ralph's circle of imaginary friends/pets.

I'm not sure if Ralph is already looking forward to Kindergarten but he knows he has to go through two more rooms at daycare before he goes to Kindergarten. I can't believe I'll have a Kindergartener in a year and a half!

Update from 4 year well child checkup on March 28: Ralph met his new Doctor, Dr. Reynolds, today and started a string of "why" questions with her. We had neglected to answer the question about drawing a person with 3 parts so she asked Ralph to draw a picture of Henry or Daddy. She also quizzed him on colors. All in all, no surprises. He weighed in at 34.4 lbs (36%), measured 40 1/2" (56%), BMI of 14.70 (10-25%), blood pressure of 84/48, and a pulse of 112. I had thought about splitting up his shots but decided to get them over with - 4 pokes later and a few (ie. a lot of) tears he was done. On the way to the car he asked if he would get 5 shots next year since he'd be 5 . . yeah, they should rethink giving 4 shots on the 4 year check up. I kept trying to reassure him he wouldn't have any next year.

Ralph: A birthday party celebration!

We celebrated Ralph's 4th birthday a few days early with a party today. We were a small but mighty group - attendees were the same folks that met Ralph on his birth day (with the addition of Henry, of course). Unfortunately the far away uncles couldn't make it. Ralph asked this morning Uncle Nick was coming and I replied "he is stuck in Minnesota", not wanting to get into the details that he is 6 hours away and that's quite a drive for a party that lasts a few hours. Ralph then asks "how will he get unstuck?" Guess I should phrase my answers a little better.

Ralph chose a Cars theme for his cake. He actually really wanted a Francesco cake but we improvised and added a Francesco car to his cake that was decorated with Lightening McQueen and Mater. His ice cream of choice was green ice cream . . .which meant Mint Chocolate Chip.

Little brother Henry did a great job helping Ralph opening gifts - and Ralph did a great job letting him. Henry was very careful to put the gift wrap pieces, no matter how small, in the trash pile.

Ralph pictured with one of his new gifts . . .Lucky the weather cooperated for one more day!

Coming Out of Hiberation

What a week of wonderful weather! The boys (all three of them) took advantage of the nearby playground every night last week. It was a great surprise one night when Ralph's "best friend" from daycare was at the playground with his mom and sister. The boys got all giddy when they saw each other and as we were leaving Ralph asked if he could see Isaac again. I told him he'd see him at daycare tomorrow which is not quite what he meant. Hopefully we'll run into them again soon.

At least two of the nights we had the playground to ourselves but it has also be fun meeting neighbors who have either moved in during the winter months or now have children old enough to come to the playground, as well as see familiar faces from last fall and see how their children have grown. The boys have grown over the winter months - Henry can climb the bigger stairs better and climb up the "rock" wall by himself; Ralph is much more willing to go down the slides and is starting to use the swings a little more.

Ralph and Henry still need to learn the quicker they eat, the more time they have to be outside as we don't always have much time to spend outside - would be nice if there was more time but that seems to be a common them in most everything we do.

Henry: Celebrating 27 months!

(an action photo of Henry waving his arms)

My most loved phrase coming from Henry this month - "carry you" as he extends his arms to be picked up. Most annoying phrases coming from Henry - "no" during daylight hours and "I need chapstick" or "I need tissue" at bedtime as he continues to prolong the time I spend in his room. He has started to say "Henry" when asked his name or when shown an H. He also knows a W belongs to him.

When working on the letters in the alphabet Henry recognizes most of the letters his friend's names start with. He can also sing the ABC song pretty good. He can recite the numbers 1- . . 9. He knows most colors but still refers to most everything as blue, including Elmo, Oscar, and Big Bird.

A few weeks ago I thought we'd try to put Henry in briefs to see how he would do and how many briefs we'd go through before we would give up and put him back in diapers. Henry is very opinionated and didn't think it was a good idea. After protesting a few seconds repeating "put my diaper on" he walks over to the diapers and gets one for me to put on. Four days later, at daycare, he proceeds to successfully use the potty and stay dry all day except at naptime. Hoping it turns into his idea and he is wearing briefs soon!

Fast forward to last Friday night, while we were out to eat Henry came up to me and told me he had to potty. Off we go, no potty. A few minutes later, he came up and said he had to potty. Off we go, not only did he potty but he also deposited something else in the potty! He also went one more time before we left. I was totally amazed that he choose the potty route - THE BIG POTTY - versus just going in his diaper. Then, on Saturday, we went to the Children's Museum. Henry kept dry during the whole visit and as we were getting ready to go visited the bathroom and he went potty. He has been making more progress the last couple of days - hopefully he'll let us try briefs sometimes soon.

One night, while going to bed, Henry asked for the "deer song". Not familiar with any other deer song, I starting singing what little I know of "Do Re Me" from the Sound of Music. It has turned into one of his favorites. I introduced Bingo the other night to try to work a "dog song" into the mix but it is not as popular as the "deer song."

His vocabulary is ever expanding. His words are getting more intelligible (or I'm just getting used to his language). Henry has had one more tooth poke through in the last month - bottom, 2nd one in on the right side (lateral incisor). He seems to be biting less at daycare.

Henry had a bad streak for visiting doctors over the past month. After his ear infection towards the end of last month he had a regular checkup with the asthma doctor which was a good visit but by the weekend Henry started wheezing. Unfortunately it took a trip to the pediatrician's office to figure it out followed by a visit to the asthma doctor the next week.

Henry has absolutely no patience for praying before bed.