Henry Turns 6 (and Mother's Day)

Henry's birthday spanned three days even though we didn't really plan it that way. Since his birthday fell on Mother's Day this year, I wanted to make sure he didn't feel cheated.

The Friday before was his kindergarten's class Mother's Day picnic. He wrote me this book all about me.

Here is my favorite page

On Saturday he chose to go to a BYU baseball game and he got to bring one friend so he brought Myer. They were both so excited and slightly obnoxious on the way over. It makes me glad we don't have twin six-year-old boys.

Myer got bored about 30 minutes into the game but Henry held strong until the 7th inning. I for sure thought he would last until the end but then he abruptly asked when we were going home.

We got cougar tails of course and Cosmo came by and said hi.

He's teasing the kids for taking his tail.

Erica was scared of him but called him "cougar tail" for the rest of the game. "Where's cougar tail? Oh I see him over there."

After the game, I finished a batch of jam then we ate Henry's choice of boxed macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets for dinner.

Then we went to Mapleton park with the family. Henry finally decided on sugar cookie bars. Or is it a cookie cake? Or a cakie? He had some crazy ideas the last couple of weeks. He had to come up with two ideas, one for the park the day before then one for his actual birthday. For a while there he was insistent on having a large circle layer cake with a smaller circle layer on top of that and then a bunch of cupcakes on top of that. No way bud. Then he wanted sugar cookies then I kindly nudged him toward the idea of a great big sugar cookie. He wanted it green with blue sprinkles so I came up with this 6 idea.

Then he decorated it with his ninja turtles and cars. Not my best work from a technical standpoint but he was super happy with it and it tasted great so that's all that matters.

It was super cold that evening so we didn't stay too long at the park. And it was windy so we sang while Justin lit the candles and I think only a couple were lit when he blew them out.

Sunday morning he was up at 7. All of his presents were ready on the table but he had to wait until everyone was up. I went back to sleep after James woke at 7 (it was mother's day after all) and Erica slept until 9:30 so I did too. He was so patient!

He got a BYU hat, rootbeer, Cheetos, pudding, books, watch, milky way, basketball cards, and the hotwheels track with a loop he's been asking for.

Sarah made him a few of these car tracks that he can lay out on the floor for his cars. So sweet and creative of her.

He and Justin meticulously put his new basketball cards in his binder. He got a Gordon Hayward card and was so excited about it.

James snuggled on the couch with Moose.

Then we went to church. During the second hour, the primary president brought him to me and he was crying because his stomach hurt. I discovered he ate 7 fruit roll ups after breakfast. Justin took him and James home.

After the rest of us came home, we took a mother's day picture.

My first mother's day with 4 kids!

Sarah gave me this flower and a book about me. This is my favorite page.

And they all gave me this card. Not gonna lie; it made me choke up.


Then Henry fell asleep in his room. I woke him up for his birthday dinner of French dip, Jell-O, carrots, and homemade lemonade (Henry and I decided together what we'd have) but he was still so tired and went up to bed after only a couple of bites. He woke at 9pm and asked if we saved him any of his birthday pie. The sweet little guy thought we ate his birthday pie without him! I told him we'd save it for the next day and he slept the rest of the night until 6:30 Monday morning. He said he didn't feel sick, just tired.

Monday morning he went straight for his basketball cards and wouldn't even put it away to eat breakfast.

Monday afterschool he fell asleep again! But after dinner we sang happy birthday and finally ate pie.

What Henry is like at 6

1. He finally likes to read. It helps that he's getting pretty good at it too.
2. He is so good about wearing his hearing aid. Sometimes he doesn't want to wear it and tells us he hates it because he's not symmetrical. It breaks my heart. I think having hearing loss and a hearing aid is a big thing for a little boy to deal with. I've learned to just listen and not push him to wear it. Usually he'll wear it the next day.
3. He loves video games (too much) but we don't have any. He's asked a couple of times if we can get some but I tell him no and I tell him why. He's accepted it.
4. He's a good student. He's never had a "think time" at school and does his homework and reading without too much prodding. I think he's such a good kid in class because he gets all his stinkerness out at home before he goes.
5. He always includes Erica. They are good buddies. He teases her a lot and it gets really old but if I can get him to do something on his own for awhile, he will be nice to her again.
6. He lets me hold him and cuddle him and give him hugs.
7. If he gets put in time out, it's usually for playing too rough in the house and he won't knock it off. Or he's teasing Erica.  Or he won't pick up his stuff.
8. He's super interested in what foods are good for him. "Is chicken healthy? What does it have in it?" "Does bread have sugar?"
9. He calls James "Jamesy" or "Jamies" and he's sooo good at calming him down. "Work your magic, Henry"
10. He loves to go bike riding with Sarah and they come up with some pretty elaborate games and creative forts.
11. He loves everything his dad loves and maybe more so.
12. I really love listening to him when he's not talking about Pokémon. I took him to the store, just him, and I was reminded how much I love hanging out with just him. It doesn't happen very often.

His favorites according to me
Show-Wild Kratts
Dinner-Spaghetti and meatballs or macaroni and cheese
Color- Green and orange (tie)
Toy- Cars and Legos
Snack- Apples, cheetos and crackers
Breakfast- Pancakes with nothing on them and he just picks them up and eats them. No fork.
Dessert- Any but he doesn't eat a lot at a time
School- Recess and math
Song- Anything by One Republic, and songs that are "awesome" meaning lots of drums and guitar. He does not like girl singers except for Adele.

Henry's birthday is always a little more emotional for me than my other kids because of the drama of his birth and first week of life. All those memories and emotions come flooding back. But it doesn't make me sad anymore, just more grateful to have him. And I hope he didn't mind sharing his day with me. I really wanted mother's day to take a backseat to his day. But all my kids' birthdays feel a little like a mother's day anyway since it's the day I became their mom!

James at 6 Months

Happy half birthday baby boy!

James's new favorite talent is grabbing things. He grabs my face when he's mad, when he's sad, when he's happy. As if boohooing wasn't enough to get my attention while I'm holding him.

He's still working on my favorite milestone: picking up cereal and feeding himself. This is always a game changer in keeping a baby occupied for long periods of time and it's the skill I push the most. (Crawling? meh.)

He can kind of sit up if he's propped up pretty well. This is my second favorite skill since it promotes keeping oneself entertained. After awhile he kind of gets all slumpy and won't hold himself up at all so we try again another day.

He watches me like a hawk and gets nervous if I step out of the room or even behind his closet door to get more diapers. He always wants to know what I'm doing and where I'm going and when I'll be back.

Likes: outside, falling asleep in his car seat, slobbering on things, sucking on apple slices

Dislikes: pureed sweet potatoes, not being held, being alone, staying in one spot for more than 4 minutes.

He takes 3 naps per day although his third nap in late afternoon doesn't really count. Either he sleeps for only 20 minutes or he snoozes while I nurse him. Most days one of his naps is 2+ hours so that's nice.

He sleeps pretty good most nights. We've had a great stretch of him being asleep by 9:00 and sleeping until 6:30 or 7. I'm working on cutting down his bedtime routine from 2 hours (nurse-fall asleep for 10 min-wake up for 20 minutes-nurse-fuss-nurse-sleep). This week I began being mean and nurse him for 40 min or so until I know he's full and drowsy and then lay him down. He fusses for a bit but winds down in a half hour or so.  I did it his way, whatever he wanted for 6 months (2 hours!).  Now he can just go to sleep like a normal baby.

He's kind of an ornery kid. And I mean that with all the love in my heart. I think I got a little spoiled with Henry and Erica; they were much more easy going and didn't need to be held all the time. He's 2nd orneriest child (no baby in the history of babies could beat Sarah on difficulty), 3rd best sleeper, 1st with strangers, and tied for 1st on cuteness with all the others.

I mean, c'mon. Look at those eyes!

We marked the occasion by finally getting out the highchair. I got it out at 4 months with my other kids but I wasn't in a hurry to take up so much space in my kitchen.

Any baby with two older sisters has it pretty good.

It didn't take him long to figure out how to rest his toes under the tray. Dye baby trademark.

Guiding Your Children's Obsessions and Other Parenting Wins

Lifetouch sent home this snazzy photo in hopes that I'd buy the whole package. Nope. But I will take a picture of the picture.

These are my boys and I love them and they love each other. Henry is surprisingly good with James. If I ask him to keep James happy for 10 minutes while I'm trying to finish something, Henry will gladly accept and get James giggling. I hope they always get along.

Erica kind of likes James. She thinks he's interesting and cute but mostly gets grossed out by all the slobber. She freaks out if he sucks on her toys "James is chewing it up!" He doesn't have any teeth, sweetie.

This is somewhere up Diamond Fork Canyon. Something "creek" maybe? We asked the kids if they'd like to go to the river trail, to Utah Lake, or on a hike in the mountains. They voted to go to Utah Lake but Justin and I each have two votes and out-voted them and took them on a hike. Our family is not a democracy. They whined about it but tough noogies.

They had a blast, just like we knew they would.

Henry found lots of hillsides to slide down. I've accepted the fact that none of his jeans are going to survive for James to wear.

Henry has a healthy stack of Pokemon cards attained purely through begging and trading with friends. "Mom, what's this one called?" Ugh. It's not a word! You can say it however you want.

Aside from motivating him to further his reading skills, I cringe when he starts talking about "damage" and "upgrades". Justin said it best: "I know we should try to be like Heavenly Father and care about what our kids care about but I just cannot care about Pokemon."

Inspired by a friend's son and his interest in basketball cards, Sunday evening I asked Justin to find his basketball collection from the 90's. Man it was funny to watch him and the kids look through it. Justin totally dated himself that night. My favorite quotes from the evening"

"A lot of these guys are on television." -Justin (or they just got fired from ESPN)

"Hey I know that guy! He's on Space Jam." -Henry

"This guy here, Dell Curry, he's Steph Curry's dad." -Justin

"He doesn't play anymore. None of these guys play anymore." -Justin

"Who's this guy, Dad? What did he do?" Sarah and Henry 89 times each.

"Can I have this card Dad? He played for Duke and you don't even like Duke." -Henry

On having 42 Grant Hill cards: "I kind of put all my cards in the Grant Hill basket." -Justin

This is my favorite card: glamour shot of Ostertag.

The evening was a total win because now "basketball cards and binder" are on Henry's birthday list. (And I told him my money would never be spent on anything Pokemon. Ever.)

And look how stinkin cute Henry's homemade Michael Jordan card is. He made it for Justin and I was jealous. He knows Justin loves UNC so drew him in that jersey.

"Michael Jordan 1992-1993. Upgrades. For fun he was the team's top passer."

I made this pie. It was delicious. Good Sunday.

Justin let it slip that something surprising was happening this month and I pestered (and pouted a little) all evening long to tell me. How torturous to say something like that but give me no hints! Either he couldn't handle the anticipation anymore or I guilted him into giving up the surprise. The next morning he gave me a new Dutch oven!

The one on the left is the one I've had for a few years and is the workhorse in my kitchen. It's a cheaper brand and it was showing it's age, especially inside. Plus it was beginning to be on the small side now that I have kids that actually eat. Loved it but not my dream Dutch oven.

My dream one is the one on the right. It is heavy and large. It's been on my stove all week long because I don't have a cabinet big enough for it. And because it's so pretty.

I told Sarah that they will all fight over this when I die because it will still be cooking like a champ in 50 years.

And then later that day Justin picked up a new picnic table that I had wanted for a few months. It was like my birthday. Or early Mothers Day/Anniversary.

Erica had her Anna dress on but the headband reminded me of Cinderella. She disagreed. "No, I'm Anna."

Erica hit a favorite milestone on mine on Monday. No more diapers! Woohoo! She had to wear underwear at night and keep it dry for 5 nights in a row to earn a big treat. She had one bad night, then three nights of diapers because she didn't want to try, but then 5 perfect nights in a row. I knew she could do it once she wanted to, She picked gummy worms.

How cute is my baby and how big is his hair?

How tall can it grow before it falls over?

Erica has some amazing hair of her own. Check out this bedhead.

I fed James some sweet potatoes for the first time. He was not a fan.

Since uploading videos is kind of a pain, you know that only the truly great ones make it to the blog. This is so funny to me. She's such a goofball.