Henry: A much needed update

I can't believe how much Henry has grown in the past few months. Ever since starting school, he has changed in so many ways. Here are some observations about my boy and some of the things he is into these days:

• Video games. He loves them whether its on the wii or on our phones. We quickly realized that if he plays during the week after school he gets super dramatic and whiny. So we have cut back to only playing on Friday afternoon and Saturday. Its kind of crazy how fast he picks things up and as much as I would prefer for him to do other things, I'm amazed at what he does learn from playing. He tries again and again to beat certain levels and he uses problem solving. 
• Reading. We are so blessed that he has teacher who are willing to put in extra effort for the kids who are more advanced. He spends time working one on one with his teacher learning sight words and reading primer books. I love his excitement and pride as he is reading. 
• Not only does he like reading but we have started reading chapter books together with success. He loved Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and we have read a few from the Magic Treehouse Series. I like challenging him to focus on listening without pictures something he hasn't wanted to do in the past. 
• Eating vegetables. For some reason all of a sudden Henry is all about eating his veggies. He recently discovered he likes "that white salad dressing" and loves dipping lettuce and spinach in it. He loves fresh peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. He loves cooked mushrooms, asparagus, peppers and carrots. He also recently discovered that he likes toast! I have been working on that one for years. 
• Angry Bird Star Wars and Star Wars are still #1 in his interests. He loves wearing his Obi Wan cloak or creating an Emperor Cloak out of a black sheet and running around the house with his light saber. He is constantly saying "I am going to the dark side." Or if he is getting mad at me he'll threaten, "do you want me to go to the dark side?"
• He is really sweet and kind to others and can say super nice things. He has showered me with dozens of drawings that say "I love you Henry" Its hard not to keep them all. 
• We still struggle with listening and obeying. He is slow to respond and often puts up a fight when its time for things like sitting down for dinner or getting in the shower. Saturday and Sunday are especially hard as he is out of his routine and has too much down time. 
• Oh yeah, he takes showers now!
• Most days he wakes up by himself before 7:00 am, comes out into the living room, starts the tv and watches Netflix before we get up. Its nice that he is so self sufficient so we can sleep a little longer. 
• He is always chewing on something. The collar of his shirt, toys, kleenex, remotes. Its crazy! He even chewed a button off his polo shirt at school and has chewed the velcro off the cuff of his jacket sleeve. We have tried so many things to get him to stop and I am hoping he just grows out of it. 
• Henry loves playing games. I am happy that his attention span has dramatically increased to play games with us. He likes UNO, Sorry, Candy Land, and Go Fish.

Here he is with some of his halloween candy and a squinty face

Walking home from school 

Pillow hat

Henry as a hipster :)

 Selfie

 Purple popsicle tongue

Playing UNO, this kid loves games

Parent Teacher Conference Selfies

All About Henry From Henry!

What is your favorite color? Black and Brown and White and Very Dark Grey
What is your favorite food? Pizza, strawberries
Who is your best friend? Everyone, Maya, Erica, Lilliana, Macey and Evie and Zariah
What is your favorite thing about Vivi? She tackles me
What is your favorite tv show? Where are my pants and Clone Wars
What is your favorite video game? Dr Mario, Super Mario, Angry Birds Star Wars for Wii
What is your favorite book? Its Not Easy Being Big
What is your favorite thing to do? play with my sister
What is your favorite dessert? Chocolate and cookies and cinnamon clusters
What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Hug him and kiss him
What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? Put pictures on the wall with her
What is your favorite Primary Song? Said Samuel
What is your favorite thing to do at school? Play games with Miss Cooper and Miss Pierce
What do you want to be when you grow up? A teenager, a dad, a missionary
Why? I don't know why
Who is your favorite Star Wars character? Darth Sidius, the Emperor

Season of Thanksgiving

We spent the week of Thanksgiving break just relaxing around Athens. The weather was nice so we did venture out for some walks and playing at Henry's pre-k. For Thanksgiving Dinner we met up with our friends the Simmons for a delicious and low key meal. We brought the rolls, stuffing and a broccoli dish that I love and only get to eat once a year. The recipe calls for pearl onions and I can usually find them already peeled in the frozen section. Not this year. I had to hand peel each one and I was crying and it was a huge mess but it was worth it in the end. Yum. Everything was delicious and it made for a relaxing day. Vivian liked trying everything and even ended up with some dessert on her head.

Steve took one for the team and braved Walmart to get new sheets for us and the Big Bang Theory Seasons. The rest of the weekend was spent watching movies, playing video games and eating lots of good food and of course, decorating for Christmas and getting our Christmas tree!

Henry and Vivi

Life with Two.

It just goes zooming by. 

I love the new camera on my phone!

Vivian: 6 Months

 Eating in the Bumbo

 Flexible Lady!

I absolutely adore this hat! I don't even remember where I got it but I think it is the sweetest thing and her little face inside is almost too much cuteness to stand. 

Sweaty Sunday Best!

Maybe the bouncer is a bit of a hazard now...

I am so behind on blogging! I am so sad that I haven't been better about capturing what it going on with Vivian. So here I am trying to write it all down. 

Vivian is now seven months--the title of this post lies--and she is getting more fun each day. But the past month has been awful and quick too. The days have been long but the weeks have flown, if that makes sense? After her six month shots, also the time I stopped blogging, we had a dousy of a time over here. She was a demon baby with a fever and was so uncomfortable from the shots that no one in the house slept. Then she got an ear infection and once we finally got that all cleared up she hasn't been sleeping through the night since. We are all on edge and tired and poor Henry, her roommate is awakened each morning really early and he just stays up for the day. Its been a long month. Getting little sleep really cuts out all energy for nonessential tasks. Most days I can rally and stay on top of life but other days, hours pass me by and I have only managed to keep us all alive. You know that feeling of always playing catch up with laundry or grocery shopping? I am kind of just hoping to make it through the holidays and then start over, 

Anyway, crazy unintentional rant over!

Vivian:

• Baby Lady, Vivi, and Viv. Some of the many names for our sweet girl. 
• With the Lady name I often sing to her "Who's that Lady? Who's that Lady? Vivi Lady." We have obviously substituted the name Vivi for Sexy making it infant appropriate. 
• She loves solids! Carrots, apples, and any puree with cinnamon. She also loves puffs and eating small pieces of bread and other "real foods." We started her on solids way later than Henry (he started at 4 months, her at 6 months) ad she is already bored of purees. I am loving that we skipped months of baby, baby foods. We never even tried rice cereal with her. If she likes something, she makes this enthusiastic grunting noise. First exhibited on potato soup, blueberry pancakes, Thanksgiving chocolate pie and pumpkin pie and hamburger. 
• The solids have brought on poop and poop and more poop. And while it is less "wet" than breast milk poop, it is still poop and sometimes it happens like 3-4 times a day. 
• She is also getting strong enough to sit. She sat up by herself for the first time on Nov 20, seven months. She is still not 100% stable but she is getting better at being able to sit and reach for something and not topple over. 
• Vivi also continues to be fascinated by Henry. When we go get him from school she just watches him all the way home. He continues to be great with her too and can get her to smile and calm down if she is crying. 
• She loves being in the Bjorn and being outside. She is never grumpy if she can be on the move, looking at the world around her. 
• When she does topple over she is all about rolling around. She likes rolling and can now roll both ways. Before it was only from the left to the right. 
• While sitting she has enjoyed playing with small toys. She loves this weird blanket with a princess head in the middle of it and this flat star bag toy with the cellophane crinkly stuff in it. 
• She still loves baths and I am waiting for her to be a bit of a better sitter before putting her directly in the tub without her little bath seat. 
• And she still loves bouncing away in her exersaucer!
• Since she can flip herself out of her bouncer even when buckled in, she is now sleeping in her crib in the kid's room. Its a been a tough transition for everyone and we're crossing our fingers we figure out the timing of it all soon. They both need such different things when falling asleep, it would be nice to have two bedrooms for them. Henry likes the door open, some light and to be able to hear us in the next room. As we say good night his final call to us it "Be sure to watch a show." Vivi needs dark, silence. 

And now some videos:

I love this video of Vivi. It was one of the first days she was sitting, right at 7 months.
And of course, eating carrots! Yum!

We are the Skywalkers!

 For Halloween we went with Star Wars as per Henry's request. We had Darth Vader, Padme Amadala, Luke and Leia or the whole Skywalker Family. I had so much fun making these costumes and we were a hit at our ward trunk or treat.

Steve humors me and dresses up in my family schemes. It was easy to convince him this year because he really just had to wear black jeans and a t-shirt plus one cape. 

 Surprise! We ran into Darth Mal at the ward party and there was an epic battle between good and evil.

 Luke, I am your father!

 On Halloween Henry and I went trick or treating with some friends. Steve stayed home with Vivi who was sick. I have to say that we had the best time trick or treating. Henry is at such a fun age where he is capable of walking around on his own and also loving going to each house. We met up with some friends and adopted Darth Mal into our clan going quickly from house to house. It was cold but not freezing once we were moving. Henry and I had so much fun and would have gone for longer if it hadn't been so cold. It was a memorable night just the two of us.

The reason I am posting these so late is I failed to get pictures of Vivian as Princess Leia on Halloween because she was sick. Luckily months later her little outfit still fit and I was able to get some "solo" shots of the Princess.

A little about our costumes:
Darth Vader: Steve's Darth Vader shirt is an old black shirt that I painted, I used Henry's Darth Vader pjs as inspiration, we bought him a child's mask which was kind of small but now Henry wears it and we turned a black sheet into a cape. We also were able to borrow the red lightsaber.
Padme: Mine was a lot of fun to throw together. I found stretchy white pants at a thrift store, used an old white shirt and I already had the boots. I made my silver armbands and laser gun with silver foil fabric from JoAnns. I also painted an old thick black belt tan and glued on some little pouches for my utility belt.
Luke: We had Henry wear khakis and I found a tutorial for the jedi cloak. His little vest and sash were pretty easy to throw together.
Leia: I used an old long sleeved onesie with a stained collar - I cut the collar off - and attached a skirt made from one of my old white tshirts. Her silver belt is from the same material as my gun. Her hat is made from fleece.

Pumpkin Patch

So we're taking you back to fall today! 

On October 27 just a few days before Halloween we headed to our favorite pumpkin patch to take pictures and buy mini pumpkins. Henry and I had been there before for his field trip but we also wanted to go for FHE. After getting pictures and picking out some tiny ones to take home, we went to Walmart and bought our big carving ones. I love this pumpkin patch but $40 for pumpkins is just crazy expensive! As you can see we struggled to get good shots. Adding that second kid sure makes getting usable pictures a challenge!

Next up: Halloween!