family

This morning Stan went over to sleeping henry and started putting his arms around him. I said, "Stan, what are you doing?" Stan said, "giving [him] family."

Henry Smiles

Henry is smiling for Daddy. he has probably been smiling for two weeks or so.

Henry often has a pleasant face like this.
Another classic Henry expression. 

breakfast in bed...almost

Stan used to come get in bed with us in the morning, but in the last week or so he has started just pulling our door closed quietly as he goes downstairs. We are usually so dead that we don't even know when this happens, and he usually jut watches tv or plays with his toys. Yesterday we came down and he was eating Scott's lunch that I had made the night before- two peanut butter sandwiches and a tupperware of fresh pineapple. This morning I awoke to him calling me from the bottom of the stairs
"come down, mommy"
"ok, just a minute. let me get some clothes on"
"come down, mommy"
"Stan, why don't you come up for a minute while we get ready?"
a moment of silence
"mommy's egg broke!"

I went right downstairs and sure enough, the carton of eggs was on the table there was an egg cracked on the floor. He had another egg in his hand, with the top of the shell picked through (which he probably carried to and from the bottom of he stairs across the living room carpet). He wanted to have scrambled eggs for breakfast, which we made together.

Today we made a red and green paper chain to count the days until we leave to go see Grandma Harris, and we made and decorated a Christmas tree to add to our diorama. Now we have a starry night sky, snow on the ground, and a Christmas tree. I decided not to do the nativity in it after all because I would have to go shopping for supplies, and it would kind of be beyond his skill level. But he can put stickers on green paper, and he can decorate little boxes, so I think we'll to presents under a tree, and maybe a fire, depending on how things go.

Today was scott's last day of class, and Stan wanted to make him a cake, which we did. And despite all this attention and all the crafts, and my kindness about the egg this morning, AND the playgroup, he still had an afternoon meltdown...so I guess I'm not to blame after all :)

Tonight I let Henry hang out in the crib while we did Stan's bedtime routine, and at the end of it, he still seemed happy enough to be there, so I thought I'd leave him there until he started to fuss, and maybe run down and do some dishes or something. A minute after Scott and I left the room, but were sill upstairs, we heard him say, "oh NO, Henry! mommy daddy GONE! go downstairs!" and it made us laugh.

a little misleading

While it's true that trimming your nails will make your hands lighter, and it's true that being lighter can help you jump higher, it's probably not true that trimming your nails will make you jump that much higher. But it worked :) And he did jump very high.