Pancakes, Flowies, Ties, and Whack Whacks

As we get closer to Brute 2 joining our family, I'm shocked at how grown up Henry is getting. I know it will be even worse once Little Brother actually joins the family, but in the mean time--holy cow, where did my baby go?

Henry is talking SO much. Full sentences, changing tenses, and he's learning how to use first person. Which kills me, because sometimes he gets it totally wrong but it's adorable.

One of my favorite things, is when he asks to be held. "Mommy hold you?" he says. I love it. Derek asked him to say "Mommy hold me" the other day and I quickly shot him down--he'll learn soon enough! I don't need him to grow up that fast!

Henry, as usual, is totally in to helping with everything. He likes to help Daddy get dressed, especially for church on Sunday. This week, he helped Daddy tie his tie. He likes to help cook, and his favorite thing to do is make pancakes or french toast with Derek. There are many a Saturday morning (when Derek gets up with Henry so I can sleep in) when I get woken up by my happy little boy saying "Henry, Daddy make Mommy Break-ast!" Love it. Derek let's him mix, turn the pancakes, and carry them to the table. Also, he actually eats pancakes and french toast, which is a bonus. :)

I love their bed heads. :)

We went to the library this last week, where Henry helped me pick out some new books to bring home. A lot of the ones he insisted we check out have a lot of words on each page--too many for his patience right now, but it was still fun to let him help choose. If there were books with multiple copies, he pulled them all off the shelf and asked me to get them all. We didn't, of course, as I explained that we only need one of those books and other kids might want to take them home. He was mostly ok with that.

He's still really in to playing choo choo, tools, cars, and with his dinosaurs. Lately, he and Derek build dinosaur houses out of the Duplos. It's great fun, and they sit on the hearth for a day or two while as Henry plays with them each morning.

We've been helping Nana and Papa in the yard a lot lately, as their yard is in a Secret Garden tour on the 5th and 6th of June. The biggest project has been the play house, which is a reconstructed old barn that they tore down last summer. It's gorgeous and still a work in progress (more pictures later) but Henry absolutely loves helping build it. He brings out a handful of his tools and assists in any way he is allowed. Like measuring the floor boards, using his "whack whack" to hit the walls (over and over again!), and using his saw to help cut the cardboard tubes for the footings. I love that he likes to help, and even more important, I love that Nana and Papa include him in everything they can.

using his  saw to help with the footings for the playhouse

whack whack!

helping at the green dump. Nana yelled "hiya!" and he yelled "owie ya!" every time he threw a piece of wood out of the truck. 

Speaking of which, Henry is quite obsessed with watering the "flowies" in Nana's garden. I think we've about drowned a few of them because he wants to water them several times a day. I've tried to find dry patches in the yard, but with the incredibly unusual amount of rain lately, the mushrooms in the grass indicate there just isn't a dry patch to be found. But Henry loves it! He likes to hold the hose and the last week or so he's been sticking his hand in it and licking the water off, "get a drink, Mommy?" he'll say. He likes to help me get a drink by sticking his wet hand up to my mouth for me to suck off the water. Very helpful. :)

We've also been battling a lot of sickness around our house. Henry and I both were sick a couple weeks ago, and now I am just about all the way better and Henry developed a cough this week accompanied by a terrible fever today. Ugh. The worst. But at the same time, I've had more snuggles from him in the last 24 hours than in the last year and half. Seriously. Like, actual lay his head on my shoulder snuggles! It's been awesome, but so sad because I know he just doesn't feel well at all. Poor dude.

Oh, another thing we do just about every day, which I may have written about before, is waiting for Daddy to come home. After Henry's nap, we take blank (his blanket) and a story (usually Harry Potter) out to the swing and "watch-a-Daddy." Sometimes it's his blank and his tools, like yesterday. It's my favorite when Derek pulls up in his red truck, as Henry immediately yells "Daddy!" and hurries up the stairs and across the driveway to give his Daddy a big hug. He loves it when Daddy gets home, and usually has a long list of things for them to do. I love watching those two together. They're the best.

Anyway, that's what we're up to lately. Derek's working hard, so am I, and we're getting more and more excited for this baby to come. Ok, mostly I am excited to not be pregnant anymore, Henry is excited to have his Mama back to crawling on the floor and picking him up whenever he wants, and Derek is excited to have me not be miserable and hurting all the time. But either way--we're looking forward to our Brute 2 coming in the next few weeks! YAY!

Phineas

One of the things Henry loves the most are the bells. The BYU Carillon Bells, to be exact. Most days, he says "Go a walk, see a bells?" And so after dinner, just before bedtime usually, we load him, his "blank," some juice, some goldfish, and a water bottle for us up on the buggy and head down to campus to visit the bells. We try to plan our excursion so we arrive at the base of the bells just a few minutes before they go off. Which means, most of the time, we hear the bells toll for 8 o'clock. We go rain, snow, sunshine--whenever we feel like going for a walk, we just go.

Some time, a few years ago, Derek and I decided to name the largest bell on the tower. I'm sure the actual bell ringer people have a name for it, but we chose the name Phineas. Why that name, you ask? Well, if you know anything about Brigham Young, you know that his brother's name was Phineas. And that Phineas was pretty instrumental in getting Brigham to read the Book of Mormon and join the Church. We decided Brigham would be pretty happy about us naming such an important piece of BYU property after his brother. So there you go.

Over the last month or so, Henry has picked up on the name. He asks to go hear Phineas quite a bit, and gets really excited when he can hear him. "Phin-eee-as!" he says, as though it were three short words. Sometimes, instead of asking to go walk by the bells, he will ask if we can go hear Phineas. It makes us smile, every time.

Once, we were walking by the base of the bells before dinner. I was really hungry (surprise surprise) but Henry just didn't want to leave. We were trying to convince him to go with us to get food from the Creamery, but he was not about to leave the bells and the ducklings that live there. Suddenly, the bells went off "Oh," Derek said, "Phineas said it's time for Mommy to go eat! We better go."

"Ok," Henry said, "Phin-ee-as, said, Mommy eat. Time a go." And he was happy with that.

Now, if you ask Henry what Phineas said, he will usually say "Time Mommy to eat." It makes me laugh, because about every hour, it is time for Mommy to eat.

With all the baby ducklings at the waterfall/pond at the base of the bell tower, Henry has an added measure of excitement when we arrive. He loves to chase them around, clutching his blanket and speaking to them in the sweetest little baby voice. He gets very excited when they go in to the water, as they always "take a bath" when we are there. He has chased a mother and her ducklings from one side of the lawn all the way to the other, hoping he could catch them just for a second! Derek and I have to keep pretty close tabs on him, because sometimes the mama ducks get a bit defensive of their babies. Luckily no duck bites yet!

Most evenings, we make the trek down to campus and walk by the bells. It's so relaxing, Henry loves it, and we love spending time just the three of us. We sometimes take food for the ducklings, which Henry ends up eating and not feeding them, but usually we just go and wander around until the bells ring. I love how big his smile gets when the bells go off and how he always says "Bye bells! See ya later!" whenever we leave. I love that when he hears the bells from our house that he gets excited and almost immediately asks to go for a walk to see them. They've become part of our family, really, and I'm grateful we live close enough to make these memories with him.

I can't wait for him to show Little Brother the bells--something we've been talking about lately. I'm sure it will continue to be a fun family walk for us for months to come.



**these photos are from a few weeks ago, taken with my phone.