So what’s new with Henry?  His new favorite foods are Kale chips (which I make), edamame (which I’ve planted in our garden – here’s hoping),  and roasted seaweed strips (which I buy but I’m wondering how easy it would be to make).  He says edamame and guacamole with a Spanish accent.  The other day I caught him singing The Flobots’ “I can ride my bike with no handlebars” under his breath, and yesterday that pernicious song by Gotye came on and he said, “Mama, Somebody That I Used to Know” is on!  He’s really into nutrition and his body these days, and if you ask him what fiber does, he’ll tell you that “it gives your intestines a scrub.”  I taught him that.  Floyd bought him his first reading books and he’s sounding out words.  He’s a madman on his two-wheeler.  When he and I ride our bikes at night, we pretend we’re hoot owls.  And he threw his pool noodle out the car window.

Here’s some Henry conversations:

Me – Putting my hair up in the bathroom mirror.
H – Walking past the bathroom: Hi, beautiful.

Henry: Mama, who won the contest?
Me: What contest?
Henry: The America Obama contest?

H: Mama, how do you get sand out of your bum?
M: Oh, you have to take a bath or a shower.
H: You know what, mama? There are special pools to get sand out of your bum.
M: There are?
H: Yep. They suck the sand right out of your bum (zzzppp sucking sound) and take it back to the beach.
M: Wow. That sounds amazing.
(A few minutes of silence in which I thought the conversation about how to get sand out of your ass was over)
H: You know what, mama? Those pools are very, very, very far away.
M: As far away as Aya and Papa’s house?
H: Much further, further, further, further. They are at the north pole!
M: Wow, have you been to one of those pools at the north pole?
H: Mumbles I don’t know what in what I believe is his attempt to get out of the question.
H: In the pools they suck the sand out of your bum (zzzppp sucking sound again) and they put the sand in baskets. And then there’s pathways to take the sand back to the beach or the sandbox. They can go all the way to Florida!
M: And that’s how you get sand out of your bum?
H: That’s how.

Henry gave me a necklace to wear to school one day in March. He asked me if I was going to show it to my students. I said, “of course.” He asked me if they knew about him. I said, “ALL about you.” He said, “Tell them that I know all their names and that I can read their minds and that I can see inside their bodies!”

Okay, and what you’ve just skimmed all that text to get to – some photos:

Henry watching a movie with his “big” friend Benji.  I feel like this gives me a peek into the teenage years.

This next photo isn’t actually of Henry, but of his friend Maddox pretending to smoke Floyd’s pipe (all you parents out there, doesn’t that make you want to leave your children in our care for hours on end?).

Maddox is unbelievably adorable.  He’s also a mad hellion with a scream like a banshee.  But he’s so frigging adorable, I can’t hold anything against him.  And he says things like this:

Maddox: I love you inside your glasses.
Me: How ’bout I take off my glasses? Is that better?
Maddox: Now I love you inside your eyes. Henry, where do you love her?

Here is another conversation he had with Laurel, our downstairs neighbor who comes up to play often:

Maddox (3): I’m going to be Carrot Girl!
Laurel (6), with infinite wisdom: You’re going to need a headband.

I seriously can’t take these kids.

Last photo.  Henry playing guitar with his daddy in his usual around the house outfit.

Yay!  Presents with Papa!

Yay! More presents with Aya!

And what’s Christmas without an outing to the conservative temple for a Hanukkah celebration.  And not to bash Christ’s birthday or anything, but the Hanukkah celebration had it ALL OVER Christmas.  Henry bounced on a bouncy bounce:

Had a train ride AND a pony ride:

Went to a petting zoo:

Made sand art and black velvet menorah art:

And watched twin acrobats from France:

It was a blast, and we’re totally going back next year. We had other fun outings.  We went to the zoo:

where the big hit was the reptile house (lots of super venomous vipers)

but once again I somehow got no pictures of actual animals.

We went to blue springs where we saw the manatees, and you may glimpse their shadows in the background:

When daddy arrived, we went to the town of Flagler where Henry practiced his balancing act

and we found a Russian import store that sold headcheese, which we bought for Aya.

Of course, all of that was just biding time until the main event: Marky!

And when Marky and Henry are together, they head to the beach!

We saw a huge school of dolphins

And Aunt Cheryl introduced Henry to Funyons:

From Henry’s point of view, both discoveries were on par with each other.  The dads had some time to catch up with the seagulls

Though they got into the action, too:

There was a fierce sandcastle competition

Eventually, we made it back to Aya and Papa’s house, where they had some excitement of their own:

You know what sparklers mean!  New Year’s Eve!  And at Aya and Papa’s house, that means that Henry can finally eat the gingerbread house that had been taunting him for a full week.

He did a decent demolition job

but needed a little help from the construction pro

All that action can certainly wear a guy out.  Good thing there’s Papa’s lap and Marky’s old game boy to settle down with.

2011, you were a grand year.

And this is Henry comparing himself to primates last year:

I have measured out his life in primate arms (Prufrock fans, I know you’re out there).

We saw the bears and the gorillas and the lion who would have peed on us if he could.  We saw the many tropical birds of the bird house and the pink flamingos and the giraffes and hippo under the water of his pool.  We saw saw many other wonderful animals, but the best thing Henry saw was this:

As wild as he was about cotton candy, he was happy to share:

On the way home from the zoo, Henry said that his favorite animal was the pink flamingo, and that he wanted to be a pink flamingo for Halloween.  He has since placed a ban on the color pink, which is the color of princesses, whom he says he doesn’t like (but secretly loves).  We’ll see where he stands on pink come October.

Here’s Henry expressing unparalleled joy.  His Uncle Mark and cousin Marky sent him a storm-trooper personnel starship carrier for his birthday:

In case you missed that, here’s Henry modeling the merchandise.

If only I had recorded the dance of utter joy he performed when he received his Tonka garage from Aunt Cheryl.

Finally, Henry as “Lucharo” the masked wrestler/superhero/villian depending on the day:

Who needs pants when you have a mask?

He’s so crazy about the stuff that sometimes I just throw up my hands and hand over the loaf.

And we have one more photo from Halloween – Henry helping to carve out the pumpkins.

I’m sure it’s difficult not to notice the lack of pants.  Henry has taken to shucking his pants as soon as he walks in the door, which I guess is better than shucking them outside, but it’s hard to get a decent picture of him unless I cut it off at the waist.  The bread picture – totally pantless.  The other photo strategy we’ve tried is this:

Henry’s really into helping out these days.  I mean, he’s really into helping out with anything I’m doing that doesn’t involve picking up his toys.  He’s a pro at sweeping the kitchen floor, and he loves to help cook:

And the wine is not his.  It’s, uhm, cooking wine!

And one more photo until we get to the birthday party:

A nothing special day.  Just Henry and his mama playing outside in early November.

And now…FOUR!

Actually, we don’t have a lot of great shots from the party.  Floyd was taking the pictures.  Silly Floyd!  But we got this one of Henry and his birthday cupcakes:

Henry requested multi-colored cupcakes for his birthday and I made them and the frosting from scratch.  I wanted to make 36 cupcakes but I accidentally made enough batter for 50 and a small cake.  Whoops.  So that’s where those five pounds came from.  It was my first scratch baking endeavor, and of course I decided to try it when faced with feeding 16 kids and their parents at high altitude.  Other than the mixer breaking down (well, burning out and emitting an incredibly toxic-smelling smoke) and an accidental doubling of the milk, I think they turned out rather well.  And Henry was thrilled.

We had his party at Bounce Town:

There were a total of six bouncy structures in a warehouse space.  The kids loved it.  And when we got home, Henry got his big birthday present from us:

Being the uber-fit and sporty town that it is, Boulder seems to spawn children who are biking by 2, skiing by 3, and rock-climbing by 4.  We’re a bit behind the curve but we don’t mind at all.  And Henry’s great at balancing and coasting.  Pedaling is still a work-in-progress, as he sometimes pedals backwards which of course stops the bike cold.  But he’s having fun learning and hopefully by this summer he’ll be as comfortable on it as he is on his scoot bike.

A week after Henry’s birthday party, we jumped in the car for the pilgrimage to Wichita and Missouri.  Henry’s actually pretty good on the trip, thanks to the portable DVD player and junk food (Don’t judge!)

The first stop was Grandpa Michael’s, where Henry got to spray paint with Grandpa Michael, and Michael showed off his current project – a 1940-something roadster:

I have to admit that I felt pretty outlaw sitting in the driver’s seat.

We didn’t get much time in Wichita before we took off for Thanksgiving in Missouri.  We hit the McManis family celebration first, where Henry got to play with his cousin Cooper:

He also got a chance to climb on the tank outside the VFW hall while we were trying to figure out where the party was (thank God Lamar is a small town and cousin Steve drove by while we were wandering around the town).

Next stop was in the town of Milford for the Stansberry clan’s gathering.  Floyd’s Uncle Dave and Aunt Chloe drove down from Liberty, so we got to see them along with Uncle Shep and Aunt Francine and the rest of the family.

We made our way back to Wichita to spend some time with Sies and Gina and of course Grandpa Michael, who certainly knew what Henry wanted for his birthday!

Let the fantastic fours begin!

Henry: Mama, do you still have that big blue lollipop that you put away?

Me: What big blue lollipop?

Henry: That big blue lollipop you told me about, the one you put away.

Me: Henry, I don’t remember telling about anything about a big blue lollipop.

Henry (Signs of distress creeping into his face as he says): Oh, no.  It was a dream.

Still catching up!  Made it to Halloween!  Now I’m only 2.5 months behind.  Henry was Iron Man, a big stretch from last year’s Spider Man.  I was a little disappointed, hoping that he would pick something that would require some sort of crafty effort from me, which if you think about it, is pure craziness on my part.  I have all the crafting skills of a die-hard fan of ultimate cage fighting.  I’ve got my wish for next year, though.  He wants to be a flamingo.  I think I brought that on myself.

Before we get to the Halloween pictures, here’s one of Henry hiking mid-October:

And one of him sledding twelve days later:

That’s how we like our weather in Boulder – schizophrenic.

Earlier in the month, Henry and I went on our annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch where we went on a hayride

(Henry was sporting his celebrity-going-incognito-and-casually-dressed look).  Henry also attempted the cornstalk maze this year, something that freaked him out a bit last year:

He’s very much into doing things himself these days, whether it is making his own smoothie or picking his own pumpkin, or pulling the wagon to carry the pumpkin:

But all that work can tire a boy out:

So, finally, here’s Henry as Iron Man.  We went trick-or-treating with Henry’s friends Emanual (Optimus Prime) and Benjamin (Superman).

And here’s our three pumpkins, which I have to put here since we spent so much time carving them and talking Henry down from the slimy innards that he didn’t want to touch.

And mama as witch for those of you who still don’t believe that I look just like Mary Louise Parker.  I’m one solid dye job away from doppelganger.

Finally, an early October exchange I’ve recovered from the archive:

Henry (outside): Mama, I have to pee.

Me: Okay, let’s go inside.

Henry: But I want to pee on a tree.

Me: Well then, go pee on a tree.

Henry (running back after a very abbreviated pee): Mama! Do you know why my pee was so quick?

Me: Why?

Henry: Because there was a squirrel in the tree.

Me: There was?

Henry: Yep. You know what, mama?

Me: What, Henry?

Henry: Squirrels are taking over the world.

The setting: Our balcony. Henry is wearing is orange plastic workman goggles and playing in a bucket of dirty water with chopsticks and chalk.

Me: Hey, hon. Whatcha doing?

Henry: I’m the fishtaking man.

Me: You’re fishing? Are you a fisherman?

Henry: No, I’m the fishTANK man. I’m cleaning the fish tank.

My son and his glorious aspirations. (Contented sigh.)

For Floyd’s 37th birthday, we had a little bash at Eldora Canyon State Park, a truly breathtakingly beautiful park just a bit south of Boulder.

Floyd had a peach-berry pie for his birthday cake, and we enjoyed the company of lots of good friends.  Unfortunately, we only took pictures of the kids playing in South Boulder Creek.  Here’s Liam, Henry and Emanuel.

I love this photo of Emanual’s little brother Benjamin.

And here is everyone’s favorite dog Rex and everyone’s favorite little sister Carol.

There’s also a little creek behind the East Boulder Rec Center.  It has lots of great spots for cooling off.  Our friend Tim introduced us to this one, which Liam and Henry enjoyed thoroughly.

Funny story about the tube.  Tubing is a big  past-time here in Boulder:  the Boulder Creek and the St. Vrain River both offer plenty of sites to go.  People use those big ole tubes that could host a tea party, and it’s pretty safe.  One afternoon, Floyd and I decided to rent a couple of tubes and a life-jacket for Henry to try it out.  It was pretty pricey to rent a tube, so we asked about buying them.  Turns out it was only a few more dollars to buy them.  So we bought them.  On the way to Meadow Park in Lyons, which has a man-made tubing course on the St. Vrain, we pulled over at a gas station and inflated them.  And found out they were actually Henry-sized:

I’ve tried tubing with it.  I haven’t killed myself.  Yet.  But Henry loves it, so it wasn’t a total waste.

The swimming hole had its built in lawn chair.

Big enough to share (and note everyone’s favorite dog Rex on the bank).

He also likes to wear his clothes in an unusual manner.  I think he looks strangely hipster.

Boulder is, unfortunately, short on lakes.  We have the Reservoir, which is murky and smells like goose poop, and we have Coot Lake, which is also murky and smells of goose poop.  But at least no one except dogs tries to swim in Coot Lake.

You can, however, fish in it.

This young boy was a stellar fisherman, and he let Henry hold his fishing pole and he manipulated the line until Henry caught a fish.  Sweet kid.

Henry’s best friend is Liam, and Liam’s dad is Tim.  Tim is a bee-keeper, and we’ve been kept in local, delicious honey for a while now.  And we’ve gotten to see the inner workings of bee-keeping.  But a couple months ago, Henry and I got to see how Tim processes the honey.  He invited us to his workshop, which was a cool 98 degrees or so.  He has to keep it that hot to keep the honey flowing.

I couldn’t get Henry to turn around for the photo.  He was way too pre-occupied with the spigot of the centrifuge machine, in which Tim placed all the combs.  This is what was coming out of the spigot.

Henry’s on a new kick these days (one which I think he picked up by the aforementioned Liam who is a full year older than Henry).  He likes to say that he doesn’t like girls.  (He then also insists that boys love girls but doesn’t seem to have picked up on the  contradiction).  Earlier tonight, Floyd teased Liam by saying, “Hey Michele, you know who Liam loves?  He loves girls!”  Liam ran into the other room screaming, “I DO NOT!”  Henry ran after him screaming, “I don’t love girls, either…except you Mama!”  He’s hardcore, my boy.

Anyway, Henry does like at least one girl.  His friend Ira and he play on a regular basis, and a couple of months ago, Ira’s folks invited us up to their home in Vail for the weekend.  It was lovely.

And we had a great little hike in the hills behind their house.

I’m not sure what resort is behind Henry on the distant mountain.  Maybe arrowhead?

Finally, Henry in another hipster shot.  This time sporting the hipster beard.

2) Gold Hill Fire Truck and Station.  Gold Hill was the town that was hit hard by the fire in 2010.

We had a pretty active Labor Day weekend.  Henry and I met up with his friend Liam and Liam’s mom Carol for the Boulder festival, the highlight of which was the fire company’s ladder truck.  The ladder was extended the full length and we watched them as they pulled the ladder in and drove away.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a good picture of the fire truck, so I have to do with this photo of Liam doing something odd with a megablock.

On Saturday, we decided to drive down to Colorado Springs and see the Balloon Festival.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get up early enough to see the balloons take off, but we did see them light up their big torches and inflate the night before.  And we also got to see Henry in his father’s jacket.

And the best part of the Balloon Festival (as it seems the best part of all festivals for Henry) was the Bouncy Bounce.

The next day we headed for Pueblo to visit the Colorado State Fair.  On the way, we stopped in the Garden of the Gods.

Henry managed to do all that climbing with a broken ladder from his fire truck.  It was also very useful for digging.

Floyd used the visit as an opportunity to practice his 1970s action-movie moves that, coincidentally, matched his facial hair.

Afterward, we headed to the state fair, which was grand but – and I may be prejudiced here – had nothing on the New York State Fair.  I mean, their dairy barn wasn’t even a barn, but an ice cream stand.  And there was no butter sculpture.  What’s a state fair without a butter sculpture.  Still, Henry got to milk a cow, and we saw some great belly dancing, and I did part of the marine fitness test and totally qualified (though I’m way too old, which the handsome marine had a hard time believing – ahem!), and of course there was cotton candy.

We also saw pig races and a stunt show, and there were lots of animal exhibits for petting.  Our favorite attraction was probably the sandbox filled with pinto beans, which I thought was a great idea.

The tactile experience of it was amazing.

And I got to relive my old MTV video days.  Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio” anybody?  (3:27).

First of all, while Henry received a big boy pedal bike for his birthday, he still loves his scut (imagine an umlaut over the “u” and pronounce it scoot) bike, on which he became a speed demon this summer.  I ended up having to ride my bike with him in order to keep up with him.

Yesterday morning, Henry asked me, “Mama, after we wake up can I go practice on my big boy bike?”

Me: Sure!  What made you think of your big boy bike.  Did you dream of it?

Henry: No mama, I didn’t have any dreams.  I don’t have dreams.

Me: You don’t have dreams?

Henry: No.  I’m all out of dreams.

Henry is fully potty-trained these days, but still needs a little extra protection at night.  I’m talking about the diaper,  not the bucket, which is filled with toys.  Henry fell asleep with his hand inside it.

This summer, Floyd put together a new album, and Henry and I traveled with him all over Boulder to take photos for his album cover.  Sometimes Henry had to get in the shot.  Here is is with his daddy on top of Flagstaff Mountain.

Henry spent a lot of time with his friend Ira over the summer.  He and Ira met at the Rec Center at the university, back when they still had childcare.  Once they got rid of their childcare program, Zhenia (Ira’s mom) and I had to be a littl more creative with our afternoons. Ira and her little sister Carol have a great backyard with a swing with a very long arc and a trampoline.

Henry may not look a thing  like me, but he definitely shares my sweet tooth.  Hopefully that means he’ll also share my sweet disposition.  He was happy to celebrate his friend Benjamin’s 2nd birthday, especially when it came to the part about cake frosting.

Finally, Henry started taking swimming lessons this summer, and despite a slightly whack-a-doo instructor, he’s making a lot of progress.  He puts his head under the water, blows bubbles, and swims (I mean, he’s under the water and wiggling his body like mad, but he doesn’t cover much ground and would definitely drown if I weren’t within arms reach, but we’re going to go ahead and call it swimming).  There’s a small water park near us called the Bay, and while it doesn’t encourage much swimming practice, it does encourage Henry’s love of water.

More catch-up posts on the way!

As summer unofficially draws to a close (school starts in 12 days), I wanted to get one more post in before fall semester craziness leads to another four month span of no posts.  So to kick it off, I’d like to start with a few photos from our hike at Brainard Lake IN JUNE!  Granted, it was the beginning of June, but June nonetheless.

Brainard Lake is about an hour and 15 minutes north of Boulder, just past the town of Ward.  We hiked the two miles in via the road that was blocked to motor traffic.  Henry did well, and probably could have walked the whole way…if we had 27 hours for the hike.   Instead, we hauled him about for a good chunk of the hike in the baby backpack.  Considering that he is a wiggly 35 pounds now, that’s no small feat.  But Henry’s slow.  He gets distracted by almost everything.  And of course, there was the snow:

The hike was worth it, though, when we arrived at the lake:

On Father’s Day, Henry and I took Floyd to Georgetown, an old silver mining town about an hour and a half  southwest of Boulder.  Henry was thrilled to be keeping a secret from his Daddy (that we were going to go on a train ride up the mountain) and he perseverated on the idea of secrets the whole ride up there.  And he did a great job until I started to fret about the time.  Then he asked, “Mama, are we going to be late for the train ride?”  He didn’t notice his gaff, however.  Nor did he notice any of his father’s own powers of observation.  As we were about to board the train, which made a grand show of whistling and blowing smoke and steam as it entered the state, Henry asked, “Mama, can I tell daddy about the train now?”

Henry got a little worn out by all the attention that the dads were getting that day, and in the parking lot he accosted us with this question: When will it be Father’s Day for ME?  That question may also shed light on the following exchange that happened on the way home:
Henry: What is the universe?
Me: Metaphoric explanation (this goes on a bit)
Floyd: Scientific explanation (this goes on a bit)
Henry: Well, I’m bigger than the universe.

Henry is tres social these days.  Every day he asks me if this or that friend can come over or if he’s going to have a play date.  He has lots of friends from daycare:

Sometimes we play with Hunter or Emanuel when we see them outside.  Other times we meet Ira in the park.

But Henry’s best buddy is, by far, Liam.  Liam is about a year older than Henry, and they go to daycare together, but Henry probably sees Liam two to three times a week outside of daycare.  It’s pretty wild to witness their play.  They have their private in jokes, their protocols, and their own etiquette, and it’s a blast to eavesdrop on their conversations.  Half the time I don’t know what they are talking about.  The other night they were eating dinner and started pointing and shouting at each other, “You are mine! You are mine!” and then laughing uproariously.  I know that this is something very meaningful to them, which context and associated memories, but I can’t figure it out.  And I love it.  That Henry has this special relationship that has nothing to do with me.  That he had a friend.

These past few months, Henry and Liam have been playing a lot in nearby parks, like Eldorado Canyon, where we celebrated Liam’s dad Tim’s birthday.  Henry and Liam got their drink on,

got their dance on,

checked out the creek,

and plotted other mischievious  activitities.

The water at El Dorado Canyon was FREEZING.  I managed to get up to my knees before going completely numb, and Henry didn’t mind getting his feet wet to conduct some physics experiments.

But the birthday boy dived right in…for about 30 seconds.

A week later, Tim and I took them to a secluded spot at Boulder Creek, where they had a blast playing in the water.  (And, yeah, naked preschoolers are de rigueur in Boulder).

Henry has gotten pretty brave in the water, and he’s also turning into a bit of a scrambler.  Pretty soon we’ll have to tie ropes to him.  He likes to climb at a spot in Boulder Canyon we call “Rock Mama.”

One day soon, he’ll be able to go on a hike with his Uncle Graham, who came with Auntie Karen for a visit to Boulder.

Henry had lots of fun with Auntie Karen, who stayed with us for three days.  He grew quite attached.  The proof was when we crossed the street and he chose to hold Auntie Karen’s hand instead of mine.  Too bad Karen and Graham left so soon, otherwise, we would have taken them to the Carousel Festival in Nederland, which turned out to be one carousel and a tent with some brass music, but we had fun anyway.

One last funny exchange before signing off:

Mommy: Henry, would you like me to cut your sandwich into quarters?

Henry (with wide eyes): Yes!  And nickels and dimes, too!

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