Sweet Carolin(a)

Here are some pics from our recent trip to Chapel Hill to visit Henry's grandparents. Henry was sad that Uncle Ryan and Luigi were out of town, but he thanks his cousin for letting him play with all his cool toys while he was away.

Working Curious George puzzles with Grandma and Linda.

What's cooler than posing with a fire truck? Posing with one of Chapel Hill's Carolina blue fire trucks...and with Grandpa of course.

Mmmm. Gelato so good, it'll make you stand up in your chair.

Kitchen Catch

Our (okay, my) hopes of Henry becoming an ace lefty in the big leagues took a turn when it became apparent that he is probably going to be right-handed. But there's still a chance he could make it to the majors, right? Well, as this video shows he has a little ways to go. One way to improve his game for example is not to react to missing the ball by dancing in circles, clapping and falling on the floor. Then again, maybe he could play for the Pirates.

(BTW, you'll have to take my word for it, but he did actually catch the ball a couple of times.)

Slide Show

We had a picnic lunch at the playground Saturday with our friend Theresa who just moved back to Atlanta after a stint in Princeton, N.J. As you can see, she was wearing non-slide-appropriate clothes so she had to observe Henry's sliding prowess from the sidelines. She did take these pictures though (except for the first one)...

Pajama Time

Sunday was the perfect day to lounge around the house and stay in our pajamas a ridiculously long time...long enough for Henry to get in some good cuddle time with his mommy.

Daphne doesn't literally wear pajamas, but figuratively speaking, she's in them 24/7.

No Doubting Thomas

Henry has been obsessed with trains for a long time now, especially Thomas the Tank Engine. He knows most of the characters by name (including Henry, which he calls "Hemmy Train"). His cousins Ryan and Jonathan recently gave him their used Thomas toys, and last weekend Alexis hit the jackpot when she found a train table at a garage sale that included a whole other set of Thomas trains and track.
So how excited was he about this development? We actually had to move the train table so that it is no longer visible from the kitchen table. Before doing that, Henry's meals were lasting only as long as it took for him to glance over his right shoulder. Then he'd see the train table and it was all, "Train! Get down, please! Train!" Turns out, as much as he loves Kix ("ball cereal"), it's no match for the pull of Thomas and friends.

"Yeah, It's Got a Hemi"

Henry's vocabulary has expanded like a virus and he now says everything from "where'd it go?" to "big yellow truck" to "meatballs." But until this week, he had never once said his own name. And it surely wasn't from a lack of hearing it said. On Monday though, we were drawing on our driveway with sidewalk chalk. I got him to lay down on his back and I traced around his body. When I was finished, he stood up, pointed at the outline and said, "Hemmy!" He's been saying it ever since.

This is the drawing that inspired the breakthrough, doctored up with a face and clothes so as not to resemble a murder scene.

Separated at Birth (Part IV)?

This is not a dress rehearsal for Halloween, it's just the result of Henry eating a pumpkin iced cookie. But still.