More Party Fun

The birthday circuit continues with Henry's friend Maya's second birthday party today. Maya had one of Henry's old Music Together teachers there to sing songs with all of the kids, and everyone had a great time singing, using music shakers, and
dancing.






After singing, Henry got to partake of his new favorite food - pizza:



Maya's mom also made a very impressive guitar cake:



(which briefly inspired me to try my hand at making Henry's birthday cake...but that crazy thought only lasted 2 minutes or so).

Happy birthday to Maya!

Pancakes

This morning we took Henry to the annual Brookline Rotary Pancake Breakfast at the local high school. I mean, who doesn't like pancakes? Plus, there were balloons, face painting, clowns...a good time to be had by all.

Henry liked the balloons:





And the pancakes:




Look at his utensil using skills!




He did NOT like the clown. Oh no, he didn't. Yet, he keeps talking about the clown... "Big shoes, red nose...CLOWN!"

Playdate

Henry had a great day today with a visit from his friend Griffin. They went to the park, went out to lunch, played with trains....the most exciting part of the day, though, was a super fun game called "Let's put blankets on our head, run shrieking into the bathroom, shut the door, wait a minute, open the door, and run shrieking out again."








It was very crazy, very loud, and very, very funny to watch.

Henry is 23 months old!

One month until he is TWO!

Here he was on this day last year:



And here he is today:

Party Time

Today Henry and I went to his good friend Jake's 2nd birthday party and had a blast!

There was lots of playing:



And eating:





Along with a visit from Curious George:




(Henry was not a huge fan of George. He kept saying "big monkey in house!")

Happy 2nd Birthday, Jake!



On a completely unrelated note, when I went into Henry's room to get him this morning, I said "who is this I see standing in his crib?" and Henry responded "H-E-N-R-Y!!!!". Good job with the spelling, Henry!

Birthday Gift

Yes, we know Henry's birthday isn't for another month, but Mike and I both have the problem of wanting to give a gift immediately once it is in hand. Therefore, when Henry's birthday gift was shipped and arrived earlier this week we decided we could not wait until the end of April.

Our little guy is a wee bit obsessed with trains, as you may know. Thus far he has been "making do" with a basic, $10 figure 8 track set up on our coffee table, as well as various train books and toys. We decided we wanted our coffee table back, so for his birthday gift we broke out the big guns:



Yes, his very own train table and train set. The train set is HUGE - only about half of it is actually out on the table, and all the other pieces are stored in the drawer. If we feel like it, Mike and I can spend hours each night setting up new and creative train tracks for Henry.

He played with it very happily for hours this morning. Looks like we have a hit!

Just Because

Now that I have discovered how ridiculously easy it is to take a video on our camera and upload it to the blog, you will now be forced to see endless short, cute videos of Henry. I apologize in advance.

This is Henry and Jake at the end of daycare today. I enjoy Henry's squeals of joy.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

These are the best photos I could get of our little leprechaun:






Partly due to the fact that he is a man in motion who rarely pauses in one spot for more than a second, and partly due to the fact that I am sick. In fact, I am going to bed as we speak and hoping to have my cold miraculously gone in the morning. Does St. Patrick respond to these types of requests?

First Compliment

Henry is starting to use his language for more than just identifying objects and issuing demands. Today after getting him out of his crib from his nap he presented me with his first compliment:

"Mama, hair NICE!" (as he touched my ponytail)

I responded by saying that his hair looked nice as well, to which he rubbed his hand on his head and replied "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" (I guess he realizes he needs a haircut as well).

Florida Re-Cap

The Powell family had a great time in Florida!

Henry and I arrived on Saturday morning to the land of sunshine (we were lucky to miss not one, but TWO snowstorms back in Boston. We picked a good week to travel!) We had a great time hanging out with Grandpa Tim and Nene, going to the West Palm Beach Zoo:




And seeing trains:




Mike arrived on Thursday evening and we spent the next weekend in the pool and at the beach:







We had great weather (especially the last 3 days) and thoroughly enjoyed not having to wear coats, hats, and mittens. We had a slight hiccup when our flight home on Monday morning was cancelled so we had to end up staying an extra day, but it ended up not being a big problem. Henry was a trooper on the flight home and ate an ungodly amount of fruit strip snacks.

Thanks to the grandparents for hosting and spoiling Henry (and us!)

Back Home

The Powell family has arrived safely back in (cold) Boston. We were supposed to get home yesterday but had a cancelled flight so ended up getting home at about 2 PM today. Since then I have done 3 loads of laundry, unpacked 4 bags, had a playdate, and gone to a book club meeting. I am exhausted - thus, no pictures uploaded yet. For now you will have to satisfy yourselves with this video of Henry enjoying the waves.

Florida

I am pleased to announce that Henry and I survived our first "solo flight" and have arrived safely in Florida. There were a few rough moments - attempting to get through one of the longest and slowest security lines ever seen, contemplating how to collapse a stroller at the gate while also watching our bags and keeping Henry from running away, and the logistics of how to fit both of us in the tiny airplane bathroom when I had to go halfway through the flight (NOT easy!) - but nothing terrible. Henry was a truly perfect child on the plane. He is almost over his cold, and spent his time happily seatbelted in his seat watching DVDs, coloring, playing with stickers, and reading books. He did not complain once the entire 3.5 hour flight. Hopefully he has started a trend of exemplary travel...

Henry is having a great time with his grandparents and we are enjoying the weather (70 degrees or so) and feeling (somewhat) badly for Mike and our Bostonian friends who are expecting up to a foot of snow. Sorry guys!

The highlights of Henry's visit thus far has been watching boats go by on the Intercoastal (he was mesmerized):



And this morning taking his first merry-go-round ride (actually, two in a row since he loved it so much):







We have a fun week planned and are excited for Mike to join us on Thursday evening!