TWO

Henry is two today. Two. 

 

He is so, so, so full of life.  So full of joy. So full of passion.  He gets excited over most things [Note: The term excitement can be positive or negative excitement.].  He is still attached to "teacher," and we have a constant rotation of clean teachers since he sleeps with teacher in his mouth.  He is a Mama's boy.  He ultimately prefers Gigi over everyone (including Mama). He rarely walks, and mostly runs. Sometimes he substitutes marching. Sometimes hopping.  He is regularly bruised. He has no fear of death or imminent danger.  He does his best to be a picky eater.  He prefers all things sweet.  He seeks acknowledgement of his constant observations. "Mama, BIG truck. Mama? Mama?" [Me: Yes, baby.] "BIG TRUCK!" He always requests a song right before he goes to sleep.  Sometimes he prefers wheels on the bus, sometimes issy bissy spie-der, sometimes the Jesus song (Jesus Love me), and sometimes children (Jesus Loves the Little Children).  He is crazy ticklish.  He wants to wrestle/wallow 90% of the time.  He has accepted that Walter is here to stay (and seems okay with that).  He thinks Walter needs a bottle every time he cries.  He also thinks Walter needs to "throw up?" every time he cries (Walter has thrown up/spit up a total of about 15 times in his whole life).  Speaking of throwing up, Henry hasn't thrown up in about 3-4 weeks. That is his lifetime record. He has recently become obsessed with the dark, and excitedly whispers "SHARK!" "MONSTERS!" when we walk into a dark room.  He can officially hold his breath for 3 seconds underwater. He can spell and read the word "no" most of the time.  He regularly recognizes the letter H, which clearly stands for Henry.  He will not sing his ABCs on command, but has been known to be caught singing them under his breath.  He does not understand the verses of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and sings it on repeat.  He knows his colors, and recently seems to prefer purple and pink (I can feel Paul twinging right now!).  He knows most of his basic shapes (I got a blank stare the other day as I tried to explain a hexagon and octagon).  I've never heard the child count above three.  He still believes that anything more than one is two.  He still doesn't pucker to kiss, but opens his mouth wide.  I've still never known him to bite, but he has been known to hit when he gets angry.  He's also been known to come home from school and tattle on himself if he hit someone and received time out as punishment. He regularly says please and thank you without being told, but we're still working on ma'am and sir after our yesses and nos. 

For sheer entertainment value, I decided to interview Henry.  My bet before the interview began was that I wouldn't get more than two responses that made any sense.

1. What is something Mama always says to you? "Get out!" [I don't think I've ever said this to him.]

2. What makes you happy? "My chair." [After asking him about 10 more times since he wasn't focusing on me but on climbing in a chair.] "Mama."
3. What makes you sad? "Mama." [I've been known to make him cry a time or two....]

4. What makes you laugh? [Jumps up and down and mumbles something while giggling to himself.]
5. How old are you? "Two."  [That's right, my child's a genius.]

6. How old is Mama? "Two." [Okay, maybe not.]

7. How old is Dadda? "Two." [Now we're just stuck on repeat.]

8. What is your favorite thing to do? "Move seat too. Move seat to mat too. [As he picks up a plastic chair and moves it to a mat.] Buzz."

9. Who is your best friend? "Woody." 

10. What do you want to be when you grow up? "Music." [We will next teach him to say, "You want fries with that?"]
11. What are you really good at? "Two."
12. What are you not very good at? "I'm two." [Paul's response, after watching the interview on video, was "Answering questions." Ha!]
14. What is your favorite food? "Pasta." [You are a liar. You wouldn't eat pasta unless it was dipped in chocolate and covered in syrup, Buddy-the-Elf-style.]
15. What is your favorite song? "Itty Bitty Spie-der." [I retract my former statement.  This is true.]
16. What do you want for birthday this year? "Cupcakes." [Also likely true - sweet tooth is an understatement.]
17. What is your favorite animal? "Horsey." [He has officially named his giant stuffed horse Bullseye.  Think we have a Toy Story problem in our house?]
18. What is love? "Lollipop." [I don't get it.]
19. What does Mama do for work? [Blank stare.]

20. What does Dadda do for work? "Umm.  That one." [As he points to a bank on the side of the road.]
21. Where do you live? "Dallas, Texas."  [Okay, kid, seriously impressive.  You ARE listening when I talk to you in the car.]

22. Where is your favorite place to go? "Ummm.. doctor's office. Cars, cars, cars. Cars go fast." 

I have a lump in my throat, tears in my eyes, and tightening in my chest just thinking about the fact that I've had this blessing in my life for two whole years. Lord, I sincerely thank You for him.

Helmet Head

I have a stinky teenage boy living in my home.  Wait, that's still a few years off.  So what's that smell...?

Yup, that's right, I now have a child that lives in a helmet 23 hours a day.  It is heartbreaking - I can no longer spend hours a days rubbing and kissing on this child's sweet head, as there is now a large, plastic apparatus preventing such interactions.  I am only okay with this because of the large flat spot on the back right of Walter's head.  Walter doesn't have the best genetics when it comes to hair retention, so Paul and I figured we at least owed it to him to have a nice, round head when he starts balding at age 24.

This guy is such a little trooper, though. His fitting appointment was over 2 hours, and the child was entertained the entire time.  I forgot how fun this age is - they're interested in everything, and can be entertained by almost anything.

 

Wait. What do you MEAN I have to wear a helmet?!?

 But I don't WANT to wear a helmet!!!

 

 Oh. It's only temporary? Okay, let's do this!

 And if you're going to wear a helmet, you might as well make it cute, right?!?

 Big shout-out to Coree for creating such adorable and affordable decals!

And having no prior baby helmet experiences, I'm shocked at the level of sweat (and SMELL) this thing causes.  Walter's head is always soaking wet when we take it off.

And what's worse.... his head smells like big, stinky feet. So does the helmet!  Paul assures me that the smell is identical to that of a football locker room. There's just something so wrong about this precious child stinking!  Here's hoping the weather cools down so he's not miserable wearing this thing in the heat.  And here's hoping these next few months fly by!!!

But until then, here are a few of my cuties before church a few weeks ago.

And just for grins, here's Paul and his non-helmeted mini-me. Two of my three favorite people on the planet.

A Day in the Life....

DISCLAIMER: The purpose of the below is to document what it is I do with my day. Both for me (since my memory is totally shot and I can't even remember what I wore today) and for my friends who wonder why it is that I'm so forgetful. And disorganized. And on some days, haggard.  No, this was not written because I think I'm busier, cooler, craftier, blah, blah, whatever negative/passive aggressive adjectives some women like to use when they are waging their own internal battle but taking it out on someone else.

5:10 a.m. - Alarm goes off. Painful. Why, oh why, must it come so early? Oh yeah, because I have a flight to catch.  And since I'm flying into 1,000% humidity, one must attempt to shower and tame the hair.  Wait... maybe if I don't smell nice and clean, and I look a little like Bill Nye the Science Guy (or Doc Brown from Back to the Future), I'll terrify opposing counsel and intimidate them into getting whatever information I need.

5:12 a.m. - Wait! That's not logical. Get out of bed and SHOWER!!!!!!

6:10 a.m.  - Open the door to Walter's room to wake him up for daycare. It take 2 full minutes of talking to him for him to peel his eyes open and stop stretching. But he doesn't stop smiling the entire time.  Angel.

6:20 a.m. - Open Henry's door with Walter on my hip to get Henry ready for daycare.  The second I open the door he pops up and says something like we've been in the midst of a conversation.  I can't remember what he said this morning.  I feel like I've heard it all: "Dinosaurs!" "Bread." "BIIIIIIGGGG airplanes." "Huuuuuuunnngry!"

6:30 a.m. - Get the kids loaded up in Paul's car and we all pull out of the driveway. I head towards the airport, Paul and the boys head towards school.

7:10 a.m. - "Holy crap, why didn't I leave earlier?!?!?" I decide to try valet parking, which is new at LUV. This is necessary to ensure I actually make my 8:00 a.m. flight since parking at the airport lately has been a beating. 

7:35 a.m. - Walk straight onto my boarding flight - what the heck is the point to an A5 boarding pass if I'm loading up as A61? No, old man, I'm not okay with you taking your suit jacket off in the aisle, folding it neatly, and trying to find the perfect bin space to set it down.  Oh, I'm sorry. You didn't notice that you were holding up an entire FLIGHT of people trying to board an aircraft?!  My bag is HEAVY, and I would like to be able to set it down, thank you very much. I double dog dare you to put it over that seat that I'm laying claim to in the aisle behind you....

9:00 a.m.  - Land in Houston.

9:29 a.m. - Get in massive fight with new Ford Explorer as I try to figure out how to start it, turn down the radio, and then tune to a station where they speak English.  I felt like a 90 year old who'd just seen her first iPod.  We GM drivers don't know what to do with push starts.  Or touch screens.  Or steering wheels that have approximately 25 buttons and nozzles and toggles and whatever else Ford thought up.

9:30 a.m. - Obtain rental car.  Remind myself that I'm a Christian and should not be nasty to employee who took 10 minutes to get my car in her computer, despite the fact that (1) I had a reservation, (2) I'm an elite member, and (3) her coworker managed to get 4 cars through the line as I continued to sit there.

10:00 a.m. - Walk into deposition out of breath.  I may or may not have gone an average of 80-85 mph to get there on time.  Note that my reflection in the glass indicates my attempt to tame hair was 100% unsuccessful.  Immediately place hair in ponytail.

12:00 p.m. - Complete deposition and head back to the airport.  Realize halfway there that one of the daycare workers' birthday is tomorrow.  Oh crap, the overachiever/organized mom that assigned us workers last year to treat on their birthdays no longer has a child at the daycare.  Crap, crap, crap.

12:45 p.m. - Arrive at security to realize that I can finally take a breath. I have a whole 45 minutes to go find a seat and frantically check my emails. Oh yeah, and organize who will handle birthdays this year.

3:00 p.m. - Land in Dallas.  Head back to the office to grab some papers in my chair that I need to look at tonight.  Swing by a co-worker's office to figure out what it is I need to do with the papers that were left in my chair, because 4 years later, I'm still clueless about the practice of law. 

3:30 p.m. Arrive at local mall to buy a giftcard for our daycare worker.  Yeah, that's right, I volunteered to handle the birthday since I think I was the only one who knew about it.  I quickly am distracted by the Dillard's shoe sale. 

3:40 p.m.  - I manage to snap out of my selfish deviation through the shoe sale.  Okay, by snap out of it, I mean that I have to leave because they have NO SHOES IN MY SIZE. Arg. Size 11? Plenty.  Size 5.5s? A gazillion.  Size 8.5s? Sure. If you want a gold stilleto covered in clear plastic with neon pink piping.  No, thank you.  I gave up my stripping hobby after having my second baby.

4:00 p.m. - Realize the Dillard's employee has sent me in the opposite direction of the mall concierge.  Maybe she overheard me mumbling offensive statements to the shoes in my size?  I have now walked approximately 1 mile, but manage to obtain the gift card.  Now to walk back to my car.  Oh, did I mention that the heels that were once comfortable at 6:30 a.m. now feel like torture devices strapped to my feet. Blast Dillards for selling all non-stripper shoes in my size!!!!!!!

4:45 p.m. - After fighting traffic that is typical for 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. in these parts, I manage to pull into the grocery store parking lot to purchase breakfast/cake mix for the birthday girl.  I hobble into the store, grunting and groaning and looking like a crazy person.  And since my hair was attacked by Houston, it's not helping with the crazy look.  I hope I'm not leaving a bloody trail behind me.  I wonder if they have flip flops at the front of the store I could wear just for shopping?

5:15 p.m. - Arrive home to three smiling boys. 

5:15:01 p.m. - Kick shoes off. Resist temptation to throw the shoes in the trash and remind yourself that you probably walked 2-3 miles in them today.  Typically not advised for 3-4" heels.  Make a mental note to write someone in Washington and let them know that heels should be used as a form of punishment in jail. I did see a striking, sassy pair at Dillard's...

5:16 p.m. - Henry has a great meal in front of him, and I get to feed Walter some real food. Henry then proceeds to throw a giant fit and decide he doesn't feel like eating corn and peas tonight, and thinks it is fun to play with his food instead.  After it's clear that he's done eating (and after multiple warnings by Paul and me), we get him out of the highchair.  Not without protest, however.  "My tray! My plate! My highchair!, etc." were all screamed as things were taken from him and we got him down.  Oh, the drama.

5:45 p.m. - We let Henry watch one TV show, while we climb on the floor and play with Walter.  His fourth tooth has popped through, and we would have never known if we hadn't been feeling for it for the last week.  No fussing, no drama.  Like I said, angel.

6:15 p.m. - Bathtime for both boys.  Walter now leans out of his bumbo at a dangerous angle so he can grab for toys and splash.  He never leans forward, always up and over one side.  I'm just waiting for him to dump out of the bumbo - thank goodness for thigh rolls!  Henry proceeds to throw a tantrum - over what, I can't really remember.  I think he wouldn't sit down.

6:30 p.m. - Henry and I go upstairs and start reading. Walter comes in with Paul to say goodnight, but ends up sitting on my lap to finish a book.  While reading a book to both of them is physically exhausting (Walter's trying to grab the corner and shove it in his mouth while Henry's got about 10 stuffed animals in his arms so I'm stretched to the max just so my arms fit around them), it is the best.  Walter doesn't make it long, and ends up in bed a few short minutes later.  Henry and I proceed to read 3 books (where he correctly identified a few letters, so we'll count today as a win!), sing 3 songs, pray only once (Henry's request was to thank Jesus for blankets), and walk out the door.

7:05 p.m. - Mix cupcakes and get them in the oven

7:20 p.m. - Eat dinner. In front of the series finale of Dexter.  Which is cut short by a phone call. Then the cupcakes. Then Paul needed to grade papers.  But we finally finish it at some point.

And the rest of the night was comprised of getting ready for bed and checking emails.  So tomorrow, or the next time you see me, when I look a little haggard, or when my shirt is on inside out, don't hold it against me.  But if I'm limping, would you mind letting me borrow your flip-flops?

Brothers

There is no question that these two little men that have completely stolen my heart are brothers.  Can you guess who's who?!?

     

If the eczema and cleft chin didn't give it away already, Walter's on the left and Henry's on the right. :)

And this little guy got his third tooth a few days ago! Top right tooth is on its way down!

Baby McAlister!

Sadly, a little over a year ago, some of our dear friends became traitors and moved north of the Mason-Dixon - all the way to Connecticut!!  Since it was a great move career-wise, and since they promised they're going to do their best to return after a few years up there, we've decided to forgive them.  Oh yeah, and to throw them a party to celebrate THE UPCOMING ARRIVAL OF THEIR NEW BABY!!!!!!  They were kind enough to allow our children to join the celebration, which meant no babysitter searches. 

 

Henry had to show Lily the proper way to use the racecar track (I highly doubt she has many of these at home).

These two were born exactly two weeks apart, and tend to tower over other kids their age.  They are pretty much the exact same size.  I'm pretty sure that if we dressed them in complementary outfits, we could convince strangers that they were twins. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed, gigantic twins! :)

This is the only picture I got of Paul's mini-me Walter. And this was pre-throwup.  This sweet baby had a double ear infection - can you tell from this picture?

We moved a lot of the playroom stuff downstairs.  It took approximately 10 minutes and 4 children to destroy it. :)  But they played nicely (for the most part). I think Henry may have assaulted Evie a few times with a piece of his foam mat, but fortunately, there were no permanent injuries.

 

Love this kid.

 

I just love this picture of Lyndsey.  This is how I think of her - shining from the inside out.

Love these girls!

And I LOVE this couple!  I couldn't be happier for them - baby McAlister doesn't know how lucky he is, but he's about to figure it out in a few short weeks!!!! Can't wait to meet him.