superdad

I mentioned previously, when Henry got his first real haircut, that Henry and Daddy have been doing more together.

Well, Daddy is quite in demand these days. In fact, we were joking this weekend that "daddy is the new mommy." (Not quite. I go upstairs to put away some laundry, and the next thing I know, the 2 little boys I left downstairs with daddy are now dancing around me, peppering me with requests. And daddy is flipping through the channels. Why does he get left alone so often??!!)

But anyway, back to my story. The boys have been really interested in superheroes lately. And daddy seems to have infinite knowledge of superheroes. They will sit at the dinner table and say "daddy, will you tell us about Batman?" And Bill begins (for the dozenth time), "Well, when Bruce Wayne was just a little boy, he was walking with his parents, and some bad guys attacked his parents..."

He tells them the origins of all the superheroes, and then the boys repeat the stories back to me: "Peter Parker went to a museum full of spiders! And one spider was craaawling up his arm... and it BIT him! Ahhhh!"

It's really sweet and cute. Henry will even venture outside to pursue daddy! In the picture above, I got both boys to eat dinner (pizza) outside while daddy read them books and told stories. It seems kind of primal- the elder males of the species passing down legendary hero stories to the next generation...

try try again

Melissa, you are not the first wise woman to suggest that I buy my son a Spiderman shirt. The first to suggest it was L, the woman who cares for him all day. I guess she was getting tired of seeing him in his pajamas all day and/or having to do the dirty work of MAKING him change out of them. One morning she said "Tommy, you'll have to ask your mom to get you some superhero t-shirts."

Could I be any more dense?

That very day I went out at lunchtime and bought a Spiderman shirt and a Batman shirt, and they have been added into the rotation. Today I actually bought him 2 more. The jammies he was wearing Sunday are somewhat new (used to be Henry's), and he "wanted to show them to Grandma and Grandpa." I tried to talk him out of it, and then said "I'm just going to let him wear them."

"Of course you are" was my husband's response. What do you think that means?!
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Due to a schedule conflict Monday evening, I took Henry along to Tommy's gymnastics class. Over a year ago I had enrolled both boys in gymnastics: Henry in a "special needs" class and Thomas in a 2 & 3 year old class. Henry hated it and stopped going. Thomas loved it and continued.

I called ahead to ask Tommy's teacher if it would be alright if Henry came along. After the preliminary "he's not signed up for the class so he can't legally use the equipment" spiel, she said that she would work with him as she had time and let him try some things out.

Henry said he just wanted to watch, but also seemed excited to be there. (I didn't carry him screaming and crying from the place before class even started, like I did last year, so we were off to a good start.) The kids start off running in place, then do some stretches, and then a warmup song. Henry took a spot next to his brother and started running (stiffly) in place, clutching his prints and his newest Disney magazine. He continued to do some of the stretches and not others, but all with an interested attitude.

Tommy liked showing him how it was done, and Henry willingly tried jumping into the foam pit, doing a forward roll, the balance beam, donkey kicks, crawling through a tunnel, hopping, and jumping on the trampoline. I was so, so pleased! At the end of the class, the teacher said "Henry, last year, when you were in my class, lots of times you said 'I can't do it.' Today, you know what I heard you saying? 'I did it!'"

So I am considering signing him up for the class again, although I think the appeal of Monday's class was that participation was OPTIONAL. If I am paying for the class, I am going to want him to participate more of the time.

After gymnastics, we went to Bob Evans' for dinner. Maybe I was trying to re-write history, because it's the same restaurant we went to after that ill-fated first gymnastics class last year. It was during the first (also ill-fated) attempt at potty-training Thomas, and I remember a stinky and messy incident with a pullup...

Anyway, as soon as our waitress came to the table, Henry announced "I want blueberry pancakes and lemonade please!" No time to look at the menu, he was hungry! So we ordered right away. Tommy started looking around and coloring the kids' menu. Henry immediately began asking "Are they making our food? Is it done yet? Is she bringing my pancakes? Is our food ready?" He would not be distracted, and asked nonstop about his food. It reached the point where Tommy got exasperated and said "No, Henry. Our food is not ready yet. It is not coming yet. We have to be patient." (I guess someone was listening to me.)

Henry ate every last bite of his meal, and most of his brother's. He had also visited my office that afternoon, and visited L's house when we picked up Tommy. It had been a very busy evening. He had a pretty rough day the next day at school- I wonder if he was over-tired.

So here's to waiting awhile and trying something again. Henry may not be an Olympic gymnast anytime soon, but now I at least feel like he has had a positive experience there, and the three of us had a pretty pleasant evening together. Kind of an extended Mother's Day.

Henry and I walked up to Starbucks Saturday afternoon. (This was before I had even seen the list of things he likes). It was a beautiful day and a walk with a favored destination is most of the time the only way to get him out of the house. He took along a couple "prints" from the computer, and talked about those for the first half a block, but then started looking around him and commenting on the beautiful day and beautiful trees. I am reminded that these prints are a transition item and can then be tucked into my purse or pocket. This works so well, and there's little need to force him to leave them at home. That causes anxiety, and makes him even less interested in transitioning.

I gave him $5 and had him order his own coffee cake. While he ate, he asked "where is Tommy?" He has been doing this lately- wondering where his brother is when he is not with us. It is encouraging to me- they are used to having one another around. I reminded him that Tommy was at home napping. Then I asked him "do you like having a little brother?" (Of course you know the answer I was hoping for.) "No" Henry replied casually.

My balloon deflated a little. But then I noticed him smiling a little sideways smirk. "Hey- are you messing with me?" I asked. "Yes." His little sense of humor is coming along nicely.

On the walk home we chatted with a couple neighbors and petted a dog. At school they call their field trips "community trips" and I guess that's what this was too- getting some experience being out in the community.

For Mother's Day we met Grandma & Grandpa at a dairy farm midway between our cities. The family that owns the farm has added attractions over the years- they make their own ice cream, have 2 restaurants, miniature golf, and animals you can feed. New this time was a sort-of train ride: individual cars strung together and pulled by a tractor. Grandpa asked Tommy if he wanted to ride. I gave Grandpa the camera, not realizing that they would be riding together- so I didn't get a picture. But they sat in the last car and it was a very bumpy ride around the farm!!

Henry loved the animals, of course. If I won the lottery I think I would buy a dairy farm for us (and hire some people to run it- my farm experience is a generation removed!)

Grandpa let Thomas choose his own ice cream cone- so of course the boy picked out a waffle cone dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, filled with chocolate ice cream. It was bigger than him!

And yes, he's wearing his pajamas.

On the drive to and from Young's Dairy, we listened to daddy's "junior" mix on the ipod. It features some Disney songs, Peter, Paul and Mary, marching band, Jack Johnson, and Ben Harper. The boys did not argue one bit and I loved to hear their little voices singing in harmony.

While we were gone, Bill cleaned up the house a bit and he cooked a yummy dinner on the grill. Then Kate put the boys to bed while we grownups took a walk.

Henry gave me a potted plant, some homemade chocolate covered pretzels, and a votive candle holder made of a baby food jar, blue tissue paper, and a ribbon.

Boy, it was hard to come back to work today after such a nice weekend!

mother's day 2007

I have a card and a present from Henry still to open today, but these two items were just sent home in his bookbag. I was so excited to find them. I think if you click on the picture you can see a larger version. They are both laminated, so there is a bit of a glare from the flash.

I think it goes without saying that I cried when I read this:

This means so much to me because these are all real things that we like to do together. I can imagine the teacher asking "what do you like to do with your mom?" and Henry replying "nothing" in his little singsong voice. (Not because it's true, but because, if you've read here before, that's how Henry responds to almost any request that is related to schoolwork!)

So they somehow elicited from him 10 real examples of things he likes about me. This is priceless! (You've probably heard about many of these activities before, except maybe the macaroni and cheese thing. I've kept my prowess at Kraft mac & cheese to myself until now.)

Reading to him in the morning and sitting on the patio are both things we do on school days if there is enough time. So that's what makes them special.
And I asked if the picture at the bottom was me- he said "no"- but I'm thinking it probably is. Bill thinks so too- he could tell by the lightning bolt hair.
It's been a draining week. We had Kate's birthday, teacher appreciation week (Henry baked brownies), mother's day (needed to buy cards and mail them on time), the trip to the zoo (I didn't go, and it was fine. Except for all the time I wasted agonizing about it), a special event at work on Friday...

I've been having a lot of what we call "internal dialogues"- where I think something to death until my head spins. Ironic thing to post about on Mother's Day, eh? How being a mother is making me insane! :-)
We have some fun planned for today- hope everyone else does too. Thanks for being such great moms and helping me be the best mom I can! XXOO