Henry's 2-year Checkup

Here are the stats from Henry's 2-year checkup with Dr. Brown:

Weight: 24.4lbs (20th percentile)
Height: 33.75 (25th percentile)
Head 19.5 (80th percentile)

Doc report was great. He is slowly catching up on his growth and his development is great... he had to get his blood drawn on this visit and he didn't even cry. He watched the lady stick in the needle and then have to poke around for the vein and was totally cool with the whole thing. I was in tears for no apparent reason....Even David cried and he was just watching... Side note: David started crying because he was sad that he cried when he got shots and he is 5 and Henry didn't cry at 2 and he thought I would be more proud of Henry than him. It is very hard to be a five year old putting all this stuff together...

Happy 2nd Birthday Henry

Henry turned two this past weekend. It is hard to believe that our happy little ball of energy and joy was a tiny little 4lb guy in the NICU just two years ago. Time really does fly... Today, he is a feisty toddler with a strong independent spirit but also with a really good nature to him. He wants to do everything that David does and can, at times, have a little temper. But his temper is quickly overcome by his innate happiness. The kid is just happy and can't help it.. he will get mad and bang his head on the floor and then literally see a toy or David and be happy again. His vocabulary has really expanded lately and he is communicating in more complete sentences. He is still a great eater, but he can be particular about presentation. For example, he must have nuts with his Greek yogurt and blueberries on the side.

He likes to climb - a lot - and is a bit of a daredevil. In fact, I worry that there will be lots of accidents in this ones future. He jumps in the pool right next to David and is pretty much always getting himself in places that he can't get down (top of bookshelves, tables, etc.). He is in to everything... which I guess comes with this age, but Henry seems exceptionally curious. He is obsessed with doggies and watches out of the kitchen window for our neighbor to bring their dog, Eddie, outside, and then begs to go outside to pet him. We would love to get a dog, but David is quick to remind the family that he is allergic to dogs.

In Henry's world, nothing compares to David. He is David's biggest fan and just follows him around like a puppy dog. When David does math workbooks or problems, Henry sits next to him and pretends to count on his fingers. When David goes potty, Henry goes as well. It is quite adorable and makes me glad that they will have each other when they get older.

We had a small family and friends get together at our house to celebrate Henry's birthday. The only thing he really wanted, as he told us a number of times, was cake..which he got and thoroughly enjoyed. We really enjoyed visiting with Matt's family - all of whom came down from OKC to celebrate with us. I will save it for another post, but we also have had fun with the boxes of stuff that Matt's mom and dad brought from us childhood home - lots of high school memorabilia, prom stuff, baby pictures. 

Henry was so sleepy after his party that he feel asleep in Matt's lap:

And David fell asleep with his nigh vision googles on..

We got up on Sunday morning and spent some more time in the pool... 

And, because it was Henry's birthday weekend, we had a little trip to Monster Yogurt... look how excited Matt looks!!

The boys doing some money books that were in one of the various childhood boxes. It was fun except the books stop in 1986... and most of the money David has is post-1986...

Hayley playing hide and seek

Hayley is on vacation so I stayed home with the kids on Monday. We had so much fun.. David and I got in a game of Monopoly during Henry's nap.

Summer...

We started off the summer pretty calm, but, as usual, things have quickly accelerated to crazy. I am working on big project at work, which required me to travel to Australia on short notice for a week. Matt has gotten busy at work - which never happens in the summer- and we are on the hunt for a new nanny as Hayley is leaving us in August (which is now right around the corner). Between all of that, we have Henry's birthday party this weekend!! So before that, I wanted to upload some pictures and commentary about what has been going on in the Waterman house:


First and foremost - Henry is AWESOME. With literally no prompting, he just decided a few weeks ago that he was going to tell us when he needed to go potty and go in his toilet.  It is not every time, but he is pretty consistent now with telling us.

I had the brilliant idea to buy a tent and have a camp out this summer in the backyard.  Fail for a number of reasons, including the fact that it is way too hot to be outside in a tent and the kids attention span is like 5 minutes max.

See anything wrong with this picture? No, look at the next one... Henry is a wild man. 

Here are some pictures from the trip to Australia. I stayed an extra day after the meetings to do some sightseeing: 

At dinner the first night. This picture was taken after being on a 17 hour flight and then go directly into 9 hours of meetings upon landing...  I look tired because I am super tired.

Cheesy picture with my boss... 

These are real pictures taken with my iphone - it is a beautiful place.. can't wait to go back with the kids for vacation some day: 

On my sightseeing day, I went and did a bridge climb on the Sydney Harbor Bridge - it was super cool. 

I got back on Saturday, in time to see some fireworks and spend the 4th with the kids. On Sunday, we took the boys to Little Ninjas and then Chuck-e-Cheese... I will refrain from commenting much on the Chuck-e-Cheese experience, but it should suffice to say that it could be the 3rd level of hell. But the kids have fun and don't seem to notice the societal issues they are witnessing  

We then went to Joe's crab shack for dinner, which was awesome. We even sat on the patio in July and had an enjoyable time... 

On July 4th, we welcomed seven baby ducks to the pool. They were cute for 5 minutes and then more of a nuisance. Apparently, we can't all just share the same pool - mama ducks thinks it is hers. and takes pretty drastic steps to keep out intruders (including attacking David a few times). Luckily, they have since moved on to better water...