on Henry (32 months)...

Just an update post about Henry. There are lots of things I want to remember about him at this age...

• Henry is pretty much fully potty-trained. He never has accidents during the day anymore. He did go for a long time without wetting the bed, but those days are over. He likes wearing undies to bed, so we let him and just take him to the bathroom before we go to bed (which has been pretty late due to basketball season). He still has accidents once-in-awhile though.
• On the bathroom subject, thankfully Henry has decided that he DOES NOT want us in the bathroom during his *ahem* extended visits. When we first started potty training he used to want me to sit right next to him in his little wooden chair and keep my arm around him while he went. I spent many days nursing Charlie in a toddler chair while Henry used the facilities. A very glamorous life I lead, I tell you!
• Henry is now pretty much sleeping the whole night in his bed. We went through a stage where he would crawl in bed with us every single night, but now he stays put in his bed, which is FANTASTIC!
• Henry is finally starting to fall asleep on his own. This boy has had a difficult time falling asleep since day one it seems. He has a very difficult time getting himself to relax enough to fall asleep. He just can't seem to wind down very well. But now, we've gotten him to the point where he can read until he falls asleep on his own, which is HUGE for us. Sometimes it takes him an hour or hour and half, but he can do it!
• Henry is still taking an 2-3 hour afternoon nap most days. The bad thing about this nap is that if Henry takes the nap then he won't fall asleep until 10:00ish which is pretty ridiculous sometimes. BUT, if he doesn't take the afternoon nap, then he is a huge grouch from 4:30-6:30pm (which is almost always when John has practice :( Although, without a nap, he usually falls asleep very easily at 7pm. I can't quite seem to get a good schedule with him in the sleeping department. Sometimes I think he needs a nap, othertimes I think he doesn't.
  
• Henry has developed a very irrational fear of the garbage truck. He is terrified of it really. And, unfortunately for him, our garbage truck picks up our trash twice/week. He starts screaming and crying and grabbing onto my leg the second he hears it. Someone suggested that maybe the garbage truck from Toy Story 3 scared him, which sounds reasonable.
• Henry still LOVES sports of all kinds. His eyes see sports references everywhere (just like his daddy's). When he eats raisins he arranges them into a football team, when he has apple slices he lines them up like a stadium and points out where the pitcher's mound is and where Matt Kemp plays, and when he sees any shirt that has blue cursive writing on the front he calls it a Dodger shirt.
  
• Henry also really loves playing with cars (especially the cars from the movie CARS). He lines them up, separates his cars into racing cars and the pit crew, he makes tents for them, puts them in their garage (a basket) and just generally carries them around the house all day long.
• Henry still loves smoothies. We have pretty much given him a smoothie upon waking up since I weaned him at 14 months.
  
• Other foods Henry likes: raisins, crackers, goldfish, "meat with bones" (ribs), taco soup, any dessert, yogurt, blueberries, granola, and applesauce.
• Henry loves to read the Arthur books, and the Berenstain Bears books. He also likes Curious George and books about trucks.
• When Henry talks about John he always refers to him as "my daddy"..."When is my daddy going to get home, mommy?" "Are we going to my daddy's game?" "Maybe my daddy can build a tent with me, mommy". It's very sweet.
• Henry loves to build tents with John. They build them on the floor in the "hamily room"or on our bed.
• Now that Charlie is more mobile, Henry is having some serious sharing issues. Anything that Charlie has, Henry wants (not baby toys, of course, but any of our communal toys). If Charlie has a block, then Henry wants to play with it, if Charlie has a matchbox car, then Henry wants that particular matchbox car. Good times.
• Henry is very tender hearted and has a very strong conscience. When he does something wrong he is oftentimes (not always, but often) very repentant. I feel like Henry places enough guilt on himself over his misdeeds that he doesn't really need John or I to really go on and on about his mistakes. He feels bad enough without that. We'll see if this continues. John and I both tend to be very hard on ourselves, so this may be the early manifestations of a similar trait, but we'll see.
• Henry's vocabulary is very sweet. He rarely uses contractions which makes his speech sound very grown up. He also still can't say his "g" sound so he calls Grandma and Grandpa, "damma" and "dampa". Cute!
• Henry is definitely in the question asking phase. My ears sort of hurt at the end of the day :)
• One thing about Henry is that he is a very good conversationalist. He will often ask me about my day and when John gets home from work or practice or a game, he will ask him how it went..."How was your practice, daddy?" is a common question. I hope we can continue to nurture this in him as it will serve him well in the future.
• Henry has quite a bit of confidence in the kitchen. I guess he's watched me enough to think he knows what he's doing. I've caught him cracking an egg on the counter (he even grabbed a bowl to put it in and everything!), using a teaspoon to dump salt (lots!) into my bread dough, and using my egg slicer to crack peanut shells (which was actually a clever use for it :).
• Henry loves his extended family so much. Great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins, he loves them all. He talks about each person at different times throughout our days and he has special memories with each person that he likes to bring up. He is one well loved little boy.
  
• There's more to say, but I'll stop for now. Raising Henry is a delight. I can't wait to see what God will do with the gifts and talents and interests that he has given him :)