What a Big Boy!

So let's talk about Henry.

About five weeks ago, Henry emphatically announced, "I not wear diapers anymore!" Since he was barely two years old (he turned 2 in May), I laughed it off. I did not think he was ready or even knew what he was talking about. For the next couple of days, he would tell us every time he had to go to the bathroom. It got old taking his diaper off each time and since he was not wetting his diaper during the day or the night, I decided that we'd put him in some big boy underwear during the day. What was the worse that could happen? He had an accident here and there, mainly when he was playing outdoors and got too busy to let us know he had to go. We've tried to let it be his responsibility to tell us when he has to go, so that he is truly recognizing his own body's signs. One day he had a pooping accident. He was crestfallen. As we cleaned up the mess and bathed him, he hung his head and said, "Mommy, why Henny poop in his Mater underwear?" It was adorable and I explained to him that sometimes accidents happened. He is doing amazing with it and hasn't had a daytime accident in a long time. In fact he is even nighttime trained and the last three nights has worn underwear to bed. He had a couple of wet pull-ups through the night during the first week of his training, but hasn't had a wet pull-up in almost 4 weeks now. I am amazed. And grateful. I was dreading potty-training one more child and here Henry basically did the whole thing for me.

Here are some cute things that Henry says:

When we call him or ask him a question he says, "What? What?" two times really quick. Every once in awhile he will say it three times.

Whenever I tell him not to do something, he asks, "Why not?"

He has recently stopped calling Talley "Tattee". We all miss it.

Whenever he gets mad at anyone, he says, "I not like you," or "I not like you talk to me."

He has learned the fine art of manipulation and often says, "I sad" and then begins to cry if things aren't going the way he had hoped.

He has recently been telling his siblings things like, "You have ask me go in my room," or "Want play me?" or "Don't kiss me! Don't hug me!" or "That's mine. Don't touch." or "I telling Mommy!"

Henry LOVES being outside. He takes all of his toy construction vehicles out to the dirt and will play for hours. He also has a little traveling sandbox that he received for his birthday and he begs to play with it every single day by saying, "Do my sandbox?" He checks out books from the library that are about construction vehicles or monster trucks. He is obsessed with them both.

Henry loves to pretend to weed-eat. He will turn anything into a weed-eater (such as a baseball bat or a toy rifle) and go around weed-eating ... complete with sound effects. He takes it very seriously. One day it took us an hour to walk around the block because he had to "weed-eat" every single one of our neighbors' yards. ;-)

Lately he has started to do this: he will bring his stack of library books to you, lower his head and say, "I can't read this by myself. Read my books?" He seems to be getting frustrated that he can't read. Several months ago, he would ask us what color something was. He was determined to know each color. If he called something by the wrong color and we corrected him, he would hang his head and seem devastated that he said the wrong color. It was adorable to watch him work on learning his colors. He would not give up on it for a few weeks straight. He now knows his colors. If Henry wants to know or do something, he will not give up until he has accomplished it. He is so bright!

Henry can spend long periods of time doing pretend play all by himself. He has a great imagination and has his toys talking to each other and everything. If the kids join him in play, he will tell them what to do and say and what to pretend.

Lately he has been learning to stand and hop on one leg. He is always doing "tricks" and says, "Watch me! Watch me!" He loves to toss a ball around and try to make baskets. He fearlessly climbs all over jungle gyms and goes down slides on his own.

We have been putting him in timeout when he does naughty things. We will tell him to go sit on his bed and he obeys us. After a couple of minutes, he will call down from his room, "Sorry Mommy." It is so cute.

He will get into the cupboards and get out his own cereal or crackers/pretzels/fishies. Or he will go to the cold storage and bring up a can of food or a ramen or a box of mac & cheese and ask me to make it for him. He is so very independent. I don't think it will be too much longer before he starts trying to make his food by himself.

He knows what he wants. Tim frequently calls him the 'Little Emperor'.

Whenever it is someone's birthday, he claims it is also his own birthday and that he is 4 years old. Sometimes he is 5. ;-)

Henry loves going to the zoo. His favorite animals are the elephant and the giraffe. We went to the zoo for our homeschool field trip and week and a half ago. Henry was crawling on the ground, acting like animals the whole time. When he started licking the ground at one point, we had to put a stop to it. :-) At home, Henry loves to pretend to be a cat or a dog and sometimes a baby.

The other day Tim, Henry and I were going to go run some errands. Tim and Henry were already in the car and I was coming out after them. Henry said to Tim, "Daddy, pretend to leave Mommy!" And then he laughed. He is so full of mischief and already has a good sense of humor for his age. :-)

Henry is such a delightful child. He makes life so wonderful. He catches people's attention wherever we go. There is something special about him and we love him so!