Dr. D

Henry has FINALLY come around to seeing his Dr. He really likes the man, but going into the office building used to be enough for me to pull my hair out. Last year when we had to go get Henry's flu shot Rob came with us and Henry climbed the back of him like a monkey trying to get away, screaming all the while. The lady checking us in said "Oh, don't worry. They all do that. One little boy cries from the moment he walks in to the moment he walks out!" I stepped aside and said "Does he look like this?" and she said "Oh! Hey Henry!" It's THAT bad. He was a story that the nurses talked to other parents about. For this reason, and much to my mother's chagrin, we avoid the doctor like the plague. Henry has to be extremely sick if I'm taking him in. No little coughs, or a throw up here and there, will ever be enough to get us in the door.
So you can see why I was DREADING yesterday. 4 years, 4 year old check up. Yikes! Much to my surprise, Henry was incredible! He hasn't seen Dr. D since his sleep issues in August, and before that only for his 3 year old check up. He walked in, went over to the (disgusting, and covered with other kids sick, I'm sure) toy area, and started playing. When we were called back, he stepped onto the scale (didn't happen without screaming since birth), then stepped up to the wall to be measured, and let them take his temperature (usually we just all agree he's fine, and they write in a number)! No crying! I was so excited!! When Dr. D came in he answered his questions, and drew on the paper for him. Then LET him check his ears out and laughed when he was checking his tummy!! These are all amazing feats that just show me how big he's getting! They did his hearing and sight. He did great! And then... Dr. D dropped the bomb. Henry was getting 4 shots at this visit. We were so close to a perfect visit. The nurse came in and Henry started slowly shaking his head no. I hugged him tight to keep his arms down, and she did two very quick pokes and then traded sides with me as Henry started to let her have it! She was very fast, but it didn't matter. He was red faced and puffy eyed the whole way to Rob's work.
One day, sometime in the future, we will get a perfect Dr. visit. One day, that office will forget Henry's name and he will no longer be fodder for nurses to tell other parents that bring in crying kids. One day.

At 4 years old Henry is 41 lbs and 42 inches! He's doing great!

Play Dough

It's gray and rainy outside, which makes it a great play dough day! Henry loves to play with play dough. Mostly he makes worms with it, but today we made snowmen.

Race Cars

When Rob was gone Henry had a LOT of sleep problems. Bed time was a fight every.single.night. Every night Henry would not "throw a fit", he would lose his mind! He was terrified and shaky and would break out into a sweat. After about a month of this Henry and I took a trip to his Dr. and he recommended a sleep therapist near us. Dr. Abraham's office was sparse to say the least. Every time we went Henry got to pick one toy out of the toy locker to play with, and each time it was a Hot Wheels track. He loved getting to go and play there, but once Rob got back his sleep issues dissolved and there wasn't a need (thank the Lord!). When Christmas rolled around Papa asked what Henry would want and I said "Race tracks!" So that's what he got! Today we took 20 minutes out of an otherwise Mario filled morning and played race cars. He had a great time!

Henry's No Good Day.

Henry is obsessed with Mario Brothers. He would play Wii ALL DAY LONG if I let him. It's great for when I'm making dinner, or working, but he gets very upset if you mess with him while he's playing. Yesterday was the only 'nice' day this week, meaning it got to about 48 so I wanted him to go outside and get some sun before it started raining later this week. He was NOT happy with me at all and had no trouble telling me about it! These are from the 5 minutes we were outside.



Disclaimer: Henry is better at Mario than most grown people and it is really incredible to watch. He can play every Mario game Rob has and picked all of them up really quickly. He's WAY better than me and is a good gaming buddy for his Dad!

Game night

Today marks day 2 of snow on the ground. Really, it's not much. Maybe 2-3 inches, but it's iced over and is a good excuse to stay home and do nothing all weekend long! And since we aren't Ravens fans we used today as a game day of our own featuring Life: Simpsons Edition. Henry decided he was way too cool to play with us so he sat on the couch playing Wii (aka his latest obsession). Even though Rob is a rules maniac I still mopped the floor with him!

My victory :)

So sad :(

And... Henry on his banana phone. I don't know why he does this, but he does it every.single.time. he has a banana. He walks around with it 'talking' to people before he'll let me open it. Usually he's really shy about it, so I had to have my little camera waiting in the kitchen to catch it!

Oh Henry!

This is a sensitive subject, but I never want to forget my sweet boy's reaction tonight.
We were so excited to come home this year for Christmas and tell everyone the news. Baby Caruthers was due in August. We actually didn't say anything to Henry for a week, but had to at some point, because his favorite thing to do is jump on me. He was so mellow about it. He seemed happy at the thought of being a big brother (I'm sure he didn't really get it) and Rob and I were happy about the thought of someone new in our lives. Except, it never felt right. There were issues that made me cautious to be too excited about the outcome. We prayed and prayed and prayed for God's will to be done with our family, and on the 15th I was in the ER at North Hills being told that I was losing the baby and there was really nothing else to be said or done. God's will is tricky sometimes, but His peace is ever present. On the way back to my mom's I decided it was best not to let Henry in on this bit of information and just let it pass. I didn't see a point in having a discussion about why this was happening or what it meant when he had only known for a few days and hadn't said much about it.
We were in Texas for 3 weeks and have been home for about a week and a half now with zero mention of any baby. Henry and I were sitting at the dinner table tonight, while Rob was in the kitchen, and Henry looked me dead in the face and said "So do you still have our baby in your tummy?" I looked at him and said no and of course he asked why not. I told him that it just wasn't the right time for that baby and it wasn't there anymore. He said "So is it somewhere in our house hiding?" and I said "No. God decided to take that baby back to be with Him." And he looked at me with giant eyes and said "Mom, did we have baby Jesus?!"
He thinks so highly of me :)