Birthday Boy

On September 30th our sweet, happy, loving little Henry celebrated ONE awesome year of life!
And while I loved Lilly's first year, I have to admit that Henry's was even better. I think not having to deal with all the worries and adjustments of first-time mothering made it easier to simply enjoy every milestone and patiently wait out every "phase." Or perhaps it was just his easygoing personality and spontaneous hugging that kept us all happy and subdued. Whatever it was, or is, we are incredibly grateful to have this kid in our family, and we love and adore him even more with every passing day.

Henry's 12 month Stats:
Weight- 21 lbs 5.5 oz 51%      Height- 30.25 in 67%     Head- 47 cm 76%

Deep brown eyes, long black eyelashes, dirty blonde hair, and a 9 toothed smile.

Seems to prefer his left hand.

Henry's Favorite Things:
Cars and Balls

Hugging
High-fives
Lift the flap books
Making car and elephant sounds
Finding his belly button

Tummy tickles
Shaking his head
Dancing and Music
"If you're happy and you know it . . ."

Waving goodbye and blowing kisses

Playing in the bath and dumping water on his head
Trees, Parks, Dogs, Bikes and anything outside

Falling asleep cuddling his stuffed puppy

Food, all of it
Whining for food
Begging for food
Eating and making a huge mess with said food
Blowing every time he hears the word "hot,"
because, again, he associates this with getting to eat food
ICE CREAM

Now on to the pictures . . .

Henry kicked off his big day with pancakes and the world's cheesiest smiles.  

Then we dropped Lilly off at preschool, and headed to the store for some birthday balloons and a bag of Henry's favorite mini bananas.

We stopped by beautiful Mills Pond to explore and take some birthday pictures. 

After lunch and a good nap, we headed to the park with the whole family.

Then it was time for PRESENTS!!!

His birthday presents consisted of balloons, a car ramp and a basketball hoop. All awesome, but nothing to open and unwrap, so we wrapped and re-gifted some of Lilly's old toys that had been packed away. Since they were all new to him, he didn't seem to mind. :)

But once the new ball came out, everything paled in comparison.

 

Pure love.

(It's been a few weeks now, and he still LOVES his bball hoop. He dunks, gives high fives and does the cutest little celebratory dance!)

And then there was Cake.

Once Henry caught a glimpse of it on the counter, there was no keeping him from it.  We barely made it through the birthday song, and when we told him "hot" so he would blow out the candle, he tried twice and then just extinguished the flame with his fingers and pulled the candle out. Henry doesn't mess around when dessert is on the line.

After that there was only one way to finish off the day . . .

And what a great day it was.

Happy Birthday Henry!!!

Grandpa's Road Trip

Earlier this month we decided to buy an old car from my parents in order to shorten Drew's commute. For the past year or so, he has been biking to the Park and Ride, and then taking the bus to school. Sometimes on the way home he would have to wait for 2 or 3 buses to find one that had an open bike rack. Needless to say, he was getting pretty frustrated. The grad school schedule is a beast to begin with. We seriously considered moving to a smaller apartment downtown, but ended up deciding to stay put. Finding better transportation was the compromise.

Luckily my dad had just acquired a used car from a friend, and he was willing to go on a 24 hour road trip, by himself, just to bring it to us. He must love us or something. ;)

So far, Drew's really loving the freedom of having a second car. He still just drives to the park and ride and takes the bus much of the time, but even that saves him at least 20-30 minutes a day. Also, it means he can wear jeans to work again instead of basketball shorts everyday. Hallelujah!

Not to mention the real bonus here . . .

we got to spend a day with Grandpa!

He was only with us for about 24 hours, but he managed to fit in a lot of quality time with the kids, including multiple trips to the park and a date with Lilly to a trampoline place.

We started it all off by letting Henry open an early birthday gift.

He was pretty excited, since he LOVES cars right now. He will sit and push them back and forth on the ground and say, "vrrrrooomvrrroom." Lilly was also a big fan of Henry's gift.

 

We spent some time at the All Abilities park, mostly following Lilly while she zoomed around on her bike.

And we had a lot of fun playing at our neighborhood park, too. Henry already knows the way . . .

While I was taking this picture, I told Henry not to put his mouth on the bar, and Lilly thought I said he had something in his mouth. She jumped in to help before I could stop her, but she was so serious about saving her brother from choking that I couldn't even be mad about her sticking her fingers in his mouth.

Future ER nurse, perhaps? ;)

Henry is always trying to climb on Lilly's bike, so we let him have a turn on the way home.

He was totally thrilled!