This morning Henry went into the living room and turned on the Christmas tree. Then sat on his chair, looked at the tree and said, "Wow!"

Happy Thanksgiving

Henry liked the turkey, gravy and pumpkin pie!

23 months old

Henry, you are growing up so fast! You are using the potty chair at least once a day, you tell me when you need to go (sometimes), you are sleeping in a big boy bed, and your 18 month shirts are almost too small for you. You are talking all the time. We counted, and you are able to say at least 100 words. You love pointing at pictures and naming all the things you see. Right now you love to point out when someone in a book is eating. You can almost blow your nose and when you do you say "boogers out". I usually give you a few choices of what to eat for breakfast or lunch. I'll say "do you want...." and you usually say "no" but by the third option you shake your head up and down. The other day you said "no" to everything so I asked you if you wanted to eat a car for lunch...you paused and then started laughing. You have the best sense of humor. You are now saying "yes"...it sounds like a combination of the ice and a esh . You love to put coins into your piggy bank. You also like to take them out. You are learning to count and it sounds like you are able to make it up to number 5. You are also learning some of your letters: I, O, M, H, A, B, and U. You want to play football everyday. You throw the ball to one of us and then run. We take the ball and hand it to you while you keep running. Then you sometimes just fall down like the big players do. You love to draw and color and are very good at coloring on the paper only. You also now like to put stickers on paper. You still insist that doors and cupboards are closed and you help put your toys away when I ask for your help. When you see that one of the cupboard bands are off, the ones we use to keep you OUT of the cupboards, you fix it so it can't be opened.
You child proof yourself! : )
You have started singing with me once in awhile. Your voice is sweet. You are making so many connections (when you see a duck, you say water).
We love to watch you learn, and we love you very much! Happy 23!

no more crib

Henry slept in his bed all night last night and did not get up once (as far as we can tell). We said good-bye to the crib this morning. It's no longer in his room. The tough part is getting him to settle down and stay in the bed. It's his nap time right now, and he is standing at his door. Wish us luck!

the happiest place on earth!!

I took Henry to Disneyland yesterday to help me celebrate my birthday. We had a great time walking up and down main street and wandering around Toontown. It was crowded because of Veteran's Day so area public schools were closed. Both of us got in free because of Henry's age (under 3) and my birthday. I decided to buy an annual pass and, because I bought it yesterday, the entrance cost was credited toward the pass...so I only paid $77 for an entire year of Disneyland!! It's hard to beat that! Plus...we can park free for three hours, which is likey the longest we'll stay during our visits. We can't wait to go back. It takes about 45 min. to get there. I had hoped to take more pictures, but it was a challenge to watch him, all our stuff, and focus the camera at once. Next time we'll go with either Mark or a friend so I can get more shots. Here are a few of the ones I did take:

Here's Henry looking at the map deciding where to go.








Henry thought these doors were amazing.













We're going to try to return, with Mark, sometime before Christmas. We wish he could have joined us yesterday, but he had to work. Chadwick did not have the day off.
After we got home, Henry had a short nap, a bath, dinner and was off to bed early. Thank you, Henry, for a very fun day!
We took the changing table out of his room so he wouldn't climb on it during the night. He was sitting so well in his bed that we thought we'd let him try to sleep there. After a few minutes of being alone in the room, his door opened and out came Henry. He started pulling on his diaper saying "potty", so we put him on his potty chair. He did go a little but then it started turning into a game so we put him in the crib. Of course he protested a while, but then fell asleep. We'll try again tonight.

the new bed

It took some time to figure out when and how to transition Henry into a bed. He has started jumping in the crib every now and then, as well as kicking the wall and rails. I thought we'd get him a regular twin bed, but the ones we saw were so high off the ground or they had really sharp corners at the foot. After a few hours in IKEA it finally all came together, and we found this bed. It is low to the ground and will adjust into a regular size twin bed. The mattress comes in pieces so we can add on as we lengthen it. It is the perfect bed for Henry, and he is quite happy in it.
He finally got to see it yesterday. Here are some shots of his very first moments:






Now we read books in his bed before naps and bedtime. He took his first nap in his bed this afternoon but will continue to sleep in the crib overnight until we can eliminate the furniture that he can climb.




My baby is growing up!

The Grammy Museum

This morning we went to a program called What is Rock and Roll? at the Grammy Museum. It was an interactive concert for families followed by an arts and crafts activity. The band was called Milkshake. We met up with another family from the group FCVLA (families with children adopted from Vietnam in the LA area). Henry and his new friend, Sadie, listened to the music and did some dancing until they got hungry and wanted a snack. After their snack, we went to the roof for the craft projects. It was nice because we got there before the crowd. Henry and Sadie got busy creating and decorating egg shaker instruments. On the photo it looks like we've fed them bowls of popcorn seeds. Talk about confusing when we told them they couldn't eat them. It's wonderful knowing that Henry will have a connection and grow up with so many kids that were adopted from Vietnam, too.













Henry playing in his room...peek a boo...he says "boo"