Gymnastics

I signed Will up for gymnastics at The Little Gym last week and he loves it! We had our second class yesterday afternoon. Here he's eagerly waiting for his turn to go into the gym!

There are lots of options for gymnastics in our area, but I deliberately chose The Little Gym because they have a class for 3-4 year olds and I wanted to put both boys in the same class. Unfortunately, while Will absolutely adores it, Henry refused to even do the trial class last week! He really wants to go in, but doesn't want to leave my side. So, instead, he watches his brother have fun, pretends to be a spider and plays with stickers.

This week the little gymnasts pretended they were bugs and and worked on moving backwards. Here they are crawling like bugs on the mat.

Here's Will ginning away and waiting patiently for instructions from the teacher.

The high balance beam is a little scary, but Will was so proud that he walked backwards all the way across it (with help from his teacher, of course!). He even jumped off it by himself!
It's so much fun watching Will enjoy gymnastics class. He stops every once in awhile to look for me and give me a thumbs-up signal and grin away. Henry likes doing thumbs-up too!

Maybe we'll even convince Henry to join his brother inside the gym one day soon!

Don't Tell Henry

Henry's favorite stuffed animal is Brown Bear (aka Baby). It's his special toy and he goes lots of places with us (and when he doesn't, he's talked about quite often!). Don't tell Henry, but I found evidence recently that Brown Bear used to belong to Will! Take a look at this photo from December 2006. Do you see a much fluffier Brown Bear right next to four-month-old Will? And this photo was taken in August 2008. Will had Brown Bear all ready to go for a ride! Shhhh! Let's keep this our little secret. I'm pretty sure Henry's entire world would be rocked if Will asked for Brown Bear back!

Ouch!

Saturday evening started out like any other, with the boys helping Daddy get the grill ready for our cookout with friends.

They examined our eco-friendly charcoal and got really dirty

and loved every minute of it.

And then, literally 2 minutes before our guests arrived, we heard Henry crying from the backyard. Apparently he had been "sitting in the playhouse window" and fell into the playhouse. The playhouse floor is stone so you can imagine the gash on the back of poor Henry's head. Fortunately, our good friend Candice, a former nurse and mom of four, came over and checked it out and we determined it didn't need stitches, but just a butterfly bandage. Thank goodness!

Can you see the bandage? We had to shave his head a little bit to get the bandage to stick.

Ouch!

The Letter M

So many words start with the letter M, but if you ask Henry, M is for Mommy and nothing else! Henry is going through a serious stuck-like-glue-to-Mommy stage right now.

This week, we focused on the letter M. We started the week by making our lowercase m into a monster.

Henry even wore his monster jammies!

Some of our favorite monster books are The Great Monster Hunt by Norbert Landa, The Dark, Dark Night by Christina Butler, and The Aminal by Lorna Balian.

We also visited the zoo to see the macaws and monkeys. These are chimps, but it's close! I planned to do some marble painting at home, but then Henry came home with his own marble painting from school! Cute, huh?
Gene made macaroni and cheese and baked it in these adorable heart-shaped ramekins.

Yum-o!

Weezie really wanted some too. We made apple muffins for breakfast one morning.

Henry was so proud of the muffins.

The recipe is from a kid's book, Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington. They are really good!

We did some marshmallow sculpting.

They both made houses. Will even made a mailbox to one side of his house!

And of course, the marshmallow sculpting led to some marshmallow eating. Henry thought he was being sneaky here.

But then he saw me watching and just started grinning!

Daddy helped the boys make their capital M mountains. Will added lightning to his mountain scene.

And after a very busy M week, Henry finally knows that M is for more than just Mommy!

The Zoo

What a gorgeous week! The boys and I took full advantage of our beautiful spring-like weather by going to the zoo on Wednesday. We hadn't been to the zoo in almost two months, and that's a shame since it is a mere 8 minutes from our house! When we walked through the gates, Will headed straight toward the giraffe and said, "Mommy, don't you think you should take a picture of me?" I guess they are pretty used to me getting out the camera to record their every move!

Henry was counting here, but it looks like he's telling me to stop taking photos!

My big boy on the rhino.

We visited the kookaburras, as we always do, and sang them our kookaburra song. We were rewarded with both of the kookaburras chortling away for us. We love those kookaburras! Next we had a snack. You can see that the zoo was pretty empty. Love that!

We headed over to the new African Forest. The boys ran all around the huts in the African village.

Will even traipsed through the "fire."

And they both banged on the drums.
Henry was fascinated by the chimps.

And the carousel is always a favorite. We rode it twice and Henry was ready to go again!

We spent so much time in the Children's Zoo. Henry loved brushing the goats. I thought it was funny that these two goats were just perched up there on the bench.

The boys hadn't been in the groundhog tunnels before, but I have to say, it was one of their favorite spots!

I am already looking forward to our next zoo visit!

4 1/2

My big boy is 4 1/2 today! Will has so much personality and, oh, I love this kid. I love his joyful smile and tousled hair first thing in the morning. I love the way he sneaks up on us, quiet as a mouse, after he wakes, to surprise us. I love that he still sucks his thumb and rocks back and forth at night, even though thumb-sucking is bad for his teeth, because it reminds me that he is still little. I love that he wants two hugs and two kisses when we say goodbye. I love his absolute, unquestioning belief in Santa Claus, the Pickup Fairy and Pirate Red Beard. I love that he knows when he is tired and needs to nap or go to bed and that when he's not, he'll work on workbooks, mostly quietly, in his room. I love that he knows when Mommy is tired and needs a break. I love that he is my cautious child but that he is beginning to overcome his fears of scary parts of movies and going potty at school. I love the way he yells hello at neighbors or people we pass on the street and the way he will talk the ears off anyone and everyone. I love the way he perfectly defines words for Henry ("Henry, repeat means it happens again"). I love the way he knows he can do things because he is a "big four-year-old kid." I love his out-of-this-world imagination, his take-control attitude (even if he is sometimes bossy), and his loving nature. I love watching him at gymnastics, running in to class for the first time with zero fear, only pausing to look for me to give me the thumbs-up sign (we've come a long way since swim lessons last summer!). I love watching his face, rapt with attention, as he listens and follows the teachers' instructions. I love watching him read, sound out words, ask questions, be curious, and absorb everything like a little sponge. I love that he is finally letting us be proud of him for his accomplishments. I love this big 4 1/2-year-old kid.