henri talks to his doctor about many things

***UPDATED***

We went to Henri's 5 year check up today.

Below are his stats:
41.7 lbs--50th percentile
3 ft 7 in--69th percentile

Plus two shots, containing a bunch of vaccinations. I'm delaying the last two (MMR & Chicken Pox) which are both made in eggs until I get the go ahead from Henri's allergist. Also, I didn't feel right anymore about giving my children a ton of vaccinations at one time.

Henri was so brave. I asked him if he wanted to get his shots and he said, "Yes, I want a sticker." He laughed and giggled with the nurses. Cosette cried when they laid him down, but Henri continued to be jovial with the nurses. When they each poked him in the thigh, he cried. It was very sad for me. I don't think he expected the pain.

***END OF UPDATE***

Now that Henri is five, I found that his doctor was addressing most of his questions to Henri instead of me.

This is fine and quite humorous though sometimes embarrassing.

Dr. T: Henri, are you in a booster seat? (referring to a car seat)

Henri: No, Mama says that since I'm five, I don't have to sit in a booster seat anymore. (referring to the booster seat he sat in at the table)

Dr. T: Do you drink milk or eat cheese?

Henri: No, I don't like milk or cheese.

Dr. T: Do you watch more than 2 hours of TV?

Henri, laughing: Yes!!! (No, he doesn't.)

Dr. T, after checking Henri's nose, he jokes: Oh! There's boogers up there! Do you pick your nose?

Henri, giggling: Yes, I wipe them on my wall!

Later, while his doctor and I talked about Henri's allergies, Henri said:
Dr. T, if I repent and put my trust in me (I think he meant to say Jesus), then when I die and get to Heaven, I won't have allergies anymore! I'll get to eat eggs and peanuts and tree nuts.

Dr. T: Yes. And since I'll probably get to Heaven before you since I'm older, I'll have a big bag of nuts for you when you get there.

the cannon ball excuse

I haven't picked up my camera in weeks. What's wrong with me?!

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The children were playing in our unfinished basement.

Cosette came up the stairs crying.

Me: "Cosette, why are you crying?"

Cosette: "Henri hit you!" (Mixing up her pronouns, what she means is, "Henri hit me!")

Me: "Henri hit you?"

Cosette: "Yeah."

Henri comes upstairs.

Me: "Henri, Cosette says you hit her. Did you hit Cosette?"

Henri with a confused expression: "No, I didn't hit her."

Me: "Do you know why she is crying?"

Henri: "Ooohhh! I accidentally hit her with my cannon ball."

i have a blog?

I tell you...

It is been so difficult to write a post the past few months.

I think it's because I got on Facebook.

And now it's all over.

I spend too much time there, and there's no time to blog.

BUT

I am super pleased that I've reconnected with some very old friends.

It's so exciting.

I'm planning on still blogging.

Mainly as a baby book of sorts.

But for now...

I'm not very good at keeping up with it.

Pictures?

I haven't taken pictures in ages.

Unless you count the ones I've taken of our new curtains my mom made for us for Christmas.

Or the ones of the freshly painted walls that Johnny has been working on the past week.

But I don't feel like posting them now.

I've got to go fill out some public school open enrollment forms.

They're due January 15th.

And I've got to figure out what we're going to do this year for Henri's birthday. He's turning 5 soon.

Love to all who read this happy blog.

marker

At just two, Cosette can say many words, and say them fairly well. But she has trouble saying Grandpa and Grandma. She calls them "Marker" and "Marker".

merry Christmas to you!

what about the girls?

Henri: "Daddy, the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever."

pause

Henri: "What's the chief end of girls?"

henri quotes du jour

Henri: "Cosette, do you know what the chief end of man is? Cosette?"

Cosette: "Wha?"

Henri: "Cosette, the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever."

I give Henri a high five.

Henri: "What? What did I do?"

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Me: "Henri, you need to take off your pajamas and put some clothes on. It's almost lunchtime."

Henri: "But Mama! I want to be like you!"

Busted. I was still in my pajamas. Come to think of it, I'm still not dressed.

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Me: "Henri, even though it's so cold (feels like 30 below out there folks) outside and there's lots of snow, can you believe that it's still autumn?"

Henri: "Why do we have snow in autumn? When will it be winter?"

Me: "We have snow in autumn because we live in a cold area. It will be winter in 6 days?"

Henri: "You mean 6 more sleeps? 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, then winter!!! Hooray!"

my baby girl is 2

Since Cosette's been in love with Henri's rain boots, we got her her very own. Except for nap time, she wore them all day.
The cute outfit was one of many from her Nani & Bapa.

We look forward to celebrating Cosette's 2nd birthday with friends & family on Sunday.

antics

Here's what the Hatchlings are up to these days:

Cosette, now almost 2 says things like:

• "I do it!"--while trying to feed herself, attach her seatbelt, and even putting on pants. We find this amusing since in the last year, we had to make Henri put on on his own clothes since he was quite content to let us dress him. Yet Cosette demands that she figure it out by herself. So funny how they are different.
  
• "Mine!"
  
• "Peekt-ta-doo!"--obviously for playing peek-a-boo
  
• "Tickle back!"--She loves having her back lightly tickled. Oh, and she will not want you to stop even as the goosebumps cover her legs & arms. Her commands get louder and louder with each pause, until in tears, she yells, "TICKLE BACK!"
  

Henri enjoys the freedom of playing games on a couple of web sites he has access to on our computer.

• Starfall--an educational web site that teaches phonics.
  
• PBS kids & PBS Early Math--games that teach math & science and other concepts
• The weather--oh yes, this boy checks the radar daily, looking for storms and these days snow.
  

Snap pants--Henri has been very excited about pants that snap closed recently. In the past, he's only been able to put on elastic waist pants by himself. Now he is able to snap them. Every day, he looks for pants that snap closed first and puts them on. Before snapping them, he comes up to Johnny or I, saying that we must look away until he is ready. Then he tells us to look as he works to fasten the snap. He gets so excited every time as we give him a high five. It's really cute to watch. The button-closed pants have yet to be conquered, so he doesn't like to wear them.

our halloween

We started the day off with a morning at a Halloween party for preschoolers at a local park. Henri was a dragon and Cosette was a ladybug.

After a short kiddie parade, Cosette colored pictures and Henri made crafts.

We met up with Madeleine (Ava) there.

Johnny came home early from work and carved two pumpkins for the kids. Henri was so excited to carve pumpkins until Johnny actually started. Then he just played outside, but our neighbor, Liza, did spend some time watching though her mom had carved theirs just the day before.

We decided to head to Chipotle for dinner. Dress like a burrito and they give you a free burrito on Halloween after 6:00 p.m. Unfortunately for us, we got there at 5:00 p.m. Henri was hungry, so we got the kids cheese burritos and walked around at a local shop.

We got in line just before six, added some tinfoil to our attire, received our burritos, and left for home.

Once home, we put the kids back in their costumes and went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. For the first time, Henri really seemed to be into it.

It was a fun day of dress-up and merriment.

mckmuffin is coming

You may remember me posting about my friend's unborn baby boy, Stellan, needing prayer for his sick heart. We praise the Lord that he has made it to his scheduled delivery date. Tomorrow morning, my friend will go in to the hospital for a c-section. Please pray for Stellan (aka MckMuffin), that he will be well outside of his mother.

he draws

In order to keep Henri occupied while I took a shower this morning, I decided to tear off a large piece from a roll of paper and give him his markers & crayons.

It has been my goal to teach Henri how to write his name sometime this year. He's had the letter H down ever since Aunt Alice taught him at age two and a half, and he has left that mark all over our house to our chagrin. However, Henri has had very little interested in learning how to write any other letter of the alphabet. In fact, he doesn't care to use markers, crayons, or pencils at all. Coloring? Nope. When asked to color a picture, he quickly scribbles over it with one color and declares he is finished.

I've been wondering how long it would take him to move into these fine motor skills. Over the past few Sundays at church, he has taken a liking to scribbling in his notebook. Then last week, he wanted to work on some letters for about a minute, and he started to try his lower case e, n, and r. After he tried a letter, he'd point to it and say, "My n looks like a P!" And it did.

Then came this morning. About a minute or so after I jumped in the shower, Henri knocked on the door announcing that he had drawn a robot. He was clearly excited to show me, and I told him that I was excited to see it after my shower. He shouted through the door again that his robot had one hundred arms. A few more minutes of quiet went by. I began to picture marker and crayon markings all over my walls, furniture, and floors (wouldn't be the first time), and I wondered if I should have left him alone with them.

After I dried off, Henri proudly showed me this.

This is Henri's robot. He says it has one hundred arms, two legs, angry eyes, and a mad mouth. He also has a sling & a gun that he holds with his legs to get the bad guys with.

I was so surprised. Really, I have NEVER seen him draw anything before. Sometimes he makes a circle, declares it to be a bug, and then scribbles all over it. But this was new.

What a joy to see my boy do something new at age 4 and a half!

We're thinking about homeschooling, and I've had this fear that teaching writing will become a dull chore for Henri. I want him to love learning. This drawing today brings me some hope that he will learn to write his name someday when he is ready.

1 month away from turning 2

apple orchard days

autumn morning play

I invited 4 women and their children from our small group to join me at my house and our neighborhood park this morning. Three were able to make it--Jen, Cathy, and Amy.

Oh what a beautiful morning! It was a chilly 40 degrees when I woke up, but with the sun shining, the temperatures were in the 50's and soaring toward the 60's by the time we headed out with the children to the park.

Henri, Toby, Micah, Hope, and Braden ran ahead while the moms tried to keep up with the three little girls in their strollers--Cosette, Rachel, and Allie.

Here's my friend Amy with her boys Toby (4) and Braden (2). Isn't that a nice picture?

Henri & Toby played with and smacked each other around quite a bit, both getting in trouble now and then. They're pals.


Eventually, Henri decided that he wanted his blanket and sat in the stroller, shoving away anyone who came near him, leaving me wondering if I should leave him alone or insist that he cheer up.

Then I had the magnificent idea to take a picture of all the children together.


My kids cried the whole time.
I'm still not sure why Cosette was crying.

But from left to right, here's Allie (22 mo), Cosette (22 mo), Henri (4 ½), Toby (4), Rachel (20 mo), Micah (5), Hope (3 ½), and Braden (2).

Then we walked back to my house for lunch. My friends and I enjoyed bowls of butternut squash soup--a recipe I had not made in years, but seemed perfect for this occasion.
As the children finished their lunches, they left the table to play. Henri & Toby completed their time together by taking off their clothes and urinating in our unfinished basement...thankfully, not a lot. I handed Henri a towel to wipe it up and that was that.

What a beautiful Autumn day it is! What a delightful time with my friends and our children was spent! I look forward to our next gathering at Jen's next month.

"endorsement of the right to kill unborn children disqualifies a person from any position of public office"

I read this article by Pastor John Piper (written in 1995) and found it compelling.

my baby is 22 months old today

And I didn't take any pictures of the cutie.

Believe me though, she is cute; a little emotional at times, but cute.

Cosette bangs her head on the ground while throwing a tantrum. Henri thought it looked like fun, laughing, and joined in with her. This made Cosette laugh, and they took turns banging their heads on the ground and giggling. What a mood change! Thank you Lord for big brothers!

some follow-ups

Sometimes I ask questions in my blog, and I don't follow-up on what I've learned or decided to do about the matter. So here is where I stand on a few issues right now.

Vaccinating my Children
And also this post.
Because I'm on the "trying to learn about homeschooling, private schooling, and public schooling options" bandwagon right now, I've dropped researching the vaccination topic any further. My children are done with their vaccination schedule until kindergarten, and they will get their scheduled vaccinations then. I may look into it again later. If the Lord were to bless us with more children, then I will for sure look into it again. If I had a newborn right now, I would follow a delayed, yet mostly complete schedule. I would not give my newborn the Hep B in the hospital. Even our doctor thought the Hep A would be unnecessary for our young children. Right now, I am pro-vaccines because I wouldn't want to put my children at risk to get sick, but I would take the time to spread out the shots. However, because I don't feel like I've researched as completely as I would like on the issue, my views could easily change.

Reading The Shack
Nope, not going to do it. I'm a really slow reader. Don't have time. Reading other things.

My car
Have I mentioned that it's all fixed? Praise the Lord!

Is Henri's wall fixed yet?
Nope. Johnny & I need to discuss if it's a "do ourselves" project or "hire someone else" project. Knowing our lack of handiness, it will probably mean that we will try to find someone else to do it. Because we lack serious skills.

I'm off to read more on homeschooling because that's the schooling option I'm the least familiar with and would require the most from me (I think).

why did I cry...

when my church's kitchen coordinator (whom I love) thought it best if I packed my son's dinner for our all-church dinners on Wednesday nights instead of trying to figure out which meals and food he could eat.

I've packed his food many times before. It's just the nature of having a son with food allergies. It's not a big deal, and I don't want others to bend over backwards for us. If he doesn't outgrow his food allergies, we want to help Henri learn how to live and eat outside of his home, asking lots of questions about the food or bringing along his own food.

Today, I felt bad about it.

nap time project

After gasping in shock, I moved his bed away from the wall.

Not Me Monday

My friend, MckMama is hosting Not Me! Monday today, and I'm joining in the fun. You can do it too; it's a great time to confess all the quirky things we do.

You may remember that we've been praying for MckMama's son, Stellan, who is growing inside her.

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I did not ask Johnny to pick out my clothes for church on Sunday morning because I had a dream during the night that I could not figure out what to wear for church and everyone was getting mad at me. And the dream certainly didn't also include that none of my closet clothes were modest or practical or fit well. And my husband's extended family also did not show up at my house in my dream and were irritated that I was making everyone late to church. Nope didn't happen...no dream Saturday night...no husband picking out my clothes Sunday morning because I was fearful of being indecisive. Not me.

I did not e-mail ALL 11 of my co-workers to discuss an issue and then find out that the premise of my question was COMPLETELY WRONG because I didn't double-check my math and only used my keen memory. That would be so embarrassing.

I did not let Henri and Cosette sleep until 5:50 p.m. during their naps just so that I could get a little more sleep during my own late afternoon nap. That would mess up their bedtime schedule.

I did not take these pictures of Henri & Cosette at the park at sunset before I took them to Target.


Like I said, that orange glow on Cosette is not from the sunset.



On that same evening, I did not take the kids out to Target with me from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. because that would be way past their bedtime. And I did not spend an hour there because I was indecisive on a birthday gift. I wouldn't do that. I am not indecisive.

I did not turn around once we got near our house tonight because I was curious if there really was an exit to the freeway near my home that Google Maps had suggested to me in a route I looked up before heading out. Then I did not find that there was an exit and take the freeway away from my house at 9:30 p.m. with the kids before heading back home.

I also did not then drive up and down a few blocks in our neighborhood tonight noting the fences because I'm dreaming of putting a fence in our yard to contain the children. I wouldn't keep the kids out that late by myself.

And I do not have a bad memory that's preventing me from writing any further "Not Me" confessions from earlier in the week.

i caught him praying

Earlier this week Henri had pinched Cosette's finger with a metal clip, giving her a small owie on her finger. She cried about it on and off all morning long. I was beginning to wonder if there was something more seriously wrong with her finger.

At lunch time, she cried and cried while she waited for her food. Henri tried to make her laugh in his rather rough boyish way, but she only cried harder.

Henri started to cry himself, saying to me, "I can't stop Cosette from crying!"

She seemed to quiet down when I gave her some food, so I left Henri & Cosette at the table for a moment to throw the laundry in the dryer.

I immediately heard her start up again and as I headed back up the stairs, I heard something wonderful. Practically drowning out his voice with Cosette's cries, I heard Henri talking. I listened carefully and heard him praying to God that he would help Cosette to stop crying and help her finger to get better. As I reached the top of the stairs, I saw Henri head bowed with his hands covering his eyes. He finished his prayer, and my heart was melting as this was the first time I'd ever heard Henri pray with no urging from another person.

Sweet. Sweet. Sweet.

I helped Cosette finish some more food through her tears. I looked at her finger again and moved it to see if that was painful for her. It didn't seem to be, so I took her upstairs to put her to bed for her nap.

She had taken her band aid off and started crying whenever she looked at her small injury. Henri got a chair to reach a top shelf in our linen closet where we keep medicines and band aids. In his delight, Henri found a solitary Curious George band aid. Cosette LOVES Curious George as her brother loves him too and has many books that she enjoys paging through. She was delighted with the new Band Aid, pointing at it and saying "George! George!" in her toddler way. Happily, she went to sleep.

Her finger is fine though she still cried a second or two today when she found the tiny scab on her finger.

But finding your boy praying for his little sister? Oh, that was sweet to this mama's heart. I pray that his prayer was just the beginning of many that would grow into a relationship between him and Jesus, that he would one day repent and put his trust in Jesus, delighting in God's kindness to save us wretched sinners.

sweet family time

I came home tonight after a long day working at our church. Johnny graciously cared for the kids all day long.

My feet hurt, so I sat on the floor. The kids were all over me, giving me hugs and kisses. Then Henri got his doctor kit out and proceeded to work on my feet. He listened to them with his doctor pager, saying that my feet sounded like a helicopter. After using various medical instruments, he declared me well again, and that it was his turn. All this while, Cosette was also helping and checking me out as well. Then it was Johnny's turn, and finally Cosette's turn to be the patient.

We then moved to the living room for a Bible story, worship, and prayer. Henri led us in four songs. (My God is So Big, Jesus Loves Me, Amazing Grace, and Standing on the Promises). We were impressed with his singing and willingness to lead and suggest songs. I'm hoping this means he'll be ready to be in the children's choir at church. First practice is this Wednesday. He then made up a couple of songs and encouraged us to sing with him. We got back on track by singing the Doxology together. Henri even opened us in prayer (before we were all ready).

Then we ended with really cold bowls of ice cream. Henri had turned off the refrigerator earlier this week, and we didn't realize it until the next day when much had defrosted and the ice was melting. I reset it at a rather cold temperature, I guess, because the ice cream was SOOOO cold (colder than normal, I tell you).

It was such a nice evening at home that I wanted to record it all down before I forget our sweet time as a family.

Since then, this evening I have finished hand-sewing a patch on Johnny's baseball pants so that he will be ready to go tomorrow. I'm not a sewer, but I told Johnny, "I feel so domestic."

a little fun

on this web site--thanks to Tiffany.