"It's fun! It's fun!"

Some little boy was thrilled to wake up this morning and find Mimi and Papa's birthday present waiting for him in the basement.

Between ragged breaths (we may need to up his cardio) he just kept repeating, "it's fun, it's fun, fun!"

The perfect inside toy for our very long winter!

Sheesh, Jake, I thought you were a professional. :)

Closing in on the big 2!

Seeing as how big boy will be TWO in just a few weeks, I thought I better post a picture of him at 23 months next to the ever shrinking shoe. No white onesie with the month sticker on it this month because Henry now believes sticking one's head in a shirt hole is the highest form of torture. And those socks he's wearing? Yeah, they were too small about six months ago...who wants to send us new OSU socks? And please do notice the lovely red artistic sharpie marks he has added to our comforter- makes me smile every time I see it, especially because now when Henry walks by he says, "no no color on bed."

This boy of ours is every bit as sweet and devilish as he looks.

Field of Pumpkins

It is very true that last year when we took Henry to this pumpkin "patch" we were slightly disappointed. Last year, we believed one needed to go to a place where pumpkins were actually grown and hot cider and fall harvest goodies were plentiful. This year, we were just excited that Henry got to pick a pumpkin from a place other than bin at Walmart.

Truthfully, Henry was more about running around like a crazy man than actually picking out a pumpkin.

For a cookie, I shall sit semi-still and let you take my picture. I will then demand another cookie and try to sneak a sip of another child's hot chocolate.

So cute and sooo much trouble!

Just like all the big boys.

I finally did it. At 22 months and 10 days, we turned our formally rear-facing 28 pound and a million inches tall child forward facing. I had hoped to keep him rear facing til he was two but somebody decided that he likes to climb into the car and into his seat all by himself ("Me do it! Me do it!") and it was just a little too hard for him to squish his own legs into the car seat.

He was yelling, "no pictures!"

Being the safety conscious (that might be putting it lightly) person that I am, having Henry face forward does raise my blood pressure a bit, but he did get over 22 months of good solid rear facing safety so I'll just say a little extra prayer and move on. And in case any safety nuts are looking at his photo with a sharp eye...yes I did move his chest strap buckle thing up before we started driving. :)

Think I'm totally nuts for keeping my boy rear facing for so long? Do a little google search, watch a few youtube videos (actually don't) and you'll probably keep your sweet child rear facing until they're fifteen.

Fall

While I may have been desperately jealous of everyone's facebook photos of happy munchkins at pumpkin patches when we have no such thing here, I am quite happy that winter has decided to not fall on our little section of Wyoming for at least another week.

Jake took these shots about an hour from our house. Such a great reminder of the beauty that surrounds us.

This cute guy was with us. Don't mind his post picnic dinner/snot face.

And my very, very favorite one- it is definitely going up in our house.

One last one of my favorite 22 month old who is now saying things such as, "Hey, I found a rock", "I help mama?" and "It's spicy." 

And I present to you...

HAIR! Yeah, yeah, I know your newborn probably had this much hair at birth, but check it out!

The hair doesn't quite keep the head warm yet, thus the hood in September. And speaking of not warm Septembers, rumor has it that we may see snow this week. Nothing makes me want to swear more than snow in September.

A coloring menace these days. With all the jokes about his hair, I'm surprised he hasn't colored on his big old (and cute) noggin.

And  a nice view of Dada's  hair. This is how Jake gets to eat all his meals...with a little beggar by his side. I'm pretty sure at one point Henry had a plate, or maybe not. That would solve the "why does he beg for food so much" mystery.

21 months!

Oh, Sir Henry, my how you've grown! At his most recent appointment our man-child measured in at 35 1/2 freaking inches! He's huge! Up until this point he has always hovered around the 60th percentile, but he is now in the 90th and I'm guessing will soon be off the charts. He's a whopping 27 lbs (around 50-75th percentile) and the greatest news of all is that his noggin has not seen much growth since his last appointment. I'm not sure his neck could support much more up top.

This time last year you hadn't figured out how to crawl. It was glorious. What did I do with all my free time back then? These days in the blink of an eye you are opening the fridge and helping yourself to whatever you can find. You are also a menace in the bathroom. You have figured out how to crawl up on the counter and have been found many times with the q-tips and a tube of toothpaste..and sink full of water. How does that door not stay closed?!

You love to play outside and would ride your bike to the next town if we were willing to let you. Thankfully you are starting to realize that the roads are in fact made for cars and not little boys...not that it necessarily keeps you out of them.

You also have a strange obsession with spoons and must rescue them from the drawer any chance you get.

You at times make me want to pull my hair out, but we love you dearly little man.