Pre-zactly!

Hank is a busy little jabberbox. He asks millions of questions, makes observations about everything, and provides a running commentary to all our daily tasks. Lately, Hank has begun to create some interesting theories of his own:

1. Driving on the highway yesterday, we passed a dairy tanker truck. Of course, Hank asks what kind of truck it was and wants to know everything about it. His questions quickly turn directions and he asks me where milk comes from. I explained simply that milk comes from cows. Hank says, "so the cows spit the milk into the truck and thats where it comes from?"

2. Hank is fascinated with tow trucks. I always remind him to buckle his seat belt so we don't crash. Hank's response is, "if we crash, will there be a tow truck?!" Last night Hank must have been in deep thought about tow trucks and asked, "if an airplane crashes, will there be a flying tow truck?"

I love the way that kid thinks!

Pumpkin Masterpeice

Since Hank and Max weren't so fond of the pumpkin guts, and we definately don't allow them to play with knives, they were mainly just spectators--watching Aaron with curious interest as he carved our pumpkin masterpeices. Maybe next year the kiddos will feel more adventurous and roll up their sleeves to join in, too.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We love going to the pumpkin patch each year. In Hank's words, here is a summary of our day at the pumpkin patch:

We went to the scarecrows. Somebody was doing the pumpkins and there was a horn and I said, "What? What made that noise?" And I was in the wheelbarrow. We did the music. We did the drums but it hurt me. We saw the duckies. I won. I did pink. We got a pumpkin and then we went bye-bye.

Hank's soccer game

I took a bunch of pictures from Hank's soccer game this afternoon but the lighting in the gym was so poor that my pictures all turned out blurry. Here are a couple of the new soccer tactics that Hank tried this week:

* Intimidation: Hank ran up and down the gym, yelling to his opponents and the crowd, "run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" If thats not intimidating, I don't know what is.

* Flattery: maybe he thought the referee was cute or maybe he was just trying to get a competitive advantage, but at one point Hank blew the referee a kiss.

* Get 'r Done: towards the end of the game, Hank must have been a little frustrated by constantly chasing the ball only to have the ball kicked in the opposite direction, so he started just picking the ball up with his hands and running with it.

When all else failed, Hank decided to just go with what he does best: yell and be loud. The entire game, Hank just roared, screamed, laughed or was busy chatting.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Its been several years since I've been able to celebrate my mom's birthday with her so it was fun to be together for her special day on Thursday. We went out to lunch at a cute little bistro, she went on a little shopping spree, and after the kids went to bed we made my mom's favorite: rum cake.

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you:)

Halloween Tradition

Every year Hank and his Nana Grover make these cute pumpkin cookies together and then Nana Grover mails them off to all the cousins to eat and enjoy. This year Hank got a special invitation in the mail to join Nana Grover in thier annual tradition--he was so excited! Hank brought home a few of his beautifully frosted and sprinkled cookies to share.

Hank loves his Nana Grover and had so much fun baking yesterday. When I picked him up, Hank was upset because he wasn't ready to go; he wanted to stay and play some more. I'm grateful that my kids have such wonderful grandparents.

Go Giant Tigers!

Hank's first soccer game was a riot. Hank had a blast and Aaron and I just laughed the entire time. Here are a few highlights:

1. Hank loved every minute. He would run down the court (the game was played indoor in a gym) smiling and waving to me and then, WHAM!, he'd smack into the kid in front of him because he was too busy smiling and waving to pay attention to where he was running.

2. I think Hank may have gotten his foot on the ball a total of two or three times, he just ran around, consistently about two seconds behind the play, but just happy to be chasing the action.

3. The play of the day happened when the coach put Hank in the goal. When the ball went out of bounds, Hank picked up the ball to throw it back into bounds. While Aaron and I were cheering that Hank remembered to use his hands at the appropriate time, Hank throws the ball directly at the head of the kid standing in front of him, the ball bounces back, and rolls right into Hank's goal. Score!

4. After the game all the players got Caprisuns and goldfish, Hank ran over to me, all sweaty, and gave me a big hi-5, and said he had fun.

Here is Hank in ready position, waiting for the whistle.

Nothing could get past this fearless goalie.

Food Rant

Food in our house is a major issue. I LOVE food and so does Aaron, so having a child with a texture aversion is a big challenge. It is difficult to get Hank to eat anything at all, let alone meet his daily nutritional requirements. Three times a day, Hank and I engage in a battle over food: me trying to encourage/entice/bribe/coerce/pressure/force him to eat, and him trying to cooperate as little as possible. My goal for Hank is to have a normal, healthy relationship with food where he will be able to enjoy the mealtime experience and eat 'normal' food. I find it frustrating that there is very little information or resources available on the topic and so many people confuse Hank's aversion with common "picky-ness." Often when I explain Hank's eating behavior to people, the response is something like, "oh ya, my son was the same way--he refused to eat anything but grilled cheese." Nope. Not the same. Is he able to sit at the table during mealtime without feeling anxiety? Can he tolerate picking up the food with his fingers? Will he gag if any peice of the food is in his mouth? Does he only eat single-ingredient food? Ok. Then its not the same. In August, we made the decision to go cold turkey and cut out baby food entirely from Hank's diet. While I worry that Hank has lost some of the nutritional benefits that he was getting from the baby food, he has made MAJOR progress in the past three months. With serious coaching, he will eat foods that he never would have eaten before, like macaroni, bread, apples. I acknowledge the progress that Hank has made and I have hope that he his food reportoire will continue to expand. Just for future reference, I wanted to record what Hank's typical daily menu consists of.

Breakfast:
Poptart and juicebox

Lunch:
peanut butter sandwich
chocolate milk (fortified carnation instant breakfast meal replacement)

Dinner:
oatmeal
applesauce


vs. Max:

Breakfast:
wholewheat waffle
yogurt
banana

Lunch:
chicken noodle soup
crackers
apple slices

Dinner:
homemade pizza
peaches
cottage cheese

Forget-Me-Not Friday (almost)

1. When Hank wakes up in the morning (which is usually much earlier than I'd like) he crawls into bed with me and he watches cartoons while I try to squeeze in a few more minutes of rest. The other day, Hank cozies up to me and whispers, "in all the world, I love you." What a sweet thing to wake up to!

2. Max is starting to take off! On Sunday he started to pull up to a stand, and he is beginning to grasp the concept of cruising on furniture. Verbally, Max is learning new words left and right. A few of his most recent vocab additions are, "uh-oh," "no-no," "ball," "book," "kitty-cat," "brother," and "more."

3. The boys' are beginning to enjoy playing together. We love to play chase and wrestle together on the floor. Lately, Hank and Max have been playing fetch together--Hank throws a wiffle ball across the house and Max crawls after it and retrieves it for Hank. Hank is amused that Max brings him the ball, and Max is just happy that Hank is playing with him.

4. This week was my week to teach preschool and I had so much fun with the kids! I love the program and I love our little group! We learned about taking care of the earth and we talked about littering, recycling, conserving resources, and we even took a little excursion and went on a garden walk. I'm so grateful that Hank is able to be a part of such a fantastic little class.