Ice Skating & A Bonfire

Even Henry joined us out for some ice skating with friends in our playgroup. We would pull him around in his toddler sled while we skated. He also enjoyed some roasted hotdog & marshmallows as well. It was a good time. Although, now we need to get the bonfire smell out of our jackets.

When the Windchill is Frigid, We Stay Inside

We were under a windchill advisory starting yesterday at noon. So, we stayed inside that afternoon & evening. But staying inside means providing some other activities that are new so that they don't get bored.

So, I made some glittery playdough, which sister thought was great to have silver glitter in their playdough. They had fun playing with that. It's different watching them play with it. Henry likes to pick off small pieces and put it into a pile. And when I would make him balls, he would grab the ball of playdough, like he would grab any ball, but since his hands would sink in he would look at it like it was junk and throw it away. Sister liked rolling & shaping the playdough into different letters.
Another thing we did was play with the dot markers. And finally, I also found a couple of large-ish boxes for them and got out the large cardboard tube and a sheet and let them play & imagine.

Sledding at West Hills

We went sledding with our playgroup at West Hills. We had actually planned to go to a different park to go sledding, but apparently the city chose not to maintain that park for sledding this winter. But because of the convenience of cell phones we were able to get information of the location change to everyone planning to come. We had an ok turnout with 4 moms and 1 dad and 8 kids, but that is what happens during the winter months when you have a playgroup with a variety of ages of kids, some of the little ones just can't be outside too long in the cold and moms are reluctant to deal with all the extra clothes needed and the extra work of pulling kids around in a sled. But we didn't let that stop us. We had fun and it was such a perfect January day to be sledding; I wish more days were like that one.

After Supper Projects

Henry has been plagued by the witching hour between 4-6pm. Even though he just had a snack at 3:30 & just woke up from his nap at 2:30, he walks around the house whining and crying and putting his head on my nap and coming to me for extra hugs starting around 4:15, every night!

If I hold him, he is fine, but if I let him loose on his toys he just seems at a loss (even though any other times he can find lots to play with.) It has become difficult to make supper because he is either being held or trying to crawl up my pant leg to get to my arms. But then I feed them supper around 5pm and he will go play for about 10 minutes after supper until it starts again.

So, last night since I had a project planned for sister, I thought I should get him up in his highchair and give him some projects of his own. While the coloring & playdoh held his interest, he did good and we made it to 6pm. At which point I let him go play with his toys again and he seemed to be fine.

Then we all went upstairs to play & put clothes away and he was fine. And before we knew it, it was 6:45 and Henry needed to get ready for bed. But that 4-6pmm witching hour is for the birds!

** So, this was taken last night and you can see the mop of hair that was cut off this morning.**

Henry's First Haircut

I took him to Hair-i-tage Salon to have his hair cut by Kelli. She also did sister's first haircut (although, she was almost 3, whereas he is 14 month.)

He sat by himself for a while and then he had to sit on mommy's lap. He kept trying to slide down & out the chair, but she he was sitting on mom's lap he was being held on to.

Thy did put a lock of hair in an envelope for me to take home and made a certificate to commerate his first haircut.

Front View

Side View

Back View

As you can see from the back view he still has some curls. It just naturally curls up in the back and he will have a little something there to twirl.

Rocking Horse

Henry loves his little rocking horse. My kids were always too tall for the cute little fuzzy Eeyore one I bought them to use it with the motor skills they needed. By time they had developed the motor skills, they were just too tall. But this one is really nice because he can lean back and won't fall off when he really gets it rocking. Check out the video of him rocking.

Snow Play

So, here are Henry's pictures. He's still not sure about the cold & snow, but it's growing on him. He loves to be pulled around in his sled. Yesterday I had to switch his to Isabel's old pink Columbia gloves (not pictured) so that he had warmer, thicker gloves on when he is touching the snow. He doesn't care that they are pink and I just care that they are warm.

McD's Playland with Henry's Friends

This time we had a playgroup with Henry's friends from the Baby Mamas (I inadvertently named us this as I kept referring to this group of moms we knew from his ECFE class as this and it stuck.) Anyways, one of the moms volunteered to take the lead on establishing us as an official playgroup. There are other older siblings for some of the little ones, but they have morning preschool, so Isabel gets to be the only sibling at some of these functions.

McD's Playland - Abbotsford, WI

Christmas at the S Family

The weekend after Christmas we celebrate it with mommy's family. Henry was really too much on the go and didn't care too much about opening presents. I was lucky to get him interested in this first present. I think I need to set my camera to action shot all the time with this boy.