Papa and Henry

Today, it was all about Papa. Papa is here for his monthly visit at MD Anderson. So after school today, Henry and Papa went to the pool to swim while I made dinner.

Actually, I was quite proud of my dinner, cooked completely on the grill: Lemon Dill Salmon on a cedar plank, Kristen's potatoes, and the best corn on the cob ever. Kristen's potatoes are so very yummy...yes, the recipe is on the box, but since I first enjoyed them at Kristen's they will forever be called "Kristen's Potatoes". The corn came with Papa on the airplane. They stopped at a roadside vegetable stand and bought the corn on Sunday afternoon...10 minutes after it had been picked. I soaked it overnight and grilled it and we all agreed that it was the best.

The report from the pool was that a good time was had by all. Henry started telling me about he raced 5 other boys across the pool. A little suspicious, I asked whether these other boys were real or pretend. Turns out, they were pretend Olympic competitors. This boy is so "about" the Olympics, it's unreal.

After dinner, we played two rounds of Uno. Although Henry kept claiming that it was "his night", Papa and Leslie were the winners. Henry was a bit disappointed at not winning, but we all know that a root beer float fixes everything. So we enjoyed a round of root beer floats and all was right with the world again.

I am really encouraging Henry's ability to care for himself. While it is so much easier to get him dressed myself, I am trying to let him do more for himself. He really is doing great. My goal right now is to teach him to put on his pants/undies while standing up. We're doing the "lean technique" where he leans against his bed to help him balance while he lifts a leg. So far, I think we're moving in the right direction.

So after undressing and putting his jammies on by himself, he settled down with Papa for a bedtime story. Of course, he picked the violent dinosaur book with all of the hard words. But Papa muddled through no worse for wear. And then, bedtime prayers and off to bed. The ending to another day.