Welcome aboard....

Welcome!

I've been wanting to do this for a while so I decided that today was the day...the day my baby turns 5. I wish I could backfill the last five years of Henry's story, but if I waited until that happened, then I'd be stuck and never able to go forward. So instead, as things occur to me, I'll try to include the history as I go.

So last night, we made a big deal about the fact that Henry would turn 5 today, August 6. This is the first year that he seems to really have a concept of that. So what does he want to know? "When Mama? When will I turn 5?" It was enough to send me to my stash of official papers. Unfortunately, nothing in them indicates the exact time he was born. To answer his curiosity, I simply told him that it would happen to him while he slept.

This morning, after he came and crawled into bed with me, I asked him how it felt to be 5. His answer: "I still feel like Henry. And I didn't get any bigger."

Oh, and as far as the blog's name "and always very curious", some of you might recognize that as a line from Curious George. It is usually on the first page of all of the stories, and is the tagline to describe him: "George was a good little monkey, and always very curious." Of course, his curiosity always get him into a pickle, but he always comes out on top. Curious George has been the favorite of my little monkey for as long as I can remember. So I thought it an appropriate name for the chronicles of Henry.

Piano Recital

Henry had his very first piano recital today.

Unfortunately, I was out of town this week. His piano teacher announced at his lesson on Monday that there was a recital on Sunday and asked if Henry would participate. Uh, yeah, but a little more notice would have been appreciated...

So Leslie had the task of working with him to prepare him for his recital. Each evening, they would practice like it was the real thing..down to even pretending that others played and they sat quietly and listened and then clapped when the make-believe players were done. And then Henry would go and play his two pieces, complete with having to place his sheet music up on the piano and get himself positioned on the bench.

He chose to play the Theme from Starwars, and the Buggy Wuggy song from Little Einsteins (I can't remember the real name of it now).

So the recital is scheduled to start at 4, we arrive at 10 til, and guess what...no teacher. She trudges in at about 1 minute before 4, and then has to lug several carloads of stuff in, and then set up all of the equipment. Needless to say, we started about 30 minutes late. Ugh! The good news is that Henry was third to play. The bad news is that there were about 25 more kids after him that we had to sit politely and listen to.

When it was Henry's turn, he walked up put his music up and climbed onto the bench. Leslie and I were both about to get up because the bench was way too far away from the piano. But the teacher did run up there and move him closer. He paused and then began playing...Buggy Wuggy first and he played it pretty much flawlessly without looking at his fingers once. After he was done, he looked at the audience and smiled. Then he started in on Star Wars. He got a little distracted while playing and repeated a line, but I'm not sure that anyone noticed other than me. When he was done, he got up, took his music (and put it on top of his head), paused for a moment, and then bowed to the audience, he was just too cute for words. But he had such a look of self-satisfaction on his face. I was so proud of him. He did it! Then he ran down and back to me just giggling at himself. At the end of the program, they all received trophies, and this was another proud moment for Henry.

It was wonderful how supportive all of our friends and family were. Joyce, Grandma and Granddaddy, Aunt Courtney, Uncle John and Jack all came and listened to the entire concert just for the 5 minutes that Henry was on stage.

Afterwards, we went to dinner at Cafe Express. A good time was had by all!

Are we staying at the fancy Marriott?

December 19, 2007
I have gotten behind – so just a short synopsis. We went to Sea World over Thanksgiving and had a blast. It was really cold and you were tall enough to ride a water ride – the log ride and you loved it and we rode it 3 times in a row. Your Mom was soaked at the end but we had so much fun. We stayed at the Marriott with the courtyard and the peacocks and you kept calling it the fancy Marriott. We thought that was cute. Also, right now you say “No Ploblem” – when you mean no problem – you have a pretty laid back attitude. You still love football and play all the time but you are always getting tackled and break your leg. Lane Sutton just hurt his hip and was on crutches and you call them crunches. Since it is so cute we don’t correct you. Yesterday at school you had a pajama party and wore your pajamas to school. You just couldn’t figure out why you would wear your pajamas on the playground. You just tell us you love us all the time and it is so nice to hear. You are having a little trouble with the holidays this year. This is the first year you have understood them some. So last night when we went to Allison’s, you asked us if they celebrate Christmas. You will get the swing of it. Your Nana and Papa are coming down this week for their winter visit. You love their visit and they do also. Today, they had their Christmas party at school so Mom kept you home. You are having lunch with Sara, Samuel and Linda at James Coney Island and going to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. Skylar Scheffer is coming to the movie also. You had your first kid party at jumpin jacks. It was so much fun. You wanted to have a Nascar theme. About 15 kids came and then we had cake and did crafts. This Saturday we are going to a Hockey game, we are also taking Megan, Lane and Jack. Hopefully Nana and Papa will come too. Jack might spend the night.