Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

The day before Henry’s birthday we met Sarah, Timothy and Charlotte at the Mercer Arboretum. It was a gorgeous day, once the pea soup fog lifted. Sarah and I could barely see street signs as we drove there. I would guess that I had about 30 feet visibility. Almost as soon as we arrived at the arboretum Elisabeth identified a chipping sparrow—a little advertisement for The Burgess Bird Book For Children here. The stories give the birds personality, and the friendly descriptions stick in our heads. Elisabeth is trying to identify any bird she sees. Elisabeth and Timothy were so excited about drawing in their journals. For the first 15 minutes they wanted to draw everything they saw. Then it was time to run and run and run. John likes the pictures of Henry by the bluebonnets (Texas state flower) because he looks like a farmer surveying his field with much satisfaction.

Henry turned 2 on March 19. We celebrated a little bit that day and then again on Saturday the 21st with grandparents and cousins. Henry was so excited for his birthday cake. He saw Elisabeth and me decorating it Friday night and he just marched right over, climbed the step stool and tried to take a swipe at it. He was making all his winsome and not so winsome attempts at getting what he wanted. He did get a little sample after dinner that night, but it was only enough to whet his appetite (for sugar!) The next morning was the party, and as I was getting things ready in the kitchen, suddenly all was quiet. The cake was on the dining room table, so I rushed over, and there was Henry quietly climbing up onto a chair. I caught him just in time. He had bumped the table and knocked off a wheel. I asked him what the cake was. He said it was a car. Eventually it looked like a train to him, which is what I had planned. "Don't let it be over, please!" Hmm, now he's onto the ...

A good day to be "home" schooling: It's gorgeous out. Let's clean up the breakfast dishes, have Elisabeth read me a story and do a quick phonics lesson, a few tangrams, then grab a picnic lunch and water and a blanket (okay, this part took a little longer) and get out the door. Drive to Jones State Forest and go on a beautiful nature walk. For me the day was perfect. Blue sky, birds singing, sound of cars only faintly in the distance, wind in the trees. Cute kids walking along the trail. I was surprised by all the stubborn roots that kept tripping up little Henry. He was pretty tired out after a few hundred yards down the trail, and asking for lunch at 10:30 and to be carried. But every time there was a little foot bridge he would walk. Of course I didn't get any pictures of those because I was afraid he'd fall off or in (some were just boardwalks to help manage drainage but one was a really cool pipe bridge with a 15 foot drop and no sides of any consequence....

Henry loves to dance. It didn't take long --he had a good teacher and example in Elisabeth. His favorite CD right now is "Yiyi Kih"--aka Lion King (yeah, I have the soundtrack from the 90s but they've never seen the movie). Favorite past time these days: "Pay pay chains Mama, pay pay chains, Fwe Fwe. . ." (Play trains with Mama, or Elisabeth. or anyone . . .). He's getting better at playing by himself though too. His new interest has prompted Elisabeth to become interested as well so we just rolled up the rug and let them leave a track set up all the time. Two nights ago I was putting Henry to bed and as I put him in his crib he said, "Kiss Mama." So I kissed him, and then he said, "Kiss Hen Hen." How could I refuse? This went back and forth for a good long while.

I happened to find an old kilt of mine, purchased in London by my mom. She had been saving it for Elisabeth to wear and I found it just in time. Elisabeth loved wearing it and looked so cute.

Henry seems to be working on perfecting temper tantrums. This morning I had to take him upstairs to change his diaper (stinky) and he did not want to leave his toy cars. I let him bring one, but that didn't seem to help. He was in a rage, 26? pounds pushing away from Mommy as I tried to carry him upstairs. That didn't help my mood as I was trying to clean his dirty bottom. I gave him a quick spank to the bare bottom in an attempt to get him to hold still (do you really want to picture what we're dealing with here?). This usually makes him mad and then he realizes he must hold still, but this morning, as Henry is perfecting his tantrums, he kept the writhing going. So close to completely losing my cool, I began mentally rehearsing why I'm cut out for this job. That didn't get me far. So I began to sing "Jesus loves me." It went sort of like this: Jesus loves HENRY this I know, For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, They are weak!! ...

DSC_0010 , originally uploaded by j_lstevens . Christmas Eve. After attending the service at Christ the King we headed to my parents' house. The kids had dinner and then we put them to bed (with mixed success). Then the rest of us enjoyed a feast prepared by Mom. We tried not to make it too late a night, as some of Santa's helpers had work to do. Not at our house though. Elisabeth's favorite gift was a china doll that I had received as a gift years ago (nearly 30 years ago?) so that wasn't too tough. Henry was thrilled with his truck and soccer ball, as well as a garage from Uncle Andy that John had put together ahead of time. No wrap rage from this family. We should savour this year, as the kids were quite content and didn't rush from one gift to another. Henry actually seemed bothered by us calling him back to open gifts. He had enough to play with already.