9 years ago . . .

(plus almost 2 months) Henry was born. He came into the world kicking and screaming. In fact, one of the nurses outside our room said, "I wouldn't want to take that one home." But, his amazing smile always helped make up for whatever trouble he caused. And, he's turned into a pretty great kid.

He suddenly seems so much older to me--he's an inch or so shy of 5 feet tall, he likes to go in and buy the hot 'n ready pizza all by himself, he's even getting a little bit of adolescent moodiness. But, sometimes it seems like he's really not that old after all. When I drop him off for school, he won't go in without blowing me a kiss. And, he still can't always restrain himself from leaping with joy and flapping/clapping when he's really excited.

There's just so much goodness and brightness and lovingness and helpfulness in Henry. I sure hope he doesn't outgrow any of that, even while he's growing so fast. I wish I could keep him small and innocent forever.

Somehow we didn't take any pictures of his birthday, even though we had a family gathering for him and a party with his friends. He wanted an Avatar: The Last Airbender birthday party, so we did activities for the 4 elements--made tea bag rockets and water bottle whirlpools, and blew up balloons without using our mouths, and played a game. Henry loves science and games. But alas, no pictures, just video. And, I don't know how to upload videos--that's Brandon's specialty.

Anyway,
Happy Birthday, Henry! We love you, and we're so glad we got to "take that one home."

it's a big, six-toed . . .

GIRL!

I know that to many of you this is old news. But, for those of you who are far away, we had the ultrasound a while back, and it's official. We are thrilled to be having a girl. In fact, we wanted a girl so much we were afraid we would jinx it. In retrospect, I think it's more that I just didn't want another colicky baby, and Elsa was our only colic-free baby. I realize now that this baby will probably prove my prejudice wrong and be a really colicky girl. But, we're excited anyway.

She doesn't really have 6 toes, but it looked like it to us from the ultrasound. And, she looked 9 days bigger than her expected due date. I'm trying not to get my hopes up about her coming early, since I'm pretty sure being huge and swollen in July in Utah is going to be miserable. Oh well. HOORAY for another girl!

work

I have a lot of updating to do, but last night I was helping Henry practice his vocabulary words. I explained to him what a motto was, and then he looked at me and said, "Your motto would be 'I will work for truth.'"

I laughed and asked him why. He said, "Because you're always working."

It reminded me of a prayer he said a while ago, where he decided to be very specific in his gratitude. He said, "Thank you for a little brother who is funny, a little sister who is fun to play with, a dad who is my best friend, and a mom who is workful."

It's a little sad when that's your defining characteristic.