Two!

We have a two year old in the house again!  Of course, if you ask how old he is he says with confidence "three!".

 Poor little fourth child had no planned birthday party and no presents from his mama and daddy, either.  And then--to top things off--the power went off the day before his birthday and stayed off for 3 days.  He didn't care, though.  And Grandpa and Grandma were still able to come over for some pizza and cake--so really it all turned out quite nice as far as Henry was concerned.

 Henry LOVES  books.  He loves being read to.  And he's really spoiled because he has lots of people in his life who know how to read.  And bookshelves full of books.  And now he has this fun new book from Grandpa and Grandma.

 Here is Grandpa reading Henry his absolute favorite book Little Blue Truck.  He wants it read to him at least a dozen times a day.  He has it almost fully memorized.

 So this cake, let me tell you, oh boy!  It was in the oven baking on Saturday morning when the wind started howling and the power first went out.  Praise the Lord, the power came back on just long enough to finish baking the cake.  And then it turned off again.  And then trees started falling on houses and cars and people all around here.  It was pretty awful.  Some large chunks of those big beautiful trees that line our street came crashing down.  But the Lord kept them up while Henry was out riding his bike under them that morning.  And for that, I am quite thankful.  Back to the cake.  Without power I couldn't do the frosting.  I figured the lights would come on by the next morning at the latest and we'd be fine.  But they didn't.  So I took all the ingredients with me to the meetin' hall and mixed it up after Sunday School. Win! 
But wait, there's more.  After we got home I left the bowl of frosting on the counter (rather than the fridge since that would have been pointless) and went up to change out of my dress.  As I came down the stairs I heard my dear husband saying with some stress in his voice "oh no!".  I steeled myself for what I knew I would find....

 

 Henry was happily chowing down on what he called "ice cream".  Yep, that's the whole bowl on the floor.  And yep, that's a bright white dress shirt.  Oh my.  Never fear--all the frosting not directly touching the floor was scooped back up and eventually put on the cake.  Such is life with Henry.

And fancy or not--Henry was happy with his cake.

 I was surprised at how well he did blowing out his candles.  And he adored having us sing to him.  He wanted to hear "happy birthday dear Henry" over and over again.  He's really good at being a two year old.  He puts all sorts of things in the toilet--including but not limited to:  a bubble container, a wrench, clorox wipes, match box cars.  I just have so much fun going fishing in my toilet.  Speaking of fish, he loves to dump out the whole container of fish food whenever he can get to it.  And he puts whatever he can reach into the fish tank.  I think the fish live in fear of Henry and what he might be dropping in on top of them. 
He loves anything with wheels.  He rides his bike all over our neighborhood.  He scooters around whenever he can.  He sits on Ezra's skateboard and rides it down the driveway over and over.  I've been told he even tries to stand up and ride the skateboard--but I have not yet witnessed this myself.  He has a lot of confidence in himself.  Nothing is beyond trying.  And nothing is beyond throwing.  Half of my day is spent trying to keep him alive.  The other half is spent trying to keep the people around him alive.  Never could I have imagined two years ago today that he'd be this way.  And the Lord knew to keep it a secret!  We are so thankful for you, Henry Cole.  Your energy could move mountains if it were in an adult body.  You just keep believing that nothing is impossible and we'll see where it gets you!