Those first few days and weeks after I pulled Henry out of school were blissful. It felt so right to have him at home and we had so much fun together. Some of the things we did: Henry painted his car one day in the backyard, washed it off with the hose, and painted it again. I found an old mirror out for the trash in our alley that same day and asked H to wash it off for me. We cleaned it up and it's now the centerpiece in our dining room! (I had some great photos of this activity but unfortunately my iphone was stolen along with the pictures. That's what I get for not synching my phone regularly.)
Henry and Jude enjoyed several mornings in the sandbox while it was still warm. Here you can see Henry's favorite outfit: Superman shirt on backwards with pajama pants.
Another day we used an idea from
The Creative Family to make a stuffed animal (a Lion on one side, a bear on the other!) for Felix. Henry placed it in the cradle and it waited there with anticipation until Felix's joyful arrival on December 10. From time to time, Henry would pick it up and place it against my belly. Right after Felix was born, Henry brought it over to us in the birth pool to show him!
One evening after Jude was in bed, Henry decided to do a large-scale painting using butcher paper on his activity table. Then he painted his tractor. Here you can see his usual indoor attire (only underwear!).
I bought some sparkly letters in "Halloween/Fall" colors at AC Moore. You can't see it, but Henry is practicing writing the letter "T" here. He had fun making up lots of words with these, and we also used them to make placecards for Thanksgiving.
We visited several farms throughout October. Here we are at Cox Farms with his friends C and E. We picked up pumpkins at another farm and Henry carved it with Dan. Henry drew the face himself (you can kind of see it in the picture):
Dan and Greg completely renovated our backyard over the past few weeks. It looks amazing! In the foreground is our chiminea, which we have made several fires in and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.
On the left is the sandbox and at the back is my planter box garden. Yeah for urban gardening!
Henry and I have really been enjoying gardening together. We went to Frager's to get everything and planted strawberries, carrots, and lettuce. The other box will get green beans, tomatoes (when the plants come in), and cucumbers. Henry also insists that we buy some rosebushes for me, which we will put in the front yard.
Here we are on Thursday enjoying a "picnic" lunch on the grass.
Henry loves mama's homemade granola with fresh berries.
After we finished eating, I brought out the sidewalk chalk, crayons, markers, etc. and a couple of books for inspiration and encouraged everyone to make some art (while drawing a picture myself), another suggestion from The Creative Family. In this photo Henry is looking through a book about Alexander Calder that he got from the Stories in Art program we attended at the National Gallery of Art. He decided he needed some wire - fortunately I had some, and he proceeded to make "a mobile like Alexander Calder." Thanks for all the hard work on the backyard, guys; we love it!
