Things Henry Likes: Barney, Thomas & Elmo

Our last posting made us think of all the new characters Henry has embraced. He took a liking to Barney early on, and the purple dinosaur has only grown more popular with each new book, DVD or CD we purchase. Henry’s favorite DVD is The Best of Barney, and we can now sing most of the Barney songs by heart. In fact, Henry has been known to ride his trike around the neighborhood singing “I Love You” at the top of his tiny lungs. A close second in popularity is Thomas the Train. Henry discovered Thomas only recently, but he has quickly skyrocketed in popularity. Henry received a Thomas cake and several Thomas books and toys for his birthday. And his Thomas pajamas are definitely his favorite, so much so that he once insisted on wearing the top all day. Other popular characters include Elmo, Cookie Monster, Mickey Mouse and Nemo. Mom and dad are partial to Thomas, if only because the episodes are only 10 minutes long and involve no singing. There is only so many times you can hear Barney sing “Clean Up,” “Apples and Bananas,” or “Looby Loo” before you start to go a little crazy. And according to this report on the BBC, the Barney theme song has been used by American interrogators to break the will of Iraqi insurgents. The insurgents never had a chance.

Henry's 2nd Birthday

This year Henry had not one, but three birthday parties. On the Friday before his birthday (August 23rd), he celebrated with his friends at daycare by eating cupcakes during afternoon snack. Then, on Sunday, he enjoyed a Thomas the Train birthday cake and an afternoon swim at Brad and Tonia Powell’s home, where we spent the afternoon visiting with college friends. Finally, on September 29th, Henry had a joint birthday party with several of his friends from daycare at Hayes Park in Arlington, Virginia. The park has a sprayground (a water spray park for children), a large sand pit, lots of playground equipment, and Henry’s personal favorite: swings. The theme for the party was “A Day at the Beach” (because of the water and sand), and we were fortunate to have some cool (if overcast) weather. The turnout was terrific, and everyone seemed to have a great time playing in the park and eating birthday cake.

Celebrating with Henry were his friends Nicholas Cho and the twins Teddy and Dorothy Huang. Henry’s parents were glad to share the burden of planning and preparing for the party with four other parents. We were responsible for the favors and decorations. For favors, each child received a plastic sand bucket filled with bubbles, playdough, sunglasses, stickers and other small toys. And, yes, we did assemble each of those forty party favor buckets by hand!

Henry received lots of great gifts for his birthday. Mimi Pauline gave him a toddler bed shaped like a boat, which Henry absolutely loved (when his father finally managed to finish assembling it). Mimi Joanne and Paw Paw Bill gave him an inflatable pool for the backyard. It was so hot in August, we let Henry open this gift early and start enjoying the cool water right away. Mom and dad gave him a puppet theater and some puppets. Unfortunately, the pirate puppet that we selected was a little scary looking, so Henry has gone off the puppets for a while. But hopefully the theater will pay dividends soon.

Click below for more photos from the party:

Settling In

It’s been a busy summer (three weddings, vacation and a birthday party), but we’re finally settling into our new place. With the newest Morris due to arrive in late November/early December, we’re working hard to get Henry established in his new room and transitioning the nursery from a safari theme to lady bugs, dragonflies and faeries. Henry received a boat bed for his birthday (see Henry’s 2nd Birthday), so we’re going with a nautical theme for his room.

Among the biggest hurdles has been unpacking and reorganizing our large collection of books. Between the two of them, Elise and Bryant have amassed a small library of medical books, historical romances, crime fiction, English literature and travel guides. As we’ve slowly unpacked our belongings, we’ve often wondered how we managed to cram so much stuff into a two-bedroom condo. We also think we’ll never again be able to live in a house without a basement/loft/playroom.

Henry is enjoying having a backyard and a neighborhood to explore. Our neighbors lent us their sons’ Kettler trike (the Mercedes Benz of training bikes), and Henry has been taking daily rides around the block. One of our favorite routes is to run down to the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, which sits atop a large hill with great views of Washington and Old Town Alexandria. There’s also a family of deer which lives on the memorial grounds, which we occasionally see in the evenings.

So far, the commute into Washington hasn’t been bad: about 30 minutes in the mornings and a little longer in the evenings. Most days we’re able to avoid the evening rush hour. Bryant has been taking the VRE (Virginia commuter train) home from work, which is a lot more civilized than the Metro. Occasionally Henry also rides the “choo choo,” although his patience for sitting still wears thin after about twenty minutes.

Our new church (St. Mary’s) is located in Old Town, and we’ve enjoyed strolling down to the waterfront after mass for brunch or coffee. With all the activity this summer, we haven’t had the chance to explore Old Town much, but we’re hoping to do some more sightseeing this fall.