Thursday, January 7, 2010

Highs & Lows

Today was a million-thousand hard. A million-thousand...that's Henry's favorite number right now. He's into quantifying these days, always wanting to know the age and size and weight and height of things.
Today was hard because Lily dropped the phone in the potty. so gross. I blowdried and sanitized it (funny verbs to use in reference to a phone, no?) and it seems to be working fine now. the day of miracles hath not ceased!

It was also hard because Henry clogged the bathroom sink (the only sink in our only bathroom) with toilet paper. I pretty much lost it. And then I felt really, really bad. And then I apologized to the kids, hugged them up good, and we headed out in the freezing for playgroup.
This afternoon, Henry came running into the kitchen with a triumphant announcement:
"I FIXED THE SINK!" he declared. "You know the sink in the bathroom that I clogged with toilet paper? Well, I fixed it!"
Me: (A little disbelieving) "that's great. how'd you fix it?"
H: "I just used the bristle part, you know the part with bristles that you brush with on your toothbrush, I used that part and i just shoved the toilet paper down the drain!"
Me: "Which toothbrush did you use? What did it look like?"
H: "It was yours. The purple one. But then I rinsed it off with water, so it's fine now."

Made myself a mental note to throw away my toothbrush.
Totally forgot about that mental note.
After dinner I needed to get out of the house. Too much screaming (Lily). Too many toys strewn all over (Henry & Lily). Too many hormones (me!) Target sounded nice. I went potty before I left and noticed some food remnants in my teeth while I was washing my hands in the (believe it or not) unclogged sink...
do I even need to finish this story?
I USED MY TOOTHBRUSH, you guys! The one I was supposed to throw away. The one Henry shoved the toilet paper down the drain with. I got the gags worse than ever when I realized what I'd done. And then I went out and told Nate and we had a pretty good laugh about it.

Oh my. I could fill volumes with that kid's funny antics and darlingness. Here are a few other noteworthy things he's said/done lately:

A few weeks ago he and Nate were wrestling and by some great defiance of all cosmic laws, Henry bonked his front teeth on Nate's big toe (!) and killed the roots. They started turning grey within 48 hours. I could tell Henry was feeling a little self-conscious about them. One day he said to me, "I have brown teeth; brown teeth are ugly." I assured him that I love brown teeth, that they're my very favorite kind. A couple nights later we were brushing his teeth and after he'd spit and rinsed he gave himself a big-cheese grin in the mirror and said, in reference to his discolored teeth "there's muh darkies!" with this twangy yokel accent - and then we both cracked up laughing.

While we were in San Antonio for the Holidays some of Henry's girl cousins decided to get dressed up in ball gowns for Christmas dinner. Not wanting to be the only slouch at the table, Henry quickly disappeared. He came back looking like this:


hair slicked, collared shirt donned

and on his way to the table he asked his uncle Richard, "Am I like the handsomest guy you've ever seen?"

The other day we were playing hide-n-seek. I was counting. Henry hid in the pantry. While he was in there he decided to help himself to some Teddy Grahams. So I start looking for him and I hear all manner of crinkling and crunching coming from the pantry. I walked over and opened the door to reveal my boy sitting on a 5-gallon bucket of wheat, Teddy Grahams in hand, and he says in astonishment, and through chocolatey crumbs, "How'd you know I was in here?!?"

He is the best boy in all the world. I can't believe I get to spend every day with him. He really is a treasure.
I'm also pretty lucky to have his dad. And his sister.





Updates on them and the rest of our life are going to have to come on a different day. It's time to end this one.
Even on the hard days, this is a blessed life. (I think I've ended a post like that before :)
xo

8 comments:

  1. Oh Em! I was gaggin right along with you!!! It could have been worse right? I mean it could have been your toothbrush in the toilet not the phone right? But still GAG!

    I love that little boy of yours! He is something special and how lucky I feel to be able to read about his endeavors in life! Thanks for the blog :)

    Tonight when Nate was over here, he did something or said something and I kind of chuckled to myself because I saw Henry for that moment!

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  2. At least it wasn't the toilet! Henry's such a sweetie. I love that age.

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  3. So Juliet went through a thing a couple weeks ago where her brilliant idea was to WASH toilet paper. Seriously--where do they get these ideas!!?

    And I'd have to agree with Henry--he's like the handsomest little guy I've ever seen. What a doll.

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  4. ps--you look totally gorgeous in these photos!

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  5. Oh Emily I just laugh out loud! Henry, you are so silly and so helpful. Cute little man he is.

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  6. Thanks for this post that made me smile to my ears! Your little family is so dear. And Henry with his hair-do IS pretty much the handsomest guy I've ever seen!

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  7. "There are my darkies?!?" Where did this kid come from?! THAT IS STRAIGHT HILARIOUS! I love it.
    I miss you so. I'm sad you aren't going to be joining your husband on his trip to AZ...but glad for you (in that you don't have to endure a road trip with two littles in tow).

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  8. Henry really is a treasure. Such funny stories!

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