Our Last: 4-year-old Henry
Today is Henry’s last day being four years old. He is the funniest and cutest four-year old I know. I love four-year olds!
Have you ever read the series of books by Louise Bates Ames, PH.D., & Frances LIlg, M.D., from Gesell Institute of Human Development? I own the set of ten books (Your One-Year-Old to Your Ten-to Fourteen-Year-Old) and recommend them to every parent. There is always a “rough” or “frustrating” time with every age of child. These books have helped me to understand my child at the age they are, helped me to appreciate all the things I love about them, helped with ideas of how to handle situations and reminded me that this “rough” time will be over soon.
In the book Your Four-Year-Old Wild and Wonderful one paragraph in the book says this:
“For the most part, we have found the boy or girl of this age to be joyous, exuberant, energetic, ridiculous, untrammeled-ready for anything. What a change he offers as compared to his more difficult, demanding, Three-and-a-half-year-old, just-earlier self! If at times he seems somewhat voluble, boastful, and bossy, it is because it is so exciting for him to enter the fresh field of self-expression that open up at this wonderful age.”
Another one of my favorite paragraphs:
“The child of Four loves language. He loves to talk, to rhyme, to whisper, to sing. Or even to shout. He is his own self-appointed commentator and often his own audience. He loves words, likes to try them out, likes to play with them. He likes new and different words.”
There are many things in this book that apply and don’t apply to Henry because every Four-year-old is different. The authors do a fabulous job describing many characteristics and behaviors you would find in any four-year-old child.
Now, let’s talk about my sweet four-year-old Henry, so I never forget what a fun four-year-old he was.
Henry is a great helper!
Henry can put away the silverware from the dishwasher, set the table, sweep, mop, fold and put away his own clothes, feed the dogs, collect chicken eggs, vacuum, get the mail, bring in firewood, load the washer, make a bed, make his own toast/bagel, flip a pancake, follow directions while baking/cooking with me, reach in any of the high places where I hide our candy treats, get himself dressed, answer the phone better than some kids twice his age, play independently for long periods of time, and do many jobs in the garden with me.
We were getting ready to make a smoothie. He disappeared and came back with hearing protection.
And always ready to help as batman with rotten teeth.
This day he started helping me get the boys’ after school snack ready, before I was ready, by cutting the strawberries.
Often I will say, “I’m going to change Nola Mae’s diaper, then I will be ready to go outside to feed the dogs.” A minute later, I hear Henry leave the house. When I look outside he is feeding the dogs!
One day, Nola Mae was carrying around a glass (with water in it) a glass that Jack uses for his “Papa drink” (bourbon and coke) and said, “Nola Mae, you can’t drink that it has coffinee in it!”
Another day:
Me: Java’s back from our walk. (Because she wondered off and didn’t come home with us).
Henry: I’ll go put her away.
Me: No, I’ll do it.
Henry: I have shoes on, you stay in!
I am always entertained and impressed with the things that he tells me or the things that he does.
Henry has taken a small amount of piano lessons (5-10 minutes, once a week) for about 6 months and had his first recital in December 2013, although his song was not recognizable he still amazed me by going on the stage to perform and is very excited about practicing his piano, almost every day!
Last summer we had not one single bluebird nesting on our property, usually we have at least six out of ten bluebird houses full. While we were out for a run, Henry and I saw a bluebird. Henry said, “Maybe I could sneak up on her and whisper ‘come live at our house!'”
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Often he draws pictures of me with one of my babies in my belly and goes on to tell me what order they all came out explaining, “Robbie is the biggest, Charlie is bigger and I am bigger than Nola Mae.”
Henry copied Robbie’s melted crayon artwork by taping his crayons to the paper after he made the marks, very clever!
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“Chocolate Treating” instead of “Trick-or-Treating”
I love the way his mind works.
We rent our field to a neighbor who bales large bales wrapped in white plastic. First thing Henry said one morning, “Yep, Mr. Ernst put marshmallows in the field last night. BIG MARSHMALLOWS!”
One time he came to me…
Henry: Does my face look sad?
Me: Yes.
Henry: I can’t get the sadness off. (Rubbing his eyes) Now do I look happy?
Me: Yes.
Henry: I can’t make it happier.
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One of the many times I found evidence that someone was snacking on a sugary treat, I found a chocolate chip bag in the garbage.
Me: What is this? What about eating healthy stuff?
Henry: I don’t have room in my tummy for stuff! Like oranges, apples and pears. Just yummy stuff!”
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“I love my blanket because it catches my blueberries and doesn’t make foot prints.”
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“I wish we had a more better potty. Like a potty dryer next to Papa’s bathroom drawer. So it sucks up the potties.”
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When we are in the car he talks non-stop and many times I wish I had the video camera mounted on the dash. I just might do that one of these days.
One day he told me while we were driving he noticed a car going faster than us. And said, “they better slow down because they may get policed for driving too fast!”
Another time in the car we had this conversation…
Henry: There is a stinky girl on the bus.
Me: Is she a pretty stinky or a yucky stinky? (holding my breath because I was afraid he told her this fact, that she is stinky)
Henry: A pretty stinky. When mamas go dancing with papas, they smell stinky like that.
Side note: I don’t wear perfume and sadly, Jack and I don’t go dancing.
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This winter when it was too cold for the dogs to be outside in the kennel they stayed in the mudroom. Henry went in there and told the dogs, “No eating Nola Mae because she is my sister. NO HURTING HER!”
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“It is a good thing I have boogers, so I don’t smell anything when you toot.”
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Henry’s teacher told me that during “share time” the question was “what did you do this weekend?” Some kids said stuff like “went swimming”, “played outside”, “went to my grandma’s”, Henry said, “I peed on the couch.”
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About our wedding photo… Henry: Why do you have a big one and a little picture like this? Me: Because it is my favorite. Henry: It’s my favorite too because papa looks different.
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I have saved funny Henry stories forever (in emails and on scraps of paper) and now seems like the time to put them all in one place…
Henry was playing outside, came running into the house to ask if he could go to Marlene’s because “I know she is home. I hear her in her yard.” I said yes and reminded him to ask her if she has time to visit when he gets there. A few minutes later he came back because Marlene wasn’t home. I asked, “What did you hear then?” His response, “I think it was just my echo. I even knocked on two doors. Or maybe she was sleeping.”
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A few weeks after Nola Mae was born…
Henry: Do all babies have blood on thems head?
Me: After they are born, yes.
Henry: Why was Papa holding my shoulders , so I don’t fall in?
Me: Fall in what?
Henry: In the bucket. He was holding me close to him so I didn’t fall in!
Side note: Henry was in the room when Nola Mae was born. He retold the story to Korina and Christie (two of our three midwives) and me a couple of hours later. I wish I had that conversation recorded or written down. His recount of the birth was amazing for a 3-year-old. I only remember bits and pieces. And one of my memories is that the bucket was a key object in the birth. He told us that Christie didn’t let the baby fall in the bucket, but he thought the baby was going to fall in the bucket. I have this picture from our birth photographer, Brianna. This is as close to “holding me close” that I could find in our photos.
B Pure Photography
Henry retold the story of Nola Mae’s birth to Robbie and Charlie when they woke up to meet our new baby. Another moment, where he was so darn cute and said some cute things that I will never remember.
B Pure Photography
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“Oh Mom! Nola Mae is done nukking. Her mouth is off a nuker. Now put her in your room!”
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“Nola Mae woke up from a nap crying…Henry: Nuk her! Or I will nuk all the milk!”
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3-year-old-Henry was getting tired and crabby while shopping today and asked to “Nuk here!” and went to a bench to sit down. I explained that we could nuk at home because we are almost done. Surprisingly, in his frustrated and tired emotions he said to me “for privacy?” I am sad to say “yes.” I didn’t have the courage/energy today to do it in public today.
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“You should put some hair on Nola Mae.”
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Nola Mae was chewing on the end of my braid…Henry: Oh NO! She is eating your tail!
Henry’s first “selfie” that he took.
Please feel free to share any funny stories about Henry in the comments.
I am looking forward to falling in love with our 5-year-old-Henry.
Books:
Your Four-Year-Old: Wild and Wonderful – http://www.amazon.com/Your-Four-Year-Old-Louise-Bates-Ames/dp/0440506751/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396734050&sr=1-1&keywords=louise+bates+ames+four+year+old
Your Five-Year-Old: Sunny and Serene – http://www.amazon.com/Your-Five-Year-Old-Louise-Bates-Ames/dp/0440506735/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396733952&sr=1-1&keywords=louise+bates+ames+five+year+old
life with three boys and a splash of purple! 
