Henry is 6!

Henry turned 6 on February 26th. It was a Monday, and he had t-ball practice, so we grabbed a quick dinner together prior, then got ice cream cones at Jack's near the ball field. We had his actual party on Saturday the 24th. I'll post separately about that. We had fun celebrating our big 6 year old!!It's hard to believe we have a kid who's age can't fit on one hand anymore, but it's true whether we believe it or not! Below is his "interview" about some of his favorites.

1. What is your favorite color? blue
 2. What is your favorite toy? Fingerlings and stuffed animal from zoo
3. What is your favorite fruit? strawberries
4. What is your favorite tv show? Curious George
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Chicken nuggets with ketchup...actually my favorite food is pizza
6. What is your favorite outfit? Green Nike slick shirt
7. What is your favorite game/sport? Tug of War/Tball
8. What is your favorite snack? strawberries and goldfish
9. What is your favorite animal? squid...actually polar bear, later added poodle
10. What is your favorite song? Climb Every Mountain (Sound of Music)
11. What is your favorite book? Little Pilgrim's Progress
12. Who is your best friend? Abby and Eli (Eli doesn't even go to his school anymore, but Abby is in his class)
13. What is your favorite cereal? Multi-grain Cheerios
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Stand up on our swing in the yard (the one Steven made that hangs from the tree) and swing from side to side
15. What is your favorite drink? water and chocolate milk
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas (NOT Halloween-it's spooky)
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Gray blanket
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? pancakes (which he gets once in a blue moon)
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Police man, doctor
21. What is your favorite subject in school? Bible art (I'm adding this question!)


Henry is a kindergartener now....here we are 6 months in, and he is fully seasoned and doing great! It is fun to see him learning to read, write, do more involved math, and just generally grow in maturity. He really enjoys going to school and does not complain about it. I get to home school him on Monday and Wednesday, and we are finally in a good groove with that. I enjoy getting to teach him and getting to have a little extra time with just him. We have to start on the weekend, so he and I usually do school for 1-1.5 hours on Sunday morning while Steven and the girls run errands. By noon on Sunday, we feel like a very accomplished bunch! Then we work on M and W afternoons during the girls' nap time to get the rest done. As the year has progressed, I have been able to send some of his seat work for him to do on his PreK days with Annie. Overall, he has had a great kindergarten year so far, and we are so pleased! He loves his teacher, Mrs. Killough, and loves all the fun extras he gets to do like PE, art, etc. He was a shepherd in the school Christmas play, and he was SO proud. All of the traditions at PCS are so fun for him, and I love seeing him get to participate in those. His teacher pulled me aside one day to show me the way he had done one of their activities (covering pictures with shapes pieces). She said he chose a different shape than all the other students in her current class and in previous classes to cover a particular part of the picture....it's kind of hard to explain...but she was bragging on him and showing me that he thinks outside the box and seems to be the type of kid who is good with puzzles/figuring out different ways to do things from what she's seen him do in class and that he might need to be taught differently during our home school times....(these are the type of questions you might see on IQ tests). I don't know much about all this even though I'm a teacher myself, but it made me proud and also chuckle. He certainly thinks outside the box and of course I'd have a kid who needs a challenge when learning!

Henry is truly a singer. He sings CONSTANTLY and has a great voice. I can honestly say that someone comes up to me weekly and says, "I heard Henry sing! He needs to be doing something with that! He has such a great voice!" His teacher came to me and said she has to tell him, "Henry, I LOVE your voice, but now is not the time to sing" HA! I know exactly what she means! I have to do the same thing! He will sing questions he has for me, stories he wants to tell, along with just general singing while he plays. Mom and I took him to The Sound of Music in January. He already knew every word to every song, but to watch him take it all in and sing along was priceless. How many 5 year old boys do you know who would sit for literally 3 hours in total awe at something like that? He noticed every detail and every part that was different than the movie, loved to see all the sets, etc. It was his first big play to attend, too, and it knocked it out of the park! We went to his Grandpa's 70th surprise bday party mid-February, and there were about 30 attendees, many of whom we didn't know. When everyone arrived and there was a big crowd, Henry told Aunt Mae, "I want to sing, but I need introduced!", so she pulled up a chair in the middle of the room and said, "This is Henry Hxxxx, and he wants to sing for you!" and he sang The Hills are Alive in front of everyone! We didn't talk about it before hand or anything-it was so cute and funny and he did a great job! All the ladies came up afterward and just gave him so much attention. Our family will never forget that! We learn a new hymn every month at school and sing it for morning assembly, so those are some of his favorite songs to belt out! Specifically, we hear a lot of "Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted" and "How Deep the Father's Love for Us". Steven was asking him the other day what his favorite kind of music was and gave him some choices like country, rock, rap, and he said, "Hymns!!"...that boy!

I'm just going to have to write down my notes and use them to remember. I could write a book, so I've got to stop!

-Love math, always making up multiplication problems in his head and asks us or figures them out and checks with us when he's figured an answer. When he sees arrays (lights on the ceiling for instance), he always figures out how many there are.
-"Assignment from God" per grandma. He will sit for the longest time with Grandma DeWitt when we've visited. Grandma says they couldn't have paid a therapist to do what he did for her! It is pretty sweet. I wish I could record their conversations.
-"Do you have a craft bone? I do! "....he asked me one day. Hilarious! He still loves art, crafts, all things creative. He's pretty good at it all. I can't draw, so I'm impressed with is sketches.
-Steven was talking to him about compliments one day, and so he asked Henry to give me a compliment. He said, "I like your shiny teeth!" Ha! He is actually a sensitive guy and does give lots of great compliments. He is always noticing my jewelry, nails, etc.and any new clothes.
-He loves packing his bag himself when we go on trips and will count out how many he needs of each item and fold it all up perfectly and pack in his bag.
-"Baby's pinkies are the sweetest things!" he said one day from the backseat. Also, "Open up that neckie-pooh!" when playing tickle game with Ruby. He's very sweet with both sisters, especially baby.
-Does the funniest voices. Southern gentleman, also calls Annie "girl partner!" and says, "yeah girl!" a lot.
-Loves to do hand break with us and have us say, "Hxxxx Family!" together
-Eyelash conversation. Why are mine so long (he really does have beautiful, long eyelashes!)? They get in the way. Mommy, yours are medium like a working girl. Like a worker in a treat shop.
-He knows the truth about santa and doesn't like to play along (even though we try to get him to and try not to let him ruin it for others). I still wanted to visit him and get pictures, but Henry was kinda rude to him! I think he is mad that everyone is getting duped and wants to let everyone know the truth! He asked for a puppy this year, but Santa said he'd have to talk to his parents about that. Not a good way to win him over and make him believe. :)
-He sleeps in his top bunk now. One day I came in, and he had separated all his stuffed animals into mammals vs not mammals. Boy, he has a lot of stuffed animals.
-In the middle of reading Goldilocks as she's trying out all the beds and the middle one is too soft, Henry looked up and me in total disbelief and said, "What could be TOO soft??"
-He got new toothpaste, and I asked him if he liked it. He said, "It's wonderful! It tastes like a spicy cupcake!"
-He helped me assemble homeless bags that we keep in our car. He was out running errands w Steven and got to hand one out. He was so happy.
-100th day of school celebration. He could take 100 of any item and he chose shells.
-We are reading chapter books now-James and the Giant Peach, about 5 different Boxcar Children, The Enormous Egg, school-Mercy Watson, The Little Pilgrim's Progress....there are others, but I haven't done a good job of writing them down!
-Still super sensitive, hates anything suspenseful. We keep it tame with PBS kids and that's about it.

There's so much more, but I must stop. I need to do better about updating periodically so I don't feel so much pressure when I try to do something like this! Below are a few pics of the boy. We sure do love you, Hankford. Thanks for being such a sweet guy.

The Sound of Music

The morning of the play we realized he has an authentic German lederhosen and hat that we brought back from Germany several years ago, so we asked if he wanted to wear it, and he was totally in! You can imagine the attention he got over it. He was a spectacle, and he ate it up!

A little pre-celebration in Nashville with family. Aunt Mae brought him a cake-she always calls him by first and last name. She was Heather Hough growing up, so they have the H alliteration in common!

Opening gifts on his birthday-he got a check from grandparents, and he was thrilled!! We normally take their money and purchase something for him from them (per their request), but he's been wanting to have his own money lately and buy things he sees at the store, so he was thrilled to be able to get the actual dough this year!