Mornings with Henry

A Tuesday morning to be exact. There are so many of these mornings that I just want to remember forever. All of the little details, all the way from that first "Mama! Dada!" from his crib, to breakfast at the little white table, to getting ready to go wherever the day will take us. I know these mornings will change sooner than we know, and this is both exciting and sad. Times goes on, and this is more and more apparent as the days and months and years begin to slip even quicker through my hands. And so I try to capture these details. All of them. I try and keep them safe in my mind, in photos; I want to just stop time right here, right now.

And this particular Tuesday morning was a good one. It wasn't anything special really. Hank and I woke up to Henry's sweet voice yelling for us across the house, smiling to ourselves because we could just hear the smile on his face. The first thing he said when I opened his bedroom door was "BIG DUCKS!' which is Henry-speak for "BIG TRUCKS!" I changed him and followed his big diaper booty down the hall as he bee-lined right for his toy of the moment- his big yellow dump truck.

The first thing Henry always does is say hello to his favorite toys. 'Hi Two-Two," he says to his big R2-D2 robot. "Hi Big Ducks," to his big trucks and cars. "Hi Pee-ano," to his piano. Then he'll make his way over to his easel and draw and draw and draw. Henry loves to create anything and his current happiness comes from drawing circles and announcing as he draws each one.

While he's playing I'll get breakfast ready. Lately meals are a bit of a struggle as my formerly adventurous eater is prone to fits of "No, no, no!" at the drop of a hat in regards to food. One day he'll love pancakes, the next they disgust him. Toast, cereal, oatmeal...you just never know. But fruit, oh can this boy put down some fruit! So our breakfast always includes fruit, but never first, because then he'll never eat what's on his plate. On this Tuesday morning I made the mistake of putting a few raspberries out first but luckily it was waffle day and he was into it. And everyday is hardboiled egg day. The kid's obsessed.

So we ate breakfast and played with Madeline for a bit, then got dressed for the day and headed to the library. Tuesday is Storytime at our public library, and the wonderful Mr. Steve is there to read to all of our town's under-2 crowd. He's amazing, animated, and the children love him. It's also a great time to catch up with mama friends as the kids run around, and on this particular day almost everyone from our group of friends was there.

I could write for days about our library and how many memories of my own childhood it brings back, but I'll leave it at this: to see Henry so ecstatic about books is pretty much one of the most amazing things about parenthood so far. It's awesome, and whenever we go to the library (at least once a week) my sappy self tears up a little thinking back to being a kiddo myself and having the best time surrounded by books and stories and those magical people called librarians.

So yes, this Tuesday was a good one. Nothing too out of the ordinary, nothing too special, but in our world, those kind of days are most often the best.