3 year doctor's visit

Henry had his 3 year visit this morning with Dr. Sakkal.  It was full fledged big-boy physical this time.  He checked out as healthy as a horse!  Height was 38 inches and weight was 32 pounds, both of which are just over the 50th %ile.  They don't measure head circumference any longer, and instead they check his blood pressure (or an arm hug, as she called it), which was 84/42.

Dr. Sakkal asked if I'd like him to try the vision and hearing tests as well.  He said they usually get about 20% success rate at this age, but it would be worth a try if he was having a good day (which he was); otherwise they'd do it again anyways at the 4 year visit.  I couldn't stop giggling during the vision test, it was just too stinkin cute!  

The girl would ask him questions like, "What do you see?"

"A clown!" 

"What is the clown pointing to?"

"A flower!"

"What color is the flower?"

"Lellow (yellow)!"  "Mommy, you wanna play the game too?"

By the time the hearing test came around, I think we'd lost his interest.  It was the good ol' 'raise your hand when you hear the beep' test.  He kept saying "Mommy, I can't hear the music yet" as I'm sure he was expecting to hear some Pearl Jam like he listens to with his headphones on Daddy's iPod.   The nurse and I were both giggling this time.  She would remind him multiple times, "Henry, every time you hear the beep, make sure you raise your hand for me," then he would proudly raise both hands as far in the air as he could when there was no beep to be heard :)  

Like I said, they checked him out from head to toe.  Yep, they even asked for a urine sample from him. He sure thought that was cool, going potty in a cup!  

On a side note, I had my 24 week prenatal appointment today as well.  Baby's heartrate was 144.  Everything looked good.  Dr. Nadeau tried to externally feel if he could tell what position the baby was in, but no luck, baby's too small to tell.  That was it - quick visit :)    

Gull Lake

A couple weeks ago, we took a little summer (ok, maybe spring?) vacation up north to Gull Lake, and stayed in a cabin at the Grand View Lodge in Nisswa, MN for a few nights.  I'd heard great things about Grand View Lodge from friends before and recently read about it in "The Best of...MN" where it was voted "Best kid-friendly resort in MN!"  Very true, very kid-friendly, certainly didn't disappoint!  

The Chocolate Ox, the lovely candy store located right on Grand View's property.  Yes, I'm pretty sure we (ok, maybe I) visited this place twice each day - once in the afternoon for gummy candy (peach rings for me, please) and then once in the evening for ice cream.  

It did rain a couple days, but we also had some great sun for a couple days as well.  While the lake water was a bit too chilly to swim in, the beach sand sure was a big hit with Henry (and all of his construction trucks that he brought along - he said they were working on building a Buffalo Wild Wings on the beach, now that's my kind of construction project)!

We took a paddle boat out on the lake one morning.

Thank goodness for the water park on those rainy days, well, actually everyday for that matter.  We managed to get some good swimming in every morning we were there.  Good swimming sure makes for good naps (Henry in his bed and me out on the porch).  

We found some local attractions to hit up in the afternoons as well.  Here we are at Paul Bunyan Land in Brainerd.  Henry was a little too freaked out to get near giant Paul Bunyan for a picture.  It was pretty cool when he welcomed Henry to the park by name though.  

Pretty sure we were one of the only families there that afternoon, which meant Henry had his pick of carnival rides.  First thing we did when we got there - rode the motorcycles.....

.....then onto the ponies.....

.....then down the bouncy castle slide.  

We checked out the Pirates Cove in Brainerd for a little mini golf action as well.  Henry just couldn't quite get the concept of hitting the ball, then actually leaving the ball on the ground where it landed, then hitting it again.  It was a tough concept to grasp.....next time we'll get it.  We did manage to get though 18 holes!

We certainly put down our fair share of pizza on this trip, hitting up the 2 pizza joints, Zorbaz and Rafferty's, mmm mmm good!

It was a fun little getaway, probably our last vaca with just the 3 of us :)

Henry's 3rd birthday, a day in review

This year, Henry's actual birthday fell on a Monday.  We started an ECFE class (Early Childhood Family Education) that morning, which Henry calls "school."  The teachers were so sweet.  When we got there and told them who we were, they knew that it was Henry's birthday that day, made him a birthday crown, and we sung to him as well.  It was a very nice welcome!  Our first day of "school" went great, looking forward to next week. 

Phil & I got Henry a new big-boy bike for his birthday.  We got him a balance bike, no pedals and no training wheels, his feet are his pedals.  It'll take some practice to get used to, but he'll get it!

He chose his favorite restaurant, McDonald's, for his birthday dinner - cheeseburger and fries, please!  No complaints from me, as I love me some McDonald's burgers and fries too.  I did manage to talk him into going to the Big Dipper for ice cream, where he enjoyed a scoop of 'birthday cake' ice cream.

construction machines

We kept is simple this year for Henry's birthday - burgers on the grill for lunch with the family, it really was nice.  We lucked out with beautiful weather outside, no complaints here!  Henry's absolutely loving "construction machines" of all kinds these days - excavators, dump trucks, road scrapers, you name it, he loves it!  So, I incorporated a "construction" theme into the day as well.  I made dirt cake (which Henry later called it 'dirt-day' cake, how fitting), Henry and Greta got to eat theirs out of their dump trucks, which they thought was pretty cool!

The singing of Happy Birthday :)

The candles are out!

Somebody loved the worms after she found out "they were just squishy worms, not real ones."

After lunch, we tried to get a few family pics (which is a difficult task in itself)! 

Oma & Opa

Grandma & Grandpa

Auntie Sonja

first fish

The neighbor boys have been raving about the number of fish they've been catching off the bridges in our lakes lately, so Henry wanted to get in on all the action.  Phil wormed up Henry's new fishing rod for him this past weekend and we walked down the block to the bridge.  His line wasn't in more than 10 seconds and this is what he had on it, a real whopper - his first fish!  Henry gave it one small "pet", then Phil threw it back and it swam away happily :)

Happy Birthday to Henry

Three years ago today, WOW!

Happy Father's Day

bowling buddies

Can't you just picture these two being in a bowling league down the road some day?  On this rainy and cold morning, we met up with Harrison & Becky so the boys could get their bowl on :)  Toddler bowling shoes really are quite adorable.   

Complete with a ramp and bumpers, Henry & Harrison bowled a mean game.  They were the only two bowlers in the whole alley, it was great, we had the place to ourselves!  They both carried their orange ball to ramp by themselves each time and nobody walked away with any injuries, success :)  Harrison even bowled a strike once, no joke!

Twins vs Mariners

Phil took Henry & I to the Twins game on Saturday.  It was Henry's 2nd game that he's been to, the first one he lasted 3 innings and this time around I think we made it 5 or 6 innings - progress!  We had some good ballpark food and a great view of the game.  Apparently we missed a good Twins walk-off game winner in the end!

Working on his swing with Harmon Killebrew out on the plaza :)

Flashback to Henry's 1st Twins game - about 13 months old here!

A Happy Happy Birthday

Yes, a very happy birthday it was for me this year, the big 3-2 went down last Friday!  First off, a stop at Caribou on my way to work.  I have such a thing for iced coffee right now, love it.   

My most favorite gifts that I received, from Henry (with just a little bit of help from his Oma) - this picture frame with the cutest picture of he & I, the beautiful necklace with butterflies and a unicorn (he told me that I'll look as pretty as Vanna - yes, the boy LOVES Vanna White - when I wear this necklace, with a Vanna dress, of course), and the lilacs that he picked!  Could I have asked for sweeter gifts from my sweet boy?!

After work, we headed to the Witch's Tower in Minneapolis.  They open it up 1 day out of the whole year for people to go up to the top to see the views of the city, and this year it just happened to be on my birthday!  Of course the line was crazy to get up there, so we just walked around the park and then headed off to dinner, my request was Punch Pizza :)

After dinner, Phil treated me to some Wuollet's cupcakes, absolutely delicious.  Thank you to my boys for a wonderful birthday!