henry at 27 months

I thought I'd do a little update on Henry, since he's changing so much and doing such cute little things. He turned two on November 28, so is now 27 months old. Henry and Celia are at a point where they spend a lot of time fighting over things and getting after each other, just to get on each other's nerves. It's very frustrating because they are capable of playing so well together, but spend so much time fighting. Because of this, I sometimes forget what a happy and delightful little guy Henry really is. He is such a smart, handsome, happy, friendly little boy. His imagination is developing so much now, and when he has the opportunity to play independently he comes up with all kinds of things. I see this most on Tuesdays, when Celia is at school and Henry stays home with me. He can keep himself busy all morning, building with bricks, playing in his kitchen, pretending with all kinds of things. Lately his language is really exploding too. He uses full sentences, and has started using all kinds of little sayings and complex sentence structures. The other day he made me a pretend cake out of one of his bricks, and when I started eating it with my hands he said, "Wait. You should have spoon. That be better." Haha. And he got me a spoon. He's also using temporal words like "first", "right now", "later" in sentences. He really likes to do adult things, like push his own cart at the grocery store. You'd better not try to help him, or you will get an ear full!  

He collected all these things around him, and I found him feeding his kitty. He said, "Kitty loves tea."

Spent all morning, on this day, building "ladders" all around the house. 

Loves playing with water at the sink, and is also learning to smile for pictures!

Waking up after his nap, watching Dora. 

Another thing that we love about Henry is that he's such a gentle boy. He likes to roughhouse and get silly, and is very active, but he is gentle with other people. He isn't hyper and impulsive, or unaware of other people the way some young boys seem to be. I work with a lot of little boys, and Henry is so much gentler than most. He notices and thinks of others, asks questions, checks on someone who's sad or hurt, and is gentle and kind in the way he treats his little friends at daycare. While he has his moments of terrible toddlerdom and can be very strong-willed, I think his overall nature is gentle, kind, and thoughtful. I hope that he will always be this way, and I think he will.