A Trophy for Henry

Henry got his snorkel set Monday night. Tuesday it rained all day. Tuesday Henry whined all day. He demanded to go swimming, cursed the rain, the cool weather, the lightning, and me. We stayed home and built things out of Legos. Henry continued to whine and complain. I only just managed not to go insane. Wednesday was much better. No rain, no thunder or lightning. Blue skies with big fluffy white clouds, not too hot, and the pool water was the right temperature. Henry had a blast. He mastered the snorkel, learned to swim slowly and to float on his face, and he taught himself how to swim backwards. He was so proud of himself that he announced that he needed a trophy.

Nee-nee was prepared and provided the trophy, that very afternoon, in the the form of a Fushigi ball. The ball had just arrived that very day in the mail. Apparently they'd seen an ad on TV and Henry had asked for the floating ball. They were both a little disappointed when they found out the whole floating thing was an illusion. I thought it was kind of funny, though. We sat and watched the video that came with the ball and I helped Henry understand that even though the ball looked like it floated, "The Amazing Kenny" had spent many years practicing in his grandma's basement so that one day he could impress people with his sleight of hand magic and finally get a girlfriend. Of course I later regretted my sarcasm when I found out that Henry thought that everything I'd said was true, and so I had to further explain that I was only teasing and knew absolutely nothing about "The Amazing Kenny" or any alleged basement dwelling.

Henry loves his trophy, though, and any initial disappointment was completely eclipsed when he was able to amaze some of his friends with the ball later that night.

Hurray for the Amazing Henry!

Family Heirloom

Recently Ben's mom was doing some house cleaning/purging and came across one of Ben's old t-shirts. I gave it to Henry.

This is Ben circa 1984.


This is Henry circa today.

Henry Learns a Few New Tricks

Since this has probably been one of the hottest summers I can remember, Henry and I have spent a lot of time at the pool. Last year he learned to dog paddle, but wasn't into getting his head wet. This year, thanks to peer pressure, Henry got up enough courage to swim under water. Then last Thursday I taught him how to fetch a dive stick. Granted, it was in the shallow end, but for Henry, who at the beginning of summer wouldn't even put his whole head under water, this is pretty awesome.

Friday Henry and I went to Mom and Dad's. Maggie came down with Wesley. We decided to fix dinner, which meant driving to Asheboro and buying groceries. We made a roasted chicken, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, salad, and salsa. Dad came home just long enough to pick up Wolfe and take him to a movie. Mom had a funeral to go to and ate on the way home, so our lovely dinner was enjoyed by Maggie, Wesley, and myself. Henry sampled the chicken and pronounced it "gross," refused everything else, and would only eat chips and salsa. Oh, well, at least he got some vegetables in him. After dinner Maggie and I started making lemon pound cake. Only after we'd gotten most of it thrown together did we discover that the lemon juice we'd just bought was missing. It's a half hour drive back to town, so we turned the house over looking for that stupid plastic lemon, hoping that Wesley had mislaid it somewhere where we could actually find it again. After a while we gave up. The lemon juice in the fridge was a little old. The expiration date was a little smudgy but the year looked like it started with a nine, so we tossed that. Then Maggie found an little unopened bottle on Mom's food storage shelf. Upon opening it, the liquid inside was a little chunky and grayish green. The expiration date on it was sometime in 1999. Apparently Mom and Dad don't have much use for lemon juice. We added a cup of cocoa to the cake instead. It turned out okay, not as good as what Mom usually makes, but good enough. Then we went for a ride on the pond, all four of us in one kayak. It was right at sunset and the bats started coming out to eat the bugs flying over the water while the heron circled overhead. We only had a little trouble docking; upon exiting the kayak Henry missed the bank and sloshed right in the mud.

Saturday we helped Mom and Dad prepare for their Pioneer Day party, i.e. cleaned the house. We hooked up the sprinkler and sent Henry and Wesley out to play, Henry in his boxer briefs and Wesley in his birthday suit. After we got them cleaned up we noticed that the tap water was going brown. Whoops, seems we overtaxed their well. Since we were leaving before the party, Dad took Henry and me on a tractor ride. I sat it the trailer with Henry while Dad drove us through the woods and raced down the hill in the field in front of the pond. Then Dad made ice cream and Beth and the rest of the cousins showed up. So we had ice cream and some more cake, then it started raining, so we stayed a little longer and Henry played with his cousins, and then after the downpour let up, Henry and I went home to have dinner with Ben.

Sunday I taught the sharing time lesson at church and we stayed after for a baptism-- it was cool because the girl getting baptized was the aunt of Henry's friend at school, and since his friend came for the baptism, Henry invited him to come to our house after and play.

Today was another hot day, so we skipped the park and went swimming again. Because Henry kept practicing his diving, (and because he's been nagging me for a while) I promised to get him a snorkel if he could swim down and fetch the dive stick again. He succeeded and so after dinner and I took him to pick one out. And he wore it for the rest of the night.

Incidentally, in case anyone cares, Maggie found the lemon in the back of her car.

Productivity Amongst a Spate of Laziness

A couple days ago I decided it was time to replace the old ceiling light in our office/computer room. Ben suggested we install a ceiling fan. So we did:

Time For Another Post

The summer's been hot so far, and the heat's been keeping us indoors when we're not swimming. Last week wasn't so bad, though. Thursday Henry and I went to see Grandpa and Grandma Tilley. The weather was awesome, rather spring-like with minimal humidity. We had lunch and a fun time building an enormous tower out of straws. Out at the pond Henry found a ditch full of tiny frogs no bigger than my fingernail. Henry had a good time exploring and collecting stuff. He brought home a variety of flowers, a green apple, and an onion and a potato from the garden.

Friday Henry and I went with Maggie, Wesley, Papaw and Uncle Dave to the Thresher's Reunion in Denton. We walked around looking at old tractors and watched a couple of demonstrations with horses running antique farm equipment. Henry didn't feel like sitting on a horse, so he posed for a photo on the ground next to it instead.


We got to feed some goats and look at more old stuff and finally, finally we reached the little train depot so Henry could ride the train. On the train I saw something I thought was funny. This kid was wearing a t-shirt with two pit bulls on it, one howling mournfully, captioned with "I DON'T LIKE TO FIGHT BUT I AIN'T SKARD (sic) TO BLEED." The word bleed was really big and flood filled with an image of the confederate flag. Later I did a google search to see if I could find one for myself, but alas, I was unsuccessful. Must be a vintage tee.