Our little scientist.

These pictures are from October so they are a bit dated. However, they are just so cute and always make me smile. Henry loves to measure, pour, sort, funnel, and transfer liquids and solids from one container into different sized containers. Apparently, this activity is a real skill that his teachers use to evaluate the kids on their "scientific interest and abilities." For Henry's first parent-teacher conference (yes, they have them for 2 year olds), his teachers told us that Henry excelled in scientific interest and abilities. Imagine our pride. In these pictures, we had set up a little station outside so that Henry could play with different colored water. Since we didn't want him to get his clothes discolored and we wanted this to be a truly authentic experience, we dressed him as a typical graduate student, in my old tie-dyed t-shirt. (BTW, I made this t-shirt in Girl Scouts, which may make tie-dying the most useful and lasting skill that I learned from my years in the scouts. Also, speaking of Girl Scouts, a little one came by a few weeks ago to sell cookies. It was late afternoon, snack time, and since I am pregnant, well, let's just say that her sales alone may be sending her troop to a broadway show in NYC this year for their annual overnight instead of a butter churning demo, which, again, is another one of my own personal GS experiences).

Out of the mouths of babes

Now that Henry's verbal skills are increasing at an exponential rate, his choice of words and tone are really starting to reflect his personality and demeanor. For example...

Henry loves band aids. He loves getting one on a boo-boo and then immediately ripping it right off and asking for another one. The other day he said to me, "If I have a boo-boo, then I get a band aid." I replied, "Yes, but you don't have a boo-boo, Henry, so there is no need for a band aid right now." He looked at me squarely in the eyes and clarified with a tone that suggested impatience and exasperation, "I said IF, Mommy."

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Henry has a favorite song from school about finding worms, caterpillars, and spiders in one's food and then screaming "Ewww... yucky! Yucky!" He then laughs gleefully. The other night he was in the bath and starting improvising a song about finding a spider in his hair while he shampooing it. I happily jumped in for what I thought would be the chorus of the song, "A spider! Ewww... yucky! Yucky!" He then stopped singing, looked at me flatly and said, "Mommy, it's a joke."

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And finally, Henry has begun to master the classic divide and conquer technique. The other day, Mike and Henry were going to the park, and Henry asked me if he could bring two cars with him to the park. I told him that I didn't think that was a good idea because he might lose his toys and then he would be sad and disappointed. Mike claims that he didn't hear this conversation because when Henry immediately went over to Mike and said, "Daddy, can I bring two cars to the park?" Mike said, "Sure!" Henry then returned to me at once with a triumphant tone and said, "Mommy, Daddy said I can bring two cars to the park." I smiled stiffly at Mike. Mike looked guilty. They left with two cars. They returned with one. Need I say more?