I took Henry on a 5 hour, 30 mile 4 wheeler ride today – his first long ride ever.  We had a great time and he was a great rider.  We stopped at the spot on the trail where Delia and I always stop and looked for blueberries, but for all the bushes we saw, there were almost no berries.  It seems to be a bad year for them.  We did sit by the little brook and had a nice lunch though.  After that we kept going, and had another stop at the Stony River.  We went down to the water on both sides of the bridge, and climbed on the rocks.  Henry had fun playing with the minnows.  We kept going and made it to the little Birch Lake cut off trail, and then turned back.  Not long after I noticed Henry’s helmet getting pretty wobbly.  Finally he completely conked out and I held onto him until I found some shade.  We stopped, and he had a nap right on the seat.  I let him sleep for a while but then I heard thunder in the distance, and since we were still a long way from home, I figured I’d better wake him and get moving.  The whole way back I had to stop every few miles and let him take a drink and walk around a bit because he’d start to doze off, and it’s hard to hold onto his head with one hand and control the machine with the other.  We got sprinkled on a bit for the last few miles, and then as soon as we got back to the car it started pouring.  One final stop at the gas station for a beef stick for Henry (or as he calls them, “meat bars”) and that was it.  Fun day.

That’s what Henry says when we give him something or do something nice for him.

Henry: I’m a lucky boy

Dad: Why?

Henry: Because you bought me balloons!

I really need to work on this site more!

Delia and I spent Thurs – Sat on Basswood Lake with our neighbors.  The weather was pretty bad but we had a good time and Delia wanted to stay out another night.  Delia caught a walleye and ate it!

Henry and I went fishing today for the first time today.  I caught a 20″ largemouth on Johnson Lake – my biggest bass ever (at least in MN).  Emily and I worked hard to get rid of the leaks in the boat and it worked.  Not a single drop came through.  The motor performed well but did have one instance of surging / bogging.  I’ll keep an eye on it.

The big news is our house addition which is moving along, though it feels like it’s going slowly.  That’s just how this type of thing goes, and I think we’re finally getting very close to starting demolition and construction.  We can’t wait!

Joe and Bev were here and we did some work reclaiming our land from the onslaught of brush.  We bought a device called a brush grubber, which is basically a clamp with teeth that grabs onto small trees so you can yank them out by the roots.  It works great.  We cleared a lot and Emily mowed and now the land across the driveway is looking great.  We planted three apple trees and a cherry tree over there.  Some day maybe we’ll have a nice orchard there.

Henry is speaking more clearly but he still has a ways to go.  He’s so talkative and it’s adorable.

Delia and I made a trip to Nama’s house, and Delia did great – Nama made sure of that by spoiling the heck out of her.  :)  They had a day in Chicago and went to the American Girl store, where Delia adopted Felicity.

My garage is really taking shape.  We can almost fit a car in there now.  :)

We lost two cats in a short time.  Harvi developed liver disease and Coby had cancer (or something – we’re not sure).  It was sad and we miss them, but 3 is a more manageable number of cats in one house.

Henry was painting a little while ago.  At one point, he painted a little dot on his nose, and then went back to painting on the paper.  I asked him why he did that.

“Me artist.”

Harvi is back with us, and sick. She is having liver trouble, and is jaundiced. I was showing / telling Henry why she was yellowish and how the liver works and also explaining to Ryan that the vet said that her kidney and pancreas levels looked normal so it was just her liver that was malfunctioning.

Henry turned around and pointed to his lower back / side and said “Here is my kidney.” . . . Ryan said “How did you learn that?!” . . . Henry points to the other side and says “I have two.” ! ! ! Ryan says “Where did you learn that?!!?” Henry points to his spine and says “This is my bone.” I say “Where did you learn this?” Turns out he learned it from the human body toy Delia got for Christmas a few years ago. Spine, kidneys, and then to top it off he points to his head and says “This is my brain.”

Yeah, that’s some brain, kid!

Henry just said “Me love dis day. Dis day is good.” How cute is THAT?! What’s amazing about it is that it’s our first day back at home and he hasn’t even asked to play the XBOX. He was talking about it the whole time we were gone. He is in the basement playing house because we are hot after being outside! This day is indeed good!

Henry actually posed for some pictures today!  Usually he hides his face or runs away.

I was pushing the kids on the swings yesterday and it occurred to me once again how big and grown up Delia is.  I told her how I couldn’t believe she was so grown up and how she was my tiny little baby.  She said “Yeah, I was a tiny baby six years ago!”

Henry said “And me tiny baby two years ago!”

Henry has become a great video game player!  I got Lego Star Wars for him, and he’s been playing it a lot.  It’s a fun game that we can play together cooperatively, or he can play it by himself.  At first he just ran around and hit stuff with his light saber, but now he really understands all the problem solving and puzzles.  In the game, you can select several different characters, all with different skills.  Some have light sabers, some shoot, some can jump high, some can fly, you need to use a certain one to open certain doors, etc.  He gets all of it.  He’ll switch over to Jar Jar to jump on a high ledge, and then he’ll see an R2-D2 switch and switch to R2-D2 for that.  Right now he’s pushing boxes into the places they belong.  I never taught him to do that; he just figured it out by watching me.  I just taught him a button combination that requires three different button presses and pretty precise timing, and he got it on his first try!  This morning he got up pretty early so I dozed on the couch while he played, and he completed three levels of it all by himself.  It’s so amazing watching him not only learn the mechanics of it (how to move the guy on the screen, what certain buttons do), but to see him thinking about how to solve these puzzles.

Wow – he just successfully navigated a really tricky platform and bridge section!  He tried once and fell off at the very end.  He asked me to do it for him and I told him to try one more time and I’d help him if he couldn’t get it.  He tried it again and made it all the way!

Henry just finished a whole memory puzzle on my iPhone.  I guess it’s not that big of a deal, but I’m very proud of him and he’s very proud of himself.  Now he moved on to a different game.  I love watching him operate my phone.  Emily told me that he even taught his cousin Isabel how to view the pictures on the phone.  ”Me show you.  You push this, and then push the flower, and then you go joop joop joop to look at the pictures.”