Music, Father’s Day & A Wedding

Hank adores music. He has his favorite songs and has begun asking for them by name. Some he likes to sing, others he likes to listen to, all of them, he likes to dance to. He’s been playing the piano more often recently which is lots of fun for us. And we’ve been having dance parties at home which is hilarious and so much fun! Last week we went to a music class together and he had such a great time, we decided to sign up for the next session of classes. We’ll go to our first official class this week. The trial class had over 20 children in it, but our regular class will only have 12. Hank’s favorite part of the experience, aside from the train songs, was exploring the instruments. His favorite that day was this drum. He found great joy in striking it with the mallet and it made such a lovely sound. We took him to the Children’s Day Art Park put on by our local symphony. We all had a good time, but by the time we got there, we’d missed the instrument petting zoo and balloons. Fortunately, Tyler was able to wrangle a balloon for Hank (which he loved) and we all enjoyed a fun concert with Joe McDermott.

exploring with Dad

Airplanes, trains, butterflies and bees are high on Hank’s list of things he likes right now (not that he has a list, but if he did, those would be very high on it). One day when Hank kept asking for an airplane, we realized Hank doesn’t have any airplane toys so Tyler made him an airplane out of cardboard. I was so happy to see such a lovely MacGyver/Andy Pandy (who is kind oflike MacGyver, only for kids. its on the BBC) moment, Tyler cutting apart a box to make a plane for Hank. Hank loved the plane and has played with it several times a day since Ty made it for him.

Over the weekend, we went to visit the ducks at the neighborhood pond. Hank had a great time quacking and following the ducks and Tyler had fun teaching Hank the different kind of ducks and showing him the ducklings. They were quite the pair walking on the banks of the pond together. Hank is *way* into exploring. Saturday, Tyler took Hank to the creek near our house and they spent the morning exploring there. Hank was fascinated by the dragonflies and the damselflies and the butterflies. They followed a huge swallowtail butterfly for quite some time. Hank liked the water and the bridge and he and Tyler went for a little hike together on one of the trails. They were both hot and rosy-cheeked after their adventure, but so happy. I’m so glad that they enjoy exploring together!

with Alexis on her special day

On Father’s Day, our friend (and Hank’s Godmother and Sarah’s fiddle player), Alexis, got married. Hers was the first wedding Hank ever attended. He did quite well during the ceremony (he goes to children’s church on Sundays and doesn’t sit with us in the main service so we weren’t sure how he’d do) and he asked very politely to go outside when he’d had enough of sitting. He missed the pronouncement and kiss, but he had fun exploring with Daddy all the same. At the reception, he was completely hilarious! Hank told us he was tired and asked to go home and then the dancing started…. he got a second wind or something because he danced for over an hour! He spun and shook, “jumped” (his version of jumping doesn’t actually have his feet leaving the ground yet) and clapped and even did the robot (which he learned courtesy of Hi-5, one of his current favorites). Hank danced with a few kids and several ladies, including the bride, Alexis. By the time we thought to try to shoot video, the dance floor had become so crowded we were on zone defense and Hank was starting to get tired again. One of these days we’ll take some video of him dancing and share it with you. He loves to dance and we love that! I hope he never loses that joy in dancing. There are too many guys who don’t like to dance… Hank was so amped up, he stayed awake for the entire ride home, but once we got there, he went straight to his room and crawled in bed, telling us goodnight. Here are some photos. To see the entire photo, simply click on the image, enjoy!