The Hank Show

911-essay.com

So, January has come and gone… I am astonished at how swiftly time seems to be passing these days. Let’s see, since Christmas, we’ve had all sorts of adventures…. Hank attended his first baptism (aside from his own, that is). His cousin, James, was baptized in the same church where Hank was baptized (and where Tyler and I were married, and Ben and Nancy, and Laura and Jon, and Amos was confirmed there, lots of family history at that church). James’ baptism was a family only event with most of the cousins attending. It was fun! While Ben and Nancy were in town, some of my family went to the symphony together. We saw the Duke Ellington Orchestra, it was lovely! The very next day, I had my wisdom teeth out, not so lovely, but it had to be done. I was blessed with a great recovery and am much better now.  Hank also had a surgery in January. All went well there and he is just dandy now. In fact, within hours of  being home from the surgeon’s, Hank was playing as though nothing had even happened. Such resilience! We are truly blessed.

The weather has been odd for January in Texas, very cold. We’ve had several freezes so not a lot of time playing outdoors this month.  There were some beautiful days and we took advantage of them, setting up Hank’s new playscape (a Christmas present) and beginning work in the yard. We have big plans for our backyard this year. We’ll keep you posted there… Hank also received a little “bike” for Christmas and has enjoyed riding his bike outside with the neighborhood children. They are fascinated with Hank and love showing him their skateboards and kites and bikes. When the weather was nice, we sat on our lawn and watched a fun game of baseball in our cul de sac (only 4 children were playing, that made it more fun). Hank really seems to enjoy observing the older children. We’ve begun going to a new story time at the library. Hank is a little older so even though its still called “Baby Time” its for children over age 1, but under age 2. Its fun to see all the other children who have been coming regularly grow and develop too.

Our friends, Gene and Tracy, had a little girl, Halley, last October. Halley and Hank had their first play date a few weeks ago. They seemed to have a good time and Hank seemed keen to show Halley how to use all the toys. I took out some of the things he used to play with when he was younger for Halley to play with and Hank was all about them!  Hank and I have also been having Turkish breakfast recently with some of our  friends. Its so fun watching Hank try new things. Things I haven’t thought to let him try. At Ayse’s house, I learned he likes red and black pepper on his boiled eggs, at Beyza’s I learned he likes Turkish cheese and Turkish delight (he ate his, and then he ate mine!), at Suzan’s I learned he likes black olives (he just kept saying “more? more?” and spinach cigar borek… I am to host next, I’m not certain when that will be as we’ll be heading out of town next week, but I’m sure I’ll learn some more things Hank enjoys from other people’s delicious cooking!

Anyway, you’re all caught up now (for the most part). Here are some photos from the past month in no particular order. Enjoy!

We had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed getting to see as much family as we could during the holiday. We spent Christmas Eve and Day with Tyler’s side of the family in DFW and then we spent Boxing Day with Sarah’s side of the family here in town. What a blast! So many cousins and aunts and uncles for Hank to play with! Hank also experienced his first white Christmas. It snowed while we were up in DFW. Hank didn’t seem to know what to make of it. He seemed to enjoy himself until the wind blew snow in his face, then that was the end of his wanting to be out in it. We went caroling at Granny’s and played a massive game of tag at Grandpa and Grandma’s with most of the cousins present there. All in all, a wonderful time was had by everyone and we all received some lovely gifts which we’ll be enjoying for a long time to come. Here are some photos from the various celebrations in no particular order:

Alright, so its 2010 already…. and I haven’t written an update since our Ohio trip in October…. let’s just say that life with a 1 year old is super busy, but loads of fun! Let’s see… since our trip to Ohio last October, we’ve done all sorts of things. Hung out with lots of family, had a visit from Hank’s great-grandfather (we call him Grampie), celebrated some birthdays (Kai, Connor, Aunt Kathy, Aunt Donna) and anniversaries (including our own!), Halloween and Thanksgiving. Hank had some wonderful play dates, including a fun one with his cousin, Micah at our house (Micah lives a few hours’ drive away so that was special to have him come play).

Hank has read many many books, thrown many balls and learned many words. Also, Hank moved out of his infant carrier and now has his very own, “big-boy” car seat. Tyler is a fan of it b/c its made by a company that specializes in seats and safety for Formula 1 Motorsport.  Hank likes it because he can see out the window and he can kick his feet without hitting the seat. We’ve spent lots of time outdoors, our family just loves being outside. We’ve gone to the park more times than I can count, Hank especially enjoys the slide at the playground. And then it got cold outside, so we stayed indoors. Hank is now a pro at climbing the stairs on his own (we’re still working on going down safely) and we’re all looking forward to playing outdoors again soon… Here are some photos from the past few months in no particular order. Enjoy!

So, its been well over a month since our trip, but better later than never with the updates, right? We had SO much fun in Ohio! We went to visit Ben, Nancy and James (and Sam, the dog too) and had an absolute blast! Ohio is full of wonderful things for families. While we were there, we ran a 5k, visited the zoo (which has to have its very own entry, which i’ll be doing later), went to a working historical farm, picked our own apples at a local orchard (we picked fuji, one of my faves!), went to North Market, visited a crazy bookstore called the Book Loft (it has 32 rooms! we had to carry cell phones in case we got lost), celebrated Hank’s birthday at a restaurant in the German Village (its called Schmidt’s and you can see photos of that adventure on Hank’s birthday entry), went on many hikes, ate lots of delicious food and enjoyed every second with Ben, Nancy and James. Here are some photos from our trip in no particular order:

Hank is one year old!!

We actually had a few celebrations for him. The first party was at Hank’s GG and Grandad’s house with our family who live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Then we had one a week before Hank’s actual birthday at our house with our family and friends who live locally (Hank’s village, we like to call them). On Hank’s actual birthday, we were in Ohio visiting (my brother) Ben, Nancy and James and Hank had a special birthday dinner at a restaurant in the German Village.

You may wonder as you look at the photos, what’s up with the snakes? Well, whilst we were on our last cabin trip, Ainsley (Hank’s cousin) introduced Hank to some toy snakes. Hank had so much fun (and carried them around with him most of the trip) we decided to have snakes at his party. Unbeknownst to us, Hank’s great Aunt J isn’t very fond of snakes (sorry about that) so there was an interesting moment… don’t worry, all went well in the end. Hank is also a big fan of pumpkin so instead of the usual cupcakes, I made pumpkin pies for everyone. Snakes, balloons and pumpkin pie, fun times!  When we were in Ohio, Schmidt’s, the restaurant where Hank had his birthday dinner, gave Hank a pumpkin cream puff. We thought that was fitting since he had pumpkin pie at his other birthday parties. We all had such a great time! Here are some photos from his celebrations:

Its been a while and I realize that there are many fun things to catch up on. So here are some photos from late September and early October. I had a show at a local coffee shop and eatery, we had a party for Hank with our family in the DFW area, we went to the Fort Worth Zoo with Traci, Ainsley, Hank’s Grandad, my best friend, Christiane and her son Micah (who is 3 weeks older than Hank), and we attended a house blessing at Hank’s Grandpa and Grandma’s new house. We also attended a funeral, but we didn’t take photos there. A good friend of our family and former pastor of mine passed away the day after my parents’ house blessing. His funeral was amazing and beautiful. Hank was very well behaved during the service despite it being his nap time. He took great interest in the music and was very attentive whenever the congregation or choir sang. He also seemed mesmerized by the red stoles on all the pastors. I think red may be one of his most favorite colors presently. We also had a visit from my Grandfather, Hank’s Great-Grandfather, who lives in Washington. I’ll post those photos in another entry. For now, here are some photos from our various adventures:

Its been nearly a month since our trip, but Hank and I returned to the cabin in September. Unfortunately, Tyler couldn’t take off work to join us but we weren’t all alone there. Traci (Ty’s sister) and Ainsley (our niece) were there along with Tyler’s parents. It was great fun spending time with everyone and a wonderful change of scenery and climate, so fabulous to get out of the Texas heat for a while. We really missed Tyler though… Once again, Hank was an excellent traveler and I felt very very blessed. Here are some photos from our trip in no particular order:

Its hard to believe how much Hank has grown and accomplished in such a short time. He hasn’t even been here and entire year yet! He’s been practicing feeding himself and has gotten quite good with the finger foods. It really is quite adorable watching Hank at the dinner table and we’ve been rather fortunate so far that he hasn’t taken to throwing his dishes. His current favorite food to feed himself is black beans and he’s also quite fond of baby peas. He doesn’t seem very interested in fruit at the moment, with the exception of bananas and even they aren’t a sure thing. We’re slowly introducing utensils. I don’t think he grasps what their intended use is yet, but he does enjoy banging his spoon on his chair or waving it in the air so at least he’s having fun there.

Hank eats from a real plate

having fun climbing the stairs

Hank has become incredibly mobile and is having fun exploring our house. He still prefers his commando crawling to actually being up on all fours, but he is very very fast! He’s begun showing interest in pulling up lately, but his major interest is our stairs. Hank is a very good climber and seems so pleased with himself once he reaches the top, all smiles and laughter and the occasional hand clapping. He really has mastered going up and rarely needs our help there, but going down is a totally different story.  If left to his own, he would plummet head first down the stairs. Teaching an infant how to safely descend stairs (feet first, on one’s belly) has proven rather difficult so far. We’re confident he’ll get it in the end, meanwhile, we’re contemplating getting a gate for the stairs…. Cody won’t like that at all…

On Labor Day, we went to an Express game with Josh, Dayna and their children and my parents. I’m really glad that Hank was able to go to the game. Normally they’re in the evening and he misses out due to his bedtime.  We’ve taken him to a game before, but we’ve had to leave an hour in so he can go to bed. It was fun getting to stay to the end this time. Everyone had a lot of fun at the game, but I have to say, whoever thought of having daytime baseball games must not have ever lived in Texas. It was quite warm outside. Hank had a great time with his cousins and grandparents (and his aunt and uncle too) and Tyler and I had fun visiting with everyone. Some our friends made the game as well. It was fun catching the last game of the season with so many cool people.

at the Express game with Tori, Michael and David

with Grandpa at the game

with Tori at the game

Hank loves climbing into boxes

with Grandpa

fun with utensils

I just want to say that Hank is the luckiest little boy to have such a creative family. He’s not even a year old and he already has some wonderful pieces of furniture, hand crafted by two of his uncles. I’ve been meaning to put photos up for a while so here we are (finally).

Hank's bookshelf

For Christmas, Ben and Nancy made Hank a gorgeous book shelf. Ben did the woodworking and Nancy the sewing. We love it! We moved it into Hank’s room the very next day and its been there ever since. Several times recently when Hank is supposed to be napping, he’s called for us and we’ve gone into his room to find him standing on shaky legs, holding on to the book case with one hand, trying to get a book with the other and fretting because he’s not sure how to get down yet. He hasn’t been pulling himself up to standing very long. He adores books and we love that he has access to them in his room and in such a beautiful fashion. We have baskets of books throughout the house but we love that Hank has his very own bookshelf, its special and something he can one day (perhaps) pass along to his children.

Uncle Jon and the cabinet he made for Hank

In late spring, I was telling Jon about the child-sized hutch we had in my classroom and saying how I’d like to find or make one (or have one made) for Hank. He was excited by the idea of the project and set out to build one for Hank. A few emails and about a month later, Jon, Laura and their children came over with a gorgeous cabinet for Hank. Its even cooler than the one in my classroom, larger, beautiful wood and much better construction. Hank will be able to use it longer as well. We love it! We placed it in our kitchen and currently it serves as Hank’s pantry on the top and dishes he can play with on the bottom. Whenever I’m cooking in the kitchen, Hank will crawl over to his cabinet, open the door and “help mommy cook” by playing with his mixing bowls, measuring cups and various utensils. He really seems to enjoy his cabinet and we know he will for many years to come.

We love that Hank has a place for his belongings in every room of our house, that our house is truly ALL of our house. And we think its so wonderful that Hank has his very own special furniture that will last many years. We love that his book shelf and his cabinet were made just for him by people who love him and we love that we get to share that with him every time he enjoys his furniture. He really is a lucky and loved little boy!

Hank's cabinet

Hank has his very own pantry!

a side view of the bookshelf

we change the baskets from time to time

Hank likes helping Mommy cook