Another Cute John Henry Story

Yesterday, I needed to take a shower, so I gave John Henry a lollipop. I told him he had to sit while he was eating it and if he stood up, it would hurt him. He sat the whole time I was in the showered and colored.

As soon as I got out, he said, “Stan up Mommy? Stan up?” (Stand up) I told him as long as he had the lollipop he had to sit. I walked out of the bathroom to go get something. A second later I got back, and John Henry was scooting down the hallway on his bottom saying, “I coming too Mommy! Enry coming too!” He was trying to mind me, so he didn’t even stand up to come find me. He is so funny!!

The Thomas Shirt

Recently, Laudan, Trey, Ben, Rebecca, Kurt, John Henry and I went to see Thomas and Friends: Live on Stage at the BJCC. I didn’t blog about it because it was the most boring thing I have even seen in my life. Seriously. If you thought the Thomas shows were bad, you haven’t seen anything yet!

While we were there, Kurt went to the gift stand with a hundred dollar bill. I knew as soon as he told me where we were going that it was going to be a problem! He came back with $70 in Thomas merchandise! A watch, a light up thing, a shirt, and something else that I can’t remember. And on the way out he bought John Henry a bubble gun, and I stopped him buying a balloon, but that is beside the point! The point is the Thomas shirt.

John Henry LOVES the Thomas shirt. I am at my dad’s now, but I will post pictures of it later. It was the smallest one they had, but it is a Youth XS, so it is huge on John Henry. But he loves it. He wears it almost every night to bed. He had forgotten about it, but we were at Monnie’s one night with no pajamas, so I pulled it out of my unbelievable messy car* for him to wear and it was all over. He wants to wear it all the time now. In the mornings after John Henry wears the Thomas shirt, he doesn’t want to take it off. When it is time for him to get dressed, he screams and cries. I feel bad for him, but there is no way he is wearing a 2 sizes too large t-shirt with Thomas on it out in public.

The other day we were getting ready, and I went to John Henry’s drawer where we keep his pjs. He saw me and knew it was time to get dressed. He went running down the hall, then stopped and patted his tummy (where Thomas is on the shirt) and said, “Thomas cute Mommy. Thomas cute.” Then he ran around the living room saying, “Thomas running Mommy. Thomas running.” It was so funny! He was trying to convince us to let him wear it. :) Poor child. Don’t worry, I let him wear it for bed again that night.

*Kurt, my mom, and my dad don’t understand why my car is so messy but it is because of situations like that. I always end up having something useful in my car when I need it! Like the time John Henry pooped all over himself (shoes included) on Mary’s sidewalk in Huntsville. I couldn’t go inside to clean him up because they had a stomach virus, so I cleaned him up, got all the yucky clothes in a bag, diaper in a bag to throw away, and dug up a smocked outfit (freshly ironed) with matching shoes all from my car.

Fun day at Monnie's!

Monnie, John Henry, and I went to an art show at Aldridge's Gardens today. We had to park down the road and take a bus to the show. I was kind of freaking out about John Henry having to ride a bus with no car seat, but I did it b/c he wanted to feed the "bobby goose." (baby goose)

Here he is on the bus ride. He was not so sure about it on the way over. He had fun on the way back to the car. If you look in his hands, you can see some animal crackers. John Henry was eating them in the car when I said we were going to go feed the baby goose. He held on to them for probably 20 minutes- the car, the bus ride, all the way through the park, and finally to the baby goose. It was really cute. :)

Eating a cookie in order to keep him in his stroller. Check out those poor little knees. We were playing outside when Kurt drove up and honked the horn the other night, and John Henry got so excited that he fell down. :(

Afterwards, we went back to Monnie's house so John Henry could take a nap. When he woke up, he helped Monnie in the yard.

Moving dirt from his new bucket to a plant and the trash. He was excited to have his picture taken. He kept saying, "CHEESE!"

We are hoping this picture isn't an indication of what John Henry's college years will be like!!

My kitchen table

Look at my kitchen table. Aren't they so pretty?! The white ones and one blue hydrangea came from Pop and Ri's yard, but the rest are from our yard. I think we will have hydrangeas for a long time considering we have 17 plants and most are just now blooming! I love them!

And some cute pics of John Henry hugging Bailey.

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We have a new pet!

John Henry loves flies. He thinks it is great that he tries to touch them and they fly away every time. I think I could entertain him for hours with one fly and a small room. Anyway, he is obessed with his daddy killing flies as well. Kurt taught him to say, "Smoke it Daddy!" Which he screamed at library story time when there was a stuffed (as in stuffed animal) butterfly hanging from the ceiling. Thanks Kurt!

Tonight John Henry was in the bath and there was a fly in the bathroom. John Henry called daddy in to "smoke it." Well, when Daddy smoked it, it fell in the bathtub. I scooped it out with a cup. John Henry took the cup from me and just cracked up for about 5 min. about the fly. I made him get out of the bath and put the cup on the side of the tub to throw out when he forgot about it.

Later, he asked me for his juice, so I sent him to the bathroom to get it. (He really did have juice in there b/c he drank the bubble bath water and cried that it was "yuck" until Kurt brought him juice.) He came out with the fly in the cup. Kurt poured it into a bucket where John Henry watched it and laughed hysterically. Unfortunately, the fly took a trip down the drain after JH went to sleep. Hopefully he forgets about it by the morning!

I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but his mouth is open b/c he is so excited about the fly.

\

So proud of the fly!

The fly with 2 pieces of corn that John Henry apparently threw into the bucket during dinner.

Train Table Bullies

Warning: This got long because I am still fired up about it!

Today Laudan and I took the kids to Belk to do some shopping. We promised them that when we were finished we would take them to Barnes and Noble to play with the train table.

When we walked in there were 2 sets of siblings playing with the trains. One set had one train each and the other set had 6 trains each. The mom of the kids that only had 1 train was right there with them. The mom of the bully kids was sitting about 10 feet away reading a book.

Ben and John Henry hung back for a few minutes b/c they were being shy, but it really didn't matter b/c the bully brother and sister wouldn't have shared anyway. Laudan found one train and gave it to Ben. Then the bully sister left and left her train. The other mom and I started grabbing trains to give to our kids. We knew we had to act fast!

The whole time we were there, the little boy had all the trains and would pick up and hold anymore that he saw. I was so angry about it b/c Ben and John Henry only had 1 each, but what can you do? The mom was right there and never did anything besides say, "Share Scott" from her seat. Thanks. That was helpful.

I'll spare you more details, but finally the kids were ready to go (well, we were ready for them to go). Ben and Bec Bec were off looking at books, and I said to John Henry, "Ok, we are about to go to Monnie's." Bully Scott SNATCHED Thomas out of John Henry's hand and said, "He has to leave that; he can't take it with him." So, I replied, "I know. He wasn't going to take it. We have LOTS of Thomases at home, and he doesn't want that one." (mature, I know, but I was mad at a 4 year old) I told the little boy that John Henry could have that one back b/c we were going to stay a few more minutes. (Really, I just didn't want him to have it.) He gave it back, but in the meantime John Henry found another Thomas and picked it up. When Bully Scott saw that John Henry had 2 Thomases, he snatched 1 away and said, "He can only have 1." It took everything I had not to snatch all his trains away (he had 8 at this point) say, "Listen here you little *&@#, you don't snatch toys from MY child, or you will have to deal with me!" But I didn't because his mom would have heard because I would never speak to a child like that.

So the moral of the story is: Don't let you child be a train table bully! If your child has 99% of the trains, chances are all the other parents are looking at each other like you are the worst parent in the world.

I'm getting mad just thinking about it again!!

Here are some pictures of Ben and John Henry playing. The bully isn't pictured in order to protect the guilty. :)