Well it turns out that Mai Tais do make things easier. We had quite a lovely vacation in Hawaii for Dave's 40th birthday. Lots of hiking, eating and laying on our favorite beach...
There were a few hiccups with flights on the way over to the Big Island, including a luggage car hitting our plane and rendering it useless (or, as the pilot so eloquently put it, “you know, it’s a toss up on whether this plane will make it out of here” – yeah, um, could I get off the plan now please? thanks), much confusion about inner-island air terminals and lost luggage (that stayed lost for two days). We got it together though, and picked up the essentials (toothbrush, swimsuit and flip flops) and spent the first two days exploring the beaches. It turns out you don’t need luggage for that. And it was indeed tough to leave Henry at first, but we called him every day and he had a really wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa Graves. He saw the horses and got to go “outside, outside, outside, outside, outside” whenever he felt like it. In the end, it was a great vacation for all of us.
(Here we are enjoying it...)
And now Henry is quite the orator. His vocabulary increases by the minute and, even more crazy than that for us, is the fact that he really can understand everything we say now. Which means we are now doing what we never thought we would do: spell things in front of him. Particularly key words like “c-r-a-c-k-e-r” and “o-u-t-s-i-d-e” (Henry only wants to be outside these days – being inside is obviously for babies). He’ll also tell us what all the animals say (or at least the cow, the dog, and the snake on a regular basis) and loves to copy whatever we do or say (therefore the use of any bad language has taken a sharp decline at the Seward household in the past month or so). It really is just a magnificent time for growth in everything he does (oh, and also in the frequency and intensity of tantrums – excellent).
And up next – a tricycle. Uncle Jeff gave him a tractor for Christmas this last year. It’s like a little car he can ride and, as of late, he uses it as his main source of transportation around the house. Which makes us think he could be ready for three wheels.So stay tuned for more on this exciting, three-wheeled saga…
