Henry! Henry! TWICE! Because he's 2 now.

Some fun things about Henry lately now that he's two:

• Henry loves construction equipment and semi trucks. Trains are fine, but they're nothing compared to "BIG truck!" or "backhoe!" 
• Ever since we went on a walk the day after a big rainstorm, Henry has been very into dead worms. He'll see one on a walk (or really anything that resembles it, like a stain, trash, or part of a leaf) and say, "Oh! Is a dead worm!!" He'll then squat down to look at it and will giggle while he keeps telling us he's found a dead worm. We told him he can't pick them up, so now he refuses to walk close to them or on them and will back up and go around them in a big circle (staring at them the whole time) to avoid them. We can use that as a way to get him to move along, too, "Henry, I think I see a dead worm up here! Let's go look!" He likes live worms (and slugs) even better but you just don't see those as often.
• He's also very into rocks. He likes to carry them around, stack them up, and especially throw them in water. He found a dead worm near the door to our storage room in our carport and brought over all the rocks from the garden to put on the ledge of the door. I like to think he was making a little shrine.
• We went on a brief trip to Pennsylvania recently for a test James had to take there, and in sharing a room with Henry as he fell asleep, I learned that he whispers to himself after we lay him in bed before sleep takes over. We heard him across the room whispering, "Hot dog...fruit snacks....cheeeeeeeseburger..."
• He's a very chatty fellow! He's using more words in more ways every day and I love love love it. Some of my favorite funny things he says are: "No WAY!!" (especially when he says it calmly..."Do you want a cracker?" "No way!"); "Help you" (we ask him often, "can I help you with that?" so now when he asks for help, he just says, "Help you?"); "come here" (this means he wants to sit on our lap); "Hold you" (he wants me to hold him while STANDING - the STANDING part of this is important); and pretty much anytime he tries to say "frog" or "fork" because he sounds like we're teaching him definitely non-toddler words.
• He calls watermelon "water-minute" and it's adorable so we don't correct it. He also calls being upside down "up-oo-san!" Other than these he's actually pretty good with the correct words (minus the inability to say Rs and Ls correctly).
• A few days ago he was drinking an open cup of milk and deliberately threw it onto his high chair tray. I told him that wasn't very nice, cleaned up, and gave him what remained in the cup. He then deliberately threw it on the ground and while I was cleaning it up I said, "Aww, man..." and he started repeating that. "Aw man! Aw man!!" Then as I cleaned up the ground, I looked up at him and said, "Henry, you're in trouble!" He said gleefully, "Twouble!!" I said, "What is this mess!?" He peered over his chair to the ground and said, "Is a oopsie!!"
• A couple of months ago, our cashier at the dollar store was a teenager with long hair and a scraggly looking beard. As we were leaving, Henry yelled, "Bye bye, Jesus!!" About 5 minutes later I realized I'd left my wallet in the store, so we called the store and he found it and kept it safe for us until we got back. Sounds like Henry can spot the good ones!
• Like any good two year old, he likes holding whatever I'm holding, always touching me in some way, making faces, and discussing farts. He will always rat you out if you fart, either in the moment or later. "Dadda, is a fart!" Even hours later. "Dadda, Momma fart!!" Thanks, kid.
• He has always been a big supporter of belly buttons. He likes to pull up our shirts to poke them. As my belly gets bigger with this pregnancy, he sort of understands that there's something about my tummy that involves a baby, and it's probably the belly button. I'll say, "Give the baby a hug!" and he'll pull up my shirt and rest his head on my belly button. Some pregnant women get the outie belly button as their stomachs get bigger, but my belly button just expands into a sort of cavern. Glamorous, right? A few weeks ago when Henry was looking at my belly button, he pointed to it and yelled, "Momma! A tunnel!"
• He loves being outside and he loves playing in water. He has some cups and toys for the bath and will happily spend 15 minutes playing in the bathroom sink with them. Taking a bath, eating watermelon, or eating fruit snacks are our number one bribes around here.
• When we found out I was pregnant but hadn't told Henry yet, he did something remarkable. I was laying on the couch and he came up to me, poked my belly, and said, "Baby!" And ran off to go play. I don't know how he knew there was a baby at all, or that it was in my stomach right then, but he knew!