Loads of Pictures

Okay. So I've been wanting to post some holiday pics of the Pickle. But we took 429 photos in the past couple of weeks. So how do I choose? Well, you're just going to have to endure a lot of them.

Out for dinner with the family at Greensboro Country Club. Apparently, there is no longer a coat and tie rule in the ballroom. Henry is unaware of this and sports his tie and blazer with style. Mommy laments the fact that she's wearing pantyhose when next to her in the buffet line there are tweens in jeans. Where did everybody go? (The buffet.)

Bon Natalie.

Happy 5th birthday to our niece, Natalie!Henry discovers the truffles and is excited that Mommy keeps handing him sugar cookies to distract him from the fact that we are well past bedtime. He does not seem to mind. He eats 4 cookies. (In addition to his meal of strawberries, roast beef, toast rounds, smoked salmon, green beans, and rice.) Henry discovers an old Christmas present of Mommy's and loves to add to his musical repertoire. Please note that he has dragged "Dog-Dog" all the way downstairs to listen to him. ("Dog-Dog" had to be purchased at Thanksgiving as I forgot to bring Mr. Bunny. He is just like Mr. Bunny--a giant Jellycat and now he has to have BOTH of them to sleep. Argh...)We still can't quite figure out why Gigi got such a short tree this year. But Henry is so happy to have a tree that isn't imprisoned.

Christmas Morning. The boy racked up. Big time. This is one of my favorite photos from the whole time for several reasons. 1. Him sitting still long enough to sit in my lap is a rarity. 2. Note the bow around his neck. He did this himself. 3. Most of his presents he couldn't have cared less about. We had to quarantine him to the family room to keep him from trying to get at the Piano or to watch himself in the mirror in the hallway. But this present (the Curious George movie) gave him pause. He opened it, giggled, hugged the video and then brought it to my lap. We looked at it front and back. He rubbed it. Pointed to George lovingly. And now, at home, he'll dig it out of the DVDs and bring it to me and sit in my lap. We've watched it twice this week and he loves it. Except he gets upset when George knocks over the dinosaur skeleton. On the tricycle Santa brought. Note that the only thing he enjoys on the trike is the bell. Santa knew it was a bit advanced for him, but Santa tells me that he got a really good deal on it. A really good deal.

The car and train mat that I painted. (It has a landscape for trains on the other side and is the exact dimensions of our coffee table.) Note that rather than playing with the trains, he is surfing on the box. This happened with most of the gifts. He enjoys playing with the trains now, although it took Sloan, me, a diagram, and 20 minutes to figure out how to put together the track together. Mainly he just likes the trains. Especially the dairy train his Aunt Pam gave him (it Moos). We are planning on taking out a 2nd mortgage as we've just realized how expensive all of those Thomas trains actually are. A toy he is actually excited about--his Iplay garage. We knew he'd love this as he played with it at his bud Jack's house. But to parents of young children, take note. When putting together a toy, do not do it in front of your child. Especially the sticker application part. Within 10 minutes of finishing putting this thing together, it looked years old as every sticker was half-ripped off and stuck somewhere on Henry. Oh well. His truck that he got from Gigi and Papa. He loves this thing and it is a hoot to watch him. He is very particular about making sure that the door is shut completely before he honks the horn and sets off and also that the door is shut when he gets out. He also loves that it came with a hard hat. He is very into hats these days. Today alone he wore his toboggan his great Aunt Phyllis knit him, his hard hat, the Frosty hat, and then for most of the afternoon he wore his Williamsburg Minuteman hat. Let me know if you find an old school Daniel Boone Coonskin hat. He'd love it. Despite all the new toys, Henry still enjoys the old one's at Gigi's house. (And yes, he is wearing a Santa suit.)

Henry discovers Bo-Town and Star Wars. The 26th we headed down to Charlotte to spend time with Sloan's family. Our nephew Bo (almost 7), has a designated corner of their family room that is named Bo-Town. Henry rarely left it. He was enthralled with the buckets of cars, legos, and of course, Bo's Millennium Falcon. At one point, Henry was actually sitting in the tub of legos, just pulling things up from beneath him and putting them together.

Henry torments his Gigi (2 1/2) by stealing her new toy and running away from her.

I learned that I'm pretty awesome at Electronic Battle ship. Marshall and Violet played Bo and me and then later Violet and I played Bo and Sloan. Of course, it helps you win when your opponent is 6 and sometimes shoots in the same locations several times. But still, I feel pretty lucky to have discovered a new talent.
Just in case you were wondering--Henry has giant feet. He wears a size 9 now. That's the same size as his 5 year old cousin, Natalie. So he also got to trot around in her pink Sperrys as well. But seriously, how tall is this kid gonna be? And it is really hurting my ability to buy new shoes for me when I have to keep getting new ones for this guy every 8 weeks.