Random Stuff We've Done

The Power of The Power Wash
Wednesday I saw a sign advertising "Syracuse City Fire Station Open House, 6pm-8pm". I thought it might be fun to take Henry to hang out on the fire trucks and check out the station. We arrived at the public safety building around 6:30 and discovered we were the only ones there. Turns out the city didn't advertise very well. I think I might have been the only person that saw the one sign posted down the street. After we climbed on the trucks for a bit, we watched one of the firemen pressure wash the truck bay. If you're waiting for some clever or humorous twist to this story, don't hold your breath. The power washing was the highlight of this excursion.

Magical Moments...um, Sure
Things I learned about my family while trying to capture magical moments on film:
1. 2 labs+2 year old=chaos
2. Bat is a camera hog.
3. Max thinks having his picture taken will steal his soul.
4. Henry will hold still for approximately 2.5 seconds.
5. Bat thinks the camera looks delicious.

Gym-nice-stics
Tuesday, Henry was invited by his cute cousin Zoe to participate in her gymnastics class. So, that morning, we loaded up and headed over to “The Peak” to let Henners run out a little energy. I wasn’t sure that he’d go along with being separated from me and running around with a bunch of other kids while I watched him through the huge glass wall. But once we got there and he saw his cousin and all the other kids running in to the gym, he couldn’t get away from me fast enough. It was like he’d suddenly aged 10 years and was in junior high and embarrassed of his mom!

Henry had the best time with Zoe in class! He was able to run around all he wanted, hang from the rings and the high bar. He learned cartwheels and jumped on the trampoline until his little legs could jump no more. Grandma JoAnn sneaked down to watch him and we tried to conceal her so he wouldn’t want to run out to be with her the instant he saw her. But, we were busted right off and he saw her. He got a huge smile and waved. We could tell he kept telling the teachers that his Grandma was outside.

Friday Night Lights
Friday, the three of us decided it would be fun to go to a prep school football game. Well, actually, Jeremy and I thought it would be fun, Henry was up for anything. Although, on our way to the school, Henry did chant over and over “Football game! Football game!” even though he had no idea what he was doing or where he was going. I have to give him props though, he sure was excited.

Once we arrived at Northridge High School, we discovered it was their homecoming and they were hosting our home town. Yes! There was bound to be a half-time spectacular (spectacle) of some sort.

First off, Henry was very intrigued by the Emo skater crowd that was doing tricks in the parking lot on their skate boards. (Now, I mean “tricks” in the loosest sense here. If skating over a speed bump and falling down 70% of the time is a trick, well, then that’s what we witnessed.) Nonetheless, Henners is easy to please and clapped when the boys wearing tight jeans and eyeliner fell and when they didn’t.

Next, Henry made friends with some female freshman softball players. I think it was the uniforms that got him. The girls were standing in line just ahead of us and on the back of their jerseys were a skull and crossbones, with the skull wearing an eye patch. I believe they were the Pirate Princesses or something like that. Henry kept asking them if they were “captains”. They thought he was cute, but didn’t get the captain reference, until I explained that anything that has either an eye patch or a skull on it is a “Captain” to him, as in pirate captain. They giggled, flirted a bit and then they were on their way.

Once we got up to pay for the game, Henry leaned in and let the ticket booth attendant know that he was at a football game and he was going to watch a football game. She smiled and waved and stamped his hand. Henry loved that stamp the rest of the night.

We decided to sit at one of the end zones on the grass so Hank could run around freely. He spent a good share of his time running up and down the grassy hill and ducking onto the track because we told him not too. He made a few little friends and enjoyed stomping and rolling around with them. He loved seeing all the people, hearing them cheer and dancing along with the band music. To him, all of that was a football game. I don’t think he ever saw the actual football field. Jeremy and I enjoyed watching him catcall the softball girls whenever they would walk by…

“Hey Captain!” he would say, “Whatcha doing?”

What can I say, he’s got skills at age 2.