5.75

Henry is very pleased to inform people that he is five-and-three-quarters-so-almost-six.  And awfully handsome, in his mother's humble opinion.

He has lost all four front-and-center teeth.  It looks adorably goofy and he loves showing off his gaps.  The last day before each tooth falls out is always full of freak-outs.  Tooth #3 fell out with a bloody mess in the car when Karl accidentally elbowed Henry because Henry unexpectedly licked Karl's arm.  Cue COMPLETE AND TOTAL MELTDOWN.  But Uncle Matt found it and saved us all.  Thank heaven the fourth one fell out while Henry was sleeping and saved us all some stress.

He continues to be deeply devoted to his little sisters.  He and Ingrid now have afternoon PE and music together.  Yesterday Ingrid got hit in the face with a ball (apparently it hurt "like as fast as a cheetah can run" though it left no mark) and Henry sat in the corner where it was quiet and cuddled her for the rest of class.  I don't think many five-year-old boys would even notice their little sisters existed in a gym full of 60 kids, let alone stop playing to cuddle.  

We briefly tried moving Heidi into the big kids' room.  Henry has been asking for a year if she can sleep with them.  He was super excited when Karl randomly picked up a new bed from a neighbor and set it up for her.  Alas, it did not go well -- she went to sleep fine but woke up screaming every morning, a terribly unfortunate change from her usual contented hanging out in bed for half an hour while I make breakfast.  Henry wept like I had punched him in the stomach when I said Heidi was moving back to her own room for awhile.

Henry took a break from all his myriad activities for the summer, which was nice for me and Karl and our Saturdays.  I think the break was good for him.  It seemed like he was getting tired of everything and needed more down time.  But he's been asking to go again, so we are going to ramp up again this weekend, at least with Parkour.  

He's a super foodie.  We let each kid pick a back-to-school dinner and then felt like suckers because they picked expensive things instead of the pizza and Shake Shack we expected.  Henry requested fancy dinner out with just Daddy.  Karl took him (in their matching shirts and ties) to Montmartre, our neighborhood French place, where Henry ate escargot, steak tartare, and duck confit.  The waitress wanted to steal him and take him home.

We're into costumes again.  He usually wants to copy some TV show character.  Not quite as intense as the days when he went everywhere in a superhero suit, but in the last few months he has requested a Phineas outfit, a Sonic the Hedgehog (??) vest, a cowboy getup, a pirate costume, a ninja suit, and a knight costume.  He likes it when I can whip something up on the sewing machine right then and there and doesn't care if my sewing is any good.  We went to the big ferris wheel twice this summer, and on the second visit he brought all of his money to buy pirate gear from the galleon/gift shop docked nearby.  The lady running the gift shop was so touched that he also bought stuff for Ingrid that she gave him free pistols.

I've repeatedly told him that he can stay five forever, but he's already counting down to his sixth birthday.