Eight
Henry is eight! Which is wild, because I remember being eight. The kids are who they are from the beginning -- in utero, even -- but it's fun to think that we are now adding lasting memories to his personal story. This year, we traveled a ton, did a lot of cool things around Minneapolis, and spent lots of time hanging out together at home. He is a sweet kid and a great little buddy, and hopefully he will remember how much we enjoyed doing these things with him.
Second grade is going very well. He loves his teacher, who had the good/bad fortune to get the entire Mites hockey team in his class, and seems to be handling it well. Mr. Forslin seems to have a good read on the kids and judgment about when he needs to call us. Henry got into a scrape with another kid on the playground, which should technically be an office-referral incident, but talked to the boys first and worked out that Henry had been trying to put a (slightly overzealous) halt to some obnoxious behavior. The boys made up, Mr. Forslin suggested we chat with Henry about it, and everyone was happy.
Henry goes by Hank at school because Mr. Forslin doesn't like having Henry R and Henry F, and he has really taken to the nickname. Hank loves math and is eager to practice with us. About once a week, we spend the whole evening writing math problems on his dry erase board. It's fun to watch him learn carrying, and then discover that when adding or subtracting large numbers, you can just keep carrying forever and it just keeps working. He thinks he can add three-digit numbers, and then I give him a four or five or fifteen digit number, and it just keeps working! I love it. He seems to like science but can never tell me what they're doing. Art class is the most terrible thing ever. He is underwhelmed by most of the books they read at school but cranks through book series at home faster than I can find good new series. He's getting I Survived! and My Father's Dragon for Christmas.
We're mostly adjusted to the early school schedule but have to be ruthless about bedtime. The other day, I caved and let him stay up half an hour late because he was so excited to go outside with Karl and shovel the first snowfall. #minnesota. Boy howdy, we paid for it the next morning. It's a chore getting him to go upstairs -- he whines and fights about going to up even though he's exhausted -- but then we always have nice cuddles and bedtime chats.
Henry is great with his siblings and really rises to the occasion when someone needs some love. Heidi gets really upset if Ingrid leaves her out of a play date. The other day, Ingrid went down the block without her, and Heidi was bereft. Henry's buddy Griffin was at our house, and Henry got Heidi and told her she could play with them. And they really did include her for a whole hour. He has some sweet buddies.
Hockey is his great love (other than Fortnite). He never complains about going to practice and works hard at it. In first grade, he played down a team -- with mostly kindergarteners -- because it was his first season. He really wanted to make the second grade team this year and worked very hard over the summer. We signed him up for a camp and a weekly clinic at the hard-core club and he was a champ, though he started looking pretty tired on the fourth day of the 8-hours-per-day camp. But it payed off, and he was so proud to make the Mites with all of his second grade buddies! He is solidly in the middle of the pack on his team, and it's good to see that he still loves it even though he isn't the best.
And, yes, Fortnite. He carefully guards his time allowance and continues to do the requisite chores. He even recruits his friends to help him.
He is excited that winter is coming. When it started snowing, he ran outside shirtless and shoeless to celebrate.
Grandma Jane and Grandpa Alan were here for his actual birthday. Henry requested a fancy dinner of Chipotle with everyone.
For his friend party, he requested paintball even though he'd never tried it before. The dude squad turned out in force. They were simultaneously SO SERIOUS and SO INSANE. It was a lot of high-caliber boy energy. For the first couple of rounds, most of the guys hid behind the team shelters. It was only after a few intrepid kids snuck forward, got shot, and survived to fight again that everyone got very bold. They toughed it out, round after round after round, for all 90 minutes and were very proud of their welts. The college guys who worked there were very impressed by how tough our little guys were; I think they expected some weeping and sitting out. They were also very impressed by the sheer quantity of paint balls 8-year-olds can burn through. Apparently their usual clientele is far more judicious with ammo.
For the parenting notebook: do NOT rile up boys with paintball, cake, and Doritos, then offer to drive six of them home in the same van. Just don't.
Let's wrap up with the birthday interview!
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| Age-inappropriate movies with Dad |
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| Breweries have good root beer |
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| Appreciates a good movie score |
Second grade is going very well. He loves his teacher, who had the good/bad fortune to get the entire Mites hockey team in his class, and seems to be handling it well. Mr. Forslin seems to have a good read on the kids and judgment about when he needs to call us. Henry got into a scrape with another kid on the playground, which should technically be an office-referral incident, but talked to the boys first and worked out that Henry had been trying to put a (slightly overzealous) halt to some obnoxious behavior. The boys made up, Mr. Forslin suggested we chat with Henry about it, and everyone was happy.
Henry goes by Hank at school because Mr. Forslin doesn't like having Henry R and Henry F, and he has really taken to the nickname. Hank loves math and is eager to practice with us. About once a week, we spend the whole evening writing math problems on his dry erase board. It's fun to watch him learn carrying, and then discover that when adding or subtracting large numbers, you can just keep carrying forever and it just keeps working. He thinks he can add three-digit numbers, and then I give him a four or five or fifteen digit number, and it just keeps working! I love it. He seems to like science but can never tell me what they're doing. Art class is the most terrible thing ever. He is underwhelmed by most of the books they read at school but cranks through book series at home faster than I can find good new series. He's getting I Survived! and My Father's Dragon for Christmas.
We're mostly adjusted to the early school schedule but have to be ruthless about bedtime. The other day, I caved and let him stay up half an hour late because he was so excited to go outside with Karl and shovel the first snowfall. #minnesota. Boy howdy, we paid for it the next morning. It's a chore getting him to go upstairs -- he whines and fights about going to up even though he's exhausted -- but then we always have nice cuddles and bedtime chats.
Henry is great with his siblings and really rises to the occasion when someone needs some love. Heidi gets really upset if Ingrid leaves her out of a play date. The other day, Ingrid went down the block without her, and Heidi was bereft. Henry's buddy Griffin was at our house, and Henry got Heidi and told her she could play with them. And they really did include her for a whole hour. He has some sweet buddies.
Hockey is his great love (other than Fortnite). He never complains about going to practice and works hard at it. In first grade, he played down a team -- with mostly kindergarteners -- because it was his first season. He really wanted to make the second grade team this year and worked very hard over the summer. We signed him up for a camp and a weekly clinic at the hard-core club and he was a champ, though he started looking pretty tired on the fourth day of the 8-hours-per-day camp. But it payed off, and he was so proud to make the Mites with all of his second grade buddies! He is solidly in the middle of the pack on his team, and it's good to see that he still loves it even though he isn't the best.
And, yes, Fortnite. He carefully guards his time allowance and continues to do the requisite chores. He even recruits his friends to help him.
He is excited that winter is coming. When it started snowing, he ran outside shirtless and shoeless to celebrate.
Grandma Jane and Grandpa Alan were here for his actual birthday. Henry requested a fancy dinner of Chipotle with everyone.
For his friend party, he requested paintball even though he'd never tried it before. The dude squad turned out in force. They were simultaneously SO SERIOUS and SO INSANE. It was a lot of high-caliber boy energy. For the first couple of rounds, most of the guys hid behind the team shelters. It was only after a few intrepid kids snuck forward, got shot, and survived to fight again that everyone got very bold. They toughed it out, round after round after round, for all 90 minutes and were very proud of their welts. The college guys who worked there were very impressed by how tough our little guys were; I think they expected some weeping and sitting out. They were also very impressed by the sheer quantity of paint balls 8-year-olds can burn through. Apparently their usual clientele is far more judicious with ammo.
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| Menu: cake and Doritos |
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| Eight! |
For the parenting notebook: do NOT rile up boys with paintball, cake, and Doritos, then offer to drive six of them home in the same van. Just don't.
Let's wrap up with the birthday interview!
- What is your favorite color?
- Green
- What is your favorite food?
- Bacon
- What is your favorite dinner that we cook at home?
- Pork chops
- What is your favorite treat?
- Root beer
- What is your favorite subject in school?
- Recess
- What is one thing you want to learn this year?
- How to get a one thousand millimeter snipe in Fortnite
- What is your favorite thing to do on weekends?
- Play Fortnite
- What is your favorite movie?
- Happy Gilmore
- What is your favorite tv show?
- Meat Eater
- What is your favorite book?
- Dog Man series
- What is your favorite song?
- Sweet Home Alabama
- What is your favorite restaurant?
- SmashBurger
- What is your favorite vegetable?
- Kale
- What is your favorite fruit?
- Apples
- What is your favorite place to visit?
- Grandma Jane and Grandpa Alan’s house
- Where do you WANT to visit someday?
- Switzerland
- Who is your best friend?
- Ravi, Griffin
- What’s your favorite thing to do with Ingrid?
- Wrestle her
- What’s your favorite thing to do with Heidi?
- Play tag
- What's your favorite thing to do with Fritz?
- Wrestle
- What’s your favorite thing to do with Dad?
- Work on stuff and play video games
- What’s your favorite thing to do with Mom?
- Go to the theater
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- Electric engineer
- What are you really good at?
- Fortnite
- What do you wish you could do or be better at?
- Writing
- What is something that you wish for?
- A deep freeze skin in Fortnite
- What is something you wonder about?
- When are they going to send astronauts to Mars?
- Who is someone that you miss?
- Ravi
- What makes you sad?
- Wearing handsome clothes
- What makes you happy?
- Playing twelve hours of Fortnite, seeing Ravi
- What would your perfect day be like?
- Playing Fortnite with Griffin and wrestle on the couch and eat pork chops for dinner
- What age do you look forward to – and why?
- One hundred twenty-one, so I can beat the record of the oldest person.
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