8.something

March 13, 2019

8.something

This is way late for 8.25 but too early for his half birthday. 8.4? Eh, whatever, it's time for a Henry update.

The past few months have seen a couple memorable Henry events. Way back in January, Karl and I took Henry to hear the Minnesota Orchestra play the score to Star Wars. Before the show, we went to dinner at our favorite pan-Latin restaurant, and Henry was so delightful. He loves to try everything and make very adult-sounding pronouncements on the food. Big fan of ceviche (and everything else). Then we went downtown to Orchestra Hall, where I dragged him to meet Darth Vader because he clearly wanted to even though he was acting like he didn't want to. Henry was riveted during the whole show, leaning over the railing to look at the instruments. And on the way home, we cranked the stereo and sang loudly to "Benji Don't Wanna Stay," which may be my favorite Henry memory of the year.

School has mostly been going well. He still loves his teacher but has been complaining more about going to school -- he hates everything but recess, it's all boring, the principal is mean, etc. etc. I talked to his teacher about it and everything seems fine when he's at school, so I'm chalking it up to everyone hates everything in February (including Karl, who has to physically lift Henry out of bed at 6:30 a.m., weeping and wailing insults at his evil father, and haul the child to the bus in the pitch dark). When I offer/threaten to homeschool Henry, he realizes that being away from his friends would be a fate worse than death, and agrees school is not so bad.

We love seeing his school work. It's increasingly skillful and detailed, and it's all about Fortnite. Multi-page stories with plot -- about Fortnite. Math word problems -- about Fortnite. Art works -- about Fortnite. Alas, Fortnite has become obnoxious at home because he stopped caring about buying the extra stuff, which means he stopped caring about doing extra chores. Time for a new limiting strategy.

Henry just finished his second full season of hockey. Hooray/boo! Man, this year was so much more challenging than last year. The boys really worked hard and their skills improved dramatically in six months. At the beginning of the season, they could all skate and generally tried to get the puck in the right net. By the end of the season, they were whipping around and throwing snow off their blades, making intentional passes, and actually looked like hockey players. Those volunteer coaches deserve trophies and beer. So does Grandpa Dave, who does 70% of our hockey driving. Henry will miss the guys on his team, and Karl will miss the other dads, but I don't think any of us will miss dragging Henry out of bed at 7:30 on Saturday morning to put on his gear.

The season ended last weekend with playoffs. It was intense weekend of three bracketed games. They won the first game, but lost the second game in the final 20 seconds. It was a tough loss with lots of little boys crying in the locker room. Henry came home alone with Karl and didn't want to see any of us at dinner. We talked about it a little at bedtime. I said Nolan, our goalie, must be so bummed; Henry told me he felt second-worst because he should have been guarding the guy who scored. That loss bumped them out of the playoff game for 1st and 2nd place in the league but they were good sports about it. Hard lessons, but important. But they did win their final game! In overtime! It was so intense for everyone. It was a fun way for them to end their season (not so much for the other team, which included a couple of Henry's school buddies).

And swinging 60 degrees Fahrenheit, we went to Jamaica again last month! The photo album title is "Jamaica 2019" but it could just as accurately be titled, "Henry Is Crazy."