Henry is 10!

I missed a whole year of birthday updates and regret it.  So let's resume with a major milestone: a full decade of Reitzlings!  Henry is ten!  

First picture on this blog!

Henry decided to roll with the COVID-no-haircut thing and work on his hockey hair.  This photo was from July (when we could still do outdoor photo shoots).  It's even more magnificent now.  He shakes it and tosses it and sweeps it out of his eyes with dramatic finger flourishes.  It's very tweeny.

After two years of going by Hank at school, he's back to Henry.  I'm glad; I never got used to Hank.

He's sharp-witted, sweet-hearted, and simultaneously very capable and very lazy about doing things himself.  We tend to go through a cycle in which he's super agreeable and helpful, and then it starts to slide and the attitude gets a bit annoying, then he gets mouthy and disagreeable all the time; at this point, one of us loses our marbles and really yells at him and he loses video games for several days.  Not exactly pleasant, but since neither of us yells much, it jars him out of his bad attitude and he gets it together.  

School was good?  I think?  It's been a really long time since school was normal.  I faintly recall that he was a talented but somewhat disinterested student, perfectly capable of writing great paragraphs and doing advanced math, but for his total indifference to the work.  Studying ancient civilizations last year did pique his interest, and we watched a lot of documentaries during spring quarantine.  He went beyond his teacher's "lame" presentation of Chinese calligraphy and did several YouTube lessons on his own.  He says he's happy to be at home and, to my great surprise, says he wouldn't mind homeschooling all the time.  I thought he would be desperate for the social interaction but apparently sports and video games fill that bucket.  

Guitar lessons are going well.  He started last summer, so he did about 9 months in person and 9 months via Zoom.  He memorizes everything rather than reading the music.  This seems really strange to me, but Karl says that memorizing is usually the part that kids struggle with, so if he learns to play well before he reads well -- whatever.  He likes recognizable melodies and famous rock riffs.  Teacher Tom is very cool and helps him progress while following his lead.  Forcing him to sit down for extended practice can be challenging, but he also picks up the guitar on his own quite often, so I don't badger him much.  I'm glad he enjoys it.

First Zoom guitar lesson; early quarantine hair

He has developed that freakish memory for sports stats unique to 8-to-12-year-old boys.  One time we walked into a room with a random football game on the TV.  Henry immediately said, "this must be an old game."  How do you know that?  "That guy left that team in 2014."  Seriously, I know no women who do this.   He still plays hockey but loves football more. Right now, he likes to play wide receiver, but I think he has the personality of a quarterback. His birthday party was a football date at the park, just like last year.

He continues to be an extraordinary big brother. Fritz has spent a lot of time following Henry around for the past 8 months, to the detriment of Fritz's manners, but they are really close for siblings 6 years apart in age. Henry is endlessly patient with him and finds good ways to include him. They made us un-bunk their beds so they could sleep "right next to each other." His patience for Heidi's emotional outbursts and Ingrid's wussiness is shorter than it used to be, but that is probably a good civilizing influence on both of them. If Henry is irritated with you, it's probably time to get your sh*t together.

Henry and I have started reading together at bedtime. He always loved to listen to long stories but we hadn't read to him much since he learned to read on his own. We end up reading a little and having long talks about whatever's on his mind. It's been enlightening this year to hear what he's thinking about school, pandemics, elections, riots....and video games, TikTok videos, and YouTubers. It's a lovely half hour when he's not too big to cuddle his mom.

And now, the birthday interview!

• What is your favorite color?
• Green
• What is your favorite food? 
• Lobster
• What is your favorite dinner that we cook at home?
• Duck
• What is your favorite treat? 
• Grandma Carol's fruit tart
• What is your favorite subject in school? 
• Gym
• What is one thing you want to learn this year? 
• Get faster at reading
• What is your favorite thing to do on weekends?
• Play with friends
• What is your favorite movie? 
• The Godfather (ONE, he says)
• What is your favorite tv show? 
• Raising Dion
• What is your favorite book? 
• Terrible Two
• What is your favorite restaurant? 
• Shake Shack
• What is your favorite vegetable? 
• Asparagus
• What is your favorite fruit? 
• Bananas
• What is your favorite place to visit? 
• Jamaica 100%
• Where do you WANT to visit someday? 
• Russia
• Who is your best friend? 
• Abram, Charlie Wyatt, and Santi (and Cam and Luke and Griffin and Tim....)
• What’s your favorite thing to do with Ingrid? 
• Tubing at the cabin
• What’s your favorite thing to do with Heidi? 
• Just talk and hang out. She actually tells you stuff, not like Ingrid.
• What's your favorite thing to do with Fritz?
• Play football and video games.
• What’s your favorite thing to do with Dad? 
• Play football and Madden21.
• What’s your favorite thing to do with Mom? 
• Conversation
• What's your favorite board game?
• Monopoly or mancala
• What do you want to be when you grow up? 
• NHL or NFL player
• What are you really good at?
• Football
• What do you wish you could do or be better at?
• Hockey
• What is something that you wish for? 
• Electric guitar
• What is something you wonder about? 
• If I'll ever make it to the NHL or NFL
• Who is someone that you miss? 
• Ravi
• What makes you sad? 
• Getting woken up in the morning
• What makes you happy? 
• Sleeping
• What would your perfect day be like?
• Sleep, eat, play video games, play with friends, eat, play video games, play with friends, eat, watch The Office, and go to bed
• What was the best thing you did while you were nine?
• Go to Jamaica
• What age do you look forward to – and why?
• Sixteen. So I can drive!