Oh, Henry, my Henry! Or should I say, “Hen-weee,” as you like to put it? Today you’re half way between one year and two. Eighteen months into this whole “being a person” thing, and doing quite fabulously at it if I may say so. And I may. I’m your mom. Moms are like that.

Eighteen months old, and lately, HD, you are full, full, full of personality to the brim. We’re getting used to you adding your two cents, and we’re richer for your input on so many levels. You’re never out of things to say!

At this age, you continue to find interest in things that go…trucks, cars, trains, planes, tractors, cranes, and boats. You announce every pick up truck (“pi-cuk-cuk!”), police car (“piece car”), and jeep (“beep!’) that ride down the street. Some things sound just like we say them to you, and others take on a ring of their own. We never have to clarify when it comes to cars, buses, planes, trains, tractors, boats, or (fire) engines. Let’s face it: you’re pretty committed to anything on wheels. Make it a book about anything on wheels, and it’s even better. We recite truck sounds of every variety as a daily exercise (per munchkin, of course!), turning page by page in your Trucks book and remembering each by heart. I never knew so much about trucks before you came along!

Besides vehicles and all things associated, you love to explore colors. You will happily ride in your stroller or the car while pointing out every color of every leaf, the paint on the car that just sped by, the brightly colored house down the block. You notice everything. And I do mean, everything. It’s fascinating, and nerve-racking at the same time. I always pray you’ll keep noticing the good over the bad, for as long as time will allow. You are so big, and still so small. I’m not quite ready for you to see the world so clearly just yet…

Even so, we don’t hold you back. You ask questions, and as much as possible, we try to answer them. You explore new territory and expand your boundaries daily, and we celebrate your adventurous nature. We love that you are not afraid to check out something new, to say hello, to tell us what you like and don’t like. You are bold, but not overbearing. Strong-willed, but gentle. You have a heart for your family that is an ocean wide. You love your baby cousin and ask about “Emma,” bringing me things that remind you of her or telling me about her mommy and daddy–your “Aunt Bidet” and “Kuh-cul Ded-de,” almost daily. Your Skype dates with the grandparents are a highlight in our days.

New to you lately? Your first trip to the shoe store for legitimate measuring and trying on…and a rockin’ pair of suede desert boots as a souvenir. A tractor-pulled wagon ride at the pumpkin farm, a pumpkin donut, the ability to distinguish and identify Fall gourds. You crack me up with your interests and what captures you in the moment–your mind fixed on the details you replay over and over to those who will listen. You are learning so much about animals, letters, numbers, shapes…I wonder when I’ll start to have trouble keeping up!

My favorite Henry-isms as of late? First and foremost, your “Hoy,” a “Hi” spoken with an East Coast accent and a smirky smile behind it. You’re funny and you know it, which at your age, makes things even funnier. Yep. Certainly your “Hi,” “Hello,” “Hoy,” act has got to be at the top of the list. I love when I hear you counting to yourself as you add up your toys or items in a book. I love the sweetness of your alphabet-in-progress, the letters coming together so surprisingly at times–so randomly at others. It is fascinating to watch your mind work.

What do you do to busy your days? You play and read and play some more. You still chase the dog, but you’re getting better at it. You color pictures with vigor. You run around the house and announce, “Running!” as you go. You snuggle with the best of them and tell me I’m your baby, saying, “Wa. Waaaaa!” like a baby doll on cue. You’re so interested in nurturing and figuring things out for yourself so you can do them like we do–it’s a beautiful thing.

Henry, eighteen months down the line, I hope you can still tell what a joy it is for me to be your mom. Nothing about my delight in parenting you has changed. It’s possible that things have been more difficult at times, sure. But I still love all of you just as much–and more, the longer you’re here. I so bless the Lord for the goodnesses He has poured out over our lives, through you and because of you. You are making your mark.

Tomorrow you will dress up for your second Halloween and head off to a party with your friends, which sounds so grown up and sophisticated. Don’t worry, I still have to drive you and chaperone…for now. Your costume is a hoot, and I can’t wait to see you all dressed up and ready to go. I promise I’ll take pictures;)

love to you, my munchkin boy. and the happiest of half birthdays, too!

your mama

Little Boy of Mine,

In the wee hours of the morning as we sleep tonight, you’ll fill up another month on the calendar, making the count an even sixteen. Sixteen months that is, my dear, and that’s a lot in this mama’s world. I catch myself still calling you “baby” most days, but the truth is, you are more and more a boy every day. You are full of laughter and antics, new tricks and all kinds of ways to captivate us around the clock. In the morning, you are sprightly–ready to greet the day with a squeal, a smile, a new discovery. You run more than toddle, and gather up your favorite books and cars while still in jammies. You eat your breakfast with vigor–bananas, yogurt, toast and/or oatmeal your tastes of choice as the sun spills over into the dining room window.

Each day you follow me from room to room, toting matchbox cars, manipulating magnetic letters, asking for water. And all the way you jabber, jabber, jabber, your little budding voice my very favorite thing. We talk about colors, animals, emergency vehicles and the sounds they make–you mirror and copy and make up your own way to articulate every last word. If I could pen your babble here I would…you’re a storyteller at heart, I think (a thrill for communication in your veins, no doubt). And although it shouldn’t surprise me anymore to hear you say what you’re thinking, I’m never less than taken aback by the vocabulary you absorb, seemingly overnight: clouds (Quowds!), yellow (yeh woah!), crocodile (cwa co di wil!), boat (boat!). My favorite as of late is your version of “Hey, dude!” Heeeyyyyyy. Dooooood. You know, just the kind of thing you’ll need in your back pocket for a rainy day. Oh, do you make me smile!

At this age you love the water, splashing around and climbing in and out of the pool without fear. Bubbles captivate you, pinwheels intrigue you, motorized vehicles may as well be giant ice cream cones on wheels. You hear trains in the distance with crazy precision, long before I realize the low rumble far away. Helicopters! Airplanes! Anything that moves!!!! You are a boy through and through, and I thank God for all of your enthusiasm every day.

As much as you have grown into yourself–with your own ideas of how things should go and your determination to figure things out on Henry time, you are still dependent in ways both endearing and special to a mama who can’t process any faster just how quickly you are changing form. This morning, after reading Dr Seuss’ ABCs in the rocker together, you curled up with your head on my chest and let me soak you in for a while. I can handle all of the running around and all of the progress if I can just sneak in little snippets of your smallness here and there as you grow. 😉

Truly, as I write to you, there are 6,732 beautiful little details I want to capture about this season of your life. You are vibrant, and full of energy and joy to a degree we could never articulate fully in a blog or book or lifetime of sharing. Suffice it to say, Henry D, that you continue to amaze me as your mama. I am forever blessed to have you in my care, and we are forever blessed to be your mommy and daddy. Try as you might, HD, no growing is going to change the way we feel about you in our hearts–in fact, we’ll just have to keep making even more room!

Love you to the moon and back…but then of course, I’ve mentioned that a time or two 😉

xoxo,

your mama

Happy Birthday, beautiful Gramma Lady! You were celebrated today in our hearts!!

four generations, just over one year ago at bridget and teddy’s wedding. it was pure bliss, seeing gramma hold our henry with such joy in her eyes. he would have loved her very much!

the fireworks have been booming in your honor all night long;)

all my love,

mm

Sixty two years ago today, God joined together a gentlemanly young man and a graceful young woman in a marriage that would last a lifetime. Having met at only sixteen and fourteen, respectively, Hank and Donna fell in love at an innocent age, committing wholeheartedly to one another nearly from the day they met. Over the years, the couple was blessed by the fruits of their persistence to do what was right and to honor each other, and when Hank (Henry) died forty years later, the two were still shining a light in the world through their love of family, their dedication to faith, and each, their gentleness toward the other. Together they had built a family: three daughters and a son, and eventually, had welcomed nine grand-children, too. The eldest–a granddaughter, soaked in all she could of the pair, spending days on end at Grandpa and Gramma’s while growing up, and always cultivating more of the person she someday hoped to be…

Today, I am still that same girl…only twenty two years removed from the day that Grandpa and Gramma’s earthly existence as a couple came to a halt far too soon. For twenty one years and some odd months following, I was further blessed to witness the continued example carried out by Donna Mae–my beautiful grandmother, a best friend, and one of the most faithfully committed wives I will ever know. Without Grandpa for more than two decades before she died, Gramma loved her Henry as much at eighty-one as she did when she married him at nineteen. Undoubtedly, she had grown to love him even more over all that time.

This year marks the first in many that the pair will celebrate together–united again, I am certain, in Heaven. If eternity kept time the way we do here on earth, Hank and Donna would be dolled up and out to dance tonight, marking a lifetime filled with an abundance of good, colored by their faithfulness and steadfastness to one another through the hardest things and the very best things that life has to offer. Perhaps they’re waltzing on streets of gold, or dining with the King. In a time and space in the universe when the institution of marriage is getting dragged emphatically through the mud, I trust that there is a significant celebration taking place in their honor–one way or another, as each lived so faithfully in their marriage covenant and their commitment to God.

I can’t put words to the gratitude I have toward my grandparents–Hank and Donna, and Jack and Betty, both. Their lives were no easier than ours are today. In fact, they were often harder, and certainly still peppered with heartache, disappointment, disagreement, and inconvenience. But they remained unwavered. They lived by what they were taught, and didn’t disregard it. They were frugal, yet generous. Had wisdom, but shared it cautiously. Hospitable to others, but prioritized family. They loved and weathered and persisted, and fixed things when they were broken. And if they didn’t, they still turned back to the middle–not away. They were married for life. For a lifetime. Forever.

I wonder if we’ll ever see a generation again that cares so much about honoring commitment–about keeping a word and staying true to it, no matter how trying or stretching the exercise may be. We do not have the luxury of being casual about marriage today, and yet, as a collective society, we are. We have lost sight of what our grandparents knew and so carefully modeled for us. And we are certainly no better for it.

I marvel at couples today who, like my grandparents, are marking half a century or more of committed, cultivated, beautiful love together. I crave what they have. I draw upon their example. And I celebrate the work that God has done to uphold them and bind them in the best and worst of times. If 1950 could speak today, I think it would tell us to persevere and keep loving–to always choose love and covenant over any alternative. Through Hank and Donna at least, for this grandchild, the message is coming in loud and clear.

As hard as it is to be without them here, it delights me to imagine one of my favorite duos united again at last. Two souls bonded together in such a way are surely deserving of the very best kind of party Heaven has to offer!

thankful, and aiming at 62.

mm