March Madness

It’s been a hefty minute since my last update, but today I find myself craving some kind of creative outlet, and since I refuse to buy or create anything that will take up more space in our house (for now - although I feel a sewing project coming on) I decided it would be a good time to write.

A few things have happened in the last year…  Most notably, we had a child!  Bowen Lance Henderson was born July 21 at about 10 pm, weighing in as the second largest of our babies at 9 lbs 6 oz.  He is as pleasant a little babe as ever could be, and although he still wakes up many times a night to eat, he never really cries about hunger or anything else, except being poked in the eyes by Boyd.  The other kids (especially Boyd) are obsessed with him, and most of Loxley’s questions for me now are about how soon she can have her own baby.  I can either answer “not until you’re married” or “not until you clean up your toys” and we’d honestly still have about the same timeline.  

Another exciting addition of the last few months is…the addition!  We added a room, a bathroom, and a laundry room onto our house with the help of some contractors and some VERY good friends.  Who else would want to come inhale sheetrock dust for 5 hours at a time?  Only the best of humans.  The whole process took about 5 months from groundbreaking (literally - they had to take out a section of concrete in our driveway to put in a new plumbing line) to the last application of caulk around the shower, but it is done!  And I have to say, it is very nice to have some extra space.  We designed it with storage in mind, and the rest of our home feels much more livable now that boxes and strollers and food storage all have a dedicated resting place.

After all of that there was just the exterior of the house and the yard that really needed a face-lift, so we re-seeded grass, started mowing the lawn again, added a privacy wall around the front patio, and (my favorite) installed a porch swing!  It feels like we have an outdoor living room now, which has been regularly enjoyed in the lower temperatures of Arizona winter. 

Updates on the fam, Bruce is growing up in so many ways and even has his own setting on the bidet (in the new bathroom - Stanton’s dream come true).  He regularly uses the word “shall” and I will never tell him that that fell out of style a few centuries ago.  “Loxley, shall we play Spiderman?” It just cracks me up. He is also newly obsessed with the idea of our having a family AI robot that can do all the things that Stanton and I normally do as parents: “It can play with us, and throw us on the bed when you are working, and read stories to us!”  He promised that he would still love us “as much” as the nanny robot, but my heart is still a little broken.

Loxley, on the other hand, is poised to take my place herself.  She asked Bruce to call her “Smooth Mom” the other day…which makes me the unsmooth Mom, I guess?  She also explained to Bruce, “'Mmm hmm’ is how people say ‘yes’ when they don’t want to talk to you.” And since then I’ve been very careful to answer in actual words if not complete sentences.  Her favorite pasttime seems to be asking for things that she knows she can’t have, especially right before bed.  “Mom, can I have some candy?”  “Nope.”  “Okay, then can I have some ice cream?”  “Also no.”  “Ugh.  Well then can I at least have some wine?!”  I didn’t even know where she heard about wine until she told me that in our book of Little Red Riding Hood, cake and wine are the contents of the basket for granny.  (How that is supposed to help an ill person feel better I’ll never know.). She picks up on all sorts of tidbits, with varying levels of accuracy in recall, like last week she asked me if I wanted to learn how to do “a bree.”  “A bree?  Uh, sure…”.  “Okay, you clap clap [doing motions], and then you stomp stomp, and then you say ‘hooray!’”  I performed according to her instructions and she complimented me on my mastery.  When I asked her where she had learned it she said “From primary!  ‘If you’re happy and you know it, do a bree’!”  (For those who don’t remember the song “If You’re Happy and You Know It’, the lyrics are actually “all three”, but Loxley will not be swayed.)

Boyd is also learning to talk more and more, and has a little game of add-on that he sometimes plays with new words.  “Watch out, Bruce, it’s dange-russ.  It’s bery dange-russ.  “It’s ackshully bery dange-russ. It’s already ackshully bery dange-russ.”  And the other day I found him outside scolding the chickens after finding some chicken poop on the porch: “You can’t poop, you guys!  You can’t!  I’m so flustwated at you guys.”  It was hilarious, and also sad because I know that he learned about “flustwation” from me.  But it helped me remember to be kinder when I found his poop in the bathtub this morning, and in the backyard a few days ago, and on the porch….  Potty training time is definitely approaching.

Bowen is still a cute little tank of a baby, with two new teeth and always working on cutting more.  He likes to crawl up behind me in the kitchen and pull himself up by my legs, and then he tries to take a bite behind my knees.  He rarely succeeds, but it still makes me nervous and motivates me to not skip leg day. (Jk, I’m not legit enough for actual scheduled workouts.  20 minutes speedwalks on the treadmill are as good as it gets these days.)

Happy Friday!

-KK