henry at six

In some ways our Henry is a typical six-year-old. He likes nothing better than to play soccer in the yard, master new and challenging sets of monkey bars, hit things with sticks (and just throw the sticks), and play video games. He is outgoing and charming and easy to engage in conversation. He is growing like a weed (he's in the 97th percentile for height for his age), loves to eat mac and cheese and hot dogs, and is a committed veggie dodger.

In other ways, he's in a class all by himself. His vocabulary is expansive, as are his negotiating "skills." He takes almost everything we say as a challenge to see if he can come out on top in some way. When he gets a punishment, he tries (usually in vain) to negotiate for a lighter sentence. When we use any kind of colloquialism, he demands an explanation. He was doing something the other day that reminded me so much of Mike, and I commented, "Well, you are your father's son." Henry's instant response was, "Mom, ALL boys are their fathers' sons. That is a ridiculous thing for you to say." So then I explained that it's a common phrase meaning that he does things that remind me of his father, and that prompted a looooong discussion about how everyone does things like that, and he didn't see why I had to single him out for it. Not much gets by Henry, which is, to use another generally accepted phrase, both a blessing and a curse. (HA! Take that, Adult Henry, when you read this at some unspecified point in the future.)

We love his expressiveness so much, and we adore the way his mind works, but feeling like he always has to react has led to some less friendly lessons this year. In particular, when Henry gets mad at one of us (so at least once a day) he usually expresses it by calling names and wishing he was never born, or that he had a different family, or that we would all go away and leave him alone except not at night because he is terrified to be upstairs by himself at bedtime. But when that's not enough, he turns to property damage in inconspicuous locations that we might not find for some time, at which point he will deny, deny, deny even though we can clearly see his signature style. (This is a familiar phase to us as Liam and Max both went through it, but we are hoping it comes to an end soon, while the house is still mostly intact.)

Henry's long-term goal remains becoming the president, though some of the shine wore off his dream this summer when he got to see the actual White House and found it both smaller and less accessible than he thought it would be. Only time will tell, but no matter what he ultimately chooses, we have no doubt whatsoever that he will settle for nothing less than top billing.

We're headed to his new love, the sub shop Penn Station, for dinner tonight with Bethany, J, and Loni, and later this week Henry gets his turn at the traditional birthday dinner and sleepover with my parents. After our visit with Johnny and Erin and the kids last weekend, he has gotten to see nearly everyone in our immediate families (he got to talk to Barb and Kevin, and we will make sure he sees them soon). Such a lucky kid.

Happy birthday, Henry!