Fun with Friends (and some random stuff)

It has been so much fun to catch up with old friends while temporarily living out here in Maryland. The other weekend, my college roommate Kathryn stopped by to see us on her way back to school after defending her dissertation. Go Kathryn!

Henry loved her. She brought him a sock monkey that he named Moe. It was so funny, Kathryn held up the monkey and asked him who he was and Henry said, "Moe!" I'm guessing he was trying to say "monkey," so Moe it is. He says it every time he sees him. We were having so much fun hanging out (Kathryn brought her Nintendo GameCube which was a welcome sight for Matt, who had left his in ND), we didn't take many pictures, but we did take a video of Henry and Moe:

Kathryn is receiving her PhD from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, which just happens to be the school where my parents met! While they were living there temporarily years later, I was born at the hospital there. Here is Henry sporting my old Fighting Illini shirt:

look at that belly!

Kathryn also gave Henry some Neopets that she had from the kid's meals she bought at different Burger Kings along her trip. Matt showed him how to have them "talk" to eachother, so that's what he's demonstrating in the picture below.
Every so many weeks we head to the public library. It's one of Henry's favorite places, big surprise! He kept saying, "Ohhhhhh!" and "Wow!" as we walked through the children's area bookshelves this last time. He held onto one of the books, Boats on the River, all through the library, and all the way home. Here was my view from the front seat:

Here's Henry helping Daddy edit home videos on the computer:

While my mom was watching Henry one day over the summer, he started pushing his head along the floor like this:

He started doing this more and more recently, so I finally got it on video. Matt calls this move The Bulldozer.

We drove down to Williamsburg a weekend ago to go to a Downhere concert at William & Mary. It was free, which was of course the big draw, haha. My parents watched Henry and put him to bed. Sounds like all three of them had a grand old time! On Saturday afternoon, Henry watched my dad mow the grass.

For those of you familiar with Henry's Jumperoo obsession, you'll be happy to know I've found a replacement now that he's outgrown that beautiful invention. I found this new toy at a consignment shop near my beloved Caribou Coffee store. It was a great price, and I even got a military discount, woohoo! Henry's still just a little too short for it, so he can't jump well on it yet, but he loves listening to the music and spinning the toys.
Last Thursday, Bob, Claire and their kids (we were stationed together in Dayton) drove up from the DC area to go with Henry and me to the National Cryptologic Museum at Ft. Meade. It's a fascinating museum displaying the history of code breaking. The older boys worked on a scavenger hunt while the girls and Henry occupied each other by making silly faces. A good time was had by all!