A celebration is in order

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HENRY!

It's been one adventurous year and we're certainly making the most of the reason to celebrate.  We've already had 2 parties and another one is planned for Saturday.  I bet Henry will be sick of hearing "Happy Birthday to yoooouuuuuu" being sung to him by the time the weekend had passed!

Before I tell you about the events I'll let you know that Henry's favorite activities are still:

• swimming, 
• catching, kicking, throwing, and chasing balls
• finding birds
• talking on video skype and showing off his new skill of blowing kisses 
• lately he just loves reading books: usually in the morning one or both of us spends 10 minutes or more sitting on the ground in his room while Henry brings a book from the shelf, snuggles in our lap while we read to him, and goes to get another book, over and over again.  If we don't distract him with breakfast or by asking where his ball we could easily get sucked up reading every last book in his book case.
• puzzles and putting pieces of things back in bigger pieces
• vehicles

He's a great eater and likes to dine on oatmeal and yogurt, carrots, any curried vegetables, lentils, bread, peanut butter, eggs, spinach, noddles, grilled cheese sandwiches and just about anything else we're eating that we let him try - even spicy foods.

On to the birthday festivities:
May 17th was a national holiday to celebrate Buddha's birthday which meant that Scott was able to stay home from work.  Henry and I spent the birthday morning going on our usual morning walk. These walks have become a bit more adventurous now that the rains are starting. The day was pretty normal and at one point when Henry was starting to get tired Shobita let the birthday boy get a little pampered:

 Henry dined on kitchuri (rice and lentils cooked together) and piaju which are basically a South Asian falafel.

 Then Henry took a nap with Scott (Henry is hidden in the Ergo)

In the afternoon we went up to the Club to swim and have dinner.  We decided to bring the birthday dessert to the Club in hopes that our friends would be there to sing and eat with us.  I thought quite some time about what dessert we should give Henry on this birthday. I wanted it to be something that not only he would like but that I too would want to eat.  After a little deliberation we confidently decided on...Rice Krispie treats!  They are such a rare treat here because marshmellows are not available but we were smart and had brought back a few bags with us last time we were in the US just in case we ever craved the yummy treats; they went over really well!

Time for dinner

Sophia and Henry dine on popcorn one of Henry's favs

 The first bite of Rice Krispie treat

 And then he goes in for the kill

The next birthday party was the one Shilpi wanted to throw for him during a playgroup get together the next day. I stayed home from the office in the afternoon so that I could join the cake festivities and a few minutes playing with all the kids.  Most of the usual group came.and they were all so cute giving Henry birthday hugs:

Henry focused most of his attention on the popcorn and watermelon.  He tried to use a piece of cake as a spoon of sorts for each piece of popcorn. As you can imagine it took him awhile to work through the kernels given that it's hard to balance them on the uneven cake.

He kept on trying even after the rest of the party had moved on

Then it was time to clean those teeth

The final celebration will be this Saturday morning at the coffee shop. We've made it a tradition to start our Saturdays there and we've asked some friends to come join.  I think Henry's favorite part in all this is dancing to "Happy birthday to you". I can't believe that he'll probably be singing right along with us next year!