School and afternoon fun

A few days after we got back Henry started going to "summer fun" at a place nearby called Jingle Bells.  Summer fun is a morning program that he goes to with his best friend Jafe along with, as chance would have it, a few other friends from his neighborhood play group.  Here they are with Jafe's nanny and Jafe's family's driver.  Jingle Bells is on the second floor in the building behind Henry and Jafe.  After getting Henry used to day care in the US ( what a stressful ~2 weeks that was) I found dropping him off at this summer fun program to be a breeze. In fact the first day I took him, which was 3 days after we returned, he just walked right in and basically didn't look back. One thing that helped him get really excited for school was the opportunity to wear his school bag with his name embroidered on it. He's wearing it in the photo.  What a great present from my friend Christine!  Below is a photo I snapped of Henry after he got dressed up for his last day of summer fun which ended last week.  After a break this week he'll start going to "school" at Jingle Bells.  

 

All of Henry's neighborhood friends who are in town over the summer, which is about half, still meet up for afternoon play group on most days.  Last week we hosted one at our house. Since I'm at home now I was able to take some photos.  It cracked me up that everyone was playing cozily in Henry's room - didn't they want more space?   Since it's Ramadan and office time is shorter, Scott made it home in time to see the playgroup excitement - especially when they were playing in the tent.

Henry has become so much more fun to talk to in the last week or so because he's started including reasoning in his conversations. He now uses "because" and will confidently answer when I ask a "why" question such as "Why do you not want to take a bath?"  "Because I want to play with Odin".  Before I would just hear a "Huh?" in response.  I love getting to learn more about what he's thinking and feeling.

Elliot is doing great.  He is a chatter box making all sorts of cooing noises when we interact.  On Saturday he giggled for me for the first time as I was talking with him about the London Olympics.  As you can imagine, he's sleeping a lot during the day.  I had forgotten all the things the nanny did when Henry slept back when he was a baby, but when I saw the same things being done for Elliot my memory came back along with a smile and a chuckle. As you look at the photos keep in mind that it's probably 85 degrees in the apartment during the day.
Check out the stuffed animal bumper, the pillow bumper, the quilt bumper, and then of course my tank top as a blanket.

Notice the rolled blanket? For some reason, about 90% of the time sleeping Elliot will have a rolled up blanket somewhere around him - laid on top of him, propped along his side, under his legs when he's on his back on the bed...  I think I'll have to ask about the purpose of the rolled blanket.