Why the cats avoid Henry.

Henry loves our pets; our  2  goofy, neurotic  dogs and the  5 kitty cats that some have described as "terroristic."   ;-)   Let me introduce the  kitties. First there's  Simba, who will be 12 yrs old next month. He's a brown tabby, diabetic and old. I've had him since he was dumped, along with the rest of his litter, at 3 weeks old.  Don't get me started on  crappy pet owners. Next is Maddie Cat. She's 9 1/2 yrs old, a  tortieshell, has chronic kidney issues and doesn't like anyone but me. She is very sweet.....to me.  I found her at the SPCA after she had lingered there for a couple of months. I went in " to look" after  Katie cat died.  Maddie came from a  hoarder situation and it took several months ( and a round of kidney failure) for her to get used to us and come out from under the bed. Obviously, these 2  keep pretty well hidden from the  Herd. Well, they  peek out for the girls but they definitely dont' like little boys.  Next is George. He's a  creampoint siamese, has blue eyes and he's just a brat. Today he  got into a  bathroom cabinet and shredded about  4 rolls of toilet paper. George is 2 1/2 yrs old. We  found him on Craigslist when he was  10 months old.  He's not afraid of any of the kids but he sure hates the dogs! He  lived with a dog in his previous home but  I bet that dog didn't chase him and hold him down and try to squish him like my  hound dog does. :-(   George has  respiratory issues- he sneezes a lot and he had a cough when we got him.  Turns out it was  smokers cough. He  came from the home of  2  chain smokers who lived on  nothing but  Mcdonalds and cigarettes.  George steals   straws from  drinks- but only if they're from Mickey D's.  He stunk to high heaven when he first arrived.  George is very soft and  sweet and , as you will find out, he's not the   sharpest tool in the shed.  Next is DixieBelle. She's a  gray and white mama cat. Actually,she's a feral cat that I rescued from the  museum village I work at.  I didnt' want her to keep having kittens then get run over by a car.  She's had   3 litters that we know of, and that was by the time she was  1 1/2 yrs old. Poor Dixie!  When I adopted her, she was  1/2 way thru her  last pregnancy. She is now  2  1/2 yrs old and a fat, happy housecat. :-D  She's not a lapcat and probably never will be but she WILL let me and the girls pet her and scratch her ears. She's even learning how to  play.  Last is her kitten, Mike Modano. yes. My 9 yr old son, McLean, named him.  He's black and white and looks like his mama.  He is the terrorist one. ;-)  He likes to  pounce on your feet when you're asleep.  he also thinks nothing of teasing the  dogs.
Now why do they avoid Henry? Well, Simba and the girls should be obvious.  Old, cranky, feral.   The  2  little boys..... oy vey.  They will never learn! 

When we got George, I made the mistake of telling the kids that  Siamese cats  like the water. ............   again,  it doesn't take a  rocket scientist to see where this is leading. To date,  George has unceremoniously been tossed into the shower, the bathtub and an  inflatable pool.  Inflatable pools don't last long when  cat claws   dig into them. You think the darn cat would have learned the first time.  Nope.  He's also  been  colored with   magic markers ( that was McLean! He wanted a  striped cat.) , painted with  tempera paints and  stuffed int o  doll clothes. And yet, he still  doesn't always run fast enough to  avoid the boys.  Mikey gets carried around upside down, stuffed into tiny  hockey outfits meant for  Build-a-Bears and tossed in the  tub too  if he doesn't  skedaddle  quick enough.   But,  sometimes at night, I find  George or Mikey  curled up with  one of the kids. :-)   awwww,  Henry!

Henry likes keys

Henry likes keys.  Any keys.  Well, he especially likes car keys.  If he were taller, he'd already be driving.  He's tried on many an occasion to drive off in my minivan. I'm not sure where he would actually go but  I doubt he'd care. He'd be driving.  He REALLY wants a little  battery operated vehicle to drive around in.  I'm still looking for a cheap one. He did try to run off in a  pink Barbie car a couple of years ago. Ok I'll tell you that story then the  key fiasco.  
April 2008 ( or maybe  2009) no , I think  it was '08.  Yes, the boys were  5 and 6 years old. Anyway,we had a bad storm that turned out to be a very small tornado,maybe an F0 or F1. I don't know, I was cowering in the bathtub freaking out. It was  4 am for pete's sake!  Thankfully, the kids were in Plano with their father that night.  Anyway, this  storm  took down my fence and tore up  part of my roof.   The kids were absolutely thrilled about the fence b/c  it meant they could now get into the next door neighbor's yard. The house was a rental and was occupied by about  6  men from Honduras, a woman and a toddler.  None of them spoke English that I'm aware of.  ( We had several encounters with them compliments of Henry. All of them  funny thankfully. )

Anyway, the boys had spied a pink Barbie jeep on the other side and immediately set out to explore it.   The neighbors and I  pantomimed and gestured and laughed and  somehow figured out it was ok for the  boys to ride on it and I would charge the battery up for them once we finished. The fence was down for about  2 weeks so they had a LOT of quality time with the Barbie jeep.  They fought over it, they shared it, they gave their sisters rides in it.  One day, the boys were in the back yard playing with it and McLean decided to come inside. I asked him where Henry was and he said, "outside riding the car." Ok, well I went out to check an d  guess what, no Henry in the backyard. I started to call him, like he would actually answer me. ( I can  dream, can't I?)   I 'm running back and forth, no Henry. "McLean, where is your brother?"  " I dunno."  " Help me find him! "  We run out front and what do I see ( or who) heading down the middle of the street, away from the house, in  a  pink Barbie jeep, at 5 miles per hour....... oh Henry!   He was making  " beep beep " noises and quite pleased with  himself.  He was quite upset with me when I told him  driving time was over.  I didn't know if I should spank him for being in the street or laugh because it was so funny.  So, like any good parent (  ;-)  )  I took a photo for future blackmail purposes. 

oh, story #2. Keys.  This week, March  2011.  the boys are now  8 and  9.  It's Spring Break this week and I had to  pop into work a  couple of times so I brought the Horde plus one. McLean's best friend C, has been  with us  24/7 for the  most part, this week. so I  took  5 rambunctious kids to work ( I work at a historic  village museum) so I could clean and prep for  toddler storytime.  Then we had to  return the next day for storytime. Thankfully, no one showed, Imagine me trying to read to   a  group of toddlers, then do a  craft with them that involved  popcorn that was painted blue, glue and my Herd running around.  oy vey!  They  4 big kids were outside  playing croquet. Or should I say, fighting over croquet.  McLean plays hockey and he's  very competitive.  There are days I think C is a saint for putting up with Bubby ( M) because he's not a very graceful loser. Anyway, I digress.   I was in  period dress,hoops and bonnet and all the trimmings.  No pockets for my work keys.  We packed up, I changed back to modern clothing, we went home. That was Wednesday. TODAY, Friday, I went into work ( kids are now at Dad's house down the street.)  Guess who couldn't find their keys?  I emptied out my purse. I turned it inside out, I checked all the places I leave them at home then i went to work. I looked on my desk, I looked in  my desk, I looked under my desk. I looked in my  period boots. I looked in  bags of popcorn, I looked in the bathroom,I looked in the  school house, I looked in the Dulaney house, I looked in the storage closet. I called my daughter Robin at her dad's house to see if she remembered where I put them.  I looked all over in my car. I DID find a styrofoam clamshell  with moldy food in it under my driver's seat.  I think it was from  the last time Gerry ( my fiance) was here in Texas. so that would be Thanksgiving.  yuck.  No keys.   oh Henry, what did you do with them?!   Finally, I decided that I would do some housework since Gerry missed his connecting flight in San Francisco.  Snow in Edmonton, storms in SF so  no  connection in SF.  ( This happens to him almost every time he flies. I think the airlines do it on purpose.)  I decided to repurpose an old shoe bag that hung over my  closet door. It was too weak to  hold my shoes so I am now using it in the laundry room for  vacuum attachments and  winter  gloves and hats.  yay!  I was looking for nails to  nail it up with and couldn't find any in the  junk drawer. Yes, Henry likes hammers and nails too.  I went into the garage to look on the shelves for stray nails. Lo and Behold what was laying right in the basket with all the gardening gloves?!  yes!  my keys! oh Henry!

Good Morning Henry!

Days with Henry  tend to start early. He's always been an  early riser, up  before the sun.  No amount of  pleading, pretending to be asleep, ignoring or explaining  will do to convince him to return to bed.  Once he's awake, the day has begun. And, unless  you want to be left behind to clean up a huge mess, well,  you'd better get out of bed when Henry does. ;-)
What happens if I decide "oh he'll be fine watching cartoons while I sleep a bit longer?"  Let me tell you, it can go from  sweet to sour pretty darn  quickly. Henry  is very sweet and loving and  he likes to take care of his mommy. :-)   He  often makes me breakfast in bed.  I call it " the Breakfast Wagon."  Henry will get the   wagon out of the garage, his bedroom, the playroom ( wherever it's been parked the previous night) and  fill it up with  breakfast!  He puts in cookie trays to use as  breakfast trays,  a gallon of milk, the right number of bowls, spoons and cups ( sometimes the siblings have made an appearance) and EVERY box of cereal we have. Then  he rolls it through the house, down the hall and into my room.  awwwwww.......
Even if you're still asleep, tough cookies;  you'll  still be eating breakfast with Henry.  If I dont' sit up to receive my offering, there's a good chance I'll be wearing it.  How can you refuse  cereal slopped onto your lap or head  and  possibly slurped by the dog, when it's Henry offering it?  "Eat Mommy."  It's not a question, believe me.

That's the sweet part.  heh heh  You KNEW there had to be more, c'mon.  If Henry decided it' snot a Breakfast Wagon  kind of morning, it could be a " I'm going to help mommy" kind of day.  He will  break out the  swiffer mop ( the one that sprays....) and  decide to mop the floor.   For Henry, nothing is done halfway.  The floor isn't clean until he's sprayed out  most or ALL of the cleaner and you can smell it OUTSIDE the house.  If I don't  slip on the floor and land on my butt, well, it's just not clean enough yet. And look out if he decides to  clean the windows!  I dont' use commercial cleaners in my house for the most part. I use  vinegar and water to clean the  shiny objects here.  Henry and his  brother, McLean, both love to  clean the windows. Yes, ladies, I'm raising them right. ;-)    so we have more than one squirt bottle with the aforementioned homemade brew in it.  You can see where this might be leading, yes?  It may start out innocently enough. One or both of the boys with a squirt bottle and a towel, racing around the house to see who can clean  more windows than the other.  Then  the windows start getting a bit drippy,  the arguing begins and the  squirt battle is on!   I get up to  a house smelling like a salad, two  boys yelling and  looking like they were  dipped IN a  salad and  a LOT of clean up. *sigh*  Time to open the windows........  oh, Henry!
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I added the photo above of the   boys actually   GETTING ALONG  because it's cute and also a  rare  occasion.  Also, I couldn't  find the one of  Henry making waffles   ON MY  BED.   :-)

Things Henry has taken apart........

this list is not inclusive-it extends only as far as my memory. ;-)

• his big wheeled bike
• all the outlet covers in the house
• a doorknob on the door to the garage
• the ladder off his  bunkbed
• he tries several times a week to take apart the swing set
• 2 or 3 scooters
• the totlocks on all the cabinets ( there's no such thing as childproofing here)
• he likes to remove  lightbulbs from  lamps

Things Henry has broken: ( beyond repair)

• a toaster oven
• the garage door
• 2  lap top computers
• a toaster
• DVD player
• VCR player
• 3 cabinet doors
• several window screens
• my ironing board
• a chair
• an MP3 player
• a set of blinds

 Just for fun. :-)   It's hard to be angry at him when he's so darn cute.  Oh yeah! He broke my bed  jumping on it like a trampoline.  It's now held up by some bricks and a lot of wishful thinking.  To be fair, his father (known here as " the ex")  broke the supports when we first bought the bed about 14 years ago. The ex is grossly overweight- always has been.   Henry is an active kid. He also has  ADHD, the family "gift." ;-) 
Stay tuned for more adventures, both past and present. find out why the cats avoid him even when he has food. ;-)

Say Hello to Henry

Welcome to my blog.  So many people who know me and know my family say to me " you should  write a book about Henry." ( or a blog!)  Well, I decided to take you  up on it.   What follows is  just a day in the life here at my home.  You may think you're going crazy reading about us or you may think that *I* am  crazy.  Nope. It's just  an average day here at the  home of the Herd!   Let me start at the beginning.
 Henry is my son and he's  8years old.  Henry also happens to have Down syndrome.  No one told him he has an extra chromosome  though and I doubt he'd care anyway. He's a happy guy most of the time, enjoys life and  does his thing. Henry is the baby of the family. He has  2 older brothers and  2 older sisters.   His sisters,Robin and Abby,  are  2/3rds   of a set of triplets born 11 years ago.  Their triplet brother, my son, Jack, died 10 days after their  extremely early birth.  Next in line is his big brother McLean, who at  9 yrs old, is  15 months older than Henry and STILL hasn't gotten over being replaced as the baby.   In addition to my Herd 'o  Children, we have a herd o' animals.  We share our home with 5 cats and  2 dogs.  They're just as quirky as the rest of the family.  More about them another time.  Though the poor animals DO feature into Henry's adventures much of the time!
Not a day goes by that  someone here doesn't wail " Oh Henry!"  for one reason or another.  Usually it's me.