Recently Meg asked Henry if he had any bad dreams. He said he had one about bugs walking towards him. Sounds scary to me! He also told her that his good dreams were about trucks. That sounds right to me.

In other news Hazel has her first tooth (a bottom one) coming in.

3 small dollars and one half dollar ...

1,640 quarters produced one proof half (1981S), two Canadians and one US dime. The proof quarter is in really good condition. :)



1,100 dimes yielded one Canadian and one UK 5 pence.

880 nickels rounded up one War Time (1943P), two Canadians and one Bermuda 5¢.

2,250 pennies had six Wheats and six Canadians.

1920, 1939, 1944, 1945(2), 1957D

Found: 2 pennies

This weekend we had Henry's first third birthday party at our house. It was an all family event. Meg worked a lot on the part and it totally paid off. Henry seemed to really enjoy everything. He's got a friend party this weekend and two more family events soon. We're keeping the balloons and streamers up for a while. The cake, however, is mostly gone. :(



This year Meg made Henry a construction cake.



Henry was very excited by his cake and blew out the candles himself (Meg came in to assist, but I think he blew them out just before she helped him out).



Hazel collapsed in Nonnie's arms mid-way through the party.



Henry was really good with the presents. We were proud of him. We even got him to say thank you to everyone who gave him the gifts he just opened.



My mother knitted Hazel a scarf that went with her outfit. She looked very stylish.



Henry has been enjoying the walkie-talkie's he got very much. I'm struggling a bit to get him to press the button and then talk, but we're still having fun talking to him from different rooms.

8,000 halves turned up just one 90% silver half (1951).

Found: 2 pennies, 1 nickel, 3 dimes, 1 quarter

98 small dollars and 4 half dollars didn't have anything.

760 quarters turned up just two Canadians.

5,100 dimes (not sure why I collected so many dimes compared to the other denominations) yielded three silver Rosies (1952, 1954, 1962D), ten Canadians, two US pennies and one Barbados 10¢.

360 nickels had nothing.

950 pennies rounded up just three Wheats (1948, 1951D, 1958D) and nine Canadians.

Here's a good picture of Hazel crawling in our sun room. She follows us just about anywhere. I'm not sure when she'll "properly" crawl or walk because this inch worm technique of her's seems to work out just fine for her. Her biggest problem is her turn radius. Sometimes she gets stuck places simply because she can't turn around.

Henry has also been humoring us. I found two things he said this weekend particularly cute. First at the car dealer, while crawling inside a two seater, he said, "where's the kid part?" (the backseat). Second a few nights after a scary thunderstorm we had this conversation:

"Thunderstorms come this night?"

"Nope, there shouldn't be any tonight."

"Where'd they go?"

"The wind blew them away".

"Why?"

"Because other people need rain, I guess."

"What rain do? ... rain make puddles."

"Rain helps things grow and we need rain to clean things."

Lastly, Meg sent me this e-mail yesterday morning about an imaginary friend of Henry's:

A blue dog named Shadow (I named her). She's a small dog who sometimes works at Dunkin' Donuts (ie. the box fort). She likes blocks, taking naps under Hazel's yellow blanket, and dog food. :)

When I got home Henry had switched imaginary friends and was a having a fun time pretending his real friend Griffin was over to play.

In coins -

8,200 quarters turned up one proof quarter (2001S NY), four Canadians, four US nickels and three US pennies. Yeah! Another new proof quarter for me.



2,400 dimes had just one silver Rosie (1957) and three Canadians.

1,760 nickels produced one Buffalo (1930), three Canadians and a Bermuda 5¢.

6,500 pennies rounded up one Indian Head (1907), thirty-two Wheats, forty Canadians, three US dimes and one Euro 2¢. That's my first Indian Head penny of 2011.



1920(2), 1926, 1927, 1930, 1937, 1938, 1944(4), 1944D, 1946(2), 1949, 1950S, 1951S, 1952, 1952D, 1953, 1953D, 1955(2), 1956(2), 1956D(3), 1957D(3), 1958D

8,000 halves had just one 90% silver half (1964), two 40% silver halves (1966, 1968D) and two proof halves (1987S, 2001S).

6,750 pennies yielded fifty Wheats, fifty-eight Canadians and one US nickel.

1920, 1937, 1939, 1940(2), 1941(3), 1942D, 1942S, 1944, 1945(3), 1946(6), 1947, 1948(3), 1949(2), 1949D, 1950(2), 1951D(3), 1953(3), 1953S, 1954D, 1955(2), 1956(5), 1956D(3), 1957, 1957D, 1958D

Found: 2 pennies

2,000 nickels turned up one War Time (1943P), sixteen Canadians and one Bermuda 5¢. In the batch was also a 1949S.

8,250 pennies rounded up forty-one Wheats, forty-nine Canadians, six US dimes and one Euro 1¢.

1910, 1918, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1941(2), 1944(5), 1946, 1947(3), 1948, 1949, 1950, 1950S, 1952, 1953D(3), 1954, 1954D(2), 1955, 1955D, 1956(3), 1956D(3), 1957D(3), 1958, 1958D

For part of Meg's birthday we went to the "Red Diner" (as Henry calls it). Here's Hazel enjoying her favorite, a Mum-Mum.



Two weekends ago we went to a local McDonald's for cousin Liam's birthday. In this picture Liam's giving Henry a gentle push down a little slide. They had a lot of fun together dealing with the big kids. "What Liam say to me?," Henry asked us on the way home. "I fall down big slide on my bum."



Hazel playing with a dollhouse. She likes this, cars, printed material, heating vents, crinkly stuff and finger foods.



A few days ago Henry told Meg that he wanted to make a slide. He said he needed wood. She told him we didn't have any in the house. He then opened our closet and got out this piece of our dining room table. Pretty good idea!

I did really well with last night's coins.

62 small dollars and 6 halves didn't get me anything.

4,560 quarters produced one silver Washington (1952S), nineteen Canadians, four US nickels, one Canadian nickel (1 Ni), one UAE Dirham and a India Half Rupee (1943). I hadn't found a silver quarter in about a month; finding one that was a new for me was great! I have also had a goal of finding a non-Canadian foreign silver coin - the Indian coin fits the bill! It is 50% silver, .0937 ounces ASW. The design is really cool and it's condition seems excellent to me.



3,800 dimes rounded up two silver Rosies (2 x 1959D), thirty-five Canadians (a record), two Barbados 10¢, one Cayman Islands 5¢, one Aruba 10¢ and one US penny.

1,280 nickels had thirteen Canadians (1 Ni), one Brazil 5¢ (been finding a lot of these lately) and one Bermuda 5¢. This is about half the nickels I gathered, I'm expecting a lot more Canadians.

2,200 quarters turned up three Canadians, one UK 10 pence, one UK 5 pence (1979, bigger size) and a new US variety, 2010D Mt. Hood.

2,900 dimes produced three silver Rosies (1956, 2 x 1964), three Canadians, one UK 5 pence and one US penny.

2,620 nickels yielded five Canadians.

I haven't gotten through the pennies just yet.

It's been a slow, but I think we're all on the path to recovery at our house. The sickness we've been dealing with a lengthy one. Hazel is still showing a lot of spirit. She's been very silly lately and has begun talking, using the "dah-dah" sound a lot. Henry's has been his usual talkative self. He's asking "what you say?" and other such questions constantly. (It can get a little old.) He's also been coming out with some funny stuff. After I told him Hazel was making monster sounds, he told me, "Hazel not monster baby. Hazel just baby." He also told Meg yesterday, "That not doctor on phone, that Target. Target say come buy a new car."

I had some pretty good luck with my coin searching this past weekend and managed to pick up a bit more yesterday.

9 large dollars and 3 small dollars didn't have anything.

8,002 half dollars produced four 90% silver halves (1954D, 1963D, 1964, 1964D), forty-seven 40% silver halves (1965, 5 x 1966, 15 x 1967, 16 x 1968D, 10 x 1969D) and two proof halves (1986S, 1992S).

520 quarters had just one UK 10 pence and a Jamaica 10¢.

600 dimes turned up three Canadians.

360 nickels didn't have anything.

1,450 pennies yielded four Wheats (1941, 1944, 1953D, 1956D), eight Canadians and one US dime.

(I'm saving my personal reflections for a later posting. I'm still feeling sick and have been sick all week. Yuck.)

70 small dollars turned up one East Caribbean States dollar.



2,240 quarters produced one proof quarter (2005S Kansas) and three Canadians. I was hoping to break out of my silver quarter slump, but a new proof is pretty cool as well, even if this one is scuffed up.



2,250 dimes yielded two silver Rosies (1946, 1961), seven Canadians and one UK 5 pence.

1,280 nickels rounded up five Canadians (2 Ni), two US pennies and one Thai 1 Baht.

6,000 pennies had thirty-five Wheats, fifty Canadians and on US dime.

1913, 1936, 1937, 1941, 1942(4), 1944(3), 1945(4), 1948(2), 1951(2), 1952, 1952D, 1953(2), 1953D(2), 1954S, 1955, 1955D(2), 1956, 1956D, 1957D(3), 1958D

Just a coin update before I get too ahead of myself ...

I searched 19 small dollars, but didn't find anything.

4,520 quarters had six Canadians, one Chuckie Cheese token, one East Caribbean States 25¢ and one US dime.

4,150 dimes produced one silver Rosie (1946), fourteen Canadians, two Polish 10 Grozy and one Belgian 1 franc.

920 nickels rounded up just two Canadians (1 Ni) and one Brazil 5¢. In the mix was also a key date Jefferson, the 1938D. That's only the second 1938D I've found.

4,500 pennies turned up twenty-five Wheats, thirty-six Canadians and one US dime.

1919, 1930(2), 1941, 1941D, 1944, 1945(2), 1946(2), 1947, 1951, 1952D(4), 1953(2), 1953D, 1955(2), 1956D(2), 1957D(2)

Found: 2 pennies

As I am sure anyone can imagine all this snow we've gotten has made just about everything difficult (we've got two piles near our driveway that are about 8-9 feet tall and everywhere else it is at least 4-5 feet). It's tough to drive around, get out of the driveway and to get coin. Seems like no one has time to dump off much coin at their local bank ... go figure!

136 small dollars didn't have anything.

8,000 halves were good to me. In them was nine 90% silver halves (1953D, 8 x 1964), eighty-two 40% silver halves (2 x 1965, 8 x 1966, 25 x 1967, 21 x 1968D, 26 x 1969D) and one half with an Obama sticker on it, the third such half I've found.

2,880 quarters produced just one Canadian and one Barbados 25¢.

1,350 dimes had two Canadians and two Bermuda 10¢

920 nickels rounded up one War Time (1943P), one Bermuda 5¢ and one Brazil 5¢.

1,300 pennies turned up seven Wheats and four Canadians.

1945, 1951, 1952, 1953D(2), 1956D, 1957D

Found: 2 pennies, 1 nickel and 1 dime