- [Hannah] How do you wanna do bumper cars?
Dance party!
Now can you come pick?
Lumberjack vibes.
(Hannah laughs)
Is it yummy?
- Mhm. - [Hannah] Good.
Hi, I'm Hannah.
I'm the world's OK-est mom
and I have one very strong-willed toddler.
This is Henry.
We know him, we love him.
(Henry laughs)
And Henry very much likes getting his way.
So guess what we're gonna do for a whole week, Henry?
We're gonna make him the boss.
Do you wanna be the boss?
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
- Henry's gonna be the boss? - Yes.
So wish us luck!
Henry is an incredibly opinionated toddler,
very frustrated in general toddler
and just incredibly particular.
He thinks he's an only child
and he thinks he is also in charge of everybody else.
(Henry babbles)
So, I kind of wanna see what happens
if he actually gets his way.
I think there's a notion that,
oh I'm spoiling him by letting him have his way.
But, I found with my kids when I listen to them
and when I acknowledge
what they're expressing in their needs,
it actually develops a lot of trust between us.
So Henry's very clear about his wants and needs
throughout the day,
but I also wanna gamify this a little bit and make it fun.
So I purchased a spinning wheel.
We're gonna write all of Henry's favorite things on it
and he gets to spin it,
and that will determine what we as a family do.
So the wheel arrives,
I sit down with Henry to write out the options
and I didn't realize how much of a struggle
this was gonna be
because he kind of has a default answer
to any time you ask what his favorite anything is,
and his answer is-
- Blue one.
- Blue one. - Yeah.
- Okay.
So he didn't have much to offer when it came to the wheel
'cause he didn't quite understand
that I was asking him to list off his favorite things to do.
What's your favorite thing to do for fun?
- Um,
blue one.
- Blue one?
Well we have blue one here.
Where do you like to go outside?
(Henry babbles)
- I cannot give you this marker.
So Henry was not much help in coming up with options,
so I enlisted Jackson to help me come up
with what to write on this wheel.
- Trampoline car game.
- You know the car game you guys play?
- Dance party.
- Jackson dyed his hair.
He has been begging to have red hair.
I think it's inspired by Markiplier,
but I feel like such an old lady,
I mix up all of the YouTubers.
But I took him to the salon
and he got his hair professionally done for his first time
and he looks amazing.
[Hannah] So the wheel ended up with
trampoline, Henry walk, Henry styles everyone,
arm time, play with Wilder, Mama take head off,
cereal bars, dance party, car game, and blue one.
Some of those don't make any sense, but they will.
So just, just keep watching.
[Hannah] Henry, are you gonna spin the wheel?
Okay.
Henry walk?
So basically, we like to go on a lot of walks.
We have great hiking trails in our neighborhood
but Henry is very opinionated
about the way in which he participates in the walk.
[Hannah] Looks like he's ready for a walk.
We get outside, we're raring to go on this walk.
And he decides,
I don't wanna walk, I wanna ride bumper cars.
(Henry babbles)
[Hannah] How do you wanna do bumper cars?
We have a set of two bumper cars
that I actually got him for his birthday,
and they're so cute
and they have a remote that the parent can control too.
But it's the easiest electric vehicle
that he can operate and maneuver himself
without being dangerous.
So Henry got in the bumper car and we had to follow him.
The only thing with this bumper car is it's very slow.
So it was this weird like funeral procession.
You know, overall, no tantrums
so that walk was a success in my book.
Maybe next time I'll let the boys go ahead though.
[Hannah] What does this say, Henry?
(Henry babbles)
Dance party!
- [Hannah] Let's do it! - [Jackson] Dance party!
- [Hannah] Let's go dance party.
He loves to dance.
He loves listening to music and jumping around
and just having a blast.
But he really goes back and forth on
who is allowed to dance and what they're allowed to do.
Come on, Henry.
(upbeat music)
- No, no, no. - [Hannah] Oh, oh, I can't?
So for this particular dance party,
I was not allowed to dance.
(upbeat music)
- [Henry] No, no, no. - [Hannah] No?
Okay.
I don't know what I did to deserve this
but I was not allowed to dance.
I was on the outs and anytime I tried to move,
I was completely shut down.
So, it was a kid's dance party apparently.
I could never leave my camera unattended
without a little trolling,
but they're so cute.
- [Hannah] Jackson is spinning on Henry's behalf.
(wheel spins)
Henry styles everyone today.
(Hannah gasps)
We're gonna go to the zoo!
Do you wanna pick everyone's outfits?
This is really where he excels
'cause he is super into fashion.
He's super into clothes
and very particular about what he wears,
so I was really excited to see
what he would pick for everybody else.
(Henry babbles)
[Hannah] Okay, these pants?
Okay, get a shirt.
No, we can't just keep taking pants out.
Get a shirt.
(Henry babbles)
[Hannah] Oh, that's a great shirt.
So Henry chose a sheep shirt and brown pants.
Unfortunately, those brown pants no longer fit
and he had to pick a different pair of pants.
[Hannah] What should Mommy wear?
- Dark jeans.
- [Hannah] These jeans?
- Dark jeans.
- [Hannah] This? - [Henry] Yeah.
- [Hannah] Okay.
I don't have a full length mirror but-
(Henry cries)
this outfit definitely not something I would pick
and I'm gonna need a jacket so he'll pick that too.
But here we are.
Jackson actually tried to con the system
by putting his favorite clothes on the top of his drawers.
(Hannah laughs)
So he did get his favorite pair of jeans
but then Henry really dug deep
and pulled out this plaid, flannel button down
that Jackson, I don't think has ever worn,
because Jackson is very particular about his clothes,
specifically shirts,
and he wants everything to be seven sizes too big
and this is just a little too fitted for him.
[Hannah] You're looking really good.
- Thank you.
- [Hannah] I give Jackson's outfit a 10 out of 10.
I thought he looked great.
And then for himself, Henry insisted on wearing his Adidas.
He calls them his white shoes
and he absolutely loves them.
Hashtag not sponsored,
but Adidas, if you wanna send me some backups,
I would certainly appreciate it.
- Now you spin the wheel.
- [Hannah] Me spin the wheel?
- Yeah.
(wheel spins)
- [Hannah] Mom take head off.
You wanna take my head off?
- [Henry] Yeah.
- So probably the weirdest thing on the wheel
is "Mom take head off"
and I truly don't know where it came from,
why it happened, what it is,
but Henry is obsessed with trying to take my head off.
- Wow, you came close.
(Henry babbles)
Did you take my head off?
- Yeah.
- Kay.
Whoa.
Good job!
I feel like every toddler has a weird,
kind of like impossible obsession.
Not necessarily the heads, but just something weird.
Please let me know so I can feel better.
So next the wheel landed on trampoline time
but we decided first to bring out some treats
to my chickens.
[Hannah] Oh hi, chicken.
You wanna give them their treats?
- [Henry] Yeah.
- [Hannah] What do we have for them?
- Strawberries.
- [Hannah] Strawberries.
So you take this and you set it on the ground, okay?
Okay?
Set it down.
Watch out, don't step in-
No, no, no, no.
Okay, put it down.
Put it down!
No, no, no.
Just leave it, Henry.
Oh my God.
Chase them back in.
(Hannah laughs)
And then he hopped on the trampoline.
So at this point, halfway through the week,
I feel like things are pretty easy.
He's being pretty manageable
and I think he's really happy
in having a little more autonomy.
- Ow.
(Henry babbles)
- [Hannah] Guess who's coming over?
- What?
- [Hannah] Guess.
- What?
- [Hannah] Who's coming over?
- Dada.
- No.
Who's coming over?
- Oh, Wilder.
- [Hannah] Wilder?
- Yeah.
- [Hannah] Yeah.
(Hannah laughs)
I am not exaggerating when I say that little kid friendships
are the cutest thing in the entire world.
Henry has one best friend.
Well, he has one friend.
But he's also his best friend.
His name is Wilder and he lives down the street.
They're really close in age and they just love each other.
[Hannah] Who's here?
(Henry babbles)
- [Hannah] Wilder's here!
- Rawr!
- [Hannah] Rawr!
So they're at that age
where they're actually playing together and interacting
and playing with toys,
but they're very hot and cold with each other
but also obsessed with each other at the same time.
I really love encouraging them to play
because Wilder is such a good influence on Henry.
He is really calm.
- Rawr!
- [Hannah] He's a lot more gentle
and he plays really well with just about anyone.
He's a great kid.
After they play,
Henry is always in a really good mood
and just a little more chill,
which I really appreciate.
Thank you, Wilder.
- Rawr!
- [Hannah] Should we spin?
I'll get you a cherry.
- No.
- Here.
Hold on.
Ready?
(wheel spins)
Good job.
Let's see.
Blue one.
Last but not least,
couldn't have a Henry week without a blue one.
Which I'm still trying to figure out what it means.
Not sure if this blue one was a food, or a toy,
or an outfit.
Pretty much everything is blue one.
But if you saw in the other episode
where the kids meal plan the week
and I had to make blue one,
the kids were so amped on the crepes that I made
that I decided to bring it back for this week too.
Blue one 2.0 and I got my berry compote.
This time I added more whole berries to it.
So there's a lot more 'cause that was very popular.
And I'm gonna do this one with honey.
And I even did whipped cream and compote
just to make this an epic, epic meal.
This is one of Henry's favorite foods of all time,
hands down.
He's obsessed with whipped cream.
He's obsessed with berry compote
and he's obsessed with crepes.
So he was really happy.
- [Jackson] Hi, Henry.
Is it yummy?
(Hannah laughs)
- [Hannah] How is it Jackson?
- Good.
- So thanks to blue one for ending the week on a high note.
So at the end of this week,
I was actually a lot happier
than I thought I was going to be.
I have so many apprehensions about Henry
no longer being the youngest
because he is so happy being the youngest.
So I really think he deserved this week.
I think also it does teach good autonomy.
It teaches good ways of expressing your needs and wants.
And I think catering to some needs and wants
at his age is important.
There is a kind way to communicate and an unkind way.
And so if we encourage the kind ways of communicating
and show that he gets the result he wants out of it,
I think it just encourages
that type of communication even more.
I really encourage trying this if you have a toddler.
It's really funny to see what they would do
if they had their way.
So that's all for now.
I'm Hannah.
And Henry, what did you think of your special week?
- Baby blue.
- Baby blue?
You wanna do blue nails?
(Henry babbles)
- Okay.
'Til next time!
(upbeat music)