Merry Christmas and more

Merry Christmas!

We have a lot to report since our last post. First of all, last Friday, Harrison's second top tooth popped through. A week later it looks like it has been there forever. Crazy how fast that happens. Then, today, we noticed that a third top tooth has come through! His top left side has two teeth now...no wonder he's been chewing on everything lately.

Every night at dinner and afterwards, Mark reads stories with Harrison. One of the books they always read is a Spanish words book. Harrison really pays attention and enjoys it because there are photos of real things in it. When they see the dog, each time Mark says "perro" and then pants like a dog, because that is the sign language sign for dog. On Tuesday I was playing with Harrison and asked him what a dog says. I said dog and perro, and then he panted like a dog! Amazing!

He had seen a dog on a Baby Einstein video a couple of days before and sounded like he was panting when it came on the screen, but we couldn't get him to do it again even when we rewinded the video. Now he does it when the dogs come on during the video and he will do it if we ask him what a dog says. So cool!

Now he will also clap if you ask him if he can clap. He gets a big grin on his face and claps his hands. It is so cool to see him understand things.

And today he started waving! My mom is here and she was waving at him across the room and he waved back. His version of a wave is to hold his hand up high and just kind of hold it there. It is clearly a wave though if you watch him and wave to him. We just have to work on the hand motion a bit :-)

Harrison seemed to enjoy his Christmas. While he didn't know really what was going on, he was excited to come down and see a few new toys set up for him to play with. He has fun playing with his basketball goal that cheers whenever he dunks on the rim. He also got a shopping cart that makes noise and plays music whenever you put things in the basket, so he has been pushing that around the floor and putting things in and out of the basket.

He also got a new chair that he fits perfectly into...when he's not turned around and trying to climb up the back of it to grab onto whatever he is not supposed to grab onto.

He also grew attached to some of the kitchen gadgets I got--namely an ice cream/cookie dough scoop and a potholder for the handle of a pan.

We have blocked off an area we don't want him to get into using chairs, but quickly discovered that he was able to scoot under the chairs like a snake and worm his way over there. Great. So now we find him grinning and banging on the glass table. Not exactly the best play place for a baby.

Here we are on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! On Sunday Harrison and I are flying with my mom to Birmingham to visit my sister and her boys, so we'll report back after that trip. Let's hope all goes well with our travels.

Busy Boy!

Here we are doing laundry again, one of our favorite things to do these days.

Well, I've been trying to update the blog for several days now, but each time I sit down to do it, someone takes off into the kitchen. That same someone has figured out how to open the kitchen cabinets! Since we don't have the baby locks on the cabinets yet, I am forced to follow him and keep him out of danger. Guess what we are doing tonight? Gotta put locks on those cabinets to keep mommy sane. And, if he gets into the pantry, he gets so excited he doesn't know what to grab first!








On Saturday we took Harrison to get a pair of "real" shoes. He has his cute little pediped brown and orange shoes, but they just weren't working with his knit sweatpant style pants. So, now he has a super cool pair of Saucony running shoes! Who knew those came that small? And, now his toes won't freeze--he was always taking his socks off, but now he can't. Ha! He does look really grown up wearing these shoes, so it is kind of freaking me out...he looks WAY more like a little boy than a baby!



Later that day his Grandma and Grandpa stopped by for a visit, so he got to spend the afternoon showing them all of his new tricks.

On Sunday we made an elk roast. Guess who liked it? That's right! We put some pieces of elk on his tray and he happily fed them to himself.

I also tried spaghetti sauce again, and he loved that. Just a basic meat and tomato sauce without pasta, and he gobbled it right up. Look how happy he is to be eating it!

He also had some black beans and green beans this week and liked those as well. We are trying to get him to like more diverse food...but he sure didn't like the taco meat he tried tonight. He spit that right back at Daddy. Right now yogurt is by far his favorite food. He smiles when he sees the little yo-baby containers. It is pretty much the only food that he will eat that without requiring some sort of distraction to keep him from batting at the food.

Today I took Harrison to meet Santa. He didn't cry, but he sure wondered why I had handed him to some strange man. He is expression says it all.

Harrison is working on walking. Scary...soon he will be everywhere.

New Tricks and New Teeth

Harrison came down with a cold last Tuesday and is still trying to shake it. Poor little guy has had a runny nose and a cough since then. No fun. He sure doesn't like to have his nose wiped and will do whatever he can to avoid it.

Thankfully he is feeling much better now and is just about back to his old self. He had a few pretty pathetic days where he just felt like sitting in our laps and not doing anything, which is very out of character for our busy boy.

One thing he did master over the last week is clapping. It is so cute! He had been trying for about a week and then bam! He just figured out how to get his hands to work together and since then hasn't quit. He has gotten really good at it now and loves to clap when he sees us clap or when one of the kids on a Baby Einstein video claps. Sometimes he just starts clapping randomly. He is definitely proud of himself when he does it.

We noticed over the past couple of weeks that Harrison looked like he'd be getting his two top teeth in sometime soon. His gums had gotten more swollen and he had been chewing on everything he could get his little hands on. On Tuesday his left top tooth popped through. I guess that sweet little gummy smile is gone forever now...sad, but exciting too.

Last week we got snow for a brief few minutes...nothing stuck to the ground or anything, but Harrison did enjoy watching it. He also likes to lick the windows when they are cold, so now all of our front windows that are low to the ground have lick marks all over them!

Harrison's books are in a basket in the living room. He has lots of fun taking them out and throwing them all over the floor. Too bad he doesn't have as much fun putting them back into the basket. We'll have to work on that next.

It is so hard to believe that he is ten months old. Where has this year gone? He is definitely more little boy than baby now and is growing up every day.

Overdue Update!

Sorry it's been so long since we last posted an update!

Harrison has had lots of visitors over the past couple of weeks. The weekend before Thanksgiving our friends Matt and Jennifer came to stay with us. Their daughter Sophie is almost exactly a year older than Harrison. He was quite interested in her since she was walking and talking.

They both dressed up in their Longhorn gear for gameday and looked so cute together!




My sister and her family along with my mom were here for Thanksgiving. Harrison got to play with his cousins all week long. He had a lot of fun watching them and even playing with them a bit. We all went to the children's museum together and he had a great time watching all of the kids there. He had fun sitting with Jeffrey watching Baby Einstein. Watching him sit with Jeffrey really drives home how big he's gotten!



He tried turkey but wasn't too fond of it. So, his Thanksgiving dinner was yogurt. Oh well, maybe next year.



Harrison is so much fun now. He can crawl FAST and is into everything he can get anywhere near. We blocked off the front hallway from the living room, but he has figured out he can get there through the kitchen. He likes to look out the front windows because they are down low so he can just sit there and look out. He also likes to stand under the kitchen table and walk from chair to chair. We have fun reading to him and he seems to still really enjoy stories.

He loves eating yogurt--he smiles when he sees the container. He also loves steel cut oatmeal with fruit puree in it. We spend our days crawling from room to room and getting into whatever trouble is around. He is babbling so much more now that it really sounds like he is trying to have a conversation with you. Mark chases him around and Harrison laughs and crawls as fast as he can, and just cracks up when he is finally caught.

It's hard to believe that time has flown by so fast and that he is already almost ten months old. He is such a happy little guy!