Week 37 Update

This picture was after our walk on Wednesday. I love him in his hat! He is still wearing his pajamas and had on a sweatshirt and vest since it was cold out, and he is definitely colorful!

Harrison is still doing his army crawl and seems to have picked up the pace quite a bit. He does get up on his hands and knees and will take a handful of "real" crawl steps, but then he just drops back down and scampers off. Soon I know he'll master the full crawl and then he will be unstoppable.

Early last week he finally got the hang of sitting up on his own. He sure seems happy that he can now move himself from place to place and sit up once he arrives at his destination.

Today he took off for an open window and was so happy to look out of it, feel the breeze and bang on the screen.

Since he's so mobile I've had to contain him in his pack and play more frequently now. He doesn't seem to mind though, and loves to stand up and bounce in it, as well as chew on the rails.

Last weekend he got to see all of his grandparents...they were all down for a visit. It was really exciting for him to have so many extra people here to entertain him! He just kept looking from person to person and smiling, especially when he was in his high chair and they were all in the kitchen with him. So cute! Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of him with all of them...whoops!

Harrison still only has one tooth, and it is definitely making its way in. Now when he chomps on my finger it definitely hurts! His second one must not be far behind, but still hasn't emerged.

He has mastered picking up his puffs it is lots of fun for him to feed himself. He doesn't seem too interested in feeding himself anything that is mushy though. He just likes to squeeze it and mash it up. He did feed himself a couple of bites of banana yesterday before smashing the rest, so we are improving.

We tried mixing Cheerios with his puffs, but he has shunned the Cheerios, picking out the puffs and leaving most of the O's behind. He has eaten a few rice Chex, though, so there is hope that we can move beyond puffs at some point.

Here he is eating some Rice Chex this afternoon

Last week we moved Harrison from his infant car seat to a bigger convertible one. It is pretty big, and the box it came in is huge. On Monday it was rainy and cold so we didn't go out, and Harrison was getting a little antsy. Thank goodness for the box...what a fun new toy!

Finally, a tooth...and more tricks

Harrison had been drooling like crazy last week, leaving a trail everywhere he went. By Saturday the drool had stopped and a tooth had started to break through on the bottom of his mouth! His first tooth is finally here. It is just barely peeking through the skin, but definitely there. The second one is probably not far behind...soon he'll have two cute little chiclets peeking out on the bottom of his mouth.

On Saturday we met Harrison's friend Shane and his family for dinner. Harrison had a great time watching the kids and just being social. So fun!

Here they are checking each other out

Hanging with their dads

Over the weekend we brought out a new toy for Harrison. It is a little table that he can stand up and play with that makes all sorts of sounds. His cousin Jeffrey got it for his first Christmas, so it's been well-loved and waiting for Harrison to be ready to play with it. By today he had mastered standing up at it and was exploring all of its parts. He sure seems to be having fun!

Today when I went to get Harrison up from his morning nap he greeted me with a big smile standing up at the side of his crib. This is the first time he has pulled up to standing in his crib and he was so proud of himself. Who knows what this means for us from here...I sure hope this isn't what he plans on doing during the middle of the night.

While eating his sweet potatoes today Harrison decided to sample his toes...so cute! We normally have the tray on his high chair but I didn't put it on this time, and he reminded me why I need to keep it on there. His toes sure get dirty when he does this!

Eight months old...and new tricks!

Well, we've made it to eight months and are all doing great! We celebrated Harrison's pseudo-birthday by taking him to breakfast at Kerbey Lane. He got puffs while Daddy and I got migas and pancakes. Yum! He had a great time sitting in his high chair watching everything and shoveling puffs into his mouth. He is definitely a good restaurant patron.


Here we are at breakfast

Later that day we went down to tailgate for a bit before the UT-Colorado game. I have to say Harrison looked super cute in his little Texas shirt, jeans and shoes. He had such a great time people watching and just taking in all the sights and sounds. We pushed him through a huge crowd in his stroller and everyone started yelling and laughing at the "UT baby"...he just ate it up, smiling at everyone and was just a happy little guy.


On Sunday Harrison tried venison. We pureed a little bit of a venison roast and mixed it in with his carrots and apples--he likes chicken this way and he liked the venison too.

Harrison is very close to doing a real crawl. He is up on his hands and knees all the time rocking back and forth and has taken a couple of "crawl steps" the past couple days before he drops down to his belly and does his army crawl. He is all over the downstairs so once he can really crawl I am going to have my hands full for sure!

He has now mastered pulling up to standing at our ottoman. He gets to his knees and just pushes up to his feet and is so proud of himself when he does this. Whatever is sitting on the ottoman is now fair game, so I can't leave the computer, remotes, camera, etc. there because he is all over it. Harrison squeals with delight when he gets his hands on one of these things...then falls down to the ground with it in his hands because he has not figured out how to sit back down. He has even taken a few steps along the ottoman to get over to what it is he is going after.



Today we had our first big playdate at our house. We invited Shane and Hunter who we see pretty frequently, Olivia who we have had a playdate with before, and a new friend Miles who lives around the corner. It was so much fun to see all of the little ones explore each other. Shane was the first to arrive, and Harrison was crawling around the floor with the hiccups. Shane thought that was the funniest thing and just laughed each time Harrison hiccuped. I guess Harrison thought he'd get Shane back for laughing at him, so he crawled right over him...basically poor Shane was a speedbump in his way. Thankfully Shane didn't seem to mind :-)




All the babies had fun playing with different toys (and snatching them from each other!) and seemed to like to watch and touch other kids. It was a lot of fun to see all of them interact with each other. Trying to get the five of them lined up for a picture was definitely like herding cats. See for yourself:


Tonight we cooked salmon for dinner and made a little piece for Harrison. Mark broke it up into little pieces on his tray and he fed about 10 bites to himself. Yum Yum!! It is sooo good for him so we are really glad he liked it. And, it is easy to eat without teeth since he still doesn't have any.




They say you are what you eat, and that is quite true with Harrison. He loves sweet potatoes and carrots, and as a result of his very high intake of Vitamin A he sometimes has a bit of an orange tinge to him.



Oompa Loompa doompadee doo...


Here he is enjoying breakfast this week

Harrison's Big Adventure

Last week Harrison took his first plane ride! Harrison and I flew to Birmingham to visit my sister. Her husband was out of town all week, so my mom was there helping and we got to see her too. Harrison had a great time with his cousins Jeffrey and Charlie. They were very excited to see him.

We had a connecting flight each way and Harrison did great on all four flights. He slept at least some on three of them and was just charming the rest of the time. As he rode through the airport in his stroller there was so much to look at he was just in awe. On the plane he liked to stand on me and look over the seat at all of the people behind him. He was just a great traveler!

In Birmingham he got to ride in the middle seat of the mini-van, which meant he had someone to look at instead of staring at the back of the seat. That was quite exciting for him! Jeffrey and I were riding in the way back and he got a kick out of being able to see us.

Bath time was great fun because Charlie joined Harrison in the bath tub. He was so happy to have another little person in there with him. They just splashed and laughed themselves silly!

Susie has two cats and Harrison loved watching them. He was very intrigued by them and would whip his neck around to watch them when they went through the room. He never did catch one though, they were way too quick for him.

Harrison's cousins thought it was just hilarious when I fed him peas for breakfast. They couldn't believe that anyone would eat vegetables in the morning.

The weather was beautiful and we spent Friday at the zoo. Harrison seemed really excited to be there and to see all of the animals. There were a lot of school groups there while we were there so there were kids everywhere...so much to look at! He had fun cruising in his stroller with Jeffrey pushing him all around. He loved riding on the train that goes all through the zoo. After we stopped for lunch I put him in the hip carrier because I could tell he was getting tired. He just crashed after about five minutes there...fell fast asleep for about 30 minutes as we continued to walk around the zoo.

Cruising around the zoo


Riding on the zoo train


Sleeping at the zoo


My mom and the boys at the zoo

It was a short visit but we had a great time and it was so much fun to see Harrison play with his cousins. He just seemed so happy to have other kids around. He enjoyed playing outside with the boys, riding in the little red car, blowing bubbles and just watching them.

Riding in the red car

Harrison weighed in on Tuesday at 17.79 pounds. He's gained 10 pounds since was born almost eight months ago. Crazy!

He has gotten really fast at scooting around the house and loves to head down the hallway to the front door and try to grab the blinds before I catch him. He also loves to eat puffs. He is great at getting them in his mouth and gobbles them up as fast as we can put them on his tray. His new game is to try and get his bib off while we are feeding him. Once he yanks it off he waves it around in the air and laughs. It is pretty funny but at the same time can definitely make meals even more messy!

New Tricks

Somebody likes to play in the laundry basket!

Harrison has been up to some new tricks this week. He is doing a really good job mastering his pincher grip and has fun trying to pick up puffs off of his high chair tray. At dinner tonight he was able to feed himself eight puffs! Mark says he has 90% accuracy for getting them into his mouth. He likes to chomp on the puffs with his gums and seems so proud of himself when he actually gets one into his mouth. This video is from dinner yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon it was beautiful here so we sat outside and played for an hour. I just spread out a couple of blankets and put some toys down and let him loose. Of course he would rather be in the grass than on the blankets, and the first thing he did when he made it there was grab a handful of grass, rip it out of the ground, and try to eat it.

He also was not the least bit concerned about the pebbled driveway hurting his knees and proceeded to army crawl his way across it, scraping up his legs as he went. But he made it to his destination and was thrilled to finally get a hold of the hose. Go figure...who knows why these things excite him.

Mark came home while we were playing outside and when we put Harrison back on the blanket he pushed himself up on all fours and actually crawled a real crawl for a second! He did it a couple more times outside, and then again today he's been pushing up on all fours and rocking back and forth quite a bit. Maybe we'll see a real crawl here soon!

As I said, yesterday was just beautiful here, although it started out chilly in the morning. For our walk I bundled him all up in his hoodie and hat and looked so cute. He didn't mind the hat at all and didn't even try to pull it off. He was especially cheerful and smiled at all of the other walkers we saw...I just had to take a picture of him. So cute!

Last weekend we let Harrison ride in the shopping cart for the first time. I bought a big padded thing that covers all of the cart area that he could possibly touch (imagine the germs he'd get when he tried to suck on the handle!!) and gives him a nice padded spot to sit. It even comes with a pillow attached to help prop him up since he isn't quite sitting up by himself yet. He loves riding in there! He thought he was the king of Costco last Sunday, and this week when we went to the grocery store he was so happy that I took a picture of him.

Baby Pull Ups

Harrison has been working on pulling himself up for sometime now. He tries to pull up to get into his toy bin all the time, but never manages to get his knees up under him to make it happen.

Well, today he finally managed to pull up. We were sitting on the floor in front of the couch and ottoman, and he wanted my shoes, so I put them on top of the ottoman. He reached up for them, and then inched his way to finally making it up on his knees! He had the biggest grin on his face and was so proud of himself.

He did it twice, so it wasn't just a fluke. The last time he did it he tried to get greedy and stand up, and promptly fell back down. Whoops.

Now we just need to get him up on his knees for a real crawl and he'll be unstoppable.

Thirty-two weeks...

Here we are, another week gone by and a few more stories to tell.

Last Tuesday we went to our friend Olivia's house for a playdate. She lives a few cul-de-sacs down from us so it was fun to be able to just hop in the stroller and walk on down there. Olivia is a sweet, petite little girl and she sits up straight with perfect baby posture. Harrison isn't sitting up on his own yet, but he had no problem scurrying about her living room, checking out all of her toys and occasionally grabbing one from her. I am sure he will get his payback from all of his little friends once they can move.

While we were there Harrison did his "pose", where when he crawls he stops and turns to the side. Mark and I have joked that he looks like George Costanza...so when he did his pose at Olivia's house and her mom Jeanne said, "Look, it's George" I just fell over laughing. See for yourself...Harrison almost has it down perfectly...at least for a baby :-)

On Thursday I took Harrison to the doctor to check out a small rash on the inside of his arms. Turns out it was just eczema and is almost gone already, so not a big deal. But, while we were there we measured Harrison because he sure looked like he had grown...and boy had he ever! In five weeks Harrison grew 1.5 inches!! He is now in the 70% percentile for height at 27 3/4". He was weighed with his clothes on (and a wet diaper...) and came in at 17lbs 9oz, so he's probably a little bit less than that in reality. That put him in the 30% percentile for weight.

Later that day our friend Shane came over while his mom ran to the dentist. The two boys had fun rolling around on the floor together. They are so cute...grabbing each other and trying to figure out what to do with another little person.

On Saturday we tried out the swing at the playground next to our house. Harrison isn't quite ready for it yet, he kind of sloshed back and forth in it. But he loves being outside so hopefully soon he'll be able to enjoy the swing.

Harrison still likes to eat! He loves his carrots, and now he's enjoying sweet potatoes and peas too. He loves eating bananas in his mesh feeder. It's a little mesh bag with a handle on it. You put a piece of banana in it and he can suck on the mesh bag. It lets him eat the fruit without worrying about choking. He tried a piece of peach in it over the weekend and seemed to like that as well. Today I put some blueberry puree in his baby oatmeal and he really liked that. And he is having fun eating rice biscuits and trying to get little puffs into his mouth. He actually got a few in tonight, so he's getting better, but is still a really messy eater as you can see.

Seven Months

Well, here we are, seven months old. It's really hard to believe that Harrison is already past the six-month mark and closer to a year now than to being a newborn. Time has really just flown right by.

He is getting much faster with his crawling, although it is still an army-esque crawl and not a full hands and knees crawl. That has not stopped him from exploring the entire first floor. I spend quite a bit of time just following him and seeing what new and interesting thing has caught his eye. He definitely has a few favorite spots, none of which are remotely baby-appropriate.

If given the opportunity he would climb into the fireplace, so that is currently blocked off by a piece of cardboard. His next stop is the volume knob on the receiver, so now we have to make sure to adjust the volume before turning on the TV. From there he grabs the basket that holds a few blankets, pulls out the top one and plays with the fringe.

Once he is finished with the living room he heads into the kitchen, where he likes to lick the glass door of the wine chiller. Guess the cold glass feels good on his mouth. Then he finds his way to the other side of the kitchen and plays with a big metal bin that we use to hold drinks for parties. Oh...and if the dishwasher is open he tries to lend a hand with the unloading.

All sorts of fun things for a boy to do!

He has also discovered that a new way to play with his exersaucer:

Harrison seems to enjoy eating his carrots quite a bit. Daddy feeds him every night when he gets home from work. Sometimes Harrison is just hungry and opens wide...other times he wants to help with the meal, which ends up just a wee bit messy!

On Thursday I took Harrison to the mall to have pictures made since he was seven months old and I had a coupon for the picture place. Not the best day, since it was raining (have you ever tried getting a baby out of a car seat and into a stroller with an umbrella? Not easy!) and they were running 30 minutes late. They turned out OK...not great. But, good enough that someday when I show his future prom date she will think he was quite a cute little boy :-).

Over the weekend his Grandma and Grandpa visited and they got to see all of his new tricks. He had fun playing with them!

Today Harrison had to get his last round of six-month shots...I split them up so he wasn't getting so many at one time. The nurse let him sit on my lap instead of making him lay down on the table, which helped a ton! He acted like he was going to cry after he got his shot, but then I turned him around to hug him and he looked at me and the nurse and started laughing. SO much better than all of his last shots!

Hook 'Em Horns

We spent today educating Harrison on what he'll spend the rest of his life (at least while he lives with us) doing during the fall.

Hooray for the start of college football season!!

We didn't actually take Harrison to the game, but did take him down to campus to tailgate for a bit. He cruised in his orange stroller and then hung out in the baby bjorn for a while. There was a lot to look at, and he seemed to have a great time just taking it all in.