Long overdue update

Here we are...trying to get out of baby jail :-). He loves to hang on the gate and try to open it. Thankfully he hasn't figured it out yet!



My apologies for not updating since last year...happy 2010 to everyone.



We had a fun trip to Birmingham right after Christmas. Thankfully Harrison was great on the airplane. Although he didn't enjoy being held for that long, he was at least cheerful and charming.



He had a great time on our outings while we were there. We went bowling and he loved watching all the action. He could be as loud as he wanted to and he fit right in with the crowd at the bowling alley.



The next day we took a trip to the local museum, which was great fun. There were kids everywhere, and he had so much fun watching them. The top floor was filled with a model train exhibit, and he really like watching the trains go round. We also visited the bottom floor with the mini aquarium. He had fun watching the fish in the big tank and tried to touch the fish when they swam by.



His favorite part of the visit was the "just my size" area. It had a few things that were perfect for him. He loved the water table, where the water pours down a metal table that was just the right height for him. There are all sorts of little water toys to play with there, and he was just thrilled...and didn't even care when the kid next to him dumped an entire beaker full of water down his front. That ended our time there, but he definitely had fun.

Another highlight of his trip was his visit to the "books and trains" store (Barnes and Noble). He couldn't believe his good fortune when I plopped him down in front of the train table! He had a great time banging trains all over the table and walking his way around it.

Harrison took his baths in the kitchen sink, which his cousins thought was very funny! He was happy as could be there, and didn't seem to mind a bit. He really had fun just watching his cousins run around and play, and liked to play cars with them. He's already all about anything with wheels. We had a great time even though it was a short visit, but it was good to get home because Harrison sleeps much better here!

Last weekend Harrison figured out how to drink from a straw. He just had to watch me do it once, and then somehow he was able to make it work. He was so excited! He just smiled and let the water run all down his face...what a mess, but at least now he is easily entertained by drinking water from his straw cup.

We had left one kitchen cabinet un-babyproofed because Harrison had enjoyed getting into the tupperware. But, once he figured out how to take ALL of it out of the cabinet while he hung from the shelf that rolls out (danger!) we decided to make that one off limits too. What a mess!

Since Harrison is fast as lightning and will get into anything and everything he is not supposed to, he sometimes has to spend a few minutes in his pack n play to keep him out of danger. While he protests at first, he soon starts doing his new trick and cracking himself (and us) up. He will smash his face against the netting and make his little nose stick up like a pig nose. It is so funny, and he just laughs hysterically. He really loves it if you do it too, and he pokes at your face while laughing. It's hard to see here, but really is too cute.

Harrison is pulling up on everything, and cruising along the furniture. He has stood on his own for a second here or there. It won't be long before he is walking. Scary. We'll have to really keep an eye on him then, as he is already into anything he can get his hands onto!

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!

Just a few fun pictures...

This boy is into everything!

Harrison checked out great at his nine-month check-up on Thursday. He weighed in at 18lbs 8oz and 28 1/2 inches. He's 20% for weight and 60% for height. Long and lean :-)

Last week Harrison decided he wanted to help with the laundry. He did a great job pulling wet clothes out of the dryer as I put them in there. Very productive!

He has a new fish face he likes to make. He is so funny. He'll do this while he's trying to eat, as he roams around the living room, in the car, basically wherever he feels like it. He knows it's funny because he'll laugh after he does it.

Nine Months Old!

Well, here we are, nine months old. It is just crazy to think that we have a nine-month old baby. And, this baby now has two teeth. His second one came through on Monday. Bring on the corn on the cob!

He is trying new things every day. His latest favorite is blueberries. I really think I could mix dirt with blueberries and he would eat it. So far he loves them mixed with apples, cereal or bananas. He just opens his mouth and gobbles them right up as fast as you can shovel them in.

The other day I was eating a grapefruit and he was very interested in it. I thought there was no way he'd like it because it was pretty sour, but sure enough, he did like it. He is so cute because when he likes something he just keeps opening his mouth for more.

The weather here has been great, so I have had the windows open a lot. Yesterday he decided he needed to see out the window and pulled himself up as far as he could. He tried so hard to pull himself all of the way up that he almost had his feet off of the ground.




While he was in that corner he thought he'd check out the plant...thankfully I caught him before he decided to sample the dirt.



Since he was so interested in the outdoors I put his exersaucer in the doorway of the kitchen door onto the deck and he was pretty happy with that. His new trick is to do pull ups on the bar of his exersaucer. He will actually get his feet off of the floor, which is nuts. He definitely has quite a bit of upper body strength!

Harrison has his check-up tomorrow and I'll post an update on how that goes.

A Few Smiles and BBQ

Just a few pictures here to brighten your day!

Happy boy here...just hanging out on the living room floor:


And here are his trademark eyebrows...


One of Harrison's favorite things to do is pull himself up to standing at the shelf next to the TV where the electronics are. Trouble!!


Guess who napped on his hand? When Harrison woke up from his afternoon nap on Friday he had quite an imprint of his hand on his face. This picture can't even begin to do it justice!


But, he sure was a happy boy!


Today we took Harrison to lunch at Rudy's BBQ and let him try brisket for the first time. He gobbled it right up! He kept opening his mouth for me to feed him more. Anyone who has watched Harrison eat knows that he will clamp his mouth shut and shake his head from side to side if he doesn't want what you are trying to feed him. That's our boy! He must know he's in for a future of BBQ eating with us as parents.

Crawling!

To celebrate turning 38 weeks old Harrison decided to crawl yesterday. Not just a few steps here and there as he has before, but really crawl. He crawled back and forth to Mark and me and was so proud of himself!

He was at it again today, so this time it is for real. Now he's only going to get faster so I'm really not going to be able to contain him...uh oh!

Earlier in the day he was getting a bit bored with his toys, so I had to open the cabinets and get creative. Who knew a colander, metal bowl and plastic spoon could be so entertaining.

I haven't posted any video in awhile so thought I'd get some on here.

Here is a video of him crawling Tuesday evening:


And here is a video of him from earlier in the day when he thought the faces I was making were quite funny: