Almost Walking and a Trip to Pittsburgh

Well here we are for an overdue update. I tried to make up for it by including a lot of pictures!

The weekend of March 6, Harrison went to his friend Shane's first birthday party. He had a great time playing with Shane and his brother and sister. And, of course he also enjoyed playing with their dog. I let him try cake again and he still has no interest in it.




That Sunday Harrison did quite a bit of walking. He was taking 8-10 steps at a time without any issue, walking all around the kitchen and back and forth between Mark and me. He's getting better at it every day!

On Thursday Harrison and I flew to Pittsburgh to visit my grandmother. She turns 95 at the end of March so we had a little celebration weekend for her. My sister and her family were there and so was my mom. Here's Harrison with his Aunt Susie:


Harrison had a great time on our trip. We visited the Carnegie Science Museum. He got to play with giant legos, see a Sesame Street planetarium show, and play with a water table.

He LOVED the water table. After about 30 minutes playing at it he was completely soaked. I could wring out his shirt and pants, but thankfully I had a complete change of clothes ready for him. Here's a video of him when he first got started. He was so excited!








And here he is after his time at the water table, before he got dry clothes on. He didn't seem to care at all that he had soaked through two shirts.




After that he kept going, playing with the balls and giant blocks. He spent a lot of time with his cousin Charlie and they had fun playing with the same things.





We also visited the Children's Museum. It had a great section for kids his age with train tables, a giant lite brite, and crawling areas. He just moved from area to area and couldn't believe that there were all of these things at the right height and size for him.





Then we went down to the main part of the museum. First we went down a very fast slide that Harrison loved.


Then we went to the automotive area where we played with a matchbox car ramp. Harrison just sat at the bottom of the ramp and tried to keep all of the cars as the other kids sent them down. The room was a former planetarium, so up in the dome there was a giant marble run with huge balls running across it. You'd have thought he was going to break his neck watching it!



Harrison really enjoyed visiting my grandmother's place. The main staircase was open from the first to second floor, and Harrison climbed up it as fast as he could possibly go. All of the sweet old people sat down in the library and just marveled at how fast he could crawl. He was very interested in my grandmother's scooter and climbed up in it and even managed to turn it on! The boys wore their shirts that have their age on them and we made one for my grandmother so she would match them. They all looked so cute:







The hotel we stayed at looked out over the river, and it had a train track that ran right below the window. Harrison and his cousins loved looking at the boats in the river, and when a train came by it was VERY loud, and they would all run (or crawl very fast :-)) to the window to check out the train. The windows were just low enough for Harrison to see out, so it was very exciting for him. Here are the boys hanging out in the room.




Harrison had a wonderful time playing with his cousins. He and Charlie played cars every chance they got. Harrison loved getting his hands on Charlie's matchbox cars and vrooming them across the floor and window sill, and Charlie was really great about sharing with Harrison. The two of them took their baths together and had a great time! Jeffrey was so patient with Harrison. He worked with him on walking, and kept him entertained.



Overall it was a great visit. My grandmother loved seeing Harrison, and he was his usual crazy self for her. He had fun seeing his cousins and visiting the museums. Although it took a couple of long travel days to get to Pittsburgh it was definitely worth it!



Harrison has been taking more and more steps, and doing so a lot more and more frequently. He is very comfortable taking 8+ steps at a time and is less wobbly each day. Today he mastered climbing onto these little "tuffet" things we have upstairs. They are basically little, round stools. He popped himself up onto it this morning and just sat there with a grin on his face like the Cheshire cat. He was so proud of himself!

First Haircut!

Today we took Harrison for his first haircut. To quote Ellen on American Idol, he was rocking a mullet. It was definitely time for a trim.

As you know, he is normally a pretty fidgety boy and we were concerned he wouldn't sit still and would end up getting stabbed by the scissors. Much to our surprise, he was great.

Here is Harrison the night before his first haircut. His hair sure had gotten long!!


He sat on Daddy's lap for his haircut.





After his haircut he checked out where he might get to sit next time. They cater to kids, and have fun things like little cars and horses. He seemed to like sitting on the little car. Such a handsome boy with his new trim! He does look so much more grown up now. Definitely more of a little boy than a baby!


Last week we had a snow day on Tuesday. We got huge wet flakes and it was really coming down throughout the day. Harrison enjoyed watching it from the window. Here he is watching the snow come down...while trying to put my headband on his head. He's such a goof sometimes!

I took him outside while the snow was coming down pretty hard. He was not a fan of the big wet flakes hitting his face. He looked at me like I was crazy for taking him out in that.



Here's a cute picture of Harrison and Daddy from last week. This one is before dinner.


And here he is while eating his macaroni and cheese with meat sauce. That is definitely his favorite meal.


Harrison LOVES his little blue car that his Aunt Susie and her family got him for his birthday. We take it out every day unless the weather is bad. We put snacks in the cup holder and he munches on Cheerios and Puffs while we cruise down the street. He also loves to honk the horn as you can see.

Usually we walk to get the mail, then check out the park and see if there are any kids to watch. Since he still isn't a big fan of the swing there's not too much for us to do at the park just yet. And of course we look for dogs. Harrison just loves the neighborhood dogs, and gets so excited when we find them. There are a few dogs that we walk by regularly that come to their fences to greet him. He used to pant when he saw dogs, but now he says "woof". It's so cute to watch his face, because it just lights up when he sees the dogs.

As you can see from these pictures it was a windy day. Check out his hair blowing in the wind!




It seems like Harrison is getting smarter and understanding more every day. We can ask him where his dog and ball are he can find them as long as they are visible amongst his toys. We asked him where his monkey was and he found the toy that it goes in, but then lost interest and didn't look any further. He got distracted by some other toy...but he does make the monkey noise when he sees monkeys in his books.

This week he has been having fun opening and closing the mailbox on his little house and seeing what is in there. He will put things in it, or I can sit behind it and put things in it to surprise him with. It is quite entertaining for both of us because he gets pretty excited if his dog shows up in there unexpectedly.

Mark did have to switch out the door handles on the pantry and laundry room for ones that have locks on them. Harrison just couldn't keep himself out of the pantry. The mess he makes in there would have been tolerable except that his favorite game became taking things off of the shelves, lifting the lid on the trash can, throwing them in, and then repeating that game...over, and over, and over.

This weekend Harrison came even closer to walking. When we play upstairs he walks along the windowsills with just one hand on them, and can cruise pretty quickly. He took 6-8 steps at a time a few times this weekend and is getting more confident and sure of himself every day. He spends a lot of time walking behind his shopping cart, pushing chairs and practicing his steps. Any day now he'll be a walker!

This past week he has discovered a new favorite food--oranges. He absolutely loves them, and just shovels the pieces in his mouth faster than I can peel and cut them for him. It's quite a mess but makes him SO happy.

Punchy

Sometimes we get a little punchy at the end of the day around here...

Determination

What can I say?

He sure had to work hard to do this, but it didn't deter him. He was the poster child for determination this afternoon. Look how much he has to stretch to make this happen. It's a wonder he didn't pull a muscle!

He can actually get the door completely open, although it doesn't show it in this video clip.

Once he tried it in the kitchen and saw that he could open the pantry door his grin was a mile wide.

Argh.

If you know of any baby locks that are effective for lever-style doors I'm all ears!

Stats

Today we had Harrison's one-year checkup. As always, he was charming at the doctor's office and smiled at everyone. He was the only child in the "well" side of things, and kept trying to look at all of the kids on the "sick" side because he could hear them talking.

He weighed in at 20lbs 9oz and is in the 20th percentile for weight.
He measured 30" long and is in the 70th percentile for height.

According to his doctor he looks great and is growing just fine!

When we got home Harrison got to open a birthday gift that came from my Uncle David. It is a cute little ark with animals that make sounds. He had a lot of fun with it as you can see.

Happy Birthday Harrison!

My sweet boy is one year old today! I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by. It seems like just yesterday that he was a little helpless blob and now he's so full of energy he just doesn't stop.

We had a couple of celebrations for Harrison's birthday.

First, we traveled to Waxahachie to celebrate with Mark's family last Thursday. Harrison got to see Grandma and Grandpa along with all four of Mark's siblings, so it was lots of fun. I made him his own little cake, just a yellow cake with white buttercream icing. We set it down on his tray in front of him, and he really had no idea what to do with it. After taking a little bite off of my finger he warmed up to it some, but really only had a couple more bites. Is this really my child? Who doesn't like cake, and WHO doesn't like buttercream icing?? Oh well, we certainly had no problem finishing it for him!

Harrison did enjoy taking a handful of icing and decorating Mark's face and my hair with it. Ugh. And since he got the icing all over himself he spent the rest of his afternoon in the only spare onesie I had on me (bad mom!!) and no pants. Whoops!

Here are some pictures from that party...as usual he has his crazy expressions working overtime. Look at some of those faces he makes. Priceless!!









We had our second birthday party back here in Austin. On Saturday my mom came in town and we celebrated with Harrison's friends Shane and Hunter and their families. It was fun to see the three little guys "play" with each other, and their older brothers and sister were great at playing with them too.

All of the boys took turns cruising in the sweet new ride his Aunt Susie and her family got for Harrison.




This time he showed zero interest in his cake. Didn't even want to try the icing on my finger. Is this really my child? :-)


Here are some pictures from that party:




Here are the moms and dads with their boys:



We tried to line up the three boys for a group shot, but the birthday boy did not want to sit still!


On his real birthday, Harrison and I met Daddy for lunch. He was in a great mood and smiling at all of the waitstaff. Then we went to the mall and had pictures made...I just wanted to be sure and capture his sweet little face on his actual birthday.

His little plaid shirt from his Aunt Julie is SO cute!!




After we got home, he was playing with his ring stacker, and figured out how to put the rings back on the stack. He was so proud of himself--you can see him get all excited after he does it right. Yay Harrison!

Big Day

One year ago today we were wondering if Harrison would have to share his birthday with Groundhog Day. He was already one day overdue, and as we now know he certainly wasn't in any rush to appear.

So, it's hard to believe that here we are one year later...and, he decided to make today a special day.

Harrison has been trying really hard to stand up without holding on to anything. If you are familiar with yoga, he has been doing the "downward dog" pose for a while now, basically standing up, bent in half, trying to figure out how to get his top half lifted up to a standing position. Today he did it! I was so proud of him, and I know he was so proud of himself. He was just beaming as I was saying "good job"!!

Later in the afternoon he was crawling around my feet, trying to get me to pick him up while I was getting his dinner ready. I bent down and got him to stand, and then backed away quickly. He took 2-3 steps towards me without even thinking about it! Of course he fell right back down on his bottom, but he did it!!

Boy, am I in for it when he figures this out. He is already into everything, but once he can walk he will really be into everything.

Here are a few pictures from today, and a short video of him doing his favorite thing...zooming his bus! In the bathtub he is playing with the suction-on basketball hoop we got him for Christmas. He just loves it.

Looks like this weekend I'll have to pack up his 6-12 month clothes. All of a sudden his sleeves are too short and so are his pants. Guess he's done a little growing this past couple of weeks.



Total destruction of the kitchen before 8am this morning...



Harrison loves his baths!



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