Swimming, Water Table and Kisses...Oh My!

The weekend before Easter our neighborhood had a little party at the park behind our house. They had a petting zoo and an egg hunt...although Harrison didn't participate in the egg hunt he did have fun with the animals. He got to pet a goat and see baby goats and chicks. I think he had the most fun just roaming around the playground and walking up and sliding down the slide.





Harrison has a new "trick". Mark taught him how to give kisses. Really, it is just too cute!



Swimming has been going well. Harrison loves the water and gets really excited when it is his turn to get in the pool. He is supposed to be learning a swim-float-swim sequence, where he breaks to float so he can rest. In true Harrison fashion, he has no desire to float. All he wants to do is go-go-go! He loves to swim to the side of the pool and grab onto the bar and would do it over and over again if his teacher let him. Here are a couple of clips from last Friday's lesson.



On Saturday we set up Harrison's new entertainment--a sand and water table. He LOVES to be outside and would stay out there all day if we let him. Now that we have this on the back deck, we have spent a lot of time there already. He loves to just roam around the deck and then come back to the sand or water and then roam some more, etc. Right now the weather is beautiful so it is great to be out there. Come July when it's over 100 degrees every day we'll see how we feel about this!

We did Harrison's baptism at the Easter Eve service on Saturday night. Considering the service started at his bedtime, he did really well. Here are a couple of pictures from that evening. He looks pretty handsome...at least in my very biased opinion :-)

He's Officially Walking!

Harrison has been walking for a while now, taking 8-10 steps at a time here and there and gradually working up to doing that more frequently. Well today he decided he would just walk everywhere.

From the time he got up until he went to bed that kid was on his feet. I took him to the park, he walked the entire time, and we were there for about 30 minutes.

Later he was in the kitchen with us, and Mark was sitting on the floor talking to Harrison. Harrison just kept walking in circles around the island. He must have done it 15 times. Each time he'd come around and see Mark again he'd just smile and go back around.

Then, Mark took him back to the park and they were there for almost an hour, and he walked the entire time. It appears that today is the day he finally decided he was going to switch to walking as his primary means of getting around. Yay Harrison!

As I posted, he is having a great time with his new found ability to climb onto the ottoman. Yesterday he decided to climb up and read some books. He looks so cute just sitting there, and you can see from his expression he really liked what he was reading!

I did need him to get his mind off of climbing for a few minutes so I could make his breakfast. Since he can't resist any opportunity to get into the cabinets, I opened one up for him. When I didn't hear banging anymore I peeked around the corner of the island and found him in the cabinet. He had crawled in and then sat up behind the pull out shelf--and he couldn't figure out how to get back out of there. Too funny!

Swimming

As many of you know, Harrison is taking swimming lessons. These are more like survival lessons than true swim lessons--the goal is that he is able to save himself if he ever falls into water unattended. Can't hurt to have that skill, you know?

The lessons are 1:1 with an instructor, are 10 minutes long, and are M-F every day for six weeks. It's a big commitment, but we truly believe it is worth it. We have to track his diet, sleep and output, eliminate certain foods (like apples...which he loves), and ensure he doesn't eat or drink two hours before his lesson.

Today was the end of week one. He is doing great! Some of the other kids that I see before and after Harrison's lesson are upset about being there, but thankfully Harrison is not. He seems to be catching on quite well and is becoming more confident and proud of himself.

In this clip you can see that he's doing great, is happy, and really does seem proud of himself. Mark came to watch his lesson today, so our instructor Robin was helping Harrison show Mark what he could do.

Things were going really well until what happened just as this clip ends.

Harrison pooped in the pool! I SO did not want to be that mom...but now I am. So, the rest of the day's lessons were canceled and they had to clean and shock the pool. Ugh. We felt SO bad. We just have to hope that is the first and last time he does this. All of the kids have to wear a cloth swim diaper that is supposed to contain accidents like these, but alas, I guess nothing is 100% foolproof.

So, enjoy the video and keep your fingers crossed that we don't have any more accidents!

The Climber

And just like that my life got harder:



Today Harrison figured out how to climb onto the ottoman. As you can tell he's really excited about this. He has already attempted to knock over the lamp and rip down the curtains. And, we now have bite marks on one of the blinds.

He was so incredibly proud of himself, and I couldn't even bring myself to say "good job"...because I know how much trouble he's going to be now.

Good times!!

Tooth #7 and a Quick Hello

Just a quick note to say hi!

Harrison started his swim lessons on Monday. He has a 1:1 lesson every day for 10 minutes (M-F) for six weeks and at the end he should be able to save himself if he is ever in a situation where he ends up in the water without help. Not that I ever think that will happen but it is definitely better to be safe than sorry when it comes to this. We can only video lessons once a week on Friday, so I should be able to post a video of this Friday's lesson.

Yesterday tooth #7 showed up on the bottom left side. We have a feeling #8 isn't far behind based on the fact that Harrison is chewing on everything he can get his little hands on.

Here are a few cute pictures from our walk yesterday. We visited Millie, a very friendly black lab puppy that lives just a few houses down from us. As usual, Harrison was very excited to see her. She runs to the fence when we walk by, and Harrison holds out his hand so she can lick it, which makes him really happy!

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.