Rocks, Memorial Day, and more Climbing

Hi from Harrison!

Last Tuesday we met Harrison's friend Hunter for lunch and then went and played in the fountains. Hunter wasn't too sure of things, so Harrison tried to show him how much fun the water can be. He just loves waiting for it to pop out of the ground, and it is fun to watch him roam through there and randomly get squirted because it makes him laugh.




Why is Harrison smiling here? Because he just climbed onto the picnic table at the park. He sees it as one more thing to play on...I see it as another thing I have to try and keep him from falling off of!


Some days, like this one, Harrison really enjoys filling up the dump trucks and then dumping out the sand. It is like a little zen activity for him. Sometimes he can just sit and do this for what seems like forever.




And then there are the days when he does things like this. I think he spent 15 minutes just lifting the car up and down, amazed at his own strength!





Over Memorial Day weekend we went to Waxahachie to see Mark's family. In addition to Mark's parents, Harrison's Uncle Richard and Aunt Allison were there visiting from London. Harrison had a lot of fun playing with them.

While we were there we tried swimming, but Harrison actually wasn't too excited about it. It was really hot and bright that day, so floating on his back didn't work too well because he was staring right into the sun. Maybe he just wasn't in the mood--we'll try again soon and see how it goes.

We also went to a park that had a great area for Harrison. It had wooden ramps that sloped up and down and intersected, and there was a slide and tube there that he could crawl up and down. He had a lot of fun with that. He also really liked the fact that underneath the swings and big slide there was gravel. He had a great time throwing it.

And, as you know, Harrison has somewhat of a trash obsession. He doesn't like to see any little bits and pieces of anything on the ground. So, we spent part of our time doing playground clean up duty. Luckily there were big trash cans all around so we could teach him to bring his scraps to the trash and throw them out--he actually kind of enjoyed doing that. I hope this isn't an indication of his future career aspirations...not that there's anything wrong with that :-)

Here he is throwing gravel:

And here he is picking up trash and then learning to throw it in the trash can:

And, here he is playing with Uncle Richard:

On Tuesday Harrison decided he would show me why I need to remove that piece of furniture from the upstairs playroom. At that height he could throw things over the edge. Good times!



Here we are playing with rocks on the deck yesterday. Harrison likes rocks a lot. He gets very upset with me when I won't let him take them inside, but I just don't trust him not to heave them into the TV, a window, me...the list goes on.



Harrison can now show you his belly button. I have found him just looking at his, which is pretty cute. He does want to see yours too...so get ready to have him come invade your personal space!

Tons of Fun...and a molar too!

Well, we have our first molar, on the top left side of his mouth. It popped through on Thursday, and now the poor guy just has this little flap of gum hanging off where the tooth came through. He seems to still be having some issues with it, but it must feel good to have it through.

On Friday afternoon we met Harrison's friend Shane at the fountains at The Domain. It's an outdoor mall, and in the new section that just opened there is a great place for kids to play. The water pops up out of the ground at random intervals and the kids can just run around and play with it.

It was so cute, because Shane's brother and sister were there too (they are twins...10 years old) and they were showing the little guys how to put their faces over the holes and let the water come up and hit them. They had such a blast running around! The picture above is after we played at the fountains on Friday. He sure does like to wear his sunglasses now.

Today we met them at the park by the house and played for awhile, then in the afternoon we went over to the water fountains again. It was just so much fun we had to go back. This time a little band came to play and the boys had fun watching and dancing.

Mark has been out of town on a golf trip with Shane's dad, and we have had a lot of fun playing with them these past couple of days while. It has been great to have friends around to help entertain Harrison...he definitely gets tired of me by the end of the day!

I didn't bring a swimsuit for him on Friday, but today I let him wear his little swim lesson speedo...he just looks so cute in it. Then he decided he needed to put his sunglasses on so he came and got them out of his bag. Someday I hope he will look back at these pictures and laugh as hard as I did today!


Fun at the fountains on Saturday








The first two videos are from his first adventure with the fountains on Friday





This video is just priceless! He decided to dance to the band:

The pool, the playground and the couch

Today we went to Harrison's friend Olivia's house to go swimming. Her friend Brodie was there also and all three of them are within a couple of months of each other. It was a lot of fun to watch them play in the water. The pool was still fairly cold, and since it wasn't scorching hot out (*yet...we know it is coming soon!) they enjoyed playing on the little ledge part of the pool that had water streaming down the rocks. Once Harrison realized he could just sit there, play with the water rushing down the rocks and splash, he was a happy little clam!

After we got out of the pool he enjoyed walking up and down the deck steps, and once he found the handle for the skimmer, that was his spot.



After swimming we went to the park for the second time today. Have I mentioned how lucky we are to have this park right behind our house? It is so awesome to be able to just walk over there whenever we want. After playing in the sand for awhile Harrison roamed the park and found a big rock. It was seriously heavy, and when he would put his hand back like he was going to throw it, his whole arm would fall backward. Too funny. And, he kept his sunglasses on for over an hour! He finally pulled off his glasses and hat because he was just done and ready to go home.



To end our day today, the climber struck again! I literally turned my back for less than 30 seconds. Harrison was sitting on the floor in the living room, I walked into our bedroom to grab something and came right back out. Guess where I found him? And that expression on his face in the first picture is fantastic. It's like he knew he had just pulled one over on me.







I mean really...could he look any more grown up? So, that's one more piece of furniture that he has conquered. Who knows what's next...I'm sure there's more to come!

Hand-me-downs, sunglasses and olives

First of all, a big thank you to my sister for saving all of her boys clothes for Harrison! Hand-me-downs rock. The two outfits you'll see in these pictures are all from them.

We have tried sunglasses many times, but finally today they stuck! We went to the park this morning and he wore them for about 15 minutes, which was the longest he had ever left them on. Then we went back again in the afternoon and he had them on for over an hour! I know I'm biased, but he really is SO cute in his hat and sunglasses, so I just had to share.











For dinner I got some small flatbread pizzas from the Costco deli. You cook them yourself at home, and since Harrison has not had olives before I took the black olives off of his (I hate them!) and just gave him a pizza with sausage. Mark said that just because I don't like them I shouldn't deprive Harrison. So, I diced up the olives and put them on his tray alongside his pizza. He inhaled them along with his pizza, so I guess we can add another food to his list. Good boy!

Yesterday after his nap I told Harrison we were going to go outside and go to the park. I have been letting him walk me out of his room and to the stairs and we are practicing getting him down on his own safely. Well, he decided that he'd take a 30-minute detour and cruise around the upstairs, stopping at the treadmill which is his favorite "non-toy" toy. He even tried to plug it into the wall outlet!





We stopped in the kitchen so I could fill up our water bottles and he figured out how to open the drawer under the oven with all of the cookie sheets and cooling racks in it. That was VERY exciting and he had a lot of fun banging all of those things around the kitchen.





Harrison is getting so good at following simple directions. He can open and close the door when you ask him to, he'll go to his chair when asked at mealtime, and he can do other things like find his ball, car, and put a letter in the mailbox of his house. We have more fun every day as he learns new things!

15 Months Old

We had our 15-month check up on Tuesday and all is well with Harrison.
He is 32 inches tall (75%) and 22lbs 8oz (25%). He had to get two shots and was not happy about that at all. He was pissed off when the nurse did the first one, but then when he saw her coming at him again for the second one he tried to fight her off. No wonder she made me hold him on my lap and hold his arms back. Not fun!

So, he continues to be long and lean, but certainly not because he lacks an appetite. Most days he will eat at least one really good meal, and then still eat well several other times during the day. He tried Mexican food again a couple of weeks ago and really liked it. Taco meat, Spanish rice, and homemade refried beans (no lard...but they had jalapenos in them!) and he gobbled it all up. He seems to like the beans smooth like that, so we'll try that again this week.

He will try just about anything that we are eating, so it's fun to at least see what he thinks of different things. He is definitely not a fan of the hard-boiled egg, but does like an English muffin with chive cream cheese on it. Now if we are drinking from a cup he wants to do that too, so he's spilled more than one cup of water on himself, but, he really enjoys drinking that way and is getting much better.

He does a lot of "fake" eating when we are outside now. He knows he isn't supposed to eat rocks, sand, sticks, etc. but he still likes to bend over and put his face to them on the ground and smack his lips. He put some rocks in his mouth yesterday at his friend Shane's house and then smiled at me so I would fish them out. Who knows what goes on in that little head of his!

He is all about sharing, and this morning he didn't want Mark to leave without a good breakfast, so he kept trying to feed him and make him drink. It was pretty funny, because he would not settle for me trying to divert his attention so Mark could get out the door, he wanted to feed Daddy and only Daddy.

He also likes to feed me or Mark when we are feeding him. Today he kept smacking his lips and smiling at me feeding me peas, sausage, etc. He didn't want to let me fake eat it either, he wanted to put it in my mouth for me.

Harrison seems to have a mild case of baby OCD, because if something is out of place he is going to make sure it gets addressed right away. Today we were at Target and there was a piece of trash on the ground. He about lost his mind until I finally just picked it up and put it in my pocket. Then, we ran by Nordstrom Rack and there was a shirt on the floor that had fallen off of a hanger. Crisis! But, it is quite funny because he knows exactly what he wants you to fix, so once you do it he's just happy as can be that things are right again. Oh well...maybe this will continue and start to come in handy when he can help out around the house. I'm hopeful!

He is becoming a great climber, and was quite proud of himself when he got up on the couch upstairs. He just grinned and then paused to read a story before climbing back down. Thankfully he knows to back down and doesn't try to dive off of things head first, at least most of the time.


Kind of looks like he is meditating, doesn't it?

But, I am not too fond of this type of climbing. I stepped outside to hang a few things on the drying rack and when I came back in this is what he was doing:


I took this picture of him lying down because I think it is the first time he has ever done this while not sleeping. I mean seriously, he does not stop to take a break EVER! So, he must have really just needed a minute to chill here.



He has fun playing with the shake and go racetrack and likes to sit in the middle of it and let the cars go around him:


He still has a great time outside. Climbing into the chairs on the deck makes him laugh, and he loves to go to the park behind our house. Here are some pictures of him there last week:











Our swim lessons are over now, and the seven weeks were great. In that time Harrison learned to float on his back, flip over and swim and then float again, and swim to one of us. We put our hand underwater as a target and he will swim to it, but if we pull it away he knows his target is gone and flips over to float. It is truly amazing to watch him do these things. He had a great time his last two days of lessons with Mark and I getting into the pool with him to learn how to help him practice. He also showed that he can float in his clothes and shoes and will even push clothing out of his face to continue being able to float and breathe. Here is a picture of him floating in his clothes:


And, who can resist a good baby laugh?

Ketchup and Smiles

Why is Harrison smiling here? Because he is trying ketchup! Not only did he love painting his tray with it, but he enjoyed eating his cubes of chicken lunch meat dipped in ketchup. Messy, as you can see, but quite entertaining!




Harrison loves to climb up on the ottoman and read a book. He looks so grown up when he does this, and he'll just sit there and flip through the pages. He's giving me the raised eyebrows here, which always just makes me laugh.



This afternoon we were out on the back deck playing with the sand and water table. Now when I tell Harrison we are going outside he will grab our hats and make sure that I put mine on first. He was in a great mood and just couldn't quit smiling, so I had to share. He has lots of fun using his rake to whip sand out of the table and get it everywhere. He just laughs and does it again even after it gets all over his face. Who am I to complain? As long as I stay out of the line of fire it doesn't bother me and it keeps him happy and very entertained!