School and other fun stuff

Today was Harrison's first day of school and he did great!

He will start going Tuesday and Thursday mornings just to give him an opportunity to hang out with other kids and get used to spending a little bit of time away from home.

He's in a class with three teachers, 10 other kids, half boys/half girls, so it's a perfect size and great mix. They play with the classroom toys/books, do arts and crafts, play outside, have snack, lunch, etc. Not anything crazy, but it's something fun and different than what we do here.


We took him last Thursday for about an hour and stayed with him, so today he didn't even cry when we left.

Over the weekend we got to visit our friends the Johnsons. Harrison and Hunter have a great time playing together. Here they are out in the backyard playing golf with their dads.

Hunter and Harrison each had a club and had so much fun pretending to be golfers:



Harrison really wanted to get the golf ball that was in the yard next door...he couldn't quite figure out why he couldn't get through the fence to have it.


Filling up a bucket with golf balls:




We had great weather here for a few days last week. It was really warm and nice out, so Harrison got to spend a lot of time outside. One day while we were outside he just sat in this spot and looked at Mark and me and kept saying "hi". It was so cute :-)




A few days before that he decided that he thought he'd help Mark stretch. He loves the roller!



Here he is being silly at dinner one night wearing Mark's hat (and playing with mini-bundt pans).

Words! Progress!

Finally we have some real progress on the words!


As I've posted, they have been trickling in over the past month. This past week or so we've gotten even more and it's been a lot of fun to hear Harrison finally start to talk. Some new ones:


Car. He knows Daddy drives a truck and Mommy drives a car. He likes to point out trucks now whenever he sees them and tell you if they are big or small. He doesn't actually say big or small, but uses his arms to show you.



Shoes and socks. He knows they go together and that they are a critical piece of being able to go play outside!


Up and down. Mark taught him to say up or down when driving on the hills in our neighborhood. He also taught him to say "whee" when going down the hill. So cute! And he will definitely tell us "up up" when he wants to be picked up.


We've added a couple of colors: black and purple. He tries yellow but it is definitely not recognizable yet.


Go. I taught him that we go when the stoplight is green. Yesterday he was getting all excited in the car and yelling "go go go" when the light turned.


Choo Choo for train.


And finally, finally, he will say HI! We've tried for so long to get this one to come out. You'd think it would be a pretty early and basic one, but not for this guy. On Wednesday he finally said hi to a girl at the park. It was an older girl, eight or nine, and she said hi to him first, so he just grinned a big smile and said "hi" clear as could be right back to her. So cute!


Bye. He also said bye to some girls at the park. They weren't talking to him--they were talking to each other, but he joined in the conversation.


George. As we all know, he LOVES Curious George. Just the other day out of nowhere he decided to say "George". Now he'll ask to watch it by name.

He's been saying key for awhile now and loves to have you give him the keys to get the mail. He'll say "key key" and stands under the hook where they are hanging and then says "outside" so you'll take him outside to get the mail.

He will also point to himself when you ask him a question that he should answer with "me". Or he'll tell us he wants to watch videos of himself on the computer by pointing to the computer and himself.


Also, he know says "mmm hmmm" for yes and nods his head. It's pretty funny because I'll ask him a question, and he'll just smile and nod and say it, and he just looks so cute.

Overall he seems to be having a lot of fun with his new words and new found ability to express himself. It is so fun to watch the little wheels turn in his head and then hear him spout off a new word!

Almost Two Years Old!

Wow. 23 months. One month shy of two years old. Crazy!

He's saying a lot more, and randomly repeats words he hears. New ones this week are bull, clock, truck, duck, quack, alligator, cracker, shark, and I think there are a few more in there. Like quiche. Yep, that's one an almost-two-year-old should have in his vocabulary...

Now, they certainly aren't all so clear that if you heard him say it you'd know what it was right away, but we have been working with him so we know :-)

And, he's getting better at his letters. He mostly associates the letters with words: D for Da Da, M for Ma Ma, N for Na Na, G for ga ga (garbage), W for wa wa (water) and P for pee pee. B is just B, he knows it but doesn't say any words for it.

We have a few different sets of letters he can play with and are really working on trying to learn the letters and sounds in hopes it will help with his speaking.

He is big on the colors blue (boo) and green (geen) and will point out anything to you that is one those colors and tell you what color it is.

His little mind amazes us at times.

For example, the past few times Mark has gone on long runs, he has come home and had coconut water (lots of electrolytes :-)) and Harrison knows that Mark gets it out of the back fridge and it comes in a little container that looks like a juice box. A couple of times Harrison and I have gotten the water out of the fridge for Mark and brought it out to him while he's cooling down outside.

So, today, Mark goes for a run in the afternoon. As soon as he's home, Harrison is running around saying "wa wa". We are thinking he is looking for his water so we give it to him, but that's not what he wants. So, he follows Mark to the bedroom as he is going in to shower, pulls him to the laundry room, and opens the fridge and hands him a coconut water. He was SO proud of himself--it was really just so cute.

I was taking pictures of him today and he was being silly, so I asked him to make his silly face. He was just cracking up doing it, so here he is:

And these pictures are of him "scooting" himself to us in his high chair. He can move himself all the way across the kitchen in his chair by basically heaving himself forward in it over and over. He laughs so hard as he does it too--seems like he thinks he is getting away with something.

Couscous and Octopus?

Really?



So he can't (or won't...who knows) say "hi" or "bye" or some other pretty basic things.



But he can say Octopus?



And couscous?



Oh well...at least they are words that are eventually needed in a well-rounded vocabulary. Just not sure they should come before some of the basics!

Trouble

I am now convinced that Harrison's middle name should be legally changed to Trouble. Why? Let me count the ways...

It seems like every time we turn around Harrison is growing again. In the past month, he grew an inch, and is now 36 inches tall. Great, right? Not so much. Why? Because he can reach EVERYTHING. Seriously. We can hardly keep anything on the kitchen counters anymore because if it looks even remotely interesting Harrison is going to grab it. If he can't reach it, he pulls himself up on the counter and will try to use his "tools" to reach it--he has actually gotten a long plastic spoon out of a drawer and used it to try and pull something on the counter toward him. Crafty little guy!


I think I posted back a few months ago when we had put locks on some of the inside doors--places like the pantry and laundry room got door handles from guest bathrooms so that we could keep Harrison from getting into trouble in there. Well, earlier this week all three of us were in the kitchen before breakfast just goofing around. Harrison walked over to the pantry, looked at us, and just turned the lock on the door handle and opened it. The grin on his face was at least a mile wide! He just laughed and opened the door and started grabbing at things on the shelves. Ugh!!!


As if that weren't enough, he has also learned how to plug things into outlets this week. He has a little heater in his room, and he now enjoys pulling the plug out of the wall, looking at you with a big grin, and plugging it right back into the outlet. Really? Is that a skill a not-even-two-year-old kid needs to have? I think not.



And then to top it all off, he is just about able to open the deadbolts on our doors to the outside. He knows what to do, he just isn't quite strong enough to muscle the lock all the way around. I guess we'll just have to put some sort of additional deadbolt or something way up at the top of the door now, or change them over to keyed locks. Once he can get this open freedom is just a step away, and he is not at all afraid to open that door and RUN!


But, along with all of this craftiness is coming loads of fun. Harrison loves to play hide and seek, and will now go hide when we tell him to. He's not the best at hiding yet, and still sometimes thinks that we can't see him if he just closes his eyes. But, that just makes it all the more fun.

Merry Christmas!

We had a fun time this year celebrating Christmas with Harrison. It was just a quiet celebration at home this year with us and my mom.


My mom came down early the week before Christmas, so we had extra entertainment here to keep Harrison busy. On Christmas Eve we went to church and he was very much on his best behavior--probably due to the snacks and crayons we brought for him.

Christmas Eve

He got to open one present on Christmas Eve. It was a little people nativity set from his Great Grandma, and of course it was secured to the box with a million wire ties. He didn't like waiting for all of the animals to get freed so he could play with them!

He was very excited to find surprises waiting for him when he woke up on Christmas Day!

Reading his new Sesame Street pop up book with Daddy.

Oooh! Look at this cool car garage--with keys. I love keys!

Harrison loves his remote control fire truck from Daddy.

It just has two buttons so it's really easy to use.


But, he doesn't quite yet understand why it only makes the fire truck move. Here he's pointing the remote at another car and trying to get it to go!


Harrison had to take a break and read his garbage truck book right away!


He loved the present that came in this bag--a Cookie Monster that sings Old MacDonald. He also loved the bag itself and had a great time filling it up with all sorts of things.


My very own basketball hoop!!!

We waited until after nap time to give Harrison his bike. It needed to warm up a little bit outside before we headed out to play. Here he is when he sees it for the first time.

He got right down on the ground to check it out.

So cute in his helmet...yes, it looks like an 8-ball!

He didn't care at all that is was COLD outside. He was just happy to bundle up and head out into the woods to explore. Thankfully he didn't mind wearing his hat and gloves.

Over the past couple of weeks he has really gotten to be so much fun. It's crazy how much he has changed from last year at this time.

He still LOVES to play outside, as you can see. Despite the fact that it was in the 40s and windy, we had to go outside on Christmas Day. He was so cold but we had to make him leave the park and come inside since he got his gloves all wet and his hands were like little ice cubes.

Playing with balls is still one of his favorite things. Harrison will throw his balls down the driveway and yell "ball, ball, ball" as loud as he can and just run after them. He also loves to collect rocks. Now every time he comes inside we have to check his pockets because they are full of treasures.

He has amassed quite a collection of animals lately. He started out with just a couple of beanie babies (a cat and a dog) that joined him for mealtime. He liked to pretend to feed them. Then we added a couple of birds and a fish to the mix.

For Christmas several of his cousins sent him even more beanie babies. Now he has about 15 of them and he insists on having all of them in bed with him. He also will attempt to gather as many as he can and carry them around the house. It's pretty funny to watch him with four kitties, a dog, a fish and a couple of birds. There is no way he can carry all of them, but that hasn't stopped him from trying.

A cow says moo...finally!!

That's right...as of today, cows in our house now officially say "moo"!! For the longest time, Harrison's answer to "what does a cow say" has been an odd combination of a mean hiss/growl sound.

While it's been quite funny, we were starting to wonder if he'd ever say "moo". Today, Mark was reading an animal book with him and when he asked what the cow said, Harrison finally said "moo". Whoo Hoo!! We both cheered for him and of course he just smiled a big grin.

It wasn't a fluke, because I've asked him a bunch of other times today and he still says "moo". But, the pig doesn't oink yet...it still makes the same mean hiss/growl that the cow used to. We'll keep you posted on that one.

The past two weeks Harrison has seemed to advance a lot verbally. One day he looked at a key sitting on the counter and said "key" just plain as day. I didn't ask him to say it or ask him what it was, so that was great. Since then he's continued to point out keys whenever he sees them or even hears them jingle.

He's been repeating a lot of things, from "attic" to "google". It's a lot of fun to finally hear his little voice more frequently!!

22 Months!

Well, somehow another month has gone by and we are now just two short months away from having a two-year old. WOW!

There are few things that Harrison likes right now more than his dad. He loves to climb him like he's a jungle gym, wrestle with him on the bed, and run around outside with him playing ball. It is so much fun to watch them play together.

Here they are a few days ago as Harrison climbed up on Mark's back getting ready to climb over him:


Yesterday when Harrison went out to play he decided he needed to wear his monkey. So, we put it on him and wrapped the tail up and out of the way and off he went. Yes...this is his monkey harness, but for some reason he loves it, so I'm not going to argue with him wanting to wear it!

It was a beautiful day so he and dada went to roam the woods, throw rocks, and go to the park.







Last night Harrison decided he wanted to sit on his potty before his bath. He's sat on it before, but never actually without his clothes on, and we've never tried to get him to use it. But, last night he sat on it naked before his bath and he talked about "pee pee" while he was sitting there. We read part of a story, and then the next thing you know, he's peeing in his potty!

He wanted to sit on it again today both this morning and before his bath. We'll see if this continues, I'm certainly not trying to get him to run around without a diaper or anything just yet, but it's good to see that he's interested.

Tricks, Friends and Fun

Harrison loves to climb on our bed and play with my alarm clock. He just sits there and pushes all the buttons and moves the switches. I guess I never really thought he'd be able to do any damage...but once again he has proven me wrong.

A few nights ago at precisely midnight my alarm started beeping. Thanks Harrison! Now I've learned to check it each night before bed to ensure that there are no more surprises.

This weekend Harrison got to hang out with his friend Hunter. They are so cute together, and play really well with each other.

Monday evening Harrison decided to show us his new skill. He climbed up onto one of our bar stools. All by himself. Can you tell he's excited and proud of himself? Awesome. One more safety hazard to beware of in our house.

We went to the museum again today and Harrison had a great time. It is just the right size for someone his age. He had a lot of fun in the play kitchen making me lunch:

He also really enjoyed the giant lite brite. After two hours at the museum he still didn't want to go. He kept telling me "no no" when I would tell him it was time to leave. Halfway home he crashed out asleep in the car, so it was a successful trip!

Oh, and he LOVES to have us measure his height. He knows we have measured him on the inside of the pantry door, so if it is open he will back up against it and motion for one of us to mark across the top of his head. So cute :-). We did measure him this weekend and he's just over 35 inches tall!

Children's Museum

Since it was 40 degrees and really windy this morning, we decided it was time to head to the Austin Children's Museum. Harrison has been there a few times before when his cousins have come to visit, but this was the first time he really seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself and really play with more than a couple of things.

He started out at the giant train table in the lobby. It is at least four times the size of the one we have at home, and so he was just amazed. Then we played with a musical thing that had big tubes you could hit with a paddle.

We spent most of our time in three spots that he really seemed to enjoy. First, we went up to this little area where you could watch a model train go around a track. He loved pushing the buttons that made all sorts of different (and loud!) train noises.

Then we had a lot of fun playing with the fake food. There's a little area with a cash register and lots of baskets for food. He sure had fun with that, and then we moved to the other food area where they have a fake sink, wok, burner and cafeteria area. Harrison had a great time serving up food on cafeteria trays to me. The only thing that would have made it better is if the fake sink really worked. I have a feeling he wouldn't have ever left if it did work.

The mini ketchup was a big hit and just about everything I was served got a good "squirt" of it.

After that we hit up the construction area. There's a spot with different shaped bolts/nuts/screws and you can drop them in their respective shaped tubes. They then shoot downstairs where someone can put them in a little tube and they get sucked back up and shoot out into a bin up top. Harrison thought that was so fun...he loved putting things down the tubes, and was thrilled that they were coming back up to him. I was just happy there was another little person downstairs enjoying the other end of our game :-)

Overall it was a great morning at the museum. It probably helped that Harrison fell asleep on the way there (at 9:54 am!!) and slept for 30 minutes while I drove a bit and then sat in a parking spot. I guess he just really needed a rest!

Some photos of our morning:

The musical thing...not sure what it is called:

Even play food is better with ketchup:

Sampling the merchandise before ringing it up:

Working the register:

Washable Markers

We love washable markers around here.

It's a good thing they really do wash off easily or we'd be in trouble!

New words, coloring and gymnastics

Finally we are getting somewhere with the words! Just this week Harrison has come up with quite a few new sounds that are turning into words. We have been working so hard on different sounds and letters, and finally it seems to be working.

He uses "no no" quite frequently, and sometimes you get a finger wag along with it too. It's all we can do not to laugh when he does that. It's funny if you are asking him if he wants something but not funny if you are asking him to do something he shouldn't be doing.

He also now says "beep beep" when he hears a horn or when you ask him what a horn says. And, he knows that his diaper is full of "pee pee". He will also ask you to "open" things sometimes and asks for "up" when he wants to be picked up by one of us. We are working on recognizing letters, and he knows and says"P" says when we draw it.

It isn't a whole vocabulary, but it sure is an improvement over where we have been. He is constantly babbling with lots of new sounds so that is a great sign.

Coloring is one of Harrison's favorite things these days. He loves to scribble all over the paper, and will ask you to draw all sorts of things. He still loves for you to draw him a bunny, but now it's also things like a kitty, rainbow, carrot, snake, ice cream cone, and balls. He also likes you to trace his hand and make a turkey out of it. He'll just put his hand on the paper and look at you and wait for you to trace it. So cute :-)

On Monday we went to gymnastics for the first time. There's a place that opens their gym to parents and kids three and under for an hour of free play on their equipment. Harrison had an awesome time! There is a trampoline that runs the length of one wall that kids can play on and run down one at a time. Some kids bounce, others dawdle and hop their way down. Not our boy. He takes off in a full sprint and runs as fast as he can the whole way down--it is SO him!

There's also a bounce house, bars to hang from, balance beams, etc. He had so much fun and got so worn out this week that he had to take a break during play time and just sit underneath a little play area. We are going back this week and can't wait!

Here he is running down the trampoline:

He flipped completely over this bar, landed on his back, and cracked up laughing!

He did a great job walking on this balance beam and barely had to use my hand to steady himself:

More full speed running down the trampoline:

In the bounce house, there's a rope wall they are supposed to climb up, and then they slide down this side. Not Harrison...he scampered up the slide and then climbed down the climbing wall. He is definitely a little monkey!

He had no problem climbing up this little climbing wall:

The bars are one of his favorite things, he loves to just hang and swing on them:

Shutterfly Rocks

As you know, we love taking pictures of Harrison. It is getting a little harder since he is so darn fast these days, but we are doing our best to keep up with him.

I have been working on his one-year Shutterfly book in my spare (ha ha…) time these days and it has been such fun to go back through all of his pictures from this year. He has grown so much! I broke his first year down into two books but am attempting to do months 12-24 in one book. If you haven’t ever made a Shutterfly book, they are SO easy and make the best gifts. His grandmas just love them! And, it is a much easier way for me to keep up with Harrison’s life than a traditional baby book.
http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books
I just hope one day he looks back through them and appreciates seeing his life documented like this :-).

And now that the holidays are approaching, I’ve started to work on our Christmas cards. It seems like almost all of the cards we get each year are photo cards, and it is so fun to see everyone’s pictures of their travels, kids, etc. This year I am definitely using Shutterfly for our cards, because they have so many great designs to choose from. I’ve had fun looking through all of the choices, and it’s been so hard to pick a favorite! The cards are printed on premium cardstock and the quality is just great. They even have folded ones that let you write a holiday letter and have it printed inside.
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

Here are a few of my favorites:

It’s like they read my mind with the color scheme on this one—I love the brown and green:



The simplicity of the font on this one is great, and it looks like a green present with a red bow across it--so cute:



And this one is great because if like me you can’t decide which picture to use you can use them all!



If you are searching for a personalized, creative and affordable holiday gift for someone, try a Shutterfly calendar. For the past few years we have done these for our families, either at Christmas or Mother’s Day. You can save all of your important family dates like birthdays, anniversaries, family reunions, etc. into your Shutterfly account and then just add them to the calendar each time you make one. In addition to using your pictures it is such a great way to personalize what could otherwise be an ordinary gift.
http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

The best part about Shutterfly is that they are giving bloggers 50 FREE holiday cards! Make sure and check out the info below:

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010