Three-and-a-half

My sweet boy is three-and-a-half! He is truly becoming more fun each and every day. For Harrison's half-birthday celebration, we had mini-cupcakes after dinner, and he ate four of them. He was so excited when we picked them up from the bakery, and just kept looking at the package all afternoon asking to have one (there's a reason I waited until 4:30 to pick them up). He even shared with Barrett, who ate several himself. I think Barrett couldn't believe his good fortune when one was put on his tray and he tasted it.

When I was talking to him at bedtime that night, he got a little quiet and asked why no one came to his birthday party. So sad!! I had to explain to him that when he turns four he can have a real party, but this was just a special little family celebration for his half-birthday. It took a bit of a discussion to help him process that, understand the difference make sure his feelings weren't really hurt. It was a great glimpse into how his little mind works.

For the first few days after he turned three-and-a-half, it was fun to ask him how hold he was. He would say three-and-a-half-and-a-quarter. I think he has it down now, but that was just so funny to hear!

This age is a lot of fun. I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again as the boys get older, but it really is great to see the world through the eyes someone this age. He has been asking for a pet for quite a while now, so for his half-birthday he got fish. He went to a local really cool fish store with Dad and Uncle Richard and picked out two small fish called "platys" and a tiny little shrimp. The fish look basically like really small goldfish. The shrimp didn't make it past the first night, but somehow Harrison was OK with that.

He loves his beanie babies. All 20 or so of them. He has a few favorites that sort of rotate through over time. For awhile it was the caterpillar, and now it's the snail, his white kitty and his newest addition (another half-birthday gift) Sammy the multicolored bear. He makes those three a home multiple times some days, either bundled under blankets, in a box, a basket, anywhere that seems appropriate. He includes small things that are their toys, and checks on them. It's really very sweet and I love that as much as he is a crazy boy he has this sweet side.

What seems like work to me is fun to Harrison. He wants to help with just about everything. He loves to take out the garbage and if we let him he would take the kitchen garbage out a few times each day. I usually stack up boxes (we do a lot of online shopping...much easier to return things than it is to take the time to shop and try them on!) in the garage and periodically flatten them for the recycling bin. Lately if Harrison sees a box on the garage floor he insists that we stop what we are doing and take care of that task immediately. He also likes to empty the kitchen recycling can into the big blue one in the garage so that Barrett doesn't take the things out of the can in the kitchen and run around the house with them. I can't really argue with him here. As far as laundry goes, he enjoys sorting the things into darks and "the other pile" as he calls it, and his favorite laundry job is to find stains and spray them with oxyclean. I kind of feel like Tom Sawyer pulling one over on him but he really likes to do work, and asks to help, so I am not going to turn that down!

He has a great sense of humor and likes to make jokes or laugh with me at Barrett. He and I do a lot of that since we don't always know what Barrett wants when he decides to grunt and point. We've been listening to music a lot lately while we play, and he knows a TON of songs. He loves to sing along whenever he knows the words, and even makes up some of his own to songs like "Down by the Bay". He can sing "The Eyes of Texas" and ends it with the blowing of his imaginary horn.

There are a lot of other things to say about him, but right now I'll just leave you with some fun pictures of him at three-and-a-half!

Typical afternoon playtime at our house. Harrison tells me he wants to wrestle with Barrett. Should be interesting in about a year when Barrett can fight back!

Fifteen Month Update

Here are some pictures of the boys from the day Barrett turned fifteen months old. They were definitely in need of haircuts as I look back at these!

At his fifteen-month check-up Barrett did great. He wasn't very happy about the shot he got but was good other than that.  He weighed in at 21 pounds, 12 ounces (15%) and 31 1/2" tall (60%).

Harrison wanted to be weighed and measured too. He's a small giant. He is 42 1/4" tall which is above the 95% for a 3.5 year old and 38.8 pounds which is right around 90%. No wonder someone asked me the other day where he was going to start kindergarten in the fall.

Barrett is quite a funny little man these days. He has a lot to say, and even though it's virtually impossible to understand most of it, it sure sounds like a complete paragraph that he's rattling off. He has tone, inflection, and a definite start and end to his statements.

His words:
mama
dida for Daddy
shoe (this is his favorite, and he will bring you shoes and demand to wear them if he is barefoot)
dis (which means "this" and he will point at what he wants until you figure it out and give it to him)
hi
bye
sit (which he says while standing on the couch)
night night (which he says when he's ready go to go bed or take a nap. love it!!)
no no

He knows that a cow says moo, a dog says woof woof and a duck says quack quack. A dinosaur roars...loudly.  Trains say choo choo and cars make a vrrrmm noise.

Barrett attacks Harrison on a regular basis, coming at him aggressively and biting him regularly. Harrison laughs and thinks it's hilarious as long as he doesn't actually get bitten hard. He is really good to Barrett and for all the beatings he takes from Barrett he rarely does anything in retaliation.

Barrett also loves to growl, and his roar has gotten much larger as he's gotten bigger. He throws his arms in the air, and roars/growls loudly, all while laughing. He has a love of small toiletries that is a bit amusing. For some reason he is obsessed with carrying around his toothpaste or oragel, a small tube of Aquaphor, a small bottle of baby ibuprofen or some other little treat.

Anything that Harrison has Barrett wants. Lately Barrett has been attacking Harrison's beanie babies, which are his prized possessions. Barrett will grab one, stick it in his mouth and run away, as fast as he can. He does it just because he knows Harrison will chase him, so it is rather amusing to watch as long as no one gets hurt!

For a fifteen-month-old he is great at following commands. He can get his "other" shoe when he brings you only one of them. He can bring something to mom or dad. He can come stand at his high chair when it's time for dinner. And when you tell him it's bath time he knows to run the other way if he wants to keep playing!

It is a lot of fun to watch these two boys turn into great friends and playmates. I can only imagine what the next few months are going to be like as Barrett gets a bit sturdier and probably even more feisty!




My two sweet boys in need of haircuts!



Laughing at Barrett doing something

A typical day in our world...Barrett attacking Harrison. This time he wanted Harrison's wallet.

Got it!

Ohh...now what should I do with it?

My little cutie :-)

My bigger cutie :-)

Beach Trip

In mid-June we went to Rosemary Beach in Florida for a week. We met my sister and her family there along with my mom, and the boys had a fantastic time! It took 14 hours by car, but the boys were really good and somehow managed not to totally melt down on the way there. By the time we arrived Harrison was so excited he couldn't stand it. He went straight down to the beach and started fishing for things with his net.

Barrett was a bit intimidated by the beach at first. There were some pretty good waves each day as there was a tropical storm brewing out in the gulf. Once he realized I wasn't going to throw him into the ocean he enjoyed sitting under the umbrella and playing with the sand toys. He could only handle about an hour on the beach, but that was fine, because by then he was too hot to stay out any longer.

Both boys loved the pool and we had a great time there every afternoon. Harrison did really well practicing his swimming, and Barrett loved sitting on the wide steps and run cars back and forth.

Harrison had an amazing time playing with his cousins Jeffrey and Charlie. They ran around all day and played so hard, that by the middle of the day he was asking to take a nap. He and Charlie were inseparable, and on the few occasions that one was without the other there were some tears until they got back together. Barrett was convinced he was one of the big kids, and tried his best to keep up with them. It was so fun to see the boys just live outside and have such a great time. We have already talked many times about how we will go back next year, and Harrison asks weekly when we are going back.

It was a great trip and I think next year will be even more fun since Barrett will be able to do so much more. Here are a few pictures from the week:

Harrison couldn't wait to get down to the beach. As soon as we arrived at the house he took his net down and started trying to catch things in the water.

Charlie, Jeffrey and Harrison heading to the Sugar Shak for a tasty treat.

Eating his tasty treat!

Here are the boys in their matching Sugar Shak shirts. We were very good customers this week.

Barrett thought the beach was a little overwhelming at first, but once he warmed up to it he had a lot of fun playing in the sand.

The Charlie's Donut truck has some of the best donuts around. We took the boys there one morning for a treat. They sure enjoyed their sugary breakfast!

At dinner to celebrate Nonny's birthday. We loved Charlie in his batman sunglasses!

Barrett turned 14 months old today. He made it a point of showing off his newly acquired walking skills by strolling just about everywhere we went.

Taking a little break from walking.

Getting a hand from Jeffrey.

Barrett sure loves his sunglasses, and he insisted on wearing my hat for awhile too. So cute!

Family fun at the pool!

We went on a walk one morning and came across the sprinklers...they had a great time getting soaked in their clothes!

 

More sprinkler fun!

Our attempt to get a picture of all four boys with Nonny for her birthday...it had been a long day!

 

May Fun

May seems like it was forever ago, but here's an update on our month:

The first weekend of May we headed to Waco to go to the zoo. Although we actually have no pictures to show from this outing (bad parents!) the boys had a great time. Harrison loved seeing all of the animals and talking about them, and Barrett had a great time just watching everything. The road trip was less than two hours each way, and we told Harrison it would be good practice for our trip to the beach in June, so he tested out the headphones for a movie while Barrett napped on the way there. He looks so grown up here!

The next weekend it was Mark's birthday and Mother's Day. Harrison helped me make a birthday cake for Dad. His job is always to sample the batter and the frosting. He is very good at that as you can see. 

We went to Central Market for dinner and playtime so neither of us had to cook, and it was a beautful afternoon. Barrett loved the little toddler playscape and just kept circling it, going up the steps and down the slide.

That weekend Uncle Richard and Aunt Allison arrived to stay for good. They are moving here from London and are staying with us until their house is ready. It is so fun to have them here, and Harrison and Barrett couldn't be happier that they are staying with us. I don't know what Harrison is going to do when he realizes that they aren't going to be here for good!

Here are Harrison and Richard with a tarantula in our backyard:

Love this one...Harrison fits right in with his Aunt and Uncle. Richard on the computer and Harrison and Allison on their iPads.

I think they used every block in the bin to build this:

Mark's mom gave us her piano, and the boys couldn't be more thankful. Or more musically challenged. They both love to pretend they are Jerry Lee Lewis in their own special way:

And we're walking...

Here is a video of Barrett from way back in May...May 28 to be exact. He had been taking a few steps at a time up until that point, but that day something clicked and he really started trying to walk. He had a little sideways swagger to his step as you can see. It took a couple more weeks for him to really get the walking thing down, so right as he turned 14 months he moved over to walking more than crawling.

He seems to be having fun walking, and definitely likes to try out his new skill everywhere we go. At the beach (more about that in another post) he had a great time walking all over the house, up and down the main street and through the green. He still has that new walker look to him, where he holds his hands up kind of like he's saying "touchdown!" and toddles along with a smile on his face. Very cute!

Sunglasses

Why are babies in sunglasses so cute?

Barrett loves sunglasses (and Harrison's goggles). Whenver he sees them he wants to try them on. He doesn't necessarily want to actually wear them for any length of time, just try them on and smile.

Alright, so these are goggles, but still, they are pretty cute!

Thirteen months old.

For some reason he loves to wear my sunglasses. He pulls them off my face and tries to put them on by himself. Then he grins a mile wide once we get them on him.

We've been keeping busy around here, but I really have nothing to show for it other than that we are all still alive and well.

April was busy and fun. Just before Barrett turned one, his Aunt Allison and Uncle Richard came to visit for a week. He and Harrison had a great time playing with them and really enjoyed having them here every day when they woke up. We are very excited because they will be moving to Austin soon, so we'll have lots more good times with them.

We made a couple of visits to the "peacock park" where Harrison had a great time checking out the peacocks, fish, frogs and turtles. He really enjoys just roaming around and finding "cool things" (his words). We were fortunate enough to be there when a family brought in a turtle they had found and dropped it off, so Harrison spent some time closely examining it before it ran off into the pond.  Barrett has been content to just chill in his stroller there and eat snacks while he watches Harrison.

We went to Harrison's friend Hunter's third birthday party at a bouncy place. Harrison had a great time going down the big bouncy slides and running around crazy. He had a bit of a meltdown at lunchtime because the pizza didn't have any ranch to go with it, but perked up when it was cupcake time.

Barrett also had lots of fun crawling all over like a crazy person. He really does think he's one of the big kids.

Here are a few pictures of our adventures:



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Harrison checking out the turtle that was dropped off while we were there. He had such a great time just watching it move around the park and then hop into a pond.

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Trying to scare the peacocks. We had a little chat about the fact that this is their home and that wasn't very nice...

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So then he calmed down and then just tried to tell them what to do and where to go.

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A little time in the monster truck makes every day better...

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Enjoying a cupcake at his friend Hunter's birthday party.

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YUM! Cupcakes!

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Barrett also enjoyed Hunter's party. It was at a bounce place and Barrett crawled around like a crazy man, and loved sliding down the slides.