Santa!

Harrison went to see Santa today. No tears and he seemed to really enjoy!

Harrison had a fun and festive month of November, enjoying time outside, celebrating Thanksgiving, and preparing our house for Christmas.  We enjoyed our Thanksgiving in Wichita with Tom's dad and grandparents.  And Harrison enjoyed a fun sleepover with Johnny while his parents celebrated their 10-year anniversary!  Last weekend,we trimmed the tree together, which Harrison absolutely loved.  Turns out, he is really good at it!  It was a great month with lots of fun new pictures to enjoy. 

Happy Halloween

The little Train Conductor had several successful stops last night. He picked up on "trick or treat" very quickly...

My new room

We are so excited to celebrate the fall with Harrison.  This past weekend was beautiful in Larence and we took a nice walk with Sydney and collected leaves.  Amy and Harrison are also baking up a storm together---he has been under the weather and home a lot, so it is something they can do inside to pass the time.  He LOVES mixing up the cookie dough and pouring muffin batter into the pans.  He is so proud of the results.

Harrison now has  a new "big boy" room, with a real bed.  He's not quite ready to sleep in the new bed yet, but he is very proud of "my new room" and we read books together and get dressed in there.  For now, he is still adjusting to the freedom of his toddler bed.  Keeping him in that bed has been a struggle---he likes to get out and sing and generally try to coopt us into to staying with him.  About 30 seconds after putting him to bed, we usually hear "Oooooh, Mommy!"  And now that he can reach the light switches, he sometimes just turns on the light after we leave him.  Hopefully, this is just a phase! 

For those of you who haven't heard, Harrison was fairly accident-prone this last month.  He fell off of a tricycle at school, biting his lip, which required stitches and loosened his two top front teeth.  Four days later he tripped and fell off of a porch step and lost one of the loose teeth.  He will unfortunately be without that tooth until his permanent one comes in a few years down the road.   We were heartbroken for him, but thankful that he was not more seriously hurt.  As you can imagine, we are following him around like helicopter parents lately!  One encouraging thing, and indicative of our Harrison's personality, is that he hopped right back on that tricycle the next time he went outside at school---completely unphased! 

Given all of this chaos, we don't have quite as many pictures to post as usual, but at least a few to enjoy.  We'll post more from Halloween and hopefullly, we'll get a trip to the pumpkin patch in soon!

I Did It!

This is Harrison's most often used new phrase lately.  He continues to assert his independence and is so proud to do things for himself, whether it is pouring his own milk, getting dressed, or putting bread in the toaster.  We are slowly learning how to give him the tools to be as independent as possible, while  maintaining his safety!  Everything we do takes a little bit longer these days, but we are happy to be patient and let him work through it.  He is so proud to do things on his own and we avoid tantrums this way!

Along with this independence has come an entirely new vocabulary and actual sentence structure in his speech.  It has been so much fun to communicate and we are learning a little more each day what a hilarious and sweet personality our little boy has.  While he is definitely independent, he is equally affectionate---he loves to cuddle up and read and to give us hugs and kisses.  And his sense of humor is really starting to come through.

In other developmental news, Harrison is starting to count!  Granted, he usually skips numbers here and there, but he is definitely getting the hang of it.  He also really likes to sing (by himself, of course) and give himself a big round of applause when he is through. 

We continue to enjoy the warm (ok, really hot) weather as Fall approaches and had a great time at our first KU Football game this weekend!  We've uploaded some fun pictures from the last month, including a trip to the Aquarium with Johnny, the game, playing with trains, and enjoying the backyard.

Hot Hot Hot

Despite the record temperatures, we've managed to get out quite a bit this summer.  And Harrison is having a blast!.

Harrison loves the park - particularly slides and swings.  It seems like just days ago that he was clutching to the chains of the infant swing, and giving us cautious yet unimpressed looks as he swung a few feet back and forth.  Now, he literally runs to the big boy swing, screams "swing", and demands a "push." 

We've also discovered swimming - in the pool and even one dip in the lake.  Harrison is a natural, and was particularly fond of walking backwards in the shoulder-high toddler pool.

In June, we traveled to Baldwin City, KS for "A Day out with Thomas."  We were lucky enough to see a restored steam engine that had been customized to look exactly like Thomas the Tank Engine.  Harrison loved sitting in the train seat like a big boy, and getting to play with all the other kids in a giant tent full of train tables.  We have a feeling this may be a yearly trip for some time.

We're just trying to stay cool and have fun.  Staying cool is a challenge, but having fun is never a problem with Harrison involved.

Salsa!

Harrison has long enjoyed his chips and dip. But this evening, he learned to express his passion for this food group by shouting "salsa!"

May

Well, since our last post we have flown on a plane for the first time, celebrated Mother’s Day, celebrated Harrison’s birthday, and enjoyed a nice long Memorial Day weekend with family and friends. Lots of new pictures to share from all the festivities! Amy had a fabulous Mother’s Day because she was able to sleep in and then spend a leisurely day hanging out with Harrison and planting flowers!

Harrison’s birthday was so much fun. He was able to celebrate with his family, including both cousins, at the Train Park. The weather was great and he was able to try out some new outdoor toys like his lawn mower (also a new favorite thing to say) and tee-ball set. After his party, he kept singing “happy, happy, happy,” and telling us that he is 2! The celebration continued with a little party at daycare the following Monday. The kids celebrated with popsicles and Harrison had a blast.

Last weekend was a treat also—we got to catch up with friends and family and Harrison had lots of fun playtime. He loves being outside and getting wet!

Harrison is really talking up a storm these days.  He's putting multiple words together and getting really good at telling us what he wants!  He has learned to insert the words "I need" before the items he is after and gives us a very cute concerned face when asking.  As you can imagine, it's getting harder and harder to say "no" to him - especially when he says "I need more cake."

Spring is Here

Spring has been very strange this year! Cold, then hot, then cool weather and much more illness in our family than we experienced during the winter. Fortunately, we were all well enough to celebrate Easter together. Harrison and Johnny mastered an Easter egg hunt in our backyard, and had fun discovering their Easter baskets the next morning. We ended the day with a trip to the playground--lots of great pictures from Easter weekend. The following weekend, we enjoyed marching in the Lawrence Earth Day parade with Harrison's class. Afterwards, Harrison had fun at the fair looking at dogs from the Humane Society, and the animals on display from a local wildlife refuge.

New words and phrases: yuck, up, down, 1, 2, 3, what's that, wow, water, why, juice. Favorite recent activities: kicking and tossing balls, slides, bubbles. Hopefully, we are all healthy now for the duration and it won't take us so long next month to post!

Trucks and Helping

As you probably can see from recent pictures, Harrison is really into helping us around the house right now. Whether it is putting together a shelf or cleaning, he is happiest when allowed to help. He really enjoys laundry, dusting, and sweeping the floor (although the short broom was not as big of a hit as we imagined it would be; he still prefers the real thing!). He says "helping, helping," as he follows us around doing his tasks—so cute!

Harrison is also a big fan of trucks these days and can even say "tractor." He gets very excited whenever we see a delivery truck go by and he makes siren noises when he sees pictures emergency vehicles!

With the late flu season this year, we had a tough February. But it looks like everyone is feeling better and ready to enjoy this beautiful spring weather! We’ll be sure to post pictures of us enjoying the outdoors in the days to come!

Elmo

So, we discovered Elmo. About a month ago, we thought we would see if Harrison enjoyed Seseme Street and by his second episode, he was excitedly chanting and pointing at "Melmo" everytime the red furry creature would enter a scene. Now, every evening, he brings us the remote control and asks for Elmo before bedtime. After 10 minutes of Elmo's World and a bath, he brings us his Elmo books. Elmo is likely the last thing on Harrison's mind before he falls asleep these days!

In addition to Elmo, Harrison is really focusing on his toys and books lately. It seems that he is finally comfortable with the world around him and ready to settle down and master his toys! He loves shape sorters (interestingly, ovals are his favorite shape) and anything involving animals. He can make several animals noises now, including monkey noises, which are a riot. But most of all, Harrison loves books and we are enjoying all of the time we get to spend reading together.

Here are some of our favorite new words and phrases by Harrison: "one more," "oval," "school," "home," "good morning," "night, night," and "puppies."

A Long Overdue Holiday Update

We sincerely apologize for the delay in getting our pictures posted from Christmas this year! Our family is just starting to feel like we've gotten back into a normal routine this week after several short workweeks and a day care hiatus! Fortunately, this year we were all healthy and able to fully enjoy and appreicate Christmas with our families. Suffice it to say that Harrison was a professional gift opener by the end of Christmas day. He is having so much fun with all of his new toys and there were so many! We have to admit that this was the most fun we have had at Christmas since we were little kids ourselves. It was amazing to see Harrison's face light up, whether it was from the Christmas lights or the songs at church, or the gift wrap and toys he received. We had a blast.

In other news, Harrison is starting to jabber away and, as if he wasn't busy enough, he is finding new chores around the house to keep himself occupied. He can say "help" now, so that is coming in very handy. And he now has a step stool, which he carries around with him to reach light switches and the sink (he loves to wash his hands). It is so funny to watch because he even takes the stool back to the bathroom when he is done to put it away.

Harrison has also discovered the fine art of wrestling. He absolutely loves to wrestle with his Dad. He squeals with delight as he tackles Tom and rams him with his head! They are having a ton of fun together. While Harrison likes to wrestle occassionally with Mom, you are much more likely to find them enjoying a book together, or working on a puzzle. And he is a very cuddly little boy with Mom, giving her the best squeezes and making her heart melt on a daily basis.

We are attaching a great little video that highlights another recent Harrison achievement: opening doors. We are working hard to keep up with him and enjoying every day!