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!

Holidays

We can hardly believe that the holiday season has arrived! Harrison thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving this year at Grams and Grandpa's house (especially dessert!) and then, about one week later he had his first Christmas celebration. Gigi will be traveling this year for Christmas, so we all got together to celebrate with her this past weekend instead. Harrison received some great new gifts that he loves, especially his new food basket (he loves to "cut" the toast) and music player. He is also enjoying cuddling with his new Jayhawk pet pillow.

We are looking forward to having lots of family at our house in a few short weeks for Christmas Eve and Christmas, and watching Harrison experience this Christmas season. We are so blessed.

Halloween Rescheduled

Well, unfortunately, Halloween did not turn out quite as planned. Obi-Wan was not in any condition to show off his Jedi skills due to a nasty virus that had set in the day before. Instead, Gigi was nice enough to let us reschedule Halloween and trick or treat at her house a few nights ago. We updated flickr with some pictures of Harrison in his costume, along with some other pics from the last month.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch this morning and Harrison had a fabulous time. There was a tractor ride, a hay maze, and thousands of pumpkins! Harrison particularly liked running through the hay maze and trying to push the wagon around after we picked out our pumpkins. We all loved every minute of this experience. jack o'lanterns coming up!

Scaakes Pumpkin Patch:

http://www.schaakespumpkinpatch.com/