Words, words, words

Although Harrison is quickly moving into 3 & 4 word sentences, we wanted to have a record of the words he started using before they fade out of our short-term memories. Because that happens fast now days!

He’s been a talker since very early; not genius status or anything, just basic (and constant) baby babble. Here is a list of some of our favorites:

Nigh, nigh, nigh, nigh-nigh… – An expression of some thought or comment, which we will never know, used to converse with us.
Nigh, nigh, NIGH? – Question of some sort
Mocomycoco – motorcycle
Bicoco - bicycle
Munder muts – wonder pets
Alboard! – All aboard!
Diet coke – trash truck
Howsh – house
Heelp – help
Upvader – elevator
Booboo – big brother
Peas – please
Na-nu – thank you
I num mu – I love you
Bigybator – refrigerator

And of course, those common phrases all toddlers use:
Oh No!
Looky Dat!
Wass Dat?

It's incredible listening to him develop more complicated sentences and we will share some here as they come. But for now they tend to consist of:


Mommy look, Ocean
Look mommy ocean

Yes, honey I see

Mommy ocean

I see the ocean

Ocean mommy!

I see it Harrison

mommy ocean
mommy ocean!

Silence

Ocean mommy!

Yes, we're walking by the ocean

Ocean mommy

Big blue ocean

mommy ocean
ocean mommy!

I see, honey

mommy ocean!

Ocean, Harrison

mommy
mommy

Yes, Harrison?

mommy ocean
Ocean mommy

Yes, the ocean

ocean mommy

I see the ocean

ocean mommy

Yes, the ocean

ocean mommy

Okay, honey, the ocean, lets move on...

Pause

Mommy I see sailboat
Sailboat mommy!

Sigh

Best Shot Monday - Duke-the-Dog

I choose to start best shoot Mondays with our faithful companion and beloved BBF of Harrison. Not that Duke-the-Dog returns the sentiment, his first loyalty is to the GID. There is an on-going rival between the 2 under-four-footers for the attention of the GID.

Although I took the picture above a couple years ago, I love it. I took it in our little kitchen toward the end of the day & haven't gotten as good of picture of Duke-the-Dog since. I was devastated to lose it when one of our hard drives crashed a few months ago( I didn't have a print of it.) But as I searched through zip discs for items work-related, low and behold! My lost pictures were found!! I had backed them up and forgotten!

This was taking after our dog got skunked - pount blank in the face at the threshold of our backdoor! Being from the Midwest, I never minded skunk smell in the city, it brought back memories a quieter times. But direct hits are like chemical warfare and since I was pregnant at the time, I was convinced my child would come out with a white strip through his hair!! (
And this was only the first time he came in contact with Mr. Skunk - can you say RUN-DUKE-RUN!)

When you move to the city, you don't expect skunks and raccoons to frequent your back yard - let alone live in the big city at all! Yet, another story...

Make Room in the Sandbox!

So have I posted anything lately? NO! Why? Well let’s see…
Yes, I started this blog to just to have a quick-access platform to post pictures and events of Harrison’s life for friends and family to view, okay that works. Sorta.

Then immediately I go to work, out of the house, full time (only temporarily- for a few weeks-but still,
We all promptly get sick with end-of-summer colds,
Harrison has a terrible-twos week-long episode,
And to top it off - I discover the overwhelming world of mommy-blogs! Oh My Gosh!

I love what the internet has done in allowing people the ability to express and share their creative giftings. There are so many expressive voices out there that put MY everyday experiences into much better words then I could have dreamed! I can't live up to these blogs.

But after "lurking" for a couple weeks (because I'm a newb).

I WANT TO PLAY!

So play, I will!

Move over girls, I'm jumping in the sandbox! After all, having some themes and learning a few tricks will (hopefully) make it more enjoyable for Harrison’s family & friends to visit here. Maybe I’ll even figure out how to send a notice to them when I’ve posted – one step at a time, newb!

Anyway, over at the fun site/blog Picture This, this week’s theme was FADE, with that I posted another picture of Harrison with Big Brother, because as I watch and listen to each of them I see babyhood quickly fading into childhood and childhood fading away as our newly 17-year-old finds his way into young adulthood. Truly Bittersweet, how cherished they are. This was a nice moment as the day faded into evening when Booboo took Harrison on a walk.

Move Over Percy!

.
And little red James-stand-in train



James is on his way home!!

Yes, it's has been 10 weeks to the day since we found out about the recall and today we got an email announcing that a new and improved James was on his way home!

In the words of Curious George - Hurrah!!

Mama! Sea-Star!!

This is what happens when we all get sick...




'nuff said.

Sponges Soak Up a Lot – Part 2

Harrison often uses the phrase, “Oh no, broken!” for anything that goes wrong.(In the last 2 weeks he started thoughtfully inserting the word -it's)

Today as he played with his cars, one came apart. He announces, “Oh no, it’s broken!”
I looked at it and said no, it’s not broken.

Pause.

“It’s BUSTED.”

Busted? New one.
It’s such a guy word, he must have gotten that from his big brother...

We're Not Morning People...

Harrison promptly got sick this week after spending only 3 days in camp while mom worked in the office.

He would tell you that it was the best 3 days he has had in his wee little life thus far – if he could. Three days of playing on the playground, meeting new friends and playing in water – no bars hold! No transitions for him, once I signed him in and put his stuff in his cubby, he would just run down the hall toward the playground waving his hand back at me yelling, “Bye mommy! See you mommy!”

Much to his displeasure, he had to stay home the 4th day, but colds are colds and I don’t want to be blamed for spreading them.

So this morning, after a 3 hour nap yesterday and going to bed fairly early (albeit, he stayed awake in bed and sang for an hour – his newest thing) he woke and & called out, “MAW-MEE!” as he normally does every morning. Only, after that he started yelling “WAKE-UP TIME! WAKE-UP TIME!”

So what's the problem? His parents just weren’t ready to wake up at 6:00 AM!
We’re so not morning people.

"You Have Caused Confusion and Delay."

I was watching the evening news while working on the computer and near the end of the broadcast was a teaser for the next segment - a child's toy recall. In the past, I may or may not have paid attention after the commercial break; after all I didn't have children or toys. But that night I paid close attention to find that it was wooden Thomas the Tank Engine toys. "NO WAY!" I yelled as I panicked. Suddenly I had to scoop the trains all up and send them away; what would we do?. I envisioned Harrison coming down the next morning to find NO trains to play with at his train table – this was not a happy outcome. As I assessed the situation, I contemplated leaving them there... I couldn't do that. So I did the logical thing, I went to the RC2 website & looked at the list of recalls. Much to my relief, out of all the items (mostly red in color) James and his tender was the only one we had. On the other hand, GID reminded me that it happens to be Harry's favorite train.
It's true; Harrison had carried that red train around the house since receiving it for Christmas. Just weeks before, he was looking for it and saying, “upstairs, upstairs” I told his we had brought it downstairs, or so I thought. Once again while my back was turned, off he went upstairs to a closet in the storage room to retrieve it. When did it get back up there? (Goes to show prove that I need to listen to my little talker!)

So do I (a.) tell Harrison that it has to go bye-bye or (2.) make it disappear in the middle of the night and bank on the fact that he may not notice for a - day or two? We opted for number 2; he usually plays at the train table in the afternoon and about every other day intently...
The next morning as James sat on the table, neatly packed up in an envelope to be mailed, Harrison comes down, inspects his train table and asks, "Where's James?"
NOOO!!!
WHY? Does he have ESP? Redirect! Redirect! I was able to distract him, if only for a couple days.

Well since then, we have found a temporary fix in a red train that came with the tracks, he calls it James, and we recently received a gift train from the Thomas recall in appreciation for our patience and loyalty. Harrison opened it up and slowly whispered, “Deeee-sol,” much to our surprise. I didn’t expect Harrison to know it's name. Either that or he’s just brilliant and hiding the fact that he can read already. No.

A Very Useful Engine!

In December Harrison was 22 months and he LOVED wooden Thomas the Tank Engine trains (still does). We go to a local indoor play area with friends once a month. It’s great; it offers swings, climbing mats, tumbling mats, ball pits, and a plethora of other activities -including a Thomas the Tank Engine train table. We usually spend 2 to 3 hours there, and what does Harrison do? He plays at that table until he can’t see straight (up to the 3-hour mark!).
So I tell daddy this, and he offers up, “Maybe we should get him one for Christmas?” Wait, What? Since I bargain shop, I’ve been done shopping for toys for months! But then I realize I could just push those things to his birthday and that shopping is done, too!


Well, we get the table and the thing I love about having a young toddler is that you can hide something right in front of them and they don't know a thing. As was the case with Harrison and the train table; days before Christmas it sat, packed in the box, in our office. Harrison would come into the office, intently examine the box and say, “train”, he would pat the box a couple of times and go off to play. That was that.

The trains and track however, had been temporarily put in a plastic bin with another bin on top of to detour Harrison from taking the lids off them. Later we moved the bin outside to the porch – forgetting to Harrison-proof it – and on Christmas Eve, without attracting any attention, Harrison made his way through the dog-door out to the porch . When we realized it was far too quiet, as it gets when kids do things they are not supposed to, we looked around and found Harrison sitting outside, giving him self a preview of his Christmas gift! That night he went to bed with a wooden train round house, not the coziest of choices to snuggle with, but hey, what ever it takes!

Mickey wears heels?

The GID made me swear that I would NEVER paint Harrison’s toe nails – not even dark blue or black. That’s easy enough, considering that since bringing him into the world, I hardly paint my toe nails anyway. In fact, now that I think of it, I could use a good pedicure, manicure, facial and/or massage. Or a just month at the spa will do it! (Actually I would get bored after a couple hours.)
Anyway, toenail polish – I have painted my toenails and it does fascinate Harrison every time, but I don’t pull it out to do his nails, I promised his daddy.

But GID never mentioned any limitations on Mickey Mouse drag complete with high heels...

P.S. How about open-toed slings with toenails painted in Florida State colors??

Sponges hold a lot!

I have often said to GID (the Guy-I-Dig) that we need to watch what we say around our mobile little sponge. He soaks it ALL up! Let’s just say Harrison’s parents are both of Irish-German descent and there is something to be said of certain temperaments… I tell GID that we would not want an embarrassing moment of being called into the preschool classroom because our 3-year-old used a strong, not-too-Godly of a word that most adults wouldn’t say in mixed company. (Not that this type of language is used often – if at all in our house, but we all have bad days, don’t we?) Well the other day, I’m working on the computer and Harrison is playing with his cars (who now talk to each other with repeated phrases like, “I’m happy!”, “Hi, how are you?” and “Hi ya!” Suddenly I tune into something different in his dialog. As he is sits on the floor playing, he is repeating “Oh, no, dangit, dangit, Oh dang-it.” Oops! Where did he get that!? Not us! Not his perfect parents! No way!

Let’s not talk about that day at the park when we were on our way home and something got caught in the wheel of the stroller. I couldn’t get it untangled and after 5 minutes, in frustration, out flew the word – “CRAP!” nice and loud. My friend in front of Harrison started laughing, I looked up and she said, “You said, C-R-A-P.” spelled out in that manner that parents do. Yeah and…I thought - still caught up in MY moment of frustration. Then I hear it, Harrison is sitting in the stroller singing, “Crap, crap, crap. Crap-crap!” So much for trying to model good behavior.

Not quite the beginning - part two

Harrison, also referred to as Harry (by his big-brother and daddy) is lovingly named after his grandpa Harry, whom he refers to as “Pa-pa” – an endearment close to my heart since I called my grandfather Papa-Chuck my ENTIRE life until his death a year ago. Harry may not stick to that name once he finds he can say “Grandpa”, but that’s another day. Still, funny how life moves in a circular motion... Anyway, Harry is already 2 years old and he is quite a busy and talkative young boy. And I have plenty of material to record.

Therefore it’s important that I go backward before I move forward, if only for myself. So if I suddenly recall something that happened in the recent past and record it now, it’s truly for prosperity. It's small moments no longer missed, now recorded permanently. This is ultimately a record for Harrison, of who he is and will become, and a record for those who love him but don’t get to see him daily - as we do. And it’s about us and our experience of being parents. The good, the bad, the ugly. Yes, I said ugly - we are such imperfect human beings. And OH, I have had my moments!!!

Not quite the beginning...

I haven’t kept a journal about Harrison and I already kick myself for that one. There are so many little things he has already said and done that were so funny and cute and are already lost to me. I am horrible at journaling (aka blogging) but there is no better time to start; and since I have few brain cells left after having but ONE baby and I can't rememer to take my Ginko Biloba to help my memory, well I figure this is a good way to start!

And today I needed to start, as he is beginning to put together more complex sentences and thought processes. A few moments ago, I was pretending to be a kazoo and singing some obscure tune like My Three Sons when Harrison stops, turns to me and says, “No – mommy, no – mommy,” meaning he wants me to stop this obnoxious noise right away. I stop immediately and still looking at me he says, “Okay, okay” in that tone that us parents use with our children when we have had enough.

I laugh at the ‘moment’ and say out loud, “I love you, Harrison.” He immediately replies, “I – know – mommy, I – know.” My baby boy is growing up!