Theme Thursday - It's Time for a Change!

On Monday, as we were getting ready to go upstairs for a nap, we heard some clunking around overhead and Harrison asked, Is Daddy making my big boy bed? He then told me he was ready to have his big-boy bed. We agreed to remove the rail after nap.

Apparently this past weekend while getting ready for bed, Harrison told Daddy that he wanted to take down the rail of his bed. He wanted to make a big boy bed. When he awoke later the G.I.D. went up and started the process. Here is the very giddy and proud boy in front of his new big-boy bed. Complete with just-woke-up hair.

I also showed him the twin mattress for the even bigger-boy bed that he eventually will have.

That's too big mommy.

That's fine, we have time.

Today he asked to look at the mattress today, That's my really big-boy bed! I'm 'Cited!!
He is becoming a "big boy", he had no problems with sleep since starting in the "new" bed and soon I think we'll be taking down that crib completely.


So Harrison, now that you have a big-boy bed, what do you want to do?


Mommy! Let's go Disneyland - That's a GREAT idea!


Well, we won't be going to Disneyland tomorrow but it will be an exciting day. Here's a hint.

More later!

Wordless Wednesday - May the Force Be With You

Why is this boy smiling?

He's playing with this...

Because he filled up this.
[His potty chart.]

He is now the proud owner of his very own Light Saber.

Watch out Obi-Wan Kenobi, here comes young Padawan Harrison.

May the Force be with you.

Check out more (really) Wordless Wednesday pictures here and here.

I've Kept My Promise...

I've mentioned how much I love Wondertime magazine; but I lately I have a problem with getting the issues on time. Last Friday I received my May issue. So while everyone else is reveling in their June issue (which I haven't received) I poured over my May issue.

And true to form, I started in the back at the No Comment page.

Harrison looked through the whole issue too. Two things caught his attention, first - to his delight, Star Wars was mentioned. He closely studied the page with a little boy dressed like Darth Vader. Then he found the back page and quizzed me about the picture.

I explained it.


After which he asked Can I paint yours toes nails?

Then I recalled how the G.I.D. made me promise NEVER to paint his toenails. Would this turn into a Mommy paint my toes nails! Or did he really want to paint just mine?

Harrison didn't ask to paint his toenails, he asked to paint mine. That's keeping my promise. don't you think? So I agreed.

Off we went to give mommy a toddler-sized pedicure - because he saw it in a magazine...

I found some old polishes and let him pick the color.

He mastered opening polish and removing the brush without disaster.

Let the application begin... he liked painting the feet and toes before the nails.

Blue isn't enough, gotta add some green, too.


I feel pretty, oh so pretty. Oh So blue and green and Bright!

My feet have recovered although they have a faint blue tint to them... my toe nails are still a lovely mix of green and blue. Harrison checks to make sure it's still there.

Best Shot Monday - Carefree Days at the Park

I'm Youth, I'm Joy. I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg.

Our weekend was quite full of park days, discoveries and friends, what more can you ask for?

On the way to the local park we found a chunk of bark that had fallen loose from a Palm tree and examined it. Harrison marveled at how light and soft it was and how tall Palm trees grow.
Then as quickly as he became interested in it, he chucked it to the side to get to the park for some play.


So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land!

~Peter Pan

Swing over to Tracey's for more Best Shot Monday.

Favortie Phrase Friday (aka - Random Facts or "How I Began to Disseminate Useless Information to my Parents")

Harrison Quotes:

"Snow make you cold and chilly and make you shake." - Followed by a very intense, full-body shudder.

Checking out the dog under the table, "Oh Duke, you have so many hair! Where did you get that hair come from? Dukie, poor dog."

When it's time to race: "On your Markets! Set! Go!"

Daddy put Harrison in a jammy that was too small the other night, Harrison's response, "My Skeleton is too big for this Daddy, I need to tell mommy that my bones are growing."

But his all time distraction lately is gender and family structure. Daily conversations include, "Mommy, you a woman and I am a boy, I'm a son. Big Brother is a boy. Daddy is a man. Daddy is a father. Big Brother is a son and Daddy is a son. Dukie is a boy. You are a girl, I am a boy. We are a family."


A couple of non-information based moments:

This week when I ask him what he is doing when he is out of eye shot, he responds, "Nothing, Mom!" Gah! [Hey you're not a teenager, yet buddy.]

Yesterday, we had a little friend come over for a play date [or maybe it was a mommy play date]. He's 8 months younger than Harrison and during their time together, Harrison got hurt. When he was all finished with crying, he got down, looked Parker in the face and gently said, "Hey, you didn't say sorry to me, you pulled on me and I hurt my head on the chair. You need to say sorry to me. You didn't say sorry."
Parker sweetly answered, "[sic, sic, sic] shawry [sic] [sic] shho oh, ah, oh [sic] yeah. [sic]" Harrison was happy with the answer. Apparently he understood everything.

Happy weekend!!

The Hungry Little Caterpillers

One of Harrison's favorite books is The Hungry Little Caterpillar. We have read it over and over AND OVER again. Harrison has acted out turning from a caterpillar to a butterfly since he was about 18 months old with his beloved Big Blue Blanket.

Then Ken saw an advertisment on TV for growing Painted Lady butterfies and we talked about ordering one online in the near future.

It was a no-brainer to get a butterfly house when we went the the Bug Fair last week.

Actually the Bug Fair took place over the weekend at the Natural History Museum, but I heard about it in the final few hours. Shortly after washing the car with Harrison, I crammed him in his car seat, opted out of nap, and drove across town to the Bug Fair.

Let me just say that he was a willing participant...

we arrived in time to still see quite a bit of bugs, most importantly, big furry spiders. Harrison even experienced a millipede walk up his arm. In fact, it was the length of his little arm! He loved it. I wasn't so loving the idea of it walking up MY arm, but I kept a Poker face. I just held his arm still, kept my fingers tucked under and smiled.

We also made a terrarium to keep beetles that we catch. We were going to get a beetle at the fair but we ran out of time.

Fine with me really. We have enough beetles and other big ugly bugs to put in it in the future. That will be a "daddy adventure". In the mean time he checks it daily for any signs of life.

Speaking of signs of life, he also got to "pin a bug". He picked out a beetle from a pile of dead - beetles, then he stuck a pin in it "for study". Yesterday, he said, "I need to see my pin bug mommy." He looked at it and announced, "Still Dead."


Before we left all the bug-fun, we went and picked up our Butterfly House with caterpillars; and yesterday, we moved our 5 little chrysalids from their cup to their new home.

Here is their week in pictures -

1. baby catapillars - day 1 May 19, 2. baby catapillars - day 2 may20, 3. Caterpillars may23, 4. Caterpillars May 25, 5. Caterpillars May 27 8:40 am, 6. Crystalis forming May 27 8:30 pm, 7. Caterpillars - May 28

Whire we watch and wait, Harrison continues to give us his version of the Hungry Little Caterpillar using his Big Blue Blanket as the chrysalis, he eats, rolls up in the blanket, stands and "breaks free" to fly like a butterfly.

I can't wait until they emerge.

Bringing Out the Creative Side

I realized that since my new computer arrived a week ago, I haven't blogged one bit. Not to say nothing has been happening, on the contrary, we've been very busy.

At the beginning of May, I got my hands on a great little book by Amanda Blake Soule called The Creative Family. It's filled with tons of fun ideas for family creative time and nurturing your child's creativity. Go visit Amanda at her blog SouleMama; it's always fun and inspiring!

Anyway, I gleaned a couple of things from her book that I immediately put into action.
One of them is to have a creative place for Harrison's art work and little things that we get while on walks and adventures. (Pictures on the refrigerator kept getting knocked off as we passed by) So in the dining room, where we spend a lot of time I made an area for Harrison's projects. Now I have a place for all those sticks and rocks that he doesn't want to let go of; we can look at them and talk about where we found them and what we did that day.

I cleared off the buffet, hung some twine above it and used wooden clothes pins to hang pictures he made from school, church and home.

The bean plant is from school, it's getting larger and larger, any suggestions with what to do with it before I kill it?

Also, I finally got some more photo paper from Costco and printed out some photos of some of Harrison's favorite places, things and people. We hung some of the pictures so that he could see them. Later this weekend we'll change some of them and hand the pictures of our caterpillars!


We also put together a small photo album that he has looked at over and over again, and taken with him to show when we visit friends. I love the idea that he has control over this set of pictures and can rearrange them as he pleases. He is also very proud of his album. I need to print out some of the pictures he took to add them [but I have to get more ink first].

Speaking of pictures, I want to say a BIG thank you to Melody at Slurping Life! I won a Snapfish certificate for 50 free prints! How fun is that!? and the thing is, earlier in the day that I entered the drawing, I was at Snapfish checking for deals because I needed to make some prints - perfect timing!

Check out Harrison's caterpillar experience - coming up next!