Wordless Wednesday | He Likes It!

Baseball season is almost over...

I think he likes it. What do you think?

Link to more Wordless Wednesday here! 

{almost} Wordless Wednesday | The Trick Is…

 

Doesn’t he look cool in his catcher gear?

Like he’s been playing ball for a long time.

So official, with his mitt up to catch the balls that come in.

Keeping a neat little pile next to him…

Only…

Wouldn’t it work better to catch balls with his eyes open?

That’s what I’m thinking.

 

Keep your eyes open to catch the baseballs – yup. That’s the trick.

*Tonight he kept his eyes opened and caught several balls, including a couple great plays on first base getting a couple batters out and received the game ball.

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Hair Today…

He wasn’t really that thrilled to get a hair cut.
And I admit, I kind of like that long hair – until I look at pictures of his messy, no style ‘do! He is blessed with my hairline (and thickness) that just falls right down into his face.

It was time.


So we went to our favorite guy at our local Floyd’s Barbershop. Alan has been cutting Harrison’s hair since he was four years old and we adore him (well I adore him, Harrison thinks he’s cool).
To be honest, myself being the Murphy Brown of hairstylists, I don’t know what I will do if {when} Alan moves on in life. Harrison always walks out with a great cut.

On the first visit Harrison came up with something to preoccupy his time in the chair (as DVD viewing was no longer an option). He discovered the little, built-in ashtray on the arm of the chair.

He began scooping up cut hair and shoving it in the ashtray; and to his happy surprise it came out for better ease of use! Three years later, he still scoops up as much hair as possible (which was AH. LOT. this go-round) and smashes it down in the metal container.

Somehow, I suspect this is as much action as that little ashtray gets all year, seeing as how most indoor public places are smoking-free.

The hair is cut, the ashtray emptied, the lollipop crunched - and here is the NEW {7-year-old} Harrison.

Happy Monday!

Sir Harrison

This year to celebrate Harrison’s seventh birthday we took him and two of his friends (brothers) to Medieval Times. He promptly announced that he was taking his knight’s armor to be ready for what he may experience. A knight is always ready…

A lot of fun awaited some very excited boys.

 

To start he was knighted in special ceremony.

Some new medieval weapons and off we went to the festivities

Maybe we should have dubbed them the Three Musketeers…

The boys had an awesome time and were beside themselves with excitement.  There was plenty of cheering, yelling, waving of banners and laughing hysterics. 

One birthday we’ll remember for quite a while. 

Happy Valentines Day!

This year we made Harrison’s Valentines Day cards, he whet to town drawing on each and every card – unfortunately before he got through the last few cards he came down with a nasty cold.

Fortunately the last few cards were for the girls, so he drew hearts and flower gardens which seemed to be faster and easier.

He said to me, “Don’t say that I love so-and-so!”
“What? Why would I say that?” I responded.
(Because I tease him about loving girls every day…NOT)
He held up a card for me to see and pointing to each said, “Because I drew - one, two, three, four, five, six, SEVEN hearts on her card.” 
“Okay.”
“She is cute though.”
[pause]
”And nice. But I don’t love her!”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” he repeated and continued drawing hearts on the rest of the cards.
Sadly, he didn’t get to pass his cards out today, he stayed home - still sick.

Earlier today as he looked at a picture of the cards with the heart shaped lollipop. He asked what happened to the heart-shaped lollipops. “I threw them away because they are REALLY bad-for-you candy.
“Hey, Wait! Why do you let ME eat the bad-for-me candy!?”

good point kid.

From Duke to Duchess | Photo Story Friday

Hard to believe that it’s been two years since we said goodbye to Duke-the-Dog. However, he is not forgotten in any way. Duke comes up in conversation fairly regularly with Harrison and he is always pining for another dog – most likely named Duke or maybe Carl.

Then last summer he had a new plan. A parrot. I suppose between all the pirate stories, pirate toys, pirate cartoons, pirate movies and even pirate Legos, he decided on a parrot. 

Why a parrot?
Because parrots can talk.

Harrison wanted a talking bird.

Now, I loved my pet parakeets when I was young, so I was able to quickly talk him into the more manageable size bird. We read about them on the internet and watched YouTube videos of talking parakeets and Harrison even picked out a name, Duke. In memory of Duke-the-Dog.

Although I was trying to hold out for Christmas or his birthday I found a great bird store that hand feeds and hand raises their parakeets and I took Harrison to see the birds. He immediately picked out a blue, male parakeet (males are more likely to talk than females) and was able to touch and hold it. He was sweet and gentle… and he was sold.

A month later, we went back to our favorite bird store ready to adopt. Harrison walked to the parakeets and picked out a sweet little yellow female. He was set, she was IT.  But Duke no longer fit. Then the G.I.D. offered up '”how about Duchess?”
Duchess it was.


She’s still a bit shy.


 But we keep working with her, like letting her watch some Disney channel with Harrison.


We give her the run of the house…


Yet she always heads back to her “safe place”.



And like Duke-the-Dog, she doesn’t always want her picture taken and has no qualms about screaming about it.

After I walk away.





Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

“Great. Now I have guilt!”

I love Toy Story, don’t you? And Rex is the best… well, I love all the main characters. Although Harrison gave his Mr. Potato Head away because he said Mr. Potato Head has bad behavior and isn’t always nice.
As usual, I digress.

Back to my guilt.

Last week I started Harrison’s valentines for his class. I planned to get Trader Joe’s Organic Lollipops, but I was rushing and happened to be at Target where I spotted some heart-shaped lollipops on the cheap.

On the cheap.
Translation: filled with high fructose corn syrups and, more so, several artificial colors and preservatives that I can’t announce and would never endorse.  Plus there was my internal voice saying “WHAT?!!!”, that I was ignoring with a figurative hands-over-the-ears-saying “la-la-la-la… I can’t hear you!!” motion. (I learned that from a college boyfriend who did that to me once – literally. [WHAT?!] But that’s another story.)
Anyway, I bought them and moved on.

Then, earlier this week, I was reminded about the evils of food dyes when I posted an article about the subject on my Facebook wall. That’s when I felt it, I looked at that pile of valentine cards with a shoulder-slumping sigh of defeat. That was not what I planned, heart-shaped or not, I can’t in good conscious give a candy to another child that I wouldn’t give to my own. (Even though I let Harrison try one – DOH! Maybe that’s why he was hyper the other night.)

Food coloring dye. Maybe you have heard of Red #40 and are familiar with the studies on the effect of [petroleum based] food dyes on children’s behavior, especially children with ADHD. I first heard about the effects of red#40 from a friend while at Disneyland in 2008, she asked me, “Do you notice a difference in Harrison’s behavior when he consumes food with red#40?” “No”, I answered. She responded by telling methat it’s in everything including Kraft Mac and Cheese. I thought for a moment and realized I hadn’t bought Kraft Mac&Cheese for some time. I went home that night and looked through my cabinets and I discovered I no longer buy most name brand packaged foods.  […reason why I suck at collecting those silly Box Tops.]

Fast forward to today and the ongoing war against food dye, while the FDA has recently concluded that there is not enough evidence to link food dye with hyperactivity and voted not to add warning labels to ingredients, others beg to differ including the CSPI.  Even the UK removed artificial dyes from the food beginning as early as 2008.

Consider this from the CSPI:

On my Facebook page alone, a friend brought up that her son is allergic to all synthetic food dyes, which is in EVERYTHING from our food (including fresh fruit) to our clothing. I’ve heard stories from friends about the change in behavior they observed when they cut out the artificial colors and preservatives from their child’s diet.  But my other concern is that most of these dyes are more carcinogenic than once thought to be.  Why do we continue to fill our bodies with petroleum based preservatives? It doesn’t even sound appealing! 

And I’m not even going to start on High Fructose Corn Syrup, that’s another entire can of worms.
But think about this – HFCS and food coloring started to be used in mass in the 1970’s, less than two decades we began to see a shift in the health and weight of our children and now we are in an obesity epidemic.

Just to keep it real, I am not perfect and I’m not a food Nazi either. We do consume HTCS and food colors when were out and about it can’t always be avoided, but I don’t buy products with those ingredients. It’s one of my baby steps to better eating along with better planning and fresh ingredients.

So when Harrison takes his completed Valentines cards with a little treat attached to school next week, I will  have no guilt. 
Next to a home baked goodie, it’s a treat that a mom can be proud of giving.
Okay, I’m pushing now.

But even a 1st Grader can pronounce every ingredient on this lollipop label.