26 February 2012

BFFs

Harrison was SO lucky to hang out with his friend Alesa June THREE saturdays in a row. First, she turned 3 and had an awesome birthday party. Then we took the kids to the Aviation museum in College Park (SO FUN), and then last weekend me and Taci (alesa's aunt) met up with the kids at the zoo while Cory helped Dru move into their new place. It's so great to have good friends :)

Stopping for a drink at the party
Kids and balloons! Nothing better.


Just looking cute as usual
Beautiful Strawberry Shortcake Cake! Seriously, erin is talented!
Spinning the big propeller
Flying somewhere---
Airplane puzzles!!
Dressed up as pilots
Riding the airplanes outside
Showing off the pictures they drew
Cutie pie
Pretty much the majority of our time at the zoo was spent running around, climbing on walls and fences, not so much looking at animals :)
We did catch some orangatangs though
Hanging out with the babies

08 February 2012

Harrison is THREE!!!!



Harrison turned three on January 8th. We had a party the saturday before his birthday with five of Harrison's best friends over at our house. It was a really really fun day. The weather was unseasonably perfect so the kids got to spend some time running up and down the sidewalk chasing each other and playing with stuffed cows....I made awesome chick fil a-inspired chicken nuggets with a recipe I found on pinterest, my favorite salad ever, and a train cake. Harrison got some awesome car stuff and an electric thomas the train toothbrush. We're so lucky to have great friends that came to spend a couple of hours with us and share the day :) Harrison's actual birthday was a bit dramatic as Harrison decided to bite a little girl (daughter of friends of ours, of course) in nursery. He learned about long time outs and going over to her house to say sorry. Good lesson!

watching Backyardigans and waiting for his friends to come over--TV is kind of necessary when you're frying things in hot oil in the kitchen in my opinion.





This cake was so fun to make but left us with LOTS of extra candy lying around...dangerous....


TODDLERS!!! Six was PLENTY :)


Riding his motorcycle with Daniel


Harrison LOVED it when it was time for everyone to sing happy birthday to him



The candles have been official blown out!!!



In honor of our THREE year old--here are thirty six things that make Harrison awesome (one for each month of course):

1. He loves loves loves his sister--when ever we meet people he has to introduce her, "and this is carter...she's my baby."

2. He always participates: in nursery, at preschool, at the little gym, at any type of activity we're at he's all about being involved and is usually right up front-it's too cute and makes me proud.

3. See #2 has an answer for everything, but that answer is often "I don't know." in a Harrison-esque sing song voice.

4. He is ALL BOY. He loves to spin, run back and forth and all around the house, climb and jump on the couch, play "monkeys jumping on the bed" with me, run down sidewalks and fall down on purpose, etc. etc. etc. If he falls I get an "I'm fine mommy" and he does it again.

5. We had our first parent teacher conference and it went great--let me sum it up for you. Harrison loves everything and everyone and excels in everything he does, but he hates when things don't go his way and he hates being reprimanded. Yep. Perfect until you disrupt his mojo :)

6. He could care less about getting potty trained but recently took up peeing standing up and "shooting" cheerios in the toilet (thank you Rachel Morris for this tip :)) ...this makes going potty more fun but that doesn't mean he'll go without being prompted or bribed...maybe by kindergarten...sigh...

7. He corrects me when I mess up words in his favorite songs (Second verse of I love to see the temple or tell me the stories of jesus for example..)

8. One time we were driving to a particular grocery store we've been to only a few times. I missed the turn. He knew and insisted I missed it---I denied it. He was right. I was wrong. HA.

9. At night time he will often get up several times before he actually goes to sleep because he still loves naps even if he doesn't "need" them....sometimes when he gets up he tells me "I need...... something." What? "I forgot.." I threw him for a loop and told him to go back to his bed until he remembered....so he did. Hilarious.

10. "Mommy it's bed time and jammies time and I want a little bit of milk please!!!!" screamed from the top of the stairs every night after his bath.

11. He's great at saying thank you and your welcome and usually pretty good at please too.

12. He once insisted that we go to the grocery store to "pick up a few things." I asked what and the exuberant reply was..."CHIPS!!!" I love how toddlers think you will just buy them whatever they want.

13. He loves older kids-often watching them, frequently jumping right in and playing with them, he can keep up with the 4 year old boys at school pretty dang well for being barely 3.

14. He makes friends everywhere he goes.

15. Today in the car he started singing a song about me, it went: "Mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy....mommy I'm singing a song about YOU!!!"

16. He wanted to do tummy time with Carter and his blankie panda leonard today.

17. Cory taught him to say "What the WHAT?" it's too funny.

18. He always uses big words. Usually correctly. "That's difficult." is our favorite.

19. He loves to watch Phineas and Ferb with Cory (who likes that show a little too much) and LOVES to sing along with the theme song.

20. He also loves to sing around and dance to "Baby it's Fact" by hellogoodbye (kind of our song when we were dating) which Cory has as the alarm on his phone.

21. If I wear a pretty dress he tells me I'm a princess. Carter is often a princess too.

22. He gives Carter kisses and hugs ALL DAY long.

23. He loves to help me cook dinner, bake cookies, help fold laundry, sweep, and unload the dishwasher. I give him a sponge and he will pretty much scrub down the whole house.

24. He is easily amazed. Everything new is..."WOW"

25. He plays "war" (you know, the card game) with Cory. He insists on counting the number of hearts or clovers or whatever on the card.

26. Speaking of counting he can go to about 30 and somehow learned 1-10 in spanish...

27. he also is recently loving to look at letters and can recognize many of them (particularly that spell "Harrison" and "Carter" in their rooms).

28. He is getting better and better at drawing shapes, lines, pictures, even copying letters which surprised me.

29. He's always SO happy to see his daddy when we pick him up at the metro each day.

30. He plays make believe with stuffed animals, cars, trucks, whatever--coming up with imaginary scenarios that he loves to get mommy and daddy involved in...for example, "mommy, talk to Owl, mommy talk to Birdie..."
31. I tried to let Carter "cry" a little to go to sleep and he INSISTED that she was NOT OK because she was CRYING

32. Brushes his teeth on his own like a pro. He also likes to put moose in mommy's hair.

33. He can navigate the ipad like nobody's business. Particularly you tube, much to our dismay sometimes.

34. Everytime we walk up or down stairs he says, "So...how's your day?" and then we ask him and it's, "Mine was good, I had lots of fun.....(whatever he did that day or maybe what he did yesterday or last week :))"

35. He gives fishy kisses.

36. He makes us happy everyday. Even when he drives us CRAZY he can turn around and say one thing and it's OVER. LOVE THIS KID.