Merry Christmas!

We had a progressive holiday this year -- like a progressive dinner where you have one course per house in several different houses.  I think our count of Christmas celebrations made it up to four?!  Here's a recap...

"Wait -- four celebrations?  Do you know how much food prep that will b

e?"

First celebration : At our house with Grandmama, Grandaddy, Aunt Katy, Uncle Brian, and Cousin Mallory.

Harrison and his new helicopter

Hewitt and his new airplane

"Hey!  What if we put our flying machines in our new suitcases??"

Second celebration : At Grandmom and Grandpop's house with Grandmom, Grandpop, Uncle Josh, Aunt Laura, Great Granny, Great Uncle Tom, and Mama's Cousin Annette.  

"Oh!  It's a boy-sized wheelbarrow!"

One for each boy -- oh, yeah!

Third celebration : At Great Grandmama Nell's house (but somehow we didn't get a picture with her?)

Fourth celebration : Christmas morning back at our house.  This photo was completely unstaged -- unh-hunh...

Hewitt acting like he doesn't love the gummy fruits he just pulled out of his stocking

 But he does love them -- and I love Dada's gasp of celebration at the very end of the video

All my boys :)

 Merry Christmas!

Any Ideas for Dinner?

Apparently Hewitt wants fish -- Harrison always says it's good for your brain, and Hewie wants in on that brain-building.

An Excellent Idea

"I have an excellent idea.  Let's get up on this bookshelf to hide from Mama and Dada."

"Oh -- Mama has already spotted us.  Let's just hide from Dada then..."

"Has anybody seen the boys??"

"Back-toring"

That's what it's called when you ride a tractor backwards.  :)

Harrison Made Breakfast For Us Today!

Put some cereal (no milk, fortunately!) in bowls for each of us while he waited for us to come downstairs.  :)  His own idea!

A Special Treat :)

Harrison and Mama got some special treats from Starbucks when we were out doing a little Christmas shopping.  Harrison's was of the snowman cookie variety; Mama's was of the gingerbread latte (or some such Starbucks nonsense...) variety.  Yum!

Spelling

Harrison's class is learning letters (both recognizing them and writing them), so we spend alot of time saying the letters in words we see and practicing writing letters and words.  Recently when the boys and I were driving somewhere, we stopped at a red light and the following conversation took place...

• Harrison : "H-O-O-T-E-R-S.  Mama, what does that spell?"
• Mama (internally) : "Did he just spell 'hooters?'  Like the restaurant for people who like to eat chicken wings served by ladies with big -- well...  Ah!  A Hooters billboard -- I guess that makes sense."
• Mama (out loud) : "That spells 'Hooters.'  Like the sound an owl makes -- whoo, whoo!  See the owl on the sign where you saw those letters?"
• Harrison : "Oh -- whoo, whoo, Hooters!"
• Mama : "Exactly!"

Green light --> go.  Moving on!

Why?

At 3 1/2 years old, Harrison is in full-blown "Why?" mode.  Some of his best (unanswerable) "Why?" questions include...

• Why is it Tuesday?
• Why am I wearing socks?
• Why am I hungry?
• Why is it raining?
• Why is that a shark?
• If we have ear drums, why do we not have kneecap guitars or foot drums?

I do try to answer these, but the psychological rule that a person cannot ask the same question more than 3 times is just untrue with preschoolers, and eventually he wears me down.  Sample discussions resulting from these "Why?" questions include...

• "Why is it Tuesday?"  "Because yesterday was Monday."  "Why was yesterday Monday?"  "Because the day before that was Sunday."  "Why is today not Friday?"  "Because we still have to do today and Wednesday and Thursday before we get to Friday?"  "Why?"  "Because whoever designed a 7-day week and named the days decided it would be like that."  "Why?"  "I don't know."
• "Why am I wearing socks?"  "Because you put them on."  "Why did I do that?"  "Because you want to go outside, so you put your socks on to get ready to put your shoes on."  "Why do I want to go outside?"  "Because there is alot to do outside."  "Why is there alot to do outside?"  "I don't know."
• "Why am I hungry?"  "Because you need to eat some food."  "Why do I need to eat some food?"  "Because you used up all of your food energy by playing so hard."  "Why did I do that?"  "Because it is fun to play hard."  "Why is it fun to play hard?"  "I don't know."
• "Why is it raining?"  Didn't even begin with talking about clouds and weather patterns for this one, just jumped right to "I don't know."  See me getting smarter?
• "Why is that a shark?"  "I don't know."
• "If we have ear drums, why do we not have kneecap guitars or foot drums?"  "I don't know."

Hewitt at 18 Months

Hewitt's stats...

• Weight -- 28.6 pounds (83rd percentile)
• Height -- 34.5 inches (92nd percentile)

A Bedtime Prayer, by Harrison

Each night, we ask Harrison what he would like to thank God for and what he would like to ask God for help with.  Sometimes it's a struggle for him to find anything (and often those nights we end up thanking God for his bed or his bedspread or his pillow or something that's right in front of him when it's time to come up with something).  One night, though, Harrison had it all planned out -- no prompting necessary...

Harrison : "Dear God, thank you for beer and please help me not to drink it until I am older."

Mama : "Amen."

Some Most-Excellent Harrison-isms

• "Crackle Barrow" -- That place where we went for breakfast one time and Hewitt ate 4 biscuits.  Also, it had a big fire (in the fireplace).
• "Hashbrownies" -- 3-year-old-speak for hashbrowns; Amsterdam-speak for something completely different.
• "Mama, can you please fold my panties?" -- Mama, can you please cuff my pants?
• "Small shrimps" -- Tiny shrimps (not krill, as Mama suggested they might be called).
• "If you're doing upside down dog in bed, it makes it hard to do pushups" -- Not sure if this is a reference to the yoga pose known as "downward dog" or if he's talking about Dog (his cuddler) literally being upside down.  Either way, I agree that it is difficult to do pushups in bed -- regardless of these other factors.

Back In The Wheelbarrow!

Killing It At Boggle!

"It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas..."

 Testing the lights

No telling what this kid is doing

Choreographed dancing

 Carefully selecting the ornament he'll hang

Crushing his carefully selected ornament

The little Charlie Brown tree gets bigger every year!

Why Did Dada Rake Up All These Leaves?

So we could get in 'em, of course!

Just a cute one -- a hand-holding train :)

Fall Photos

Hewitt and his hot air balloon

Doing some upside down wheelbarrowing

 

 Sweet smiles

Look at that eyebrow pop!

Action shot!

Brothers in a tree house

Dada, Hewitt, Mama, Harrison, Aunt Katy, Cousin Mallory, Uncle Brian, Grandmama, and Grandaddy

 Cousins!

Hewitt's best smile of the day

Harrison's best smile of the day

Einh... These Things Happen

At least they weren't trying to flush the bathmat this time (which also has happened)...

Superboy!

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap this tall Lego tower in a single bound... It's SUPERBOY.

Just Snacking on Some Broccoli...

The stems.  Raw.  Because we couldn't wait for Mama to cook it.  What kids' mom craved cold, steamed broccoli when she was sub-letting her belly to them?  These guys...

Little Baby Strong Man

Look at that huge smile!

Fall at the Botanical Gardens

We all headed over to the Botanical Gardens for the afternoon to find the scarecrow that Harrison's class had made and to take some beautiful family photos.  We accomplished one of those goals -- the other was a bit too lofty...

 The "scare-ton" (scarecrow + skeleton), as Harrison calls it

Harrison posing on a toadstool

 Hewitt and his chosen pumpkin

Yay, pumpkins!

Harrison and his gourd

 The brothers

 Dada and Harrison on a stroll