Harrison Graduates from the Crib

We've been thinking about it for a long time (Harrison has been able to get out of the bed for 6 or 8 months) and finally made the move this weekend! The pediatrician said that as soon as he is able to get out of bed, the rails should be taken down so he doesn't have a chance to hurt himself falling over the top (even if his exits are controlled, which they are -- I've watched him do it!). So the guys got their tools out and went to work!

Harrison is so proud of his new bed and has done a great job being a big boy in it! His Mama, on the other hand, lived in fear for a few days. I was scared to go to sleep the first night because I was afraid he'd just show up in my face in the middle of the night and scare the poo out of me! Chris has a friend whose daughter does that -- walks in totally silently and then says, "Daddy?" just a few inches from him. My reaction would probably either be to wet the bed and then have a heart attack or to knock him across the room -- neither would be good. So far, though, my middle-of-the-night-self-defense instinct has not been tested against my maternal instinct, so we still don't know which is stronger.

Harrison at 3 Years / Hewitt at 1 Year

Harrison's stats...

• Weight -- 29 pounds (22nd percentile)
• Height -- 35 inches (14th percentile)

Hewitt's stats...

• Weight -- 23 pounds (76th percentile)
• Height -- 30 inches (41st percentile)

St. Kitts!

We spent the week of Memorial Day in St. Kitts (eastern Caribbean) with Grandmom and Grandpop. While the boys' "grandparents" (as Harrison now calls them) wisely booked their seats in the exit row of the plane when they found out that we had requested the back row of the plane :), they were hands-on the whole week and gave Mama and Dada a nice break! We all stayed in the Marriott Vacation Club, which meant we had a condo with two bedrooms plus a kitchen, living room, dining room, laundry room, and two patios. Except for the 5am wake up calls from Hew, it was fantastic! Here's a sample day...

Early morning walk
Hewitt's slogan : "Sun is up at 5am, so why shouldn't we be?" I have no idea why he turned into such a disgustingly early waker-upper -- the room was pitch black, there was no time change, he did not go to bed 2 or 3 hours earlier than usual, and it was quiet. The early wakeup time is not a solvable riddle, so just give me your condolences instead of trying to figure out why it happened. Walks include...

General milling about while Mama and Grandmom get their legs to function...
Resting from strenuous milling about and crab-hunting (couldn't get a picture of any of the crabs -- they were quick little guys)...
Inspection of coconuts that fell the previous night...

Hewitt : The strongest baby in the world!

And checking in on the caterpillar tree...

Oh, what a nice tree!

But when you take a closer look, you find these big guys (a few inches long and as fat a a finger).

Monsters!

Beach

There was MUCH to do at the beach! Some solo sand-play...
Some team sand-play...
Some relaxing in the shade...
Some toy clean-up...

I think I will take this blue thing...

...and put it in this basket. There -- much better!

Some napping -- either in the water or on Mama's lap...

Yup -- He's asleep!

Some peek-a-booing...

And of course some sand-eating...

Clean baby.

Dirty baby.

Condo
After a busy morning at the beach, we made our way back to the condo for lunch and naps. This was the quickest way...
Tidied up the condo a bit...
And selected the afternoon's swim gear (this is what ladies in the 1800s would have worn, right? Or too risque given the bared ankles?)...

Pool
Most afternoons were spent at the pool. We splashed in the fountains...
Sun-bathed (his fingers, since they're all that's exposed to sun!)...

Lounged...

Jumped off the sides (we have a video of Harrison, too, but the file is being quirky -- so that one will be up soon)...

And went to happy hour!

Relax -- it's a fruit smoothie!

Special events
Hewitt's first birthday -- happy birthday, Hewie-Dew!

A surprise visit by some family who happened to be on the island for a cruise (Grandpop's brother Kurt and his family -- wife Kelly, daughter Monika, and son Austin)!
A Gammom-Gambob-Harrison outing! No commentary here because Mama, Dada, and Hewitt stayed at the resort, so there is no telling what wild times these three had while they were unsupervised. :)

I think there are some thumbs up here?

A Pop/Jeff-Rachel-Chris outing!

Leaving. Boo. :(

Thanks again for such a fun trip, Grandmom and Grandpop -- count us in for the next adventure, too!

Am I Addicted To Babies?

Will I be the woman in her 80s who is going through fertility treatments in an effort to have her 30th baby (that's about one baby every other year, in case you're calculating)?

I just moved some of Harrison's clothes to Hewitt's drawers, which made me move some of Hewitt's clothes into a storage bin, which made me boohoo. The whole time. And more even after the clothes sorting was done since I called Chris to tell him about it. I still had 0-3 month onesies in Hewie's drawers! That kid is more than a year old now and is twice as long as / weighs three times more than an average newborn does. What will be in my kids' drawers when they are 10 years old? Will I still have teeny-tiny briefs in Harrison's underwear drawer even though he will have been wearing boxers for years by then? Will I still be cramming Hewitt's big feet into toddler socks with sticky tracks on the bottom? Maybe by that time, they'll spare me the emotional experience of having to purge their drawers for them and will do it themselves? "Mom, none of my friends are wearing Thomas the Train underwear. Or shirts that snap between their legs. Or pants that are sized by age in months." Or maybe I'll just be putting those tiny clothes on my 5th or 6th baby? :) I wonder how many H names can we come up with...

Alternative Use for a Dishwasher Rack

Did your mom just unload the dishwasher, leaving the rack with nothing to hold? Remedy that!

Harrison Loves Dada, But...

He's still not going to share his fresh-from-the-garden strawberry! A convo from this week :

Mama and Harrison are out harvesting goodies from the garden -- one strawberry, one tomato, one golden zucchini, and one bell pepper.

Mama : "Hold on, bud -- let me wash those before you eat them."

Harrison : "Okay, Mama. But I do not want to share my strawberry with Dada. I will share my tomato with Dada."

Mama : "That's fine, Bug. That's your choice. He will be happy to get a bite of your tomato."

Once we got in and washed it all, Harrison chowed on the strawberry, the bell pepper, and most of the tomato. Other days he has eaten the zucchinis like most people would eat a carrot, but not this day -- that zucchini is now in our produce bowl waiting to become part of a veggie bake.

Bell pepper going down...

Just Relaxing...