Our House Is Haunted (By A Toddler)!

A list of the unexplained things we've come across recently -- we can only shake our heads and blame Harrison and giggle at how busy he is...

1. Wooden "coal" from his train set tucked into Mama's boots
2. Rubber bath trains parked (very orderly -- side by side, facing the same direction) in Dada's closet
3. The top of Mama's Sonicare moved from one bathroom bucket to another (took a while to find it!)
4. Toothpaste tubes stood on end instead of laying down
   
5. Lotion caps unscrewed and bottles returned to where they go (but fortunately no lotion smeared all over the bathroom)
6. Stuffed animals arranged on the microwave cart
7. Unopened drinks moved one shelf up / one shelf down in the pantry
8. CheezIts squirreled away under the microwave (Dada watched him do this)
9. Unnecessary recycling (of books and sippy cups and the artwork he brought home from school)

That kid! :)

Another BOY!

We did the same thing with this baby as with Harrison -- had the ultrasound technician print a copy of the boy/girl picture (and label it because we wouldn't know either way!) then put it in an envelope for us to open later. We opened our envelope this past Thursday night and were both totally surprised! I thought this one was a girl because I felt alot different than with Harrison. Chris says he didn't think it was a girl but then was shocked that it was a boy -- I had some trouble understanding that. :) Harrison does not seem to be surprised at all -- a "bay-bee" is a "bay-bee" is a "bay-bee" for him!

Wish us luck with two boys, two years apart! I can't even imagine the trouble these two will get into with each other. :) And also wish us luck with with naming this little guy -- Harrison was a few days old before we chose his name.

How long will it take me to dig back into Harrison's tiny baby clothes and see which outfits I'm putting on his little brother first?? Not long -- I'm on my way upstairs to do that now...

Harrison Self-Disciplines

We've been working on discipline and teaching Harrison the concept of consequences. He isn't seeing dire consequences like "because you did that, you have to stand outside in the snow ... barefoot" (yes -- there really is snow outside!); our consequences are more along the lines of "because you did that, I am taking the toy away and sitting you in the corner." It's actually going pretty well. Once he figured out that facing the corner with nothing to look at but beige paint was not a game (his first reaction was to get up, run back over to us, do what he had just done to get himself in trouble, and then hope we'd put him in the corner again), we could start to see a difference in his behavior. He still does naughty stuff (the worst is hitting -- gets this maniacal little gleam in his eye and then smacks you in the face), but the time-outs put an end to it (at least for a while) instead of it being a neverending cycle of hit-corner-hit-corner-hit-corner.

His behavior gets more irritating as he gets tired, of course, but I can see that he's trying to remind himself of what we do and do not want him to do -- even when his brain is worn out. A good example was one afternoon earlier this week when he and I were playing in his room. I was sitting on the floor, and he'd run around me in circles and then come hop on my back for a bouncy piggy-back ride. Sometimes he'd get over-excited and hit me on the back of my head -- it didn't actually hurt, but if it had been my face (or a little baby sibling), then it would have hurt. When he hit, I would put him on the floor, turn around with a stern face, point a finger at him, shake my head, tell him "no hitting," and deposit him in the corner. He would just sit there quietly, shaking his head to himself the way I had just shaken mine at him as if he was reminding himself that there was not to be any hitting. Because it was late in the day and he was tired, he did it once or twice more, and I went through the same routine. Then once when he did it, I put him down on the ground and he took it from there! He made a stern face, shook his head, said some disapproving baby talk, and put himself in the corner. I managed to say, "That's right, Harrison. You hit Mama, and there is no hitting, so you choose to have a time-out" before I turned my back and died laughing.

You'll have to imagine his stern face and self-disciplining talk because I'm afraid to take photos and videos in case he thinks it's rewarding. Believe me -- it is adorable. You just have to hope that he pops you in the face sometime so you can see him put himself in the corner. :)

Harrison, the Baby Navigator

Due to a burst pipe at Harrison's preschool, he and some of his school friends get to go on a winter adventure and try out a different location today! His regular school (regular students, regular teachers) are just going to be stationed at a different preschool building for today, which means that Dada did not drive him to his regular building this morning.

Chris reported that when Harrison realized that the car was in the wrong lane and wouldn't be able to exit the highway at the regular place, he started waving his hands around in the air as if to say, "Dada -- You need to get over!" (Believe me, Bug, I know the panicked feeling of do-I-or-don't-I-say-something? when your dad is about to miss a turn.) Then when Chris just flew right past the regular exit, Chris said that Harrison's eyes got real big and that Chris could see his little brain thinking, "So where are we going?"

The boys found the substitute building without any trouble, and Chris said that Harrison was so pumped about the different setup and all the different toys (with the nice safety net of having the same kids and teachers around) that he couldn't be bothered to wave bye bye. :)

Barbados!

Pictures to come once we're back in town!

Day One

Started today eaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrly! When Chris and I flew pre-baby, we'd get to the airport about 45 minutes before flight time, which means we'd leave the house about an hour before flight time, which means we'd get up for a morning flight about 90 minutes before flight time. For this one, we got up a little over 3 hours before flight time (and got on the plane with 20 minutes to spare!). Ahhh, babies...

Other than extra lines because we had to check-in with a person since we were travelling with an infant and extra security inspections because we had two jugs of milk that had to be tested, we didn't have much trouble getting through the airport. Harrison loved the luggage scale, the carry-on size test boxes, and the train ride. He even pumped his fists in the air when we told him that we were going to ride a train and then again once we were on the train. And, of course, he charmed everyone along the way -- the Delta ticket agent was so enamored with him that she gave his mama and dada each a certificate for a drink on the plane (or maybe she did that because we were travelling with a small child and she figured either we'd need it or the people near us on the plane would need it?). Since I'm a tee-totaller these days and Chris was afraid of smelling like beer for the rest of the flight if Harrison dumped one on him and the lady next to me thought that Harrison was awesome, the coupons weren't even used!

No luck on getting bulkhead seats (we tried, Great Granny Gloria, but the late arrival at the gate shot that idea!), but at least we weren't moved from our window and aisle seats midway back (very strategic move by us -- we chose the window and the aisle on the same row and just dared someone to take the seat between us). The plane was overbooked, though, so some poor guy was assigned there. He was all too willing to trade me for my aisle seat, and then even more willing to move farther up so the wife of the man across the aisle could come sit by me (and by her husband -- that was probably the bigger motivation for her trade).

Harrison was a good little guy for the flight -- we snacked, looked at word flash cards (and let the lady beside us hold a few -- English was her second language, and a few times she flipped the cards over to see what the word was), snacked, read books, snacked, looked out the window, snacked, played peek-a-boo with the girls behind us, snacked, read the emergency evacuation card, snacked, and fell asleep approximately 1 minute before the plane touched down in Barbados. :) He tried so hard to stay awake that I really thought this was going to be the day he did no nap, but finally his head just drooped and he was o-u-t. Somehow the plane unloaded in under 10 minutes, so we had to get off pretty quickly so they could start prepping for the return flight to Atlanta -- the poor little buddy's previous record for his shortest nap has been broken.

Got to the hotel, checked in, changed clothes, went up to the lounge for the evening hors d'oeuvres (translation : dinner), then went swimming in the pool. He's still a water baby! The hotel has a few pools, and one of them is a kiddie pool that comes up to Harrison's waist. He hopped right in and spent quite a while splashing with us and investigating the jets and blowing bubbles in the pool and sitting on the bottom and even dunking all the way under (once ... on accident ... and he didn't seem to mind). Dada went to dip in the hot tub, so Harrison and I followed, and when Harrison saw the big pool with water falls and bridges over it, he tried to get in to see if it was more fun than his baby pool. I told him it was too deep for him to stand, so his solution was to push me in so I could hold him up. At one point, I was facing the pool and he was standing behind me pushing the backs of my knees with all he had. I won, though, and then Dada came back and we kiddie pooled some more.

Went back to the room, gave him a bath, and said "You ready to sleep?" He pointed to his crib, so we layed him in there and then didn't hear from him again till this morning! I checked on him a few hours after he'd gone down, and I don't think that he had moved. :)

That kid knows how to go on vacation!


Day Two
Day two began much later than day one -- we all slept in to the sounds of the ocean (left the patio doors open so we could hear waves all night). Went up to the lounge for breakfast (Harrison ate more than either of his parents -- little oinker), then scoped out the beach. None of the beaches on Barbados are private, but the hotel is set away from other places, so most people at the beach tended to be staying at the hotel. The beach is pretty deep and also fairly wide -- plenty of room for wandering around. Two little swimming holes -- one on each side, protected by rock walls so the breakers aren't too big -- with a long wall of big rocks connecting the two swimming holes and protecting the main part of the beach from being swamped and washed away.

Harrison loved walking in the sand and along the shoreline but got a little nervous about the waves. He'd wade in with me up to his knees and go out in the water when "forced" to, but he much preferred playing on the wide concrete platforms in each swimming hole. Not sure why they were there, but they resemed big parking slabs just jutting out in to the water. Other guests probably complained about them, but they were perfect for us! Harrison could walk out on them and be above the water but still get wet without fearing being swept out to sea. The waves would crash into the front side of the wall, and water ran up over the wall and across our feet, which was very fun for splashing. One highlight of these platforms was the little snails that made their homes on them -- Harrison liked to pick them up and throw them at his mama, which was more fun for Harrison than for his mama or the snails.

Once we had worn ourselves out in the morning, we headed back to the room for a nap. The hotel had left us a great fruit plate, so we devoured it and some of the snacks we'd brought down and then dropped the buddy in his bed for some sleeping. After nap we walked off the property to get some lunch -- there are several little dine-in places at the end of the street that leads to our hotel and also a shack (for lack of a better word...) that we'd read about that's between the hotel and the little restaurants that serves fish sandwiches. Decided on a big falafel sandwich from one of the restaurants and then each got a fish sandwich from the shack on our walk back. Barbados is known for its flying fish and its pepper sauce (hot as all get out, so probably doesn't speak well for the flavor of flying fish...), so we doused most of our sandwich with the hot sauce but kept some clean for the buddy, who ate street food like a champ! We're both very proud of him. :)

Back to the beach for some more of the same -- crab-hunting on the big rock wall was a lengthy activity this afternoon -- then to the lounge for "dinner."

Oh! And we all three saw some monkeys running through the parking lot and Chris saw a mongoose, too. Later I heard a lady say to someone who worked at the hotel (in a very British accent) : "Do you have monkeys on the property? It's like being in Africa!"


Day Three
Breakfast in the lounge again and then back to the beach. We all three walked up along the wall of big rocks that protects the sandy part of the beach and had a fun time watching the waves crash into it and the splash up high. Mama and Dada misjudged one wave, which crashed into the rocks and then crashed into us, but we all held our ground and nobody cried. There might have even been some clapping and cheering before Mama said, "Okay -- let's go play in the sand!" :)

Today we toured the pools -- one big one with a bridge over it (which leads to the hot tub) and two waterfalls in it, one baby one, and one medium-sized one with an infinity-edge that runs down a wall to the level where the baby pool is. Harrison had fun in all of them (with the exception of being put through the waterfalls) and had his baby mind blown by the infinity pool ("But where does it go??").

Walked back to the restaurants for lunch today -- chose a Jamaican place and stuffed our faces with jerk chicken, rice and peas, veggie rice, plantains (not "nanas" according to Harrison, since they were "hot" from having been cooked), and festival (which was like a sweet, dry hush puppy and not very good). Slept off the food coma in the room for a while then went back to the beach.

Dada went for a jog a long ways down the beach, and Mama and Harrison followed at an unbelievably slow pace. After about 30 minutes of walking, we could still see where we had started (Chris probably jogged that far in 1 minute). We had a really nice time, though, sitting to rest on some washed up logs, wading into the water where it was rocky on the bottom, finding rocks to throw and splash, and giggling at the waves when they chased us up the beach. :)

That night Harrison made a baby love connection in the lounge with a cute little chubber from Britain. Fortunately, the two of them were in separate areas of the lounge, so they could knock on the glass wall and slobber all over it from opposite sides with neither set of parents worrying about any germ-sharing. Bleh!


Day Four
Breakfast in the lounge again, but a disappointing one today! At various points of our short meal, we were told that the lounge was out of granola, milk, yogurt, to-go cups, juice glasses, and bowls. At one point, the only things to eat were dry Frosted Flakes or some cold cuts, so we gave up and went to the beach.

Set up our station at the other end of the beach today (there are chairs and umbrellas available for hotel guests, so we just picked some over by the other swimming hole). Took tons of little walks on the beach and on the platforms -- Harrison was very brave on the platforms today and would use his baby speak and motions to say, "You stay back there -- I'm doing this on my own" in spite of the water washing over the platform being as high as his knees. I respected his wishes and didn't hover or insist on holding his hand, but magically my hand was always there to grab when he started to lose his balance. The magic of motherhood. :)

The side of the beach where we set up today had some vegetation in one section of it, so we spent alot of time hunting little, clear crabs in those leaves. Harrison would find them and we'd chase them into their holes, then he'd find another hole and think we could chase that crab back out! He stuck his little fingers down the holes (they were really little crabs and I didn't see any pinchers), but it didn't work. Once Mama's back got tired of looking for crabs in the sand, we moved our safari over to the big rock wall and looked for big, black crabs on the rocks (those did have pinchers, so there was no touching).

Did a round of pool-hopping, then Dada walked back to the fish sandwich shack to get lunch while Mama unsuccessfully tried to get Harrison to take a nap on the beach. Gave up by the time Chris got back with lunch, so Harrison took no nap today! The fish sandwiches and potato chips and mango juice box sustained him for the rest of the afternoon.

He was definitely a tired little honey that night, though, and actually fell asleep in his highchair in the lounge. Dinner was weak -- hot dogs, seriously? They probably considered them "cocktail weenies" or something because they were cut into thirds, but we all know that they were hot dogs. The kids in the lounge loved it (except Harrison who took his first bites of hot dog with a brave face and then rejected them in favor of anything else), but the adults did not.

I think that Harrison actually said, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." when we put him in his bed tonight. :)


Day Five
You know how today began -- breakfast in the lounge then down to the beach. :) Sat on the side over towards the fort again (where we sat yesterday) and did some serious crab-hunting both in the vegetation and up on the wall of big rocks. Harrison's new trick today was telling the waves when to crash. Not even two years old and already this kid can control the ocean! We'd stand on the rock wall and wait and wait and wait and finally lift our arms up from waist-height to above our heads, palms up, and say, "Ksshhh!" (tough to type that sound). And every time we did it, a wave would crash and make a huge splash! Not unlike how we throw magic at the red lights at home and say "Poof!" to make them turn green...

Dada worked his magic this afternoon and got the buddy to take a nap (Chris said it was a combination of milk and really difficult questions about the Dr. Seuss book Harrison was reading that finally got Harrison to give in and go to sleep as an escape tactic), then Mama did her best to fend off all the ladies who wanted to come by and talk about him and how their little babies (now 20 years old) used to sleep like that -- "Ladies, I know that you know that he is sleeping -- don't be so loud!" Dada foraged for some delicious Indian food and brought it back to us for a beach picnic. Harrison could sleep through the lady from New Jersey yelling with her husband about how many chairs the umbrella he was sitting at has, but he could not sleep through the smell of curry -- oh, yes! So we all ate some lunch and then cleaned the buddy up in the swimming pools. Don't tell! :)

Dada did a dip in the hot tub, so Mama and Harrison walked across the bridge to keep him company. We sat up on the side and dipped our feet so as not to scorch any born babies or cook any unborn babies. There was one teenager and one other adult other than Chris in the hot tub (that man was there with his daughters), so we let Harrison be a show-off for everyone. First was a round of "Hi-s" and waves to each person individually. Then his next act was to confirm that all of them had eyes (both eyes) -- he touched one eye and said, "Eye," then waited for them to do it. Then he did his second eye and waited for them to do their second eye. Once that confirmation had been received, he moved to the next person. Everyone was amused by him (probably the other dad more than the other kids!), so we just let him keep going. Finally Chris was ready to go, so we did a round of "Bye-s" and waves to each person and crossed back over the bridge.

That night was New Year's Eve, so we got crazy in the executive lounge and let Harrison eat way too many maraschino cherries. :) Chris has been having a rum and tonic or a beer each night, and I've been having a cherry Sprite (with cherries and cherry juice from the big bowl of drink accoutrements). Made the mistake of letting Harrison eat one the first night, and now he expects one every night! He's not selfish, though, and often tells me to eat one myself or to give one to Chris. Sweet baby. :)

I have to admit that we were all asleep long before midnight, but Harrison woke us up when the fireworks went off, so we went out on to the balcony to watch Barbados light up!


Day Six
Today we changed things up and tried the buffet breakfast in the "real" restaurant of the hotel. It was exhausting. The tables were close together, the sun was in our eyes, Harrison was hung over from all the cherries :) and didn't want to eat, and it was really crowded! The food was very good and Chris and I enjoyed eating, but we didn't really get to eat together -- we ate in shifts. One person got their plate while the other monitored Harrison, then we traded jobs, then the first person ate, then we traded jobs. I tried taking Harrison with me to fill up his milk bottle so Chris could have a few minutes of peace at the table, but that boy was all over the place waving to everyone we passed and taking off when he knew I had my hands full of milk and couldn't chase him. We finally gave up and walked around the pools (fewer obstacles) while Chris finished eating. Everything tasted really good, but we agreed that it just wasn't worth the hassle and that we'd be back in the lounge the next day.

Moved back to our original side of the beach today for some seclusion -- if Harrison could be convinced to nap on a lounge chair again, we didn't want to be right in the flow of traffic and ladies from New Jersey like we were yesterday. Harrison did fall asleep, and our plan was working out great ... until the New Year's Day parade kicked off right by our chairs. :) People in huge, colorful costumes and a full drumline of steel drum / trash can players attracted all the attention they could just behind where we were sitting. Harrison was up in a flash, so he and Dada went and joined the parade then we all sat together and watched the dancing and stilt-walking and limbo-ing. Very festive.

Harrison's favorite part of the day? Skinny dipping in the ocean and then streaking the beach at sunset -- oh, yeah!!


Day Seven
Breakfast in the lounge -- a survival-based decision. :) Then one last morning on the beach and dip in the pools, where Harrison discovered a huge pool float the shape of a dolphin and toured around on its back. Said good bye to everything we passed on our way back to the room to get cleaned up for the flight home.

The ride to the airport was uneventful, so Harrison snuck in a 30-minute power nap, which continued on through the 60-minute check-in line. Eventually we were checked in and through security (which had practically no line because we were so early) with plenty of time to play around and get something to eat and walk and walk and walk.

Boarded the plane for our scheduled 4 o'clock departure and then sat there till about 7 o'clock -- oooh-wee does that make parents of a toddler nervous. Delta did a great job keeping all of us comfortable (water and snacks available, fasten seatbelt sign off, seat-back entertainment systems turned on), but it's just not easy to keep a little person in a good mood for 3 hours when you know you don't even get any credit for it because you haven't left the ground yet. Harrison was great, though -- made friends with most people around us and all of the flight attendants (who knew him by name). He got to spend alot of time back in the galley "helping" the flight attendants wait like the rest of us and "helping" them load their carts -- one drink at a time. They really did seem glad to have him, though -- was a nice change of pace for them from the grumpy people who weren't going to be to Atlanta in time to make their connections. Eventually air traffic control let us take off (delay was due to a volcano somewhere between Barbados and Atlanta that was interfering with air traffic control in San Juan), and we were on our way. Harrison only slept about 2 out of the 5 hours of the flight even though we left the ground so late, but the flight wasn't bad at all.

Atlanta welcomed us home with temperatures in the 20s -- a 60 degree drop from where we'd been that morning!!


Day Eight
We wish... :)