So Grown Up :)

Dada has always done morning dropoffs at school, and Mama has always done afternoon pickups from school. Dada and Harrison have good man talks on their way in each morning, and then they do the morning dropoff routine together (outdoor shoes off, indoor shoes on -- this is new!, check diaper, wash hands, start breakfast, kiss and wave bye bye). Lately, Chris has been a little sad because he's noticed that Harrison is ready for him to leave sooner and sooner, and today might have been the biggest day yet...

The breakfast menu varies quite a bit, but the constants are always fruit and milk and that the school encourages the kids to "self-feed." In addition to fruit and milk, the other offerings can be cold cereal (in a bowl with milk -- those people are crazy to offer that), oatmeal (again -- those people are crazy to offer that), yogurt (once more -- those people are crazy to offer that), grits (you know what goes in these parenthesis), biscuits, pancakes, waffles, bagles, or even French toast. The kids eat better than their parents. So once Dada and Harrison get to the breakfast part of the morning routine, Dada likes to get a few spoonfuls of the messy stuff in Harrison's mouth before he leaves Harrison and the others to their food fights. Harrison, however, has been getting less and less tolerant of this interference!

This morning, a sad but proud Dada reported that Harrison actually touched Chris' hand, pointed at the spoon in Chris' hand, and then pointed at the bowl of yogurt ("Dada, put the spoon in the bowl -- I'll take it from here"). Then he did a big grin and waved and said "Bye bye!" Poor, dejected Dada had to give Harrison a kiss and leave without feeding him any more bites. Harrison's teacher tried not to giggle. :)

I told Chris not to worry -- that the kids eat breakfast until 8:30, have a snack at 10, have lunch at 11:30, and then have another snack after nap (plus Harrison has a snack in the car on the way home), so there are plenty of opportunities for a little boy to fill his belly. Still, though, it's sad not to be needed. :( Two more months and Chris gets another little boy who will still let his Dada help him eat!

A Baby Brother, A Baby Sister, and A Baby Fish

No, we are not having twins (still just one and still just a boy, as far as we know...) and no, we are not getting a fish. But this is what Harrison is telling the ladies who work in the church nursery. :) We picked him up after service on Sunday, and one lady said, "Well, Harrison told us that he is getting a brother and a sister. And also a fish."

I can picture exactly how the conversation went...

• Church lady -- "Harrison, are you going to have a baby brother or a baby sister?"
• Harrison -- "Yes."
• Church lady (to herself) -- Hmm...
• Church lady -- "Harrison, are you going to have a baby brother?"
• Harrison -- "Yes."
• Church lady -- "Harrison, are you going to have a baby sister?"
• Harrison -- "Yes."
• Church lady (to herself) -- I give up.
• Harrison -- "Fish."

I know that he knows that there is a baby in my belly, and I think that he knows that it's a brother since we practice saying "brother" (which sounds like "bub-ber"). When we ask him where his brother is, he'll tell us that he's in my belly. I've told him that "brother" means that the baby is a boy, but that information might not have been digested just yet. In any event, we have never mentioned a fish in my belly or a fish coming to live with us anytime soon, so that is complete fiction.

Another funny story -- Harrison went to dinner with Grandmom and Grandpop ("Gambob") Harper this past weekend while Chris and I met some friends for dinner. There were tons of kids at the restaurant -- 6 o'clock is kiddie happy hour! -- so Harrison pointed out one baby and said "baby." Grandmom said, "Yes, and a baby is going to live at your house soon." Harrison's eyes got real big and he started frantically looking around -- we think he thought that that baby was the one that was going to come live at his house! "So that's the baby that everyone keeps talking about?!?! Well, bring it back over here..."

Harrison's First Easter Egg Hunt!!

The park by our house hosted an Easter egg hunt this morning, but my camera ran out of battery after 2 pictures! We've done several more hunts in the driveway since then, so once the camera is charged again, I'll get some good photos of our mini-egg hunts and post them.

Harrison had a great time -- with Mama and Dada running interference. :) We'd find an egg tucked in a tree stump, surround it to block the big kids, then say things like "Harrison, have you looked by this tree yet?" and "Harrison, do you see a blue egg over here?" He'd get all pumped when he saw it and point with the straightest little pointer finger ever, then run to grab it. Usually forgot to bring his basket with him, so then he'd have to run back for it to put the egg in.

The eggs hidden around the park were all plastic and had candy inside (there were "real" eggs on the picnic tables to decorate after the hunt was finished -- and there was zero danger of a plastic egg being left behind, so don't worry about the litter!). The plastic eggs were usually pastel colored, but one of the eggs we found was shiny and gold -- so we celebrated that we had found the golden egg! Once the eggs had all been found, Chris and I snuck them out of Harrison's basket and re-hid them for him to find again. We had the golden egg layed out for him to find a few feet from us when we heard some moms from across the park telling their kids to "Hurry!" and "Run!" They were going for Harrison's golden egg! Chris intercepted the kids and told them that it was the baby's egg that he wanted to try to find again, and I told the moms that we were re-hiding eggs for the babies. The whole thing was a bit surreal (Did some parents really just send their kids flying across the park to pick up an egg 3 feet from a 2 year-old who's obviously looking for it? Did we really just tell some kids that they couldn't have that plastic egg?). Made a little more sense when we found out later that the metallic eggs had cash in them -- sure enough : Harrison's piggy is $1 richer! -- but we still wonder if those parents knew what they were doing when they sent their kids running to take a dollar from a toddler...

So aside from the competition (Dada admitted that he was a little worried that Mama would take some people out if they got too close to "Harrison's" eggs), we all had fun. The weather was great, and no one 's clothes were ruined by the egg dying that followed!

Harrison is napping now. When he gets up, he'll find several newly dyed eggs (dyed by Mama while he was asleep -- no need to tempt fate...) in need of stickers, hiding, finding, hiding, finding, hiding, and finding.

Oh -- one sweet story and one funny story from the egg hunt...

The sweet story : Harrison's first two eggs were right together in the roots of a tree. A little girl (standing but not yet walking, so younger than Harrison) and her parents were hovering around close to the tree, so when Harrison spotted the two eggs, we asked him if he would give one to the little girl. Her parents protested, of course, but we said, "Go ahead, Harrison, see if she would like to have it." So he walked over and handed her one. She grinned real big and turned to show her dad. Good sharing, buddy!

The funny story : Harrison got swindled by a slightly older little girl. This little girl came wandering by a ways behind her big sister, so she and Harrison inspected each other's baskets. There was some egg trading, and some candy trading, and in the end, we think that Harrison had more eggs but less candy than he did before the girl stopped to visit. :) Don't know if she knew what she was doing or not, but it didn't matter because Harrison didn't realize what was inside the foil wrappers until about 2 hours later, so he didn't feel cheated -- the eggs were still the prize at that point!

Updated with photos!

See it, bud? Look in the tall sprouts of grass...

Got it!

Hey -- There's stuff in here!

Some Rainy Day Reading

Dada and Harrison Do Some Driveway Biking

Harrison got his first "bike" (really, it's a trike, but Harrison doesn't know the difference between the number 2 and the number 3 anyway, so why bother with technicalities?) a few weeks ago and has really taken to it. He gets to ride bikes on the big-kid playground at school sometimes, so he had an idea of what to do already. Give that kid a "hemet" (helmet) and some "gazzes" or "goggles" (sunglasses) and he can't resist the call of the open road! I have several biking photos on my phone because that's in my pocket alot more often than the camera, but we all know that I don't know how to get a picture off the phone, so you'll have to come to me to see them.

For now, here's one of Harrison letting Dada have a turn to ride and then taking it back to show Dada how it's done...

Harrison's thinking, "Now THAT is funny..."

"Step aside, big man, let the little man show you how it's done!"

Oh, wait -- Harrison does actually know what the number 2 looks like! They've been practicing numbers at school, and just this morning when we were looking in our Spanish picture book, Harrison pointed to the number 2 in 20 and in 21 (the pages we were on). I said, "Dos." He nodded and said, "Dos." Don't know what would have happened if I'd said "ocho" but at least he recognized it as a number and something that he had seen before and something that was the same on both pages! Our little smartie.

The Little Chef

I made soup tonight (don't ask for the recipe -- it was delicious, but I made it up so we'll never have that exact soup again...) and put some kale in it. Harrison thought that kale looked fun, so he pulled his stepstool over and started "helping." :)

Our routine was : I pulled the leaves off the stems and put the leaves in the soup. Then I passed the stems to Harrison, who crumpled them up and puts them in his "soup." He did take a bite of one stem and decided not to do that again. Bleh!

The good news? Harrison appreciates home-cooked food and is interested in cooking, cleaning, and helping in the kitchen! :)

The bad news? Harrison has realized that he can scoot his stepstool around to wherever he wants it, which gives him access to the stove. :(

Indoor Water Fun!

Harrison playing at "his" sink. He made this game up himself -- I just stepped in occasionally to move the full cups a little farther from the edge and to mop up the spills. And also got smart by the end -- see the last photos.

This calls for the raincoat!

The Little Helper

Harrison and I were in the playroom this afternoon when we decided that he needed some tissue to wipe his nose. I said, "Harrison, let's go to the bathroom to get some tissue and wipe your nose." He got up right away and rushed off (unaware of the bathroom that connects to the playroom). Because I'm big and pregnant and tired, I just sat on the floor and waited for him to come back so we could go to the bathroom right by where we were sitting...

And then I realized what he was doing!

He had gone to the half-bath down the hall...

Grabbed the end of the roll of toilet paper...

And brought it to me in the playroom.

The Boys Do Their Chores

One of Harrison's favorite things about the new house is rolling the trash and recycle bins out to the street each week. Sometimes he likes to help push (which is tough on the parents since the only handles are up high, so we basically have to lay the bins flat for him to hold on and help roll), and sometimes he likes to ride up top. He also wants to roll the neighbors' bins out, so we'll have to ask them next time we see them if they'd like to hire us to do it for them.