Weekend in Augusta

Headed to Augusta to visit "Kay-kee" and "Bri-yun" (Katy and Brian -- Chris' sister and her husband)... We got in late on Friday night, so Harrison went straight to bed. Then Saturday we all went to a park nearby to enjoy the nice weather and later went to dinner to celebrate Brian's birthday. Drove home Sunday afternoon -- fun weekend!

Riding the tractor at the park -- or maybe it's a bulldozer? Harrison called it both.

"Helping" Dada and Brian play bocce (aka -- thieving). Katy ran interference and tried to put the balls back where they were supposed to be.

1... 2... 3... GO!

The Fire Station!

This morning we took a walk and got to the library a little before it opened, so we had some time to kill. There's a new fire station between our house and the library, and we saw some people in it when we walked past, so we thought we'd ask if Harrison could look at their trucks while we waited for the library to open. We hit the jackpot on that request!!

The crew that was at the station for the shift we dropped in on told us that they were the friendliest of the crews :), and the firefighter who greeted us has a little boy the same age as Harrison, so he was willing to do anything we asked if it meant that Harrison would hang around for a while. Our little buddy got to look at the flashing lights from up close (our host spared us the siren, though -- phew...), sit in every seat in the firetruck, touch all the hoses in the back of the truck (when we told him that water goes through thoses hoses, he nodded and replied with "agua"), and then walk all through the station. The firefighter was proud of his new station (the one it was built to replace was pretty bad based on the articles the neighborhood paper wrote about it -- the crews weren't bad, but the facilities were really run down), so he probably spent 15 or 20 minutes showing us all the cool stuff. Harrison even got to touch the firepole, but no one slid down it.

Even with all that excitement, though, Harrison's loyalties remain unchanged. Dada asked him later, "Harrison, what truck is your favorite kind of truck?" Harrison said, "Trash truck." :)

Sorry no photos -- wasn't expecting anything more exciting than the children's section of the library on this outing!

Spring Break -- Woot Woot!

Like all hard-working students, sometimes Harrison needs a break from school to relax and de-stress. Really, Harrison's teachers need a break from school to relax and de-stress... In any event, preschool was closed this week for break. Chris and I said "No, sir" to Harrison's request for a week in Cancun and arranged a week with grannies and grampies instead.

Monday/Tuesday -- Dalton with Grandmama and Granddaddy Higgins

Such busy-ness! Went to Grandmama's school to feed the science lab's pets, visited with Great-Grandmama Nell at her house (got to touch a "gat" -- half "gato" / half "cat" = "gat"), watered all the plants in the yard (as well as himself), and met Miller (Chris' cousin's little boy) at the playground for some swinging.

Being sweet to Great-Grandmama Nell

Doing some watering -- See how wet the shirt and pants are?

Swinging with Miller -- Look at the little grin (even though he's a bit splayed out!)

A quick check-in with Mama and Dada during the Dalton-Atlanta transfer

And, of course, he slept late and took long naps. :)

Wednesday/Thursday -- Atlanta with Grandmom Harper (Grandpop was braving earthquakes in Los Angeles)

Harrison's arrival to Grandmom's house was delayed a few hours because he slept till almost 10:30 on Wednesday morning after a few hours of unexplained early morning partying / crying the night before (in true spring break fashion, no?). Eventually he got up there, though, dragged Grandmom up to the grandkids' room (which Harrison shares with no one at this point -- his little brother will be the second grandkid for the Harpers) and asked her to help him get his firetruck ride-on toy outside for some patrolling. Did a bit of outdoor playing and some fine dining, then retired for a nap. Went down to the neighborhood playground for the afternoon and also had a chance to inspect the horses at the stables in the neighborhood but was not too interested in getting really close to the horses! Grandmom reports that Harrison made his horse noises when they were a distance away but then got pretty nervous when he was close to a horse -- "Those things are much bigger than the horses in my books! The ones in the books are drawn to be the same size as dogs!"

Might get some pictures from Grandmom soon, so check back in case there's a photo update.

Next week is going to be TOUGH!

A Funny Photo

No, we did not stage this! Harrison already had his "gazzes" on and then decided that he needed to use the walking stick, too.

Harrison and Sydney :)

Sydney is the daughter of Alys and Trevor -- two of Chris' friends from high school. Alys and I worked together when we were first out of school before they moved from Atlanta back to Dalton, so we got to be good friends and miss them now! When we were up in Dalton for Easter, we met them at the park to catch up for a while. The kids have seen each other before, but this was really the first time they paid any attention to one another (well, sort of paid attention to one another...).

Harrison, cute girl to your right...

Sydney found a smile! Harrison's still looking for his, though (Son, close your mouth before the flies get in)

Oh! Hey!! How long have you been there?

Playing it cool. :)

First Trip to the Zoo for the Year

We had some nice weather, so the three of us headed over to the zoo. We walked, which took forever because Big Mama had to stop and rest three or four times on the way... :)

Sweet little boy showing us the way.

"Ooh! Let's go there next!" (Once Mama's done sitting in the shade...)

Going for a ride on the train

"You two stay close -- there are wild animals out there!"

Some post-zoo snacking -- and a belly shot (about 7 weeks to go!)

The Children's Museum

Santa gave Harrison a membership to the Children's Museum for Christmas, and we've gone 4 or 5 times now. It's a great indoor alternative to the zoo -- especially while the weather is cold and rainy or once it's scorching this summer. The museum has about 20 different stations of stuff to do, and we usually end up with a fairly standard route...

First stop : The car track. There are two or three tables (at different heights) with tracks going all over and little wooden cars to drive. Harrison loves the ones that you can stick end-to-end with magnets and pull like a train.

Next stop : The balls. You can sort them by color and send them through pressurized PVC pipes and drop them into buckets and scoop them back up with the crane. It looks like Harrison might be mis-sorting the green ball below, but really he's taking it out of the red bucket so he can relocate it to the green one. :)

Next stop : The tractor. Always a line at this attraction. The kids can climb up into the tractor seat and "drive," but I don't have a photo of that because it was just the two of us the day I took this picture and I was afraid he'd fall out of the seat if I left him alone up there!

Next stop : The grocery. The grocery delivery truck isn't nearly as popular as the tractor for some reason, so we always get plenty of time here. The competition for a shopping cart or a basket, however, is intense!

Driving the grocery delivery truck.

Holding his own in the crowd

Next stop : The kitchen (after the grocery, of course!). Toddler-sized refrigerators / freezers / ovens / stoves / tables! It's our little sous chef's paradise!

Cooking some baked beans and chocolate spread

Adjusting the setting on the oven

Feasting on some sauteed pineapple and other random stuff

Next stop : The moonsand. This feels like soft, wet sand and is supposed to by hypoallergenic, not spread germs, and not stick to hands/shoes. I'm still not going to get any for the house, though. There are lots of different shaped molds and tools for working in the sand. I think that Grandmom and Harrison are working on a pizza here?

Next stop : The fishing hole. The museum provides little raincoats, and the kids just splash around in the fishing ponds. There are fishing poles with magnets for hooks, and sometimes Harrison gets lucky and "hooks" a fish with his magnet. Mostly, though, he likes to pour water from bucket to bucket and collect the rubber sharks that float around in the water.

Next stop : The reading room. Everybody needs some downtime...

Next stop : The computers. He showed his Grandmom how to do it!

Next stop : The music table. You place the wooden balls in the little divots on the table, then spin the crank on the side of the table to roll balls to the side. When the reach the edge, the fall onto different lengths of metal to make different sounds. There's a music book with instructions on how to arrange the balls to make tunes you recognize, but we're not there just yet...

Next stop : The (really bad) live show. I don't have anything nice to say about this, so I won't say anything. ;)

And by this point we're all tired and hungry (except for the day that Grandmom went with us and treated Harrison to some "chichen" nuggets from the Chick Fil A stand inside -- oh, yeah!), so we eat some cheese sticks and drink some milk in the car on the way home and then do naps. :)