Great Granny Coming Today!

Rachel's mom's mom is coming in from Louisville today to visit the boys. Harrison loves her (and she wouldn't mind if I tell you that he first fell in love with her because she was soft and good to nap on), and I bet that Hewitt will love her, too (most likely for the same reason that Harrison did when he was little).

Hurry up, Great Granny!

Outings

Hewitt's list of destinations keeps growing, and he still doesn't know that he's been to any of these places yet... :)

• Botanical Gardens
• Target
• Kroger
• Barnes and Noble
  
• CostCo
• Brownwood Park and the East Atlanta playground
• Pet store (Harrison and I use the Petco by us as our personal indoor / air conditioned zoo)
• Zoo Atlanta (in spite of all the snakes, the boys and I made a rare visit to the reptile house when we went since it was about a thousand degrees outside -- my tour was something like this : "Ooh, look, Harrison! A turtle! A big turtle! A little turtle! A really tiny turtle! A "wet" turtle! A "dry" turtle! A green frog! A brown frog! A poisonous frog! And lots of snakes -- ew -- let's go find some more turtles...")
  

The one exception is Big Brother's preschool -- we go there several days a week and Hewitt ends up awake for about half of our visits. Proud Big Brother's kisses ("On his feet, please, Harrison") and the interest of Harrison's classmates sometimes win out over the nap Hewitt was working on when we got there.

Biker Boyz

An Update on the Trucks

Yup, they're still around. To be honest, Harrison is OBSESSED with them. Here is a photo of them arranged on the windowsill -- the blue tow truck is towing the white mail truck, and the green trash truck and red firetruck are bringing up the rear.

Yard Work

Grandmom and Grandpop Harper stopped by for a while today, and Harrison talked them into picking weeds with him. Consider this yet another indicator that grandparents will do anything their grandkids request -- picking weeds at someone else's house? And someone else's rental house, at that! So "Gambob" and "Airsun" pulled the weeds up, and "Gammom" and "Airsun" swept them into the dustpan and dumped them in the bucket. Mama and Hewitt (the lazy sacks!) watched from the shade. :)

Buzz Cut!

Harrison has now undergone the quintessential coming of age experience for little boys -- the summer buzz. :) And he wears it so well!!

Harrison is a bit of a sweaty kid -- especially on his head with all his long, thick hair. Poor little guy would have it matted to his head in just a few minutes any time we went outside, so we decided to buzz him for the summer. We talked about it every day for the week before the Big Day, and he seemed to be listening and understand that some kind of haircut was coming his way. On Saturday morning, Dada asked if Harrison was ready to do his buzz cut, and Harrison answered by going to get the hair clippers. So... YES!

Before
"Enough with the photos, Ma -- get this mop off my head!"

During
"Are we sending this to help clean up the oil spill?" No, Mama is keeping it. :)

After
He looks SO grown up now! He was a little embarrassed at first but now he seems to like the attention and head-rubbing.

Sharing Stickers

Harrison decided he was done with his "basseh-ball" stickers, so he gave them to Hewitt.

Balloon Rodeo!

Family Outing to the Botanical Gardens

Mama, Dada, Harrison, Hewitt, and Grandmama Higgins all ventured to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens today to see the new canopy walk (a suspension bridge up in the trees) and splash in the kids fountain. We also happened upon a "concert" featuring musical instruments from around the world played in cacophonic "harmony" by all the kids.

Family photo on the mushroom stools (Hewitt is incognito in the baby carrier -- the paparazzi were awful).

The reserved gentleman.

The wild toddler.

Cooling off -- ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...!

The "concert."

Wiped out from all the events.

Hewitt's First Bath!

Got him all suds up and rinsed off and he's a new baby! There goes the greasy, Midtown hairstyle (and also some of his hair color -- it's lighter now that it's clean!)...

Hang on, Hewie -- we're almost there...

We did it!

"Oh, I feel so much better..."

First Day "Alone" / Hewitt's One Week Birthday

Well, it had to happen -- Chris went back to work and Harrison went back to school, leaving me and Hewitt alone! Here's what we did to celebrate his one week mark...

Slept late.

Took a walk. "We're going how far, Mama??"

Treated ourselves to an iced coffee (well, our neighbor who works at the coffee shop actually treated us to it). And it was decaf, of course.

Returned a book that Mama just finished. (I think I will have read every book that Jodi Picoult has written by the end of the summer.)

Got some new books for Big Brother.

And did a nap on the couch.

And then the photo-taking was discontinued because we went to pick up Harrison from school (thanks for driving us, Jenny!) and chaos soon ensued. At one point I was congratulating myself on being such a super-mom -- I was feeding Hewitt at the same time as I was reading the new books to Harrison (and keeping Harrison from sitting on Hewitt while we read). "Hey -- I'm really good at this. Maybe I'll write a how-to book..." Then Hewitt finished eating and the peaceful times were no more!

The bad news -- Hewitt did a bare-bottomed poop while I was changing his diaper and a plant got knocked off the table when Harrison was cleaning up a leaf that had fallen off of it (he put the dead leaf into the pot and happened to knock the ill-balanced plant over when he was finished -- really wasn't his fault -- we shouldn't have had the plant where it was).

The good news -- I laughed at the three of us all afternoon, no one fell down the stairs (Harrison), and no one got their fontanelle poked in by their big brother (Hewitt).

Wish us luck with day two!

One Cool Dude

Family Fun

Took a walk with Grandmom and Grandpop Harper this morning -- stopped by the fire station to check on the trucks and then got some donuts -- yum!

Spent the afternoon in the yard -- Harrison and Dada played in the sprinkler and Hewitt and Mama lounged on the porch.

Harrison : On break from the water play.

Hewitt : On break from whatever it is that babies do.

"Talk, Goose!"

Hewitt was fussing tonight, and Chris said, "What's the matter? Talk to me, Goose" (from Top Gun). Harrison liked that and said, "Talk, Goose" for the rest of the night. Funny buddy!

Feeling A Tiny Bit Threatened

We all walked over to the playground yesterday afternoon (Harrison in the wagon, Hewitt in the carseat/jogging stroller -- we were a mini-parade), and Harrison made sure to take both his water and his milk with him when he went to play. He adores his brother but does not trust him -- there's just no telling when that baby might wake up and go steal Harrison's drinks. I tried to get a picture, but Harrison was so quick that he's nearly out of the frame...

The Aftermath

Hewitt went to the pediatrician for the first time today (well, we all went to the pediatrician, which made for a crowded exam room when you had four of us plus the doctor plus the student doctor). Mama forgot to take the camera to this occasion (which is not significant in many people's worlds, I know), but here is Hewitt's reaction after the car ride home...

Ho hum...

The doctor declared him "perfect," and we agreed. She said that we don't need to go back until he's 2 weeks old -- what?! I said that it seemed like we were there every few days with Harrison, and she smiled a gentle, knowing smile and said, "Well, he was much smaller ... And you were first-time parents." Ah -- so those appointments were more for us than for him! Yeah, that makes sense -- I did have 5 or 10 questions to ask at every visit. :)

Harrison's disappointed, though, because he won't be with us next time we go (I'll take Hewitt while Harrison is at school), which means that he won't get to go sticker shopping on the way out of the office -- unfair! He did get some good ones with this visit and didn't have to do a thing to earn them!

Welcome Home, Hewitt!

Hewitt came home today, and Harrison was right there to welcome him!

Helping Dada carry Baby Brother inside.

Carefully, carefully... :)

Big Brother had to read Little Brother the truck book -- immediately!

Dada gave Baby Hewie a mohawk to go home.

Hewitt's Second Day

Hewitt gets dressed!

The first of many. :) And if the picture wasn't date-stamped, I might not be able to know which son this was!

Harrison and the trucks are back!

Another inspection. Harrison kept saying, "Where 'and go? Where 'and go?" so we had to pull Hewitt's wrap open so Harrison could confirm that Hewitt had two hands. :) Also, note that the teddy bear is in Hewitt's bed.

Hewitt rocks out on his iPod. No -- really it's just his hearing check (he passed), but it made me laugh.