Communicating Baby Boy

Harrison isn't much of a talker yet, but he sure is a good communicator. He's really good at leading us to what he needs/wants and expressing his like or dislike for things. He has said a few words here and there, but nothing consistently until this week. We've never been sure if he is just testing out his vocal abilities or if he knows which word belongs with things. His first consistent word is definitely "ball."

Today in Walgreens we were waiting to pick up a prescription and wandering the aisles. I couldn't believe how persistent he was about getting back to the overpriced "ball!" Did I really just let my one year old convince to me to buy something with his only word?!

Spring Break part Three

On Friday afternoon after the Rowntree's had gone home Jeff came down to join us and brought Sarah and Jeffrey. More fun! The kids were excited to show their cousins all of the best things about the area and we headed back down to the lake for more mud, I mean fun.

These were some brave kids getting all the way in the icy water and covering themselves head to toe in lake goo to make themselves look like zombies. Lincoln's favorite thing to do was to make mudballs and he created a big volcano that the mud balls could shoot out of.

Harrison became more timid of the water each time we went. Come to think of it, so did I!

Saturday we spent the morning cleaning the house and then the animal park was outvoted by the playground 4 to 1.

Spring Break part Two

We spent a few days down in Ardmore at lake Murray with the Rowntree family (minus the working dads - who were quite missed!) Mimi and I had talked about camping during spring break, but without dads it didn't sound near as fun (especially since I'm not even tall enough to put our tent up!). We were lucky enough to have friends who shared a lake house with us and it was perfect! We had the best of both worlds with the luxury of a home and the joys of the outdoors. The house is just two blocks from the lake. Jared lovingly named the campsite "Martians Landing." There is a great park there and plenty of mud to make children happy as can be. I wish I could have recorded Harrison's reaction to seeing the lake for the first time. He practically jumped out of the stroller and ran as fast as he could down the hill to splash into the water. He was beyond excited to see that much water all at once. The joy was quickly subdued as he discovered just how COLD the water was! He still enjoyed it, but it was definitely a disappointment that it wasn't like bath water after all.

We spent our time at the park, at the lake, playing on dad's iPad ("it's MY turn!), "decorating" a dirt mountain, building a puzzle, hiking (very short-lived after a thorn bush attacked Abby), playing Skip-Bo and Headbandz, and building up great ideas (canoeing, mini-golfing, Animal Park visiting...) which didn't work out at all. At the lodge all that was open was a lame little rec center where you could check out worn out equipment and games. They tried to play ping-pong, but the table was rotted and bumpy, you couldn't even get the ball to bounce. They sure tried anyway! Lincoln made the best of it by rolling down the hill toward the water (which freaked Jackson out -he acted like a 3rd parent the whole time). The weather was perfect and we made our own fun. The second day all of the initial excitement wore down some and everyone played together especially well. It was great to see the Rowntrees and have time to catch up with them!

Spring Break part One

We had our Woodhouse cousins over on Tuesday and had a blast! They jumped on the trampoline several different times, played a Wii game that we owned, but hadn't really ever played before (a Sonic racing game), invited our neighbor kids over and connected 4 DSi's and rode bikes. Hannah loves the pink house down the street and I thought I'd take a picture of her in front of her dream house. I planned to accomplish nothing that day with lots of extra fun to be had, but it turned out that everyone played together so great that I was able to do quite a bit while they were here. Hooray for kids who are growing up! They are all so fun to be around. We love our cousins!