All About Harrison

Harrison is pretty much the sweetest kid ever. He loves for things to be just as they should be... all lined up and orderly, everyone with their equal share. If you finish your food he will notice and see if you want more.

His favorite things are his blankie, his blue bear ("yaya" - which I think is meow meow), dogs, cars/trucks, Curious George ("aa aa" - as in oo oo aa aa), not to be confused with the Letter Factory (one aa), cheese and fruit.

We've had some concern about his talking, or lack thereof. We keep waiting for him to spew out some new words. Well, this week he started saying:

no

yup

stop

pop

and if you say the letters of the alphabet he can tell you their sound for about 80% of the letters. I think learning them has helped him a lot with speaking... just having the experience of making those sounds.

When we lay him down he wants a series of songs sung to him. He rolls his arms to signal "sing Wheels on the Bus" and then he'll let you know which letters of the alphabet he wants to sing about. When he is upset that is the best way to calm him down too. He also loves Old McDonald and other silly songs.

He has always had a thing for shoes... loves them! This week Jackson had a friend over who has the same pair of shoes. He was so stressed about him leaving in those shoes... just sure he was taking Jackson's. So funny.

Kids Day

The kids don't have school today. It was a scheduled thing. We planned to take them to the circus, but we woke up to a winter wonderland too beautiful to leave! This is the view out our front door. Jeff made us some amazing waffles and then taught me how to operate the heavy machinery. We headed out to the backyard for a full morning of fun in the snow. We built the beginnings of an awesome snow fort and there are some giant snowballs that the kids made rolling down the hill. The neighbor kids joined in for extra fun. Jeff said that he felt like he was having to work on a Saturday, bummed that he couldn't join in on everything.

After lunch we played games and trains until dad was able to join us for an afternoon dollar movie.

It was so nice to leave regular work stuff behind and just focus on spending time with them for an entire day.

Wet Snow

Most of the snow we've had this winter has been very dry. It didn't stick together well for a snowman or cover the trees much. I've been waiting for some nice thick, wet snow to get a picture of these berries on a backyard tree. Jackson built his first snowman of the year this morning before school. Sadly, Harrison knocked the head off of it before I could get a picture, so this version is not as cute as the original. I also love Jackson's winter boarding set up in the backyard. He set up his tricycle and a stump with a board across them so that he could lean the sleds and his new snowboard on them just like they do at the ski resorts.

Mandy Came!

My sweet friend Mandy (from college days) blessed us with a President's Day Weekend visit. It was such a delight to catch up with her. I was hoping we would have snow while she was here, but it snowed the day she came and promptly melted. It snowed again last night just after she left. Instead we had nice, warm weather, so we enjoyed some hiking near the beach and park time. We ate lots of yummy food and enjoyed evenings chatting in the hot tub out back. I think the highlight was folding laundry together. I'm sure she'll treasure that part. :)

The kids really enjoyed having her here too... so much so that Lincoln's consequence for biting his brother had to be missing out on playing a game with her. He begged to have 10 spankings or 3 days without electronics instead. They were super, beyond normal well behaved the first two days. I kept assuring her that it wasn't a normal scenario for me to check on them when they've been quiet for too long and find them painting rainbows. They gave her a little normalcy check the last day for sure!

Come back anytime Mandy!