Tuesday, May 31, 2011
For Nancy
For my dear friend Nancy. I told you I try to do four posts a month. You dared say I had waited four weeks between my last set of posts and that it couldn't be done in time. To you I say, "Don't mess with Team Fein!" Also, this post makes five posts. So thank you for helping me beat the average.
Weekend This and That
Dad has been busy with a project the last couple weekends (which will get it's own special post). So on a Friday night while he was at the Depot Home, mom and son went to the local coffee shop that makes it's own ice cream and enjoyed a mango sorbet together. As an added bonus, there was "live music" which was really two 17 year old playing guitars, but they weren't half bad and more importantly Harrison really enjoyed them. When a song ended and the crowd applauded, Harrison enthusiastically joined in with a gleeful "yea!" and then asked me "more, more, mama!"
The next morning, Harrison got ready to run some errand with mom. I think he was prepared. Adventurer Hat? Check. Buzz Sunglasses? Check. Toy Story books? check. Elephant lovey named "Loo"? Check. He was ready to take on the world. And Costco.
The next morning, Harrison got ready to run some errand with mom. I think he was prepared. Adventurer Hat? Check. Buzz Sunglasses? Check. Toy Story books? check. Elephant lovey named "Loo"? Check. He was ready to take on the world. And Costco.
Husky Spring Game Fun
Each spring our beloved Huskies play a spring game where all the fans are invited, the team is split in half and the "Huskies" play the "Dawgs"... essentially it gets the fans excited for the upcoming football season several months away. The Fein family, along with the Tutrows and the Kinks schlepped the kids from Mill Creek to the U District in semi-sunny weather to enjoy the fun.
Put me in Coach!
Pregame, Harrison on top of the giant Husky football helmet car that drives
around the field with the cheerleaders after a touchdown.
We almost got a really good family picture. I need to learn how to photoshop
to meld the photo above and below to achieve perfection.
Harrison trying out Jared's binoculars
Dad in heaven
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Mommy's Little Helper
Harrison has finally started to embrace being a "big boy" and is eager to help with bigger tasks. This manifests in different ways, all positive and moving him ahead to becoming more self sufficient.
Recently I started making pizza at home and asked him to help me sprinkle on the cheese (instead of picking it off and eating it as I sprinkle it on myself) which led to helping add the pineapple he loves so much. Since he did such a swell job I asked him to help with mushrooms, proscuitto, sun dried tomatoes and other items that are reserved for mommy and daddy's side of the pizza. To our surprise, he sampled all these items en route to the dough... and enjoyed eating them. For the last several weeks he has helped me more and more in making dinner resulting in a kid that is pretty interested to eat everything and he proudly says "daddy, I cook, I cook it!" This break through has him suddenly eating, and loving, eggs, tacos, fajitas, meatball sandwiches... in short he will try almost anything and loves most of it. Except for veggies, these are still a challenge (not counting the pureed stuff he can suck out of pouch); he'll try 'em, chew 'em for awhile and then spit 'em out.
With warmer weather making appearances more often, we started planting flowers and herbs in late April and Harrison was eager to get help. We got him his very own spade which he used to move around dirt while mom dug holes and we examined the earthworms wriggling in their disturbed homes. Last summer he was a great helper water plants and he reprised the role again this year with renewed gusto watering everything he could reach.
Today, I had the vacuum cleaner out in the living room (it spent the last 2 days standing there, waiting for me to use it!) and he asked me for the little vacuum we use to clean the kitchen floors. We proceeded to simultaneously vacuum the kitchen and living room floors. Here is a video of his handy work on a different day:
Harrison has also taken to telling us what to do with much force and conviction. The scary part is that you know he imitates us... yikes, we must come across as stern. While eating dinner one night, he suddenly points to me and say sternly, almost yelling, "no, mommy, NO EAT!" And when daddy snickered and tried to take a bite of his food he received "Daddy, no eat, NO EAT!" While this doesn't sound helpful, it works well in other ways, such as when we are walking downstairs with Winston.Winston will walk down 5 steps and then stop, look back up at us and then wait. The problem is he is almost as big as a stair so we can't walk by him in which case I must say "Down, Winston." Not only will Harrison repeat this when I say it, he started saying it himself before I can do it.
Speaking of the stairs, Harrison also likes to place his blankies and jackets on the banister at the top of the stairs and let the item slide down to the bottom... just like his daddy showed him. I suppose that is helpful if your hands are full.
Recently I started making pizza at home and asked him to help me sprinkle on the cheese (instead of picking it off and eating it as I sprinkle it on myself) which led to helping add the pineapple he loves so much. Since he did such a swell job I asked him to help with mushrooms, proscuitto, sun dried tomatoes and other items that are reserved for mommy and daddy's side of the pizza. To our surprise, he sampled all these items en route to the dough... and enjoyed eating them. For the last several weeks he has helped me more and more in making dinner resulting in a kid that is pretty interested to eat everything and he proudly says "daddy, I cook, I cook it!" This break through has him suddenly eating, and loving, eggs, tacos, fajitas, meatball sandwiches... in short he will try almost anything and loves most of it. Except for veggies, these are still a challenge (not counting the pureed stuff he can suck out of pouch); he'll try 'em, chew 'em for awhile and then spit 'em out.
With warmer weather making appearances more often, we started planting flowers and herbs in late April and Harrison was eager to get help. We got him his very own spade which he used to move around dirt while mom dug holes and we examined the earthworms wriggling in their disturbed homes. Last summer he was a great helper water plants and he reprised the role again this year with renewed gusto watering everything he could reach.
Harrison has also taken to telling us what to do with much force and conviction. The scary part is that you know he imitates us... yikes, we must come across as stern. While eating dinner one night, he suddenly points to me and say sternly, almost yelling, "no, mommy, NO EAT!" And when daddy snickered and tried to take a bite of his food he received "Daddy, no eat, NO EAT!" While this doesn't sound helpful, it works well in other ways, such as when we are walking downstairs with Winston.Winston will walk down 5 steps and then stop, look back up at us and then wait. The problem is he is almost as big as a stair so we can't walk by him in which case I must say "Down, Winston." Not only will Harrison repeat this when I say it, he started saying it himself before I can do it.
Speaking of the stairs, Harrison also likes to place his blankies and jackets on the banister at the top of the stairs and let the item slide down to the bottom... just like his daddy showed him. I suppose that is helpful if your hands are full.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Easter 2011
Although April 2011 was the rainiest April in the history books and the La Nina winter dragged on and on and on, the Saturday before Easter was absolutely beautiful, sunny and even warm enough for short sleeves! Mom took Harrison to the community Easter Egg Hunt held at the local high school about a half mile from our home. By the time we parked and walked for what seemed like forever to the fields, we arrived about 2 minutes after the egg hunt for toddler started and there was not an egg left in the field, try as we might to look for one. Luckily a guy asked if my little dud had found and egg and when I shook my head, he pulled one out of his pocket and dropped it behind Harrison's feet so he got to "find" it. When he found the chocolate kiss inside he knew this plastic egg business was definitely his style!
Our friends the Smiths lagged a little further behind since they had a toddler and newborn and completely missed out. We waited around another 20 minutes for the "older" kid hunt, with Amelie and Harrison pressed right up against the thin plastic ribbon the cordoning off the field. We watched as teenage volunteers from a local church distributed 6 giant black garbage bags worth of eggs throughout the field and I explained to Harrison that they were the Easter Bunny's helpers. Harrison, along with a couple of kids, jumped the lines here and there and tried to grab eggs nearby, but his joy-kill-mother made him put it back and pleaded with him to wait, wait, wait.
Since our kids missed out during round one, Brigitte and I stood with our legs set a little wider than usual, our toddlers poised in between and when the count down to the hunt reached zero, instead of letting them get the egg nearest to them (and risk death-by-egg-hunter-trampling), we grabbed them under the armpits and ran straight to the center of the field, dropped them and yelled (nicely but firmly) "eggs, eggs!!" They each managed to get about 4 or 5 before the swarms descended and suddenly the field was barren again. I think that earned us our "Easter Egg Hunt" merit badges for Motherhood.
After nap time, dad wanted a hair cut so we drove to Kirkland. Harrison and mom grabbed some "special milk" (2% milk with a half pump of sugar free vanilla syrup) and strolled down to the beach. Mom sipped her iced latte while Harrison threw rocks into the bay with the other kids.
After returning home for a nap, we went to Aunt Shivonne and Uncle John's house for Easter dinner with the family where we had, wait for it, another Easter egg hunt. These eggs were supplied by mom and were filled with organic graham bunny crackers and organic bunny fruit snacks as well as Toy Story stickers, because I like to think I still have some modicum of control over what my kid eats.
Easter Bunny Mommy stuffed his basket with new books and a bunny themed Mr. Potato Head. My cousin Terra and her kids US Mailed two plastic eggs filled with goodies for Harrison which you can see in the left basket (notice the stamps and labels on them, pretty cool!). Popo also sent over some toys and clothes in the basket to the left. What a spoiled kiddo!
Our friends the Smiths lagged a little further behind since they had a toddler and newborn and completely missed out. We waited around another 20 minutes for the "older" kid hunt, with Amelie and Harrison pressed right up against the thin plastic ribbon the cordoning off the field. We watched as teenage volunteers from a local church distributed 6 giant black garbage bags worth of eggs throughout the field and I explained to Harrison that they were the Easter Bunny's helpers. Harrison, along with a couple of kids, jumped the lines here and there and tried to grab eggs nearby, but his joy-kill-mother made him put it back and pleaded with him to wait, wait, wait.
Since our kids missed out during round one, Brigitte and I stood with our legs set a little wider than usual, our toddlers poised in between and when the count down to the hunt reached zero, instead of letting them get the egg nearest to them (and risk death-by-egg-hunter-trampling), we grabbed them under the armpits and ran straight to the center of the field, dropped them and yelled (nicely but firmly) "eggs, eggs!!" They each managed to get about 4 or 5 before the swarms descended and suddenly the field was barren again. I think that earned us our "Easter Egg Hunt" merit badges for Motherhood.
After nap time, dad wanted a hair cut so we drove to Kirkland. Harrison and mom grabbed some "special milk" (2% milk with a half pump of sugar free vanilla syrup) and strolled down to the beach. Mom sipped her iced latte while Harrison threw rocks into the bay with the other kids.
The next morning we put on our Sunday best to meet Michael's family at church. Harrison got a new linen khaki colored suit with a spring green striped button down shirt. Dad pulled out a sport coat and mom slipped on a skirt and heels.Yep, we pulled out all the stops.
If you visit my blog to get your Harrison photo fix then you may have noticed that there is not a physical photo of the family scene described above. That would be because Harrison puked in the car 5 minutes from church. Twice. Right at the freeway interchange so there was nowhere to pull off. Happily he was not sick, he just had a mean cough and a weak stomach. After marinating in his vomit for 5 minutes, he wasn't really in the best shape to go to church but we thought we should stop in and at least show our faces so I reached into the diaper bag for the spare set of clothes we always keep handy. Evidently I was too quick to pack the bag that morning because I grabbed an orange pair of cargo pants and an orange and gray dinosaur shirt which separately are cute but together we would basically be hauling an odoriferous prison convict into a church stuffed with 500 people. We elected not to go.
Instead we went to grandmama's house, watched some cartoons and washed his clothes while the rest of the family communed with god. Upon their return we enjoyed an Easter brunch followed by an Easter egg hunt. All the plastic eggs were filled with M & Ms and jelly beans and while Harrison had never eaten these things he instantly knew they were his friends. When asked to share he kindly distributed one little candy to each family member, on person at a time. This was a ploy on mom's part because he wouldn't eat one himself until everyone else was served, slowing down the sugarization of my child.
Easter Bunny Mommy stuffed his basket with new books and a bunny themed Mr. Potato Head. My cousin Terra and her kids US Mailed two plastic eggs filled with goodies for Harrison which you can see in the left basket (notice the stamps and labels on them, pretty cool!). Popo also sent over some toys and clothes in the basket to the left. What a spoiled kiddo!
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