Last Day of Day Care

The last day of Day Care was a non-event for Harrison.  Leading up to this day, I had tried to tell him that he would not go to school anymore but he would get to stay home with mommy instead. He was very enthused by the idea of being with mommy ALL the time; in fact I don't he gave school a second thought. 

His dear old mom is a bit more sentimental than he is so I baked cupcakes (besprinkled by Harrison) and made small gift bags for his teachers. I got little photo stands and and some little pearl-esque stickers and Harrison "decorated" them with my help. Lastly, I took a photo of him and included it in each card:

 

Writing this on 6/21, I can say he hasn't been to school in two and a half weeks and he has never once asked about going to school. I am starting to look at preschools and it makes me wonder how he will feel about going to school again.

Raina's Last Day of Work

June 1st was my last day at WF Bank after 13 years of continuous employment. I was hired in 1998 as a teller at the Campus branch next to the University of Washington which was so convenient since my dorm was two blocks away. The next 4 years were spent as a personal banker and then 3.5 years as a Service Manager. These last 5.5 years I have been an administrative assistant and worked with some amazing people, making my decision to leave that much harder.

Leading up to June 1st, my coworkers were exceedingly kind to me. I was taken out for a lovely lunch, given an annual zoo pass for Harrison and me to enjoy as well as a gift card to a salon to spoil myself. I had lunch dates with friends as well as coffee dates when I couldn't fit in anymore lunch dates. Many lovely phone conversations, cards and hugs. Since I gave 8 weeks notice, all the goodbyes were pretty much taken care of by the end of May so on June 1st, it was actually pretty uneventful. I was super busy trying to tie up loose ends and worked 45 minutes later than I intended and before I knew it I was riding the elevator down 47th floors for the last time and when I watched the city glide by as I rode the bus home I knew it would be awhile before I would be in downtown Seattle again.

I loved working but know that staying home is the right thing for our family. Down the road I am sure I will be working again but for now I am so thankful to have the means to not work and care for Harrison.

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.

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

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.

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.

 

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.

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!

The afore mentioned hallway

My Boys

 

Michael, Harrison and Winston are my boys. I would do anything for them. That is why after two years of deliberation, Michael and I have agreed that after June 1, 2011, I will officially become a

Stay At Home Mom (SAHM)

Prior to Harrison's birth, I had worked out a 20 hour position with my manager however while on maternity leave, there was "the recession" and the "TARP bailouts" (I work for a bank) and high levels of unemployment etc. Upon my return my manager had the hard task of telling me she could not offer me part time work as she could not add a position and my current job could not function at part time hours. Since Michael had lost a job 2 weeks before Harrison was born and was then just two months into starting the new job, we made the tough decision that I would work full time. In the time since then, we have made things work and life is good but what it really came down to was... life could be better.

We anticipate a lot of positive adjustments and improvements in our lifestyle. Mom will actually see Harrison in the morning (and can stop setting an alarm clock for 5:30 a.m.). Dad and mom can finally fit in time to exercise. Winston won't be as neglected and will take many more walks and won't have to "hold it" for 8 hours (which frankly has been more and more of a problem lately). Mom will be able to sew, make photo albums and edit family movies while Harrison naps. Dad looks forward to even more home cooked meals.

Most of all, we look forward to our quality time together. Mommy and Harrison will obviuosly have a lot more time together. I will be able to stay up a little later at night which gives Michael and I quality time. Winston will have company during the day again which he sorely needs.

Between now and June 1st, I need to start structuring our days and weeks so Harrison learns, plays and has social kid time and hopefully neither of us will want to kill the other. And heck, if it turns out I am no good at being a SAHM, then I could always take the easy way out and go back to "work" (I certainly have no illusions that staying at home will be easy!).

There is "mommy guilt" if you work and there is "mommy guilt" if you don't work. Thank you to my wonderful husband for relieving me of the guilt associated with not bringing in an additional income. Thanks to my friend Rick for relieving my of the fear that I will never be able to get back into the work force. Thanks to my SAHM friends already offering me tips and will train me for my new job. And thanks to our families that are willing to support us in our decision.

Potty Update

After two weeks of intense interest, Harrison won't go near a potty anymore. Not at all surprising but our hopes of getting out of diapers early are dashed for now. Oh well.

Snuggle Bug

At night, after I turn off the light, I usually sing a song to Harrison however he prefers to dictate which song I sing. For instance, if I start with "Twinkle, twinkle" he will whine "noooo" before I can finish singing "star." Sometimes I go through four or five songs and he receive the same reply.

Last week, was one of those nights so I made up a little song that was mostly the words "snuggle bug" drawn out for a few seconds over and over. After a few times, he started singing it back to me. After a minute, it sounded like this:

Me: "Snuggle Bug"
HJ: "Snuggle Bug"
Me: "Snuggle Bug"
HJ: "Mommy Bug"
Me: "Cuddle Bug"
HJ: "No, Mommy Bug"
Me: "Snuggle Bug"
HJ: "Mommy Bug"

...and then he was pretty much asleep in my arms. I went downstairs with a big smile on my face and told Michael "I win. You did the dishes and I got the sweetest little boy in the world!"

A Spring Weekend

Spring is finally here! Last week the cherry blossoms bloomed filling the skyline with pink petals and we had a few days with weather in the low 60's, a much needed relief from the gloom and doom of a northwest winter. We took the picture below on a sunny but freezing day in the dead of January (literally it was in the 20's). We took Harrison for a long walk to a playground but when we got there, he couldn't play because his little fingers were red with cold (even with mittens) and we had to carry him most of the way home to keep him warm (look how bundled he was!)

This spring weekend we were able to take walks without fleece blankets, moose hats, mittens and 3 layers of clothes; even if it showered off and on, there was also some sun off and on. After weeks of being indoors we were able to spend some quality time with mother nature.

On Saturday, we went for dinner in the city of Edmonds on a whim and 25 minutes later we were enjoying dinner a few blocks from the Puget Sound. Enjoying a short walk after dinner, we watched the ferries load passengers and cars. At bedtime we read a childrens book about a boy and his dog that visit Seattle, which  goes something like this: "Mom and dad, Pete and Larry, crossed the water on a ferry." I think the real ferry boats connected some dots in Harrison's brain.

We continued the fun teaching Harrison how to draw on the wet shore with a stick, strolling along getting sand in our shoes. Harrison observed seagulls perched on drift wood and dad pointed out a seal swimming 50 yards out. When it was time to go, I had to grab Harrison (who was running away from me) and tuck him under my arm then pass him to dad to quarantine on his shoulders, otherwise I think our kid would have played on the beach forever.

Continuing our sea theme, on Sunday we decided to pack up and head downtown to the Seattle Aquarium; evidently everyone else did too, it was packed and difficult to maneuver but we made the best of it. Harrison enjoyed watching the Harbor Seals swim around from the lookout 20 feet above their tank as well as observe feeding time for the Sea Otters. The River Otters are always fascinating, zooming through the water, jumping onto land, scurrying about then returning to the water.

 

After the aquarium, we had lunch at the cafe at Elliot's on pier 65. Harrison agreed to eat some cod in exchange for french fries (yes, we bribed him with fries - you got to take the wins where you can get 'em) while watching tourists load onto boats in light rain to take the Elliot Bay harbor tours. As we walked 10 minutes back to the car, we veered over to a large, empty pier that is used for concerts during the summer time. Harrison strutted around (seriously, like he owned the place, with a swagger), walking through puddles despite our admonishments his shoes and socks would get soaked.

Fanciful embellishment on a post lining the pier

My boys!

My Silly Boys!

10 minutes later Harrison was asleep in the car, the eventful weekend had taken a lot out of him. I neglected to mention that he went to bed at 10:30pm (!) Friday night since we had friends with a 3 year old over for dinner. What a wonderful weekend!

It's Potty Time!

In the last month or so, Harrison has show some interest in the kamode (aside from the elaborate toilet papering job he did to the downstairs powder room while we were in the living room with friends!). Thanks to Sarah H. and her twin boys, we have inherited two potty chairs that we placed upstairs and downstairs so that he can start to figure the thing out.

Last weekend, mommy was sleeping in late Saturday morning (my hallowed time and only day to sleep in!) when at 8am I am awakened to little hands attempting to open the bedroom door and daddy encouraging him to do so. What could be driving this insanity? Harrison gets the door open and runs up to me yelling, "I did it, I did it!"

Daddy then reported that our 25 month old baby boy just went pee pee in the potty. What a very proud moment. In fact, you know you are a proud parent when (a) pee pee in the potty causes that swelling feeling of pride and (b) you go around telling friends, family and coworkers what your son did over the weekend.

On Monday morning, I recieved a call at work and it is Harrison (and daddy) on speakerphone telling mommy "I did it, I did it!" I congratulate him heartily and then see my boss walk in the door at the other end of the hall to which I calmly say, "mommy is very proud of you but mommy has to go because mommy's boss is here!" My coworker who overheard the whole thing nearly keeled over in laughter.

Just as proud, daddy told several people at work as well. When he walked into a meeting with the big wigs, someone says, "I think Michael has something he would like to share with everybody..." and yes, Harrison, daddy told them you went pee pee in the potty. I believe there were cheers and applause (and laughter).

Harrison faithfully did his duty every morning, although it can take 10-15 minutes. One morning, daddy left him sitting there while he dressed and a few minutes later Harrison was yelling "I did it!" When daddy inspected the bowl, he found it empty. He was just about to begin a little speech about telling the truth when he looked over and realized Harrison had lifted out the potty insert and dumped the contents into the big toilet. Atta Boy!

We certainly have many more months of training ahead of us. He has never done it any time other than in the morning and never in front of mommy. It is possible that it is just a novelty right now that will fade and we may need to start over again. In any case, we are very proud of him!

Fish Tales

A short story for you to  muse over: A couple days ago, I picked up Harrison from day care just as the kids received goldfish crackers as a snack. When we arrived at home, Harrison pointed out to me that one had fallen from somewhere onto the kitchen floor, most likely it was previously stuck to our clothes. I didn't think too much of it since food falling from the sky is pretty common with a toddler around.

The next morning, I stand up from my desk at work to find a single goldfish cracker on the ground, partially broken as I had evidently stepped on it. As I waited for the elevator to take us downstairs, my friend commented that their was a lot of white fuzz on her black fleece jacket to which I replied, "fleece is annoying, but I evidently have goldfish crackers falling out of my wool coat!"

After returning to the office with our lunches, I hung my coat on the back of my chair rather than on the hook as I was eager to eat. Since my coat has a hood I always ensure it is flipped back rather than forward and over the front of my chair (simply because that annoys my sense of order!). To my astonishment, I glanced inside the hood to find:

You know you're a mother when you find several goldfish crackers stowed away in the hood of your jacket! I'm just glad it wasn't raining on my way to work...

Head Stands

When it's too cold or rainy to play outside at school, the teachers will let the toddlers spend some time running down a long hallway which they absolutely love to do. Evidently hallway time occurs around 5pm as I often see them running and giggling through the hallway. Harrison likes it so much that when I arrive I let him continue to run for 5-10 more minutes.  

A couple weeks ago the kids ran away from me and stopped halfway down the hall... to stand on their heads, as a group! None of the group pictures came out but I got one good one of Harrison. What you don't see is that once they are topsy-turvey they stick out their arms like airplane wings and try to balance on their heads - hilarious!

Also around the time of these pictures, I went through Harrison's drawers and closet to put away smaller clothes. When I was done, his entire middle drawer was devoted to track suits. I am not sure how this trend started as each outfit came from a different source, but Harrison has enough stock to outfit a high school track team. My plan was to snap a picture in each outfit but I am too impatient so here are a couple. Have you seen the movie "The Royal Tennanbaums?" Ben Stiller's family wears track suits the entire show so we sometimes call Harrison our little Tennanbaum (he even has that same track suit in blue - thanks Burke & Judy!)

A six footer like his daddy

Like a sucker I plugged in Harrison's stats into a "Height Predictor" on a parenting website, along with our height and got the "prediction" below. LOVE the fine print..."there is 90% chance [it will be correct] within 2.1 inches"... I think a monkey could have thrown a dart at a board and have that same accuracy!

Height Predictor

Your boy will likely be 6 ft. 0 in. at age 18.

Learn More

Young men often continue to grow a little past 18 until they reach 21, but their height at age 18 is very close to their final adult height. This prediction is a "best guess" but it's still just that -- a guess. Based on the formula we used* there is a 50 percent chance that your boy's full-grown height will be within 0.8 inches (above or below) of this prediction, and a 90 percent chance that it will be within 2.1 inches.

THE FINE PRINT: Parents' heights are a good predictor of a child's adult height, but heredity only accounts for about 70 percent of what goes into deciding how tall someone will be. The other 30 percent comes from environmental factors, like eating habits (poor nutrition can "stunt" a child's growth) and exercise patterns (a competitive gymnast may not grow to her full potential).

Sometimes a child will surprise everyone and turn out much taller or shorter than either parent. This calculator can't account for that possibility. It also won't work well for children who 1) are exceptionally tall, 2) are already taller than both their parents, or 3) have a condition that affects their height, such as growth hormone deficiency.

*Reference:
Predicting Adult Stature Without Using Skeletal Age: The Khamis-Roche Method
by H.J. Khamis and A.F. Roche
Pediatrics, October 1994

24 Month Stats

Harrison had is 24 month check up recently; here are his stats:

•  Length: 35" (65th percentile) 
• Weight: 27lbs 8oz (45th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 19" (45th percentile)

You can see here how he has grown:

Here are some things worth mentioning:

Words: he is using a lot of words and trying out a lot of words - he's gung ho for speaking now! If you ask him to repeat something he will usually do it enthusiastically. Lately he is putting a lot of effort into saying his own name, so that it actually sounds like his name - "Hair-seem" - as well as "I love you" which sounds like "low you." He has assigned a name to every member of the family and has started using animals names instead of referring to them by the sounds they make.

Sign Language: Harrison is now talking up a storm so he has almost phased out sign language except when he is really serious about something. For example, when he is hungry he tends to say "eat" while signing a the same time.

Singing: his new favorite song is "Happy Birthday to you" and we have randomly caught him singing "happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday." He also knows "I love to eat, eat, eat, apples and bananas" and will sing, "eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat."

Bedtime: he is stellar going to bed with dad but recently with mommy, he has regressed and cries loudly and begs me to pick him back up, jumping up and down on his mattress. I told him "you're a big boy now, go night-night" and he cries, "Nooo.... Baby!" I reassured him he is my baby but he still needs to go to sleep and then he cries "MAAAA-MEEEE!" Heart breaking but I have to let him cry himself to sleep.

Favorites: Harrison's updated favorites include Buzz Lightyear and his pal Woody; we watch all the Toy Story movies constantly. He still enjoys Sesame Street and he loves his new train set. Since it arrived on his birthday, he uses the word "play" a lot specifically referring to his "choo-choos."

School: he recently graduated to the "Toddler B" room with the 2-3 year olds and is doing very well. He loves his teachers and loves to play with all his friends. They are also teaching them to count to 3. Harrison seems to skip "1" or maybe doesn't quite get the concept of one and then "2" and "3" are all the same to him. Pretty much anything in multiples is 3 and we are still trying to make him memorize that he is 2 years old or he will tell you he is 3.

Whining and tantrums: this hasn't gone away but time outs, or the threat of time outs, is quite effective. Now that he is speaking, it seems like he can express himself better which can negate the necessity for the whining.

For fun, those of us around the lunch table at work read "Ask Amy" which is a Dear Abby type column in the Seattle Times. In light of recent festivities, I think you will find a good laugh reading this as well:

Dear Amy: We just celebrated my daughter's first birthday with a wonderful party at a lovely catering hall. We had live entertainment, food, an open bar for the adults, flowers, balloons, favors —- you name it!


I spent months planning for this party to make it a perfect event. This is my third child and every party has been a big event like this one. I put a lot of time into planning my children's parties and thoroughly enjoy doing it.

My problem is rude guests!

I had more than half of the party (20 families) respond several days past the RSVP date (I sent out the invitations six weeks ahead of time so they had plenty of time to respond). They showed up 1-2 hours late to the party with no apology or explanation (and some left early). These guests took it upon themselves to sit wherever they wanted, even when I had place cards with assigned seating that I spent several hours organizing. These perpetrators do things like this at every party. As much as I love to throw parties for my children, I find myself disappointed, insulted and feeling used in the end.

Should I stop having these parties or should I continue doing what my children and I enjoy and ignore the rudeness? Please tell me what I should do.  — Frustrated Mother


Dear Frustrated: It's somewhat refreshing to learn that even in this tough economy there are still people who throw cotillions for 1-year-olds.

You need a reality check. You also need a reality show. If you had your own show, your guests' rudeness — and the pettiness of your reaction — would be highlighted for the amusement of the rest of us.

Every time you host one of these extravaganzas you emerge with the same frustrations, so you should do an objective post mortem to figure out what you could do differently in order to have a different result. I suggest that you adjust your expectations somewhat regarding timely RSVPs, consider doing away with your seating chart and adjust the length of your event. You may notice that all of my suggestions involve you lightening up.

Birthday Party

Several weeks ago, I eagerly began planning Harrison's 2nd birthday party. Since he loves Elmo, we thought it would be fun to have a Sesame Street themed party. I found this on Etsy ; the creator emailed me the finished file and I was able to print them out as photos which I then mounted to yellow card stock.

We had an idea of getting Harrison a train set for his gift, but pricing out the train table, trains, tracks and accessories, it turned out to be an expensive endeavor! To make this project more manageable, we recruited some help from our party goers. I made a "wish list" on the Toysareus website and on the back on the invitation we invited our guests to help us build Harrison a train set. Thanks to all our family and friends! This photo only has a few trains on it; the next day we had to buy some big baskets to store all the pieces (ignore the pot, that shouldn't be there!)

Take notice of the butcher paper on the walls; I used crayons and drew pictures from "Elmo's World" including Dorothy the gold fish, shade and the family portrait.

Since our party consisted of infants to 5 year olds, I didn't do much in the way of games other than "pin the nose on Elmo" as you can see below. We let the two oldest kids go first, tying a tie around their eyes. Emma hit it spot on, we were very impressed. Then Will did the exact same thing... Michael said teasingly, "hey, are you guys cheating?" to which Will immediately said, "I could see it right there in front of me!" It's really cute on video. At that point, I took Harrison (unblindfolded) and spun him around in circles 3 times in the hopes of making him a little dizzy but he hit the nose right on the mark too, what a surprise!



After some pizza (Elmo's favorite food!), it was time for cupcakes and a Happy Birthday serenade. I found these cupcake toppers on Etsy as well and she customized them to include Harrison's name. Unlike the night before, Harrison knew just what to do when he saw these beflamed candles coming his way!

And of course, he already knew what to do with the cupcake... eat all the frosting off the top first!

As my enthusiasm overtook me during the planning stages, I insisted that we all have character T-shirts. Long story short, Harrison now has three Elmo T-shirts. My dear, loving husband is so patiently indulgent... papa bear got the most manly, street thug looking Oscar he could find; mama bear wore Grover with the street sign written in Chinese; Harrison wanted nothing more than Elmo of course... ah, just right.

 I made gift bags for each of the kids with a Sesame Street coloring book and mini pop up book, some snacks and luggage tags that I made. I don't have a "finished" photo handy but I tied an Elmo balloon to each bag, with the strings measured at different levels so you can see each balloon clearly; this was placed at the entry way so there was a bevvy of smiling red faces to greet party goers.

I slipped one of these photo cards into each bag (I wanted to affix it to the back but I printed them too large)...

After the party, mom took a longer nap than Harrison. At the end of the day, Harrison slipped on his new Buzz and Woody jammies, talked to us about having fun with Will, Beckett, Emma, Amelie and Jaden, played with his trains and went to sleep a happy, two year old boy.

Birthday Day Dinner

To celebrate the actual day of Harrison's birth, we ate at ye old pasta factory and invited Grandmama, Zaidy, Great Papa, Uncle Stephen and Gekki (Alexis). Little dude ate like a growing boy, scarffing down bread, applesauce, spaghetti and then polishing off the meal with some ice cream...

Despite his confused look, he really liked the singing and ice cream with candle routine. As we ended our meal, a couple other tables also had birthdays and when everyone clapped after the song, Harrison would say "YEAH!" and clap his hands with a big smile on his face.