Bob-bob and Patrick

Harrison has seen a couple episodes of Spongebob Squarepants and the character is so unique that it sticks in his memory. Aunt Shivonne has a basket of toys at her house which includes a Spongebob and Patrick plush toys. Harrison pronouces his name "Bob-bob."

 

Aunt Alexis recently brought her boyfriend Patrick to a family dinner at Aunt Shivonne's house and I related to Harrison that Patrick the man has the same name as Patrick the pink starfish. Harrison thinks big Patrick is lots of fun to play with.

A couple weeks ago, we went out to dinner for Grandmama's birthday at a restaurant in Chinatown prior to going to a Mariner's game. Patrick was sitting across from Harrison and me when he left the table to for a few minutes. Harrison realized he was gone then looked at me and asked, "Where'd Bob-bob go?" I cracked up laughing and then explained to those around me that he had confused Patrick's name with Spongebob Squarepants! Maybe you had to be there, but it was probably the funniest thing he has ever said.

First Husky Game

 Harrison knows that "W" stands for Washington Huskies, he points it out all the time on hats, T-shirts, and random words. He knows the Huskies play football and he has been to a couple practice games to see them in action. Last Saturday Harrison finally got to go to his Husky game and preceding tailgate! Mom just had to buy him a Husky jersey and T-shirt so he could blend in with the college kids. He was pretty excited:

We went with a bunch of friends including our neighbors and their five your old son Will. They both watched in awe as the players ran out of the tunnel through "fog" and loud cheers from the crowd. During kick off, the band players a drum beat during which fans will waive a hat or their hand in time to the beat in a chopping sort of motion. Harrison didn't miss a beat, ripped his hat off his head and joined in while I managed to catch just the end of it on video (yeah, I took it sideways...again.. so watch with your head to the side for nine seconds):

During second quarter, Harrison got pretty restless so I took him out to get a snack but before eating, I walked him over to the giant ramps that wind up the side of the stadium to the upper level and got him to run up and down them for awhile... even after that he was just bursting with energy. Ah, to be two again.

By third quarter the boys were captivated, nay, enthralled, by the game as evidenced in this photo of them laying on the bench head to head.

At the end of the day, Harrison told me he wanted more Huskies, despite the fact he was pretty restless during the game. We had lots of fun, the Huskies won, but it may be another year before I sit through another game with him again... I barely got to watch it since I watched him doing laps climbing up three rows of bleaches and back down again!

Overheard today...

Mommy is trying to persuade Harrison to help put away the 40 DVDs he dumped out of the bin onto the floor; he puts away a few and then is quickly distracted by toys mixed in the pile.

Mommy: Harrison you need to focus on the task at hand.
Harrison: Where'd [my] focus go?
Mommy: I don't know where your focus went, I've been looking for it all day!

To be fair, we did go to to the beach today and he was very focused on putting sand and rocks into his bucket of water. I asked him, "Harrison, what are you making?" expecting him to tell me he is making soup, which is often his answer lately. He replied, "Swimming Pool." That's probably because Harrison had his first swimming lesson yesterday, but that's for another post.

He did it! (if you're prissy, don't read this)

Today, Harrison finally "had a poopy in the potty"! Well, sort of. I recognized his tell tale signs of needing to go (he likes to go hide in a corner) so I forced him upstairs with as much enthusiasm as I could muster at 8am. Once on the potty, he kept getting up because he just doesn't know how to go sitting down, so I would cheerily grab his hand and lead him back whilst reading him a book.

The fourth time he got up, I was in the middle of a sentence and during that one extra second it took me to look up from reading he had "let one go" on the floor, and when I maneuvered him back over to the potty he stepped in the mess a bit, which really grossed him out. Since his body was already in "release mode" we did manage to get the last part of the procession squarely inside the potty. As he was "ewww-ing" and flapping his arms in disgust at the poop on the floor, on his foot and smeared on the potty seat, I hooted and hollered and generally made a party atmosphere to reinforce what just happened was, in fact, great!

We had told him for weeks that he can have one M&M for going pee but he gets a whole (small) jar of them if he could poop, so as soon as he was cleaned up he got that much coveted jar of M&Ms. He was seriously so happy and proud of himself, you could see it in his eyes! Daddy had just left the house and arrived at work so when we called to tell him the good news, he shared his enthusiasm in hushed, appropriate, work-related tones as best as he could.

Our next task was to take Winston for a walk which Harrison was happy to do, as long as he got to bring his prize with him in the stroller. Since I push him along, I can't really see his face although I could see he finished all of the candy. On our way home we stopped at a park to let the kid out and play while mom and dog rest and we were immediately approached by a woman with her one year old puppy. She was a bit of a Chatty Cathy, sweet, but kept me occupied while Harrison climbed the slide. She said, "my son fell off that and broke his arm when he was three" and then we talked about that a bit while I just let Harrison play on the guilty ladder and slide. Then Harrison came over and I see that he has chocolate smears all around his face. At 9am. Chatty Cathy was a nice lady, but if I were her, I probably would have gotten really judgy right about then. Who let's their kid eat chocolate first thing in the morning and play on a death trap? This mom, that's who!

2.5 Year Stats

Harrison enjoyed a non-sickness related visit to the doctor in early August for his two and a half year check up. Here are his stats:

Height: 37 & 5/8 inches (82nd percentile)
Weight: 28 lbs & 12 oz (40th percentile)

In the past couple of months people kept telling us, "he's tall for his age" and we kept thinking, um not really; evidently he must have sneaked in a growth spurt somewhere and grew a couple inches to hit the 82nd percentile. Thinking back, I realized that he seemed to be able to reach into drawers and reach further back on the kitchen counter when he used to struggle with it a bit more.

Our boy is tallish and skinny. Around this same time I finally moved him into size 2T jeans and shorts, although all the shorts tend to fall down around his ankles more easily than they should (I guess they really shouldn't!) and the ones with adjustable waist bands are adjusted as tight as I can get them. Dad and I were talking today and realized that once he is potty trained, he won't have a diaper to help keep his pants up! Perhaps this means we don't give him ice cream too often after all.

Frogger & Pizza

On a recent Saturday in early August, dad got to go to a Husky football practice game. Besides the excitement the Husky football always brings to our home, that day we had a couple other fun things stir up some excitement at our house. For starters, we finally got bar stools for the kitchen island, something that dad had been begging me to buy for ages. So I made breakfast and they metaphorically broke a bottle of champagne to commemorate their maiden voyage.

 I left the house for a couple hours to run some errands and I came home to find an old sauce jar in the sink, with what looked like air holes punched in the lid. When I inquired what purpose this was for I found out that while on the back deck the boys found a frog sitting in our planter bench. While we back up to a pond and woods, we usually don't find anything other than bugs near our house so this was really exciting. Luckily dad grabbed a camera becuase by the time I got home they had released him into the wild.

 The boys walked it around the neighborhood, specifically to show his friend Will who has also knocked on our door to show us a worm/snail/cool rock he has discovered. Although Will was not home, Will's dad went to the Husky practice that evening with Michael so Will and his mom came over for some make-your-own-pizza and throw rocks in the backyard fun. It was so nice the moms could chill in the kitchen while the boys played. Will is nearly 5 and Harrison is 2.5 but they get along pretty well despite the age difference. It's funny how kids influence other kids... both decided to eat some toppings that are normally well out of their repertoire; Harrison scarfed down pepperoni and sun dried tomatoes while Will tried and liked several things while his mom sat behind him with her mouth open as he normally wouldn't touch them. Is it possibly my child is a positive influence?

 

SeaFair Blue Angels

The Feins and aunt Chyna joined the Propers and the Coyles to stake out some seats on the Mount Baker neighborhood above the I-90 bridge to watch the Blue Angels perform their annual show during SeaFair weekend. We found a decent little spot on a piece of property that was basically all grass between two houses and the owners didn't shoo us away. Unfortunetly we lost the Coyle's in the mayhem of parking but Harrison had a fun time with Steve. By the way, Harrison loves binoculars which only endeared Steve to him that much more.

 It was pretty awesome. The jets were loud and buzzed directly overhead, although Harrison thought it got old pretty quick. He went to sulk under a tree for awhile where it was shady and away from his mom who told him, no, we are not going yet. You're gonna watch and you're gonna like it.

Po Po & Grand Hart Visit

Winnie and Hart arrived in early August to spend 5 days with Team Fein and auntie Chyna. There was a request to spend some time near the water so we made several trips to the beach and also enjoyed a water taxi ride from West Seattle into downtown Seattle.

Harrison's imagination has started to sprout and while at Edmonds beach he told us he was making "soup" with Po Po. I did not sample it but I trust it was fine cuisine.

Harrison and Grand Hart also searched the shoreline for little treasures, like shells and rocks.

Mukilteo has a lighthouse Harrison was eager to visit as he became very interested in them since he has one in his Train set. This was also only the second lighthouse I had ever visited and I find them very fascinating.

This photo is a little tongue in cheek; I have a "thing" about letting my kid run around in nothing but a diaper in public but it was a hot day and we didn't have spare clothes. Dad thinks all kids look cute in nothing but a diaper and as you can see he won that argument. Although technically Harrison is also wearing a hat so perhaps we can call this a compromise.

The grandparents couldn't get their fill of seafood, we must have eaten fish at almost every meal! We enjoyed a nice night out for sushi... Harrison managed not to spill this boiling hot miso soup he picked up while we weren't looking.

 Saturday night we had a girl's night and tried out the new Din Tai Fung in Bellevue... we ate more than our fair share of dumplings. As we drove home stuffed, we elected to stop for some bubble tea for good measure, but they were out of the tapioca but that was our only disappointment that evening. The boys went out for pizza at Elliot Bay Pizza down the street and watched a "manly" movie at home when Harrison went to sleep.

 Another day went visited West Seattle and walked along the beach. No photos, but we watched gulls  attacking an eagle or some kind of a hawk, but the hawk kept circling back for more.

Hart checking out the Statue of Liberty replica

Mom and Harrison strolling near some driftwood

 After a nice trip on the water taxi back to downtown, we enjoyed lunch outdoors in the sunshine at Elliot's... for the second time in two days. Like I said, they couldn't get enough of the fresh seafood!

 well, that was a bit out of order but I waited too long to blog and blogger was difficult managing my photos today. So Po Po, you'd better not count on this blog as an accurate accounting for your time in Seattle.

Harrion is Happy

So I actually typed this up on 8/10 but didn't get around to posting it until 9/3... I think it still counts for August since the information is old... just trying to fill my four post per month self inflicted quota...

Whenever one starts a new job, it is wise to review one's progress after a couple months. I stopped working on June 1st and two months have past therefore I thought I would ask my "boss" for some constructive feedback on my job performance. I asked him yesterday if he remembers when he used to go to school and when he said "yes" I could see in his eyes he definitely remembers day care. I asked if he would rather go to school or stay home with mom and he said "stay home with mom!" and gave me a big hug and smile. I would like to think that my motherly diplomacy and multitasking skills earned me this high performance rating, not the trip to Disneyland, Taos or the many outings to Seattle especially as family members visited, trips to to the zoo and frozen yogurt shop as well as playing with Will, Amelie or the other neighborhood kids almost daily.

Harrison has become a Disney cartoon fanatic. We started watching an episode or two of "The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" daily and there are certain phrases and songs that are repeated that he has learned. If I start to sing the theme song, he will join in. At the end of each show, they do "the hot dog dance" which at first I thought was really weird, but now the song is permanently etched in my brain and I love to sing it to him. But best of all, he will "do" the hot dog dance and do it emphatically while singing along. At the very end, he will throw his arms open wide, like some Broadway star and belt out "Mickey Mouse.... Club.... HOUSE!" Hot diggity dog he is awesome.

Lately we have been watching YouTube as we realized there are a plethora of Disney cartoons available, including the ones from the 1930s, '40s and '50s. After exhausting the supply of Mickey cartoons, we ventured into Donald Duck and before long we found a series with Donald battling the chipmunks. Now he asks for "chipmunks" every time I crack open the laptop.  

I found some "new" chipmunk cartoons he hadn't seen yet and said "here is a new one" to which he replied by throwing his arms around my neck, giving a big squeeze hug, then pulling back to look me in the eye with his arms still around my neck and say "i love you mom!" followed by a bevy of kisses. Quitting work has certainly been good to our relationship!