Anakin the Fish

Harrison asked me for only one thing in particular for his birthday (aside from a Star Wars party). Harrison came up to me and said something like, "mama, I want a pet, I want a pet fish. I want it in my room and I will take care of it and feed it. I really want a pet fish." I think he must have been thinking about this for awhile because when he approached me he pretty much had the whole thing figured out.

After talking it over with dad and Harrison to ensure he understood the responsibility of having a pet fish, I took him to a pet store where we chose a beta fish, a cubed shaped fish bowl, red and white gravel and one plant. Harrison was over the moon. Naturally I asked him what name he would like to give the fish and after thinking a moment he said, "Anakin, like Anakin Skywalker." Notice that in the photo Harrison put his Anakin Skywalker action figure next to the bowl.

Writing this six weeks later I am happy to report that Anakin is alive and seemingly healthy. Harrison has taken good care of Anakin, asks me daily if it is the day to feed him, feeds him himself (without over feeding him) and sometime talks to him. Anakin even "survived" a brief run in with Gavin sticking his fingers in the water (surely Tucker will do the same).

Our California Adventure: Everything Else!

After Disneyland we drove down to San Diego and enjoyed stops at the beach, the San Diego Zoo, breakfast and a stroll on Coronado Island, then back north to Pasadena to visit Auntie Barbara, the Cousins Jorban and other favorite family on the Fein side of the family. Harrison loved hanging out with his cousins; Harrison, Paige and Charley would race down sidewalks together, giggle in elevators and play various games, easily picking up where they left off from their last visit in June 2012. We loved staying with Barbara and visiting with the Gerbers, Sappers, Oslicks and Hatems, all family we don't get to see often enough.

Our California Adventure: Disneyland

February 12-20 we visited Anaheim, San Diego and Pasadena for a little fun and thankfully some sunshine. We told Harrison we were going to visit his cousins, Paige and Charly, which was true however we elected not to tell him we planned three days at Disneyland!

After a restful night at the hotel, we awoke and I pretended to play with my new camera but instead set it up on the desk to record video... which I did wrong and missed the whole moment. It actually turned out to be a good thing because when Harrison asked "What are we going to do today?" and we told him we were going to take him to Disneyland, he was not so enthusiastic. I showed him the special Mickey Mouse clothes I had clandestinely packed as a surprise and told him we were just 10 minutes away from Disneyland. His response: "Are my cousins going to be there?" Then we proceeded to drag him there through some whining and other sleep deprived type behavior.

Once there we all had a lot of fun, I will just let you enjoy the photos. The BIG deal was Harrison was chosen from the crowd for Jedi Training Camp which is very competitive (in terms of a lot of kids jumping up and down screaming "me! me!"); the minimum age is four years old so at four years and ten days, he was likely the youngest and the smallest one there. That said, he was the FIRST kid chosen to battle Darth Vader. Disneyland really is a place where dreams come true!

The other big deal was that Harrison walked in at 41 inches tall which is just tall enough to ride most of the thrill rides. Although tall enough, he was not emotionally ready for all the big rides, but dad did talk him into Splash Mountain and of course Star Tours which he loved, he rode that at least four times.

Tucker is 6 months old!

Tucker's six month check up went well other than the slew of vaccines and a flu shot he had to endure. His process of elongating slowed down just a bit while his weight and head size went up. I had to get a baby carrier with better back support and I think I am getting tendinitis in my right wrist from holding him. Oddly we were commenting to people what a tank he is but our friends also have baby boys younger than Tucker that put his "tankness" to shame. Looking at Tucker I kind of think he is older than he is because he looks so much bigger than Harrison did at this age.

Length: 28 inches (88th percentile, down from 95th)
Weight: 18.48 lbs (60th percentile, up from 58th)
Head: 17.4 inches (55th percentile, up from 44th)

Harrison is 4

Our baby boy is four years old. No longer a baby or a toddler but officially a little dude, full of ideas, opinions, love and kindness. We are so proud to have him as our son. I think if I could this might be the age where I would freeze him in time forever.

Harrison's 4th Birthday

Each February Harrison gets a year older and it makes me a little sad, but I unintentionally distract myself with planning his birthday party. This year he told me he wanted to a Super Hero party again which is understandable since he loves Spiderman, Batman, Captain America and the rest and also I think the last three parties we attended had the same super-theme.

However Harrison had recently become extremely interested in Star Wars which sounded more fun for me to plan. When I approached him with the idea he was ecstatic and once I showed him the invitation he was immediately jumping on the couch in anticipation. Which was great since I booked his party at "Jump Planet," an indoor facility with several large inflatables to slide, jump and bounce to your heart's content.

A few days before the party, as I was trying to get all the prep work done he said, "I had hoped you would book the party at Jump Planet and then you wouldn't have to do anything." One can always hope and dream but if you know me at all I would never find that acceptable. So here are a few things I worked on, noting I am not a total masochist -  I was able to find parts of things online or on etsy but there was a lot of hole punching, adhering, and storm trooper face-making (Chyna did all the lettering on the poster, she was a big help prepping and setting up!):

Cupcake toppers

Storm Trooper Marshmallow Pops

Harrison had taken it upon himself to memorize a few lines from the movies which when recited sound a little something like this:

I judge you by my size do you? (should be Yoda saying "Judge me by my size, do you?")

You'd rather kiss a wookie, ah hahahhahha!!! (should be Princess Leia saying to Han Solo "I'd as soon as kiss a wookie!"

I asked our friend at Jenny's Many's Knots to make this great R2D2 hat for Tucker. The only bad thing about the party was Tucker was sick and it was a Saturday and the only appointment we could get meant that dad and Tucks had to leave the party half way through. This was well explained to Harrison and he did his best to have fun without them.

Otherwise here are some fun pics from his party as well as dinner at Red Robin two nights later with Grandmama. You may recall the blue frosting faces from last year. This year I asked for "light gray" as the bakery warned me black frosting would be a disaster, however the darkish gray we got wasn't much better!

 

January

It's March 4th and I am just now back-blogging to January... I have got to make these things short and sweet so I can catch up and be more thorough going forward! Luckily (for my blogging) January was mainly composed of (1) illness and (2) skiing.

Regarding illnesess: Basically Tucker contracted croup around New Year's Eve, followed by a run of the mill cold he caught from Harrison (which transferred to mom and dad) and then on Harrison's birthday party day (February 2) another case of croup started up. We even had Auntie Chyna stay with us for almost a week in early Janurary as she recuperated from a pretty nasty kidney infection. Michael and I joked at one point we had an unholy trinity: one night Chyna woke me up at 2am in very serious need of medication when Harrison must have heard us and woke up crying which quickly evolved into wailing which in turn woke up the baby.

All the sleep training I had diligently worked so hard to provide for Tucker, which taught him to sleep through the night at ten weeks old, almost completely went out the window. We spent about six weeks getting up one to three times a night to rock the baby back to sleep and each time he would get over a cold, we would just barely get him to sleep through the night again when he would get another cold and the vicious cycle would start all over again. Lame. Super, super lame. Good news is this shakes out in late February and life gets better again.

Happiest sick baby ever (during the day anyway!)

As for skiing, Michael and Harrison started ski lessons on Sundays beginning January 6th. Teaching an almost four year old how to ski requires a great deal of patience on dad's part but since Michael is a veteren of the "Powder Pigs" program he knew what to expect and how to overcome major complaints such as cold,  fatigue and whining. Admittedly  the first half of the first lessons was pretty rough and Harrison wasn't the most willing and compliant participant but with enough hot chocolate, treats and positive coaching and praise by the end of the day he had almost caught up to the skill level of the rest of the class.

The next Sunday I received a call at home from dad telling me that Harrison was not only doing awesome but he was also the first kid in his class to get on the chair lift with his teacher John! Harrison was having a lot of fun and was willing to work hard and practice to pursue the sport. Dad was so, so proud.

These videos are from his second lesson day on January 13th:

Can't forget to add my Facebook post from January 27:

Impromptu trip up to Snoqualamie! By "impromptu" I mean I drove 75 minutes each way with a 5 month old to drop off the cooler of snacks and lunch that Michael Fein forgot to pack for Harrison's ski lesson. Well, at least One of us looked adorable bundled up in a bear beanie and fleece suit and we finally got to check out the powder pigs lodge! 

Lastly here is Tucker's five month old photo. While I may not take as many photos of Tucker or the kids in general as I did when Harrison was this age, I have diligently taken Tucker's monthly photos on time every month thus far. Harrison wanted to get in on the action (he usually isn't around when I take the photo) and couldn't wait to hold and pose with his brother. On his own, he ran into his room and grabbed his little blue armchair as he remembered we used it for the Christmas photos we had taken over three months earlier!

Note Tucker's ample chin(s), he is definitely a hefty kid, much more so than his brother ever was. Also the terms "chunk" and "tank" have been used to refer to this happy, healthy kid! His eyes are still blue, his hair still a dirty blonde.