Let it Snow!

The Monday before Thanksgiving, the Puget Sound was beseiged by snow. While I was complaining that day care decided to close at 4pm and I had to leave work early for traces of snow (we tend to freak out at snowflakes around here), I was extremely grateful that I left work at 12:30pm... my coworkers that left at 4pm had commute times of 5 hours, 9 hours and even an 11 hour commute - she got home at 3:30am. While it wasn't a blizzard, it was significant snowfall and there were traffic accidents everywhere. Thankfully our family made it home safe and we could watch the snow fall from the comfort of our warm home.

Oddly enough, two days earlier Harrison and I found an awesome second hand kids store and we picked up snow boots and mittens. The zipper on his winter coat broke but that didn't stop him from getting on his gear and heading to the park across the street with mom, dad and Winston. The pictures below are on the last day the snow was around so there was actually more snow than you can see here.

We celebrated Thanksgiving and Uncle John and Aunt Shivonne's house with the whole family, however we have a bad habit of rarely taking photos. While we were there, my brother Jon called me and I told Harrison to say hello to Uncle Jon on the phone... he looked at me funny and then ran away. I thought he simply didn't want to comply with my request and then realized he ran into the kitchen to point to Michael's Uncle John. He never ceases to amaze us. Speaking of names, Michael used to call his older sister Alexis "Gekis" which we taught to Harrison since he cannot prounance her name either... he now calls her "Gekee."

Since mom had to go to work on the Friday after Thanksgiving, dad and baby came downtown to have lunch with mom.

While we avoided shopping on Black Friday, we did venture out Sunday to buy a Christmas tree, some lights and a new giant wreath for the outside of the house. Michael put the wreath over Harrison in the shopping cart and the expression on his face was priceless (although mom was too slow pulling out the camera)... his little mouth formed a big "O" and he blinked his eyes incesantly as if he expected the needles to get into his eyes and once his head was clear of the foliage he got the biggest smile on his face!

Later Sunday mom and Harrison went to the outlet malls as Harrison badly needed some clothes to get to tide him over until he hits size 2T. We picked up an awesome Columbia kids jacket to replace the cheap one with the broken zipper as well as this adorable moose beanie. The hat itself is cute but what really makes it adorable is the way Harrison says moose, like "mooosh." I was trying to get some pictures while decorating the tree and with the slow shutter speed in the low lighting I got this fun picture while the lights were moving around.

 

Look for the winning the picture in a Christmas card coming soon to a mailbox near you!

21 months and counting...

Our baby turned 21 months at the beginning of November and it is evident he is not such a baby anymore. Unless you ask him... new this week he started referring to himself as "baby" in the third person. You know, like Elmo: "Elmo went to the park today and Elmo had fun!" Harrison can't put more than two words together but this is the direction he is headed. He will point to a diaper or toy and say "baby" and it took us a few days to realizedthat he was saying that the diaper belongs to baby Harrison (not that the diaper is for any old baby).

Also in the past couple weeks his speech has exploded. Looking back for a moment, we taught him a fair amount of sign language (his teachers at school couldn't figure out he was telling them he was thirsty one day) which I think he clung onto slowing his speaking skills a little. As we taught him new words we asked him to say them and he often wouldn't try (or even tell us "no!") but recently he is making an effort to say all kinds of words and sounds, his most complicated being "octopus".

Harrison is now tall enough to take or place items onto the kitchen counter and he knows how to move his little step stool around the kitchen to increase access to prohibited items. The pantry has always been a favorite place to explore and now he likes to find the bag of dog treats and ask me if he can give some to Winston. He also likes to sit on Winston or use him as a stepping stone to get on the couch. Aside from the canine abuse, he also rubs Winston's belly or pets his back.

I think most kids put on their parent's shoes but I was surprised Harrison has started to do this already. He loves to shuffle around in my shoes although when he puts on daddy's dressier work shoes the bigger size, leather and heavier soles don't offer much movement.

The boy has also become quite the mimic. A few weeks ago I sat next to him as he was eating dinner and while we watched Sesame Street together, I rested my chin on my fist, elbow on the table. I looked over to see Harrison looking at me out of the corner of his eye with a smile forming on his lips and realized he was doing the exact same thing! He thinks he is pretty funny and laughs once he realizes I have caught him in the act. The best thing I taught him to mimic was to tap his pursed lips with his index finger and let out a "hmmmmm...." as if in thoughtful contemplation! He's a gas.

Speaking of Sesame Street, his favorite thing is to watch "Elmo" which definitely includes Elmo as well as most of the muppets on The Street. He also enjoys Curious George and animated movies. There is a part of me that feels like a bad parent for introducing tv at a young age and he watches probably 60-90 minutes a day (not all at once) which is more than what is recommended, but let me tell you that it has brought sanity to our lives. It is priceless to be able to just rest your eyes for 5 minutes or start dinner while he is entertained as he would otherwise demand our attention. So you out there, stop judging me!

Maybe this will buy us back into your good graces - our son LOVES books. He loves to have us read to him and likes to ask "what's that?" whilst pointing to a picture. He likes to flip through books on his own as if he was reading. Even though we have a good 50 or more books, we have read them all many times and now he is getting picky, not wanting to hear them again. Please take this as a hint that books would make a great Christmas gift!

BOO!

Prior to Halloween, Harrison had no concept of why I would put him in a blue monster costume every other day for 15 minutes or so, it was just something fun to do. Well the Friday before Halloween, day care wanted the kids to wear the costumes all day (except meal and nap times). Michael drove him to school in regular clothes and when the arrived, dad pulled out the monnster outfit and dressed him. Evidently the kids all walked up and surrounded him, oo'ing and ah'ing and touching the blue "fur." Dad said his costume was the best by far and we were both proud I used my refer-a-friend credit at Zulily to get it for $10 no less!

On Saturday, we loaded Harrison into his red wagon, bundled everyone up from the chill and walked down to the local market and picked out some "Charlie Brown" pumpkins; we named them thus because our arrival so close to Halloween left only the dented, dying and misshaped pumpkins to choose from. We already had one, big, perfect pumpkin from the farm the weekend before so the "interesting" gourds were fun to work with from my point of view.

The white one kept toppling over once we got it home, so I put it on it's side and made it a cat (clearly, we do not use any fancy stencils or even specialized pumpkin carving tools, just our kitchen knives!). Michael had the thought that power tools might make the job go by more quickly and the result is the pumpkin next to the cat. 

I attempted to make the pumpkin on the lower left resemble Harrison's little monster costume, but ears ended up too close to the three eyes so it looks kind of crazy. The last pumpkin was dad's second attempt with the dremel tool and it came out a bit more polished.

On Sunday, we met up with the Smith's at the Town Center for an early Mexican dinner prior to the treat or treating at the businesses. When we walked out of dinner we were surprised to see that evidently the entire population of Mill Creek was outside, ghouls and goblins running amok! Harrison and Amelie both seemed very interested in so many people in costume and were also happy to take treats from smiling strangers at every doorway. Their parents were excited that the donut shop gave away free donuts!

My boys with Amelie and Justin



After 45 minutes of that madness, we went home and joined up with the Tutrows to take the lion, monkey and monster around the neighborhood. Since Harrison cannot say any form of "trick or treat," we taught him to say "boo" emphatically at each door (often before the door was opened); he also helped knock on doors which is a newer skill he picked up a few weeks ago.

Krissi, James and Gavin (he and Harrison are destined to be best buds)

Since many families in our area have children, we have no choice but to leave out bowls of candy while we walk the 'hood with the kids. When we approached bowls with Harrison, I would stay close to ensure he only took one but he had already composed a system of self imposed restraint. He would pick up one, then another, then a third, then put one back, then pick up another, then put one back, then put back another and then walk down the steps with one piece remaining... all those mostly of his own accord! At some point he got some elven peanut butter crackers that he refused to put in his bucket and insisted on carrying with him in one hand the rest of the way home.

Happy Second Halloween Harrison!

There's a monster under my bed!

I found this little monster under the bed. We decided to keep him.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Patching!

Today we went to a place called "The Farm" for some serious pumpkin patch time. Since we knew it would be muddy with puddles, Harrison got his first pair of rain boots to jump in puddles and trudge through mud. We also enjoyed a tractor pulled hay ride, a hay maze, petting farm and a walk through an orchard and flower garden. I love fall photos so I hope you have a bit of time!

Tailgating & Baby Shower

Last weekend was very busy between Husky tailgating and preparing and throwing a baby shower for Aaron and Irene. On Saturday, Harrison, Irene and mom met Aaron and dad as well as many of our friends for the Husky Homecoming tailgate. This was Harrison's first tailgate and he was very impressed with the set up. Tent, chairs, lots of food and drink as well as a fire pit to keep us warm. Since the sun was setting, I didn't get any good pictures or maybe Harrison was just moving too fast, hopped up on sugar from juice and some bits of chocolate funneled to him by d-a-d.

HJ, Irene and I went back home to watch the game on tv and put Harrison to bed. Once asleep, Irene and I worked from 8:00 - midnight making a fritatta, quiche, cinnamon rolls, cupcakes and scones for our 10am baby shower. And yes, I made the very pregnant guest of honor decorate and bake for her own shower. Although she did insist she help, I really didn't resist and quite frankly I would have been up until 2 or 3 without her help. I tend to be overly ambitious prepping for this sort of thing (see below).

 Harrison Fein (20 months); Tyler Kernkamp (5 months); Gavin Tutrow (7 weeks)

I made some cool looking butterfly cupcakes by melting lifesavers for the wings and then forgot to have people eat them in the end.

Our little early bird

Our little boy has always been an earlier riser. Thankfully over the past year, he has managed to "sleep in" until 6:30am or later on many days rather than the 5:45am that wasn't uncommon a year ago. Michael hears stories from other parents detailing kids who wake up and just talk to themselves or play in their cribs until their parents leisurely go get them at their convenience. Michael seems to think our child is abnormal in this respect even though I am sure we are probably in the majority.

When Harrison wakes up, he doesn't really wail or really even cry; he whines and whimpers and rolls around half asleep in his crib. We always ignore it at first, hoping against the odds that he will fall back asleep and if we are really lucky we might get 15 more minutes. Usually he just persists until he is fully awake at which point he really starts crying.

What is really cute is the moment you open the door. The whining suddenly ceases as you make your approach. Then he works to stand up, which is a tricky affair because his head is usually still full of that wooziness you get when you just wake up and his little legs aren't really awake yet either. Once standing, he immediately looks down and searches for his little lovey/blankie; if there is more than one in there, you wait while he finds and gathers them all in his arms. And then sometimes he decides he wants the big blankie as well and then he turns to you, arms full of plush softness and you pick him up and he nuzzles into you with his head on your shoulder. And every time you think, aw, he is still sleepy. Maybe he will fall back asleep if I rock him. Maybe I should sing to him. Maybe I should take him to the bed and convince him to fall back asleep with us.

And all these ideas, hopes and dreams whizz through your head in less than a second.

Let me assure you that they never come to fruition. He might not be able to keep his eyes open, but he is awake enough to realize that you are trying to hoodwink him into going back to sleep when he desparately wants to be awake. If you try to rock or sing him back asleep, he will squirm, squeal and point to the door demanding you take him out of his room. Try to sit in a chair or on the bed, same effect. Try to lay down thinking he will sleep on your chest? The full on crying begins and assures that you have now got him up on "the wrong side of the bed" so to speak and he will be crabby  for the next hour.

I saw this comic in the newspaper today which inspired this post. That said, on Sunday he gave us the gift of waking up at 7 - yes 7am!! By the way, Harrison occasionally sleeps in our room in a portable crib (like when it's really hot and we have a one room a/c unit) and he probably does think sleeping in our room is more efficient. The last time this happened back in August, I slowly moved deeper under the covers to ensure my head did not show. Then I opened my eyes and looked at my husband who was looking back at me in the same position, fear evident in our eyes even in the darkness. No, this little dinosaur is awake. And he's no T-Rex... he doesn't need you to move to know that you are there!

Your momma used to have straight hair...

Harrison, your momma used to have straight hair. When she was a little kiddo, it was stick straight. Although she permed it to imitate a poodle for a few years in the late '80's, it has been pretty straight ever since. Well, your momma got tired of it. Rather than get a "mom cut" and cut all her hair short so she doesn't have to style it, she decided to get a "digital perm." Unlike her perm of 1989, this employs heated rollers and makes hair softer and gives a more natural looking curl. Your momma likes her new hair so you may not see it straight for the next 10 years. But for the sake of posterity, let it be recorded that your momma used to have straight hair.

Before

 During... 

lots of heated rollers with lots of padding to prevent burns; so heavy my neck was aching!

 After. 

The curls will relax some and hopefully look bigger like they were wrapped around a curling iron

Then and Now

As I was uploading photos I thought it might be nice to check out a photo of Harrison from September 2009 and September 2010.

Then... 8 months old

Now... 19 months old

 

Then...

Now... still a little shifty eyed!

Our San Francisco Weekend...

...was the worst weekend trip ever. There were some good times but I think you will agree with our sentiment by the time you read this really, really long story.

Team Fein flew to San Francisco for a 3 day weekend with the main goal of meeting up with Jon's family and Raina's mom, introducing cousins Harrison and Argenta and meeting up with great-grand-dad "Tai Kung" and uncle Billy and uncle Paul. We arrived to nearly 80* weather, blue skies and not a hint of clouds or fog which is practically unheard of this time of year. The entire gang met up for dim sum which would be our only opportunity to see Tai Kung and the uncles. Harrison hadn't gotten much of a nap so 70% of lunch was spent walking around the lobby, showing him the fish (soon to be someone's dinner) tanks and generally keeping him out of trouble.

After lunch we went back to our hotel and took the kids to the pool in the fitness center. Harrison was so excited and while walking around the wet pool deck suddenly slipped and feel flat on his back and hit the back of his head (he didn't even have a chance to brace himself). I picked him up and he almost immediately stopped crying so no harm done. Dad taught him how to blow bubbles with his mouth just under water and he practiced jumping off of the pool deck into dad's arms in the water below. Neither parents remembered swim diapers so we just put on regular diapers so within minutes, the diapers absorbed a lot of water practically keeping the kiddos buoyant!

After washing up and taking a nap, we all went to a Korean BBQ restaurant and ordered way too much delicious food. Harrison was rather fussy and wouldn't eat or sit still and near the end he picked up Mike's empty sake cup and tipped it back like he was drinking and then suddenly gagged and threw up everywhere. Yeah, gross. Our kid has a pretty quick gag reflex so I thought he might have gotten an unexpected drop of sake although dad swore that cup was dry. In any case, we packed up and left totally embarrassed (this is easily the 5th time he has done this in public since his first birthday).

After we parked the car Harrison threw up again in the parking garage and then again in the hotel room before finally falling asleep. But then he woke up from a deep sleep dry heaving and it quickly became apparent that he was really sick. I called the on call nurse at our pediatrician's office and after some discussion, we worried that he had possibly sustained some serious head trauma when he slipped at the pool. We were advised to take him to an ER immediately and preferably a children's hospital if possible. It was 2am and we could either go to the St. Francis hospital 10 blocks away or drive to the children's hospital in Oakland at 2am. Considering our safety and the distance, we opted for the city hospital and hoped it wouldn't be a total slum.

As soon as I checked him in at the ER, he experienced severe diarrhea and since he had thrown up all night, we only had one clean shirt left so we had this very sick, tired, half naked baby sitting in our arms in the ER waiting room... we must have looked pretty pitiful as several staff members kept offering him extra blankets. Our poor baby boy was SO thirsty and kept begging for a drink but he would immediately vomit even water; it is truly terribly to have to deny your child something so basic as water even if it is for his own good. Once inside, a kindly nurse give us 2 oz of pedialyte with an anti-nausea medicine and he was able to keep it down but then he just begged for more and we were told he had to wait.

The doctor that treated Harrison was fairly young; considering she was working at the downtown city hospital at 3am, I think it was safe to say she was likely only a few years out of med school. That didn't bother us but the following did: she came in the room and told us we had a really cute baby and kept telling us how we "make cute kids" (nice, but kind of weird) and then she asked us when we were going to have some more. Ok lady, we have known you for like 60 seconds and I would prefer that you treat the sick kid I have than have to answer questions about our future conception plans. Then she says that for a 19 month old, he didn't seem to be talking much... how are his verbal skills? Ok, I know she is trying to figure out if he isn't talking due to head trauma but then I tell her his vocab is at acceptable levels and that we also teach him sign language and he can sometimes use signs as a crutch rather than try to speak words (not to mention he is exhausted and dehydrated so he wasn't about to start reciting poetry). At that moment, Harrison gives us the sign for thirsty/drink and she asks, "oh, what he is saying?!?" and when we tell her she is totally incredulous. "Wow! Where did you learn this?!?" Um, books, the Internet... hell his day care even teaches basic signs! At this point we are really questioning her ability to successfully treat our child when a young doctor in San Freaking-cisco has never heard of teaching a child sign language. That 2am drive through Oakland is suddenly sounding really appealing.

To make this already long story short, she can't be sure if he has head trauma (vomiting is a possibly sign of bleeding in the brain), food poisoning or a bad stomach flu so we opt to give him some Benedryl hoping he will fall asleep and we can run a CT scan. Michael and I then struggle for the next 3 hours to get him to stay asleep while we wait for our turn and at 6am, we finally manage to put out awake child into the CT scanner bed and hope we can get him to fall asleep in it so he will stay still enough to run the test. We lay him down, cover him in warm blankets and the heavy lead vest, let him drink a couple of ounces of Pedialyte while we sing him "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" 15 times... and it works. He falls asleep with his bottle still hanging from his lips and he stays asleep while the bed moves around in the CT scan machine.

By 7:15am he is deemed head trauma free and we are on our way to discharge with the belief he has a bad stomach flu. Michael gets all our dirty clothes into Po Po's hands and she runs a laundry at the apartment they are staying in while clean up at the hotel and then walk around Union Square with a much happier toddler who is no longer throwing up and who had managed to get enough sleep to be alert, awake and ready to seize the day (poor mom and dad got maybe 2 hours that awful night... we were literally zombies). After a nice lunch outside in posh Maiden Lane with a man up the street serenading passersby with his operatic stylings, we stumble back to the hotel and the three of us sleep for over two hours.

Po Po, Jon, Audrey and Argenta meet us in the lobby and we let the kids explore a little so the adults can talk and spend a little time together before the ready to leave the city. We go back to the apartment to get our clean clothes and their luggage and have a little fun in the few minutes we have together.

Uncle Jon thought that the kids should have an upside down conversation; here is the bit that I managed to get.

After saying our goodbyes, Team Fein took a long walk downtown. During dinner in a diner, Harrison managed to be put into time out twice as well as throw a glass bowl on the tile floor which of course shattered everywhere.

Poor kid had a lot of pent p energy so we walked around a bit and taught him about the trolleys (ding, ding!) and let him run around Union Square to squeals of delight. We did manage to get a nice family photo which makes me happy because I don't think I can find a photo with the three of us since our trip to Maui in May.

Monday morning we met with friend Atilla, Claire and baby Andre for breakfast at Ella's Restaurant. Michael and Atilla spent most summers together for much of their childhood, vacationing in Lake Tahoe together. We told them that we wanted to try to find the spot where Michael proposed to me (on April 22, 2004; we had even had dinner with them the night before that wonderful day) and so they kindly drove all over the Presidio looking for a spot we could only characterize as near the Golden Gate bridge, near a cliff and near some type of old military spot with lots of old cement buildings and no, it was none of the obvious places they could think of. In the end, we got really close and got a great picture 6.5 years later.

So now, you might be thinking "Geez Raina, that ER business was really awful but it sounds like the trip ended well."  Yes, that is what we thought to until we started on our way to the airport. Harrison had fallen asleep in the car as we drove through the Presidio however he woke up just after we took the photos and began driving to SFO airport and he didn't fall back asleep as anticipated. Therefore we stood in a 30 minute security line with an already sleep deprived toddler who now only had a 25 minute nap. He was acting up in line, whining and insisted on being held the whole time but wanted to switch parents every fourth minutes. On the plane, he would only watch his favorite movie for 10 minutes and wanted to walk or jump on our laps. Still this is all something we can work with and then hurricane Harrison blew in. For 20 minutes, he would only yell all his words with extreme enthusiasm (like he was really happy) and then he couldn't still for two seconds at a time, didn't want books or toys or food. And then the captain turned on the "fasten seat belts" sign and Harrison proceeded to scream, arch his back and hang over my arms into the aisle half upside down the entire decent. He finally fell asleep in my arms right after we landed, the three o us exhausted and looking forward to getting home.

Michael went to pick up the car while I picked up the portable crib and car seat from baggage claim, only the car seat never showed up. When we checked in, Michael mentioned that the woman didn't seem to really have her act together and printed an extra bag sticker and then threw the extra one away. Turns out she tagged our bag with another passenger's tag and checked the car seat to Palm Springs. Brilliant. The airline gave us a loaner car seat that was sticky and turned out to be missing the anchor belt (who removes those?! I could see some idiot had somehow ripped them out!) although I can still install it an alternate way so we just got out of there as fast as possible.

This has clearly been a very long post however it was not as long as our weekend. I do have a the CT scan on CD so the good news is that when Harrison turns out to be Einstein in 50 years, scientists who want to study his brain capacity will have the CT scan of 2010 to reference.

And one more thing, as I write this on Wednesday morning, I am at home sick with the stomach flu. Brilliant.