Happy Third Day of Spring

About a week ago, I realized that it hadn't really snowed at our house this winter and that Harrison hadn't gotten to throw snowballs or sled at our park. Almost out of nowhere it suddenly got cold overnight and we woke up to a measurable amount of snow. Harrison was excited to get out and play with friends and Tucker got to snuggle next to me on my hip in double fleece jammies.

Tucker at 7 Months

If his cuteness doesn't blow you away, the fact that he is 7 months old today should! Closer to one than a newborn

piggy bank

Today I scanned through the newspaper (I still get a Sunday edition!) looking for a specific apparel coupon (coupon's are why I get a newspaper at all!) as dad needed some basic t-shirts. For a few weeks I had waited patiently for it to inevitably show up and today I found it in the form of a mystery coupon which required me to scratch off some silver stuff to see my hidden additional savings. Reaching into my giant mason jar of spare change, a Sacajawea gold dollar coin emerged to complete the coupon scratching. More importantly, the shiny gold object caught Harrison's eye.

Him: "Oooo! I want THAT!"

Me: "This is a whole dollar; maybe you can do something to earn it..."

Him (in the cadence of an auctioneer): "I will. I will be super good at the store and I won't cry and I will help and..."-  and he continued to list off several more items, carefully including the "good" versions of things he sometimes does which drive me nuts such as 'I will not run in the parking lot.' 

Me: "Oh you will, will you? Alright then." I immediately expected him to forget or drop the matter, instead he immediately opened the door into garage and held it open for me as I carried my giant purse and Tucker in the car seat. This has never happened. Never.

Game on mom, game on.

In short, he was helpful at the grocery store and when we got home I asked him to carry in all the lighter grocery bags (three) as well as haul the bag of T-shirts up stairs. When he came down, I told him how proud I was of him and put that shiny gold coin in the palm of his hand.

Our next move immediately took us upstairs to put Tucker down for a nap. Instead of depositing the coin in his lamby-bank he followed me into Tucker's room and noticed Tucker's piggy-bank atop the bookcase. Inspecting it he asked me, "why doesn't Tucker's piggy-bank have anything in it?" I told him Tucker hadn't earned any money yet.

"I am going to put my coin into Tucker's piggy-bank. Tucker can hold it there for me for later and then his piggy-bank won't be empty." This was followed by the hollow "thunk" sound of the one, heavy, solitary coin dropping into the belly of silver pig.

What else can I say? Harrison is a sweet and caring son, brother and friend. Don't ever change buddy.

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!