Fun Weekend In Greenville

One highlight of the month was a short trip to Greenville to celebrate my mom's birthday and also attend a women's retreat at a church there. 

We were so excited to see Georgia. It had been WAY too long since Christmas!

First thing Harrison did was take a swat at her!

He decided he wanted to love "Gigi" 

Hanging out after the women's retreat. 

While I was at the retreat with Greer my mom watched Georgia and the boys had a fun day at the basket ball

There are no words to describe how happy James was to be with his Uncle David and to get to watch basketball 

Apparently this is how Harrison spent the second half of the game

My dad said he would wake up, clap his hands and then fall right back to sleep!

Pappy with his sweet granddaughter 

Poor Georgia. Harrison is obsessed with her and I think she is probably terrified! 

For dinner that night we grilled out

My dad can really cook a steak! 

In classic two year old fashion Harrison had completely finished his meal right when the rest of us sat down to eat. I bribed him with this ice cream so he would sit still! 

Happy Birthday Nene! 

The morning we left Harrison pulled out all of these singing Christmas toys. He insisted on playing them simultaneously over and over again. And he started this game at 5:30 a.m. Nothing like starting your day off with that! 

It was such a great weekend! Now back to home sweet home!

James's Interview at 4 1/2

Once again I meant to do this at age 4 and ended up being six months late! It's always amusing to me to see the answers he comes up with. Part of me wants to answer it the way I think he should and see the difference!

What's your favorite color? every color

What's your favorite toy? Legos

What's your favorite place to go eat?  Cow Cafe

What's your favorite TV show? Every show

What's your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Chicken

What's your favorite thing to do with Harrison?  Lay with him and play Legos with him

What is your favorite game? Duck Duck Goose

What is your favorite snack? Graham cracker

What is your favorite animal? Dinosaur

What is your favorite song?  The Jesus Song, Come and Worship Him (this is off the Bebo Norman Christmas CD)

What is your favorite book? All of the books

Who is your best friend? Harrison

What do you like to do with Mommy?  I really like to draw with you and play with you

What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Play Frisbee (which we never do)

What is your favorite drink? juice

What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas because you get toys (note to self- work harder on the true meaning of Christmas)

What do you like to take to bed with you at night? pup

What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? oatmeal

What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Go places together and eat at places together

What do you want to be when you grow up? I'm going to be a dentists. Open wide, no cavities!

What's your favorite thing about school? Playing with my friends outside

What does your mom do during the day? Take care of people

What does your dad do during the day? Sometimes play, sometimes go to work 

James 4 1/2

I can't believe my sweet boy is 4 1/2! Before I know it he will be five and that seems SO old!!! Currently on most days James is my easy child (I have no doubt this will change at times in the future).  He is by no means perfect (considering the enormous tantrum he threw 48 hours ago) but four has been such a nice age compared to three!  He is polite and helpful.  He can play for extended amounts of time by himself.  He is a wonderful brother and loves Harrison so much.  Without a doubt his two favorite activities now are building Legos and playing basket ball or football outside. He has also become obsessed with watching sports on TV and his favorite team is the Pirates. He enjoys spending time with all of his family but has a special love for time with Daddy or "just the boys" (a.k.a. Daddy and H)  He loves school and learning and has just about already bypassed me in the math department. Just kidding (kind of) but he is great at adding, subtracting, telling time, money, etc. I can't keep up with his brain on most days. I'm extremely thankful that he STILL takes a nap! Believe it or not, he naps significantly better now than he did the entire first year of his life which is pretty crazy.  If I had to describe him in one word it would be sweet.  Here are some of the sweet things he has said recently. 

When my mom asked him for a french fry- "I sure would love to share with you Nene."

"I just love my baby brother so much. He is the best brother in the world."

"We have a whole lot of love in our family." 

"I love Jesus the most of anyone in the world."

He has such a sweet sweet personality and heart. He brings so much joy to our family! 

Saying "cheers" with our milk and homemade cookies 

He addressed this card to us. I was surprised he knew our street number 

Maybe one day he will keep his clothes on. It was about 20 degrees outside this day. 

Magna Tile creation 

A picture of me, haha

He made this at the gym: stickers in sets of five to count to 55. He is a little math nerd, lol. 

Lego creation 

We get multiple cards each day that he makes for us. I love that his first independent sentence he can write is "I love you." 

Valentine's Day!

It's ridiculous but I love Valentine's Day. So much that since Ryan and I were going to be out of town on the holiday we celebrated it a day early with the boys. 

A couple of days earlier this letter was delivered to me. :) James has such a sweet side!

Harrison's valentine he made me at school 

We were leaving town right after I dropped James off at school so we had a candlelight (per Harrison's request) breakfast and exchanged valentine's after.  Carolina Bagel Company- yum!   

Hutchy just couldn't wait to eat his M&Ms.  

Afterwards Ryan and I hit the road to SC to see Whitney and Rod. We hadn't been there since James was two so we were super excited to get to see their new house and spend time with just them.  This is probably our first and last time visiting there with no kids because soon baby Davis will be with them! We can't wait to meet our nephew in a few months!

When we got back to NC James had brought home some valentines for us.

He told me that this was the love in our family- one heart for each member.

My valentine hug! 

Harrison 20 Months

Somehow I missed taking Harrison to the doctor for his 18 month check up so we finally made it when he was 20 months. Whoops!

Height: 33 inches

Weight: 27 pounds, 10 ounces

Head: I don't remember the number but it was in the 85th percentile. He has a big noggin. 

Harrison you are talking SO much lately!  You are doing three word sentences.  The other day in the car you kept repeating, "See Nene more.  See Pappy more. See Nana more. More Pop."  You obliviously have a love for your grandparents! You know so many words, even random ones like "sound machine" as you told me recently.  You also have mastered the phrase, "No Dames! (James).  Most words sound pretty accurate but for some reason you call pizza "pee pee" (which James finds hilarious) and you also call pancakes "bean beans."  Not sure where that came from but when you want them you get my spatula and start calling for more bean beans! You are trying to count and you are working on identifying your colors.  You favorite toy right now is without a doubt the kitchen set.  You LOVE to pretend to make pizza. You put on your oven mitt, cut the pizza apart, and add "cheese and pepper" as you say.  You also love your new tool bench, especially the drill, making towers with blocks and Legos, play doh, doing bubbles.  Recently you decided you like Elmo and love to read books about him and "cookie". You are an average eater.  Cheese is still a big favorite and fruit.  You do not like to drink milk and we FINALLY got you off the bottle!!!! You love your preschool class and your teacher told me you greet every child by name in the mornings.  Temper tantrums and whining are definitely a daily battle in our house and you are very mischievous.  James loves you so much and for the most part you still get along. The other day James wanted to hug you goodnight in his bed and he held onto you and said, "Sweet little baby. You are getting so big. I'm so proud of you!"  We ALL love you Harrison!!!

This is his "say cheese" face

Loves Mickey 

First day of swim lessons. Mommy looks rough but he sure loved it

New trick- crawling into the bathtub

And the fit after being told not to do it

One of my favorite tantrums.,  I woke him up from his nap and he was mad that it was me and not my mom! 

Makes me feel so loved. And why is he wearing those pants?

His newest attempt on trying to avoid his car seat 

One of his phrases is "dot dot paint"

Bookworm

loves his big brother

I love to kiss those fat cheeks!

Our attempt to go to story time which didn't end well

We are a few months late but we have FINALLY gotten H off the bottle. This was his response when I told him he couldn't have one.

Sampling a little humus

He is such a climber!

James wanted to get in with Harrison one afternoon

Sticker anyone?

Good to the last drop! And yes those stickers stayed on his face the entire day!

One not so great recent memory with Harrison was his first ambulance ride.  We have had SO much sickness here the past month.  One morning Harrison had a low fever but we thought he was doing fine so that afternoon we went to the park.  

Afterwards we went home and were about to go pick up pizza when he had a seizure.  It scared us all to death and it was terrible to see your child like that. He wasn't breathing, was turning blue, so we called 911 and the ambulance came. One funny moment which wasn't funny at the time was that James kept begging to be the one to get to dial 911- they have practiced that at school!  Apparently poor Harrison's temperature spiked super high which caused a febrile seizure.  I rode in the ambulance with him and he was so pitiful.  It took about 3 hours for his fever to start coming down. Turns out he had the flu!  Praise Jesus that Ryan was home with me during all this.  

So sweet in his little hospital gown 

Mommy looks stressed.  

 After a VERY long visit to the ER we finally made it back home. When we got home Ryan looked at me and said, "that was the worst thing I have ever seen." We were both physically and emotionally drained. So thankful it wasn't any worse and that he is okay.  I think I aged 10 years in 10 minutes that day. 

 48 hours later he was back to this: 

As I was writing this I realized that it was almost exactly a year ago that he had his first ER visit for almost choking. I hope that this is not a yearly habit!

Day after the ER visit last February