Merry and bright

Visions of Sugarplums

Look what Santa brought me!!!

choo-choo!

Mama made me a set of alphabet beanbags

Tear and pull, tear and pull. Got it!

Oooh! An alphabet puzzle from Nanny

An organ lesson from Daddy....I can't reach the pedals...

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

This boy has moves!

We had a little dance party the other morning to the Wiggles - thought you might enjoy!

(Sorry about yet another sideways video!)


Thank you for my new hat, SweetHart!

Taste test: Harrison style

What's been happening around here:

A little bit of this and that has been happening here, a lot of playing, running errands, outdoor play and more!

"Beep-beep!" After emptying out the laundry basket H likes to jump in and say 'beep-beep' and we ride back to the laundry room where he says "made it!" Yesterday after we had "made it" back to the laundry room he wouldn't get out! I think that he thought he would get another ride if he stayed in it long enough!

"Love 'Endon'" A couple of days ago we all stayed in our pajamas late and H wanted "Endon, up!" (Leonard, up!). So we snuggled Leonard together (I'm not sure what Leonard thought of it!)

"Abent" H loves to take out an ornament on the Advent calendar. I think he wishes that we could take more than one out a day. Throughout the day he will come to us and say "'mon, abent" (come on, Advent) and we will go and count pockets and name all of the ornaments.

"Becon" (Blankie) love

Croup....again
poor baby

Santa at the farm. It could happen.

Mr. Independent

H has been asserting himself with requests and demands these days...most of it is actually quite fun: him telling me that he wanted "budda" (peanut butter) on his bread was pretty cute. He likes to put his own snack cup in the sink after he is finished with his snack. He will tell us "helt" (help) or "geen" (again) when he would like for us to do something for him. He also tells us on or "ot" (off) for hats, clothes, jackets, lights, and more. He will tell us "show me" if he wants us to look at a book or do something specific with him. And lately he wants to "hold it" when he eats his banana or cracker instead of us giving him one at a time.

H holding his own banana

Today we did a little holiday colored (red and green) play dough

The day was sort of dragging, and I thought that it would be an activity that would last maybe 10 or 15 minutes like it has before... but after about three minutes he began putting the play dough away and was ready for the next activity....

Puzzles by the Christmas tree

H is getting pretty good at turning the pieces around and then pushing them into their place. He likes the "monjey" (monkey), "geba" (zebra), and "drat" (giraffe).

Today we had a Super H kind of snacktime. While I was getting his juice and crackers, he found his mask and wanted it on. Then he wanted it off right after he put his cup in the sink.

Christmas!!!

Our dining room has looked a little like this for the past couple of weeks

Fabric, scraps, tape measures, more fabric, and a little chaos. I have made 4 growth charts, 5 My Body Books, 3 Family books, 2 sets of stacking rings, an advent calendar and a purse (both for our own use and my Etsy shop). So, it has been a little crazy with my Sesame Street and naptime sewing, and Daddy's crazy school schedule (concerts and final exams, oh my!).

But, Nathan finished his finals yesterday, I finished sewing my last order, and now we are starting to spread a little Christmas cheer throughout our home!

Now that H is a little more aware of what is going on than he was last Christmas, I thought it would be fun to have a little Advent Calendar - something simple, but something I could see us having around the next few years. I mostly followed the inspiration here and it came together fairly quickly, and since I only used fabric and supplies that I had already - it was VERY inexpensive!

When I hung it on the wall, H walked up and said "Cute!" He likes going to the "aben" calendar after breakfast every day, counting the pockets we have already emptied and "pull, pull, pull"-ing out the ornaments. He also likes to tell me to hang the ornament "he-here."

This is the first time since N and I have been married that we have hung stockings. I made N's for him before we were married, and made myself a matching one last spring. H's was the stocking that was mine when I was growing up. Before that, it was my Daddy's when he was growing up - H is now the third generation to use it! I took off the lace ruffle and covered up the super-glued on J with an H. Who knows, maybe one of his children will use it one day!

A little nativity decoration. I'd seen these around blog-land last year and finally got around to making one.

Today we went out to pick out a tree! H was happy as can be to splash in the puddles while N and I debated which kind of tree to take home.

There's a tree in the house!!! He and Leonard enjoyed inspecting it.

He was very interested in all of the ornaments

And in Mama's slippers...

We might have to watch him around the tree. We are going to finish decorating it after he's asleep tonight.

Hear ye, hear ye

Coming in May 2011

Hey, KK!

I've mentioned before H's love for his aunt Karen - or KK. He loves her! Yesterday he carried on a long conversation with her on my phone. She would say something to him, and he would either repeat it or mumble some sort of response. He loves to call her on the phone or see her on the webcam.

But, when KK is at work or unavailable, he has to get creative to talk to her. Today, he "called" her on the TV remote control, the receiver to the baby monitor, and on a (very dull) butter knife at supper time:

Most conversations go something like this: "Hey, KK. hey KK, hey KK, KK, KK, KK. Are you? (as in - How are you?) KK. Hey, KK, Wub You. Are you? KK, KK, KK. " and so on.


He has also been known to call her on a stick, little pan from his kitchen, and many other household items.

We love you, KK!

Grab your coat

And come play with us! It's a lot of fun!!! We can....

Watch the cars go by:

Walk through the leaves:

Pick holly berries:

Look for airplanes:

Play peek-a-boo in the magnolia tree:

Give Leonard 'high fives' through the window:

Pretend that it is night time when our hat is over our eyes:

But I think I've had enough now, can you come back tomorrow?

Our little family

We finally got some good family pictures this weekend! Our out of town company helped us take some in our backyard - very fall-ish looking.

It took us a few tries to get us all looking decent...

It wasn't that easy...

and we had to take a couple of breaks to show Mr. Squirmy the pictures of 'you' (as he calls himself)

But, we finally captured a couple that turned out pretty nice!

Ribbit, ribbit

Can you see it?

Home for the Holidays

Daddy had this week off, so we packed up the car and headed to Louisiana! It was so nice to be around friends and family for the week. Plenty of people to love and entertain H, friends and family to visit, stores to shop at.... it was a wonderful and busy week!

Enjoying the morning sun
(this was one of my favorite memories of Nanny when we would visit when I was little: she would open up the door every morning and say "Good Morning, world" like she was greeting each new day)


Normally H would sit in a booster chair at Nanny's, but the first night he climbed right up in the big chair and made himself at home. He loved his toast and jelly each morning for breakfast!

Taking a little break to watch Sesame Street

Aunt Mary Ann (MaNan as H says it) brought some jumbo blocks for him to play with, and he was a pro by the time we left!

Story time with Nanny - makes me wish I could still fit in her lap and be read to!

Rock, rock
He enjoyed putting the leaves through the holes in the table

Almost there....

Although I don't have too many pictures to prove it, we enjoyed some good time with Papaw and GrandMissy

We taught him the joys of dust-busting

He is certainly not starved for attention...

A little pre-turkey ride

Gobble, gobble! What a feast and it all tasted sooo good!

Cute peaches!

Thank you, Challie for my new bath toys!

Every night, H had to go tell Nanny goodnight
After we had returned home to Oxford, he was still asking for her at night to tell her goodnight!
(A Nanny word of wisdom: Look as beautiful at night as you do during the day - doesn't she? )

Louisiana dreams