Christmas, Episode One

For Christmas Craig and Laura got a new camera, so we have a ton of Christmas photos to get through. Without further ado...


We kicked off Christmas a few days early in our house when Santa made an unexpected early visit in advance of the snow/ice/sleet/rain storm that hit our area. Harrison really took to opening presents. At his birthday only a few months ago he was indifferent to unwrapping presents, but two months seemed to have totally changed his attitude towards the task.




Harrison got a sports coupe from Santa that he could hardly wait to roll around in. It was pretty difficult to assemble with Harrison constantly trying to hop in and assist in other ways that were not very helpful. On a side note, we spent a good chunk of after dinner playtime in that coupe earlier this evening. Craig used to the opportunity to further indoctrinate Harrison on the goodness of roundabouts and set up a mini-roundabout in the basement. Gotta start 'em young on roundabouts (which by the way are awesome because they're safer and move traffic more efficiently than standard intersections).


We headed up to Green Bay a day early to avoid the onslaught from Mother Nature and Craig's sister Jessica did the same. Jessica let Harrison ride her rocking horse after initially resisting the idea of sharing.


One of Harrison's favorite Christmas presents was the radio flyer wagon he got from Grandma and Grandpa (they bought it months ago and have been letting him ride in it for a long time, but finally gifted it to a grateful Harrison). Grandma's family came over Christmas eve and Harrison had a blast riding in the wagon with Craig's cousin Carrie's kids, Sarah and Alyson.


Christmas day was spent with Grandpa's family at Great-Grandma Corsten's place. Harrison was showered with a fine selection of gifts, but not unexpectedly, a cardboard tube presented to him by his Great-Uncle Pete stole the show.


We also took the opportunity to get a nice family photo of the all grandkids/great-grandkids. We're a photogenic bunch, no?


With the snow still falling the day after Christmas, grandma went and bought a sled and we took turns pulling Harrison around the driveway while he laughed merrily. Definitely got to get him out on a sled more often.


Harrison got to open one last gift before we left, since our friends Chris and Nicole sent over a late birthday gift. Harrison got a dump truck from them, which he loved and began pushing it around making truck noises before it was even out of the box.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all!

SNOW!

Harrison had his first snow day from daycare last week when we got a major dumping of snow. It was too cold for him to go outside, but Harrison loved standing by the patio door and watching the snow pile up.




With the weather finally turning cold we broke out Harrison's winter jacket he got from Grandma Corsten. It's comically large on him, but he doesn't seem to mind wearing it.

The big news with Harrison is that he's a walker now. He's almost entirely abandoned crawling and walks all over the house. The bad news is, he took a face first digger into the wall and gave himself a nice shiner earlier today. Normally that's no biggie, but tomorrow is picture day at daycare. That'll make for a cute photo...we guess.



Finally, Harrison has a cup of yogurt and cheerios for breakfast every morning (variety is the spice of life!). Normally we feed it to him, but the other morning he insisted on feeding himself. Took forever for him to eat it, but progress is slowly being made.

No more hippie hair-do

After weeks of putting it off, we decided to have Harrison's beautiful mane of blond hair clipped. Harrison was not pleased with the prospect of getting a haircut, as he had put lots of time and hard work into his mane.


We were visiting Craig's parents in Green Bay, so we found a nice kiddie barber. We expected a complete and total meltdown on Harrision's part, but no such meltdown occurred.


Harrison sat nicely in a train engine and got to watch Blue's Clues and/or The Jungle Book while the barber clipped his hair in record time. We kid you not, we were in and out in five minutes. And not a peep from Harrison. For being nothing short of an angel Harrison was rewarded with his favorite treat of frozen custard. He LOVES frozen custard.

Harrison, post haircut

Harrison, as shown in the above photo and video, has two favorite toys at Grandma and Grandpa Corsten's house - a spaghetti spoon and a Fleet Farm shopping cart. Harrison spent the weekend piling toys into the cart, stirring them with his spaghetti spoon and them pushing the cart around the house and laughing maniacally.


We got back home Sunday just in time for the Packers game. Harrison was all decked out in his green and gold best and pushed around his football rider, but still isn't showing much interest in watching the game. Guessing that'll come with time. He did clap at a touchdown, but we think he was just imitating Craig.

Cheesy grin

A broken ankle and first steps

About a week after Harrison's big first birthday Laura broke her ankle while taking out the recyclables. Long story short, Laura had a two-night stay in the hospital and is on crutches until the first week of December. Things are kind of hectic at home since Laura is on the DL, but so far everyone is hanging in there.

Harrison dressed up for Halloween for the first time this year, going a vicious bear of undetermined breed. His daycare had a Halloween party for the whole family, so we attended with Laura limping around on crutches. Harrison enjoyed a delicious cookie with his buddy Eli, and there were games and art projects.


Otis has been staying with Craig's parents while Laura is on the DL, but before he left Harrison decided Otis would make a nice stool. To Otis' credit, he didn't mind it too much and got up and walked away when he had enough. Harrison really got a kick out of it.


Harrison has also fallen in love with another hand-me-down toy. This one is a bouncing zebra. He really gets into it to the point where we're a bit concerned about whiplash.


This past weekend we went to the Great Wolf in Wisconsin Dells with aunt Liz and her kids, aunt Carol and some friends. Harrison had a great time playing in the water - as usual. He didn't like our hotel room though...and he woke up early and crabby both nights. We still had a great time though, but Harrison must've come across as a real crab ass to everyone. Especially since our friend Ron and Barb's kid, Ian, hardly made a peep all weekend.


Harrison also had some fun playing in the water with Carol, who took Harrison long enough for Craig to go down the giant toilet slide a few times.


Finally, for the pièce de résistance (impressive use of french, no?) we present Harrison and his new found walking skills. Craig picked up Harrison at daycare last week and his teacher was talking about how Harrison took four steps...which was news to Craig and Laura since they'd never even seen him stand on his own. Sure enough, Harrison cans stand on his own and take a few steps before falling down laughing. We practice every evening and he gets better and better each day. It's really fun to watch!

Harrison is 1

Harrison is one now, having hit the landmark birthday last Friday. To celebrate we had a small birthday party for him with family. Harrison didn't really like his cake. He just kind of smeared it all over. But everyone else enjoyed cake, chili and a wide assortment of snacks. Below is a nice selection of photos from his birthday.







Harrison's aunt Lizzie also brought a nice variety of hand-me-down toys for Harrison. He really loved the slide and figured it our quite quickly.

To celebrate Harrison turning one...and just because new photos were in order, Laura asked a friend from work to take some family photos. Those are below and they turned out very nice.

A Cold September

After weeks of battling a common cold, Harrison is fully mended! And to celebrate we bring you pictures! PICTURES!

When we last reported on Harrison, he was about to begin daycare. It's been a great experience for all of us. There was the day when they decided he didn't need an afternoon nap "because he was having fun." See above picture for the result of that.


Then, of course, Harrison caught his first cold after a week. That was expected. But so not cool. No nasty details, but lots of changing his clothes and lots of tissues. Poor kid could hardly breath, and what little he did eat worked its way through him pretty fast. But, as you can see above, Harrison still looked happy - even with a crusty nose.


Harrison's new thing is the remote control and our cell phones. Above, he's changing the channel, because he hated whatever we were watching. He always changes the channel to 77. We don't have a channel 77. So he must enjoy the loud hissing and static that you get when there's nothing on a channel.



After dinner most nights we go for a walk and then post walk we spread out a blanket on the lawn and sit and enjoy the weather. Harrison loves being outside with us and usually spends most of his outside time attacking Craig.


Last weekend, Craig and Laura headed up to Copper Harbor, Michigan for a wedding. We stayed at the beautiful and historic Keweenaw Mountain Lodge and took a spin along the Brockway Mountain Drive. We also drove over the Fanny Hooe Creek Bridge Isn't that crazy how many wikipedia entries there are on the Copper Harbor area? It was a beautiful weekend and a beautiful wedding with delicious lake trout and blueberry cheesecake at the reception. And delicious beer brewed by the groom. That was a fantastic weekend.


Harrison stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Corsten where they still spoil him, even though he makes a huge mess out of their house. Despite the sternest warnings from his father, Harrison seems to be taking an interest in newspapers. They'll only break his heart.



We got home from Michigan Monday, and it was super nice out, so we went for a swim in Rock Lake (we can do wikipedia entries all day long). The water was still surprisingly warm. We were hoping to have the beach all to ourselves, but apparently quite a few people had the same idea as us. A nice cap to the summer.

Vay-cay-shun

Harrison starts daycare Monday morning and with summer starting to wind down, Craig and Laura took a five-day weekend and spent some quality time as a family before Harrison starts his newest adventure. We had grand plans of taking a trip somewhere, but the need to purchase a new oven and the fact that we have a dog (totally forgot about Otis at one point) kept us at home...mostly.

We did take a day-trip to Rockford, where we went to the waterpark with Laura's sister Lizzie and her kids, Abby and Ben. Harrison had a lot of fun playing in the water, which is no surprise since he loves water. The above picture was the only one of about seven where we got all three kids to look at the camera. The weirdest part was it was probably the hardest to get Abby to look at the camera. You'd think a 7-year-old would be good at something like that.

I am having fun

All that water wore him out

We spent a lot of time close to home on our mini-vacation where Harrison got his first taste of mac n'cheese, which he found most enjoyable. We also purchased a new oven, went out for dinner with Craig's sister, Jessica, and got some landscaping done.

We also noticed recently that Harrison is really taking a liking to music. So Friday evening we took him to the Tyranena Brewing Company, which holds summertime concerts in the beer garden. Harrison is shown above intently listening to the alt-country sounds of The Dang-Its. Harrison really enjoyed the music and literally screamed with delight during instrumental breaks (he screams A LOT now - video of that to come when we catch it). The band acknowledged his presence in between songs and introduced him to the crowd as the kid making the feedback-like noises.

The video below further illustrates Harrison's love of music.



We wrapped the vacation with a trip to the Farmer's market (again) with our friend Hollie and her mother who were visiting Madison for the weekend. We bought cheese.

We're excited for Harrison to start daycare. While we had a great in-home situation for Harrison previously, it will be good for him to be with some kids his age where he'll work on his social skills and further develop his immune system.

All by myself

Every parent has conflicting feelings about their kid getting bigger. On one hand it's tough to see your kids growing so fast, but on the other it's pretty neat to see them become more self reliant.

Harrison cooked dinner for himself last night. It was pretty neat.


Ok, he didn't cook dinner, but he is learning to groom himself. At the suggestion of the doctor, Harrison has his own tooth brush. He mainly bangs it on the floor for amusement, but he does occasionally put the bristles in his mouth and move the brush around. So he's got that going for him.


Harrison can also grab his bottle and feed himself. On occasion. Usually he just lets the bottle drop but sometimes he likes to feed himself.


This new found independence is also causing some issues. Harrison gave himself his first shiner last week when he attempted to grab a camera (presumably to take pictures of himself) and instead pulled it down on his face. Other than a brief cry, Harrison got over it pretty quickly and was no worse for the wear.



Harrison still can't read, so every night Craig and Harrison enjoy a bedtime story together. It's usually pretty light reading, but Craig keeps an old literature anthology next to the rocking chair to read Harrison a poem now and then. Harrison's favorite poet is Langston Hughes. He has exquisite taste.