Life is busy, my free time lately is precious, and as a result, the blog needs some major love (plus our internet was out for a while so that didn't help). There are so many things I want to document on here from our summer, and I will, but for now I'm focusing on Harrison's 1st Birthday!!! This was and still is a very emotional event for me. I just can't believe my baby is one. We've had so many incredible memories with him over the past year and I know there are so many more ahead.
Harrison is an absolute joy. He is ALWAYS happy. He's busy, but has the most mild disposition. He only cries when he's truly hurt, or when his feelings get hurt (that's the cutest thing to watch because he just puts his head down and cries). He eats like a champ and his weight has gone from being in the less than 5% at 6 months to the 70% at one year.
Harrison at one year:
Loves: cars (favorite toy by far), balls, blocks, knocking things down, playing with his brother, books (this took a while, but much to our pleasure he likes books now), Gymboree, watching/playing with our dog Hazel, eating, constantly moving, imitating funny noises, making people laugh, shaking his head back and forth, going on walks, playing outside, and just life in general.
Doesn't Love: being redirected (he is always going for the wine glasses, trash cans, and Mason's toilet that he doesn't always flush), sitting still, and I honestly can't think of anything else. Really, he's just so darn happy all the time.
Sleeps: 12 hours at night (7:30-7:30), and two naps in the day ranging from 1.5-2 hours each
Eats: Four 8 oz. bottles of whole milk and three meals a day. Every meal contains at least a color (fruit or vegetable), carb, and protein. Other foods are also offered but I always make sure those three areas are covered. He loves meat. If I put that down first he'll fill up and won't eat anything else. We spent the week after his birthday transitioning to whole milk and are staring the process of switching to sippy cups from bottles. He drinks his water out of sippy cups so hopefully he'll start taking his milk out of one with no issues.
Says: Mama, Baba (brother), Dada, and other cute baby babbles. Ba stands for a lot of things. We're pretty sure he's saying something along the lines of "doggie" when he sees Hazel. He imitates noises and tries to bark, sound like the vacuum, and squeal like Mason when he's excited.
Stats:
Weight: 22.4 (70%)
Length: 30" (50%)
Head: 18.25 (50%)
He's very mobile through crawling and hasn't started walking yet. He walks behind push toys and along furniture, and can stand for a little on his own. I bet we have a month or two before walking is his primary form of transportation.
We just love this boy so much. Mason calls him his baby and is such a wonderful big brother. He is very protective of him and always wants to play with him. If Harrison is playing with something that Mason doesn't want him to (usually Mason's trains or big boy cars/trucks), Mason will bring him an alternative toy before taking the other away. I let them work these situations out on their own and they are both generally pleased during playtime without my interference.
We had a "Little Squirt" birthday party for him at our house. A random cold front come through and kids showed up in Uggs instead of swimsuits - so the water activities we had planned didn't really work out but the party was still great! My Aunt Patsy made some adorable cookies that were almost more of a hit at the party than Harrison was himself. He enjoyed his smash cake and had a great time playing with his friends.
Harrison, we just love you more than words can say. You fill our lives with joy and make us feel so complete. I can't imagine a day without you and we feel so lucky to be your parents. You make us so proud already and are so fun to watch. Happy 1st Birthday, my love!
Click this link to see a video of his first year in pictures. Make sure you watch until the end to see Mason's sweet contribution.
http://youtu.be/71Nh_OmCgkg
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| Harrison's monthly pictures. He's grown so much! I wish I knew more about photography and could've made the coloring more consistent in these. Not sure why month 2 is so yellow! |
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| Aunt Patsy's beautiful cookies for the party! |
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| Party decorations |
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| Time to party! |
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| Clockwise from Top L: Me and my prepsters, my mom and Aunt Patsy, my sister, mom, aunt, and I, and Aunt Jen Jen with her chunk! |
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| Our sweet guy was passed around from one admirer to the next! |
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| Cake! He took a second to explore it, and then attacked it! |
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| My parents with the birthday boy on top, my nephew Matthew on bottom right |
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| He decided on his own it was time to crawl in and wash all that cake off. ;) |
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| Happy 1st Birthday, Harrison! |
