Fall & Winter Update

Well, hello there! I guess you could say I took a little maternity leave from the blog. We've had a busy and exciting four months around here so let's just get right to it!

Harrison's Newborn Photo Shoot
Here are some of my favorites - he was just one week old!

Harrison's Sip N See
My mom and sister threw a beautiful Sip N See for Harrison at our home. He charmed all the women as he was passed around from one admirer to the next.

Halloween
Mason asked to be an astronaut this year and we made Harrison his little rocket ship. We attended two fun neighborhood parties, a party at the Y, a class party, and of course Halloween night.

Class Party

Halloween night and Y event. Sean carved the cool rocket ship pumpkin and multi-tasked while handing out candy and wearing Harrison!

Soccer
Mason guest played for the soccer team that a lot of his friends are on. How cute is he in that little uniform?  You could barely see his knees!

OSU 
My parents took Mason to an OSU football game in October. My brother is the marching band director there and hooked them up with a suite and access to all the band events. When OSU reached the Cotton Bowl, Doug was able to get his hands on some extra tickets and Sean and Mason were able to go, along with my parents, grandma, Brian and Matthew.

Mason had a blast this weekend with my parents and brother at an OSU homegame while Sean and I enjoyed time alone with our two week old.

Top picture is Brian, Doug and Sean at the Cotton Bowl. Bottom pictures are from the October game and the Cotton Bowl. Mason took identical pictures with these twirlers!

Harrison's Check-Ups 

Harrison is now 4 1/2 months. He's still a tiny guy, but is charting perfectly from his size at birth. We haven't seen any blisters on his hands or feet in several months now, so we're hoping that was just a weird newborn thing that is gone forever! He's such a happy little fella and has the cutest chuckle. He finds Mason more entertaining than any toy and Mason has a blast trying to get a laugh out of him. He rolls from front to back and almost can make it from the back to front, but a darn arm keeps getting in the way. He chats all day long to whoever will listen! He can sleep an 8 hour stretch (last night we got 11!), but isn't consistent about it. We're definitely missing our sleep, but he's otherwise a great baby so we can't complain too much. I've got a pretty good schedule down with him during the day which helps everyone in the house know what to expect next. Thankfully Sean is home most nights in time for bath which is so helpful. He takes over Harrison's bath while I bathe Mason, then we switch and I nurse Harrison while he reads books to Mason. Here's a sampling of Harrison's schedule on a perfect day (which rarely happens!):

7:00/7:30 - wake up and nurse

7:30-8:45 - play (bouncy seat during breakfast and then playmat with Mason and Mommy)

8:45 - nap

10:15 - wake and eat

11-1:30 - venture out and about with Mason and me. He takes a nap in his carseat most days during this time

1:30 - wake and eat

2:00-3:00 - play with Mommy while Mason naps

3:00 - nap

4:30 - wake and eat

5:00-6:45 - play around the house with Mason and me (sometimes he catches a 15 minute snooze in his swing while I prepare Mason's dinner)

6:45 - bath

7:00 - nurse and bed

we quit doing the 10:00pm dream feed and noticed that he wakes less when we let him wake on his own (as opposed to waking him for that feed). He wakes once in the middle of the night to eat, and anywhere from zero to three more times and will cry for a bit before going back to sleep.

His stats at his 2 and 4 month check-ups:

2 months

Weight: 9 lbs., 5.2 oz. (10%)

Length: 22 1/2" (25%)

4 months

Weight: 11 lbs., 11 oz. (5%)

Length: 25"(50%)

He's healthy, happy, and makes us feel complete. We love you so much, sweet Harrison!

Family Pictures

We had a little photo session back in November to capture our family of four for our Christmas cards. It was a 20 minute mini-session with my friend Ashli at Artsy Magnet. We're very pleased with how they turned out!

Thanksgiving

My parents hosted Thanksgiving at their house, and once again, impressed with a fabulous spread. We had a wonderful time being with family during a year that we are oh so thankful for. We were busy enjoying each other and didn't snap many pics of the whole day but managed to get a couple at the end.

Mason Turns Three

My next post will be dedicated to Mason's third birthday, so I won't go into a whole lot of detail here. I can't believe the boy that made me a momma is already three! He has filled our lives with so much love and excitement and continues to make us laugh every day. We had family over to celebrate the weekend before his birthday, and lucked out with some beautiful weather before our ice storm for a weekday construction party with his friends at the park. Happy third (plus two months) birthday, Mason!

Ranch Weekend

Caroline and Mark hosted us for another awesome weekend at their ranch in South Texas. There were four families there with their kiddos and we all had a blast. The kids got along great and the adults enjoyed relaxing by the campfire, indulging in good food and drinks, exploring the property, and watching the kids play.

Christmas 2013
Oh boy was the Christmas season fun this year. We were as busy as ever celebrating and it was twice as nice with two sweet boys to share memories with. Mom & Dad R came in town from Seattle the week of Christmas and it was so nice having them here, as always. We hosted our annual Christmas Eve dinner and spent Christmas morning at home opening gifts from Santa before getting together with everyone at my parents house for more gifts and Christmas dinner. I have way too many pictures of all the things we did this season so I tried to narrow it down to just some of my favorites (somehow I didn't get any from the celebration at my parents house but there are plenty more!). I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Visiting Santa! Mason walked up to Santa, shook his hand, and told him he had heard him ringing the doorbell earlier that week to tell Mommy he was watching. Santa confirmed that yes, it was him (and not the UPS man). Then Mason told him he wanted a trolley, which Santa had a very hard time finding!

Christmas Eve at our house

Santa came! He brought Mason an easel and the much anticipated Trolley. Not pictured: Harrison's musical globe from Santa.

I adore the picture on the left of Harrison and Dad R. Mason is trying out his new doctor kit on Mom R, who is a nurse, and Harrison is cooing and flirting with my grandma on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning in front of the tree! Harrison got a tiny trolley too, as you can see in the top R pic.

My cuties being cute in their Christmas morning stripes. The serious top L pic cracks me up.

More Christmas Day

OK that just about brings us up to speed! Like I mentioned, I'm going to put a post together all about Mason being three. I also have a ton of pictures from my phone that I want to put on here from the past four months. Whew!

Harrison Scott Robison

This post is a little delayed, but as everyone knows, Harrison Scott Robison has arrived! He's been here for a little over six weeks now and I truly can't imagine life without him. We are so lucky to be his parents. I had no idea the heart was capable of growing this huge and feeling this fierce of a love, TWICE. We love our two boys so much it consumes me at times and is almost hard to handle. I get a dizzy, butterfly-in-the-stomach feeling several times throughout the day when I think of how blessed we are.

Mason has taken on his new role as big brother like a champ. When he came to meet Harrison in the hospital we made sure Harrison wasn't in the room when Mason walked in so that Mason didn't feel like he was walking into a new family. That step ended up not being necessary as the first thing out of his mouth was "where's baby Parrison?" After he opened his big brother gift full of things to occupy him in the hospital, we brought Harrison in and witnessed an immediate bond. Mason got this look of love in his eye that I've never seen from him before and he was constantly hugging and kissing Harrison. That love continues now, which is usually really sweet, except for when Harrison is sleeping and Mason wants to see his eyes open. We've had several talks about how Harrison needs his sleep and we need to be a little more considerate. :)

Harrison's delivery went off without a hitch and my recovery has gone really well. We got to the hospital at 2:00 and had a baby in our arms at 4:40! As much as I struggled with the idea of having a scheduled c-section, I am glad that everything went so well and everyone is healthy. I was up and walking on day two and reduced my pain meds then too because I don't respond well to those and kept getting sick. The second we took that IV out I started feeling better!

Ok, now for the good stuff! Our sweet Harrison was  born on Tuesday, September 17 at 4:40 pm weighing 6 lbs, 11 oz, and was 19" long. He is a bundle of dark-haired perfection and has the most captivating, soulful eyes. His disposition in the hospital (and still now), was very calm. He doesn't really cry unless it's for one of the obvious reasons. He loves to be cuddled and loves snoozing in people's arms. He's so opposite from Mason's red-headed hospital personality that I had to ask the nurses if it was ok for him to be so sleepy and quiet! They assured me that Harrison was fine and said it sounded like Mason was maybe the anomaly. :)

On day two of Harrison's life we noticed a pretty nasty blister on one of his feet. We figured it was from rubbing or sucking in the womb and didn't think much of it. Then the next day we noticed the blisters had spread pretty rapidly over both feet so we clued the nurse in. It puzzled the nurses, pediatrician, and neonatal doctor. A pediatric dermatologist was consulted and an educated guess was made that he has Epidermolysis Bullosa, a rare connective tissue disease causing blisters in the skin. Most people have a protein between their epidermis and dermis, but that protein is missing in people with EB, and there's nothing they can take to replace it. Just a slight rub of the skin will cause a blister and adults who have it describe it as feeling like a third degree burn. Obviously we were very nervous, confused, worried, and saddened by this news (if you google it you'll see why we were scared!). The next week we took him to actually visit the pediatric dermatologist and she downgraded his diagnosis to Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex, or EBS, because it appears to be localized to his hands and feet (thank goodness!). We came home with marching orders on how to treat him (a daily ritual he does NOT like at all), and are so thrilled to say that we have not seen any severe blisters in about three weeks now. What a relief. We learned that this is a genetic disorder and Sean's sister's two daughters also had it as babies (it occurs in 1 out of 30,000-50,000 births so this was no coincidence!). In both Anna and Ella's cases it went away by 10 weeks of age and they learned they had been misdiagnosed - turns out they have epidermal fragility, or fragile skin. Our fingers are crossed the same news will come for Harrison! We're hopeful that it will given how mild it's been the past few weeks.

Here are some pictures from our hospital stay. I'll update the blog about life since then but it would be too long of a post to include all that now! Just know that he's thriving and growing perfectly!

We love our little boy so much are are so happy to have him in this world with us.

Sweet little love

Last moments as a family of three!

He's here!

Meeting BeBe & Papa

Mason meeting his BFF

I loved all the quality alone time I got with him in the hospital

My friend Ashli showed up and snapped some pictures when Harrison was just 18 hours old.

Getting to know his family

We're home!

Taking in his new surroundings

Our family of four

Harrison's Nursery

Just in the nick of time, Harrison's skyline nursery is ready for his arrival! As I mentioned in a previous post, we kept the room, furniture and layout the same as Mason's nursery, but changed the bedding, colors and accessories. My absolute favorite part is the skyline backdrop Sean built for behind the crib. It floats away from the wall and is backlit, so acts like a nightlight when it's dark. It is such a unique gift from Sean to Harrison and I can't walk by the room without stopping to look at it. Mason thinks it's pretty cool and I hope Harrison comes to appreciate it as well! These boys sure are lucky to have a father with such a cool hobby. Mason loved helping Sean in the garage over the past couple of weekends and both of them added a little freestyle message to the back when the project was done. All my boys make me so happy!

Cute prints from an Etsy shop

Personalized details

Bookshelf corner (Mason has three shelves full of books - he'll have to share some to get Harrison's tiny little collection growing!)

Mobile and changing area

Sean's handiwork. I can't seem to get a good picture of how the backlight looks when it's otherwise completely dark. Still learning our camera after four years! 

Can't wait to meet this little guy!

Harrison's nursery on top, Mason's on bottom. They look so similar  but there have been so many changes! The paint colors don't photograph well but we did change the walls from a blue to a gray. In an ideal world, I'd have a new rug for Harrison's nursery, but we love this rug and don't have another room for it so it's staying! Maybe curtains in the future, too.

Bye Bye Summer

I have three posts I've been wanting to do about Mason: one about his summer adventures, one about all his new skills, and one about his first day back to school. With my free time about to be stolen by a new love, I decided to wrap them all into one post, so it's a little long!

We had such a busy and exciting summer around here! Mason really seemed to grow up since May and amazes us daily with the things he knows, remembers, and learns. Over the past few months he's learned the ABC's (that may have actually been in the spring), identifies most of his letters and can spell his name, counts backwards from 10 (and up to 20), sings nursery rhymes in entirety (sometimes teaching me the words!), rides his trike around the block, reads his books to himself (if he doesn't have the words memorized or it's a new book, he makes the words up based off the pictures), has become so imaginative and creative in his play, focuses for longer periods of time, and understands reasoning and logic more than ever! visit the blog online to see the video below, therobisonroundup.blogspot.com 

He loves to play with legos and create little worlds with them (his favorite is building rocket ships for blast off and a blue whale with a waterfall and swimming pool), still loves garbage trucks, dump trucks, and basically any truck he can load things into and then dump out, thoroughly enjoys painting and coloring both inside and out (crayons are a staple in my purse for restaurants, etc.), checks his 'train schedule' and let's me know when he needs to pick passengers up, then proceeds to create the whole scenario on the train track, LOVES working with tools and helping Daddy in the garage, and just says the funniest things. One thing Sean and I find adorable is how formal he speaks. If we ask him if he'd like to do something he'll respond with "Yes, I would like to         ". Or he'll say "Mommy, can I please have some milk?". It's so sweet and I'm glad he's picking up some good verbal habits! I overheard him go up to a friend at school and say "Hi Hud, it's so good to see you!". Don't be fooled, he still has his moments, but we really enjoy hearing him speak like this. A personal favorite that he said at lunch after spending time with the young-ish female childcare workers at the Y: "Hey girlfriend, these chips are spicy!". He doesn't meet a stranger, and says hello to just about everyone. If we introduce him to someone, he walks right up and shakes their hand. Little politician. :)

His thoughts are much more complete and he speaks in paragraphs to us. Sean had a work dinner last night and when I was putting Mason to bed he asked where Daddy was. I told him he had to work late and that he'd be here in the morning and Mason said "Daddy goes to work, parks down low in the parking garage, takes an elevator up really, really high, then goes back down. I see him in morning, yay!". He's spot on with Sean's path to work, and must think he has a blast at the office all day riding elevators up and down. :)

At the beginning of the summer I made a long list of things I wanted to do with Mason and as of last week, I had crossed everything off! We went swimming more times than I can count at various pools and friends houses, checked out several splash pads, ventured to new parks and playgrounds, frequented the library and book stores, took advantage of a 'cool' day (high of 92) to explore the Arboretum, learned about fish and fed stingrays at the Children's Aquarium, had a blast finally visiting Dallas' new Perot Museum (we will be back A LOT), went to a Children's Summer Series movie for the first time (let's just say I'm glad this was only $1 as he lasted about half the time), visited a nearby Farm Market Store called Ham Orchards, got some energy out at open gym at the neighborhood rec center, and had many playdates with his friends!

Swim playdate at his friend Jeff's house with Hadley, Jeff, Kennedy and Emily. The mommies enjoyed ourselves too! Four of the five ladies pictured are pregnant - we were sipping on some yummy summer mocktails!

Playing in the backyard with Daddy

Checking out Farm Market store Ham Orchards

Ham Orchards with BeBe and Madison

Hanging out at the park and at open gym at the rec center

Clockwise from Top L: Playing at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital playground (side-note: I was a patient here as a child for scoliosis), exploring the creek with Sean, a refreshing summer snack for me while Mason plays at his water table, and enjoying a popsicle.

Clockwise from Top L: Snow cone at the pool, first dentist appt (he did great!), playing at an awesome waterpark with the kiddos of some of my sorority friends, and story time and movement at the library.

Left: He loves waterfalls! Top R: Finger painting outside. Bottom R: Finishing off some ice cream after a family date night.

At the Arboretum with Kennedy

Looking at lobsters and fish at the Children's Aquarium

Checking out the sharks and stingrays, then walking around Fair Park

Visiting the Perot Museum last week. We went with his friends Jeff and Emily but snapping a picture of three busy toddlers together is near impossible!

Kicking a beach ball in the backyard. I love the follow through in the bottom right pic!

He started back up at preschool last week and jumped right back in without missing a beat. He's in the Older 2's class this year and will tell you that he goes on Tuesday and Thursday to see Ms. Laura and play with the big tweezers (his favorite toy there, random!). It's amazing to see how far he's come since he started a year ago, and I know I'll be blown away again this year. He goes from 9-12 two days a week and his daily agenda is similar to last year: library, music & movement, playground, art, snack and free play. When he's fully potty trained we'll send him to lunch bunch which extends his stay until 2:00 and includes lunch and more free play. We don't want to send him now, because when they're not potty trained, they're sent to the younger lunch bunch class that is required to take a nap. I'd rather him take a full nap at home after school than a 20 minute up there, so we'll wait until he can go to the big room!

First day of preschool 2013, Older 2's class

Handsome boy on his first day

We planted this tree last October and like to take pictures of him in front of it to see how they both grow. And I love his sweet laugh in the picture with Sean!

Playing with those darn tweezers and coloring an M on his first day in Ms. Laura's Corral class!

Comparison to last year. Boy has he grown! 

Left side is this year, Right side is last year

In baby news, we have between one and two weeks to go! Ahhhh!

This boy is getting BIG!

Mason is at such a fun age and I loved every moment of our adventurous summer. He still takes plenty of time to cuddle with me. Every morning he climbs in bed with us and snuggles in to watch a cartoon before we start our day. I hope this continues for a long time to come!