Heating Up in Houston

It is really warming up here lately and by warming up I mean the humidity is back! We are trying to make the best of it by spending more time at the pool and finding fun things to do inside as well. We have been to our splashpad just about every day. Last Tuesday our playgroup took a field trip downtown to Discovery Green. Harrison loves all the water fountains to play in. Unfortunately there was a school field trip too so there were tons of kids. Of course, that wasn't going to stop Harrison from getting right in the middle of it all.
Love the little swagger in the walk!We also went to a friend's birthday party at another splash park and had a good time. I think this was Harrison's first real birthday party for a friend and he loved it (too bad I didn't get any pictures).


We also rediscovered a favorite past time. Harrison loves stickers and while I was trying to find things to keep him busy on the airplane next week, he found his Thomas stickers. We spent a few hours with these (before I took them away so we would have some for the airplane still!)


And this was his "Mommy, take my picture" face.
This week Harrison and I also got much needed haircuts. I got almost 5 inches cut off (my hair was getting too long!) and it is still below my shoulders. Harrison just needed a trim and the way his hair grows in the back, makes it look like a rat tail, so we needed to take care of that. Next time I will take a picture before I cut it off! It is pretty bad, but easy to fix. He spent the rest of the week telling people he got a haircut and a Popsicle. If he sits still for his haircut, he gets a treat, it is a win win!

This week Harrison and I also are going on an adventure. We will be flying the Chicago, spending some time in Wisconsin and visiting some old friends and new babies. I am excited to see family and my little sister who just graduated from High School. It should be a fun two weeks. Until then...

The last 2 random weeks

Well, after declaring Mother's Day a holiday, I didn't blog. Then our internet was out this week and then blogger went down this week, so now I have 2 weeks of blogging. Luckily, we haven't been too busy. Last week, we laid pretty low and did our normal stuff. It was pretty nice out all week so we planned a trip to the zoo on Friday and had a good time.
We watched the elephants take their baths (always a favorite). Side note...Harrison is potty trained now but still is not a fan of pooping on the potty. He says it makes him bum hurt (poor boy) and yes we have done everything to help that. I think it is mostly an excuse. But the elephants have poop in their cages and his comment is "the elephants bum hurt and they poop. All better mommy?" So sweet! He loves those elephants.

The African Forest is fun too. We caught it on a not so busy day so Harrison enjoyed the huts (aka caves), the drums and the animals. The chimps put on a nice show for us and taught Harrison how to clap with his feet.
This is my attempt at being in a picture, while holding him up on the giraffe fence and hoping he doesn't slip and fall 10 feet down the other side! But proof that we are there together!
Checking out the lions.
Then mother's day came and went without a single picture (I guess we know who takes all the pictures). I even had Jeff take pictures of me and Harrison and when I went back today to find them, the SD card was not in my camera, so no pictures! Oh-well, it was an awesome day of breakfast in bed, a surprise present (they got me a Kindle!), church, a nap and plenty of time to relax and spend time as a family and even some time to talk to each of our moms. Jeff did all the cooking, cleaning of dishes and even folded all the laundry on Saturday as a Happy Mother's Day Eve. My Mother's day was awesome.
Then this week we decided to take advantage of $1 Tuesdays at the Baseball park. The Reds were in town and it was a slow starting game (The Reds made it 6-0 by the second inning) but then it picked up.
A sucker to get us through the first few innings.
Popcorn to get us through the rest.
This week I also got to see a dear friend of mine achieve her goal of going to the temple. It was a beautiful day and I loved the opportunity to be in the temple last Tuesday with her. We also got to spend some time visiting, since she lives internationally right now.

Then Friday we made another trip to the zoo because Jeff had the morning off work. It was a great time and Harrison got to show Daddy some of his favorite things. It has been a fun couple of weeks and I look forward to the next few as summer comes closer...look out pool, here we come! And no swim diapers. As mentioned potty training has been really good and we even have him in underwear at night. No major accidents in weeks! Yea for big boy underwear!

New Discoveries

Harrison found Jeff's hammer this week and after a serious talk about hammers, I found him his own little mallet to use. He loves it and we try to only hammer things outside.
He even found a nice way to hold it since he doesn't have a cool tool belt yet. (but the boots are very handy)
We were supposed to camp again this weekend, but because of illness and other factors, we decided to make it a Saturday trip. So, with Friday night open, we packed a little dinner and played at the park. Harrison loves this park and it has been a while since Daddy was able to come with us.

Then we headed out Saturday morning for Lake Livingston State Park. The plan was to spend some time fishing (a first for Harrison) and then walk some trails and take Harrison's 2 1/2 year pictures. Someone was up too early! Notice Woody and Buzz in one hand and a handful of bait fish in the other.
He was ready to go when we got there. He was quite a natural with the pole and slowly reeling it in. When that didn't work he would call "here fishy, fishy, fishy". I'm surprised it didn't work. We spent a few hours fishing...
and fishing...
and we caught nothing. No one fishing seemed to have much luck. It was an expensive trip too because Harrison dumped most of Jeff's tackle box in the water and most of it sunk and then we lost a lot of hooks and bobbers fishing in the coves. Oh well, Harrison had a good time.
He enjoyed sitting in the grass and watching Ducks, birds, turtles and water snakes. We even had a run in with a few ant hills and Jeff and Harrison have the bites to prove it!
Then after a nice lunch, we headed out to a trail with a butterfly garden, duck pond and bird feeders. We found lizards and all sorts of things along the way. The trail was great and we later found out it was like this to keep people out of the insane amount of poison ivy in the woods. Good thing we listened and stayed on the trail!
We did get some great pictures of Harrison. I'll post those later after I have a chance to mess around with them a little. All in all, our camping trip turned day trip was a success and I got to sleep comfortably in my own bed. How wonderful!

Boxers or Briefs?

With this little one I guess the answer is briefs. At least that is what he picked out for potty training! And the last 2 weeks have gone very well. With the occasional accident (usually involving #2) we have done really well. He is in underwear all day (even naps) and then wears a diaper at night. But most mornings has woken up dry. Usually about 6:30 he starts yelling "I gotta go Potty!" We have been able to make several outings and have always found a bathroom to use. It has been fairly easy and a good experience for all of us! We are almost out of diapers and just in time for swimming all summer!
Sporting the Buzz underwear...he picked out a package of Disney underwear. Surprise, surprise!