Biltmore

As part of our 4th anniversary, David had gifted me tickets to the Biltmore Estates. Let me just say that I was very glad we went because the day was wonderful, but when we were headed there it didn’t exactly feel like a gift. It felt more like I was being punished for something. (I don’t know what I was being punished for, I was just being punished because I’m Amy and that’s how things seem to go sometimes). I do not, nor will I ever claim to, win the “cool and collected mom” award. In fact, Harrison likely already thinks of me as “crazy lady” and is surprised I have any hair left.

To start things off on the right foot (insert sarcasm), David thought it would only take 3, maybe 3 1/2 hours to get to Asheville. We left close to 5, after intending to leave a little after 4, thinking it would be perfect since Harrison sometimes does/sometimes doesn’t take a late afternoon nap. He would either be content watching cars go by and talking to us or fall asleep. So….. it actually took more around 4 hours and Harrison kind of sort of fell asleep, but way later than he usually does, and then we woke him up when we arrived (after 9). Do NOT ask  me why I took him out of the car while David was getting things set up in our hotel room (that was next to the pool), but I did. Needless to say, that was not my smartest move. So, I’m standing there in the parking lot not knowing where David headed off to, fending off mosquitoes. I can’t sit in the car because it was warm and David had the keys. Harrison is fussing because he’s tired and didn’t know what was going on. We eventually get into the room, and Harrison thinks it’s party time. I mean, we’re someplace new, Truman is there (yes, we brought the dog for some reason), and Harrison is awake. I put him on the bed and he starts bouncing and crawling everywhere and laughing (it’s now 9:30/9:40). We finally get everything situated and get Harrison ready for bed. This is so not the same as when he was only 6 weeks old and immediately fell asleep no matter where we were or what time it was. No, this time Harrison can stand and crawl and he’s aware of his surroundings. Very aware! In not my prettiest moment ever (although likely not my ugliest), I sort of, well – lost it. Harrison didn’t go to sleep until 10:30 or so. A whopping 3 hours later than usual. The air conditioner was loud and kicked on every 45 minutes. I know this because I was awake every 45 minutes. No one else was, thank goodness, but I was. Harrison decided to grace us with his chipper self at 6:30, but fell back to sleep for another 45 minutes, thankfully. Mommy was running on empty.

Saturday was great, though. And I’m being truthful. I mean, my husband and son and dog were all still there. Somehow they had not packed up their things and left crazy lady by herself. They love me, they really do :)! It was ideal weather, Biltmore was beautiful, and Harrison was awesome. He charmed everyone and let Mommy take 100 pictures. He lasted through his first nap and then fell asleep at 12:30 for 2 1/2 hours. David acted like I hadn’t gone temporarily insane the night before and all was restored. First family mini-vacation was a semi-success. Actually, considering, I think it was a major success. But, maybe we should hold off a bit before the next one. What’s that, we’re headed to Charleston in two weeks?

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This one takes the cake…

Birthday cake, that is. This past Friday, I celebrated my 28th birthday. As I would tell David, “You have only 2 more years until you’re 30!” My birthdays are bittersweet since moving to North Carolina for graduate school six years ago. I get excited about them, but also know that I won’t be celebrating with my family. Last year was an exception, and a wonderful one at that. We went home for a week that included gunshots, fireworks, a baby shower, my birthday, and more fireworks. This year was better for one main reason: Harrison was around to celebrate with us :).
The morning started out with David making breakfast and giving me my gifts from Harrison and him. David Harrison made me a great gift

Harrison actually let David trace his hands

and David gave me season tickets to the DPAC for its 3rd season of Broadway Series South shows. I am most excited about Billy Elliot and The Lion King. We went and saw Wicked! in May, and I loved it. I can’t wait to go back to see more shows. David made sure all of our tickets were for Saturday matinees so we wouldn’t be searching for a sitter during the evening each time.
I spent the day with my little man, and then when David got home we had some cake and Moscato. This was the same Moscato we had at our wedding 4 years ago. We all went to dinner at Mizu, where Harrison was very happy to watch all the ladies walking by. He already knows how to get their attention. David had surprised me by getting in touch with some of my friends and arranging for us all to go have some drinks that evening while he stayed home with Harrison. I have such a wonderful husband. And even though it wasn’t at home with all of my family, it was still a most wonderful birthday full of family and friends, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. (Okay, maybe strawberry cake 😉 ).
Here are some more pictures from the day.

Beautiful flowers from David

My 2nd Birthday Cake!

It's not easy to get a posed picture with Harrison

Daddy Knows Best…

at least for one day out of the year. Father’s Day! I already posted here about the Father’s Day craft I Harrison made for his daddy, but that wasn’t the only thing we did for David’s first Father’s Day. No, no, no. Mommy (okay, I realize I constantly do this now; referring to myself in the 3rd person, but it’s because of talking to Harrison all the time and we call each other “Mommy” and “Daddy” in front of him) couldn’t just give Daddy 🙂 some gifts and call it a day. We started the day off right with a breakfast of David’s choosing: french toast with blueberry sauce and whip cream with bacon. He was very nice about the bacon part. I thought I had “real” bacon for him and instead I just had turkey bacon. He ate it and didn’t say a word. I love him so much. After breakfast, he opened up his gifts from Harrison, the onesie and a photo album with pictures of Harrison and David from day 1. Given that I had a plethora to choose from also showed me that I’m frequently the one behind the camera. David had told me this when he mentioned how much searching he had to do for his Mother’s Day slide show, but I didn’t really see for myself until I made the photo album. Oh, and I have to say that I scored on the photo album. Shutterfly sent me an email for a free 20 page 8×10 photo album, and I had a free shipping code. That made the decision a no-brainer. Gotta love being able to give Daddy such wonderful gifts and have the added bonus of almost free for both.
My gift to David was harder to come up with. I know I could’ve given David anything and he would’ve loved it, but I really wasn’t coming up with much. I decided on a Kindle because David reads a lot (magazines, newspapers, blogs, books) and this was a way to condense them all into one nice and doesn’t-take-much-space item. This also helps with the never ending, “Why are your magazines everywhere?! I can’t escape them. They’re on the kitchen table, coffee table, our bathroom counter top…”. I was just putting extra tissue boxes in the downstairs bathroom and discovered a New Yorker from who knows how long ago under the sink. Oh, and as a side note to my lovely husband: Do not tell wife about how you read that the price of said gift went down significantly after she bought it for you. Just sayin’. Did I say how much I love my husband?

To the beach, Batman!

I wish we’d had the Bat mobile to get to the beach last weekend. Our ac was acting finicky in the car, but fortunately, after some stern talking to, it decided to be good for most of the trip. Good thing, too, because with a baby on board, we could not have driven 3 hours without ac in the hot weather. That was pretty much it for the bad news. We spent the entire weekend at North Myrtle Beach with Nana B, Aunt Katie, and Suzette. Suzette use to take care of David and his siblings when they were younger, so she is pretty much family. The funny thing is that until Christmas, we hadn’t seen Suzette since our wedding 4 years ago. Starting with Kevin’s graduation, we’ve now seen her three times (well, David has) in as many weeks. Funny how those things happen.

Anyway, David’s parents rented a condo on the beach for the weekend for all of us to enjoy. We arrived late Friday noon and did some grocery shopping to stock up. Then Katie arrived, and we all enjoyed some bbq. Suzette arrived a little late, so I missed her since I was already asleep. Good thing, too, because Harrison decided he wanted to get an early start Saturday for the beach and woke up at 4 am! He has never done that. I mean, we woke him up for early morning feedings when he was an infant, but I don’t know what got into him that morning. He woke up laughing and on his hands and knees ready to play. David was able to get him back to sleep, but only for 30-40 minutes at a time before he’d wake up again ready to play. I tried to see the bright side of things and tell myself at least he wasn’t crying, but when it’s that early, those kinds of thoughts aren’t much consolation. Eventually, it was 7:15, so we drank coffee just woke up. We took Harrison out for his first beach experience after breakfast before it got too hot. This was relative since it was already humid enough that my camera lens fogged up.

Harrison wasn’t entirely sure what to think, and it didn’t take long since he was ready for a nap (maybe that’s because he woke up at 4; not entirely sure). We were back out there again, though, after lunch for another dip in the ocean and playing on the beach.

Putting our toes in the sand

Not so sure about the water

Hanging out with Daddy

Mommy time

After some fun beach time, we got ready for dinner at Duffy’s. Not the first place I would’ve picked, but the food was great. The drink wasn’t too bad, either ;). After Harrison was down for the count, we enjoyed some yummy margaritas (Thanks, Michele for that recipe. It was 2 years ago, but everyone I make it for loves it!) and good conversation. Mommy hadn’t stayed up that late in a long time, and Harrison was happy to let her know that was a bad idea by waking up at 6:30 this time. Better than the previous day, but still not 7:30/8 per usual.

Sunday morning we headed out early for a family walk on the beach and seashell collecting. We wanted to have some souvenirs from Harrison’s first trip to the beach. That afternoon we headed to the Tanger Outlets for some shopping before heading back home. Nana B spoiled us all. You can’t pass up cute baby clothes, though. Harrison did great on the ride home, and he was definitely ready for bedtime in his own room. I think we bother him just as much as he bothers Mommy us when we sleep in the same room. He was out before I could lay him down and slept until David woke him the next morning. It was a short, but very fun beach weekend.

The Hoosier State

Last weekend we flew into Indiana to spend the weekend with David’s family and attend his younger brother’s, Kevin, graduation from DePauw University. It was a fun, albeit , short weekend. We flew in Friday night and left Sunday late afternoon. David headed to the Indy polls with his dad and Kevin Saturday morning, while Nancy and I played with Harrison in the hotel room before Katie and Suzette arrived.

We all had lunch together and then headed to a park for a nice walk.  After that we had to get ready for an awesome dinner at St. Elmo’s Steakhouse. Man oh man, that was some good eating. We all had their famous shrimp cocktail to start and then I ordered the filet mignon with mashed potatoes and a shot of tomato juice. For dessert, David and I shared the chocolate and cherry bread pudding with a bourbon-cream glaze.

On Sunday we had a nice brunch on campus before Kevin’s graduation and then had some time to take some photos. I certainly jumped at the chance to use my new camera. Here are some group shots and graduation shots.

Kevin with Nancy and Katie

Kevin with Suzette (left) and Nancy and Katie (right)

The whole gang

Kevin with Mike and Nancy

Us with the grad

Family shot

The university president speaking

Kevin walking across the stage

“Happy First Mother’s Day, Mommy”

… read my first ever Mother’s Day card from our son. And let me tell you, it was a tear jerker. Not that it would’ve taken much to make me cry reading a card from our son on Mother’s Day, but then David went and picked out a card that held a photo. David picked a photo of me holding Harrison while he slept. David also made a movie/slide show of Harrison’s first six months. He has now surpassed me in his ability to use iMovie (not that I’ve played around with it a lot). The funny thing is that I was just telling him we should figure out how to make a menu screen on a dvd so we could make one for our parents. He read my mind. He seems to do that a lot, and quite frankly it’s very freaky.

the "tear jerker" photo

I guess I should rewind and tell you how my first Mother’s Day began. David didn’t make it a surprise he was going to treat me to breakfast in bed because he wanted to know what I wanted on my special day. So it all began with a delicious omelet and whole grain toast with coffee. We ate together while Harrison entertained himself in his bouncer. Yep, David made the trek upstairs with it and put it in our room. After breakfast, I got to open my cards and gifts from my parents and David and Harrison. Now, the sweet card and movie would have certainly been enough, but David went and surprised me with a digital SLR. It’s a Nikon D3000. He even got me two lenses and told me I could pick out my own case (he knows me too well). I was very excited. I love my Sony Cybershot, but it’s 5 years old and I can only back up so much to get a good photo. I will still use that one when we’re just out and about and I want to just stick a camera in my purse. It is truly amazing the difference a camera makes. Here are just a few pictures I’ve taken already. Note: they are all of Harrison and will likely all include Harrison in the future.

The wonderful day didn’t stop there. After lunch, we headed to the beautiful seminary downtown and walked around the campus before landing at a la mode to enjoy some yummy gelato. Even though Harrison didn’t really nap at this time, he was a wonderful little man and enjoyed the beautiful day with us. He didn’t last long past his 3:30 feeding, though, and took a long nap. We capped the day off with a wonderful dinner: barbecue ribs with homemade sauce, hot German potato salad, cucumbers and onions, and corn on the cob. Mmm, mmm, mmm. I could not have asked for a better day. I’m not sure how Harrison and I are going to top it for Father’s Day. I know that’s not the point, but my boys outdid themselves.

Mommy, Wow! I’m a big kid now.

Our little man is 22 weeks; quickly approaching 23. So this blog post is more than a little past due. I posted after his 2 month check-up on his development, but have failed to post about him in detail since. Well, let me tell you, Harrison is a growing boy in all areas. At his 4-month well-check he was 15 lbs, 4.5 oz and 25.5″ tall. I imagine he’s bigger than that now, but not sure how much bigger.
I will try to follow what I wrote last time with a few additions.
1.) The hair: definitely more present, but that little bald patch is staying strong. It’s stubborn and doesn’t want to leave yet even though little man is moving all the time and barely laying down unless asleep.
2.) The eyes are blue! I realize it can take a long time for eye pigment to truly stabilize, but David’s mom, a pediatrician, told us we can likely expect for those baby blues to remain.

3.) Baby boy continues to be a good sleeper. We definitely have our challenges (rolling over, squirming out of swaddle, congestion), but for the most part, we are napping 2x/day for 2 hrs/nap and sleeping 11-12 hours at night. We did have to put a bumper pad in because our little Houdini would hook his feet behind a crib spindle and flip himself over and spin around. Quite a sight, let me tell you! Plus, we felt bad letting him try to work it out only to discover 10 minutes later that he was pressed up against his crib. It made us feel like a bad mommy and daddy. I was a little worried at first because he slept so soundly without any issue immediately after we put it in, I had to go check to make sure he hadn’t pressed his face into the bumper pad.
4.) Harrison was just rocking when I last posted an update on him. He has since been rolling over from tummy to back and back to tummy. He started rolling over tummy to back at the beginning of February and consistently rolling the other way since late March. Now, I find him off his mat and halfway to the kitchen in the blink of an eye. It’s crazy how much he moves.
5.) Jump up, jump up, and get down: We got Harrison a jumper almost a month ago after his sitter told us he was enjoying the one at her house. She said he would even start moving up and down in her arms in anticipation of being put in the jumper. He gets better in it each week. We don’t need a pillow in front of him anymore to stabilize him and keep him from leaning forward too much and he rotates at times to reach other items around him.
6.) Head control is awesome. Harrison can sit in his booster and eat with his head straight up and he holds his head up while sitting supported to look around. We place him forward in his carrier and can sit him up in his stroller without placing him in his car seat. Little man loves to look around and see the world.
7.) Jibber jabber: Harrison is doing all kinds of things with his voice and mouth. He smiles all the time and laughs! He does this in response to us or initiates to get our attention. The best is when he smiles big when he sees us come in the room. Love it! He really watches our mouths, and we see him move his lips and tongue trying to imitate us.
8.) Harrison is noticing different textures. When we were home over Easter, he kept stroking both grandpas’ facial hair and would pull on beards. Speaking of pulling… Harrison is grasping, pinching and pulling. Pulling hair, glasses, and earrings and pinching anything that fits between his fingers. The neck pinches aren’t too pleasant.
9.) Harrison is a full-fledged solid eater! He loves him some food. Here is a list of what he is eating now (besides still nursing): applesauce, bananas, pears, prunes, sweet potatoes, carrots, vegetable medley (carrot, potato, peas, corn), rice cereal/oatmeal, and blueberries with bananas. He started on Gerber and Earth’s Best organics, and I just started making his food myself. I keep thinking I’m getting ahead and making a lot, but I’m just keeping up. An example of my big eater’s appetite: Yesterday he took 10 oz of milk with cereal and applesauce in the morning; 9 oz of milk with cereal and applesauce plus carrots at lunch; nursed and had two things of carrots at 4, and then slowed down and had 6 oz of milk and some pears for dinner. Whew!
Harrison constantly changes, and we are trying hard to take lots of pictures and videos to document everything. We don’t want to miss anything. It’s such a joy watching him grow, but it all happens so quickly. He goes for his 6-month well check in just a few short weeks, so I’ll let you know what he weighs and how tall he is then.

Love is in the air…

Today is Valentine’s Day, and it was wonderful. It may sound cheesy, but it’s always better celebrating a holiday (Hallmark-created or not) with a new addition. I will even make a big deal about Harrison’s first St. Patrick’s Day. Deal with it :)!
It all began with some mommy-baby bonding time before I embarked on making buttermilk waffles with blueberry sauce and real whipped cream. Yummy :p. I even indulged in some caffeinated hazelnut coffee. Woo-hoo! The waffles with some bacon was delightful.
After breakfast and some family time, Mommy had to go finish some shopping. I found the cutest baby laptop from Sassy that has a mirror for a screen and color buttons. The power button changes modes to rhyme, play musical notes, or say the colors in English or Spanish. Textures, sound, fine motor skills…therapist likey :). Yes, it’s more appropriate for a few months from now, but Mommy and Daddy can operate it for Harrison now, and it’s never too early to expose him to color names. Plus, we can do some hand-over-hand manipulation.
We opened Harrison’s cards and gifts from family and us this afternoon. Only a baby would get so much on Valentine’s Day. He got some great books from both grandparents, as well as a cute outfit (babies always need more clothes). Harrison also got to see and talk to both sets of grandparents. He broke his vow of silence with Grandpa and Grandma Keith and did some talking.
David made a delicious dinner of Steak Diane with braised Belgian endive. For dessert we had organic yellow cake with dark chocolate ganache and fresh berries. Harrison helped us out by taking a good nap (which is rare at this time, lately).
It was the best Valentine’s so far, and we know it will only get better now that we have our little man to celebrate with. There’s nothing like celebrating your love for your family.