No baby?

   So this is my big weekend. It will be my first weekend without Harrison since he was born. I'm nervous, I'm anxious, I'm overwhelmed. Okay it's not like he'll be alone or that I'll be gone long. I'm off on my Vegas birthday trip and he's going to spend the weekend with Daddy for a boy's weekend. Of course, I'm not in bed yet, and of course, I have a million things to tell Adam so he gets it right. I'm not worried. Adam does everything he's supposed to do when he's supposed to do it. But, you know, I just like to make sure...

Hanging out with Daddy is FUN!

   With that, I'm off to Sin City with one of my best friends! I'm hoping to win big and eat bigger:0) What a great way to start the birthday countdown to THIRTY!
~Emily

Always be prepared!

   First of all, can you believe it? I went one whole week without an entry. To be honest, nothing exciting has really happened... Anyway, today's theme is "Always be prepared." (I that's also the Boy Scout's motto, right?) So I'm sure we all have that one funny story about that one day where everything crazy that could happen did. That was yesterday for me. Here it goes.
   Harrison had his first Plaza Art Fair experience yesterday. We brought our friend Karla and planned to meet up with some others. I had the stroller and reloaded all the goods in the diaper bag. I doubled checked the number of wipes and diapers. Just to be on the safe side, I added even more wipes. (He's been a pooping machine lately... TMI, I know.) Harrison was in his new doggie outfit complete with a doggie hoodie that has ears. It was great. We all loaded up in the car and were off - only 20 minutes behind schedule.
   Now I don't park on the Plaza. Nope, I'm definitely not patient enough for that. Instead we circled around the residential streets until we found the perfect spot. I didn't have to parallel park into it, and I could easily get Harison out without climbing into a bush first. I lift him out and go to the back of the Tahoe where the stroller is. Hmm... something is a little stinky... Okay I need to change him. No big deal. I lay him in the back, start to peel back his pants, and WHAM!!!! It's the ultimate messy situation! Thank god for those extra wipes!! Karla surveys the car for any paper goods to help corral the mess. It is unreal! There goes the pants and the cute doggie onesie. After a intense 15 minute clean up, we're off. Harrison is now in the extra white onesie I brought, socks and his doggie hoodie. The diaper mess is in the bottom of the stroller so we can deposit it in the first trash can we see.

So much for wearing pants...

   We walk around the Plaza for an hour or so. We see Daddy at work, AJ at Tivols, Jonathan by Restoration Hardware, and Kristy and Kenna eating lunch. Harrison was great! Slowly but surely he falls asleep - even better. Then it starts to sprinkle. Then it starts to sprinkle a bit harder. Awesome. Now it's raining. No big deal, we're on our way out anyway. Harrison is covered, I have a hoodie, all is good. Until I remember we parked on a hill. It seemed like such a baby hill when we walked down it. Pushing a stroller up it, it feels like a mountain. By the time we reach the car, I'm sweating, out of breath, and my calves are screaming. Karla helps me pack everything up and we're back on the road headed home. The car is a little musky from the dirty pants and onesie in the back though.
   The day wasn't that bad but seriously, a HUGE diaper explosion, rain and a monstrous hill all in one day? I was ready for a nap when we got home. So lesson of the day: always be prepared. Grab more diapers, wipes and clothes than you think baby will need. Keep a plastic sack in the car for trash or dirty clothes. And always, bring a friend when out on an adventure! It was so nice to have an extra set of hands and eyes:0)

Side Note: The ironic part was I meant to put Harrison in a cloth diaper before we left. I changed my mind last minute. I wish I did because I'm curious to see if the explosion would have been smaller.  

~Emily

One diaper at a time

    So the diaper adventure begins. Yesterday Harrison and I ventured out to Lee's Summit, MO to Happybottomus. Our mission? To buy two (just two) cloth diapers to test out. There was a pretty big assortment of cloth diapers, detergents, slings, clothes, shoes, etc... We went with FuzziBunz - a brand that Audrey and the sales woman recommended for first timers. Adam also liked this brand since it's award-winning and patented!
    Harrison and I decided on a yellow and a green one and also picked up some detergent. (I don't want to ruin the diapers before I even start using them!) I have to admit, they are super soft! I read and reread the "official" care directions and now they're hanging out to dry. Yep, Adam was kind enough to rig a mini clothes line over our patio.

Yes we actually owned clothes pins.

    Our plan for now is to do 1 diaper maybe every other day. We just want to see how they work and how Harrison reacts to them. If all goes well, we might be taking another trip to Lee's Summit next weekend:0) I am kinda excited about this mini clothes line though. Finally a place to dry those "do not place in the dryer" clothes!!

~Emily

Dear God

Dear God,
  I just wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you! I don't know what I have done to deserve such a perfect baby boy. Not only was Harrison a healthy preemie but he's also the most social, laid back, happy baby I've ever seen. (Plus, I really appreciate that he's a sleeper!) You have truly blessed our families and we are very grateful for this bundle of joy!!

  Well I gotta run - the little man's calling!
Love,
Emily

Can you keep a secret?

    So let's start off by saying that Adam and I are terrible at keeping secrets from each other. Example? We don't always wait until Christmas to give each other our "good" gifts. Last year I got Adam an XBox 360 and I'm pretty sure I told him about it before Christmas... I had to. I didn't know what games to get him...

    Anyways, starting this summer Adam began asking if I wanted to know what he was getting me for my birthday. Yes, it's the year of the BIG 3-0. I was being good and said no. I can wait. On top of that, my short term memory is a disaster so I kept forgetting he was bringing it up anyway. (Can you still have pregnancy brain after the baby is born???) He eventually told me we were going somewhere, Harrison wasn't going (that took me one month to get used to), and I needed to take that particular Friday off. Okay, I had it narrowed down to Vegas, Napa, and NYC in my mind. Jamaica, Hawaii and Europe were a little far for just one weekend after all. But once again I forgot about it.

    Well, this Tuesday I came home from Pilates to find 5 cards on our kitchen table. Four of them had old pictures of me. The first picture I was 6, then 12, 18, and 24. Adam instructed me to go ahead and open the cards. He had waited long enough, it was time to reveal the surprise.

Card 1: A plane ticket to Vegas!! I've never been so I'm pumped!
Card 2: A confirmation of my hotel reservation at the Bellagio - fancy!
Card 3: A confirmation for tickets for "LOVE" - the Beatles inspired cirque de sole show!
Card 4: A dinner reservation for Mesa Grill - Bobby Flay's place in Vegas!
Card 5: A book, "The Girl's Guide to Vegas."

    WOW! How did he do all of this? To top it all off, he's sending me with one of my best friends. My husband is sending me on a girl's weekend for my 30th birthday! Let's try not to mention that for his 30th I took him out to Fogo de Chao on the Plaza and then I told him I loved him...

    So there you go - Adam kept a secret, planned an amazing trip, and nailed it on the head! What a perfect husband!!
~Emily - still 29 for 17 more days

2 dogs & a baby sleeping

    The best thing about nice weather? It wears everyone out! The dogs are passed out on the couch and Harrison is sleeping in his swing. I love my sleeping babies!!

My sleeping babies... so sweet! Notice Harrison's socks.

~Emily

The diaper question

    So today I officially started my quest to find the answer to the age-old question: Should I cloth diaper? I know, I have plenty of friends that right now are rolling their eyes, sighing, and wondering why I would even think to do that to myself. However, maybe it's not as bad as we think.

Old school cloth diapers

    Harrison and I wandered up to Lawrence to meet up with a KU friend, Audrey. Audrey is full of great cloth diapering information. She showed me different styles and different brands she had used. She demonstrated how the diapers work, how they are adjustable (meaning they can actually grow with baby), and told me how she washed them. To be honest, it didn't sound any worse than anything I'm doing right now. Okay yes, it's a different way of thinking and I admit it would take me some time to figure out how to do this efficiently but at least I'm not throwing away all those diapers, right?
    So what's my answer to the age-old question? I'm not sure yet. I think I'll have to try it out. I will try cloth diapers. Audrey advised me to start slowly so I'm now just trying to decide which brand I want to go with. So far, anything that says "Dads love it" or "Best for preventing leaks" is winning me over:0)
   Of course, I'll keep you posted with what we decide to do but in the meantime, promise me you won't roll your eyes or try to talk me out of it. I just have to find out for myself if this works for us.
~Emily

Want to learn more about cloth diapering? Try these sites. They're packed full of info!
The Diaper Jungle - has a great page about which detergents to use and mom opinions on different types of cloth diapers
Kelly's Closet - TONS of brands to choose from, including diaper packages
Happybottomus - a local store in Lee's Summit, MO - also includes diaper packages

A day to remember

We've been hit. Hit hard. How hard, we don't yet know. The loss of life... is greater than any of us can possibly bear. In 1940, when London was being bombed - every night, night after night - Londoners scrawled a message on the rubble the next morning: 'We can take it,' they wrote. Well, New Yorkers are made of the same tough stuff. So can we! New York, and the United States, are stronger than any group of barbaric terrorists. The city is still here. It will be here tomorrow morning. It's going to be here forever.
~Rudy Giuliani


    I know my mom still remembers where she was when she learned of JFK's assassination. In 1968 she remembered having a 6pm curfew at KU. The student union had been burned to the ground, there was civil unrest and of course there was that war that no one liked going on. I'm sure my grandparents remembered where they were for D-Day and V-Day. 
    
    I think we were all hoping we'd be the one generation that wouldn't have to know those kind of events. And yet, here we are... remembering. 
    
    ... I went to my history class (Pre-Civil war history) in Westcoe Hall at KU. It was a Tuesday morning. The class started at 8am and released at 9:30am. Campus is still quiet at those hours. Not everyone is really moving yet. I walked back to my sorority house but when I got to the Chi-O fountain I heard some campus workers talking about something. I thought they were just talking about the stock market. I couldn't quite put it together. By the time I got to the house, I knew something terrible was wrong. My mom had already tried calling me several times. She told me to turn on the TV, asked if I was okay, and told me she loved me. It all seemed like a dream. I watched in silence, in disbelief. I felt scared and all the sudden very unsafe. I remember looking around my room, wandering if those cinderblock walls could really protect me. My security was gone...

Sept. 11, 2001: Pres. Bush Addresses the Nation - ABC News

    
    I pray that our children NEVER have to remember something as terrible as this. I pray that our children will know freedom and tolerance better than any generation before. I never want my baby to feel threatened or scared. Let's all take a moment today to think of those we lost and to thank those that helped. 

God bless America!
~Emily 

Like a fine sports car

    Today has been a long day. My students were tired, I was tired and let's face it, no one really cared about reviewing slope all that much including me. Why is it that short weeks always feel longer than long weeks?
    Part of the problem: I am by nature a night owl. I'm lucky if I'm thinking about bed before 11:30pm. Get me through 11pm and I'm capable of anything with my second wind. So let's mix ultra exhaustion with a baby and what do you get? You get grouchy me. Capable of going from 0-60 in seconds just like a fine sports car. I swear my hormones are still not quite right. Not that I've ever been a super patient person (don't ask Adam), but I now have no middle ground. I'm either calm and collective or on the floor throwing a tantrum like your favorite toddler. It's ridiculous but I can't stop it. I feel it rushing over me and wham! I'm overloaded with annoyance!
    Tonight has been one of those nights. Triggered by lack of sleep, a huge tension headache, a crying baby in the car, and now an airline that managed to almost triple its ticket prices within one week. If you need me, I'll be in the corner flailing my arms, kicking my legs and screaming. TGIF - I couldn't have made it another day if I had to.

That's me as a sports car.... Beautiful isn't it?!

~Emily - the 2 year old

Time for a Doggy Story

    I can't give all the attention of this blog to Harrison. I know some of you want to hear about the puppies too. Here I go. First of all our dogs are pretty cool with Harrison. In the beginning they just wanted to sniff him to see what the big deal was about. Then when he would cry they would look at us as if to say, "seriously folks, this is NOT cool."
    Now? They could care less. Well, they could care less about the crying, fussing, talking, moving, laughing, and all that. They desperately attack anyone new that walks in the door, hoping for some pets and love. We're loving them (remember they sleep on couches and our bed all day/night), but I agree it's not quite the same as before.
    Sometimes when they feel like playing, they'll try to steal a baby toy or nip at his blankets or play mat. They might even sneak by Harrison for a sniff on the go. Eddie will come up and lick his hand or foot. I guess we miss some spots during bath time? My favorite part is they LOVE coming in his room when we wake him up in the morning or go in there to change him. Tootsie stays close to the door - she always has her eye on the closest exit - and Eddie lays ON Harrison's teddy bear mat. (The theme of our house is dog hair is good:0)) I think they're going to grow up to be great babysitters. It's about time they helped around the house!!

Gotta keep on eye on my baby! (Tootsie's not one for the camera so she's MIA.)

~Emily

Another First

    I will warn you, I'm not planning on keeping this up - blogging multiple times in a day. In fact, my personal goal is to write one post once a week. Since this is a holiday weekend and I can stay up late without worrying about functioning tomorrow, I'm spoiling you with yet another fun Harrison story. I know, I'm nice like that.
    Now that Harrison is 5 months old, Adam and I decided maybe it was time to give cereal a try. We both are fully aware that this change in his diet will effect, um..."other" things, but we still wanted to try. What we got was one hilarious attempt at eating semi-solid food. Harrison thought the spoon was weird and made faces the entire time.

    I'm telling myself that part of the problem was the consistency. It might have been a little too watery. The cereal itself looks like boxed, powdered mashed potatoes not that I use any short-cuts while making potatoes. I thought cereal would be more like oatmeal. Oh well, today's not the day, there's always tomorrow. I'm hoping Harrison will forget he didn't like it and try again.
~Emily

Five months flown by!

    Today my little nugget is five months old!! Sometimes I still can't believe he's actually here. However, it has gotten harder to remember life before Harrison. Our home office no longer exists and just about every room has something Harrison in it. Both cars have a car seat base/infant mirror and window shopping consists of walking by Baby Gap, Gymboree and Janie and Jack. Yes, we're super exciting now!

    How's he spending his day, you ask? Harrison is sleeping. He may not inherit too many cool things from me, but he did get my passion for sleeping:0) 

The sleeping nugget!

~Emily

Here's Harrison!

    Finally the Harrison pictures! Here's a small sampling of our tiny tot. These were taken at the hospital during our first week as a family of three. Even though Harrison is still pretty small compared to other babies his age, it's crazy to look at these pictures and see how much smaller he was 5 months ago. 



Side note: Okay this is not exactly what I was envisioning but it'll do for now. Only took 2 hours to figure it out. I have a whole new respect for my fellow bloggers. And yes, it really is 3am.

~Emily

If everyone jumped off a bridge...

    Fine, I give in. Everyone else I know has a blog and a super cool blog at that. I'm sure mine will be just as great...eventually. For right now, I'll just be happy if everything is spelled correctly and my grammar passes the test.
    So here it is: Welcome to my our blog!! (I'm sure Adam will appreciate it too, maybe even add a thing or two. But for now, I'll let him sleep.) Like the title suggests, we have two dogs and a baby. Eddie is the oldest - he's our almost five-year-old super laid back dog. Then there's our three-year-old Tootsie dog. She's nuts and that's putting it mildly. I know the names are funny, might actually remind you of a couple in the retirement village in Florida. However, we weren't the creative ones. Both Eddie and Tootsie were adopted from the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City. If you're ever able/willing to adopt, please consider going to this no-kill shelter. We love everyone that works there and our dogs are amazing! Granted they sleep on the couches and beds probably more than us, but hey they deserve it. If only they could straighten the blankets when they're done...

One of their favorite pastimes.

    Last, but definitely NOT least is the newest addition to the family - our baby Harrison! April 5, 2010 at 7:41am I welcomed Harrison to the world. Did you notice I said I? Yep, you guessed it. Adam wasn't exactly there for the birth of our first born. Turns out it was the weekend of the NCAA basketball finals in Indianapolis and he had tickets. He was actually in Ohio with his family when I called him at 1:30am Monday morning to let him know his baby boy was on the way. Oh and for the record, Adam didn't leave me at 9 months pregnant. I was just at 36 weeks. Mr. Harrison decided to make his appearance FOUR weeks early. Anyway, my plan B coach was available, my mommy, so everything worked out. Plus Adam's not one for blood and guts or anything overly gross. Labor was quick (6 hours, I know, you hate me) and fairly painless (until the epidural started to wear off on one side...arg). Adam walked in right as I was being moved to my postpartum room.

Day 1: Mr. Harrison

    Even though Harrison decided to "pop out" early, he's made some insane progress since day 1. April 5, 2010 at 7:41am this little man was 5 pounds 15 ounces, 19 inches and spent 6 days in the NICU. As of August 11, 2010 Mr. Boo was up to 12 pounds 7 ounces and 25.25 inches. Yep, we have somehow managed to create a long, yet slightly skinny boy.

Month 5: I'm a big boy!

    So now that our intro is out of the way I'm not going to spend any more time going backwards to April or even before. Nope, this blog will start with today and go forward. But like any good mom, I will include some pictures of my baby (H-man or Boo as we like to call him). That is, as soon as I can figure how to post all of my pictures... Enjoy our miracle and we can't wait to entertain you with our doggy and baby filled life!
~Emily