That was fast!

   The other night (Friday night to be exact), Adam and I were getting ready to put Harrison to bed. Adam was in the process of getting the PJs on. I pulled out the next one in the line-up but they looked a little small. Adam held them up to Harrison and sure enough, about 1 inch too short. Okay, no big deal. We had one more in the drawer. Held them up, same thing! An inch too short... Um... Hmm... The rest of the pajamas were in the washing machine waiting to be put in the dryer. What to do? We could just let him sleep in his clothes. Then my smart husband asked if we had any 12 month pajamas. We were in luck!! A family friend (thank you Mrs. Heminger) had gifted us some footed 12 month pajamas! Complete with Harrison's name on the front!

Oh yes, I love my colorful new pajamas!

   So after we got Harrison to bed, I was curious. Were all of his PJs too small? I looked up the size charts for every brand we had online. Sure enough the length for 9 month clothing ends at 29 inches. Oops, hope Harrison hasn't been too mad that we're shoving his 30 inch body into 29 inches worth of fabric.

   Yesterday's agenda including buying new pajamas. I hit every store in the mall that carries baby clothes. I learned a couple of interesting things.

      1.) Harrison is too long for 6-12 month PJs. (Yes he's not even 10 months yet.) 

      2.) Apparently when you hit 12 months, you're too old for footed pajamas. They were kind of hard to find. 

      3.) I will not pay $20 or more for said footed pajamas - I actually wouldn't pay over $12 for them. 

 
   After a "fun" afternoon of shopping and one worn out baby, I walked away with 5 PJs (size 12 month and 12-18 month!!!!), 1 shirt (hey it was under $5) and 2 long sleeved/pant rompers (so cute though). I guess it's time for another clothes clean out. Great. Right now we have quite the variety of sizes in Harrison's drawers. There's 6-9 months, 9 months, and 6-12 months.

I'm not ready for him to be big yet. Cue mommy panic attack!   

More pictures of ME and my new PJs!

~Emily

*Hope you enjoy the new addition to the blog - music!! (Yes Jane, that's Sting and some Police for you.) 

Bath time fun!!

  This has been the season for growth! Harrison is doing his job, I guess we should do ours. We are on to round #2 of "the bathtub." Harrison started in the typical infant tub.

My old boring bathtub.

   Now that he's a good sitter and loves to play with bath toys, we busted out the new rubber ducky tub. Oh yes, wait until you see this one. I would like to mention that I was the one that inflated it. (Adam actually asked if it came with an air pump. Really?) I only had to stop twice because I was getting light headed:0)

So many toys, so little time...before the water gets cold at least.

   The most hysterical part is if you squeeze the duck beak, he quacks!! Every time I do it, Harrison turns to me with a huge smile. So funny! Of course, I didn't get a picture of the actual duck head.

Bath time!! And no my hair never lays down!

~Emily

Four weeks ain't nothing!

   So as you may remember Harrison was born a lovely four weeks early. Even though he was a good size 36 weeker (I swear it's a medical term, the nurse even said it herself!), he's been having quite the time trying to catch up to his full term friends in the weight department.
 
Case in point: Here are Harrison's stats to date complete with the occasional percentiles.

Birth: 5lbs 15oz and 19in
1 wk: 5lbs 12.1oz
2 wk: 6lbs 2 oz
1 mos: 7lbs (<5%) and 21.25in (50%)
2 mos: 9lbs 9.6oz (8-10%) and 23.5in (75%)
4 mos: 12lbs 7oz and 25.25in
6 mos: 14lbs 9.6oz (7%) and 26.5in (50%)

And finally,
9 mos: 19lbs (25%) and 29.5in (88%)!!

On the left a picture from June (2mos), the right is a picture from January (9mos). 

   I'm not going to lie. I felt like Harrison has weighed 30 lbs for the last 2 months. That is part of the reason we have already switched him to his convertible car seat. I could barely lift him in and out of my car let alone carry him around. So I cannot imagine what a "normal" baby must feel like. I am super excited that he has started to catch up. I know that 36 weeks barely qualifies him as a preemie but still, it took us a long time to get to this weight!! He is about the size I was as a 10 month old (according to my mom. However, she had also mixed up my brother's and my birth weight our entire lives...so whatever.)
   On the development front, Harrison has not started crawling or pulling up on his own. But you know what? I'm okay with that. I'm not ready to baby proof the poop out of our house - which was built before all of the baby safety codes. I'm not ready for him to start climbing out of his crib. And I'm really not ready for him to start conquering all of our stairs...ugh... He'll get there when he gets there. I've actually stopped reading all of the baby books. They kind of make me paranoid. Is Harrison hitting his milestones? The book said he should be clapping, why isn't he? Oh my gosh, did you know he's supposed to be making dinner by now? I mean the stuff can be overwhelming. I've learned that Harrison usually gets there on his own time which is at the end of each so called phase. I won't stress and I'm not going to push. Our doctor isn't worried so neither are we. Until we have a crawler, I'm just going to enjoy the time I have with him playing and snuggling.

I might start crawling just to get away from all these hats!

~Emily

My new trick!

   Over the past few weeks I've started to give Harrison those little fruit puffs just to see what happens. At first, he would make the most hysterical faces! I think the texture took him by surprise. It wasn't that he didn't like them, but he would make faces and stick his tongue out the whole time.

Look who's feeding himself!

   Now Harrison has graduated to actually feeding himself the puffs. It is so entertaining to watch him try to pick them up and get them into his month. Once they're in, you hear a little crunch from him biting into them. It's so stinking cute! He can usually get through 2-3 before his fingers get so sticky he can't get the puffs off of them:0)

As long as my fingers aren't sticky, this goes really well!

   Maybe next month Harrison's trick will be making his bed, doing laundry, or dusting! Ah, wouldn't that be great?!

~Emily

Just another play date!

   First of all, I LOVE play dates!! Not only does it give me a chance to catch up with friends, but it wears Harrison out 100%. (Oh, and he gets to meet new friends and all that.) We have been very lucky that a lot of our friends have kiddos within 3 months of Harrison so we've had numerous play date opportunities. I've also met a lot of new friends through a mom's group at our church.
   Babies definitely bring you together with other families. It's a whole new chapter of life! It's fun reconnecting with friends from high school and college. I enjoy hearing their baby stories and they're a great source of advice! Plus, Harrison gets to interact with other babies and see all of their new tricks.

Playing at Gymboree with Tucker!

   Adam and I decided to join a local Gymboree (think kiddie gym). It's been great this winter. Harrison is not crawling so it's a great place to take him that's safe and clean. He is completely fine sitting on the mats eating the whiffle balls. He also likes bouncing on the air log and trying to catch the bubbles. I like it because it gets us out of the house and I can meet up with friends!

Whiffle balls are delicious and great teethers!

~Emily

9 months and growing!

   I know I say this every month, but really? NINE MONTHS! I can't believe Harrison is 9 months old. I still think he's just a baby and then I see him next to a younger baby and yep, he's like an adult. Time has been flying, but we're loving every minute! I am so excited for his next doctor's appointment to see how much bigger he's gotten. We have officially ditched the infant car seat for the convertible car seat. It's so nice not having to haul him around. However, I'm still a little slow at getting him into the new car seat.

Hanging out at the New Year's party in my big boy button down!

Until next time.

~Emily

More food for you.

   I'm just so darn proud of this baby food. Last Friday I made pears and carrots. They are so pretty!! I had to wait until Harrison was at daycare since he's not digging the blender. Next up? I'm hoping to make peas (we need something green), sweet potatoes, peaches and mangoes. Now I just need to clean out my freezer so I have room!

The picture doesn't do them justice. The colors were amazing!

~Emily