Me and my Boys

What's in a name? That which we call a rose...

2010-06-12T20:07:00.004-06:00

As long as I've known Truman to talk, he has called Harrison by the name of "Ya-ya." That's cool. Tru isn't the leader in the toddler-speech field and actually hasn't even mastered the shortened (let alone full-length) version of his own name.

So, I'm used to the Ya-ya thing. Not exactly a fan, but what IS one to do? And truth be told, I've caught myself even using the misnomer every now and then. The other night though, Truman really took it to the next level as he asked for help getting the last firefly out of his jar. I was just close enough to catch: "You do it, Ya-ya James, you do it."

What do you think--does he look like a Ya-ya James?

Speaking of Mr. Harrison James, he is getting quite the reputation in the neighborhood. His literal girl-next-door BFF Chloe was over the other day watching me give Dan a haircut. She obviously hadn't seen this do-it-yourself approach before and was eyeing me pretty intensely. When I switched guards on the clippers she wanted to know why I needed to do that. With H-man around, I don't have to trouble myself with trivial explanations of that sort; he's on it. He jumped right in, explaining that the guards were different sizes and changed how short or long I cut the hair. Chloe listened to the pretty much spot-on answer to her query, then sighed and solemnly said to me, "He knows everything."

Of course he does--he's Ya-ya James.

These are the days of our lives

2009-09-02T20:17:00.002-06:00

I can't believe it's already September. The boy's birthdays are looming and the flames of time are hungry: before my eyes they're licking away the baby fat and all things infant. Tonight we went for a picnic at Backbone State Park. It was a new kind of family outing for us. Dan and I went one way, grilling and staying close to the food, and the boys did their own thing. Of course, this isn't the first time they've played on their own. It just felt different. Like a family without a baby. We haven't had that sensation in a while.

It was nice. We creek-stomped in absolutely frigid water. The boys were oblivious to the temperature and enjoyed every dirty, slimy moment.

It's just not FAIR!

2009-08-11T14:14:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, while doing errands, we drove past a big colorful daycare. Kids were out playing on some very basic park equipment. Unfortunately, our errand left us standing across the street from this fenced in oasis and Harrison and Truman's big blue eyes zeroed in on it. They'd like to go play too. (Of course, we'd just been to the park, but that didn't seem to matter.) I carefully explained what a daycare was, and that they didn't have to go to one because Mom and Dad make sure one of us can stay with them. Oh, the disappointment and resentment! Truman didn't have the vocabulary, but Harrison did. "It's just not FAIR, Mom!" As soon as we were inside, he carefully arranged himself in his most pouty stance and made sure I noted it several times.

What am I supposed to do with THAT?

I spy with my little eye....

2009-07-16T19:54:00.003-06:00

We just hit another milestone that breaks my heart a little bit. Recently, Harrison started going crossed-eyed so I took him into the optometrist. The doctor announced that Harrison had the worst far-sightedness he'd seen in 16 years of practice. SO, we got some pretty thick little glasses and he's been adjusting to them for the last day-and-a-half. He's a trooper and takes the whole thing very seriously.

Somehow, as a mom, it's just upsetting to know that he's struggled for that long, unable to perceive the world in the way he should. I'm really happy that we're able to fix that for him. But then, on the other side, is how I feel everytime I look at him in his new glasses. They magnify his eyes dramatically, and it makes him seem like an entirely different person. He seems more vulnerable and I want to protect him every way possible. He confided to my sister Katy that his glasses aren't cool, and I find myself faced with what I'm sure every parent has to deal with, but just a little bit earlier than I thought I'd have to. It's not that I want to fix him; I just want to make this world perfect and safe so that it can't hurt him, you know?

Anyway, I'm sure I'm getting just way too emotional about a rite of passage that tons of us have gone through. Here are some pics of my little star rocking his new specs.

Politics as Usual

2009-07-04T17:48:00.010-06:00

When I was in the 4th grade, our school held a mock presidential election: Bush vs. Dukakis. Though we all know who won in real life, at West Burlington Elementary School, it was not cool to vote Bush. Josh Gahn and Nick Anderson wouldn't let me play four square when they learned of my political leanings. I became a closet conservative. But no more! The boys got their first taste of practicing self expression today.

We rocked a TEA (Taxed Enough Already) party armed with signs. It was a lot of fun, and it really felt good to come together with so many other people with concerns like ours. The turnout was great, and people couldn't get enough of Harrison and Truman in their ball and chains. They were definitely the camera's favorite.

After trying out various little flares, rockets, sparklers, poppers, etc., Truman decided the snakes were his favorite. He deemed them worthy enough for him to attempt to say, "Nake, nake!"

We also played on the beach and enjoyed an airshow, and I put Harrison to bed early so that he can go out late with Mom and Dad to ride the Ferris Wheel and catch the fireworks. I love this country. I love our heritage. God bless America!

Aaah!

2009-06-16T16:56:00.002-06:00

So, we're moving in a week and I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off. (I feel like a Patton every time I say that.) We're heading to Iowa where my parents are, and I'll be teaching there this fall. I hadn't really realized how long it's been since my last post, so I'll try to get some pictures on tomorrow. With all the packing, I found a paper I got for Mother's Day that I wanted to memorialize here so that I can toss the real thing. Here it is:

My Mom Test
by Harrison Gilbert

What is something Mom always says to you?
Please.

What makes Mom happy?
When I brush my teeth.

What was your mom like as a kid?
She was a little mom.

How does your mom make you laugh?
She wrestles me and tickles me.

How old is your mom?
Five.

How tall is your mom?
Five.

What is her favorite thing to do?
Play with her boys.

What does your mom do when you're not around?
She settles down.

What is your mom really good at?
Exercising.

What is your mom not really good at?
Ironing clothes.

What does your mom do for a job?
She goes to school.

What is your mom's favorite food?
Corn on the cob.

If your mom was a cartoon character, what would she be?
A dino.

How are you and your mom the same?
We both love corn on the cob.

How do you know your mom loves you?
Because I'm special.

I think I'll like to read this in about thirteen years when he's not being as cute. But I really did have a wonderful Mother's Day.

2009-04-25T20:16:00.003-06:00

I've heard it said that you can't know joy without knowing pain. There'd be know way to appreciate the high without the low. Maybe that's why we have seasons. All I know is, this world can be simply breathtaking. And I love being reminded of the millions of miracles around me as I watch the earth wake up again. It just does something to my spirit. If you had spied on my 30 minute commute home on Friday, you would have noted my wind-whipped hair and the fact that my hand was sticking out of my sunroof for the duration.

But that's nothing compared to what I get to see when I get home. Here are some of my favorites:

--I was the sole disciplinarian for Tru today, and that doesn't happen a ton. The boy has a rebellious streak a mile wide, so it didn't take long for him to find his way to a time out. Afterward, I picked him up and was trying to extoll the virtues of not screaming like one is on fire while stealing toys from one's brother, and I couldn't get two words out before he would solemnly plant a firm kiss on my lips. I'd try again to finish the lecture, but no go--more kisses. It became comical pretty quickly--I think he was honestly trying to shut Mommy up by kissing her into submission. And it worked.

--Now that it's warm, the boys have a new favorite activity. The barren, dirty alley. They'll amuse themselves for a while on the second story deck, digging in the rock box and pushing the tractors around, but eventually they beg to "dig, dig, dig!" Apparently, little boys come programmed knowing that digging in a sandbox of rocks is good, but REAL digging is sitting on your heels in the dirt, stirring stuff up just enough to create little dustclouds around you and coat you with a nice thin film of grime. As completely opposite in disposition as my boys can be, they are united on this front. Dirt is king.

--Putting Harrison to bed has a fun perk. After I read or tell him a story, he immediately returns the favor. His stories tend to go in little trends for a couple of weeks until something stimulates him to make major changes. The current story line always begins with Big John and involves getting stuck in the mud. The stories vary a lot, night to night, but lately you can count on those elements. But the best part is after his story. Then he asks me if I'd like to know a secret. I always do. He won't ever tell until my ear is brushing his face, and then I get lots of warm, loud breaths, lots of gibberish I can't make out, and then a few random words like "apple" and "banana" and he pulls back with a huge smile. I assure him that's a great secret, and then I tell him a secret back.

--Dan is the man. He puts a lot of guys to shame. In the last couple of weeks, he not only found these two tiny ceiling fans and lights on clearance for a steal, but he somehow managed to get up into our attic and pull wires and . . . stuff (don't really know all the details here) . . . and put up ceiling fans in the boys' bedrooms that hadn't been set up for any fixtures in the ceilings at all. It amazes my to think of all the skills he's picked up since we got married. But my favorite part of that story is how he shopped around and found fixtures for a fraction of what they should have been. Have I been rubbing off or what?

I'm a chronic prodigal

2009-04-12T18:41:00.003-06:00

I swear, half of my posts are apologies regarding how long it's been since my last post. No apology this time. If you're still bothering to check, then you obviously had enough faith to get you through that last lapse and can't be hatin' on me that much.

So--Happy Easter! We had an egg-cellent time today (honestly, I know they say puns are the lowest form of humor, but it seems to me that very witty people use them), and I'm putting up a kind of tediously long little vid for the grandparents, or anyone else who wants a glimpse of our Easter morning.

I hadn't talked to Harrison much before this season about the crucifixion or atonement, and thought that now would be a good time to start. Christmas is much easier--kids get birth. But I don't think he fully got that one. I tried talking to my little 3-year-old Sunbeam class today, but death, much less one on a cross for us, was a little out of their grasp. I kept getting interrupted with questions like, "What is 'killed'?" But even though I can't explain it to them yet, I hope my boys grow up with an understanding and gratitude for what we are celebrating today.

The family that swims together....

2009-02-18T20:04:00.002-06:00

ummm, swims together? True enough, I guess. Last week we joined the Y and I'm already starting to forget what life was like Before the Y (B.Y.). We're settling into a nice little routine. B.Y., when I got home from work, we would have had dinner, done a little couponing, and then read and played till bedtime. Please, that's for amateurs. Now, we throw some nourishment into our bodies and rush to the gym. The boys can't get enough of playing with the other kids, Mom and Dad can't get enough of getting a good workout in, and then (this is the best part for all involved) we get to go swimming! So fun. The only part I'm trying to get the kinks worked out of is the post-pool stuff. Handling Truman when he's dry and clothed can be difficult. He squirms like no other. It comes in handy when he's sticky from jelly or peanut butter--at least you won't drop him. Now try taking his clothes off, get him wet and soapy, and see what I have to deal with in the shower room. It's given me a better understanding of the old expression about greased pigs.

This pic has nothing to do with us swimming (did anyone need that to be said?), but I thought I'd throw in what happened the last time we put the camera on a timer. I'll be sad when our whole family can't fit in that chair.

A contest!

2009-02-05T19:51:00.003-06:00

Okay, I've never done a contest on my blog before, but if anyone is still reading (I know you are Flee!), there is a prize involved.

My brilliant friend Brit (aka Hunter's mom) is a recent inventor/entrepreneur and has started her own website/webstore for this product:

Is that adorable sweet thing wearing a baby eye mask? Why, yes she is. Brit kind of accidentally discovered that Baby Paisley slept much better while travelling when her eyes where covered (it started when her headband slid down) and the rest is history. She's had all kinds of boutiques pick this up and it's catching like wildfire. Anyway, since I'm lucky enough to be super BFFs with this millionaire-in-the-making, I have been authorized to give away one Baby Lilac eye mask to whomever I choose. So leave a great comment. Check out her selection here at www.babylilac.com (note these aren't just for little girls--or even little people--I guess you could pick an adult size if you so desired). Feel free to spread the word; I think these are genius. And hot.

Missin' me some Menards

2009-01-26T19:12:00.002-06:00

I'm super bummed to not be in Iowa right now just because of this cool deal Menards is doing. Go here to check out all the details, but I'm a super fan of mail in rebates. If you can afford to put the money up front and actually remember to do the rebate, then you can get some cool stuff for free. Check it out, my mid-west friends!

I Love Primary

2009-01-22T19:03:00.002-06:00

Once every week the boys and I like to take Jen to work. It makes our day a little shorter and we get to spend more time with her. This afternoon as we were driving to pick Jen up Harrison told me that he loved primary. I asked him if it was because of all of the kids there or the songs he gets to sing. He replied "No. I love my teacher." The great part about this story is that Jen is Harrison's primary teacher.

So funny

2009-01-19T18:48:00.003-06:00

Okay, so a super old friend of mine from church girl's camp just got back in touch through the blog (Holla, Colista!). And I was checking out her blog and found this vid that about made me pee my pants. So funny.

Pink is for girls/A peeping Tru

2009-01-16T19:19:00.003-06:00

So, today's science experiment involved static and Daddy and the boys decided they needed to purchase some supplies. Harrison dipped into his birthday money that he's been holding onto and splurged on a pack of balloons. How sweet is that? What I love even more is that it led to the following coversation this evening:

H-man: Do you want the pink balloon, Mom? Pink is for girls.

Jen: (surprised) Who told you that? (I really haven't categorized things like that for him yet.)

H-man: Leah.

Jen: Oh. Well, what color do you want?

H-man: (smiling that "I know I'm being funny" smile) Pink.

******
Dan is really sweet about trying to fill me in on things that I missed while I'm away. Today he told me one that I've been trying to picture all night. I bought some clearanced Christmas Peeps last night as a filler (couponing strategy) and Dan and Truman stumbled upon them this afternoon. Tru just kind of pondered it a moment, unsure, until he saw Dan take a bite of his. The sheer surprise, joy, and ecstasy that then crossed his face were, as Dan described it, an unparalled new emotional height for the Trumantor. I think we can all remember the bliss we felt the first time we realized that someone actually had the genius to cover a sugary marshmallow with yet another layer of sugar. Aah, I wish that had been captured on camera. I remember a neighbor telling me that Truman "smiled from his toes" and he still does.

Weird science

2009-01-15T18:43:00.002-06:00

Is it Thursday already? How quickly the time flies when I skip blogging! I admit, I'm two day's off my new year's res, but I am undeterred. I think I can, I think I can....

Anyway, I'm making this post quick because we're busy here tonight. For Christmas Harrison received a My First Science Book from his great aunt Tricia, my uncle Scott, and my cousins Michaela, Anna, and Nick. Super sweet of them, and we hadn't really taken a look at it till yesterday. Well, look out, cause it's all H-man wants to do. He did all kinds of experiments and projects with Daddy today (fishing with magnets was a hit) and he had picked out precisely what he wanted to work on when Tru went to bed tonight. So we've been doing some fun shadow work and he's up there experimenting some more and Dan is reading Charlie Bone and I'm kind of feeling left out. So back to the lab. I'll try to get some pics for tomorrow's post!

Things I don't want to forget

2009-01-12T21:19:00.003-06:00

Okay, so this is the most current picture we have of my little family. I know that when I look back on it even five years from now I'll miss this stage of life. Look at us, it's nothing but a good lookin' party all day long with those guys around. It just got me thinking about all the fun things that Tru and Harrison do right now that I don't want to forget. Like:

-Tru and Harrison loyally stationed at the second-floor kitchen window every morning as I leave and every afternoon as I come home, window wide open, catcalling, "Ow-ow, Momma!" for all the neighborhood to hear. Would I make that up?

-Harrison waking up early to sit on the edge of the tub and tell me about his dreams while I get ready for work. (I'm not actually sure he has dreams yet. Usually they seem to involve whatever we were doing as we were going to bed the night before or whatever he happens to lay eyes on in the bathroom while he's talking.)

-Truman totally knows when he's ready for bed and often times has to remind us (especially if it's before seven and we're not expecting it). He just starts waving like a pageant queen and climbs up the stairs by himself.

-When Harrison sits down at the computer to "work" he does two things. He checks his email and he looks for good deals. Whenever he gets hold of scissors, he starts cutting "coupons" (i.e. anything in the shape of a square). He may look the part of Daddy, but he's a Mama's boy.

-Truman is frightenly stubborn. He demands absolute independence when eating or just won't do it. I'm finding he's not really that picky of an eater, just how it's presented. If I dare cut it up more than he thinks I should or break it apart etc., you can forget him eating. I don't know how he does it. He would honestly rather be hungry. I know that's not a cute story, but I just want to remember that years from now when I'm dealing with him and wondering where it all started.... Alas, I'm afraid this trait of his also qualifies him as a Mama's boy.

-Despite being a total squirmer, Truman LOVES reading. He is also very sure of what he wants to read. We go through phases, but right now his must read is the Griffith alphabet book that Aunt Shell made a while back. He insists on poring through every page and pointing out Grandpa Griffith. It's just what he does. (By the way, Happy Birthday, Dad!)

-Harrison requests tea all the time for various ailments. He is convinced it is the only thing that can help. As I was typing he just got out of bed to tell Dan that his thigh hurt and he needed tea. On Sunday during Sacrament meeting, he repeatedly announced in a loud voice that he was about to throw up and he needed tea. Repeatedly. In a loud voice. Tea. These are the things I don't want to forget.

24's back!

2009-01-10T19:41:00.001-06:00

There's no more to say except 8/7central.

Flashback fun

2009-01-10T19:20:00.002-06:00

Well, this blogging thing has had one positive effect so far: I'm starting to look at OTHER PEOPLE'S blogs again. I checked out Lauren and Carolyn's and there were so many great pics from their wedding this summer. It was fun to reminisce. The last one cracks me up. Those kids were going nuts!

93 cents later

2009-01-09T21:29:00.002-06:00

Please forgive, but I'm going to have to do brag posts every now and then with the whole couponing thing. I'm addicted and I have this adreneline rush afterwards where I talk about it a lot. So here's what I got last night for 93 cents:

12 Reeses Whips candy bars

2 Stayfree 48 packs of maxi pads

2 pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream (Cherry Garcia for Dan and Half Baked for me)

1 Orajel coldsore thingy

6 boxes of Reynolds foil

The total came to .93 cents. BUT THAT'S NOT THE BEST PART! The best part is I have a total of $16.49 in rebates coming back to me for my purchase. Yes, I typed that correctly. I made fifteen bucks last night for buying candy bars and ice cream. Sometimes, when I talk to people about couponing, they have this kind of smug, uppity attitude and I can tell they think I waste my time worrying about mere pennies. The more ice cream for me, I guess.

my turn

2009-01-08T21:09:00.003-06:00

Many of you know that Jen is working full time outside the home teaching again. She is a very busy momma. She has asked me to help out by contributing to the blog every once in a while. I know how disapointed many of you must be. I am not as good of a writer as jen and I will probably have my sentences structured wrong as well as mispelled words. Sorry to say that my postings will not be edited by jen.

Jen is amazing. She worked all day. Came home and spent time with the kids. Put the boys to bed and started couponing. She is currently out shopping at 10:30 pm. I love you pie!

Life as a mr. mom is hard. I have always respected the "stay at home mom" even though many in our society believe that isn't working. I challenge any one who thinks that staying at home with a 3 year old boy and a 1 year old boy isn't hard, stressful, dirty, noisy, lonely (adult conversations), stinky, tiring work to take my place for a day. It is so much easier to go to a construction site and play builder all day.

Well, here is a picture of our activity last night. Thanks for the ginger bread man kit Great Grampa Griffith.

not a habit yet......

2009-01-08T13:46:00.002-06:00

Okay, I don’t have an excuse for missing a post yesterday other than I honestly just didn’t think about it. Bound to happen, right? So this is a quick make up, and I’ll do another tonight. I am pleased to say I have at least a fiber of my mother in me, because the reason I forgot to blog last night was simply due to a little cleaning frenzy I got caught up in. Sadly, this is a rare, rare thing for me, but I always enjoy it when it happens.

Below you’ll find what Dan and I encounter sometimes when we come in for a final tuck-in on our way to bed. When we asked the following morning, he said his puppet friends were Bear and Crocodile. Aah, I love that guy.

My Testimony

2009-01-06T20:24:00.003-06:00

So, I've been back in the classroom for a few weeks and am enjoying the experience. Today I was in an 8th grade Social Studies class that is studying Georgia history. They happened to be discussing some of the religious movements in the 1800's that affected our state and the nation and when I glanced down at a student's textbook, wouldn't you know a picture of the prophet Joseph Smith was staring back at me.

My pulse quickened a little because I've seen my share of texts that seem to go out of their way to falsify or put funny spins on my church's history. I read it quickly and was pleased to note that everything was true and unbiased. Imagine my shock then, during the lecture, when the classroom teacher moved the discussion from the introduction of Catholicism in Georgia on by saying, "Now, there were also religions brought in outside the realm of Christianity at this time. One of these is called The Church of Latter Day Saints."

I quickly jumped in to point out that the church she was referring to was called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (quite correctly named in the text) and that this church was obviously within the "realm of Christianity." Wow. It really amazes me how often people really misunderstand my religion. But it was extra disappointing to witness the miseducation of so many students.

Anyway, it just got me thinking today about how vital my faith in Jesus Christ is to me. I am ashamed that I never have the urge to include bits of my testimony or faith on this blog or in other communications I have with people. The older I get, or maybe just the wiser I get, the clearer it is to me that this is it. There is nothing more important. So even though this is kind of a taboo topic for blogs (or at least the ones I've read) I just wanted to make sure that there is no question where I stand on this issue. I am grateful for Christ's ministry and example, and I am humbled that he has atoned for my sins. Jesus is my King.

Monday night at the Gilbert house

2009-01-05T20:33:00.003-06:00

Hmmm. The posts are not just popping into my head yet, so I'll just give a brief rundown of the most exciting things going on around here tonight and then post a couple more totally adorable Christmas vacay shots.

--Our cat is fat. Truly. Rocky has been hefty for a while, but the neighbor boy that we left entrusted our feline family member to must have misunderstood how many times a day he eats (once) because we came back to a little lardo. It's shocking how much weight a cat can put on in a short amount of time. I think he kept right up with Dan and I's holiday weight gain, and he is a fraction of our body mass.

--Our Trubador is sick. Yucky goopy eyes, fever, nasty nose, coughing, and some pretty bad wheezing. I ran into Walgreens with him tonight and he must be getting enough air despite the wheeze because he threw a tantrum any toddler twice his age would have been proud of. If there were any of those said toddlers lurking in far corners of the store, I'm sure they heard and WERE proud of him. We had him take a long steamy shower, glopped him up with baby Vicks, and put him to bed with the humidifier. There is nothing harder for a mom to look at than a sick baby.

--Our H-man is systematic. I'm coming to love the sounds of Harrison getting ready for bed. I could almost predict every sound right before I hear it. Drawer slides open. Clunk of stuff. Quiet for a few seconds as he unscrews his pre-brush mouth wash. Phbbbbb (spitting it out). Smack of lips and deep breath. More quiet as toothbrush is prepared. Vigorous brushing. Vigorous spitting. Water. More smacks. More clunks. Then a whoosh of the drawer as it closes again with a satisfying finality.
Maybe it's because I had a hand it picking them out, but the Christmas Eve cousin jammies were just about the cutest EVER. The kids knew it. They loved 'em.

Speaking of love, Tru adored his little partner-in-crime cuz, Danger Joan. I mean, Afton. They were hilarious together and it's all I can do not to move to Utah just so I can see them like that all the time. When they had their matching pj's on, I kept getting them mixed up. They're the same size with about the same amount and color of hair. They totally could have pulled a Sweet Valley High switch and gotten away with it.

New Beginnings (#1)

2009-01-04T08:33:00.003-06:00

I know not everyone shares this feeling, but I truly look forward to the beginning of another year. I love having that fresh empty calendar. And I love the hard-to-miss opportunity to look over the last year and decide what you want to change. I know that it doesn't always come to fruition and New Year's resolutions can be somewhat of a joke, but I do try to honestly make a few postitive changes annually.

And so here we are. My last post was in October. When we were living in Nashville. But no more looking back--onward, ho! Welcome to one of this year's resolutions--30 daily posts. If blogging hasn't turned back into a love of mine after 30 consecutive posts, then I will know at least I tried. I'm hoping it will be enough of a habit by then that I will continue at least several times a week. We'll see.

I'm including a snapshot from the first annual Griffith Nativity that was a smashing success this season thanks to the splendid efforts of my dear sister-in-law Kate. No, she didn't forget to make a costume for Harrison, he just pulled some attitude at the last minute and refused to be Joseph. He opted for rogue shepard instead. Everything else went off fantastically and I'm sure we'll be doing in everytime we're all blessed enough to be together for the holidays.

So happy new year (kind of) everyone--and happy birthday, Mom!

We're going dark...

2008-10-24T11:38:00.002-06:00

Okay--just a note to anyone trying to get in touch with us for the next few days. We're not ignoring you--just in the process of moving. I'm not sure when we'll have internet access (so that means my phone is down too). If you need to get a hold of us, call Dan's cell. Love you all, wish us luck!

Time slips by....

2008-10-16T13:27:00.006-06:00

I am ashamed to say that I didn't even blog Truman's first birthday. Before I do anything else I must do a Baby Tru update:

Our Trubador began walking several weeks before his first birthday. He's quite proficient by this point and he's a rock star on the stairs. He's way smaller than H-man was at a year, so it's funny to see me keep trying to put these clothes on him that I know Harrison was wearing at his age and they don't fit at all. Sigh. Just trying to make him grow up too fast I guess.

Tru is great at giving love and kisses--he's not great at feeding himself yet, though he throws a tantrum until he gets his own fork and spoon and makes a grand mess. The Trumantor is a climber and is built like a monkey. He's already getting up on just about anything he wants to. Refer to picture above if you don't believe me. I think he honestly believes that he can go make himself a grilled cheese sandwich whenever he has a fancy and it's just Mom holding him back.

It's been totally hilarious watching his teeth come in. They've been pretty late and just within the last few weeks he's finally started getting some upper teeth (he's had two bottom ones for a few months now). The first one to break through up top was a side one and the front one next to it has just popped out too, so he's very lopsided in that department. It makes his ginormous open-mouth grins that much better.

Verbally--we've got mama, dada, nana (this is his most passionate and frequent word--he honestly loves bananas more than he loves me I think), car, and all done (it sounds a little more primative than that). He's an emotional boy and is wonderful at conveying his happiness, fury, and broken-heartedness.

Overall--he just wants to be in the action. He likes to stay busy and get in trouble with H-man as much as possible.

*******

Harrison Update:

I decided to just throw one pirate themed birthday party for both boys this year because I'm lazy. Due to the fact that Truman napped through most of it and it catered to older tots, I completely admit that Tru got shafted. But it was a fantastic party nonetheless. Here are the highlights--

cool facial hair was drawn on most of the party goers to get them in the mood
we had a scavenger hunt that involved everyone getting their own pirate bandannas, spotting scopes, eye patches, earrings, swords, and then of course they used the treasure map to find goodies in the treasure chest.
the kids "walked the plank" off our deck and played an "X marks the Spot" game.

It was fun and good to see so many of our friends because we'll be moving to Atlanta in a little over a week and I'm glad we got to do something like that allowed us to use our huge backyard before we move to our little patch-of-grass townhouse.

An actual conversation...

2008-09-05T18:05:00.002-06:00

This is an actual conversation I just found myself having.

Noises from kitchen: What the . . . ? Eww! Tru . . . Oh my, oh my . . . Jen!

Me: (reluctantly) What?

(action moves to kitchen)

Dan: It's everywhere.

Me: What is it?

Dan: Puke.

Me: All of it?

Pause

Me: Maybe deep-fried pickles are a little too intense for an eleven-month old.

Something to ponder.

Honey DON"T

2008-08-15T11:58:00.003-06:00

I've made a decision. I really don't like honeydew melon. Poetic name, yes. It makes me feel like a hater, but honestly, it's a filler food that just takes mouth space away from the good stuff like watermelon and muskmelon. I purchased one this week and never again. Buyer's regret.

Road Trip Part Two

2008-08-05T15:35:00.003-06:00

Just a hottie husband and a 70s baby out for a stroll.

Yeah--this picture was taken in July...in the afternoon...in a hot tub...it was fun (obviously).

All of the sudden Harrison is some man-child that has no problem hopping on a horse and riding into the sunset. Luckily, the horse preferred to do the circle thing. It was so fun seeing Kent and Kate's place. The boys fell in love with "Baby Afton" and couldn't wait to meet back up with her in Iowa.

After a week in Utah, we mosied over to Manchester where ALL the Griffith siblings converged together with all the offspring that we're aware of. It was a tight fit, but I'm really proud of Mom for taking it all in stride and not breaking down and kicking us all out of her once calm, pristine home. I'll do some more pics of our summer midwest experience in a few days.

The truth via email

2008-07-31T11:43:00.003-06:00

I think most people would agree that other areas of one's social life can become a little neglected when one marries. It happens. Add other lifestyle changes like moving seven times, graduating from college, and having two kids and all the sudden an old friend who you just added to your list of friends while signing up for facebook sends you this:

Thanks, Becca. Makes a girl feel good.

Road Trip Part One

2008-07-20T20:38:00.003-06:00

I'll be the first to admit that I belong to a family of extremists. It's just the way we are. So when we decide to take a summer road trip--we're not going to do it half way. Gas prices at an all time high? Thousands of miles to cover? Puh-lease, these are mere speed bumps on our hard-core adventure. So off we went from Nashville to Salt Lake to Manchester. The first leg was to celebrate the union of Lauren marrying up to fabulous Carolyn and it only took a mere 27 hours of non-stop driving excitement. All the Gilberts got to be together and it was fabulous. We also got to stay with Kent and Kate and baby Afton.

The cousins that could pass for twins if you kind of squint and aren't too close.

One of my favorite views from my seat in the car.

Brad and Clay hopped in to ride with us whenever they could and they added an extra fun element to our home on wheels.

Harrison loved the hike we went on.

Riding the caboose with Dad at the This is the Place Park. That's sweet Lizzie with Uncle Abe up ahead.

A Smattering of Summer Fun

2008-07-02T13:20:00.004-06:00

I hadn't dumped my camera for a while, and I had a few treasures when I finally did. Enjoy!

Glimpses of me

2008-05-06T15:57:00.003-06:00

Most anyone will agree that I am pretty much surrounded by Dan in triplicate. I get it from strangers and family/friends alike. Truman is a little copy of Harrison who is a little copy of Dan. I consider myself fortunate and enjoy my little men being so much like their daddy. But I've got to say that I take great pleasure when I suddenly see something so unmistakably ME in them. It happened twice today. First, Harrison and I were partaking of some cake our sweet neighbor brought by (um, Dan, if you're reading this, you'll just have to take my word for it that they were incredibly small peices and didn't taste that great anyway...) and H-man stopped eating to point out the frosting and tell me he liked that part in particular. I guess I'd never taken the time to really discuss frosting with him before or how I can eat disturbing amounts of it. This is coming from the girl who is still known to snack on brown sugar when in a jam. Too sugary? Puh-lease, don't be a wuss. Anyway, it just gave me comfort to know that Harrison seems to have my sugar threshold. Some could look at it as cause for alarm, but I'm not worried; the kid eats veggies with the best of them.

The second little glimpse-of-me I got today was when we were coloring. We've got a big 48 color box of Crayolas and we like to wind down with them while Tru is napping and we're waiting for Daddy to get home. We'd been chatting and coloring for probably about half an hour when he started doodling with the plain green crayon. After a few scribbles he pronounced it was his favorite color. Maybe that doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but anyone who knows me that well, or has ever bothered to ask me what my favorite color is has heard me say that I love that green you get when you take the classic green Crayola and scribble as hard as you can. It's vibrant and beautiful. It just made me sentimental that Harrison saw beauty in the same thing I do.

Psst! I've got a secret!

2008-04-24T11:11:00.004-06:00

Okay, you may have attributed my silence on the web all to busy mom stuff. But I've got to tell you what is taking up all my spare minutes right now. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a cheapo about a lot of things. Why did none of you introduce me to the art of the coupon? Seriously, looking back I think I was an obvious candidate. Think what could have been clipped and saved if I'd started on this obsessive road years ago. I've been doing it for a couple of months now I think, and it's hilarious how giddy I can get about it all. For instance, take the picture below. On this particular Saturday morning, Dan and I made a couple of stops (Target and Kroger, and got everything pictured for $30 and change. If you were to look closely, you'd see that there are 32 items there, and some are bigger ticket items, like 4 jars of peanut butter, cheese, 3 lbs of beef, bags of apples, etc. It's absolutely fascinating to see what you can get for ultra cheap and free. We've got Pepperidge Farm Goldfish coming out our ears because we hit a big sale where we could get them for $.50 each, and then we had COUPONS, so they were FREE! I've taken the goal of trying for a percentage savings of greater than 50% everytime I shop. With a little planning I usually hit around 57%, but on my trip to Publix two days ago I hit a new record of just over 70%! See what I mean? I'm totally obsessed. And don't get me started on what you can get for free if you're willing to jump some rebate hoops. I don't think I'll have to buy toothpaste or toothbrushes for a long time. Anyway, I thought I'd hang out a little dirty laundry today so you know what I'm really up to.

It was bound to happen...

2008-04-20T13:15:00.003-06:00

Here's what we have to show from our first little urgent care trip with Harrison. Luckily we didn't even need stiches--just some super glue for skin. All-in-all, it was pretty pleasant for what it could have been. The gash is a result of a fall off of his Big John tractor that he thought would be fun to ride downhill.

We visited the fire station with a friend, Camden, last week. Fire men are so nice. They showed us all around, gave us hats and badges, let us sit in the truck, and took pictures with us. It was either a stroke of luck or a sign of my lax parenting that Harrison is sporting yellow rain boots that look appropriate with his hat. They were not donned especially for the occasion.

Truman is crawling everywhere and is obviously happy about it. The kid cracks me up.

Rocky's been having to pay the price for Tru's early mobility.

We're really loving the weather and enjoying Tennessee in the spring. So fantastic!

All part of the plan

2008-04-18T13:59:00.002-06:00

The real reason I wait so long between posts is that then I have exciting impressive news to report when I come back. Such as:

--We're potty trained. For real, I think. All I can really say about it is that Harrison has proven to me how very intelligent he is, and it was really easy once he was ready.
--Tru is army crawling and sittying up! In that order. The sitting up "for real" just happened a couple of days ago, after he was 7 months old, but that kid has been doing an impressive army crawl for a while now. I've had to get the baby gate back out, but that's a fair trade because I caught him spit-shining my floor today. I train 'em early.
--Truman is also eating a ton. His favorites to date are unmashed banana, peas, raw ground pear, and um, whole french fries. I know, the mom I used to be just shuddered, but the new hey-I'm-doing-good-to-remember-both-their-names mom that I am now thinks it makes eating out SO much easier.

Here are a few of my favorites that have popped out of H-man's mouth lately:

"The sun is happy today!" (Spoken on our first sunny warm day after a cold snap.)
"My hand is lonely." (Said when he wants Dan or I to hold his hand in the car.)
"You're the best mommy EVER!" (I swear, I don't know where that one came from, but it wasn't coached. I'll also admit that I was a total sucker for it, and he says it a lot now, just to butter me up. I'll take what I can get.)
"I fall in my pee, Mommy." (Okay, maybe that one's not as cute as the others, but if you had the mental image of what he looked like when he was saying it like I do, then you'd be laughing pretty hard.)

Anyway, we're filling our days with parks and picnics, walks and sunshine. Life is good.

The Great Communicator

2008-03-20T12:41:00.003-06:00

No, Ronald Reagan is not the topic of conversation today. I'm giving that title to Harrison for now. Not that Tru doesn't qualify. It's amazing how infants can quite clearly express emotions at impressive decibel levels. But I'm referring to the adult that is living in my little H-man's body. He snuck in a while ago and is getting quite bold and not even trying to disguise himself anymore. Did he think I wouldn't notice? Like a two-and-a-half (almost) year-old is really going to stroll by you in the kitchen and pause just long enough to amiably mention, "Pretty cold outside, Mom." Or, "Shhh, Baby Trumanator, Mommy here," as he distractedly peruses the contents of my shopping cart. And what about the time I ran upstairs to grab my wallet, came back down without it being in my hand (hey--moms have a lot on their minds) and he just cocked his head to one side and said with just a touch of, dare I say, pity in his eyes, "Wallet?"

Who ARE you? Of course, he'll be quick to tell you if you ask, "Me Air-sin, Mom, me Air-sin." But I'm not so sure.

I've got the bug

2008-03-13T12:47:00.002-06:00

Something about the change of seasons brings out the poet in me. Don't get me wrong, I don't like to write it, but I keep having bits of prose and stanzas of delicious morsels that I read a long time ago pop in my head as I drink in the sunshine and breeze on my skin. I'm going to bless you with a little Thorough for anyone who is also feeling similarly inspired. Love that guy:

Man was born. Whether that Artificer of things,
The origin of a better world, made him from the divine seed;
Or the earth, being recent and lately sundered from the high
Ether, retained some seeds of cognate heaven."

A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty. We loiter in winter while it is already spring. In a pleasant spring morning all men's sins are forgiven. Such a day is a truce to vice. While such a sun holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return. Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors. You may have known your neighbor yesterday for a thief, a drunkard, or a sensualist, and merely pitied or despised him, and despaired of the world; but the sun shines bright and warm this first spring morning, recreating the world, and you meet him at some serene work, and see how it is exhausted and debauched veins expand with still joy and bless the new day, feel the spring influence with the innocence of infancy, and all his faults are forgotten. There is not only an atmosphere of good will about him, but even a savor of holiness groping for expression, blindly and ineffectually perhaps, like a new-born instinct, and for a short hour the south hill-side echoes to no vulgar jest. You see some innocent fair shoots preparing to burst from his gnarled rind and try another year's life, tender and fresh as the youngest plant. Even he has entered into the joy of his Lord. Why the jailer does not leave open his prison doors -- why the judge does not dismis his case -- why the preacher does not dismiss his congregation! It is because they do not obey the hint which God gives them, nor accept the pardon which he freely offers to all.

Amen, Henry David, Amen.

Okay, Grandpa...

2008-02-24T21:14:00.003-06:00

I've received a few gentle nudges from people mentioning that blogging seems to have taken a back seat to other things in my life lately (it's more like it's hanging on by its fingernails from the back bumper...). I've taken these in stride, but when my sweet Grandpa Griffith starts talking to my husband about how I'm being outblogged by Kate and Kent (and we all know that Kate's doing all the work) then I've just got to do SOMETHING.

I've got cute kids. I'm not afraid to show them. I'm not reluctant to tell you things like how Harrison has started designating certain things as "special" and I just love it. For some reason, it always sounds really sweet when he uses that word. "What are you playing with, Harrison?" "This guy." Pause. "He's special, Mom. He's special." (By the way, in that particular conversation we were discussing an evil-looking, sombrero-wearing, hat-popping dude from his McD's Kids' Meal.)

Anyway--here are a few select moments from our world in the last little while:

Harrison was highly anticipating Grandpa Griffith (my dad, not MY Grandpa Griffith, who was mentioned at the beginning of this blog) and Grandma TT's visit so that he could eat a can a sardines with Grandpa. I thought I'd start him out easy, so I provided the packed-in-mustard variety and held my breath to see if he'd enjoy sardine time with my dad like I had. It was a success. He took it down without blinking. Look out, Uncle Kent--here comes a major eater.

Truman really only has eyes for Harrison if his big brother is around at all. Complete and total adoration. And H-man loves him back just as hard.

When big brother is asleep, then I can get a little lovin' from Mr. Truman-dous himself and that's when we have moments like this:

When we started gearing up for Valentine's Day, I discovered that Harrison loves getting crafty. We've started going to our library for story time mainly because afterward we get to make some rockin' crafts. He loves gluing, cutting, stickering, markering, etc. And he associates all of this with Valentine's Day, and continues to daily plead for me to make valentines with him well after the holiday is over. Luckily, he's got a mom who's a sucker for messy projects that involve pipe cleaners and yarn. Good stuff.

We did it!

2008-01-27T16:25:00.000-06:00

After a lot of hard work (see above) and hard play (see below), we have made a cool upgrade to Harrison's bedroom. Over Christmas I was looking at a magazine and saw a built-in bed that caught my eye because of all the storage that came with it. WELL, I just happen to be married to Mr. If-I-Don't-Know-How-To-Do-It-Right-Now-Then-I'll-Figure-It-Out-Pretty-Fast (Actually his name is Dan Gilbert) and he said to just give the word and he'd make it for me. Sigh. It is a charmed life I lead.
Anyway, I couldn't get a picture to truly do it justice. HUGE drawers underneath the bed, floor to ceiling bookshelves, and a beautiful built-in armoire. Now when y'all try to picture what I do with the boys all day, you can think of us all cuddled up there with a pile of books having a reading party. (I'd rather you picture that than some of the other not as sweet things we do every day.)

Thinking of you, Dot

2008-01-10T20:20:00.000-06:00

My grandma, Dorothy Jean Patton, passed away this morning, and I can't help but feel the world is a little less of a nice place to be because of it. I know it's human nature to remember only the best of someone after they are gone, but I promise you that I esteem Grandma Dot as one of the best good women of the world.

One of my earliest memories of Grandma happened while she was taking care of my sister and me. We must have been just horribly rotten and given her quite a time because she got frustrated and told us that she was going to come down and swat us on our bottoms. We'd never been threatened with violence from her before, and we took this challenge seriously. I can just picture Michelle and I intensely discussing the problem before coming up with a solution. We scurried into the bathroom, stuffed as much toilet paper as our pants would hold into our underwear, and then went to face our punishments. We thought we'd outsmarted her for sure. And down she came (I can only imagine what she thought when she saw our bulging behinds). I turned around and bent over, only to be shocked and almost disappointed at the little tap she planted on my rear. It was certainly like no spanking I'd received before. And that's when I learned something wonderful about grandmas in general, and mine in particular. They love us.

As a grown woman, I've had the chance to learn lots of other things about Miss Dorothy Jean. She believed in people like I've never seen anyone else do. As she attended all sorts of plays, concerts, and performances by her grandchildren she would tell us all so earnestly that we should go professional in whatever endeavor it happened to be. She wasn't just saying it to be nice; she really saw talent in us and wanted us to shoot for the moon. She always made me feel like I could do anything, with a wholehearted support I haven't encountered many other places. She loved my husband's malts and if I wasn't in love with him before she met him, you can bet she would have convinced me to be. I think she had a special soft spot for him--they were kind of kindred spirits in a lot of ways.

Grandma loved to blare her all-Elvis radio channel and I think she only turned it off when she was watching Fox News. I love that she loved Greta. Grandma could take in stride Harrison's "No way, Dot! No way!" first thing in the morning and still be ready and willing to bribe him with M&M's all the live long day. She watched an entire season of 24 in a three-day period with Dan and me. It'd be verging on midnight and us youngin's would be ready to turn in after three episodes in a row, but she'd have that gleam in her eye and say, "Are you ready for one more?"

Grandma used to come to church with us on General Conference Sundays. There was always a bit of strategery going on because we all wanted to sit by her. Not just when we were little, either. Sitting by Grandma at church meant that you'd be treated to one of those drowsiness-inducing hand massages that she had a special knack for. Heaven-on-Earth. But not to worry, even when you were beat out for the coveted seat, all was not lost. You could always count on a little blue roll of Certs, or a box of Tic Tacs to make its way down to you during the meeting. Not too long ago, I got to go to church with Gram and Michelle and her family. During the service I happened to glance down and saw that the tradition was being continued with Luke. I'm so glad he had the chance to get a Grandma Patton hand massage. Nothing like it.

I know I'm rambling. I had envisioned being able to sit down and write an eloquent, fabulous tribute to one of this blog's most ardent supporters and biggest fans. I'm failing at that, but I do want to at least express this. I love you, Grandma. I'm so glad I've had all the chances I've had to be with you, learn from you, love you, and be loved by you. I'm so happy that you've moved on to a place of greater peace and joy. I'm just sad for the rest of us that have been so spoiled by your attention and affection and are now at a loss. You are missed.

Things on my mind tonight

2008-01-09T21:28:00.000-06:00

I'm back, trying to stay afloat in the blogging world. It can be tough, getting back here often enough to keep your readership feeling satiated and not wanting to roam to greener pastures where the text is not only more frequent but much wittier. So here's a sampling of what's running through my mind tonight:

Here's a glimpse of the boys hanging out this past Saturday morning. I don't know why I love these kind of shots so much. I think it's something about the tired "I just woke up" eyes and the sweet little jammies. My favorite pictures of myself as a kid are morning p.j. shots like this and I want to make sure I have good ones for the boys.

Not to change the subject, but Aldi rocks. I'm munching on a delicious orange I purchased from said store today and get this--the whole bag of oranges cost 99 cents. Nice. Once in a while I'm mocked for driving half an hour to get to an Aldi, but people just don't know how much money you can save. Not to mention it's a block away from the day old bread store. That alone is worth the gas to get there.

I was making soup today and found myself with no onions. If I had realized I was out of them when I was at Aldi, I assure you I could have picked some up for a handsome price, but alas, I thought I had just got a bag. So, in the kitchen, without onions. Then I remember--a couple years back I purchased a number 10 can of dehydrated chopped onions for food storage. I dug through my food storage, found it, and now I have a heck of a lot of dried onion to go through. I'm feeling up to the challenge.

I'm becoming more Southern or something. In the last few months I've been catching myself saying "fer" instead of "for" and I'm not joking. Horrifying. I don't know how to stop it because I'm not even cognisant of it until after the fact. Also, my use of "got" has been annoying me. I don't know if I'm using it differently, or if I'm just becoming aware of it. Hmmm.

Oh!! This really belongs at the top of the blog, not here, but I'm on a roll and not gonna stop. Tru rolled over on Monday! That'd be January 7th. Not even four months old. I realize that may not be remarkable to a lot of people, but I'm coming from the vantage point of the mother of Harrison (Baby Lardo). He didn't roll till he was sitting up at six months. You put on one of those sumo wrestling suits and then you'll see why he was a late bloomer in that regard. Anyway, I'll post a pic of Tru doing a little tummy time soon.

Lastly, I wanted you to check out H-man loving on his tool bench he got for Christmas (Santa found it at Goodwill for $6!)

Another little nibble...

2008-01-05T10:38:00.000-06:00

Here's a couple more peeks into the Christmas vacation. Don't you love that wistful look on Tru's face when he's being held by Aunt April? I think he's thinking in his head how nice it would be to go home with her.... But he looks pretty happy with Aunt Jamie too. The kid loves his aunts! Almost as much as H-man loves his cousins. I'm finding that I didn't get hardly any pics of Mimi, Walker, and Lizzie. I'll try to search through what other people took, because they're just too cute to not show off.

You eat an elephant one bite at a time

2008-01-02T12:01:00.000-06:00

I have so many things I want to report on and several musings I'd like to ramble on with for a while and I'm overwhelmed. I'm starting with just the snow fun Harrison had with his Daddy up in Michigan over Christmas. I knew he loved being outside here in Nashville, but I wasn't sure how he'd take the cold. Please. I should have known by now--the kid loves the outdoors. He took like a fish to water playing with his Alaska cousins Bradley and Clayton. They were his instant idols. Here are a few of the highlights from his snow fun.

About to burst

2007-12-18T22:32:00.000-06:00

Who has time to blog living the life I do? Can you believe that I get to be with these boys EVERY DAY? I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

I love you guys!

2007-12-07T13:58:00.001-06:00

Can I just gush for a minute? I have been blessed with some freaking amazing people in my life and I just need to let gratitude erupt for just a sec or I might explode.

Two of my absolute fantastic college BFF's surprised me out of the blue last weekend to show up for my Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. I want to cry every time I think about how adorable they are. Bren and Rob, I don't think you understand how much I needed that. Thank you.
Shell, I'm becoming increasingly horrible about blogging and checking other people's blogs, but every time I check yours my heart smiles. I want to be a mom like you and write like you. I'm not sure which of those I want more.
Dad, you drove twenty-two hours out of your way just so I could stay and soak up a couple extra days of Iowa home lovin. It makes me so happy to see my boys loving on you and Katy and Mom. It even makes me happy to see one of my boys looking you in the face, putting out his hand, and saying, "No way, Dot, no way!" (You can fill the name in with whoever happens to be around). I love that you don't take Harrison's slightly-unsocial tendencies personally. And Gramma Dot, he's still talking about you and your Ms.
Brit, every coversation I have with you about my jewelry adventure is such a boost to my spirit. You have such a gift for giving support and encouragement and I am so grateful for it right now. I'll remember you when I'm a millionaire jewelry diva.
Danny boy, you approach life with such enthusiasm and it helps me try to do the same. I'm looking forward to the 7pm showing of Frosty the Snowman , complete with eggnog and popcorn like you wouldn't believe. It's been the talk of the house all day.
Kyle, you pretty much never update your blog, but your latest was so hilarious it's what made me laugh outloud and start thinking about all the people in my life that make me feel good. Where did you find that? Seriously funny.

Of course, that's not all the great people that are daily inspiring me. It's just what I could get down while both boys slept. You should be impressed that I got as far as I did. Kisses and holiday cheer to everyone!

Where do you keep the Magic Eraser?

2007-11-14T21:03:00.000-06:00

Not words you want to hear. Ever. Right, Cora? I'm happy to report that permanent marker on vintage Formica is no match for Mr. Clean. If I was a celebrity I would insist on endorsing those things. I really think they have a little magic in them.

We're getting so excited for the holidays. Publix got us in the mood last night when we attended their "Holiday Fest." I didn't even have to make dinner. Samples galore. Good ones. Jumbo shrimp, stuffing, turkey, crab cakes, Christmas cookies, and on and on and on. The high point was when I tentatively let Harrison try the eggnog. I believe my exact words to Dan as I gave it to him were, "What if he's one of those freaks who doesn't like eggnog? I'm not sure I can handle that." Puh-lease. I didn't need to worry. I've never heard him squeal and smack his lips like he did last night. He's a fellow nog aficionado. I can rest easy.

13...the Magic Number

2007-11-04T10:30:00.001-06:00

I think it was just a week or two ago that I reported Harrison's ability to count to three. Well, since then he'd gone a little higher and Dan and I have been shocked every time since we haven't been doing much counting with him. Yesterday morning, as we were lazily hanging out in bed (all four of us), Harrison just started happily counting. Dan's and my eyes locked and our eyebrows raised when he made it up to nine without any prompting; then we just sat there as he quickly and clearly kept reciting all the way up to THIRTEEN! We just silently laughed as he then proceeded to repeat "thirteen" at least five more times. I don't know where he picked it up, and he refuses to count at all if I try to join in or prompt him at all (he says, "Mommy, No!" while doing the Swiper, no swiping hand motion).

I had to call Mom right away to tell her about my Mensa-bound tot and she said that Grandma Dot claimed to be able to count to 100 before she was three. Is this true, Dot? I think Harrison's taking it as a personal challenge.

Fat and Sassy

2007-11-03T13:17:00.000-06:00

That just seems like an appropriate post title after Halloween. And pregnancy. As you can see, though he occasionally gets slapped around a little by big brother, or left in his bassinet a little longer than he'd like by Mom, Tru is proving to be a man of pretty good temperament. His smiles are coming more often and he's starting to coo so sweetly to me. I love it.
Harrison has been cracking us up. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. The glasses that he got for Halloween are more of an unintentional thing. I think he likes to put them on cause they're like the glasses Mommy wears, and he'll just walk around with them for a while talking seriously to me. I have no choice but to try to take him seriously.

I don't have any actual trick-or-treating pics, but you can check out a couple great ones of Harrison hitting the neighborhood with Hunter here. It was only a matter of time before I started just referring people to Britt's blog to see Harrison's life. I can't help it. He loves hanging with his BFF.

As might be becoming more and more obvious, H-man wears his "Bones" outfit a lot. This shot reminds me of Mr. Mom when the dude is shot and falls on the chalked body outline, but then has to get up and realign himself.

As a second-time-around mom, I didn't get around to getting a "first bath" picture until now. But it's sweet anyway, right?

We went on a gorgeous family hike this morning. I just love Tennessee in the fall. And I love being married to Dan, because he drags me out for stuff like this that I wouldn't do without him but end up loving. The weather was beautiful. The scenery was beautiful. My family is beautiful.

Seeing it for the first time again

2007-10-27T18:12:00.000-06:00

Last night, Harrison helped me see the autumn moon through fresh eyes. We were driving in the car when he first commented on how big and bright it was and begged to get out to get a better look. When we finally stopped, he stood and looked at it for a long time, then slowly lifted his hands above his head, paused to gather all his potential energy, and then jumped as high as he could (probably about three inches) while saying, "Touch. Moon. Touch. Moon." My heart melted about fifteen times while I watched him repeat again and again. He really thought he could get it. I love how taken he was by the moon, and it made me look at it and appreciate it like I haven't since I was two years old. Go out and try to touch your harvest moon tonight.

Out of excuses

2007-10-25T12:52:00.000-06:00

Well, I know the customary waiting period for a lot of things after you have a baby is six weeks; you know, six weeks till you start working out, six weeks till you have a check-up with your OB-GYN, so I was just assuming that was the appropriate amount of time for me to entirely check out of the blog world.

Aaah, it was a nice break. But I'm back and we've been doing all kinds of fun stuff, so I've got to try to catch you up to speed.

I am so excited fall is finally here. A few weeks ago I kept pulling out my big cozy sweatshirts and wearing them around in the 90 degree weather. I was unsuccessful in that attempt to make autumn come faster. So I finally gave up on that, and what do you know, it came on its own. I'm loving having a little man to talk to all day about ghosts and pumpkins and leaves and the concept of trick-or-treating. When Halloween is here, we're going to be READY. The boys each have two Halloween outfits, so we have some sort of festive attire on nearly every day.

Baby Tru Update: He's growing like a weed and we love him to death. From early on, it's been apparent that he's an advanced little dude. His umbilical cord came off when he was three days old. If that's not a sign of how gifted he is, then I don't know what you're waiting for. It's a good thing it did come off that early because when we brought him home and Harrison saw it, I told him it was an owie so that he wouldn't try to touch it. Sweet Harrison got so concerned when I told him that Truman had an owie. He looked at it for another second, then just laid down and whimpered. It was so sweet to see the brotherly affection he felt for Tru right away.

H-man Update: This kid is a sponge right now. He knows all of his phonics and he has for a while, but now we can add that he's got his colors conquered, can count to three, and is in the process of mastering his shapes. Art projects are some of his favorite things to do right now, along with going to Goodwill and playing with all the toys in the aisle. He now sleeps in his big boy bed pretty much every night. He's growing up so fast, I'm expecting him to start shaving any day now. The other day he was given a helium balloon that he loved; over and over he'd say, "Mom, watch this!" and then release the balloon to the ceiling. It was my job to retrieve the balloon and then we'd do it again. (x 30) Anyway, we came down for breakfast the next morning and Harrison was delighted to find his balloon waiting for him. It didn't register as strange that it was waiting for him on the floor. He picked it up and said, "Mom, watch this!" and I got a little sad because I knew he was about to be disappointed. He was. He wanted me to fix it and I couldn't. He learned a sad little life lesson about the life of a balloon that day.

Jen Update: I just got contacts and am heading back to the gym. Feeling good and under control at least 60% of the time. I'm still making a few desperate "What were we thinking!?!" phone calls to Dan when things are a bit hairy, but I think he'll attest to the fact that those are getting fewer and far between as time moves on. I'm not sure I can envision being a mom to anybody else right now, but we'll see if that feeling changes once I've got this down (assuming that ever happens).

Dan Update: My better half is of course staying busy. He finished repainting the upstairs and is working on various odd jobs around the house right now. I leave him in charge of both boys twice a week when I am tutoring and he not only keeps everyone safe and unharmed, he also has the energy to carve pumpkins with them with no help from me. I would have never had the guts to attempt it, but as you can see, it was a success.

2007-09-17T16:14:00.001-06:00

And then there were four

2007-09-12T20:18:00.000-06:00

With the utmost pride of a mother, I'd love to annouce Truman Daniel Gilbert's arrival into the world. He came "down, down, down" as Harrison says at 7:09 am yesterday (Tuesday, September 11) and has been blessing us ever since. A little bit smaller than H-man, Truman was 8 lbs, 1 oz and 21 1/4 inches long. Everything went fantastically; I'm feeling very well considering. I'm keeping this one short, with just a couple pics. I'll add some sweet video tomorrow. Thank you to all the friends and loved ones who have reached out to us since we're not close to family. We are so blessed.

Who's the prego?

2007-09-06T03:56:00.001-06:00

Dan and I always crack a smile when someone mentions "nesting." We first heard the term in our pregnancy and delivery class we took before Harrison joined us. The idea is that a pregnant woman will have all these urges to "nest," like cleaning, organizing, preparing the home for baby, etc and it's usually a sign that labor and delivery are close.

We smile because Dan and I both know I'm not much of a nester. I think I am probably nesting a little more this time than last. I have had urges to complete several things hanging over my head, like scrapbooks and the purging of a lot of extemporaneous possessions, but on the whole, not a big nester.

But as I laid awake for the last two hours in bed (it's five AM now), it occurred to me that Dan's been the one that's nesting. Check out his list of completed projects for the last few weeks:

added more track lighting and pendant lighting to the kitchen
fixed drywall problems and nail pops in the stairway and upstairs and then repainted
added a ceiling medallion and fixed the height to our breakfast nook light fixture
reupholstered my rocking chair for me
turned our back deck into a covered porch (this was a much bigger project than anticipated)
tightened all our toilets (??? I wasn't even aware they needed this done, but Dan suddenly got it in his head he couldn't rest until they were all tightened)
majorly assisted with the dresser, including figuring out how to make the old hardware usable
lots of mopping and cleaning for me

Anyway, I hope this doesn't count as total bragging up my hubby. If it does, so be it. I'm just SO appreciative of all the work he's been doing to try to make this place feel ready for the new guy and I want to put it on record that I know how blessed I am to have such an amazingly supportive husband, not to mention how smokin' hot he is. Thank you, Danny. You rock.

How do you like me now?

2007-09-03T20:21:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure that the relationship my mother and I have is totally normal, but I have a feeling it is not super unusual. The aspect of it I'm pondering right now is my mother's reaction when she heard through the grapevine that I was painting an antique dresser that had belonged to my great-great grandfather. I got one of those voice mails that didn't mention the REAL reason she was calling, but when I called her back it didn't take too long for the truth to come out. She was concerned. Why not just stain it, she said. Well, I can't get into everything, but it would have been a VERY tedious job to strip and stain this thing. It had already sustained enough damage that I knew it didn't have any real "antique" value, and I just wanted it to look nice enough and function well enough that it became something I enjoyed owning, instead of a rickety thing that sat empty in my bedroom (which has been its function for the last year).

Anyway, I knew mom was a doubter. She tried as gently as she could to change my mind. Granted, I guess she has cause to worry. I have shown in the past a love of flamboyant color. I'm sure lots of people would not paint their child's room the shade of green that covers Harrison's walls. Maybe she thought I was going to go purple--I don't know. But anyway, today Dan and I finished up our little dresser project. After a couple of trips to Lowe's and the Depot, Dan was even able to rework the original hardware so that it was sturdy and usable. We're both pleased as punch at how it turned out and wanted to show it off here. I'm hoping, Mom, that we did you right and you find it an improvement.

Honestly, I have nothing better to do

2007-08-29T03:42:00.001-06:00

It's 4:43 in the morning and I just finished cleaning my fish bowl. I have officially run out of things to do to avoid blogging. It was this, or pick things up off the floor, and I'm not that desperate yet. For other mommies out there besides my own and my mother-in-law who I think found being pregnant fun, I've hit the wall. I hurt and I can't sleep. Hmmmm. We've been up to all sorts of fun that I haven't mentioned lately, so let me fill you in.

We went to the Iowa State Fair. This was the Dan Gilbert family's sixth annual trip. Harrison might sum it up by saying "Hot, hot, hot," which is what he's learned to say whenever we walk outside these days. And it was hot, but also fantastic. I didn't partake in nearly as many festivities as usual (I spent most of my time at base camp--Grandma and Grandpa Griffth's camper), but it was more than worth it to see Dan helping Harrison discover the wonders of the fair. In anticipation of the heat, I buzzed H-man's head and pronounced it "fair hair," but I like it short so much, I just might do it again.

Harrison was just as happy at the camper as he was down seeing the sights. My parents brought up all kinds of play farm equipment for him to play with and my sweet Grandma Griffith had a special peice of astro-turf just for him. He was so pleased. It's 106 degrees out here? Puh-lease, people. I've got tractors to move.

We also went boating with Michael and Jessica and their darling Clayton. When Michael told me he wanted to spend all day on the water, I kind of laughed at him and said we'd give it a try, but that I didn't think we'd last that long without a nap for Harrison. There was something magical about the boat and whenever we were driving fast, it just lulled him into this zone. He would just cuddle in my arms and enjoy the wind on his face. It was so fun. We did a lot of swimming and Dan even took to the tube with our little man. I was proven wrong about the whole nap thing. When Harrison got tired, I just suggested to him to lay down on a big deflated tube with a blanket on it and he did it without a word. I was flabbergasted.

I have more I could update right now, but I have the feeling that I might be taking this pre-sunrise opportunity a few more times in the next couple weeks. So I'll leave it for now.

The Blog of a Potty Trainer: Day One

2007-08-20T20:21:00.000-06:00

I'm taking a quick respite from all the other things I SHOULD be blogging about to chronicle our potty training adventures. After urging from our pediatrician and a nagging feeling of desperation that I may never have a spare moment to work one-on-one with Harrison until he's twelve after the baby gets here, I decided to give it a go. So here's how it went:

10:46 am After vowing to purchase big-boy pants "first thing" in the morning, I emerge from Target with a 7-pack of Elmo training pants. Harrison chose them and he is pleased.

11:51 am We arrive back at the house after running a few other errands. Training pants are put on. I decide to attire him in a t-shirt and underwear only so I have a better view of what's going on. We hang out in the bonus room (that was for you, Kent) watching a newly rented Sesame Street video, reading newly checked out books, and building with our blocks. I'm reticent to let him take a nap till "something" happens.

1:17 pm "Something" happens. I'd been trying to keep Harrison on or very close to me so I would be aware of new moisture, but I let him crawl into the tent we have set up and in less than a minute he pokes his head out and says, "Uh-oh....potty." I guess it was kind of fortunate because the puddle he was standing in was very easy to clean up on the water-resistant tent floor.

1:30 pm I put H-man down for a nap, in dry Elmos.

3:20 pm He wakes up in wet Elmos. Unhappy and possibly embarrassed. I tell him it's okay that he wet the bed, but he doesn't seem to believe me. We put on another pair of Elmos.

4:55 pm I'm keeping H-man pretty much on my lap, reading books and waiting. The phone rings, I let him wander for like, two minutes while I'm on the phone, and before I know it, he's in another puddle. This time we're down stairs, so it's nice to just clean up the wood floor.

5:16 pm I'm giving him lemonade and juice to drink to keep the fluids flowing. Some more flowed, this time while he was in the garage, and he came running in to tell me with it flowing down his leg. We have yet to get any of this fluid into a potty.

5:51 pm One more small wet mess. We're running out of Elmos. I'm getting a little frustrated. He doesn't seem to be concerned about telling me anthing until after the fact. When it's on my floor. I decide that we're done for the day and put him in a diaper.

6:19 pm We're just finishing dinner and Harrison grabs his diaper and says "Pooh" which is what he's taken to saying every time he wets his Elmos. I ask him if he's peeing and he says, "Yes," so I tell Dan to get him on the pot ASAP. This time something is different. I'm not sure he had peed at all in his diaper, or just saved some, but HE PEED IN THE TOILET! Yeah! Mom and Dad spaz out, H-man is proud, and Dora gummies are rewarded to the little man.

8:11 pm I return from tutoring to find both of my guys waiting for me on the front porch. While I'd been gone, Harrison had had ANOTHER successful go at the potty without doing any in his diaper first at all. He was so proud of himself.

And that's all I've got for today. I have no idea if any of this will carry over to tomorrow or if we'll have a lot of backsliding. Whatever it turns out to be, it was interesting and kind of fun. Wish us luck tomorrow. I've got to go wash all the Elmos.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens....

2007-08-06T21:00:00.000-06:00

A few things that are making me smile these days:

Harrison will be working (it really seems closer to that than playing) with his assorted vehicles and roadways. He must have some definite action in his mind that he wants played out. As he moves things around and arranges them, he softly mutters, "Okay, 'kay....'kay...." It's very intense.
He has begun calling Dan "Owie Face" when we do our family kisses at night. It makes me feel very womanly and feminine that my cheek feels so much softer than Dan's.
We talk a lot in the course of a day. I didn't realize how much until Dan started commenting about it when we were in the car. We started timing him, and Harrison couldn't go more than 14 seconds without calling out, "Mommy--mommy--mommy!!" until I answered him. He did make one 40 second stretch, but that was only because I was already talking to him during that interval. It's maddening but sweet. I promise--I am not exaggerating on the numbers I quoted you. This is my life.
Harrison is starting to do more and more phrases instead of single words. My favorite new one is "Stinky Toes," which comes out clear as a bell.
We have pottied twice on the potty! He goes days without any interest, but we're feeling semi-successful about it when he does want to sit down and have a go at it. Rock on.
I can't believe I haven't mentioned it before now, but we are officially BINKY-FREE. This momentous event happened while we were in Michigan. I'm glad I've got some time for him to get used to this before the little one arrives, who might be using binkies of his own.
Our garage sale last weekend went fantastically and I'm feeling nicely decluttered.
I just today finished my first scrapbook ever. I bought a pretty expensive one about four years ago and have been lugging it and assorted supplies from one place to the next. I used it to chronicle Dan and I's first year and a half together. Good times. That was back when we used to take pictures of each other instead of the little man.
In the past two days, I've recieved two baby gifts--both adorable baby boy blankets. This makes me happier than you can possibly know because I didn't get a one when I had Harrison and I didn't buy any either. That means I used vintage ones my mom gave me and a borrowed one from my sister. Yeah for baby blankets!

I didn't mean to ramble on and on. Who would have thought I'd have nine happy moments to gush about? Since I made it this far, I think I'll just round it out to an even ten....

10. Danny made fresh salsa/bean deliciousness tonight using Brit's recipe (holla, holla!) and then let me eat it as my one and only course for dinner. Mmmm.

The Alien Rash

2007-07-25T20:46:00.000-06:00

So, I was at Publix (only the best grocery store EVER) this afternoon with Brit and Hunter (and H-man of course). It was a fantastic trip. Shopping truly is a pleasure at Publix. Harrison and Hunter sat side-by-side in one of those race-car carts and seemed to really enjoy the experience. They screamed and squealed like girls together just to see how many looks they could get. They plastered kisses on one another. They each partook in the fabulous Cookie Club. Brit and I were mistresses of efficiency, getting the things we needed in record time, finding great coupons, all the while keeping the boys happy and entertained.

Sigh. Those kind of trips make you feel like a maternal success.

Then something weird happened. As we were loading the boys into the car, Brittany noticed a strange swollen ring of welts on little Hunter's wrist. She said that earlier he'd had a couple spider bites there, so were were alarmed with the bizarrely precise nature of this rash. It was the epidermal equivalent to crop circles. We hurried home so that Brittany could get Hunter into the doctor and have this malady diagnosed.

Is everyone ready for this? How many of you have guessed it? The idea was just too horrifying for us to have considered, but I'm ready to face it now. That's right. My little sweetie had at some point in our excursion tried to bite Hunter's arm off. He was only successful in leaving a red, raised tattoo of each and every one of his teeth. Not a mother's proudest moment. Unless you count the fact that he has great, evenly spaced teeth.

I'm including a picture, but you must believe me that the marks are much darker than the camera showed.

As a bonus, I'm throwing in a pic from later in the evening when we were babysitting our little friend, Jake. Harrison was being sweet and giving Jake a ride down our driveway. Dan was so proud that he decided to capture the moment with his camera phone. Trouble is, there's a little lag with that and we ended up getting the next moment, which wasn't quite as sweet.

Poor kid, he never saw it coming.

Have you finished yet?

2007-07-22T18:41:00.000-06:00

Okay, the last Harry Potter has been out for almost 48 hours now. Can I safely assume we've all read it? If you haven't, you're missing out. Sadly, Dan and I opted out of the midnight book release party this year (being parents automatically makes you lame) and so we weren't able to pick it up till Saturday morning. We got our little family all dressed and ready to go and drove up to Cool Springs (about a 25 minute drive) and . . . they didn't open till nine. We had to kill some time, but it was fun to see such a big rush for it the following morning. I guess I figured all the diehards had got it the night before, but there was a huge line that we had to wait in.

I'd recently been talking with my sister-in-law Jamie about all the great "communities" she's a part of or interested in. It made me feel like I didn't have any interests that I was exploring well enough, but seeing everybody at Borders do this up-and-down look as they take in your anxious grasp of your long-awaited copy of the final HP tome and knowing that we'd all be cracking it open before we even got out of the parking lot made me feel a little better. I'm part of a community too. Just one that likes to picture themselves apparating wherever they need to go.

Anyway, loved the book.

We saw a black bear!

2007-07-15T20:19:00.000-06:00

Okay, maybe not this particular bear, but on our trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, somebody who looked a lot like this ran in front of our car. For an Iowa girl like me, it was a very exciting experience. I had no idea they ran so fast. Our own little Baby Bear had so much fun on the trip--especially doing anything that involved playing in sand. Luckily, that was pretty often. We went to an air show on the beach in Traverse City, climbed up the sand dunes on the shores of Lake Michigan in Leelanau County, and played in the sand in Grandma and Grandpa Gilbert's backyard.

Harrison loved the air show. And whenever he got bored, he'd throw sand in his hair till something big and loud came by overhead.
We visited Tahquamenon Falls up by Whitefish Point, but H-man was entirely too tuckered out to really enjoy those natural wonders.

Gift shops were more his style anyway. Lots of toys to play with.

Other highlights of the trip included Mom taking Jamie and I out for facials, manicures, and pedicures. Talk about pampering! Grandpa, Abe, and Dan took Walker and Harrison for at least half a day for us to be able to do that and it was fantastic. Thank you, Doris!

We also got to see (part of) the cabin up in Paradise, Michigan where Dan spent so many summer days at when he was a kid. I think he really enjoyed showing Harrison around his old stomping ground.

When we got home, we had THE GARDEN to face. It was really jungle-y and kind of scary. Japanese beetles took over some of the corn, and that's just gross. I'm determined to be a little more un-organic next year and anyone who has a problem with it can just tell me they'd rather be sharing their food with all those nasty beasts.

Check out a sampling of our harvest today. Yes, that's a pumpkin. Anyway--butternut squash....any ideas for using huge amounts of it?

Oh! and a big welcome to Mom and Dad Gilbert to the blogging world. Check them out in my list of Cool People.

Garden Pride or Garden Panic?

2007-07-02T18:00:00.000-06:00

I love putting in the garden. I could putt all day. Except for the middle part when it's beastly hot. But I like the watering, the light weeding, the picking of a nice little bit of produce. I even like picking beans. Really. And the snapping is fun too. Harrison and I have a system where I take the ends off and then hand the bean to him and he grunts and bends it till it breaks in half. But my pleasure has mutated to something close to panic right now. As I was out picking beans and watching Dan pick tomatoes from our eight plants (what was I thinking) I found myself wording an email to my neighbors in my head asking them to please come relieve us of some of these vegetables. The corn has just come in and it's delicious! But there's a lot of it. As I write this, Harrison is out eating raw corn on the cob and strolling the rows. Don't even get me started on the zucchini and cucumbers. My zucchini bread loaf count is currently an even 20, with enough shredded for the next batch of four loaves awaiting me in the fridge. See how easy it is to get feeling overwhelmed? I've got no time for blogging, people; I'm baking bread with homegrown vegetables here!

So, if anyone who's reading this is within visiting distance...we've got vegetables.

Memorial Day

2007-06-01T16:19:00.000-06:00

Bob, Doris, Lauren, Jamie, and Walker all came down to visit for Memorial Day weekend and we had so much fun. Dan and Lauren redid the landscaping out front and it looks fabulous. Walker and Harrison had a pool party with Hunter. And about 40 games of Scrabble were played. Lauren continues to defy all odds by losing the majority of games, but whenever "The Title" is on the line, he pulls it out and wins. If you could only use that random talent to somehow make money, Lauren.... Speaking of which, I should draw everyone's attention to the newest addition to my list of Cool People. Lauren started a blog so we can all keep up with him while he's in Egypt this summer. I'm sure it will be packed with details of his travels and maybe a little Scrabble wisdom for us poor souls who do not currently hold "The Title."

Sorry if this sounds rushed; I just wanted to get a couple of pics up before we left for Gatlinburg tomorrow.

Defying all known rules concerning Pringles and keyboards

The boys of summer

Popsicles and naked babies just go together, right?

Dan's sweet landscaping

Sharing a popsicle with Mom

Where to go from here

2007-05-24T07:20:00.001-06:00

Well, Dan and I did it. We've played the perfect game of Contra. That means no deaths, no mistakes, straight to "Alien's Lair" to take on the Vile Red Falcon. It's been a long time coming. We've been so close so many times, and now we've reached the pinnacle of everything we've worked for. It's almost a let down. What now? Does society have room for us? We've proven ourselves to be masters, and I'm not sure what to do now. Go ahead, be awestruck.

What we've been doing

2007-05-16T10:10:00.000-06:00

Hey, no one can accuse Dan and Jen Gilbert of not keeping busy. Or at least not keeping Harrison busy. Sometimes I let a ton of stuff fall through the cracks without mentioning it, so I thought I'd treat you to a slide show of some of the stuff. I also stole a couple cute pictures of Walker and Harrison from Jamie's blog. Holla, girl! They are from last weekend when we went up for Walker's birthday. He's one! The bathtub shot is from one of two baths they took together in the course of like five hours. They sure know how to get dirty!

Too big for our britches...err...crib

2007-05-15T10:20:00.000-06:00

When this little saga started about a week ago, I found it amusing and was turning over in my head how to most wittily blog it. Then things got not so funny....

One morning last week I went in to get Harrison out of bed. I'd heard him playing for a while in there. When I went in, the lamp on the other side of the changing table had been turned on. To appreciate what I'm talking about, you need to know how Harrison's room is set up. He has a crib with an attached changing table. Then there is a bed set up in the other corner, and there is a floor lamp next to the bed and fairly close to the changing table.

Anyway, when I came in first thing in the morning that lamp was on. Weird. You have to turn it on by hand and I couldn't understand why Dan would have turned it on when he put Harrison to bed the night before. Needless to say, I turned it off and Harrison and I started our day. Morning naptime rolled around and we were right on schedule. H-man took a great morning nap and I went in to get him after hearing him play in his crib for a while. The light was on again. Now I was stumped. I KNEW I had turned it off. After pondering for a while, I came to a conclusion that made me laugh: Harrison had to have climbed from his crib up onto the changing table, and then leaned over and turned the light on, and then climbed back down into his crib. It was the only possible solution and it seemed comically surreal to picture it happening.

That evening Dan was gone and I put Harrison to bed myself. When I walked out of the room, I felt a little uneasy, wondering if it was really possible that H-man had done the acrobatics I imagined him to have done. It's one thing to do that in the light of day, but what if he tried in the dark? I stood by the door for about a minute listening to him cry and then opened the door to peak in. There he was in a pitch dark room standing on top of that table! I was scared out of my wits.

Anyway, I'm making this longer then it needs to be. Here's what ended up happening:

I didn't put Harrison back in his crib, but kept him up horribly late until he fell asleep in my bed.
I made Dan lower the mattress about 3 inches to the lowest notch.
We thought our problem was solved and went a day or two with no further incident.
Then I walked in on Harrison playing on top of the table.
We were in a quandry.
Harrison fell off of the table onto his head and got rug burn on his face.
Jamie gave me the idea of putting something big and heavy on the table so that there is no room for him to get onto the table in the first place.
We put a big rubbermaid container of books there.
There have been no further incidents.

And that's that.

Below I've recreated what I saw upon entering H-man's room the other day--

All crib items dumped on the floor (this is customary)

An empty crib

A busy boy

Our little one

2007-05-03T18:20:00.000-06:00

Well, we had the big doctor's appointment on Tuesday and now know a little more about the person making a home inside of me. Harrison is pleased to announce that he is preparing to train up his little brother with all the good things he needs to know. Like how to get so much nasty sand up your diaper that Daddy finally yells out for Mom in frustration in the middle of a diaper change. So, yes, it's a BOY!

We're so excited! It makes things seem a little more real now that we have an idea of who is in there. We're still not sure at all about names, so if anyone has any suggestions, we'd love to hear'em. I'm the kind of person who likes to figure the name out soon, because I like to talk to him and call him by his name.

If you're doubting whether we're 100% sure about the sex, I've included a pretty incriminating shot of our little man. The ultrasound tech was so excited; she said she hadn't seen such a good shot of "the little turtle" in a long time. Dan is proud.

How I found the binkies

2007-04-27T12:50:00.000-06:00

People are inspired in strange ways. I'm not talking about spiritual inspiration, but more like the way you feel after watching Rocky or The Biggest Loser. I get that kind of inspiration when I read any of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. I know, it's weird. I also know that they're for children. I can't even lump them into the Adolescent Lit genre that I still justify reading "in case I go back to teaching, I'll know what's out there." Right. Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, and Lemony Snickett just rock. That's why I read them.

So anyway, in the last week/week and a half, I've read: Little House in the Big Woods, On the Banks of Plum Creek, By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, and then this morning I read These Happy Golden Years. Laugh if you must, but I can't hide how much I like these books. As a result of reading so much in such a short time, I keep finding myself thinking about how Ma and Pa and Laura would respond in my situation and what they would say about my work ethic and house cleaning habits.

And that brings us to how I have found two lost binkies in the last week. One came when I was doing an extra thorough sweeping (with a store-bought broom, nonetheless--no homemade hickory one for me) and found Harrison had hid one in a never-used trashcan that slides under his little table. My really exciting find came when I was doing a random vacuuming and organizing of my utility closet and found one amongst extra vacuum attachments. If I hadn't been reading Laura Ingalls, I don't think I would have found that till Harrison was well done with the bink.

So thank you, Laura. You are an amazing woman that led an amazing life. I got butterflies when I read about Almonzo proposing to you this morning. You deserve such a man.

Here's a pic of Harrison enjoying the newly-reacquired binkies (note the smokin' hot haircut):

Downtown

2007-04-26T08:44:00.000-06:00

Super quick, I just wanted to get this down so I can come back and remember this morning. Harrison and I were playing and wrestling on my bed, and I had the oldies radio station turned on fairly loud. We were hiding in the blankets and sheets and laughing pretty hard. The song "Downtown" was on and whenever the lady would sing it (she sings it a lot in the song) Harrison would yell after her, "Down-Down!" He had this little staccato pause between the syllables. It made me laugh and him too. Afterward, when we were both lying there catching our breath, Harrison would every once in a while giggle and softly say, "Down-Down." I love being a mom.

Dan's shoutout!

2007-04-24T19:56:00.000-06:00

This is a great video that reminded me of my youth. Also, this is my first blog update ever. Notice it has nothing to do with my family and Harrison still likes me more than he likes his mom!!!! Just kidding. But seriously, he is a daddy's boy and likes me the most. Just kidding. But seriously......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMR7veI78f8

Does it get any better than this?

2007-04-24T08:53:00.000-06:00

I've been feeling more blessed than ever lately with the weather getting so nice. It makes parenting a lot easier somehow; Harrison loves exploring outside and I just look on to make sure he doesn't fall in a ditch or anything. That's right--you can call me SuperMom. (Note that I didn't say a word about making sure he didn't swallow any big rocks...I like to pick my battles.)

So twice last week we went on morning walks with Britt and Hunter down to see the horses. We even brought carrots with us the second time. They were the kind of postcard-perfect kind of walks where you wouldn't change an element of the weather or your surroundings. It was really fun.

I keep getting surprised by how big H-man is. He insisted on standing on the fence on his own and he did a pretty good job. He even managed to give the mule and horse some baby carrots without losing any fingers.

Fortunately, Britt is a much better documenter than me, so I have video and some sweet pics to always remember those mornings.

Kind of like our first Easter

2007-04-14T16:03:00.000-06:00

Though Harrison was around 7 months last Easter, he wasn't super AWARE of things yet, if you know what I mean. For that reason, this time around kind of felt like a first for him. As soon as he realized there were yummies in the eggs, we didn't have a problem getting him to walk around the yard looking for eggs. A difficulty did arise once he had one in each hand. He was reluctant to put any in his basket; I guess he didn't trust that he'd get them back. So we didn't end up with too big of a hoard. Which was fine with Momma.

There were too many cute pics to put them in one-by-one, so I'm including a slideshow of our favorites. I'm also throwing in one from last year (also celebrated in Birmingham) so that you can see how much our chunky monkey has slimmed down and grown up. Enjoy!

DEEE-troit BASKET-ball

2007-04-13T16:21:00.000-06:00

I can't even begin to tell you about our fantastic Easter until I say a little something about our trip to Detroit. Harrison proved that he can handle flying no problem and we met Mom Gilbert at the airport. How lucky were we to have a grandma willing to give up her spring break to hang out in a hotel with Harrison? (Pretty lucky is right.)

Dan and I got to see the Tigers, Red Wings, and Pistons play. We loved every second of it...except for the humiliating Piston loss. But even that was fun, just to be in the same arena with these guys that I've come to love.

We also did a day trip with Dan's Uncle Fred to the Henry Ford Museum. It was such a fascinating collection of innovation from the beginning of America to the present. Also, it's a Gilbert family rule to go to any IKEA that is within 50 miles of where we are, so you know where we spent several hours. Dan tries to be supportive, but I've never seen him leave an IKEA without being a complete grouch. It is a tad overwhelming, I know, but four hours just doesn't seem like enough.

Harrison had a ball with Grandma. He quickly became a master of pillow-fights and tickle wrestling. He's go looking for with a wicked little grin on his face, looking for trouble. Below you can see him with a treat she indulged him with. That's what grandmas are for, right?

Those east coast girls are hip...

2007-03-29T18:01:00.000-06:00

Harrison got to learn firsthand just how cool Boston girls can be when we went and visited Brenda and Robin over the weekend. We had so much fun and my only regret is that I somehow walked away without getting a picture of Robin and Harrison together. Sad. Things started out well with H-man proving himself to be an enjoyable travel companion. He was especially willing to get the feel of New York during our short layover by laying down in the grime of JFK airport.

As Brenda pointed out, I really am more of a laid-back mom than I realize. The picture does not do the filth of that floor justice.

Once we got there, we headed out to Boston's North End, where we stopped at Mike's Pastry Shop to load up on cannoli. (I'm really glad I checked that on dictionary.com--can you believe that's the plural form--singular is cannolo. Oh, and if you haven't had one, here's the definition [which doesn't taste nearly as good]: tubular pastry shells stuffed with a sweetened filling of whipped ricotta and often containing nuts, citron, or bits of chocolate. )

Mmmm. Bren Bren knows how to treat weary travelers. To make a long, sad story a little shorter, this is the point in the trip that Harrison started experiencing (I'm guessing here) some emotional trauma from all the unusual-ness of the trip. We had a long string of melt-downs for the next couple of days. Luckily, he's an excellent sleeper and I had brought along a few Baby Einsteins, so he was able to achieve a little stability.

Plus, our hostesses were fantastic at distracting him and helping him calm down. Having piles of dirty old snow to offer him worked in their favor.

Overall, it was really relaxing and a good catch-up for me. It'd been way too long since I'd stayed up way too late talking about way too lot of nothing while eating way too much junk food. (Your homemade carrot cake counts as a vegetable though, right Rob?)

Obviously, Harrison got in on the girly stuff too.

Anyway, after a couple of days at Bren and Robin's, we got to hang out at Aunt Trish and Uncle Scott's house. H-man immediately felt at ease there. They had pulled out all kinds of fantastic toys that he couldn't get enough of. He also seemed to automatically bond with cousin Nick. He just kept pointing at him and smiling.

As always, I was completely impressed by my little cousins. Sometimes I forget how young they are when I'm talking to them because they are so on-the-ball. We played a rousing game of "Park-N-Shop" that Michaela handily won while Anna had one of the worst strings of luck I've ever seen in a board game. I wish we could have had more time together; it was such a treat.

Harrison also took to the Morrow's cat, Princess. I'm not sure which he liked more, Princess or her chair.

Everything ended well, and even though we had several hours' worth of delays, Harrison stayed happy the whole way home. That's more than I could have hoped for. Check him out watching the planes. He loved it.

Surgery update

2007-03-16T17:08:00.000-06:00

I know I need to be posting pictures of the cutest little boy I know, but I'll try to get some good ones up this weekend. For now, I just wanted to publicly thank all our family and friends who were so sweet and supportive with Harrison's little surgery. Everything went very well and he seems much improved. I was just feeling so blessed because we had SO MANY friends and loved ones call to check on him. That's what makes life sweet, isn't it? Having people you care about care about you and what's going on in your life. So thank you. Harrison is blowing you all kisses RIGHT NOW (watch out, they're kind of snotty).

The random and the happy.

2007-03-03T15:40:00.000-06:00

I've been tagged by a fellow blogger and now I'm supposed to tell five random things about me and six things that make me happy. Here goes:

The Random

I just tried to work on weeding my flower bed, but it was chillier than I thought and windy as heck. I felt like some crazy pioneer lady until I realized that no one was making me stay out there in misery. I flung off my gloves and came in. I love being the boss-lady.
I am pondering a significant change in my hair style.
I have a strange interest in shopping via your television. I have never exercised the option to buy, but I like to watch fairly regularly. My favorite things to tune in for are home storage/organizational stuff (I like to think about getting organized) and women's clothing (I am fascinated by their selling techniques and the obvious following that have of people who seem to buy all their clothes this way.)
I have a trashy side to me that honestly prefers cheaper, more juvenile versions of things than nice stuff. Case in point, McDonald's honestly is about my favorite restaurant. You could never take me there and have me be disappointed or tired of it. I'm not exaggerating. I think that this part of me is generally contained within the food category, but it sometimes rears is bizarre head in other areas of my life as well. Sometimes I have to hide this trait in front of people I'm afraid will think I'm gross. Only Dan has seen it all. I've even been known to bring my own artificial syrup to Cracker Barrel cause their real stuff doesn't do it for me.
We went to our first dog show yesterday. It was so interesting. There are some wild and crazy looking dogs out there. We went in support of our neighbor who is a Rottweiler, Nashville. He's a gorgeous dog and we cheered wildly for him. He didn't take best-in-show, for which we felt righteous indignation. He was by far the superior dog.

The Happy

Harrison is getting surgery in less than 48 hours! To some, this may sound alarming or at least not happy, but at this point I CAN'T WAIT. His ear infection is out of control, not responding to the strongest injections of antibiotics. It breaks my heart to see him dealing with this on a daily basis, and I just want it fixed. As nervous as I am about my baby having surgery, I don't see any other options at this point.
I am married to the sweetest, most thoughtful man in the world. Words don't do him or his smokin' hot good looks justice.
H-man has this special "na-naah" sound that he makes whenever he's holding two of something. It must have started when he would find two binkies and celebrate, but it's moved on to anything he can find a pair of. I can be in another room or upstairs, and if I hear his specially intoned "na-naah," then I know if I go find him he will be victoriously holding a pair of something above his head. I don't know why this makes me so happy, but I grin from ear to ear every time I hear it.
I get to go to Boston and see my favorit-o girls Bren-Bren and Robin in a couple of weeks. Harrison is coming too. We're also going to get to see Aunt Trish and Uncle Scott and my sweet nieces and nephew while we're there. I can't wait. And almost as soon as we get back, the whole family is headed to Detroit to see the Tigers, Pistons, and Red Wings.
I mowed the yard for the first time this season a couple days ago. We have so many wild onions growing that it really smelled like I was mowing down an onion patch. The weather is beautiful and we love being outside. (If you're wondering, I wrote #1 of the randoms over a week ago and left it as a draft unfinished till now. Hence the change in my feelings about the weather.)
Dan and I are feeling so blessed to be welcoming the newest member of our family this September. This is obviously a very happy thing, but it belongs here doubly because I'm now 13 weeks and should be out of the pukey stage soon. Yeah!

I now tag: Jamie, Becca, Flee, Cora, Shell, and Ender

And there goes February....

2007-02-28T18:45:00.000-06:00

Where the heck did the month go? If I had a nickel for every time this month I've had a magical little moment with Harrison and I made up my mind to blog about it and then DIDN'T, well, let's just say I'd be able to take you out for dinner...to McDonalds...dollar menu only, please. But that's still impressive if you figure I'm getting paid in nickels. Anyway, H-man melts my heart on a daily basis. I don't want to get used to it and I don't want it to stop being a big deal, so I better brag him up a little bit.

Harrison's "personality" seems to really be coming through, which is fun...most of the time. The kid knows what he wants. The good thing is, he is naturally such a loving, sensitive boy that showers affection on us. I've never met a better kisser, and believe me, I've been around the block. I can gauge how much he's enjoying his dinner by how many times he stops what he's doing, closes his eyes, smiles, and puckers, just waiting until I swoop in with a kiss. He LOVES cuddling with blankets and stuffed animals. Just today he found his stuffed monkey in the diaper bag at the doctor's office. He felt the need to immediately lay down on the cold tile floor and cuddle with monkey. I didn't know whether to take a picture or freak out from him wallowing on the germy floor.

Okay, so if that put a smile on your face and you won't actually be encountering Harrison in person anytime soon, then I encourage you to walk away right now. Everything I said was completely true....

It's just I feel I should warn you in case you will be spending any time with my monster soon. He has mastered the fit along with the kiss. The fit can be seen when you try to make him do something he doesn't deem as cool. This could be guiding him away from the street, suggesting he take a drink when he doesn't feel like it, or having the audacity to make eye contact with him if you're a stranger. Okay, the last one doesn't result in a fit, but it does produce this aggressive stance accompanied with a forceful throw of the binkie onto the ground.

I'm experimenting with how to handle this. Basically I've been trying to walk away or at least completely ignore the crying. I haven't tried timeouts yet, but I can see them on the horizon. The worst is that he tries to scratch and hit some too.

In his defense, he's had an ear infection for over a month at this point. He's frustrated and so am I. We're working on it.

Oh, and PS--has everyone been watching American Idol? I've seen quite a bit of it so far and am digging Blake. He'll be the next Justin Timberlake. Shell and I decided we're leaving the kids to become BLaker Girls.

We're still here

2007-02-15T13:16:00.000-06:00

We don't have time for stinking blog updates, people. We're dealing with EAR INFECTIONS here. Our sixth one in ten months, to be exact. Unless you consider that the fifth one from two weeks ago never cleared up, but my logic is placing me at six. Adding to the excitement was when we quickly discovered Harrison's penicillin allergy during the treatment of #5. H-man wanted me to thank you for the weak genes, Dad.

We also accompanied Dan on his little work-related trip to Orlando for the National Home Builder's Convention. Despite an infection and hives, Harrison seemed to have a blast. He met Shamu at SeaWorld and was riveted by all the shows we saw. It was a first for all of us at SeaWorld and we had a really great time. We went with our friends Michael and Jessica and their too, too cute little Clayton. Clayton told me he's going to be a marine biologist when he grows up; Harrison wants to be a dolphin trainer.

Anyway, like any successful vacation, we were just too absorbed in having a good time to actually document any of the fun-having. I swear we did. I've got a couple random shots, but I know all will be disappointed to find not-a-one pic of Harrison sporting his camo swim shorts.

You write the songs, Barry.

2007-02-01T10:30:00.000-06:00

My mom was talking to me about a book she's reading involving the "five languages of love." I don't know much about it, but it got me to pondering how I express love to Dan. He seems to be so much better than me at showing me his feelings, but I did hit on something. The more I've grown to love Dan, the more I have taken to loving things that he loves. Case in point:

Early in our relationship, (I don't remember if we were dating, engaged, or just married) we took a road trip and had the rule that whoever was driving got to pick the music. This led to one of our first real fights because I found myself trying to actually assign meaning to Lionel Richie lyrics, which can only lead one to feeling irritable and grouchy. I simply could not fathom why someone would choose to listen to intellectually insulting lines like, "Say you...say me...say it together...naturally.... Hello? Is it me you're looking for?"

Anyway, I've evolved. Not that Lionel is at the total top of my list now, but Dan and I do have a song on one of his cd's where we've assigned parts and do a pretty sweet duet together. Everybody does that, right? Where I really see the change is in my appreciation for Barry Manilow. I was never a Barry Hater. I simply only saw the genius in two of his songs, "Mandy" and "Copa Cabana." But after Dan told me how much he loved another of the ballads, (and hearing it about 30 times) I realized last night that I actually LOVED that song. Weird, huh? Same phenomenon with the Pistons and Dan's guilty pleasure Boston Legal.

Here's the funny part. This love of Delilah-esque music seems to be genetic. Harrison absolutely loves "Copa Cabana." Truly. Today he was throwing a fit because I had him out too far past his nap time. I threw him in the car and cranked it up and he got his groove on immediately. Luckily for me, it's a super long song. It got us most of the way home.

Go ahead, make my day.

2007-01-31T09:23:00.000-06:00

Okay, so it's been a little while since I posted. But the most amazing thing happened to me yesterday and I have to share. I haven't been feeling great lately and have been doing a lot of lying around (Harrison is starting to expect a daily Baby Einstein). My sweet sister knew I've been having it a little rough and she drove up from Birmingham and surprised me yesterday. It was so sweet of you, Shell. She brought Leah and Jake with her and Harrison had a ball. Not only did she just hang out with me, but she made dinner before she left. It was no ordinary dinner. It was only the most delicious chicken and dumplings EVER. To top it all off, she cleaned up Harrison's play room when I wasn't paying attention, so when I went in there after she'd left it was just one more fabulous thing.

I just wanted to say thanks publicly, because I'm not usually the recipient of such flagrant service and I didn't know how else to show my gratitude. You made my day. If you want to make it again today, then email me your dumplings recipe.

No Haircut

2007-01-23T13:56:00.000-06:00

I've got to say, I was surprised by the passionate views held on Harrison's hair. Obviously there are those out there who are a lot more sentimental than me. Even though I technically won the agreement with Dan (I had more than 25% of the vote), I decided against cutting right now just because I didn't want to gain any enemies.

Harrison went to work with Daddy this afternoon, giving me a chance to get caught up on some things. Those two crack me up. They really like to hang out together and seem to relish their boy time. I heard talk about stopping at McDonald's for a McFlurry while they were out doing their manly-man work. I guess I'd relish boy time too if I got paid off with Oreo McFlurries.

They're also really into building together. Whenever Harrison goes down for a nap and Dan is around, Daddy makes sure to have a cool castle built from his blocks because, as Dan explains, "He really likes to wake up to a good castle." It's hard to find such paternal intuition. Harrison is getting better and better at the building thing. His lastest thing is to find other toys to stack along with the blocks. Such creativity.

A couple of firsts

2007-01-19T10:15:00.000-06:00

Hmmmm. Yesterday started on a pretty bad note for poor Harrison. I'd had trouble sleeping the night before and had resorted to turning on the humidifier in our room in the middle of the night. Usually when I do that, Dan turns it off as he leaves for work. There is a reason for that. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to hear Harrison if he yelled. And yelled. And yelled.

I'm sure you see where this is going. The humidifier didn't get turned off. Mommy slept and slept. I feel so guilty. I woke up a few minutes after eight. I'm not sure how long the little guy had been up, but he clung to his little stuffed froggy all morning after. Froggy usually just sits in Harrison's crib and doesn't really get much attention, but Harrison dragged him around for a couple hours after the incident. Weird. I took a picture of them after Harrison finished his breakfast. He usually wants down immediately after eating, but yesterday he just pointed at a book and settled down with froggy to read in the high chair. It'd be cute if it wasn't so sad.

The other (and much more positive) big first we had yesterday was Harrison's first real (meaning paid) babysitter! Dan and I had a little date night and went to the temple. Harrison stayed with his very good friend Mallory. I guess he stayed up WAY past his bedtime flirting and cuddling with her. He carried a big blanket over to the couch for them to snuggle in, and they played peekaboo and found each other's noses and eyelashes for hours. He even fell asleep on her for a little bit, which he NEVER does with Mom and Dad. I've got to say, I was a little jealous.

Get out the vote....

2007-01-14T09:15:00.000-06:00

Okay, this is probably a product of our church meetings moving to the afternoon; we have way too much downtime on Sunday mornings. Anyway, I was trying to convince Dan that we should use his hair clippers to trim Harrison's hair. He didn't agree at all. We usually don't completely disagree like this and Dannyboy came up with a solution. He said if I put a poll on the blog and at least 25% of the readership agrees with me, then we can give him a hair cut. I'm thinking this will be a shoo in. He's got all kinds of crazy little wisps and a puffy little thing going on in the back. I think his hair might look a little thicker if we cut it.

We'll let this run for a week and reconvene next Sunday morning to take action based on the results. Happy voting!

To cut, or not to cut...

2007-01-14T09:05:00.000-06:00

Zoolander

2007-01-12T15:48:00.000-06:00

The heart breaker

Our favorite time...

Harrison and his bff Hunter felt like having their pictures taken yesterday, so Brit and I complied. I gave myself some very concrete limits before we left so that it didn't end up like last time we went (I still have stacks of pictures that will never be used). It was a success. I chose this particular pose of Harrison because it actually looks like he has an upper lip. The boy is built just like his daddy, and they are both good candidates for collagen.

Besides that, we're just trying to survive all these teeth coming in. They move so slow! I'm going to break down and buy a book to give me tips in dealing with all these tantrums, just in case it turns out that Harrison isn't always a complete perfect angel and I run out of medical maladies on which to blame his surly disposition.

That stuff happens to other people, not US!

2007-01-08T11:43:00.000-06:00

***Cautionary note*** the following description is about a certain bowel movement of Harrison's. I will not be offended if you choose to skip this one.

So Dan and I were sitting around last night eating dinner. H-man had already finished and was wandering around playing like the good boy he is. As we're talking, we both hear Harrison poo-ing. This is unusual and we both laugh at it. It sounded a little more liquid-y than normal. I truly am sorry, I know that's gross. Anyway, the sound brought to my mind a road trip I'd gone on with Shell a few years back. I related the story to Dan, including the conclusion which entailed us power washing her van mats at a car wash.

So there Dan and I sat, laughing at the stinky nasty mess Shell had to clean up. It was that kind of arrogant, can you imagine what she must have been feeding her children for THAT to happen? kind of laugh. The laughter hadn't even died from my lips when Dan said, pointing, "What's on Harrison's pants?" That's where the hilarity ended. The ensuing mess involved us cleaning baseboards and floor boards in the dining room, kitchen, living room, and front hall. I honestly don't even understand the physics of what happened. I'm just glad we weren't upstairs on the carpet.

Holiday fun (make sure to put your curser over it to get the captions)

2007-01-05T23:14:00.001-06:00

A new kind of Christmas

2007-01-05T22:09:00.000-06:00

A rather intense looking Scrabble game.

Leah, Luke, Josh and Harrison know fine craftsmanship when they see it. Seriously, how many kids get fabulous custom-made furniture by their grandpa and great-grandpa? So precious.

The holidays really took on a whole different feel now that Harrison is conscious of what is going on around him. It was absolutely wonderful to have so much family come and stay; I was positively spoiled. Let me see if I can hit some of the highlights of the last couple weeks...

I prepared a somewhat simple, but satisfying Christmas dinner almost by myself. Doris had to help me out with the turkey (umm, and she did the gravy completely without me....come to think of it, how much did I REALLY do?). Anyway, it was all really low stress and I was able to enjoy everything without freaking out (which is always a possibility with me, bless Dan's heart).

Lauren won the scrabble tournament.

Sudoko was attempted by every adult that was here. My side of the family TOTALLY needs to be brushing up. Come on, guys.

I watched my "sweet" baby boy bully his darling cousin Jake any chance he could. It was horrifying. Dan and I are already checking out some very promising military schools.

The new year was rung in with Dan snoring next to me while I sudokued (can I verb that?)

The Michigan bowl game did not come close to meeting expectations. The only thing that saved bowl day for me was the huge air mattress we still had blown up in front of the tv. I was shelling my peanuts in the lusciousness of a feather bed and a giant pillow. It took the edge off the pain.

I was able to pass on the legacy of completely awesome college (and first four years of marriage) cookware to Katy. I'm not sure she was able to fathom its coolness yet.

Dan made me a gorgeous headboard. I can't believe the craftsman he's turning out to be. He's already whipped up a frame for the painting Dad did for us for above our mantle. It's extra special since Dad did it just for me and now there's a piece of Dan up there with it every time I look at it.

Watching Harrison play with all his Christmas gifts is just too fun. I don't think there was one thing that he doesn't seem to love playing with. He just adores giving hugs to the giggly little gingerbread man that Uncle Elg sent, and he is all about the car and train and bus he got. He's a sucker for anything with wheels. Just today we were reading a book Lauren gave him and it has taught him to stick his tongue out. Love ya, Lauren!

I started an herb garden on my counter! My parents got me a little kit and I just got it going today. I'm soooo excited. Honestly, it's kind of weird how excited I am for them to grow. Watch out, I'm gonna have chives any ol' time I want to.

Dan and I have been watching the first season of Battlestar Galactica courtesy of Kyle. I never would have guessed it, but I might have the makings of a Trekkie.

I'm saving the coolest for last---Harrison does real kisses now! His buddy Hunter gave him his first pets for Christmas (two little fishies) and he promptly started making a puckered up fish face every time he saw them. The fish face has morphed in the last couple of days into sweet little kisses when I ask for them. He still hasn't put it together that he's supposed to be touching me with his lips, but he'll walk toward me kissing, which might be even cuter.

Anyway, thank you to all of you who were able to share the holidays with us. It was fantastic. And we missed everybody else. Truly. I would have smoked y'all at Sudoku--I was on a crazy winning streak.

Christmas Happiness

2006-12-25T19:34:00.000-06:00

Well there are all kinds of things to report with so much going on for the holidays. I first have to rave about the Christmas dinner party that we were able attend Saturday night. My friends Margie and Doug threw it at their house and it was absolutely fantastic. You would have thought it was a professionally catered meal--it was just over the top. And as if all the scrumptious goodies we partook of there weren't enough, Margie sent us all home with these enormous platters of all kinds of made-from-scratch confections. We've been snacking off it ever since. I really have never been to a holiday dinner party before and it was just so fun. Picture pending.

Dan's mom and dad were able to join us on Sunday and we've been having a blast. We've made caramel corn (Grandpa Griff's recipe), played lots of Scrabble, and had a Sudoku tournament. We even got to talk to Grant, Dan's brother who's on a mission, and he is sounding so happy.

I know it sounds like everything is perfect, but I have to admit there is one teeny-tiny cloud hanging over our household. You see, we just got my parents' Christmas letter. (Dramatic pause.) I don't have a copy of it with me, so let me just rebuild it the best I can:

" Jen and Dan are doing well.... Kent and Kate are also doing well and are so good looking that I would give them an award called the 'cutest couple award'."

What? What is this award? When were we notified about this contest? Was there an interview portion? What about evening gown? Sure, Kate would have smoked me on the talent part, but I still should have been given a chance. (For those of you who don't know my sister-in-law, she just happens to be a beautiful, talented ballerina.) It just seems kind of sneaky, Mom handing out secret awards without telling the rest of us there was ever a contest. Michelle and Robbie, how do you feel about this? Dan feels cheated too. Really Mom, if you're reading this, give us an opportunity to prove ourselves. We're cute, we promise. Some would even call us smokin' hot.

This entire to-do has probably been hardest on Harrison. After reading the letter (with a little assistance), he rent his clothing and stared despondently out the window. He's totally ashamed of us.

Anyway, here's a sampling from our first photo shoot kicking off our campaign for next year's "cutest couple award".

Let the winning begin

2006-12-22T16:49:00.000-06:00

One of the things I love best about the family I married into is that they are game players. A different sort of game player than where I came from (cards, Guesstures, Catchphrase, etc), but game players nonetheless. I've learned to love Scrabble and Monopoly, which are probably the two biggest games when we all get together.

Last year, in fact, we had a huge 18-person bracket Scrabble tournament that was full of scandal and contention. It was fabulous even though I got knocked out first round. I believe Ben came out on top, though there are still disputes about the validity of his win. I'm really looking forward to the second annual Scrabble game, mainly because I know I've got a better shot since there are only five of us to compete.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that the gaming has begun. Lauren flew in Wednesday night and we just sat down to a good old Monopoly game. I wiped the board with both of the boys and my win has left me feeling extra festive. I can't wait till Mom and Dad get here!

Giraffe Stalker

2006-12-18T07:06:00.001-06:00


I don't know what this giraffe saw in Harrison, but he kept following us along the path and seemed to be staring straight at him. Since I'm new at this whole video thing, please let me know if you're having any trouble viewing it. And feel free to applaud since this is the first published proof of Harrison walking!

This weather is for the birds!

2006-12-16T16:45:00.000-06:00

Aaah. Yesterday was a gorgeous start to the weekend--right around 70 degrees! Dan called from work in the morning and made a plan for us to meet him up at the zoo; which is where we could be found the rest of the afternoon. It was such a fantastic day. If there was one disappointment, it was simply that the monkeys were not loud. The first time Harrison and I went without Dan we were overwhelmed by them. This time they just sat quietly grooming one another. I'm not sure Dan believed just how loud they were at our first encounter. We went into this little bird place that was all netted in and you could get necter to offer to the birds. As you can see, Dan was accepted in as one of them within minutes and they began grooming him. It reminded me of Mom's Hawaii picture where one is biting off her earring. Dan looked similarly comfortable.

We also rode the carousel again, but for some reason Harrison thought it was horribly frightening this time. Maybe it was our choice of animals--I sat on a quite large ostrich and Dan chose a very pleasant looking monkey. Who knows if we would have had success with the racing beaver again?

Anyway, we're off to a Christmas party tonight...and then maybe to begin our family Christmas tradition. No one has guessed close to it yet.

Oh--and I wanted to let my favorite friend-of-a-brother Shannon to know that I in no way consider her a stalker and I love that she drops in on our blog! Love you Shan!

An eggnog musing

2006-12-12T22:59:00.000-06:00

It's funny the very strong response you seem to always get when you ask someone if they like eggnog. It elicits such emotion. I am among the eggnog passionate; hence, I am sitting here drinking an embarrassingly large mug of it RIGHT NOW. In order to justify this caloric monstrosity, I've mixed up the ol' half and half that some wise person taught me in my college days. That's right--half eggnog, half skim milk. Thus I am enjoying twice the amount of swallows of holiday deliciousness while not consuming any extra fat. Brilliant, you say? Oh, stop....

So here's what has been going on at our house:

I just finished another proofing job. It was a self-help/motivational thingy and I enjoyed it. I felt kind of guilty turning in my invoice because I didn't feel like I'd done any work. Yeah!
Harrison seems to be able to communicate with me better every day. My friend, Tenniel, babysat him yesterday and got quite a kick out of him. She said, "He just kept eating! He'd see some food and say 'num-num,' so I'd give him some and then he'd do his sign language for 'more'. It made me wonder if I'm starving my boy because I kept thinking we were done, but no, 'more, more, more'!" That made me glad that he can tell me when he's hungry. He also is getting really good at giving kisses. Not to people so much as pictures and toys. When he sees a kitty in a book he likes to lay a sloppy wet one right on the page. He does the same thing when he sees pictures of himself. A little narcissistic, but adorable nonetheless.
Dad G blessed us with a visit today all the way from Michigan. He did some builder/construction stuff with Dan and then took us out to dinner. He's leaving first thing in the morning, but it was so fun for Harrison to show off his walking skills to Grandpa. It's just amazing how fast they change.
Dan and I have decided on the Christmas tradition that we want to start with Harrison and have it be our thing. People always ask what traditions your family has for the holidays, and I want to make sure Harrison will have a good answer. We might start it as early as tomorrow night. I'll let you wait in suspense for now as to what it is. Maybe I'll get some good guesses that'll be even better than what we came up with. I'm open to suggestions....

Alright, another night is coming to a close and I still have not made an attempt at a Christmas card letter. Starting to feel the pressure, but evidently not enough to actually sit down and write it. There's time, right?

Happy Healing, Mama!

2006-12-07T10:32:00.000-06:00

I just wanted my sweet mama to know our thoughts and prayers are with her today as she recovers from her surgery. We love you!

The tree has been up for a while, but we haven't shown a picture of it yet. Here's a shot of our cozy living room to distract you from your drainage tubes....

Monkey see, Monkey do

2006-12-05T14:27:00.001-06:00

Harrison is turning into quite the mimic. He loves pretending to talk on the phone now and has started trying to do what I do. The other day I was singing and dancing for him in the car and I caught him trying to do the same arm motions I was. Up till now his dance moves have all been bum, shoulder, and head stuff. Fascinating. Yesterday I was sanding the wall in preparation for some painting and H-man would not calm down until I handed over the sanding block and got out of his way so he could do the job right. See pic for proof.

One way I hope he doesn't try to copy me is my new dental trend. I just went to the dentist this morning--first check up since I was pregnant. Keep in mind I've never had a cavity in my LIFE....three cavities. Unless you're a jerkface like Dan, who says it's five. Two of the cavities are between teeth and go into two teeth each. I say one cavity, two teeth. Jerkface disagrees. What do you say, Dentist Ben?

Also, the other night we had a treat when Dan's very cool cousin Shawn was able to come visit from Fort Campbell. That's been one of the best bonuses for living here in Nashville--being able to see him fairly often due to the proximity. Love it.

Advent calendars are stressful

2006-12-03T17:39:00.000-06:00

I was so excited about this sweet little advent calendar that Uncle Kent and Aunt Kate gave to Harrison. I've never done one before and it's obvious I'm a newbie. There are all these little doors numbered one through twenty-five and it is intended that you open one a day until Christmas. Here it is the third before I remember, and I panicked. I found myself stuffing Harrison's mouth with not only today's chocolate goody, but Friday's and Saturday's as well. He didn't seem to mind. I've gotta stay on top of that one.

I was able to talk to a super old friend yesterday and it made me think that there are literally only a handful of people in the world that you can talk to after months and months and MONTHS of silence and not have it feel weird at all. At least for me that's true. So here's to my fantastic friends and family that I love so much. We really are old souls that have big histories.

On a side note, I was just reading back over what I typed (habit of an English teacher) and the first sentence of the previous paragraph made me laugh. What would a literal handful of people be? When I picture it, it's kind of a gory image, so let me revise what I said. There are very few people in the world you can talk to like that.

It is here I draw the line

2006-12-01T07:43:00.000-06:00

We all have our own codes of conduct and I've just discovered another one I live by. Once the Christmas tree is up and it's the LAST DAY OF NOVEMBER, I simply will not use the air conditioning. It's a matter of principle. My house may be 79 degrees (honestly) and my 14 month old son may have, in desperation, figured out how to wiggle his pants down over his chunky little thighs (again, honestly), but here I will stand as a strong woman. I might let a lot of things slide, but here you have found where I stand strong. After Thanksgiving, I will only use the heater. That's the rule.

BTW--By the time I actually sat down and typed my little rant (the next morning), it was COMPLETELY FREEZING outside and my heater has been running and running to catch up. Sigh. Things are as they should be.

A plethora of pics to appease the guilt

2006-11-29T00:21:00.000-06:00

The shame faced return

2006-11-29T00:06:00.000-06:00

Where does a month go? What the heck happened to November? All I know is that I really wanted to put up some adorable video of Harrison finally walking and I kept putting it off because I have a mental block about capturing video. Anyway, all the sudden I sit down and it's been a month. I know I've got some disappointed fans out there, so I'll try to make it up to you and have a bang up December.

Dan and I have been painting like crazy. We pretty much finished the downstairs tonight if you don't count the office. He motivated me by telling me I couldn't put up the Christmas tree until we did it. I'm having a Christmas cookie exchange at my house on Thursday so my back was up against a wall.

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving. It was especially wonderful because ALL my siblings and their families were there, plus Dan and Harrison and I got to spend multiple nights at both Grandma and Grandpa G's house and Grandma Dot's house. I love that Harrison is getting such fun time with his great-grandparents.

We also just got some fabulous news--Dan's parents are going to be coming down for Christmas! I know that sounds horribly distant calling them Dan's parents--but I try really hard not to use last names since I'm paranoid about internet weirdos. It can be tough doing the no-last-name rule when everybody's last name starts with a G. So forgive me--Dan's parents--whom I love dearly are coming for Christmas! Lauren might be coming too! Yeah! I'm also crossing my fingers for a visit from my parents, but the jury's still out on that one.

Anyway, it's horribly late for me--that's right--after midnight. I'm taking my paint crusted body to bed.

This one's for Mom, kid

2006-11-01T12:52:00.000-06:00

I know last night was Halloween and my large readership ('sup Katy) is probably anticipating gobs of cute pictures of H-man eating gobs of candy, but you'll just have to wait. Believe it or not, I have been having cool things happening around here and that's what you're going to be hearing about right now.

The junior high English teacher in me had to pause for a moment here. I have a couple options as far as essay structure to choose between. Should I begin with the most exciting and then let my energy taper off, reminiscent of an inverted pyramid? Or should I really build this thing, starting with the least of the points I want to make and then let it come to a frenzied climax to help illustrate just how exciting my week has been? Hmmmm. Okay, I've made up my mind.

I got a job. Kind of. I'm going to be doing some part time proofing work for a publisher nearby. I got my first manuscript today. It's about the history of guns in America. It's still all packaged up in the front seat of my car. I just laid Harrison down and I'm going to go start on it as soon as I finish up here. I'm excited about having a little something to do, deadlines to meet, a little extra cash, etc. It's especially wonderful to know that someone is willing to pay me to read about guns. What kind of fantastic world do we live in?

On some kind of new job high, as I drove home from picking up the manuscript I (on a whim) dropped H-man off at Dan's office and went and got my hair cut. It's not dramatically different or anything; just less Laura Ingles Wilder--frontier woman-esque. About 7 inches came off of the back, but not nearly as much from the sides and front. My hair must grow faster back there. It feels good to not have as much dead weight.

These things are good. But as I look back at my week, one thing really stands out above the rest. I made chicken noodle soup from scratch. It was pretty good. Probably not the best I've ever had, but good enough for me to consider it a success. What is so amazing is that for the first time in my married life I bought a WHOLE RAW CHICKEN, roasted it, boiled it, pulled all the meat off of it, and used it in my soup. I skimmed fat. It was an important day in the Gilbert household. If I can work with an entire chicken and do the things I did to it (did you know it comes with a little packet of unmentionable meat waiting for you in the "cavity"?) then I'm pretty much capable of anything. Doors have opened for me. I carry myself with a touch of boldness and arrogance that wasn't there before. I have fought the poultry and I have come out of the fray as a conqueror. Thanksgiving dinner? Please. Bring it on.

Do you think Jen should be able to cut H-man's hair?
	Yes, she's the mom....why are you even questioning her, Dan?
	No, it is physically impossible for Harrison to become any more good looking.
	Bic it.

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