10 Months

Height/Weight:

We will have to measure again at his 12 month checkup!

Clothing Size:

Mostly rocking 9 month clothing but fits in 6-12 month onsies. His wadrobe is limited for fall weather so it means more shopping for Mom. She isn't complaining ;)

Favorites:

*Food: Harrison pretty much loves food in general. Harrison has started eating table food at most meals so he has tried lots of different things! He has pretty much loved it all! One food item he does NOT like? Watermelon! Random, huh? He does seem to really, really, really enjoy bananas and string cheese!

Sometimes I miss my face...

One big accomplishment in our household is that Harrison is using a spoon and "cup" by himself! He has gotten really good at using the spoon as long as we put the food on it. He has been using a shot glass to practice drinking by himself. This has actually seemed to be more successful than a sippy cup. Though, we have moments where he decides to just dump it all over his high chair. 

*Book: Sitting and listening to a book remains a challenge (but I will NOT give up!). However, he sure loves eating his books and opening/closing them. One book he loves to get out and look at is his Ten Little Ladybugs book. A friend's son passed it on to Harrison and he LOVES feeling the little ladybugs. I hope one day we will also sit and read it :)

*Song: Anything with a good beat! He loves listening and dancing to music. He gets a huge smile when we pick him up and dance around the room with him.

*Toy: Balls! Harrison loves playing with different kinds of balls. We have been having fun practicing how to roll and throw them. Little does he know that this is the extent of Mom's athletic ability ;)

*Non-Toy Toy: His alphabet play mat. He loves taking out the letters and inside pieces. It's quite entertaining to take them out, eat them, and put them back for hours (okay, really minutes...but he will do this for 15-20 minute chunks which is eternity in Harrison time!)

*Time of Day: He is really happy as long as he is rested! That said, we are back in daycare mode so his naps have not been so hot. At home, he averages 3-4 hours of naps throughout the day. A typical day of napping at daycare is about 40 min of napping. Let's just say we spend a majority of our nights with Mr. Grumps once he gets home! Luckily, he's still pretty cute...grumpy and all!

*Things to Giggle At: Anything that Daddy does! Seriously, Nick can get Harrison to laugh unlike anyone else. Most of the time, it's doing something utterly ridiculous. Case in point, bonking their heads together. It's quite the party in this house!

Observations/Firsts/Milestones

We finally have a tooth!!! It took 9.5 months but we have a bottom tooth. (We actually have the start of a second bottom one as well) We were pretty lucky that Harrison hasn't seemed too bothered by them. He was also sick at the time so we weren't sure if symptoms were because of his tooth or his cold. If each tooth is like that, we will be one lucky set of parents! Fingers crossed!

(If you zoom in, you might see it!) 

Harrison said "mama"! It has happened twice but it still counts! Sure, he loves to throw out "dada" and "baba" all the time but those two "mama"s made my heart so happy! Now, to practice saying it while he needs me!

Harrison's newest obsession is crawling under our dining room table and chairs. It must feel like a fort under there. He loves it! He especially loves it when he sneaks his puffs under there, dumps it all over, and starts shoveling them into his mouth. Nice job, H!

Harrison went to his first baseball game! Can't say he was impressed with the game but he seemed to have fun :)

Harrison started a new daycare. The first couple weeks were rough and filled with separation anxiety. He would get really upset at drop off. I would race to my car and call Nick before my mom instict kicked in and I picked him up and ran home. Now, Harrison has a teacher he LOVES and a best friend! It's extremely cute-they greet each other each morning, crawl after each other and wave to each other. She does bite him a lot but he doesn't seem to mind, only having two teeth must not hurt too much ;)

Overall, month 10 wasn't too eventful but wonderful nontheless. We love this little guy and it's so fun to see the person he is becoming! While it's bittersweet to think of how much he's grown, we can't wait to see what's in store this month! We can only imagine all the crazy things he will learn to do...

 

3/4 of the way there...9 months!

How has it been 9 months already? Nick and I spent our last date night planning Harrison's first birthday. How is that even possible?! While it makes me sad to see him grow so fast, we are LOVING each new stage. He keeps entertained (and on our toes) each day! 

Height/Weight

Weight: 19.25 pounds (all in his belly!) = 16th percentile

Height: 29.5 inches = 24th percentile 

Hello, new car seats! We were hoping the infant ones would last us until a year but we figured his length would prevent that. We were right!

Head circumference

= 83rd percentile 

Clothing Size:

Woo hoo! We are finally in 9 month clothes. He can fit in some 6 month onsies as long as the neck can widen. Otherwise, his big ol' noggin isn't fitting through!

Favorites: 

*Food: Bananas! Though, I can't say it enough but Harrison LOVES to eat! There's not much food that he doesn't like but the texture can sometimes get to him. This past month, we've been slowly introducing foods with a thicker texture and some table food. It's been slow and steady to get used to that :) Harrison spent a lot of time gagging and spitting out his puffs, baby "cookies", scrambled eggs, and cottage cheese. He loves his puffs and cookies now but we still need to work on the eggs and cottage cheese.

We've been working on using sign language during his meals. We hope that Harrison can communicate with us before he is verbally able to. He is slowly starting to use the sign for more (or well, his version of more) especially after he eats bananas! 

*Book: Woo hoo! We are finally getting somewhere with this whole book thing. We went to visit our good friends and we borrowed their books for our night time read. I picked a touch-and-feel book and Harrison LOVED it! After one time helping him move his fingers on the pages, he wanted to do it all by himself. He was laughing and having a blast reading the stories with me. It was a break through :) Harrison now feels the main objects on every book because he is certain they should all have a fun texture now.

While we have a few different touch-and-feel books, our favorite is the "That's Not My..." series. They are really cute books and have great vocabulary!

*Song: "Teddy Bear Picnic" has been our song of the summer! We like creeping around the living room and pretending we are going to discover the teddy bears. 

*Toy: Harrison loves playing with all his toys. One of our favorite new toys is our Activity Garden. Harrison is able to safely stand and play to his hearts content. 

 Ok, I use "safe" loosely...

*Non-Toy Toy: Anything that he shouldn't be playing with. He lets out his special giggle and gets a big mischievous grin when he knows he's got something that he probably shouldn't. One place that he likes to stand and play? The garbage can....gross!

*Time of Day: We are lucky to continue to have a happy, little guy. He especially loves any time of day where he is out and about. He loves people watching and flirting with the ladies. He will usually stare a person down until they smile at him ;)

Harrison does love when Daddy gets home. His face lights up, he starts giggling, and races towards Dad. Apparently, Mom gets boring after an entire day of hanging out.

*Things to Giggle At: Tickling! Smelling his feet and proclaiming that they are "too stinky" (clearly, I am raising a little boy...)! Anything that Daddy does!

Observations/Firsts/Milestones

We've slowed down a little from major life milestones. While learning new things is wonderful, it's always a tiring time. We are enjoying the 11 hours of sleep per night. I'm sure it will end just as Mom is going back to work!

Harrison can shake his booty! The little guy enjoys dancing to the beat of tunes...especially rap music. Little does he know, the days of hearing that music are limited. Once he can understand the words, we will need to find some other type of tunes ;) Like father, like son.

We are having a blast playing chase with Harrison. He loves crawling after us and trying to get us. He thinks it is HILARIOUS. Also, we've realized how much crawling hurts! We luckily added an alphabet landing pad for Harrison's falls but it also helps cushion the crawling!

Speaking of crawling....Harrison is OBSESSED with crawling up the stairs. Obviously he only gets to test it out with Mom and Dad close by but he can climb them in mere seconds. Baby gates were installed this month!

Harrison also got to meet his bff, Stella. We had a blast driving to Kansas City and spending the weekend with our besties. Harrison was also a trooper and did so well in the car. Even though he was awake for more than half of each trip, he quietly played with his toys. Can't say that's been the case for other car trips...

We had a blast during this month! Sadly, back to reality in Month 10 :( Though, I'm sure Harrison will love meeting some new friends! 

8 Months

This sums up month 8 pretty perfectly!

Height/Weight:

We have our next doctor's appointment in August and will update next month!

Clothing Size:

6 months still continue to fit well. Since it's warm, we don't need to worry about the length of his clothes. We are definitely outgrowing our 6 month pants! 

Favorites:

*Food- Harrison loves, loves, loves his food. He cries when his bowl is empty and it is taken away. He definitely has an appetite that matches his momma's! He is very open to trying all different kinds of food!

Here is the ongoing list of foods he has tried. Bolded words show this month's new foods:

Likes: Bananas, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, chicken, apples, pears, mango, cantaloupe, lentils, apricots, and zucchini.

Okay if they are mixed with one of the foods he already likes: Peas, green beans, avocado, yogurt, carrots, broccoli, peaches, and pork.

*Book- It's a good day if I can get Harrison to sit for a book. It's a GREAT day if he will listen to 2-3 books in a day! The teacher in me won't give up though :P I also found out from my aunt that my mom was worried when I wouldn't sit to listen to books as a baby. Phew, there's still hope he'll learn to love them!

He loves when books have things that he can touch. He especially loves book with puppets. He will sit and listen to the story and then try to eat the puppet ;)

Grandma Judy and Aunt Nicole found some really fun puppet books!

*Song- Harrison loves songs! We checked out our library's story time and it had tons of signing and dancing. Harrison was smiling from ear to ear! He likes to jam to any tunes :)

*Toy- Harrison is one spoiled baby so it's hard for him to choose one favorite toy! We rotate toys that are put out in his playroom so he doesn't get too bored with any particular one. He likes knocking over blocks, chasing after balls, playing on his xylophone and so much more!



*Non-Toy Toy- Harrison loves to get his hands on everything and anything. His dream would be to slobber on our iPhones but they're expensive to replace so that isn't happening. He is also really into the bookshelves and couch in his playroom. They are VERY fun to use to stand up and walk.

*Time of Day- Seems like I keep saying the same thing but he is a really happy baby as long as he is fed and not tired. We are having a blast going out and about during the day!

*Things to Giggle At- Peek-a-boo! It's such a funny game :)

Observations/Firsts/Milestones:

*Harrison has gotten this crawling thing down! His style and the typical style of crawling. We love watching him crawl all around the house. He is especially proud of himself when he crawls into a new room. Daddy also thought it'd be fun to put him on the stairs. Harrison crawled all the way to top the top in no time. (Don't worry, Daddy was right there with him!)

*Harrison can now pull himself to a stand and oh boy, it's a game changer! Gone are the days where he'd roll over in his crib and fall asleep. Now he stands up and looks for us. He is also obsessed with pulling himself up onto anything and everything. It doesn't matter how sturdy, he will try! As you can imagine, there have been many tumbles!

You say it's "bedtime". This is how I feel about it...

*Harrison is starting to try to make us laugh. He does this by making silly faces. We aren't sure where his scrunchy face came from but we are loving it! He also loves to squish up his face against his Pack-n-Play to get us to laugh. He's already such a funny kid and makes us laugh non-stop!

*Harrison is starting to make noises other than screeching. He started saying "da da" on Father's Day. True, he isn't associating it with Nick yet but regardless, Nick was one very happy daddy!

*Harrison is giving kisses-big, sloppy, wet, perfect kisses! He seems to only give them when he wakes up at 5:30 and gets to come play in Mom and Dad's bed. It must be our reward for the early wake-up. It's definitely the best way to start a day on limited sleep :)

*We took our first trip to the zoo! Harrison wasn't able to spot the animals that were sleeping but he definitely noticed the giraffes and birds. The zoo had a bird house where birds could fly around us. Harrison was startled more than a few times when birds flew past his face. 

8 months has been quite eventful in this household. It seems as if Harrison is learning something new every single day. It is so fun to watch him grow (even on little sleep thanks to all the fun testing out new skills brings). What will month 9 bring?!

Swim Lessons

Harrison just spent the first two weeks of going to swim lessons. We had a blast! Each day consisted of different activities: swimming on his belly, jumping into the pool, doing a back float, passing a ball, chasing after toys, and singing different songs. Harrison enjoyed almost all the activities...except that whole back floating thing. He was definitely not a fan! 

The best part of swim lessons was the long nap afterwards. Swim lessons were exhausting!

To officially pass swim lessons, Harrison needed to be dunked. Mom was extremely hesitant but the lifeguard assured her it was ok. After "1, 2, 3" and a quick blow in the face, Harrison went under! It lasted a nano-second but felt like forever to Mom! Harrison was not bothered by it at all! He just looked around and was ready to keep playing. Harrison is bound to be a fish in the pool!

Yay! He passed! :) Now it is time to spend the rest of our summer swimming!

Hi, my name is Trouble.

Oh boy, things have gotten exciting in our household. Not only can Harrison crawl but he can now pull himself up. Let me tell you, pulling himself up has got to be the biggest game changer yet. It has certainly made bedtime and nap time much harder. Who would want to go to sleep when you can stand and look for Mom and Dad?! It's also the most dangerous...we really have to make sure we have one eye on him at all times! This kid is fearless...he will try to pull himself up on anything! It does not matter how sturdy the furniture is. I thought I'd share some photos of our new crazy ;-) It's filled with bumps, tumbles, minor heart attacks and lots of laughs! (Apologies for some of the blurry pictures...a lot were action shots!)

Harrison used to sit next to the bear. Now he attacks it ;)

Mom was out celebrating her last day of school. Dad sent the following pictures:

Mind you...there was no help from Dad!

Mmmmm....my crib is tasty!

Harrison didn't realize that the laundry basket probably isn't the best thing to use to stand up...luckily Mom helped make it sturdy 

You may not be able to tell but he is climbing on the Bumbo to reach his high chair.

Take note of that last face. It's the face we see EVERY time he has tried something new...the riskier the better. We can't get enough of that face! 

7 Months and Counting

Height/Weight:

26 inches per our last doctor's appointment
Approximately 17 pounds per our bathroom scale :) (He has quite the double chin and a leg roll.)
Head...as large as ever!

Clothing Size:

Harrison is still living in 6 month clothing. We are transitioning to 6-9 month clothes. Watch out world! Someone is growing :)

Favorites:

*Food- Milk is always number one! Favorite solid is definitely still bananas. We can mix it with anything and he will eat it since he can taste the bananas. We have been trying new solids. Harrison seems to enjoy almost everything he has tried so far!

Likes: Bananas, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, chicken, apples, and pears.

Okay if they are mixed with one of the foods he already likes: Peas, green beans, avacado, and yogurt.

It is so much fun watching him experience new foods! I can't wait to see what else he will like. So far, we haven't found a food that he refuses to eat. Hopefully someone won't be as picky as Dad ;)

*Book- Harrison doesn't seem to have a favorite book. He just likes any book that he can shove in his mouth. So for this month we will list Mom's current favorite book, The Pout Pout Fish. My students listened to this story in class and I loved it! Harrison actually sat through the story which is a huge accomplishment!

*Song- Any song that Mom sings. It is so amazing to see how calming Mom's singing voice is to Harrison. It's funny since most people would find my voice the opposite of calming. However, if Harrison is fussy in the car all I need to do is sing and he calms down and usually falls asleep. We shall see how long this lasts!

Annnnd passed out after hearing "Wheels on the Bus"

*Toy- Toys continue to be a blast! Our playroom is now a disaster area thanks to the fact that he actually plays with his toys. While Harrison is enjoying playing with all his toys, he currently LOVES his Dino-Pop. He shrieks with delight when it turns on and immediately crawls to it.


*Non-Toy Toy- Oh goodness...EVERYTHING! He is keeping us on our toes because he is so curious about everything. He especially loves details on objects and anything that gives Mom a heart attack ;)

Ooh, what are these things? Buttons? They seem fun!

*Time of Day- Any time he has a full belly and doesn't need to rest! Separation anxiety is continuing to grow though. He has just started to cry at daycare drop off. One day he started to crawl towards me as I left. Luckily I know he does enjoy his time there since we have been going so long. If this had happened when we started daycare, I'm not sure I would have made it back to work!

*Things to Giggle At- Daddy. Nick is able to get that kid laughing non-stop! He looks at Nick and already starts laughing! He also loves when we play a chasing game. One of us will hold him while the other runs after him. He has some deep belly laughs during this game.

Observations/Firsts/Milestones:

*Crawling! He has his own unique version of the crawl that makes us laugh. He doesn't realize that you can use your knees to help you crawl so he lifts up his arms and drags his body across the room. That said, he can get on his knees and rock so we are think eventually he will get the hang of a normal crawl? If not, his version seems to work!

Harrison is starting to consistently sleep 8+ hours a night. Traveling and sickness will throw him off but other than that, he is starting to be a heavy sleeper. Mom is enjoying this :) Nap time is a whooooooole different ball game. Some days, naps last 1-2 hours. Other days, naps will only last 20 minutes. You never know what you are getting ;)

Sometimes, you just need mommy snuggles :)

Harrison is starting to spend time playing outside! We are enjoying the warm weather and getting a chance to explore North Liberty and play outside! Harrison isn't quite sure how he feels about the grass though...

Diaper changes have become an Olympic sport! Harrison likes to see how quickly he can flip over while he is being changed. Needless to say, Mom and Dad have become quite good at finding distractions. Mom's phone is especially useful when it is time to put on the sunscreen since that takes hours. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating but it's long ;)

Naked and his shirt around his face. We still aren't quite sure how that happened...

Month 7 has been a game changer thanks to crawling but we are LOVING it. It's so fun to watch the wheels turning in Harrison's head. He is so curious about anything and everything! We can't wait to see what he learns next month!