Almost there...11 months!

Height/Weight:

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

Clothing Size:

9 month clothes are getting snug so we are working our way towards 12 month clothes. It's crazy that we are now starting to shop in the toddler section of stores!

Favorites:

*Food: Harrison is just like his momma, eating is his favorite! While he loves to eat, he has definitely become more opinionated. He will let you know if he doesn't want to eat something you are offering. At home, he shakes his head no and puts his hands in front of his face. At daycare, he just shoves the food he doesn't like onto the floor. Smart kid ;) An example is that he was having strawberries and grapes for dinner. They were cut pretty small so they looked similar. He felt each piece to make sure he ate every single piece of grape before moving onto strawberries. Grapes have replaced banana for favorite fruit. Green veggies seem to be his favorite and cheese is his ultimate favorite food! 

Harrison is doing really well with signing! He has been really exciting to watch. He signs "more" throughout dinner time. However, now that he knows "more" he feels entitled to everyone's food. As soon as he sees food (or anything that resembles food) he will start signing "more". He is starting to get the hang of "drink" and "all done". It's so fun being able to communicate with him!

*Book: He loves playing with books! He's starting to also sit and listen to short stories. We spent one day reading 4 books throughout the day. A Harrison record! :) We checked out an ABC book that featured babies. He loved it! We read it over and over and Harrison didn't take his eyes off the book.

*Song: It's technically not a song but a poem we learned this summer at story time. I'm not sure the title but we will call it, "This is Big". It goes over actions for big, small, short, tall, fast, slow, yes and no. While I was saying it to him, Harrison started shaking his head no! He remembered what was coming and joined along :) He can now shake his head yes and no thanks to the poem. Luckily, he doesn't quite understand what no means! 

*Toy: Harrison got an early birthday present. A little outdoor swing and slide! We gave it to him early so he can enjoy it during the fall weather. He loves playing on it! It's also made him accept crawling on grass ;)

*Non-Toy Toy: Do pictures count? I'm going to say yes. He LOVES looking at pictures of himself and our little family. We have framed pictures of our family in his bedroom. He wakes up every morning looking at the pictures and pointing to them. We also made the mistake of putting his pictures on our staircase. We can no longer walk up and down the stairs without taking a break to check the pictures out. Heaven forbid we don't take a break. Harrison lays down on the floor and whimpers, sits up and points to the pictures. Not dramatic at all ;) He gets the biggest smile when he sees the pictures so we usually end up caving!

*Time of Day: Any time of the day that involves eating! It really is his favorite. Bath time is a close second. When he hears the water running, he tries to climb into the tub (always under supervision!). He also starts making happy noises.

*Things to Giggle At: Still Daddy. That man is too funny ;) He did find giving foot high fives to be incredibly hilarious as well. 

Observations/Firsts/Milestones

This has been the most amazing month! Harrison has learned how to do so many different things. He can shake his head yes/no, he "waves" good-bye, points to what he wants and so much more! There is nothing better than having him learn something new. 

(Seriously, this kid)

Harrison has become our little vampire. His bottom teeth and "fangs" are all in. It makes for one goofy smile! It's also hard to capture on camera since his eye teeth are teeny tiny. 

(This is the best I got, haha)

He participated in his first 5k. We thought he'd fall asleep on the walk (notice how I say walk, not run...haha) but it was much too exciting. We got to end on Kinnick's field and Harrison loved sitting on the turf! 

Speaking of the Hawkeyes, Harrison went to his first tailgate and LOVED it. He enjoyed watching all the people. He was also a hit with the tailgaters. So many people came over to comment about how awesome Harrison and his attire were. He is a pretty handsome fella if I do say so myself ;)

Harrison is starting to stand up by himself! He can do it but is still pretty timid so he doesn't last long. We imagine walking won't be too much further down the road. He moves up to his next classroom in the next couple weeks. We think that once he sees that all his friends can walk he will be more motivated to join in. Lord help us when he starts walking. We will never sit again!

Harrison is starting games of peek-a-boo instead of just participating! He likes to hide behind the curtain and surprise us. Harrison just finds our reactions so funny. He tricks us every time ;)

Harrison has really started to grow into a little person. We can't even begin to imagine what he will be doing next month! The countdown to one is on!

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?!