First Cold of the Winter

A week ago Saturday: spent the evening playing (see above pictures) with Grandmama, Grandad, and Great Grandmama while Mom and Dad went out to dinner.

Saturday (today): awake and crying on and off all night for the past three nights, up for the day at 5:20 am, drank five large bottles of milk and one meal from Mom, ate two large pears, took two naps, sneezed numerous times, shed many tears over Mom wiping a very sore nose, experienced short-lived happiness after rejuvinating meals and naps, went from wide awake to sound asleep within seconds at bedtime

As you can tell above, today was not a normal day for John Harrison. He has had a cold for about a week and has been feeling pretty under the weather for about the past three days. I am hoping that John Harrison will start getting better soon! I am thankful, though, because this is really the first time John Harrison has been sick for more than a day or two since he was really sick last summer. We have been really careful to wash our hands and his and are mindful of keeping John Harrison away from other sick people and kids and out of many crowded locations---I guess most of our efforts have paid off.....but, germs have a way of spreading even when you are cautious.

Hopefully, at least, he'll be well in time for his one year birthday next weekend! Even though John Harrison has been much, much sicker, it is still hard seeing my baby sick. I really hope (for John Harrison's sake and ours!) that our sweet boy sleeps better tonight than he has the past few nights.

My parents came over for dinner tonight, which was a lot of fun. My moma commented tonight how hard it would be to take John Harrison to a photography studio since our little boy rarely stops moving and is always reaching out to grab everything around him......I am very thankful that she is a such a great photographer who "sets up shop" whenever she is around John Harrison. It is fun to see my moma chasing John Harrison around trying to get him to look at the camera. As you can see in the pictures above, John Harrison is getting better and better at posing for the camera. John Harrison is wearing his "bad hair day" shirt in the pictures above. David and I were at Gymboree a few weekends ago and found the shirt for about $3 and couldn't miss out on a bargain and a laugh. We also found a great Hawaiian print shirt for around $4 that will be perfect for our little guy when we go on vacation this summer.

Keep posted for John Harrison's first year photo recap coming soon!

Spring is in sight!

I'm so happy that I'm wearing Dad's old outfit that I'm sticking my tongue out!

spinach face :)look at those sweet blue eyes

wearing new pjs from Aunt Lisa

Today was a reminder that springtime is not too far away. The temperature got up to around 60 today and so I decided to take John Harrison outside to play while I took a break from working. John Harrison isn't used to meeting any resistance when he walks so I think he was a bit intrigued when he tried to walk through the thick bermuda grass. He tried to eat grass, leaves, the gutter, gravel, and even the patio furniture:). I am really looking forward to warmer weather so we can go to the park and zoo and spend more time outside.

Our sweet boy will be ONE in two weeks. Today there were some more reminders that he is growing up. For instance, instead of trying to eat the book, he paid attention while I was reading a book to him. He also felt the animals' "fur" in the farm animals book were reading.

My dad and David's mom have each continued to babysit John Harrison several days each week while David and I work. I am so excited about being able to spend more time with John Harrison in the near future. John Harrison is at such a fun age and I hate to miss a moment.

Our precious Valentine

giving a "tisssss" to Dad

Bookshelves are only for holding books until the books can be thrown onto the floor....

John Harrison has progressed pretty quickly with walking since he stook his first step on January 5th. He is walking all over the place and has been doing so for about a week and a half. He can walk across a room and take 20-30 steps in a row. He still crawls some seems to prefer walking to crawling. John Harrison loves waving his arms up and down when he is excited :). He also will sometimes give kisses (he occassionally says "tissss" before he gives a kiss). He is very much a boy and enjoys knocking down block towers that David and I build. John Harrison is within two weeks of being weaned!! We introduced cow's milk about two weeks ago and he has been doing really well with it.....so I am also eating dairy products again. I think his food and protein sensitivities are finally starting to settle down--finally!!

After doing some research, we decided to give John Harrison hormone free non-homogonized whole milk from a dairy about 1 1/2 hours away that raises grassfed cows.....the only catch is that the milk is only sold at one chain of produce stores in town and the closest store is 30 minutes away. We are able to get fresh produce in the same trip, though.

John Harrison nurses when he wakes up in the morning and right before he goes to bed and usually takes two bottles during the day (he sleeps from around 8:30 pm till 5-6 am). The fact that he is only nursing twice a day is a HUGE blessing and success considering that only a few weeks ago, if John Harrison was with me during the day, he would nurse at least 6-8 times in a 24 hours period. He has started to feed himself pieces of fruit and vegetables, but we still puree his meat. I am so, so excited about the progress. I feel like my baby has become a toddler over the past month.

My moma took these pictures last Saturday---she and Dad watched John Harrison while David and I went out to dinner for Valentine's Day. This was the first time David and I have done anything fun together in months and months and months!!! I decided to risk it and ate a steak, salad, and veggies without knowing the ingredients. John Harrison has seemed to have done fine with what I ate.

David and I have both been working quite a bit this month but nothing like the hours we put in last month. The next few months will be busy, but hopefully, life will continue on the trend of settling down so we can become more involved serving with our local church, spending time together, and spending time with our precious son.