Meeting Mickey

Last week, we visited my sister and brother-in-law who live in Orlando. While we were there, we spent one day at Epcot. Most all of the rides at Epcot are very tame and toddler-appropriate. We took John Harrison to meet several Disney characters....Mickey, Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy. John Harrison has never really watched any TV and so we knew that he wouldn't recognize the characters, but thought he might get a kick out of "animals" in big costumes. Plus, you have to get your kid's picture taken with Mickey Mouse when you go to Disney!! He got really excited about Mickey, then his enthusiasm waned when Donald tried to tickle him. He was intrigued by Pluto's whiskers and liked playing with Goofy's ears. I got a few cute pictures amongst Disney's paid photographers trying to take their own pictures (we took the photo pass card that supposedly had the code to access the pictures-for-purchase online, but the system will not bring up our pictures). Our sweet boy took a much needed 1.5 hour nap in his stroller while we were at the park, so David and I had fun pushing the stroller around and seeing the sights at Epcot and switched off watching John Harrison while the other person rode one of the adult rides. On our trip, we also hung out at my sister and brother-in-law's house, played with their dog (who was excellent with John Harrison.....even letting him touch his paws), visited some outlet malls, went to the playground, and hung out with some cousins who drove in from Tampa for one of the days. We flew out EARLY Sunday morning so we could be back home in time to go to church. We had to get up before 4 am so John Harrison was utterly exhausted by the time his bedtime rolled around. Ten people from church came over to our house for dinner Sunday evening, so we had a busy afternoon getting the house and food ready. We had a great time with our friends and their kids, but were also exhausted by the end of the day. I was still tired yesterday and fell asleep beside John Harrison's crib after putting him down for a nap!

Fall mornings

John Harrison loves playing with zippers on jackets.

sweet smile

John Harrison and I usually go outside to play every morning...and every afternoon...and sometimes every evening:). He doesn't have any particular thing that he likes to do outside, but just likes being outdoors. He mainly runs around, picks up rocks, sometimes sticks the rocks in his mouth, sits on the back porch, plays with leaves, gets up and down off the patio furniture, and plays in the garden. I hope his love of the outdoors continues!

Cotton

Last year, I had great intentions of taking pictures of John Harrison in a cotton field that is adjacent to our neighborhood. Unfortunately, I waited too long and the cotton was harvested. So, this year, I was determined to take pictures before the harvest. The weather was beautiful this evening, so John Harrison and I went for a walk through our neighborhood and down to the cotton field. Next year, I'll be able to take a picture of both of our little boy and new baby together with the cotton in the background.

Pumpkin Patch

finding the perfect pumpkin


hayride to the pumpkin patch


having fun "flying"

Yesterday afternoon, we took John Harrison to a local pumpkin patch. I called before we went to make sure that the advertised "pumpkin patch" was indeed pumpkins in a field, not just pumpkins arranged side by side on pallets or hay bales. The pumpkins had been cut from their vines and the patch was very sparse (all of the large pumpkins had been harvested and arranged on pallets so they wouldn't rot in the field or risk being dropped repeatedly by eager children running through the pumpkin patch, I assume). John Harrison had fun running around the patch and found the perfect child-sized pumpkin. Once he had secured his prize, John Harrison DID NOT want to let go of it. David and I had a lot of fun watching John Harrison have fun....our little boy's favorite parts of our trip to the pumpkin patch were swinging on the airplane swing and carrying around his pumpkin. We look forward to making new traditions with our family this year and in the years to come!
(Even though the high yesterday was over 90 degrees, I couldn't resist taking some pictures of John Harrison with his adorable pumpkin hat on:)

4 1/2 inches long, 3 1/2 ounces......

David and I found out back in July that we are expecting a precious baby. I will be 16 weeks along tomorrow! We are looking forward to finding out the gender (in about 4 weeks, hopefully). According to babycenter.com, our baby is about 4 1/2 inches long (crown to rump length), 3 1/2 ounces right now. We are looking forward to meeting baby #2 the end of March......John Harrison will just have turned 2 when his brother or sister is born!

Travels

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September definitely flew by! We were out of town for about the last week and a half of September, then home for two days, and then headed back out of town for four days. Our September trip was to Texas and Oklahoma. We drove to the Dallas area and spent several days with some of our best friends and their kids. It had been 20 months since we last visited them, so they had not met John Harrison. Our friends' kids are 9, 6, and 2 1/2---John Harrison absolutely loved them....especially all the attention he got from the 6 and 9 year olds. John Harrison and our friends' 2 1/2 year old are about 13 months apart so it was fun seeing what John Harrison will be like developmentally and socially this time next year. After leaving Dallas, we drove to south Oklahoma and visited David's Grammy, Great Aunt, aunts, uncles, and cousins for a few days. Then, we drove to San Antonio so that I could meet people at the company that bought our business (David also worked some in a consulting role while we were there). Everyone made such a point to welcome us with great hospitality, invited us over for dinner, and showed us around San Antonio. The picture above shows John Harrison and me outside a historic restaurant in San Antonio called the Geunther House, which used to be part of the Pioneer company flour mill. We also walked along the river walk in downtown San Antonio, ate some Tex-Mex food, and visited the Alamo. John Harrison did really well on the trip, slept well, and behaved as well as could be expected. The long carrides were a bit trying, but we all managed:). After being home for two days, David and I headed out of town for a four day trip (primarily business related). David's parents kept John Harrison; this trip represented the first time that I had been away from John Harrison for several days. We missed our little boy so much, but greatly appreciated David's parents being willing to keep John Harrison. I don't think I realized how much I missed John Harrison until we were back at home with him.