More John Harrisonisms

Two days ago while I was driving, John Harrison spoke up during a Third Day song we were listening to on the radio and said, "Listen new song, Mommy. Tired of old song." I changed to a different station with Maroon 5 playing and asked him if he liked the new music. He responded, "Like new song, mommy." We haven't exposed John Harrison to much music aimed at babies or young children---mainly for our own sanity (I think having Veggie Tales rattling around in my head all day would be more than I could handle)---but also because he has always liked the music we listen to. Not quite sure why John Harrison preferred the Maroon 5 song over the Third Day one (I liked both), but I suspect it was because the Third Day song was a little slower than he likes. (Side note....I remember taking John Harrison to Sunday School when he was around 20 months old---all the other kids were huddled around the tv watching Veggie Tales and the teacher invited John Harrison to watch, too---he had absolutely no interest in watching (he hardly ever watched tv at home---and on top of that had never seen Veggie Tales) and went straight for some toys instead--I think the teacher was a bit perplexed).

We recently misplaced John Harrison's footie dog-patterned fleece pajamas ("Raleigh jamas" as he calls them...(named after our dog, of course:)). This morning, John Harrison looks at me with a serious face and says, "Next time go Costco buy new Raleigh jamas, Mommy." It is so fun to hear him talking in complete thoughts so frequently now!!

In John Harrison's mind, almost everything costs $2. If you ask him how much our house costs, you will find that we got the deal of the century: $2. If you ask how much strawberries cost, they are $2 (not too far off). Which would you rather have, a house or a pint of fresh berries?

Beginning several months before Christmas, the toy catalogs poured in. John Harrison has always loved getting the mail and looking at what came in the mail and so he was enthralled with mail featuring toys. He called each catalog a "new book"---he wanted us to read him each "new book" over and over and over again. We had to tape the new book pages when they tore. When the Harry and David catalog came, it was the "new fruit book." He tried hard to pick the fruit, cheese, treats, and nuts off the pages to no avail. Today a new spring Pottery Barn catalog came and John Harrison called it both the "new Easter book" and the "$2" book (I assume the latter name was given because the catalog featured things you could buy and of course, everything costs $2). John Harrison told me that the "$2" book costs "$2" and I explained to him that the company actually sends it out to people for free because they will make money when people buy things in the catalog. He didn't know quite what to think of this.

John Harrison runs around in circles laughing and calls it his "elevator dance." John Harrison invented the elevator dance during the SuperBowl party we hosted at our house. We had our small group over and John Harrison got really hyper. It was one of those parenting moments where you want to laugh, but you can't laugh because you will encourage the behavior to continue.

Peek of Spring

With the high reaching in the upper 70s and plenty of sun shining, we went outside to play this afternoon. Elise hadn't ever played in the yard since gaining her mobility, so it was fun watching her explore. Even Raleigh found a sunny spot by the window and took a nap while the kids were down this afternoon.
If you are wondering about John Harrison's fashionable outfit, he is wearing Elmo pajama pants because we are transitioning from pull-ups to underwear and with several accidents a day, I just have been grabbing whatever pants are nearby and clean. You can also see in one of the pictures that Elise's hair is growing slowly but surely:).

Bedtime around our house...

Our newest (almost) walker

Elise has recently started walking while holding onto furniture and rolling toys/walkers. She has even used her new skill to give brother a few rides on his train. I imagine she will take her first steps in the coming weeks.

Reflections and Anticipations

I thoroughly enjoyed this weekend! Other than replying to a few e-mails, David took off the whole weekend:). Saturday morning we went to one of John Harrison's friends' birthdays (the parents are friends of ours and in our small group). The party was at the children's museum and John Harrison couldn't have had more fun eating cake and ice cream, running around the party room with other kids his age, and playing in the museum. John Harrison loved the mini grocery store and would have emptied the entire store into his cart if we had allowed him to do so. After the party, we spent the afternoon at my parents's house and the evening at David's parents's house. I went to get the kids when we were ready to go and it was such a cute moment to see both of them lying on their stomachs on Aunt Lisa's bed watching Toy Story 3. Needless to say, they didn't want to say bye to the tv or to their Aunt. This morning we went to church--our teaching elder is going through the book of Matthew over several years and today's sermon was on the last few verses of the Lord's Prayer. I may do a whole post summarizing the message and how it challenged and convicted me, but as I am blogging from my iPhone, I will wait till I am on my laptop to elaborate...
This afternoon after the kids went down for naps I cleaned while David read a (business) book. David's grandmother and cousin are in town this week and they came over this evening to spend time with our family. John Harrison and David's cousin have the same birthday (month and day, not year:) and so John Harrison calls her his "birthday buddy." Speaking of birthdays, John Harrison's (and "birthday buddy's") birthday is in just a few weeks and Elise's shortly thereafter. I can't believe that David and I are about to be parents to a three year old! I am not trying to rush February, but am anticipating that March will be an exciting month. March will bring our two kids' birthdays, David's birthday, our biometric fingerprinting appt for the adoption, my nephew-to-be's first birthday (and hopefully the adoption court date for my sister and brother-in-law and their baby), possibly our adoption referral, and the hope of warmer weather.
Sorry there aren't better pics of John Harrison--he is at an age where it is really hard to get him to look at the camera!! (Elise on the other hand loves to look and smile beautifully for the camera)---I didn't want to leave our little boy out of the pictures for this post, though, so I included some of the better ones I managed to get.

Train rides...and FedEx deliveries

John Harrison has fun giving Elise rides on his train. This morning, he decided she was having so much fun riding on the little train that he wanted to ride his trike.
Elise just recently started holding on tight enough to the train's steering wheel so that she doesn't need me to support her--it is so cute how excited she gets when we push her around!
Hopefully before too long we will have three little ones riding their vehicles around the kitchen.
Our adoption paperwork package was delivered to Russia today. The paperwork will all be translated into Russian and then the Dept. Of Education will review everything and hopefully approve us to adopt from Russia! We hope every day for a referral, but know that it could be months before we get a picture of our little boy.

Will you be mine?

This morning John Harrison told me, "Happy Valentine's Day, Mommy." Then, he leaned over and said, "Valentine kiss for mommy" and kissed my cheek. What a sweet start to my day:)
I thought a Valentine's Day picture of the kids together would be cute....good idea in theory but did't turn out so well. Oh well, here are my attempts.

Eat!

Backseat Driver

"Where are you, do not enter sign?" a sweet little voice peeped from the backseat on our drive home last night. In addition to hearing him search for his favorite signs, on our 30 minute drive home last night I think we also received instructions from John Harrison at least 75 plus times such as (just to name a few): "obey stop sign, Daddy," "Be careful, Mommy" (I wasn't even driving), "Be careful, Daddy," "Obey do not enter sign, Daddy." For some reason, John Harrison has developed a recent fascination with road signs. I think it began with him learning the names of the road signs that came with his train set. It has morphed into him informing us what each road sign is (often with instructions to obey). He also recently overheard one of us saying "be careful" so John Harrison now will give nearly continual instructions to the front driver and passenger to "be careful!" even when there is no impending danger. Maybe it is disconcerting sitting in the back seat and watching cars pass by going the opposite way...who knows.

Family day

David has been having to put in a lot of time on weekends, but was finally able to take a day off today. In addition to loving having the time together as a family, I was glad that David had a day off!
We had a lot of fun in the morning enjoying a leisurely breakfast together and playing with John Harrison while Elise napped. Before afternoon naps, we went to the store and let John Harrison pick out Mylar balloons for Valentine's Day. He picked out one with a monkey and another with a frog. We asked John Harrison to share one balloon with Elise and without hesitation, he said she could have the frog one:). After naps, we went out to dinner together (one of John Harrison's favorite things to do!). John Harrison gobbled down his black beans and then just picked at his nachos--we kept asking if he was ready to leave and he insisted he wasn't done yet. When we did leave, he carried three small chips in his hands.

Adoption update

Russia will have our adoption dossier next Thursday! Currently, the FedEx envelope containing all our work on the adoption from the past five months is at a FedEx facility in Great Britain. It has been an exciting and frustrating process and we are thrilled to be getting closer to getting a referral for our little boy. Our adoption agency has been nothing but professional and has told us to expect a referral and invitation to travel to Russia for the first of three visits in the next 6 months.

Afternoon at play

John Harrison and Elise both love playing with the endless supply of fun toys found in the playroom. We have toys pretty evenly spread out between the kids' rooms, playroom, and living room and try to keep toys that have a lot of pieces in the playroom or John Harrison's room. Anyways, this afternoon John Harrison insisted on putting "gas-leen" into his trucks and the playhouse. Elise has fun playing with John Harrison's prized train set. Although Elise has recently entered a stage where she wants to be held a lot more, she still plays really well by herself. Even though the kids don't really play together yet, they do play side by side sometimes.