Big Smiles at 20 months

John Harrison recently turned 20 months old.....only 4 months till 2! Tonight before bedtime, I handed John Harrison his cup of milk (like always) and he wasn't too interested in it....but, he carried his cup over to his high chair and asked to get up in it. John Harrison normally eats meals in his plastic high chair that is attached to a kitchen chair, but last night, we had some friends over and their little boy sat in John Harrison's wooden high chair....so I think that John Harrison got the idea in his head that he might want to sit in it, as well. So, I put John Harrison in the chair and he immediately started pointing at the place mats on the table and doing sign language for "please." I handed him a place mat and then he pointed and asked please for a coaster.....and so on until he had 4 place mats stacked on his tray and 3 coasters. Our little boy is very much into a gathering/sorting/stacking phase:).

Goodbye Mullet

Where is all my hair going??

We attempted to distract John Harrison with dinner during his haircut

wearing the smock didn't last long:)

For about a month now, John Harrison's hair has been getting really long in the back....almost to the mullet stage (aka "the 10/90," aka "business in the front, party in the back"). Although some parents seem to love growing their little boys' hair into mullets, duck tails, or rat tails, I'd rather steer clear of those head-turning styles. David and I both came to the conclusion that the time was overdue for John Harrison's first haircut; instead of facing the challenges of taking a 19 month old to a hair stylist, we asked my moma, who is great at cutting hair, to do the honors. She did a great job and John Harrison's shorter cut turned out really well. His hair is no longer in his eyes and thankfully, his baby mull is gone.

Dressing Up

Saying "please" for some help to open the (empty!) medicine bottle


Every child has to be a pumpkin for Halloween at some point....John Harrison had so much fun playing with his toddler-sized pumpkins and wearing his pumpkin hat this fall that we decided that he would be a pumpkin. I think he made an adorable pumpkin:). As opposed to last year, this year, he actually seemed to like wearing his costume. He even kept the hood on most of the time! David and I carved pumpkins after church while John Harrison took his nap, then we went over to both of our parents' houses. We had fun spending the evening with our families! You might notice in the last picture that John Harrison's hair is much shorter....my moma gave John Harrison his first haircut last week (I'll post pictures soon).

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:)