happy harrison

i have been uninspired lately - or so it seems - and, therefore, have not documented any recent happenings in an online blog where people can actually read about the grave boringness of my...well, my daily life. sigh.

so, instead, i'll post a picture of the happy boy who, hopefully, will not grow up to think his mother is a terrible bore! : )

happy st. patrick's day

hope you don't get pinched! (did everyone grow up with that "tradition"? that you have to wear green on st. patty's day or risk bodily harm.)

we woke up to snow this morning. i love the snow. it's fresh, clean, and so very peaceful. it makes everything more quiet...insulated.

i can cherish the positive attributes of snow because i do not have to venture out in it. i can stay in my flannel pajamas all day, cuddle up with my sweet boy, and claim a special day for staying inside.

this way, i won't run the risk of getting pinched!

daddy's boy

my son is a natural at computers. we did not position his little hands for this photo. somehow, he just knows what to do. he takes after his father - the IT networking guy - who can work with computers all day long at the office and then come home and sit in front of one all night long. all i have to say about that is, "stop the insanity!"

but, please notice, we only use Mac at home - that's MY influence! : )

clearly i am a blogging ignoramus

question: how do i know if someone comments on one of my old posts? is there some kind of setting i need to adjust?  or do i just have to keep checking back (which would be a bit insane)?

and if i comment on someone else's blog, and they comment back, do i have to REMEMBER to go back and see if they commented back??  i mean, i can't even remember to brush my teeth some days!  (well, that is a bit of a stretch...but you understand).

HELP ME!  (but please do so in a nice, non-sarcastic way...my blogging ego is very fragile at the moment).

untitled

i don't really have a comment or explanation about this pic, except to say that it was just one of those sweet moments that i wanted to capture in my mind forever. what is cuter than a boy and his blanket?

sweet boy. actually holding still so i can get a non-blurry photo of his face.

tom cruise wanna-be. risky business, baby.

we bought these sunglasses today. harrison gets a huge happy face when i put them on. but, then VERY QUICKLY takes them off and begins chewing on them. i probably took 20 pics to get one semi-good one.

haha, mama. i'm faster than you. : )

i had originally planned to post about the fact that aliens invaded our home last night, captured my child, and replaced him with mr. crabby pants. however, as the day progressed, mr. crabby pants slowly went away and "happy" returned. so i thought some cute photos might be in order. plus, dada has been wanting to see what we've been doing while he's away.

you know, we all have crabby days. one of my all time favorite books is alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. i tried reading it to harrison today. he would hear nothing of it. i guess it wasn't helping him to know that alexander was having a bad day, too! i did let him eat two gerber biter biscuits. (they are hard little graham-cracker-flavored "cookies" for teething babies). things started looking up from there. takes after his mother.... nothing a little "sweet treat" can't fix!

God bless baby einstein!

thank God for baby einstein. the reason "happy harrison" is so happy is solely the result of hours of baby einstein. hello. my name is rachel white and my son is a baby einstein addict. yes, we are a two-a-day family. at least.

mama needs to cook dinner? baby einstein to the rescue! mama needs to take a shower? i love me some baby einstein! harrison has an ear infection and NOTHING else will console him? UNLIMITED baby einstein! (i'm not kidding. one time we watched six in a row.)

mama: "harrison, do you want to watch a baby einstein?"
harrison: perks up head, opens eyes wide, walks toward the television, begins squealing with excited anticipation as mama picks up the remote control, makes panting noises, whines if mama can't start the video fast enough....seriously, i've created a monster (aka: junkie).

can you say "conditioned"? it's as if my child is pavlov's dog (who IS one of the baby einstein puppets, by the way). maybe that's where he learned the panting??

since i am now an official full-time mom, i feel it important to cut back on the baby einstein watching. i must admit that i have been experiencing some guilty feelings about the whole issue. i've been justifying my behavior because i ONLY let harrison watch baby einstein. of course, the APA doesn't approve of even that. so, clearly, i have been in denial and am, only now, seeing the error of my ways.

in any event, this week, we've been trying to go for more walks. we watch the ducks swim in the pond. precious ducks. ...then, when we get home, i show harrison how the real ducks compare to the puppet ducks on his favorite baby einstein video. : )

mom advice needed

harrison and i are having some dinnertime struggles. he still has difficulty chewing and swallowing solids. often, they make him gag and puke up everything he just ate. (that's what happened in the "welcome to motherhood" post. it wasn't a sickness bug, ladies. it was, and is, an "adjusting to new foods" bug.)

so, my choices are to let him gag and puke...or to continue feeding him cereal and pureed fruits and veggies. if i choose the latter, harrison gets MAD because i won't let him use the spoon to feed himself.

any advice/suggestions/snide remarks??
do i need to take him to the doctor to have this whole gagging thing checked out??

UPDATE: I'M HAPPY TO REPORT THAT LUNCH WENT WELL. HARRISON ATE BITS OF FRENCH FRIES AND PEAS WITH HIS HANDS. AND I FED HIM PUREED PEARS WITH A SPOON...AND LET HIM PLAY WITH A "GROWN UP" FORK THROUGHOUT. THERE WAS NO GAGGING, NO PUKING, AND NO TEMPER TANTRUMS (FROM EITHER OF US). I WOULD STILL BE INTERESTED IN ANY ADVICE YOU MIGHT HAVE.

no hablo espanol (caution: do not read if sensitive about immigration)

i had been wanting to buy harrison a magnetic toy for the refrigerator. something for him to do while i was cooking or emptying the dishwasher. something, that is, other than "helping" me. i knew those little magnetic letters were too old for him, so i got online to look around for some other ideas. leap frog makes this cute little farm that is perfect. we can practice mooing while browning hamburger, clucking while scrambling eggs...you get the point.

so we had to make a wal-mart run to get more baking soda (my supply has been dwindling due to the bathes), and i thought it might be nice to run through the toy aisle and see if they had the leap frog farm. they did. oh, fun. we bought it, brought it home, opened it, and began playing.

it wasn't until later that i realized the bottom of the farm has a sticker that reads "mis animalitos interactivos". hmmm. i know enough spanish to translate for you: "my interactive animals". i tried to peel back the sticker to see if the english version was underneath. it wasn't. then i looked at the box. the entire box was covered in spanish. i looked at the instruction booklet inside the box. only spanish.

brief interlude:
upon moving to denver, i quickly learned that there are many "mexicanos" in the area. one day, during a quick trip through my neighborhood mcdonald's drive-thru, i was met with the phrase "no hablo ingles". hmmm. i ordered a number 3 with a water instead of coke. what is so "no hablo ingles" about that? when realizing the guy on the other end of the microphone had no idea what i wanted, i yelled, "numero tres con AGUA!!!". not sure that my point was clearly understood. what i was trying to say was, "this is america you freakin idiot! we speak INGLES!".

back to the story:
although disturbed by it, i've grown accustomed to seeing the tacqueria, the joyeria, the panaderia, the carniceria...all on the same street just one block from where i live (which is not "little mexico", although i do endearingly refer to it as such). i've even come to terms with reading burger king's marquee in spanish. further, i'm actually understanding of the fact that manufacturer's now print BOTH english and spanish on their products.

what i am NOT okay with, however, is the fact that i live in the united states of america, shop at one of this country's MOST american stores (headquartered in arkansas, for goodness sake), and, yet, the product i buy is not marketed for english-speaking americans???? are you kidding me?!

assimilate, people!!! assimilate! or should i say...."asimilarse"!?!?!

welcome to [stay at home] motherhood!

so....friday was my last day of work.  er...  i mean, friday was my last day of working at the OFFICE.  everyone was wonderful and it was a bittersweet day.  i'm very happy to be at home full-time now, but i will certainly miss the daily interaction with them!  but that's not the point of this blog...

since becoming a stay at home mom...

jer, harrison and i had a lovely saturday.  one exception: the bambino developed yet another horrific diaper rash.  saturday night was spent at target purchasing lotrimin, cortaid, maalox, and vaseline (my new cure-all diaper salve).  we started baking-soda bathes again.  

on sunday we drove to the airport to drop jer off so he could fly to boston for a two-week business trip.  yes, you read correctly - TWO weeks.  the moment he got out of the car i began praying to Jesus for the strength to make it through.  and for patience.  lots of patience. harrison and i had a lovely afternoon and evening together.

monday: (oh, yeah, that's TODAY?!)  weather was gorgeous.  happy and i went through starbuck's drive-thru to get mama a grande-half-caf-drip-with-extra-cream-and-one-splenda. yum.  then we went for a long walk around one of the local duck ponds.  fun.  the day was filled with adventure...but, little did i know the excitement had not yet begun. 

afternoon naptime:  good, peaceful, all is well. 

wake up from afternoon nap:  good, peaceful, all is well.  UNTIL mama notices a mysterious wetness running down harrison's leg.  a quick search reveals what cannot and should not ever be described in a blog.  "gross" will have to suffice.  i immediately got harrison in the bathtub. no way baby wipes could tackle a job like that!  one question:  how could the boy SLEEP through such grossness??!!!  and, worse, upon further investigation, i realized the grossness soaked through his pants and onto his crib sheet.  no big deal, right?  WRONG.  apparently, my child laid his sweet little head in the grossness that had soaked onto the sheet, causing a rash to form on the left side of his face.  how could he SLEEP IN such grossness??!!!

should i be happy that he is such a peaceful sleeper?  should i be happy that he doesn't whine at the slightest wet/messy diaper?  well, i suppose i am so very happy about both of those things. what makes me UNhappy is that my son sleeps in filth...which ends up giving him horrible diaper rashes (and makes a huge mess for me).

so i got the boy cleaned up.  all the while, remembering my prayers for patience.  don't think i wasn't throwing up some "oh, so You're going to choose RIGHT NOW to see if i was really serious about my prayer requests??!!  are you kidding me??!!" kind of prayers.  shouldn't have done that.  God was chuckling at me.

so...dinner time rolls around.  the short version:  my clean little man suddenly projectile-vomited everywhere.  and, of course, as soon as it's out of his mouth, he thinks it's fun to PLAY in it.  sigh.  welcome to motherhood.  the real version.

the sounds of parenthood

you know the sound that happens when women "bare down" during child labor?  or when a toddler may have eaten too much iron and has to use some extra force to "take care of business"?  it's a sound that can be made by taking a breath, holding it, and grunting/moaning. often, this noise is accompanied by a dark red face. 

i see the dark red face, and hear the laborious grunting noise, every day.  why?  because it is now harrison's normal reaction to the word "no". 

mama: "harrison, you can't climb out of your highchair and onto the dining room table" (spoken while placing harrison back on his bottom).

harrison:  ignores mama.  begins climbing out of highchair again.

mama: "NO!"  (spoken while placing harrison back on his bottom again).

harrison: MMRRMMRRUUUGH!!!  (spoken with an unhappy, "i want to climb on the dining room table RIGHT NOW", inflection).

i neeeeeed grey's anatomy!!

i mean, am i the ONLY ONE WHO MISSES T.V.????!!!??!  and i don't mean reality t.v.  i'm talking about the real stuff - the fictional, everything gets resolved in thirty minutes, kind of show.  i'm talking about a show WITHOUT voting, judging, or getting fired.

i've got enough reality.  i just want a little bit of escapism.

get writing, writers!!!

if i hear about one more reality t.v. show hitting the airways (even if they are "good" shows about giving and helping others), i am going to BLOW!