oh, the things they say...

harrison has homework each week. it's not mandatory...usually just some coloring sheets, occasionally cutting projects, simple things we can do together at home. when he turns it in at school he gets a sticker on the sticker chart. after 6 weeks of stickers he can choose a prize out of the prize box.

for the most part harrison loves doing his homework. tonight, however, he walked over to me and said...

"i'm all done. i don't have enough allergy to finish my homework".

i can only assume he meant to say "energy" not "allergy". because, in my experience, it's usually too many allergies that impede homework completion...not too few. :)

friends for life

every month or two i get a girl's night out with my friends amy and chelsea. we met at work in late 2004 and have since gone on to do other things. amy started her own business, chelsea took a year off after the birth of her daughter and has now started working in a new arena, and i am home with the boys full-time. we are all married, have kid(s), love eating great food and chatting about life. my dinners with them are always a pleasure!

harrison isn't all that familiar with amy - i think they've met one time. he knows "miss chels" better because we had occasional play dates during the year she wasn't working. even still, it's been quite a long time since he's seen chelsea in person. he simply knows that mommy leaves him home with daddy and graham so she can go eat dinner with her friends.

one day this week, during harrison's quiet reading time (formerly known as nap time), i went upstairs to check on him. upon entering, i found that he had moved the ottoman over to the armoire so he could climb up and get more books. dangerous? yes. did i scold him? no. why? i didn't want to squash his desire to read. :)

he choose one from my childhood - a dr. seuss book called "my book about me" - that i wrote/drew in back in 1984 when i was seven years old! i sat down next to him and started flipping the pages, explaining to harrison that i wrote this...and colored that...when i was a little girl. we had fun looking through the book together.

when we got to one of the last pages (the picture above) i said...

MOMMY: look at the picture i drew.
HARRISON: are those your friends?
MOMMY: i think so. (not remembering exactly what my drawing was supposed to depict)
HARRISON: are they amy and chels?


could be, sweet boy. could be. :)

the future poet

a real life conversation...

this morning harrison's class got a visit from Dare the therapy dog. harrison and i were talking about Dare and he mentioned something about needing to talk to Dare's "babysitter" (aka owner) about how to make Dare all better. (Dare only has 3 legs).

MOMMY: maybe you could be a veterinarian when you grow up because you take such good care of animals.

HARRISON: no, i can't be a veterinarian because i'm gonna be a doctor.

MOMMY: oh, okay. what kind of doctor do you want to be? like dr. todd (our friend and neighbor)? or dr. macguire (our pediatrician)?

HARRISON: no, like dr. seuss.

i couldn't make this stuff up if i tried, people!!

our knight in shining armor

i got a little chuckle today when graham woke up from his nap and came down the stairs all by himself looking like this....

our tender-hearted warrior. :)

i wonder if our armed forces know that a boy's best friend in battle is his woobie?? and surely one cannot be without their binky!

you can see how graham drags his woobie around by a tear in the hem. he calls this his "little handle". he will turn his woobie around from corner to corner, running his fingers along the hem, saying, "where's my little handle?" until he finds it. and when he does, it makes him giggle with delight!

this little munchkin never fails to entertain us!

family photos

our sweet friend, leslie, took some photos of our family again this year. we are incredibly fortunate that she is willing to share her skills with us! her husband and jer's long time buddy, norg (aka jason norgren), came along to assist. his job was to sing, dance, make silly sounds, and pass out skittles (aka bribes) to the boys. here are just a few of the ones i love...

the colored version of the above was on our Christmas card this year. thank you, norg, for getting harrison & graham to giggle!

this was my very favorite of all of them. harrison's sweet smile was natural. i love that you can tell graham is saying "cheese", which he does every.single.time. we pull out the camera. and i love seeing his little gap teeth in this shot!

a candid moment.

a posed moment. love their shadows.

love the sun coming through the tree. can you see the boys' cowboy boots? they look pretty darn cute in those boots!

graham says "i love you"

graham has been responding to our "i love you's" for quite some time now, but yesterday was the first time he told me "i love you" randomly, without any prompting.

he and i were cuddling under his woobie (blanket) together, watching a little tv show before nap time. i was resting my head on top of his as he snuggled into my chest. he twisted his head, looked up at me and whispered, "i love you, mommy". melt my heart!! i, of course, said, "i love you, too, buddy" to which he responded with "i love you, too". :)

i could have kept that cycle up all afternoon!

interview with harrison

i borrowed this idea from amanda at http://babybangs.blogspot.com/. as i was reading her post i was curious how harrison would answer some of those questions. my first attempt to "interview" harrison was during an episode of curious george. you can see he wasn't very happy with me for interrupting his show. God forbid!!

here it is:

1) what is something mommy always says to you?
no.

2) what makes mommy happy?
i don't know. but don't say that because i'm gonna be very mad.

3) what makes mommy sad?
nothin.

4) how does mommy make you laugh?
i don't know.

5) what was mommy like as a little girl?
a house.

6) how old is mommy?
um...i don't know.

7) how tall is mommy?
not as tall as daddy.

8) what is mommy's favorite thing to do?
play hide and go seek.

9) what does mommy do when you're not around?
go to bible study with graham.

10) what is mommy really good at?
eating dinner.

11) what is mommy not very good at?
watching tv.

12) what is mommy's favorite food? (graham yelled out "dessert") !!!
tacos.

13) how do you know mommy loves you?
you give me a kiss.

14) where is mommy's favorite place to go?
wendy's.


can't wait to ask him these same questions a year from now and see how the answers differ!!