Our Day

Here is a typical day at the Harrison house from the viewpoints of the kids:

Olivia (7 months)
Wake up
Eat
Roll on the ground and smile
Eat
Sleep
Repeat.






Luke (4.5)
Wake up and ask about the score from yesterday's Tigers game.
Watch highlights.
Play Sports Center
Request to stay in pajamas all day.
Eat.
Play baseball.
Eat a peanut butter and jelly.
Play baseball guys.
Draw a baseball (or ocean) picture.
Eat.
Watch baseball.
Bath
Go to bed.

Ben (2.5)

Wake up and watch Super Why.
Ask for a yogurt.  Follow Mom upstairs while repeating "O-gurt?  O-gurt?  O-gurt?" Eat a strawberry-banana yogurt
Run to his room to supervise picking out his clothess for the day.
The following list can be completed in any order throughout the morning:
      Touch everything in the house.
       Eat graham crackers.
      Walk through Luke's baseball guys and "accidentally" knock them over.
      Jump off the couch at least 30 times.
      Dump out a 100 piece puzzle and change his mind about putting it together.
      Find a way to put the words "poo poo" into an every day song.
      Find a way to get wet.
      Demand to change clothes because they are wet.
      Get a new bruise.
Eat a tortilla and a cheese stick for lunch.
Take a nap.
The following list can be completed in any order throught the afternoon:
      Touch everything in the house (again)
      Ask what is for dinner and repeat it over and over again (ex: "Noodles?  I have noodles? 
           Noodles?  I have noodles?  Noodles?  I have noodles?")
      Rearrange the dishes on the table.
      Get a new bruise (again)
Look at dinner.
Climb all over anyone who is sitting down.
Bath.
Bed.
     
     

What We Did on Our Spring Vacation

Last week, we took our first vacation as a family of five. With the exception of a baby who did not like the rolling hills of the South, everything went very smoothly and we had a wonderful time. I am purposefully listing what we did well so that I don't forget things next time!
1. Car Ride down - Before leaving, I created two baskets of car goodies. I included some familiar favorites as well as a few new items from the dollar section at Target. One of my best items was a $5 Scooby Doo movie that the boys watched at least 5 times. I put one basket between the boys when we left and then switched the baskets halfway through our trip.


2. Rented a house - We have become big fans of renting a house when we go on family trips. We end up with at least 2 rooms, a kitchen and a living room so that we aren't tripping over each other in a hotel room. Once the boys woke up, Aaron (who is an early bird) played with them in the living room while Olivia and I caught up on our sleep.


3. Invited the grandparents- Aaron's parents live 500 miles away, so this trip was great because we got to visit with them and take a vacation at the same time. As a bonus perk, adults actually outnumbered kids!

Olivia chatting with MoMo and Papa on the side porch

4. Met up with the great-grandparents - Aaron's grandparents drove about 6 hours to come visit us. They decided to stay 2 nights at a house on the same property. It was wonderful to have a chance for the boys to spend time with them in a comfortable environment where they could run around and be themselves while making memories with family.

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa looking for rocks for Ben to throw into the catfish pond

5. Grilled every night - Aaron finds grilling to be very relaxing and I find having someone else cook for me to be very relaxing! We ate some amazing meals and stuffed ourselves silly!

6. Day trip - I promised Aaron that I would only book one day trip so that we were not running around like crazy while we were needing to relax. We took a little trip to Mammoth Caves which is only an hour away from the rental house. We walked on the hiking trails (the boys found chipmunks and a huge lizard that they were able to chase) and took a tour of one of the caves.

My only Mammoth Caves picture - Aaron had just returned from yet another trip to the van for something we had forgotten.  Keeping 3 children from falling into the cave crevices trumped picture-taking. 

7. A big Final treat - The boys love to learn about the ocean, so I tried to find an aquarium to visit while we were in Tennessee. Instead of an aquarium, I found something even better - a restaurant called The Aquarium! We went for dessert and were treated to a gigantic aquarium in the middle of the restaurant with all of the boys' favorite sea life. They saw sharks, sting rays, starfish, eels and every tropical fish they could imagine.

8. Threw the schedule completely out the window - I love routine, but during our trip I managed to let it go. Bedtime was later than usual and nap times were flexible. I'm glad we did, because it led to a really great memory of catching fireflies with the boys while Aaron's grandparents watched on the side porch and told memories of doing the same thing while they were kids.

9.  Spend time outside- This was one of the first weeks of summer weather that we've really experienced.  The whole family spent most of our time outside.

10.  Kept the tv off - The boys kept up with the Tigers on the computer and watched highlights, but for the most part, they watched very little tv.

11.  Let the boys do somethings that they aren't often allowed to do at home.

Ben playing with the water coming from the gutters during a rain shower.

12.    Kept some rules the same.

If you don't eat your dinner, you don't eat a Smore.

13.  Enjoyed just being with our kids.

Money Sense

While out to dinner tonight, our waitress gave the boys little buckets of crayons and pizza pictures to color.  As soon as Luke looked in his bucket, he found a little rubber pencil topper in the shape of a walrus.  It was something you might find in one of those little quarter machines outside of grocery stores or the mall.  Needless to say, it was pretty much the coolest toy that he had seen in his entire life.

Here is the conversation that followed:

Luke:  Can I bring this home?

Me: No, that isn't ours.  We'll leave it here for the next kid to play with while he waits for his pizza.

10 minute break to eat breadsticks

Waitress:  Is there anything else I can get for you?

Me: No, we're all set.

Luke (as waitress was walking away):  I'll pay $40 for the walrus.  (Waitress didn't hear.)

Me:  Do you have $40?

Luke: No, but I would pay $50.

Me:  Where are you going to get $50?

Luke looks at Aaron.

Aaron:  Sorry, buddy. 

Luke:  Well, okay.  Does anyone want to play Alligator House?

Aaron:  How do you play?

Luke:  I'll tell you for $40.

Why we eat at home

As a kid, we didn't go out to eat too often.  My dad is an awesome cook and since he was home from work two hours before my mom, he was usually in charge of making dinner.  We ate together as a family almost every night.  I never had to ask what time to be home, because dinner was going to be at 5:30.  If you were late, you were not promised leftovers and could possibly end up with a bowl of cereal (at least, this is what we were told . . . . Dinner in my family was not something to be messed around with or missed!  At 5:30, we needed to be fed!)

Dinner as a family is one of the traditions that has been carried over into our little family.  We eat as soon as Aaron comes in the door from work.  If he is more than 5 minutes late, he knows that we may have made him a plate and started without him.  I try my best to have a decent meal (with a veggie!) each night and we almost always eat together.  We do end up having pizza about once every week or two and fast food occasionally makes it into our house for lunch, but going out is very rare.  When we do go out to eat, we will go to IHOP, Pizza Hut or Red Robin.



Typical summer lunch at our house

Tonight was one of those rare nights.  The kids and I went to Greenfield Village with a group of friends this morning.  It was very sunny and very hot.  We had a great time, but were completely cooked by the end of the excursion.  I had no motivation to make dinner, so we decided to take everyone out for pizza at a quaint,little Italian restaurant.  It is actually a little place that Aaron and I frequented before we had kids. 

The kids did great, however, at one point, Luke (after being reminded for the thirty-fifth time to not talk in an outside voice) asked (in an outside voice), "Where are all the televisions?"

Maybe we need to do this more often . . .

Snips and Snails and Swirlies

I grew up in a pretty quiet home.  My sister and I were always pretty mellow.  Books were for reading.  Dolls were for dressing up and caring for.  Game pieces were used for playing the games according to the rules.  When friends came over, we would go in our rooms to play until dinner time.  The loudest game I remember playing was NOK Hockey or pool. 

How I ended up in a house with two little boys is a complete mystery to me.  Neither Luke nor Benjamin would ever be described as mellow.  Everything around here is loud.  Books are used for reading, but also for stacking on top of each other to reach the light switch (and then falling on their heads).  Action figures fly around the room, jump on every piece of furniture, are tied to a string and then flung across the room at a stack of blocks.  Game pieces are used as ammo.  When friends come over, they run while yelling/laughing at the top of their lungs.  Everything is loud.

My sister and I liked to play dress up.  My boys prefer to run around in their underwear.

This morning, I was feeding Olivia while the boys were playing together.  I was talking to my sister on the phone, so I had closed the door.  All of a sudden, I heard something come from the bathroom that never would've been heard in my house as a child.

"Ben, just stick your head in and I'll flush!"

By the way, this is what happens when you leave your camera on the counter while you put the baby to bed.  Photos courtesy of Benjamin

Routine

When Luke was born, one of my first missions was to establish a routine. From the time that he was about 2 months old, we had a written schedule posted on the refrigerator detailing when he would (most likely) eat, "play" and sleep. I scheduled events completely around his nap and feeding schedule and, for the most part, he kept to the schedule unless he was sick. To this day, he prefers to have a plan with set times for his day. If you ask him, he will tell you that he wakes up at "seven - zero - zero," watches his show, eats breakfast, goes to school or plays at home, eats lunch, watches one more show, takes a nap at 2:00, drinks apple juice, eats dinner, plays, takes a bath, eats snack and goes to bed. He likes knowing what is going to happen and when.

When Benjamin came along, all bets were off. When I would normally be starting to solidify a routine, I was in complete survival mode. He had whooping cough and for at least a month would wake up coughing every 45 minutes. Night and Day. During every coughing spurt, one of us had to rock him to help him calm down, so we were both only half awake from mid-April until the beginning of June.   Once everything settled down, we established our new routine and kept to it as much as possible.

Having three children, however, has changed life in our house.  For the past two weeks, I've been trying to write down our daily routine to hang on the refrigerator.  (I like to do this so that in case I have to rush out and leave the kids with someone new, they'll know what we usually do and when.  Like I said, my kids thrive on routine.)  It hasn't worked a bit.  With an infant and a potty training toddler, one day never looks like the last.  Sometimes we eat lunch at 11:30, other times we eat at 1:00.  Sometimes the boys are dressed by 8:00 and sometimes we all stay in our jammies until 5:30.  Bedtime and my work time are still set in stone, but everything else is up for grabs.

Boys in their jammies after Easter Sunday dinner.

Four years ago, I would've found this to be extremely frustrating.  After all, how was I going to schedule doctor's appointments and play dates if we didn't have a schedule?   Now, however, I find it to be somewhat freeing. 

I'm starting to enjoy the flexibility to our day.  I was so proud of myself for choosing to go at the last minute with the boys and my parents to the zoo on Good Friday.   I didn't schedule anything around Olivia's feedings, but just decided that I'd find a place to feed her when she was ready.  I gave the go-ahead to visit the monkey exhibit even though it was dangerously close to lunchtime (although, my mom saved the day with her bag of Nana snacks!).  And, even though it was already right at the boys' nap time, I agreed to go to lunch at Wendy's.  We had a great day, made some memories, and even though we threw our routine out the window, everyone recovered and (as my friend Michele would say) no one died.

Right before Ben fell off the turtle statue.

Watching the hippo get a bath and lunch.

I even sometimes find myself doing spur of the moment things like walking home from my parents' house (a mile or so) with the boys at 7:30 at night.  Yes, I should have dressed them warmer and started out earlier, but we had a great time at the park and they were completely exhausted when we arrived home!

Young Romeo

I am constantly amazed at how my two boys are so different. Luke enjoys being an active member of any group, while Ben prefers to observe from the sidelines. Ben is persistent in solving problems, while Luke truly prefers everything to work perfectly immediately. Luke loves sweets. Ben cried at his first birthday party because we tried to get him to eat cake.

Most recently, however, I've noticed that both of my boys are big fans of the ladies. Very. Big. Fans. Sigh . . . They have very different approaches in their attempts to get a foot in the front door.

Ben has always been more drawn to older women (must be at least 12). Even as a baby, he would stare down men and give a great big smile to women. He acts very shy and makes them work hard to get that first smile. Once they've shown that they're willing to put in the effort, he rewards them with smiles and cuddles. He sits in their laps to read books and won't let them go to do anything else (as long as they obey his every command).

Luke, on the other hand, likes girls who are slightly closer to his age (between 4-13ish). Yesterday, his friend A came over for an hour while her mom went to an appointment. Luke was excited. . . no ecstatic . . . about her arrival. He watched out the window while nearly jumping out of his skin while he waited for her. She was coming over close to lunchtime, so I decided to distract him with a PB&J. A arrived just as he was sitting down to eat, so I told him that he could play as soon as he finished his lunch. A sat down to talk with my sister and I. She was so sweet and I could tell that she enjoyed chatting and being "one of the girls."

Luke could see that his opportunity to have every ounce of her attention was slowly vanishing. After all, this is the girl that he has proclaimed at least once a week will be his future wife. (He really is very convinced of this). He knew that he had to act quickly.

Q: What is a young Romeo to do??
A: Shove your entire PB&J into your mouth.

A was completely mortified. Luke knew he had to regroup and come up with a better idea.

Q: What is a young Romeo to do??
A: Play that you're a skunk and pretend to spray her.

A thought this was a little funny, yet a little strange. She gave him a courtesy giggle and tried to make the best of her crazy little playmate. Luke could tell that things were not going quite as successfully as he had planned.

Q: What is a young Romeo to do??
A: Give up. At this point, Luke looked at her and said, "A. My sister has dolls. We can play with those if you want."

Looks like we have a while before we have to worry about his first date.