April 27, 2011

Coconuts are Falling Down

Remember when I said 2.5 was my favorite age??  Well, it keeps getting better and better.  Austin has started making up songs lately and it's quite amusing and pretty stinkin' cute as well.  At first they were just kind of jumbled words put to familiar tunes or he would just talk to us in a sing-song voice, but last week he actually came up with a truly original song and continues to sing it on a daily basis.

It's sung to the tune of London Bridge:

Coconuts are falling down
Falling down
Falling down

Coconuts are falling down
on pirates heads!

Oh what imaginations these little ones have!!

April 26, 2011

Happy Easter!

This Easter might have been one of the best I've had in a long time.  The boys woke us up early, as usual, and we enjoyed some family time and played with all the goodies the Easter Bunny brought!







We made the 9am service at church and enjoyed a very beautiful and moving sermon.  Afterwards, we came home, let Owen take a quick nap and I baked our Easter cupcakes while Ryan and Austin played.  My mother-in-law came over around lunch time and we went and had a delicious lunch at Bonefish.

After lunch we came back to the house and hung out for awhile before nap time....for all 4 of us!  It.was.wonderful!  I can't remember the last time the entire family was able to take a nap together for more than a few minutes.  So nice, and so needed.

After naps it was time for an Easter egg hunt in the backyard.  Ryan hid the eggs, but he seriously underestimated Austin's finding ability.  He found every last one in less than 10 minutes I believe!  Poor Owen didn't even have a chance, but I imagine he'll give Austin a run for his money come next Easter!









After hunting eggs for awhile, we went back out to meet our friends Charley, Stefania, Sofia and new baby Bondurant (due in December)!  Austin and Sofia are always so cute and sweet when they get together.  They're only a week apart in age and it's interesting to see just how similar they really are.  They were copying everything the other one did and giving each other hugs and kisses, but they had the most fun climbing into one for the empty chairs and sitting beside each other and yelling "Cheeeeeese!" for the camera.  Absolutely precious and a perfect end to our wonderful Easter!





April 22, 2011

Spring Things

I know Easter is much more than bunnies and baskets and colored eggs, but when you have kids, those things really make celebrating the holiday just a little bit more fun!

Lets start with dyeing eggs...







As you can probably imagine, Austin had a blast dyeing our Easter Eggs.  He wanted to get his fingers in the dye so bad and could hardly wait for the eggs to finish.  Patience is a difficult thing for a 2 year old!  Putting on the stickers was pretty exciting, but his favorite part was playing with the eggs after we were done.  He wanted to carry his basket of eggs all around the house and take them out and put them back in.  He would admire each one and kept saying that he needed to go tell the Easter Bunny about the eggs he made.  The "playing" quickly resulted in two cracked eggs, however, and mommy having to hide the basket for awhile.

By the time Ryan got home, Austin could hardly contain his excitement to go see the Easter Bunny.  I had shown him some pictures my friends had posted on Facebook of their kids with the bunny and Austin thought it was just about the greatest thing he'd ever seen and couldn't wait to go and meet that big bunny himself.

We finally got to the mall and of course the bunny was on break.  A few minutes later we spotted him walking back to his chair and Austin started jumping up and down and screaming like he was a teenage girl front row at a Justin Bieber concert.  We waited in line and watched at least 6 kids walk up the the bunny, scream in terror, cry and run away.  I was getting a little worried, but come our turn my worries went right out the window. Both boys loved him!  I don't think Austin understood why the bunny wasn't talking back to him when he told him all about the eggs he had made, but he sat there and talked to him anyway.  Owen was mesmerized by the big fluffy guy whose lap he was sitting in but managed to look away for a few seconds to give us cute little grin.




Austin keeps asking us to take him back to see the Easter Bunny...
Luckily, we have our own little bunny right here that he can see anytime he wants to!


April 20, 2011

Moving - Round 1

By the time it's over I'm sure you're ALL going to be tired of hearing me talk about our move....but just bear with me for now, it is currently consuming my life and I have little else to talk about.

So, the house goes on the market Friday and our realtor expects to have showings lined up by next week.  Ryan is in the middle of "H-E-double hockey sticks" week at work right now and has slept only 2 hours since waking up Monday morning.  It might not sound that bad, except for the fact that he is working through the night once again and may not sleep anymore until sometime late Wednesday night. Ahh...the fun life of a patent attorney (and his wife)...

Knowing that this was going to be a crazy week, last Saturday, with a spur of the moment idea, we decided to rent an 18 ft. U-Haul, load it in the middle of the night (since the boys were sleeping) with random items that served no purpose but to add clutter to our home, and then drive up to Charlotte on Sunday morning to move it in.  After all, they say the less "stuff" you have in your house the better it shows!

We got on the road early Sunday and 1hr45min later we were exiting off onto Harris Blvd., driving past the giant IKEA, making our way through the campus of UNC Charlotte, entering Cabarrus county and finally turning into our driveway.  And yes, the dorky sentimental side of me took a picture...


Austin loved running around the empty house and quickly claimed the living room as his new bedroom.  I hate to break it to him, but he's probably not going to get his first choice.  Owen found the staircase within mere seconds of walking through the door and made a b-line for it every time I let him down.  Eventually, Austin got bored of running from one empty room to the next and thought he would be of more use outside unloading the truck with daddy.  He spotted his toy wagon and continued to follow Ryan up and down the ramp with it for a good 30 minutes.  And when Ryan took a break from unloading, Austin rolled his toy cars down the ramp over and over again....until he found a box of baseballs and decided he wanted to throw them in the truck, race up to retrieve them, and then roll them all down the ramp and back into the garage.  He literally "had a ball!"  I mean really, it might have been his most exciting afternoon in recent memory.  I just might be considering renting out another giant U-Haul and holding his next birthday party in the back of it.



Before we left to go back to Greenville, we were lucky enough to see some of our new neighbors outside and so we went over to introduce ourselves.  Wouldn't you know it...a family with two little boys, the youngest about to turn two, named Owen.  
How perfect!  

Off he goes....to the stairs....again....

That blur coming towards you would be Austin running (of course) full speed ahead! 

So glad we packed the walker. Owen?  Not so much.

That's better!

April 18, 2011

The Difference


It's rare I see both my boys standing side by side,
but when I do,
it reminds me just how fast these little ones grow in the beginning.  

Wow, what a difference 18 months makes!

April 15, 2011

2.5


Austin is officially 2.5 today!  I pretty much quit doing monthly posts about him when he turned 2 because it got to be too much to keep up with.  He literally does and/or says something new every.single.day.  He is learning at lightspeed and talking non-stop....and I mean seriously non-stop....like, I have to turn up the radio in the car sometimes to try and tune him out just so I can concentrate on what I'm doing and where I'm going.  Every minute of every day is an adventure with him and it's pretty awesome.

I say this all the time, I know, but THIS is my favorite age.  Don't get me wrong, I love my boys at ANY age, but to be honest, if I could skip the whole 9 months of pregnancy thing, go straight into the delivery room and give birth to a baby, have a newborn for about 3 months and then fast forward to age 2.5....well, you could call me the next Michelle Duggar!  However, considering I hate being pregnant and am doing everything in my power to remain sane right now while trying to raise a 2.5 year old and an almost 1 year old together in harmony...there will likely not even be a baby Harris #3.  Mom...JoAnn, I love you both dearly, but my sanity is much more important right now than attempting to give you a granddaughter!  Try me again in 5 years...

But anyway, let's talk about my favorite 2.5 year old and what he's been up to lately.  Here are 30 interesting facts about my 30 month old!!

-His favorite food is oatmeal and he'd eat it for every meal if I let him.

-He can count to 30...and probably higher, but he loses interest around 30 and usually just stops there.

-Loves to sing!  A few of his favorites are Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Happy Birthday, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Itsy Bitsy Spider, the ABC song, and Wheels on the Bus.  I am not allowed to sing with him though because he wants to make sure he can hear himself.

-Says his first name is Austin and his last name is Austin Harris

-Every time we get in the car he says we are going to one of the following: Charlotte, the car wash, CVS, to get his hair cut, Monkey Joes, the playground, to watch planes fly, Little Gym, or to Target to get popcorn.

-Loves to write the letter 'A' and says "up, down, cross" when he's writing it.

-His favorite activity is to take all the cushions off the couch and drive his cars on the base

-Talks to random people all the time whenever we're out.  He definitely didn't get that outgoing personality from his super-shy mom...

-Will repeat a sentence over and over and over until you acknowledge what he's saying

-If you sound out a word he can tell you what letter it starts with

-Still can't go an entire day without a nap

-Thinks he's being hilarious when he gives blatantly wrong answers to questions I ask. Such a little joker!

-Will stop whatever he's doing and come give me a hug if I say that I'm scared.

-Loves to watch the garbage truck come by every Tuesday morning

-Speaking of garbage, his favorite book is "I Stink!"

-Still talks about monster trucks on a daily basis

-Loves anything with an engine...cars, trucks, trains, planes, school buses, dump trucks, bulldozers...I could go on and on...

-Can't go to the mall without riding the escalator a few dozen times...

-Hates it when he gets his clothes wet or his hands dirty

-Uses the potty by himself when were at home (more to come on this later)

-Will say just about anything to delay bedtime.  Most commonly used are "One more book" "I'm hungry, I need snack"  "I need to go pee pee in the potty" and "I need to throw up."

-Most of the time he just calls me Mom

-Has a love/hate relationship with his little brother now that his little brother is old enough to follow him around and take his things

-Can do a perfect somersault

-Will drink just about anything as long as he can use a straw

-Knows left from right and has an amazing sense of direction

-Says "thank you" without being asked

-He's the star student in his Little Gym class and yes, it makes me very proud!

-Asks me all the time to take pictures of him doing random things or making silly faces and then wants to see the picture I took immediately after.

-He constantly amazes me with his random knowledge.  For instance, yesterday evening after leaving the grocery store he looked up and saw the moon even though it was only 6pm.  He said, "Look Mom, I see the moon, that means it's going to get dark soon."  Last weekend when we sat down to eat at a restaurant he looked at the yellow mustard and red ketchup bottles on the table and said, "Red and yellow make orange!"


April 13, 2011

Wordless Wednesday

Shhhh!

Don't tell my husband, 
but some nights when he doesn't come home,
a very handsome (and much younger) man sometimes joins me in our bed.

We like to stay up late, cuddle up with lots of pillows, eat popcorn and watch cartoons until we fall asleep.

He protects me when I get scared of the "monsters" in our house and always gives me a kiss goodnight.


Shhhh!  Don't say anything.
I don't want my husband to get too jealous!

April 11, 2011

Happy 60th Birthday Papa!

My dad turned the big 6-0 on Friday so we made the trip down to Columbia on Saturday to visit and to celebrate his birthday!

 The Easter Bunny had already paid a visit to the boys in Columbia bringing buckets full of eggs, toys and candy!
 Both boys loved spending time reading with Mimi...
 
 Papa tried his hardest to keep Owen away from the brick fireplace.  Owen was determined to climb on top of it but Papa always swooped in just in time!
 Both boys LOVE checking out all the fun toys in Mimi and Papa's toy box!  Every time we visit there are new goodies waiting in there for them.
 Later that evening we met the rest of the family out for a celebratory dinner at Bonefish.
 It was Austin's idea to get Papa a birthday cake.  His favorite part is blowing out the candles and making a wish...and then eating it of course!
He also enjoyed dipping his carrot sticks in the icing and licking it off.  A little icing on your veggies never hurt, right?
Owen is looking forward to his birthday when he gets to squish his little hands through some of that sugary delicious icing!

Happy 60th Birthday Papa!!  We love you sooooo much!

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