Pros and Cons of a Toddler (specifically, MY toddler)

Well, readers, I think we are truly in the trenches of toddlerhood.  Here is my personal list of why I LOVE this stage and then the very few and far between reasons (ha!) why sometimes we argue who gets to put Baby Hazel to sleep at night.....


1. Harrison is starting to really use words when he wants things, which takes the guesswork out of the general point toward a room/pile of toys/out the window while we go through our list of "likes" in hopes this time, maybe all he wants is the tractor toy??  As great as this is, now that Harrison has words for things he likes, we hear the following every 5 seconds until he finally wears our frazzled nerves down or gets board and moves on...

• Chocolate milk
• Gummies
• Mac & Cheese
• Fire Truck
• Chocolate milk
• Chocolate milk, mommy.
• CHOCOLATE MILK!

2. I personally enjoy not having to carry a heavy toddler inside the house anymore because he can walk on his own, which gives me a free hand to take one of the remaining 8 million things in from the car, including a baby and carseat, work bag, baby bag, 20 different pieces of paper from daycare telling me that Harrison ate all of his food and didn't bite today (praise be.)  Do I dare say that most days, Harrison will actually walk in the house without much bribing?  

3. Recognition when picking up from daycare.  Although I like to think that Hazel is happy to see me when I pick her up, I KNOW Harrison is happy to see me because he runs towards me with a laugh and a big hug.  Except for that one time.....

Friend at Daycare: Harrison, your mom's here, Harrison!

Harrsion: does not look or move

Brittney: Hey Harrison, ready to go home?

Harrison: no.

Friend at Daycare: (in a very worried tone)............but you have to!

4. About half the time, we'll get luckily when we start our bedtime routine and Harrison will just go along with everything....pj's, brush teeth (which is not nearly a battle anymore), reading books, rocking, going to bed....until we get to what toys he wants in his crib that night.  Now, he doesn't actually play with said toys.  He just kind of arranges them and looks at them before falling asleep.  On any given night, the following can be found in Harrison's crib:

• Fire truck (duh)
• Police Car
• Ambulance (so much taxpayer money, I know!)
• turtle
• monkey
• a full size football
• 3+ rubber ducks
• blue tractor
• yellow tractor
• a book
• a blanket

But regardless of the struggles this age sometimes brings, the special moments FAR outweigh the trying ones.  WE LOVE YOU, HARRISON!! :) (even though you make a mess in every room you enter......)

Yet another long awaited post......

Jeez, the days are truly flying by and now look, it's been WEEKS since I last posted any update....well, Harrison is now applying for colleges and Hazel is driving... :)

I guess the best way to do this is just in bulleted story form since there will be no rhyme or reason to the updates and I don't want to try to even make it flow together nicely, so here goes!  I thank those in advance that actually read to the end of this post... :)

• A month or so ago, the big story I was barraging anyone that would listen was the Mouse Saga of Basalt Springs.  Short story long (and slightly skewed toward my very accurate point of view) goes as follows: One evening, while Adam and I were relaxing in the living room, kids fast asleep, something caught my attention from the corner of my eye.  Now, from the title of this story, you may already think you know where this leads.... I asked Adam, "Hey, go check out what that was!" (because although gender stereotypes are being reversed all the time, killing and disposing of wild life that makes it into our castle WILL ALWAYS BE the man's role....).  He said "No. I didn't see anything.  You are certifiably insane and it was probably just a shadow."  I may be slightly exaggerating with this response, but I digress.   So thinking it was probably one of those giant crickets that somehow get inside, I went to investigate and FREAKED OUT because I saw a mouse tail and a little mouse bottom and I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST GOING TO BE A CRICKET!!!!  Now by the time I was done silently running around the living room (hey, I'm no dummy when it comes to keeping infants and toddlers sleeping), the supposed mouse was long gone, which only added to Adam's belief that I imagined the whole thing.  Fast forward two weeks, in which I continued telling friends and family, yeah there may be a mouse living with us but I could just be seeing things...We again were relaxing in the living room and suddenly I heard it. The little snicker of a snacking rodent.  IMMEDIATELY I told Adam to mute the TV and listen.  Sure enough, we heard it again, and there was no mistaking. Finally, the inherent male instinct kicked in (for Adam, duh) and that couch was moved so fast it made my head spin....but no mouse....so of course, Adam took a broom handle (cliche much?) and poked around the couch and that mouse shot out and squeaked so loud at him! Well, he wasn't going to take that in his own house, no sir! So after we mutually concluded that yes, the mouse was in fact in our couch, and no, it was not coming out to fight, the traps were set and about two days later, as I was minding my own business in the kitchen, I happened to peak at one of the traps and there it was....I'll spare the gory details, but leave you with the fact that the first trap did not kill this sucker and as Adam was pulling the trap out, the thing was still alive and luckily, it's gone now and the house has been sanitized top to bottom...phew!

Ok, do I still have readers?? Fabulous...we'll continue with some less graphic stories full of babies, children, and laughter....

• Tis the season for pumpkin patches and the like.  We decided to go to the smaller pumpkin patch this year, in hopes of keeping an very busy toddler somewhat contained.  

  

  This is Harrison letting us know he will NEVER be contained.

  Goats were seen, pumpkins were pointed at (although not picked because we were cheap and had pumpkins at home....), and donuts were devoured. 

Hazel spent her time at the patch snuggled up with Adam, which reminds us of someone else's first time to the pumpkin patch in Bellingham....snooze away girly!!! 

I'm assuming here, Harrison is determining at precisely which second is optimal for running into crowds. 

• We also attempted during the last month or so to get a cute picture of our two darling children....We succeeding in physically taking the pictures, although I'm not quite sure if they will make the mantle quite yet....

This one isn't horrible, although Hazel looks a little unimpressed with the whole idea....

Now we are definitely aware that Hazel is not in the mood for these shenanigans when she could very well be napping...or eating....

And finally, the Super Hug..... with a croc shoe AND a pair of sandals in the background....yes, this is our life these days :)

• I just now went back to my last post to see how far back I needed to update and it's embarrassing how few and far between these things are.....One of Harrison's favorite adventure recently was the trip to the fire house!! He has been enamored with all things fire trucks and last minute, we found out about a spaghetti feed at a station right near daycare. We even lucked out and got to watch the firemen leave on a call with their sirens going and everything! Harrison kept yelling "fire truck, fire truck!!" during this time....seventh heaven for this kid!

Spaghetti....a toddler delight.... 

• So the fire house leads into my next story...HALLOWEEN! And surprise! Harrison was a fireman! Now, don't assume this kid will just pop on a costume the day of Halloween and assume the part without doing proper research and due diligence.  Oh no....Harrison wore that fire hat day in, day out for the better part of a month prior to the big day. 

And the preparation didn't stop there, folks....

Now, instead of tuning into our local PBS station for our morning educational programming, Harrison now watches "Fire Trucks Responding - Best of 2013."  Readers, this is literally 45 minutes of cell phone footage of fire trucks responding with their lights on.....45 MINUTES....and he loves every second of it!  He will run into our room yelling "Fire trucks!!"  This is still educational right????

• Now for an update on Little Miss Hazel.  She seems to be growing much faster than her brother.  She's drooling like a St. Bernard and eating like a competition hot dog eater on the Fourth of July.  At almost 5 months, she's rolling and playing with toys, laughing at Harrison as he ricochets off of every wall in the house.  She's about in the 95th percentile for height and about 80th for weight, so I'm definitely doing some weight lifting with this dainty little thing. :) 

• Well, if their are any readers still there, I thank you and I hope future posts won't just be ramblings and will actually have some sort of theme to them, but no promises....  I'm sure I'm missing out on some funny stories recently and as soon as I remember them, I'll post a few.  We've just really enjoyed this summer/fall with family and friends and babies.  Watching Harrison and Hazel get to know each other has been amazing.  We are looking forward to the holidays and seeing all of you that we don't see as often throughout the year. 

XOXO,

The Hills