Dinosaur

Today we discovered something new about our Harlow Boy...

 He's scared of dinosaurs!!

The story of how this came about:

Nathan was watching Harlow during Priesthood/Young Men's. they were all in the overflow for their class and one of the boys found some plastic toy dinosaurs that had been on the ground. Nathan and another leader were sitting with their ankle propped up on their other knee. They picked up the toys and put one on each of their foot, the one being propped - not for any particular reason. And started listening to the lesson. Well Nathan noticed Harlow becoming really tense and he looked down to see a Horrified look on Harlow's face. His whole body was tense and his hands started shaking. Haha

So then, of course, Nathan started experimenting with the toy and his scared little boy.

The funny thing is that we've never watched any scary movies with him, he's never seen or played with a toy like that, Nathan didn't introduce the toy to him in a scary way. No exposure to this toy, no pre-fear was there...so where did this fear come from? Where does fear, in general, come from?!

a first but sadly and most likely not a last

We have been teaching Harlow to go up and down the stairs - we have quite a few of them in our home.  He is getting better and faster everyday.  Right now we are working on turning yourself around so that you're facing backwards at the top of the stairs so that you're ready to start heading down the stairs...well this morning before church that didn't happen quite as well.

He was in the bathroom playing with toys and I stepped out for a second to help Nathan with something and Harlow came after me.  He didn't get himself turned around all the way and down he went...landing on the hard floor of the kitchen.  I felt awful!  ...you need to learn to forgive yourself as a mother/father and not beat yourself up cause mistakes happen...even though it breaks your heart when they happen.

11 Months

• Bath time is his favorite time of the day!!  Splashes water all over the place & totally loves pulling out the drain stop
• Still takes 2, 2-4hour naps a day 
• Loves to hang upside down & be danced with in your arms
• Hasn't had a food that he doesn't care for
• Eats table food really well  - so nice to just give him some of what we're eating instead of having other prep for his food
• Does this funny thing where we give him some meat, for example, and he chews on it but keeps it in his mouth and then chews some more. We'll look in his mouth after some time and its still there.  Story: So this last Sunday we had hotdogs before church and gave him small pieces to chew on.   At the end of sacrament meeting he still had the skin of the hotdog in his mouth :)  He had chewed all the other meat off it.  What it is is I think he is waiting for it to dissolve like his crackers/cereal do - plus just learning how to chew stuff that actually takes some chewing - its so cute
• Learned how to use a straw & now I feed him with a straw right out of the baby food puree jars - no mess & super quick.  Great for church & on the go - or heck, good for home too!
• Wants to pick it up & feed himself
• Likes to play with Mommy's piano students when they come over.  Likes to crawl under their legs/feet while their playing, climb up their legs, touch their bums (accidentally) while cruising along the piano bench
• He could cruise along the furniture all day
• Just recently learned how to crawl  & is very excited about it.  For awhile I thought he was going to walk before he learned to crawl but he's finally got it & is getting faster & faster everyday which keeps me on my toes
• Can go up & down the stairs
• Starting to open drawers and pull out contents
• Loves Nursing...not sure who loves it more Mommy or baby!!
• Always pulls his socks off
• Turns Off the lights with the light switch
• Has no problems going to other people
• Is taking a pumped bottle!  Yahoo!  This means we can go on dates again :)
• Is finally ticklish
• Waves
• Lifts his legs up for me when I'm changing his diapers - what a thoughtful little guy!
• Starting to give kisses
• Loves being the center of attention
• Will look back at you just to make sure you are still watching him
• Has decided that sleeping through the night is over rated BLA!  But the last three nights he has slept through the night again - Thank Goodness!
• Likes to bite things like my pants, sometimes getting my leg - ouch!.  He's bit chunks out of a ball & bath sponge.  Will bite down on something then pull it out while still biting down.  Grinds his teeth together
• Has 6 very apparent teeth 
• Likes to shake his head fast side to side, as if saying "no", pretty sure he doesn't even know what that means
• When he gets tired he hits himself in the head with his right hand
• Shows a tendency to using his left hand....we're trying to encourage his right hand so that Daddy doesn't have to buy left handed guns, guitars, baseball mitts, etc - "Life would be so hard for him Lizz!" haha
• Turns pages in his books

Nick Names: Bungy, Harlow Barlow, Mr., Harlow Boy

Wow.... a COW!

 

Nathan and I were invited to buy into a cow at the end of this year by our good friends the Arnetts.  We will end up with 100lbs of alfalfa pasture fed beef - pretty exciting.

One of the others cows was taken to be slaughtered and the hide and head were left, unwanted.  Nathan thought that he'd like to have them and so that morning Scott and Nathan came home (Dec 7) with a whole cow head and hide.  They worked on the head that morning and then Nathan worked on the head for the following few days.  I had never seen anything like this, not even close...gross but also totally cool.  I even got to help a bit...as much as I wanted to anyways.

Nathan has got the hide looking very nice and has salted it...come spring or maybe even in 2014 we'll probably be trying to tan it.  It took a lot of work - something that Nathan is not afraid of.

**Hope the pictures don't mess you up too bad**

Testing out the new Snowsuit

This is going to be a stressful few days for Nathan - it's finals week at BYU.  He's studying hard and so ready for this semester to be over - Keep him in your prayers.  Well, amidst all that he has going on he decided to spend the morning with us - it was the BEST to have him home!  

It has been lightly snowing for the past few days and today there's finally enough snow to cover the ground.  We got ourselves bundled up and then got out our little mr-s new snow suit:

Thank You Monique for the wonderful snow suit! He stayed nice and warm while his crazy parents took him up and down the small hills behind our house.  He could barely keep himself sitting up it was so poofy :) (don't worry, it wasn't overly poofy by any means.  It was seriously perfect!)

Daddy had fun pulling his little Harlow buddy around in this shnazzy pink toboggan and Harlow only toppled out once...which is saying something.  The small hills were the perfect size for him.  He even went down some on his own - and oh boy, did we cheer for him :)

My guys were cute and we enjoyed this family time together!

This was the same look that stayed on his face the entire time.  No crying, no smiling, some talking, no arm flapping...just the look of 'I have no idea what the heck is going on'.

Eating Snow - YUMMY!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Each year we get a new ornament to put on our Christmas tree.  Here is Harlow playing with Daddy's deer ornament and his blue bell ornament.  His favorite thing to do is use Daddy's deer to hit his bell and make it chime.

Last year we weren't around for Christmas much and decided not to put up the tree but this year, with Harlow's first Christmas and us spending more time here I wanted it up.  I came home from a meeting one night and my sweet Nathan was putting it up for me!  I could have kissed him a thousand times right there in the family room!!  I have having all the decorations up - it really makes it feel like the Christmas season and reminds me of my Mommy, who always had our house nice and festive and full of love. That's what I want for my kids too.

Our Sick Boy

Having a sick baby is miserable!

Our Harlow Boy was having a rough little go, finally I took him into the dr when his eye swelled up, nearly shut.  He had an eye infection, ear infection, cough, runny nose, fever, and yeast rash in his diaper area :(  He was so good not to be fussy but the poor guy wouldn't hardly smile or laugh, just wanted to sit and be cuddled.   

Thanksgiving

I don't have very many pictures from Thanksgiving but decided to put of the few that I do have.  Harlow with his beautiful Aunt Jenna! 

 It was so nice to be with and see family again.  This was the first time since Christmas 2011, before Harlow was even born, that the 3 of us were down in LV and Harlow's first time driving there.  He was a very good boy for the long drive.  We had fun spending time with family, laughing, and googling over how adorable our little Harlow Boy is.  Grandpa Andersen made him cry -hehe, but by the end they were good buddies :)

Poop

So I have to blog this before I forget and I am so sorry if it is TMI but I think a lot of you Mommies have had similar experiences and it just made me laugh so hard

So a few nights ago I was getting little Harlow ready for bed and I noticed he had a poop...well when I looked it was a real Poopy, like a big kid one :( Oh Where, Oh Where has the non-stinky, little baby diapers gone!!

Well I was wiping him up and all the sudden he started pooping again, no diaper out and ready, all I could do was catch this totally big kid, real poop in my bare hands!!  EEEeeewwwww!! But I was honestly laughing so hard! And at the same time that I was catching this solid grossness He started peeping and it went straight up into the air and hit him in his face!

Oh I love my little buddy!

Leaves are Falling

Our Sunday Walk was beautiful today.  Orange, yellow, purple, red leaves were all around and the sun was shining through the tree tops - I love this time of year! 

Trying to figure out what this weird crunchy thing is

Stripes

Isn't this just the cutest little face you ever did see?!?!  

I love how everywhere we go people simply fall in love with him! 

 He has captured all of our hearts 

loves the computer and ipad already

Halloween "May the Force Be With You"

For Halloween we decided to be Jedi...well sort of...Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker technically aren't Jedi but Yoda definitely is!!  

Thanks to Becca for letting us borrow her Jedi robes and out of some material in Grandma's sewing closest I was able to make ears for our very own little Jedi Master :)  

Harlow and I stayed at home to pass out candy to the neighborhood kids (Whitney joined us for a bit too) until Daddy got home from school.  He pulled on his Jedi robes so that we could head out for some family trick-or-treating, mostly to say Hi to friends.  Then hoped over to Grandma Larsen's house to give her some love.  

I know it's silly and childish but I love Halloween, I love dressing up and decorating for it!  I love the FUN Halloween, not the scary, creepy, or evil stuff.  ((and is it just me or does it seem like that yucky Halloween is everywhere now?!  don't like it, not one bit))  I was one of the only ones in college who still dressed up; still do to this...as you can tell.  And I hope that never changes!  

Sorry, its blurry...only one we got all together...Whitney's to blame...she wasn't wearing her glasses so she couldn't tell that the picture she took was blurring as all get out! hehehe - love ya Whit!

Piano Boy

Someone loves music...just like his Momma and Papa!!

It's cute to watch this little guy explore and discover the world.  He's taking in this wonderful world around him and loving every second of it....ok, maybe not every second....  Today I put him up on the piano bench and he thought it was the greatest thing ever - he pounds away and then looks up at me with a big grin that seems to say "Look what I just did Mom!"  I love how when he's sitting up there he crosses his little feet at the ankles or happily swings them forward and back as the excitement flows through his entire body and he can no longer contain himself...I am thinking about starting off our upcoming piano recital with this little maestro

My Ist Snow - Oct 25th

 

 We woke up to snow falling, the 1st snow of the year and Harlow Boys 1st time being out in it :) It was fun to watch him reach to feel it.  He went for the 'Poke' approach...wasn't quite sure of the whole thing.  It was a mushy snow and soon he and I were wet and cold - the end of snow time for the day. 

 I need to go buy actual snow clothes for him so we can go out sledding without him getting soaking and miserable. 

and just think 2 days ago we were taking Autumn Leaf pictures!  Gotta love Utah...1 day of autumn, really?! 

Autumn

My Precious little Sunshine!!

I am fiercely in love with this little man of mine!

((Thanks Nicky Smith for this beautiful picture))

Daddy's Planes

We haven't been out flying for a while so when we went out today I was excited to bring Harlow ad see how he'd like Daddy's planes...Harlow was able to watching and follow the plane with his eyes as it flew up in the sky :) it was fun to watch hi watch the plane.  Grandma Ras (Kathy) says he has a 'wise' look about him, I agree, he likes to watch things closely and observe it, you can see him practically analyzing his surrounding.

Our friends, the Arnetts, are getting into the plane hobby too (Scott Arnett is there in the pics with Nathan as Nathan is trying to teach him the ropes)...Scott nose dived the plane his first attempt but did well the other times - I think they've both been a little nervous after that.  It will be fun to have friends in the hobby and we can go out flying together.