Happy birthday to my biggest, little buddy.
This year Thanksgiving Day we even had more to be thankful for, Harrison's fourth birthday!
Besides having turkey we are dug into a Spiderman birthday cake.
I can't get over how much he has changed in the last 4 years. Just as I did last year, I took "traditional" birthday eve photos this year. This is the very last look at what the age of 3 looks like.
Ok... Harrison you can stop growing up anytime soon. The other day in the car I was talking to him about when he was little and how much I don't want him to grow up and that he should stay as little as he can for as long as he can. He assured me, "Momma, I'll just eat little bites of food and that will keep me little." And then the next thing he talked about was growing big to become a Fireman...
Here is a look at the past 3 years...
Oh wow... What I could give to be 4 again, living in a world where basically you can do anything and be whoever you want to be. The world doesn't judge you, it's kind to you and asking for pancakes for every meal acceptable.
Some days he is Spiderman, other days he is Captain America, a Ninja Turtle, but most often he is puppy dog named Whitney. Today I scratched his belly and fed him treats. He doesn't have an imaginary friend, but Violet Puppy "talks" to him.
He is the best big brother. Miles is his "buddy." "Hey buddy, come chase me." Just yesterday they were playing together and he was so proud of Miles walking he gave him a great big hug (which made Miles fall down) and said, "Good job buddy, your walking by yourself." Not that he wasn't an awesome big brother from the start, but now he's a really awesome big brother. I'm convinced if we have another 4 years in between would be a perfect age to space them apart. That was our plan for Miles but things happen faster the second time we now know :).
I would say Harrison is pretty typical 4 year old. He would watch tv all day if you let him, he loves to play with anything fire truck or police officer and tries to fix everything in the house by hammering it. I would say his absolute favorite thing to do it help. He helps me bake a lot. He is actually the best egg cracker I've seen for barely 4 years old... I independently let him crack all of the eggs. Perhaps he has career in culinary if his other love for construction (fixing things) doesn't take off. Or better yet... here is food, requiring construction! (A peek at our ginger bread house construction).
He could be worse. We had a first real bout of, "What the heck to we do?" with behavior last month. He tested us to our max. I was online reading everything I could do to "help" us survive. I ended up finding a button reward system on Pinterest. Since starting the jar almost a month ago, his behavior has turned around nearly 100%. I can't say the jar did all the work, he was the one that needed to make the change.
He is right on Target (and no, I'm not talking about the department store for once) for preschool skills such as writing, coloring, knowing colors, shapes, abcs, etc. We have decided to wait for the spring to do the early childhood screening, since he was just evaluated by 3 specialists at his 4 year NICU follow up and he won't be heading to kindergarten until he is nearly 6 based on how his birthday falls.
Hugs. He love hugs. I'm so glad he does. As a baby he was never a cuddly guy, well he definitely making up for it these days. I relish in the moments when he says, "I want up please Momma, I want to snuggle." When he no longer asks me to pick him up and cuddle will be a very sad day.
"I did it all by myself." He is at the stage where it's so awesome to see how proud he is for getting dressed himself or eating his food all gone or completing a task without any help.
Music is pretty awesome. The song I hear him sing everyday is, "Jesus is the son of God, son of God, son of God, Jesus is the son of God and he loves me." I guess what song would not be better to hear 10 times a day? Today he sang me a fireman song, it went something like, "Fireman, Fireman, Fireman, I am a Fireman, Fireman, Fireman." "Momma, did you like that song?" I probably shouldn't proclaim that the first Christmas song I taught him is Jingle Bells, Batman smells... and you know the rest. Whoops. probably not a shining parent moment.
It's like a party, everyday for this kid. He loves life, loves everything about it. As parents I know we spend our whole lives trying to give our children what we never had, but it's not the "things" they need. The "thing" they need is you to be is their mommy or daddy and if you are being the best mommy or daddy under whatever circumstances life has thrown out at you, that's all they need. (Toys are so much better when Mommy or daddy plays with them with you). You are the best thing in their lives. I read an article that made me rethink all this present giving and also rethink all of the everyday stuff. But before you read the article... I want you know how much I disagree with this "author" (mom) who wrote this column. We are all entitled to our own opinions...and my opinion is this is a horrible way to teach a concept to your child. "Why I am buying my kids lots of presents?"
With that I leave you with this.
This year Thanksgiving Day we even had more to be thankful for, Harrison's fourth birthday!
Besides having turkey we are dug into a Spiderman birthday cake.
I can't get over how much he has changed in the last 4 years. Just as I did last year, I took "traditional" birthday eve photos this year. This is the very last look at what the age of 3 looks like.
Ok... Harrison you can stop growing up anytime soon. The other day in the car I was talking to him about when he was little and how much I don't want him to grow up and that he should stay as little as he can for as long as he can. He assured me, "Momma, I'll just eat little bites of food and that will keep me little." And then the next thing he talked about was growing big to become a Fireman...
Here is a look at the past 3 years...
He went from so cute to oh so handsome.
Oh wow... What I could give to be 4 again, living in a world where basically you can do anything and be whoever you want to be. The world doesn't judge you, it's kind to you and asking for pancakes for every meal acceptable.
Some days he is Spiderman, other days he is Captain America, a Ninja Turtle, but most often he is puppy dog named Whitney. Today I scratched his belly and fed him treats. He doesn't have an imaginary friend, but Violet Puppy "talks" to him.
He is the best big brother. Miles is his "buddy." "Hey buddy, come chase me." Just yesterday they were playing together and he was so proud of Miles walking he gave him a great big hug (which made Miles fall down) and said, "Good job buddy, your walking by yourself." Not that he wasn't an awesome big brother from the start, but now he's a really awesome big brother. I'm convinced if we have another 4 years in between would be a perfect age to space them apart. That was our plan for Miles but things happen faster the second time we now know :).
I would say Harrison is pretty typical 4 year old. He would watch tv all day if you let him, he loves to play with anything fire truck or police officer and tries to fix everything in the house by hammering it. I would say his absolute favorite thing to do it help. He helps me bake a lot. He is actually the best egg cracker I've seen for barely 4 years old... I independently let him crack all of the eggs. Perhaps he has career in culinary if his other love for construction (fixing things) doesn't take off. Or better yet... here is food, requiring construction! (A peek at our ginger bread house construction).
And here are some baking shots because they are too cute and "real life" not to share.
He could be worse. We had a first real bout of, "What the heck to we do?" with behavior last month. He tested us to our max. I was online reading everything I could do to "help" us survive. I ended up finding a button reward system on Pinterest. Since starting the jar almost a month ago, his behavior has turned around nearly 100%. I can't say the jar did all the work, he was the one that needed to make the change.
He is right on Target (and no, I'm not talking about the department store for once) for preschool skills such as writing, coloring, knowing colors, shapes, abcs, etc. We have decided to wait for the spring to do the early childhood screening, since he was just evaluated by 3 specialists at his 4 year NICU follow up and he won't be heading to kindergarten until he is nearly 6 based on how his birthday falls.
Hugs. He love hugs. I'm so glad he does. As a baby he was never a cuddly guy, well he definitely making up for it these days. I relish in the moments when he says, "I want up please Momma, I want to snuggle." When he no longer asks me to pick him up and cuddle will be a very sad day.
"I did it all by myself." He is at the stage where it's so awesome to see how proud he is for getting dressed himself or eating his food all gone or completing a task without any help.
Music is pretty awesome. The song I hear him sing everyday is, "Jesus is the son of God, son of God, son of God, Jesus is the son of God and he loves me." I guess what song would not be better to hear 10 times a day? Today he sang me a fireman song, it went something like, "Fireman, Fireman, Fireman, I am a Fireman, Fireman, Fireman." "Momma, did you like that song?" I probably shouldn't proclaim that the first Christmas song I taught him is Jingle Bells, Batman smells... and you know the rest. Whoops. probably not a shining parent moment.
It's like a party, everyday for this kid. He loves life, loves everything about it. As parents I know we spend our whole lives trying to give our children what we never had, but it's not the "things" they need. The "thing" they need is you to be is their mommy or daddy and if you are being the best mommy or daddy under whatever circumstances life has thrown out at you, that's all they need. (Toys are so much better when Mommy or daddy plays with them with you). You are the best thing in their lives. I read an article that made me rethink all this present giving and also rethink all of the everyday stuff. But before you read the article... I want you know how much I disagree with this "author" (mom) who wrote this column. We are all entitled to our own opinions...and my opinion is this is a horrible way to teach a concept to your child. "Why I am buying my kids lots of presents?"
With that I leave you with this.
No comments:
Post a Comment