Some Days...

Some days your kids are so cute you could just eat them up. Other days, you wish you had.

We had quite a day today, in case you couldn't tell by my intro. I told my mom, if I get head butted in the face or karate chopped in the throat one more time, I really might lose my cool (all these actions occur when I'm carrying Harvey to safety/our destination and he goes ballistic in my arms trying to get down). Harvey is super independent right now, and he's quite confident he knows what's best. Mom, it's totally cool if I just run out in traffic. Other people's moms let them! (Insert karate chop to the throat). Geeze mom, I can run behind the swings when there are big kids swinging super high. I know they're not going to give me a concussion (or whatever you said)! (Insert back arching head but to the nose). And don't get me started on all the tantrums.

But then, there are so many cute little sweet moments that melt your heart and cause you to (temporarily) forget how emotionally unstable your child is. Diet coke and chocolate. That's how I'm self medicating. Totally healthy coping mechanism.

On a completely unrelated note, here are some photos of Harvey and his cousin Lorelai from this weekend.

Lorelai---Why you fink dey put us in da sun wike dis and den say "smile"? Is too sunny to smile.

Harv---Uhhhhhhhh, Worelwai? Why your parents gib you such a hard name to say? And, why your face look like dat?

Lorelai---I don't know what you means.

Harv---Twy a face wike dis. Eeeeeeee!

Lorelai---Wike dis? Nnnnnnmmnnmm!

Harvey---No! Wike dis! EEEEEEEEE!!

Lorelai---Ummm actuawy, your face wooks dumb. And, Harbey is kinda hard to say too.

Harvey---Maa-ommm! Worewai said my name was hard to says!

Lorelai---Dere, now I can make whateber face I wants to. I wike to wook wike dis for photos.

Harvey---Why is girwls so hard to wive wif?

After this photo shoot, I was spinning the kids around, making them real dizzy and putting them down and letting them fall over. Don't worry, I kept asking if that was some form of child abuse, and we all decided since they kept coming back for more, it was simply entertainment. After all that spinning, I was pretty dizzy myself so I laid down in the grass.

The children are obviously "concerned". Let's see what they do to "help".

I fink she might be hurt!! Wets sit on hers!

Little rascals. I'm not sure either are showing signs of a future in medicine.

Quick Stories

I have a few quick stories I want to share before I forget about them forever.

--Harvey had his first kiss from a non-family member the other day. MH leaned in and gave him a little smooch. Harvey let out a big chuckle followed by a snort. Then he leaned in for another as she turned and walked away. Smoooooth. He's definitely my child.

--Yesterday I took him to the doctor (he has a throat infection. yup, it is as fun as it sounds). I had packed his little Cardinals backpack with a juice cup, some crackers, a couple little books and his keys and cell phone. So I got him out of the car, stood him up, and put his backpack on (for the first time). He immediately put his arms straight out and fell flat on his back. He just laid there like a little chalk outline. Mother of the Year here obviously doesn't know how heavy is too heavy when you're only 16 months old.

--I decided to give big Harv a bath last night, I figured it would make him feel better. So he's playing, I'm sitting next to the bath tub sending emails on my Blackberry. All the sudden he scoots around a little, I look in the tub and there is a horse size poop just sitting in the bottom of the tub. I immediately snatched him out of there and stood him on the (brand new white) bath mat while I turned to get his towel. He then proceeded to lose his balance, land his poopy butt right on the rug, and scoot around like a dog. Then I wrapped him up in one of our white bath towels. Seriously reconsidering our bathroom color scheme.

Harvey's Monday Highlights

Snack time. Always a highlight.




Art. Obviously. Highlight.

Witchy GQ photo shoot. Total highlight.

What an emotionally complex witch.

Driving the car. Highlight.



Uhhh, actually driving the car with mom. While the car is parked. But, sitting in the front seat. So, still highlight.



My mom likes me. A lot. Highlight.

Keys

These are what make Harvey's world go 'round. His keys. Harvey has such an obsession with keys right now. He takes them off of tables, pulls them out of people's hands, even takes them out of random people's pockets/purses. It's pretty serious. So yesterday I took him to Home Depot to get his very own set. I bought him 4 un-cut keys (yeah, go ask the locksmith for 4 of their cheapest keys---oh and, don't cut them please! That will get you some looks), a pretty sweet skull key chain (it was that or polka dots, ok?), and then I added a broken keyless entry that we already had. He now knows he's hit the big time. He's the proud owner of four keys that go no where and a keyless entry that doesn't work. Big.time.toddler.

Speaking of big time toddler, check out this toddler 'tude.






Just keepin' it real folks. This is what happens when you even speak of maybe putting the keys down so you can eat your breakfast. Or go to bed. I seriously had to rip them out of his hands (while he was throwing a nasty tantrum, of course) last night when I put him to bed. I pondered just letting him go to bed with his keys. What's the worst that can happen, sleeping with a set of keys? I immediately took them away.

Harvey is getting so big. He is now a full time walker. He's been walking for quite awhile, but until last Thursday, he was still mostly crawling or walking with our help. Then last week while we were at Davis Kidd, he just stood up and walked across the room and that was it. Since then, he walks more than he crawls. And he almost never lets John and I carry him. We now inch our way from the parking lot to any store. I'm always praying for a close spot, even when the weather is nice.


While it's sad to watch him grow up and need our help less and less, there are some perks. It's pretty nice to get him out of the car and let him walk by himself into the house while I get everything out of the car in one trip. And now we can go to the playground to play! Before he could walk it was silly to go out and let him crawl all over the mulch and put him up on the playground equipment to let him crawl up there. Now he can walk, climb and walk on the equipment, and even go down the slide all by himself. It's all happening so quickly now.

He was dragging that big frog all over the house the other day. Then he tripped and fell over it, and just laid on the floor sucking his thumb for awhile. Guess he figured he needed a good rest.

A few other quick stories about Harv:

-He started carrying around a few of my purses today. He loads them up with all kinds of treasure and drags them all over the house. Now he can really leave crap everywhere!

-We ordered him a cardboard cottage the other day. Seriously. I'm excited.

-Harvey is getting along better with baby Sam, although he is still hung up on all of Sam's "accessories". Sam was laying in his Moses basket on the floor sucking his paci, minding his own business. Harvey saw an opportunity and went for it. He picked up a block, crawled over to Sam, placed the block next to Sam's hand and pulled out his paci. Harvey just knew he couldn't just take Sam's paci, so he decided to trade him for it. Sorry man, that's not how it works. But he earned some points for creativity.

-Anytime he hears a phone ring, he puts his hand up to his ear and says "Ewhoaw". He'll even sometimes do it when he hears one of our BlackBerry's vibrate. Now that's talent.

I Just Love Him

And here are some (very much unedited) photos so you can love him too. These are from this past Saturday at the park.

Uh, dis stuff wooks dirty. Why is we here again?

Can yous guys turn down da sun a wittle?

A more substantial post is coming tomorrow. Scouts honor.

List Time

-First and foremost: swim diapers don't hold poop. So when a small boy poops in a small (3 foot round) pool, it gets real nasty real fast. Especially when you see the water is suddenly cloudy, can't think of any reason why it would look like that, let said small boy continue to play in the water for another 15-20 minutes, then you get him out and realize he has been bathing/splashing/drinking poo water for 15+ minutes. Sick.

-I took Harvey on a date to McDonalds today. First time he's been there. He had some fries and a chocolate shake for lunch. I figure the chocolate shake isn't much more unhealthy than a big burger or chicken nuggets from there. Nothing with "Mc" in front of it is super healthy.

-We ran quite a few errands today too, and Harvey was in quite a mood. He waved, smiled, laughed at absolutely everyone we passed. For real. He just loves to be out and about and be the center of attention. He's his mother's child.

-We've been practicing walking more and more lately. He's pretty good at walking in his bare feet, but we bought some Stride Rite big boy shoes a few days ago. I wanted him to wear the "pre-walkers" that are super soft and squishy on the bottom. The sad news is they stop making them in a size 5 or 6, and big Harv wears a 6 1/2 wide. I guess they figure by the time you almost wear adult size shoes you should be walking. The shoes we ended up with still have a "softer" sole than I've been able to find anywhere else, so they should still be helpful. (And for $50 I expect this kid to be tap dancing by Friday).

The new shoes have definitely thrown off his mojo. He looks like a miniature Frankenstein (only way cuter and less green). He loves to walk with help, so we've started making him walk with us to and from the car, up and down the driveway, anywhere it's acceptable to have such a slow mover in tow.

We were walking into Lowes today when Harvey saw something he's never seen before---his shadow. Only 6 more weeks of summer folks! But he just kept staring at the ground and watching the little boy on the ground follow him---until mom ruined the whole thing by picking him up to walk in front of waiting cars.

I'm telling you, taking 1 inch steps all the way from your parking spot to the store takes some patience. But I thought to myself today, if I don't have time for this, if I don't have time to teach my son how to walk, what do I have time for? Even though it took us about 5 full minutes to get into Target today, I wouldn't have missed that time for the world.

John took Harvey out for some practice tonight after dinner and I ran out to get some photos. Enjoy!

I just love that he couldn't go out without his (flavor of the week) bunny.

Hold on feets! Wait for me and my bewwy to catch up!

A true toddler in action:

Get dat fing outta my face!

Oh, nebermind! I wove da camera! And da camera woves me.........

And Harvey's first piece of art. Note the missing upper right corner. That's where he took a nice big bite of his paper. He loves to eat paper any chance he gets. I can't make this stuff up!