The Summer Flu

This weekend Harrison was sick. He was running a fever of over 102 from Friday - Sunday. He really didn't feel well. We took him in to the doctor on Friday and ruled out strep and and ear infection. When his fever didn't go away by Sunday I took him in again and this time the doctor said he had the Summer flu that is going around. Harrison kept complaining that his belly hurt. I thought that he was hungry because he hadn't eaten in a few days but the doctor said it is typical of the flu and it is stomach cramping. I felt so bad for him. On Sunday he was so worn out...he was playing with his trucks when he just decided to put his head down. He didn't even find a place that was comfortable...he just layed down right on the hard wood floors. I moved him over to the rug and gave him a pillow and blanket and that is where he layed for about 2 hours. He then got up and layed down on the couch for the rest of the day. By monday his fever finally broke and he has been much better ever since. I really think this was the sickest he has been ever.

Happy Mother's Day

My Mother's Day was really nice. When I woke up Cliff and Harrison brought me a light breakfast in bed. He brought some crepes with Nutella and fruit, juice and a yogurt. Knowing we were going out for lunch I only ate 2 crepes and not the yogurt. They also brought me a present...actually Harrison brought me the card and the present. They got me a iPod dock for my car so I can listen to it there. After breakfast we all just hung out up stairs in our room. Harrison was getting a kick out of playing up there. We then made our way downstairs. I showered while Harrison had breakfast.

After we all got dressed we headed out to lunch. Cliff had made reservatins at Bonfire on Grand. 2 years ago we tried to go there but Cliff didn't realize we needed reservations so this time he was making up for it. There was a buffet and it was really yummy. I had eggs benedict, potatoes, some roast beef, crab claws and shrimp, salmon and fruit. I also got a very yummy mimosa but they also had a bloody mary bar and Cliff got that. I got Harrison some bacon, eggs, a croissant, fruit, salmon and a danish. He actually tried everything. He ate almost all of the bacon, some of the eggs, all of the fruit and all of the danish. He tried the croissant and the salmon. He was in a great mood and looked so cute.

On our way home we stopped at the Pottery Barn to look at rugs. We had been wanting a new rug for some time and found one we loved that would look great in our living room. We splurged and got it and set up in the living room. It does look great. Now we just have to keep Brady from peeing on it.

Lights, Camera, Action...WIGGLES!!

Last week was our road trip to Iowa to see the Wiggles. I had both high expectations and low expectations for the trip. I had truly hoped that Harrison would love the concert and sing and dance right along with them but I also feared that it would be a disaster considering the concert started at 6:30...right at his bed time. Luckily the whole trip absolutely exeeded all of my expectations.

The trip down to Iowa was very funny. Now as a child of the 70's, I remember the road trips with my parents, well the very few that we went on, filled with me and my brother fighting in the back seat and making up games to whittle the time away. Now my road trip of '06 consisted of Harrison watching his DVD player, me watching TV on a portable TV set and Cliff listening to his iPod.

When we finally got to Ames, 3 1/2 hour later at around 2:45 pm...not too bad, we checked into our hotel..The Gateway Ames, and began to get settled into our room. I think Harrison was a bit scared to be in the hotel because he started crying very hard and kept saying "I want to go home". After about 15-20 minutes I was finally able to calm him down and he began to enjoy the room. I brought some of his favorite toys to play with, gave him his binky and blankey and some milk. I also found some shows he likes to watch on PBS so he took his pillow, blankey and binkey and lied down on the floor and watched some tv and settled in quite nicely.

At around 4:00 we decided to venture out of the hotel and first drive by where the Wiggles concert would be held and then find a place for dinner. The concert venue was very close by, just down the block. We then took to driving around Ames to find places to eat. The front desk clerks recommended a place called Hickory Park and we found it pretty easily. It was clearly the best looking place from the outside and was obviously not a chain which is what we didn't want.

Well this was a great recommendation. The food was great, the service was fast (which is what you want when you have a 2 year old) and the food was good. It was a bar-b-que restaurant. Harrison was in a spectacular mood and ate all of his dinner. He even got a malted. He was in heaven. After dinner he found a friend outside of the restaurant and the two of them ran up and down the length of the restaurant for about 1/2 an hour, it was a great thing because he really needed to burn up some energy.

Harrison went to bed pretty easily that night and slept without any problems. The next day was the day of the concert. Since the concert was at 6:30pm, we needed to find something to do during the day. I found a zoo down in Des Moines and we decided to take him there. It was about 45 minutes away but it was well worth the trip. It was called Blank Park Zoo. We saw som many great animals and Harrison was out of his stroller walking most of the afternoon. He did really well and held our hands. We saw Lions, tigers, flamingos (or Wafingos as Harrison calls it), seals, camels and Kangaroos (perfect theme for our concert later). Harrison and I even went on a train ride through the zoo which he loved. Before we left we had to get some more animals for his collection. I think we got 4 of them. Pretty soon we will need to start getting doubles. I think he probably has about 80 animals right now.

After the zoo we came back to the room to take a nap, but my master plan didn't work because Harrison did not nap. He stayed up and then finally fell asleep at 3:30 - 3:45. We needed to leave for dinner by 4:45 so this was going to be a short nap. Luckily he napped for about 1/2 hour on the way to the zoo so he did sleep that day. When we woke him up he was so crabby but he let us get him dressed and out the door without too much fuss. We wanted to go back to Hickoy Park but when we got there the wait was about 25 minutes. Apparently not only were the people who were going to the 6;30 show there but the people who just got out of the 3:00 show there so it was packed. We then went across the street to Applebees and after Harrison got some food into him he perked up back to his normal self and started to get super excited about the concert.

As soon as dinner was over we headed to the concert, which was at about 5:45 which was the perfect time. We stopped at Flowerama (sorry Ken!) to pick up a rose to give to Dorothy. We got to the concert at about 5:55 and found great parking. Harrison wanted to carry his rose himself so I have to say the cutest thing was watching him hold Cliff's hand and carry the rose and walk to the concert. We got inside and amazingly parked in the perfect location because out section was right infront of the doors we came in. We checked out the set and really started to get excited. I left Harrison and Cliff to go buy souvineers (a concert t-shirt, a feathersword and a water bottle) while Cliff took Harrison to get a closer look at the stage. I met up with them very easily and we made our way to our seats. They were amazing seats!! But Harrison would have none of the seats, he wanted to be right on the stage. I even had to "ask" (because I knew he would say no) the security guard if Harrison could go up on the stage to get Harrison to stop fussing about going up there. I put on his harness and as soon as the show started Harrison took me right back to the front of the stage where we stayed the whole show.

It was a super amazing show. Harrison absolutely loved it. They started the show off by coming driving the Big Red Car and singing one of Harrison's favorites "Choo Choo Chugga Chugga Big Red Car". The first thing he said was "That's the REAL Wiggles". He couldn't believe it. He immediately started singing the song and dancing. And as soon as the Wiggles came close he was waiving and saying Hi to them. Amazingly Harrison was really one of the only kids in this open area in front of the stage. I don't know if I have this boy who is very strong willed or what but I couldn't believe in a stadium full of toddlers and pre-schoolers he was the only one. But good for us because I just sat on the floor and held onto the harness "leash" and let him have fun. Murray was the first one to notice Harrison and waived to him and gave him the thumbs up. Harrison immediately turned to me and said "Murray waived at me". It was so cute. Next was Jeff and it got the same reaction. And then Anthony. Greg didn't really acknowledge him, but that was fine.

The best moment was when Dorothy came out, Harrison realized he didn't have his rose. He turned to me and said "I have to get my rose and give it to Dorothy". We then high tailed it back to Cliff and our seats, quickly grabbed the rose and went back to the stage (now remember, I am still holding onto the "leash"...so this is really funny) When we got back to the stage, Harrison, standing on his tippy toes was holding the rose up to Dorothy saying, "Here Dorothy, Here is your rose". It was the cutest thing ever. But she didn't see him but the camera guy there did and I think he got him on camera doing this. I don't know what the footage is used for but it was great. Jeff them came down to collect the roses for Dorothy. Harrison then handed Jeff his rose and gave him a hug. I caught all of this on film. (well actually on digital since no one uses film any more...). Later Captain Feathersword was right in front of Harrison and he froze, he didn't hug him. Now when you ask Harrison who he got to hug...this is his response.."the other boy hugged Captain Feathersword...I hugged Jeff". I think he was really sad not to hug the Captain because right now that is who he likes the best.

At one point they started playing the song "Do the Monkey"...and Harrison was pretending to be the tiger...and Anthony was imitating him...so he and Anthony were interacting together and copying each other being a tiger...it was hilarious.

Harrison absolutely loved the concert. He danced and sang almost every song and he even got to interact with the Wiggles Themselves. He was in Toddler heaven. On our way out to the car he told us that "I had a fantastic time at the concert"....I know he said fantastic....I don't know where he picked that up but he used it correctly.

When we got back to the room at around 8:30 pm he was all keyed up and couldn't fall asleep. He was up until around 9:30 - 10:00. When he finally did fall asleep he had trouble staying asleep and woke up several times. The worst was in the morning. He would semi-wake up crying that his head hurt and then fall right back to sleep. We brought him in bed with us and he slept on and off for another hour - hour and a half. When he got up he was in a great mood and immediately wanted his Wiggles Water bottle.

On our way out of town we stopped back at Hickery Park for lunch because it was so good and Harrison saw his friend's mother again (the one he played with the last time we were there) because she works there and she remembered him and came over. We then headed home at around 1:00 and were home by 4:30.

It was an amazing trip, Harrison was in a great mood the whole time, we were all relaxed and really enjoyed each other and especially enjoyed the Wiggles Concert. I hope they come to MPLS soon!!

Mom Camp Event

On Tuesday night I went to a Mom Camp event at Nordstroms. This was the most awesome event. We all gathered in one of the back rooms at Nordstroms and there was hors d'voures and drinks. There was about 100 women in all. They then split us up into 5 groups and we then went around to different departments in the store. We had this card and if we did all the tasks on the card they would give us a sticker. Each department was featuring something different. My first stop was Point of View which was the jeans department. They had extra sales associates there to help fit you for the right jean. They also wanted you to try on the new Calvin Klein jeans. At each department you also entered your name in for a raffle that they were doing at the end of the night.

The next department was Women's Active. Here they were featuring the new miracle bathing suit and the Nike Low Rise yoga pant. I tried on a miracle suit and it looked good but I didn't want to spend $130 on a bathing suit right then. I also tried on some terry cloth lounge pants...I liked them but they weren't exactly what I wanted. I entered the contest and moved on to the next department which was lingerie.

At lingerie they wanted you to get a bra fitting and try on something fun. I had already gotten fitted for a bra at a previous Mom Camp but I did try on some PJ's but they weren't soft enough for what I like. So, taking advantage of my time without Harrison, I went across the aisle to the children's department and got Harrison a bunch of t-shirts and some shorts for the summer. I entered my contest and moved to the next department which was accessories.

At accessories they showed us versitle accessories for the season. They demonstrated how to wear scarves and some handbags that are lightweight and small that can fit all of our stuff. They also showed us belts and sunglasses. I loved this department the best, not only because it was handbags but because we were able to win some prizes right on the spot. Of course, being the competitive person that I am and loving to win as much stuff as I can, I answered 2 of their questions and got a Leather Rock bracelet and a Kate Spade note paper.

Our last department was cosmetics. They wanted us to get our foundation matched and try some fragerance. I stopped at Smashbox and had her do my makeup. I ended up getting one of their products called Photo Finish and a lip gloss.

When it was all over we all went back upstairs to the room we started in and had more snacks and awaited the drawings for all of the prizes. My friends and I showed off all of our purchases and were just giddy with excitement over the funness of the whole evening.

Well, I didn't win any of the prizes, but one of my friends did - from the cosmetics group...about $500 worth of products. The grand prize was a night at a hotel but the best prize, which again, I did not win...was from accessories..a Coach purse and Chanel Sunglasses. But we all got to go home with a gift bag which included a gold hat box, a lingerie hanger, lip gloss and a photo album. There was no pressure to by anything and you didn't have to get what they were featuring. It was a super fun evening and this is definitely going to be something I do again and again!!

My little alien

The other night Harrison came out of the kitchen with the collander on his head. I pretented that he was this alien and I was scared. Then he would show me his face and I would pretend to be alright. I then asked the alien his name because he was scaring me. Harrison thought about it and said "I alien....I alien...I alien Harry". This is the first time he has ever given a name to anything and he chose a form of his own name..which I thought was very interesting. Many times when he brings his animals or toys to me I ask him their name and he just says nothing.

Funny thing Harrison said

When I picked up Harrison today from day care he told me right away that:

"Katie spit on me, a really big spit"

I tried to get more details about the spitting like why she would do it, since she is 5 or 6 years old and what Harrison did after she spit on him. But nothing. I don't even know if she really spit on him or some spit accidentially came flying at him. Who know, but it was funny anyway.

French Brunch with the Neighbors

On Sunday our neighbors invited us over for brunch. They had recently returned from a trip to France and wanted to recreate some of their favorites from the trip. They made us yummy crepes and coddled eggs. It was all so yummy. We got to put Nutella and wonderful jams and lemon curd on the crepes. Harrison also had a good time. He played with their dog Charlie and his trains, ate crepes and turned on and off the kitchen light.

The most fun came when we went out in their yard to talk to John our other neighbor. Harrison then got to run around their yard. He was actually racing our neighbor Erika back and forth to the garage. He then got John involved. It was like relay races. He was laughing and falling down and getting wonderfully dirty. I can't wait until our next brunch!

Larry's Wedding

On Saturday we went to a beautiful wedding of one of Cliff's friends, Larry. It was at the St. Paul College Club. The wedding and reception was both there. We got to see people we hadn't in quite a while but we did end up hanging out mostly with Ken and Shannon. The dinner was very delicious but the dance was really fun. You can tell when they both grew up because they were playing the most fun music from the 80's. Cliff and I really enjoyed dancing to Madonna and doing the Lawnmower and the sprinkler and I got to show off the "headache" dance that was popular with one group of girls that I grew up with.

Abby the babysitter

On Friday night Cliff and I were invited to his friend Larry's groom's dinner. I had a baby sitter all lined up when she canceled at that last minutes. Much to my surprise, Shannon agreed to watch Harrison while Cliff, Ken and I went to the dinner. Shannon brought Abby over to our house and they all played there. I think Harrison gave Shannon the run around. When they went to play in the basement, he said he had to feed Brady and then proceeded to give Brady 3-4 scoops of dog food before she got him away. When she was changing his diaper he made her take him to the potty and he got on and off about 5 times and then sat in the sink to wash his hands. He didn't let her put on his pijama bottoms and ran around for about 1/2 hour until she got him dressed. But I think they all had a great time...Abby, Harrison and even Shannon. We cannot wait to return the favor and watch Abby.

Farm Babies

The farm babies are back at the MN Zoo. It was the most beautiful day and we took Harrison over to the zoo to see his favorite animals. He was so excited. He was looking forward to it all week long. He ran from animal to animal and absolutely loved playing on the giant pig outside of the pig building. He also had the opportunity to pet a very baby goat. The most fun he has was running inside this large empty barn. He would just run around and around.

We ran into our friend Barb and her daughter Morgan and Morgan and Harrison ran around together.

A trip to the zoo is never complete without adding to our growing plastic animal collection. This trip we added a snow leopard, a baby tiger and one other that I can't remember right now. I think Harrison now has about a hundred animals. A very fierce collection!

Even more travel

My 4th and final trip of the month was to San Diego...actually Del Mar. What a beautiful city. This was another work trip but I had about 6 hours to myself and was able to walk on the beach, shop and sit out in the sun. The weather was absolutely beautiful. The hotel was also incredible. We stayed at L'Auberge Del Mar. My room had a balconly with a chaise and a table and chairs. My room also had a chaise and a spa like bathroom. I was able to sit out in the sun long enough to get some color...a nice jump start on the summer.

Travel Continues

After I returned from New Orleans I spent 5 days in New York on Vacation with Harrison. Traveling with him by myself is always challenging but really fun. He is a great flyer. He knows the routine and doesn't give me too much trouble. Although I always feel bad for the person who sits informs of him because he is absolutely obsessed with playing with the tray. He lets it fall down then puts it up and then down and up. This happens almost constantly throughout the flight. He never sleeps anymore on the plane but I have found my newest savior..sticker coloring books. He really likes playing with the stickers. One of the most exciting things on the flight was that Cynthia Nixon was on our flight. There were also a bunch of high school girls all ooohing and ahhing over her. It was hysterical.

Our time in New York was great. The weather was beautiful. We celebrated Passover while we were there and met Hilary's boyfriend Mo. Harrison was a bit confused because he was expecting to meet Mo from the Doodlebops but the real Mo instantly tried to befriend Harrison and I think it worked. We went to the Long Island Children's Museum and to a park to feed the ducks. Boy did we get swarmed once the other ducks and geese and other birds saw that we had food we were throwing to them. We discovered a great playground at the duck pond...it actually had a locking gate. I loved it.

We also went and got Harrison's hair cut while we were there. Well, that didn't go so well. Harrison really tried not to cry, which was the cutest thing ever. You could just see it in his face that he was totally holding it in. But he couldn't and the tears and fighting started. I felt so bad for him. I think my mom and brother were a bit traumatized as well. I, at least, knew what to expect. We also got him 3 new pairs of shoes at this great kids shoe store. The selection there was so much better than anywhere else I have been.

We also went to Chuckie Cheese for the first time. What a great place. Harrison had a ball going on all of the rides and running around with a balloon. Surprisingly he didn't throw much of a tantrum when we tried to get him in the high chair to eat lunch. Uncle Brad also won about 700 tickets and was able to win Harrison a Super Friends Semi Truck. Harrison actually likes this...he especially likes pointing out all of the super hero's.