First Popsicle

Harrison had his first popsicle on stick at my sister's house last Thursday. These pictures pretty much sum up how he felt about it! He totally wasn't sure what to do and why he had this cold thing in his hands and what is this interesting stick? It was pretty funny to watch!

Afterwards, I has to laugh because I took Harrison downstairs into my sister's basement and there were a million toys. What did he want to play with? A storage box and climb up the stairs! Go figure.
I gave Harrison a popsicle when we got home that I had made myself and he liked it a lot better! I think because it was easier for him to hold.

Slide Climber

This little sweetie loves climbing and learned last week at his grandma's how to climb up slides. Since them, he hag climbed up our slide at home and then slid down on his stomach. He loves doing that in our back yard! He also climbed up the slide at my sister's house yesterday too. Funny guy! He is so cautious about walking, but if there is a climbing adventure to be had, he is all over it!

First Swim at Mud Mountain Dam

Because the weather has been so hot, I decided to take Harrison to Mud Mountain Dam. I called both of my sisters and my little sister, Zandy, was able to come with her son. At first, Harrison had a great time just standing on the top of the jungle gym watching his cousin and eating blueberries, but then when we took him over to the water, he about DIED!

This picture was taken right when he got in the water. Can you see the smile on his face? We tried getting him to look at the camera, but he was too busy playing! Meanwhile, the water was freezing cold, but he didn't mind getting completely soaked. Funny guy! He was trying to swim like the big kids when he saw them swimming. He was trying to dive in head first and swim around. It was so funny. I definitely am going to give this guy swimming lessons next year! Harrison wanted to stay in the water forever, but I started getting crazy hives on my legs so we had to get out. He totally freaked out when we left the water! Water is his happy place. That and any place with dirt and rocks... oh and climbing!

Swings with his cousin helped make the situation better. Notice how Harrison wanted to keep his feet in and push off the center strap? He cracks me up.

This was the result of eating fruit leather on the way home to keep him happy. Oh, well. 

He needed a bath anyway!

Project Baby: 52 Weeks Old

WOW! How did my sweet little baby get to be one year old already?! I can't believe actually how much he honestly has grown up not only in the past few weeks of us being in Germany, but really just this past week. He went from looking like a baby a week ago to looking like a toddler! Some things this week:

• We finished up our last few days in Europe and got back to America on Thursday! YAY! Harrison was so happy to see his daddy when we got to the airport. He was also such a good little sweetie pie on the airplane too! This flight was definitely better for him. (NOT FOR ME! I threw up twice, including at the end of the flight and the guy sitting next to me just picked up Harrison and played with him until we landed and I stopped throwing up.) He slept during the middle and at the beginning (courtesy of a little Benadryl action). Even though the flights were hard with a baby, I'm so grateful to have such a sweet baby who was as good as can be expected on a trans-atlantic flight!
• Something funny this week is that Harrison stopped saying, "What?" all of the time and now started saying, "What is it?" all jumbled together with some funny rolled tongue action. It really is cute and cracks me up! Love this boy!
• Speaking of speaking... Harrison is clearly trying to talk to us as much as possible (when he is not busy being a baby. I love his little made up words and expressions.
• Harrison has had a really rough time getting over jet lag since we've been back home. The first night we were home, he slept from 4:30pm until 12:30am. I kept trying to get him to go back to sleep, but finally just gave up around 1am and Harrison and I did a bunch of laundry and cleaned together for a few hours until I eventually put him back to bed. Poor guy and poor me! It has definitely been really rough on us both trying to get back into the swing of things!
• Harrison has been really whiny and wanting to be held since being home. Part of it is the jet lag, part of it is the teething, and part of it is probably just the insecurity of traveling around so much! I am definitely grateful that he is now able to crawl around our whole baby-proofed house and I don't have to monitor his EVERY move! So nice!

Little Climber

Went to grab a towel after shaving my legs and came back to this situation. Apparently, he figured out how to climb into the bath tub in the ten seconds I was gone! Last night, he figured out how to climb out so I guesses it was only a matter of time, right?

Little Gardener

This morning we went to look at a dog we are considering adopting. When we got back, Evan and I were waking around the yard seeing what needed to be done as Evan watered. Harrison was really set on helping as you can see! This boy loves being outside!

Crazy Day

Had an insanely busy day today! First stop on our field trip was to a salt mine where we had to wear funny jump suits to go down underground slides. We also got to take a train underground into the mines and go on an underground lake with a light show. Walls were licked to taste the salt. Got lunch, we ate at the Königsee, one of the most beautiful places in Germany set in the Alps below Hitler's eagle nest hide out. We spent the afternoon in Salzburg shopping and being tourists. It was an awesome, event-filled day! Tomorrow, we visit the elementary school in town and eat gigantic I've cream sundaes. We are living it up!

Harrison's First Airplane Ride & What We've Done So Far

Well, this week of Harrison's life involved an international adventure! On Sunday, we flew to Germany on a ten-hour Lufthansa flight. Before the trip, I thought I was insane for purposely taking a baby on such a long flight halfway across the world. Now I know I'm insane for doing it! The fussy few hours of the flight were torture because Harrison just wanted to get down and crawl everywhere! I finally gave up fighting trying to keep him spotless and just let him crawl in the few places he could. Thankfully, we were by the bathrooms in the emergency row so there was more space. Also, there was a little cubby hole for him to play in because they had removed a food storage container. That helped!

Every so often, I took him into the bathroom to hang onto a handle in there that he could stand on the baby changing table to access. It would keep him happy for twenty minute increments and I was willing to do whatever worked! Snacks also helped on the plane and some kids cookies. The frustrating thing was that Harrison wasn't eating enough on the plane. He stopped wanting to eat his baby food and couldn't get full on snacks and bites from our people food.

I'm so grateful my mother-in-law came with me. I can't imagine trying to do international travel with a baby alone! I had Harrison a majority of the time, but it still was nice to get a break!

About halfway into the flight, I realized it was time for Harrison to go to sleep. He was getting super tired and it was night our time. I ended up giving him Benadryl because he was so tired and trying to go to sleep but was just struggling with all of the distractions and people to see on the airplane. He ended up sleeping for the majority of the latter half of the plane ride. If he woke up, I'd just pat his back to get him back to sleep. I may have had to hold and rock him a few times, but I was SO grateful he slept!

He was also great on our second flight from Frankfurt to Munich. I nursed him at the beginning of the flight and he just slept the whole time.

When we landed in Munich, he was also pretty good... that is, until we got in the rental car and he screamed for most of the way from Munich to Eggenfelden! He finally stopped screaming 5 minutes before we got to our destination! Poor guy. He was exhausted.

So, we are here now enjoying our time, but missing Evan like crazy! Here is what we've done so far:

• · Monday, June 17th: Arrived safely, ate dinner with Beate/Maria at Beate's apartment, walked around town a little bit (including a romp in a fountain in the park! It was too hot!), went to the house where we are staying, bathed, Harrison slept pretty well in the night considering the 9-hour time difference and his exhausting 24-hour trip!
• · Tuesday, June 18th: Went around town and to the bank, had an hour PLUS grocery shopping experience at Kaufland, rested up as much as possible, I went to the Welcome Party without Harrison and Erin Rose because Harrison was exhausted
• · Wednesday, June 19th: SUPER hot weather, Erin Rose and I went grocery shopping and got some snacks. We drove around so Harrison could sleep in the car because he fell asleep on the way home from town... went to Burghausen and drove home. Harrison had his first popsicle because the weather was so hot! He wasn't sure what to do with it at first, but he LOVED it! Beate and I got a breast pump to rent after going 2 places. I pumped some milk after Harrison went to bed so that Harrison would have some milk while I was on a field trip the next day. Went to Maria's house for dinner. She lives in SUCH a beautiful place!
• · Thursday, June 20th: I went to Cesky Krumlov with the students and without Harrison. It was such a good thing that Harrison did NOT come because the bus was stifling and the weather in the town was around 100 degress fahrenheit! We were all SO sweaty and dying! Ate dinner at Beate's apartment when we got back.
• · Friday, June 21st: Erin Rose and I hung around town and got take-out at an Italian Restaurant. Everyone was looking at us like we were crazy because we had a baby in a stroller at 6pm. It was so funny! The roasted vegetables in our food were SO delicious! Erin Rose and I both want to recreate them.
• · Saturday, June 22nd: We hung out at our house in the morning and then took a trip into Mühldorf to buy me new Birkenstock sandals before going into Burghausen to meet up with everyone else. We walked through the castle and then walked by the lake below. Harrison starting melting down towards the end of the lake walk, but was happier when I could set him down in the grass and he could just chill out while I bought some pottery from a local man who was selling it. That night, we all had a BBQ (Grill Party) at Maria's house. Delicious!
• · Sunday, June 23rd: Erin Rose and I went to church in Neuötting. It was so neat to go to this small branch of the church for sacrament meeting. Erin Rose and I could feel the Spirit from right when we stepped into the building and it made us cry to sing hymns with these humble people. So grateful we got to attend church!
• Monday, June 24th: Embarked on our 3-day field trip with the kids. We stopped in Regensburg for a few hours, then headed up to Nürnberg where we slept in a fortress overlooking the town! The view from our room was so breathtaking! We ate dinner together with the kids at the fortress and walked around town a little bit. Harrison had his first taste of Grandma's and Mama's ice cream as we walked around town. He liked it!
• Tuesday, June 25th: Woke up in Nürnberg, ate breakfast, put Harrison down for a nap and I walked around town for a little while getting some errands done while Harrison slept. Unfortunately, the cleaning lady woke Harrison up after only a 45-minute nap! Poor guy. That afternoon, we went to a very famous and one of the first gingerbread factories in the world where we all bought lots of gingerbread! It was called Lebkuchen Schmidt. Ate dinner with the kids that  night and enjoyed some down time to talk with Evan on Skype while Erin Rose laid down. Got our stuff packed up and ready (mostly!) to go for the next day.
• Wednesday, June 26th: We headed out to Rothenburg o.d.T. to experience a medieval city. Got the local dessert called "Schnellball." We all thought it was okay, but not great. Enjoyed all of the beautiful medieval architecture, we went to the Christmas capitol of the world and got some Christmas ornaments... and I bought Evan his much-desired cuckoo clock from the black forest! Yay! Ate a harried lunch with Harrison about to melt down because of tiredness and having to be carried around all day. Poor guy! Had a good day in town enjoying the sites. After a 3 hour bus ride back home, we ate dinner at Beate's apartment.
• Thursday, June 27th: I went to home room and then we let Harrison nap while we got ready to go to my relatives in Piding. We left in the afternoon and drove about 1.5 hours to their house. We stayed in the rest of the evening and just unpacked and unwound from driving all day long. We ate sandwiches for dinner that Erin Rose had made up for us in the morning. It was nice to see the relatives and was fun for Harrison to see the cats, cows, and goats! He loved the animals and now knows and can say that a cow says "Moo!"