Ten Years Older, Ten Years Wiser??

To quote a line from one of my favorite Jack Johnson songs, over 10 years have gone by since I was in high school!!  Ack!  Last Saturday was a blast from the past as we had my high school reunion.  I know a lot of people avoid these like the plague, but I thought it was pretty fun.  Just like high school was, there was definitely a weird mix of people, but unlike high school everyone was hanging out with everyone and not being so cliquey (if that is really a word!).  You still hear bits and pieces about some of your classmates from time to time, so there were no shocks about what people looked like or what they are doing.  We did have one snag to the evening...it involved Scottie on the ride home.  I won't embarrass him by telling the whole story, but I'll say that he had a little (okay, WAAAYY) too much to drink, we ended up having to ride all the way home with the windows down, and he had to come over the next day to clean the car.  Thanks for giving us a story to talk about for the next 10 years, Scottie!

In Playground Heaven

On to Mr. Harry...he continues to change everyday, but now the changes are a bit more subtle.  To explain that a little better, he'll do something, and even though I spend as much time with him as I possibly can, I'll think--did I know he could do that?  He can now walk backwards (only for very short distances, of course), say a few more words (waffle said "wafa", duck, and hi said hiiiiii! whenever you walk into the room--heartmeltingly cute!), and instead of crawling up and down the stairs he prefers to walk up and down them while you hold his hands.  You know, since he is such a big boy now!  He also continues to develop his personality, and especially his likes and dislikes.  This little guy knows what he wants and is not afraid to tell you!  He and I went out to lunch today and while he can't come out and say what he wants, he points and if you pick up the wrong thing, you get a no! and more emphatic pointing.  A funny new "like" is pickles!  I was eating one with lunch and he pointed at it like he wanted a bite.  I told him that I didn't think he would like it, but I let him try it anyway.  He took a big bite, didn't make a face and pointed at it again like he wanted more!  Funny stuff!

Last night, we went to another baseball game and he had a blast.  We went with some of Travis's old Schwab buddies so it was good to see them.  A few innings into the game, we went to the lawn area so the kids could run around a little bit, and this was by far Harry's favorite part!  One time he ran up by the concrete sidewalk (I was about a half step behind him) and he tripped and scraped his head.  Poor fella.  He cried a little bit, but got over it very quickly and it definitely didn't stop him from running back up there time and time again.  Maybe I need one of those leash thingys?? 

Here are a few pictures from the State Fair a few weeks ago.  We had fun filling our bellies and checking out all of the animals.  Harry loved the small animals, but the big ones (horses, cows, hogs) really freaked him out!

Umm, is a cow really trying to eat my stroller??

Nope, don't think I wanna pet the horse today

P.S. The Wii is a bit hit and totally awesome!  We highly recommend it!  Harry loves to watch and cheer us on!

Here are some of the pictures from our Washington DC trip.  I was having some trouble uploading them the day I did the post about the trip.

Maybe Harry will live here someday!

Our wonderful hosts, Juliana and Ricky

Hey Abe!

Awesome view

I think this last photo is especially funny...every fountain we saw (and there are lots in DC!!) Harry thought he needed to jump into!

Our family added another new member Wednesday evening!  Baby Brady Stone was born to Aunt Sara and Uncle Brian!  Mom and Brady are doing great and may get to go home today!  He looks so sweet and we can't wait to see him in person very soon!  It was really hard not to be there for the big event, but we are so happy he is here safe and sound!  Harry can't wait to meet you, Brady!  Now our mission begins to stop him from being a Steelers fan!

Sweet Little Boy

Now onto some news about Harry...he is finally saying some different words!  For whatever reason, he started repeating some words for us this past week and he has just been cracking us up.  My favorite by far is "night, night!".  One night, Travis got him ready for bed while I was putting away some laundry, and they came into the closet.  Travis said, "Say night night to Mommy, Harry" and out came this sweet little voice that said "Night, night!".  Totally melted my heart.  Now he says it all of the time and he really know what it means.  Whenever you ask him if he is ready for night, night, he whines!  Here are some of the other words he has said this week:  kitty cat "kii cah" (but he still usually calls them doggies!), ball "bah", football "foo bah", basketball "baket bah" (that one made us laugh the hardest), go, and up (this was said by himself as he was trying to crawl up into a chair.  I can't wait to hear what he's going to come up with next!

In some other exciting family news, my very favorite brother (so what if he's my only brother!) found us a Nintendo Wii out in Colorado on a business trip!  They are impossible to find where we live, and he walked into 2 different stores out there and bought 2!  We will get in tonight when he get home!  Fun for us!  We are also going to head to the State Fair today.  Travis is going to leave work a little early this evening so we can get there at a decent time.  I have never been so I'm pretty excited.  Harry will probably flip over the animals and we will flip over all of the fried goodies!  Hopefully we will burn off some of the calories playing the Wii this weekend!

Here are some random, cute pics from this week.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Three of my best helpers!

Ready to go to work with Daddy!

Harry and I safely made it back home from Washington DC on Saturday!  The traveling part went so much better than I could have ever expected!  He was a perfect angel on the flights, especially on the way home.  He even got some complements from some of the people sitting around us about how good he was!  I can only imagine what they were thinking when they saw us coming to sit near them, but I'm glad that he was able to behave so well!  We had a great time in DC, but man!  It was waaaay to hot!  We did manage to see the basics, though.  We visited the Vietnam Memorial, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the Capitol, and we visited one of the Smithsonians (Air and Space).  I had no idea just how many Smithsonian museums there were!  I guess I just pictured it being one huge place!  We also went to Georgetown and Alexandria for dinner 2 of the nights.  However, our main reason for going wasn't to sightsee, it was to visit with Juliana!  It was so great to spend time with her and for her to finally meet Harry!  Juli and her husband Ricky was such great hosts (they insisted on giving us their bedroom while they slept on a pull out couch!) and they were also great with Harry.  I can easily imagine them having one of their own soon!  : )  Thanks again for letting us intrude on your lives for a few days! 

The next day was also very joyous for us...Daddy finally got home safe and sound from his fishing trip!  I think he was very glad to get home, and we were very glad to have him back!  I think he really missed home, and he even said he would never take a trip for that long away from home again!  Yay!  I think it had more to do with him missing Harry than it did him missing me, but any reason for him not to be gone that long again is fine with me!  I cannot imagine spending that much time in the car just to fish...guys do the craziest things!

Harry has developed a little quirk recently.  He loves to hold any sort of object in his hands (anything, even a dirty diaper will do!  Ewwwww.) and HOW DARE YOU if you try to take it away!  I don't think he has a preference for any one object, he just loves to hold something.  Today at Target I bought him a pack of Little People, and he kept looking at it adoringly like it was a pack of diamonds.  He even threw a little fit when we had to give it to the cashier to pay for it!  So cute, but also a little annoying when he carries the diaper from the changing table to the trash can and refuses to throw it away!  My silly little guy!