Growing Up is Hard to Do

I am having mixed emotions about Harrison growing up. I am glad that he is getting older and more independent but at the same time it makes me nervous for the future. Harrison is a stubborn boy and that stubborness (is that even a word) seems to be showing more and more each day.

Last Saturday we took Harrison, Parker, and Jordan to the movie and afterwards we went to the mall to buy Harrison a new pair of shoes. Every pair that I picked out he hated for some reason. I think I have fairly good taste and I KNOW I wasn't picking out ugly shoes but for some reason he did not like anything I picked. I finally told him to show me what he wanted and of course he picked the UGLIEST shoes ever. I flat out told him that I didn't like them and that only made things worse and after that he shut down and wouldn't even talk to me but I was not going to give up so we went to try the UGLY shoes on. Secretly I was praying that they wouldn't have his size and much to my relief they didn't. Well the dang salesman who was so efficient and willing to make a sale showed Harrison another pair of even UGLIER shoes and of course he loved them.

So I decided to give in and let him buy the shoes (after Jeff reminded me that I wasn't going to be the one wearing the shoes) but my mind was quickly changed when he told us that the price was $120. I told Harrison that I was willing to pay $60 and he could pay the rest.

He sat there for a minute and after some thought he said, "Well I don't have that kind of money and even if I did I wouldn't spend it on a pair of shoes." Wow...I guess we taught him right after all. So after looking around a little bit more we settled on a pair of Addidas that are nice looking and they only cost $60.

I would have posted a picture of the shoes but unfortunately they weren't in stock so we had to have them delivered to our house and they haven't come yet.

Pieper's "23"

Last night Parker and Pieper put together a puppet show for us and while they were practicing their parts I was listening in and it was the funniest thing to listen to. It's amazing how big of an imagination Parker has and how involved he gets when he does storytelling or some sort of a show. He definitely loves to perform in front of people. Anyway...they had decided to put on the puppet show of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Parker was given the responsibility of being the papa bear and he said, "Oh no someone's been sitting in my chair...I'm going to go get my 22 (which is a gun for those of you who aren't fluent in gun talk...not that I am but I do know what a 22 is)" Pieper, who was playing the part of the baby bear said, "I'm going to go get my 23." She obviously had no idea what Parker was talking about but she just went with what she knew and 23 definitely comes after 22. I could not stop laughing.

Smarty Pants

Madison just recently learned her ABCs and it's the cutest thing ever. She has said it perfect a couple times but she usually gets stuck when it comes to Q,R,S because she says Q,R,X...and then goes on to say Y and Z. But if I correct her and say S she can keep going to the end. She has also learned how to count to ten in English and Spanish. Unfortunately, I can not take credit for this because it has been my mom that has taught it to her. Madison usually tags along with Pieper to preschool at my mom's house and she is such a parrot that she is picking up on everything. It is so fun to watch her improvement and listen to her repeat everything and anything that is said. She reminds me a lot of Harrison because he was so smart at such a young age. Much like Madison, he was speaking in full sentences at 18 months and he spoke so well that people often thought he was three years old. Madison speaks very well and she is pretty tall so she seems to be a lot older. I have to remind myself at times that she's not as old as she seems (at times I am reminded of how young she is and it's usually when she's throwing a tantrum on the floor).

Week Long Birthday

I have never...in my whole life...been more excited to be done with a birthday than I was this week. Pieper had her birthday on Monday and she definitely took full advantage of being the "BIRTHDAY GIRL." In the morning Parker bumped her in the hall while he was walking past and she was so upset because he bumped her on her birthday. She made comments all day like "I don't have to do that because I'm the birthday girl" or "I don't have to be nice because I'm the birthday girl." We went to visit my Grandma that night and the first thing Pieper said when she walked in the door to Grandma was, "So today is my birthday." This makes her sound like a brat but she usually is very sweet but for some reason she got the idea that on your birthday everybody has to bow down to you and you get to rule the roost. She knew that her birthday was after Christmas so the day after she woke up and thought it was her birthday and that continued on everyday until it really was her birthday. For her birthday she gave me some ideas of what she wanted and some of the items were things like her own Maceys grocery store with a big sign out front, her own house with a bed so she could play house in it with her friends, and a car to play with in the backyard. Unfortunately she didn't get any of those presents but I think she ended up having a good day besides all the "terrible" things that happened to her and she loved the presents she got. For her birthday party she wanted to invite all her cousins (which is about 25 people) and they were going to go to Circus Circus and then Disneyland and they were going to eat cotton candy. As you can see she had big dreams for her birthday and she had definitely thought about what she wanted and how she was going to celebrate it.