P&J's Growing Pains

Heading to Hospital

2012-02-09T08:22:00.001-05:00

Contractions are picking up finally. Headed to hospital. Hoping they don't send us home!
Peyton is beside himself with excitement. My mom arrived yesterday so she's taking him to school.

Still Here

2012-02-08T18:14:00.001-05:00

Not much has changed. Contractions are probably a little more intense but farther apart. Definitely not close enough to get excited about. Patrick and I had a good day together though. Went for a walk around and around and around the neighborhood to try to speed things up. No luck. Went to babies r us and target to pick up a few things, hoping other preggo mothers would give off some good pheromones to stimulate labor. No luck. So... Now we're just waiting. Maybe the excitement from the UNC - Dook game tonight will help get things going.

Is it time?

2012-02-08T07:31:00.001-05:00

Contractions have been about 10 mins apart since about midday yesterday. For awhile they weren't very painful or intense but I think that's picking up this morning.
Who knows....this could go on for days. But I certainly hope not!

Another comparison

2012-01-31T21:00:00.004-05:00

Am I as big with Baby Girl as I was with Peyton? I don't know why I'm obsessing over this so much. Maybe its because I'm starting to have flashbacks of labor with a 9lb 13oz baby. Flashbacks that include an epidural, at least. But maybe I'm freaking out because the pediatrician told me that the first baby is usually the smallest. Or it could be because the goal is to have this one without the epidural (too many back problems and potential complications with the epidural). On the bright side, I hear the second labor is usually easier and quicker. I'm definitely carrying this baby differently, and I'm not as wide as I was with Peyton, so who knows! I don't think this baby will be as big, but I really don't have anything to base that on, other than my own intuition. But here's a comparison anyway. I happen to be wearing the same maternity dress. On the left, I had about 4 weeks left with Peyton. On the right, I have about 3 weeks left with Baby Girl.

The Sibling Tour

2012-01-28T21:20:00.005-05:00

A couple of months ago, our family did a hospital tour with other expecting families. We mostly wanted to show Peyton where I would be when I had the baby. It wasn't really geared for kids and he lost interest relatively quickly. Then I recently ran into one of our trusty babysitters on campus - she's now in med school at UNC - and she asked if I had brought Peyton on the sibling tour. I did not know anything about it, nor was I even aware it existed. She told me how great it was for kids and I decided to look into taking Peyton. We went this morning and Peyton had a great time.

He got to dress up like a doctor, with a gown, a mask, and gloves.

They talked about the proper way to hold a baby and got to practice with baby dolls. I was most impressed this evening when I asked him to tell Daddy about what he learned about how to hold the baby. Peyton told him that he had to be careful and hold the head up with one hand and hold the feet with the other. He kept telling the volunteer helping him that the baby needed some clothes. He's going to be a great big brother!

They also learned how to change a baby's diaper. Oh boy. Now he's going to want to change baby girl's diaper all by himself because now he thinks he knows better than me.

Less than three weeks left to go until my due date (officially Feb 16th). My own calculations tell me she's really due on Feb 12th. Patrick asks me every morning how I'm feeling because he says he could tell when I was getting close last time because of how miserable I had started to feel. At this point, I'm still feeling pretty good. But that could also be because I spent most of this pregnancy laying on the floor feeling pretty miserable already that I feel great now in comparison. I haven't had any contractions or braxton-hicks or anything though, so I'm thinking Baby Girl is pretty comfortable. I don't think she'll be as big as Peyton, but this is only based on my intuition - nothing scientific. Of course, I remember thinking that Peyton would be a big baby, but never in my dreams did I think he would be almost 10lbs, so I could be wrong. I'm planning to work up until the time I deliver if possible, so I can save my time off for after the baby is born. Things are slowly but surely coming together in the new house, and we have the baby's room almost all set up. (Pictures to come in the next post!) Its been a whirlwind couple of months, but I'm looking forward to the baby's arrival and being able to focus on her and Peyton for awhile, without having to worry about work, moving, house, packing, unpacking, etc.

A Christmas Post...Finally!

2012-01-26T18:15:00.007-05:00

Christmas is now a month behind us, but I figured I should still post some pictures from our adventures. We had a great trip home, and enjoyed seeing all of our families. We never seem to be able to spend as much time with everyone as we'd like though. We'll have to start planning another trip home!

Peyton and Patrick finally got to meet my nephew Owen. So. Stinkin'. Cute.

Peyton got to help Papa make a tanker.

Peyton also got to help Lulu make rice krispy treats. He might have licked his fingers. A lot.

The Harrell Christmas tree is filled with special ornaments that they've collected over the years. This is one of my favorite from when Patrick was young...I think I see a little bit of Peyton in there, don't ya think?

Peyton got to hang out with Gramps

And play with his cousins......

Baby Girl Harrell even got a few fun gifts!

And of course Peyton got to eat some beignets!! There's just no avoiding getting the sugar everywhere!

And my favorite video of all time.....Peyton returns to playing the guitar. He made up his song, of course, and I'm hard pressed to interpret exactly what he's saying, but something about Christmas trees, Christmas presents, and Christmas lights. Be sure to catch the ending as he cuts off the song with his hand.

Peyton's new room!

2012-01-22T19:49:00.003-05:00

We bought a dresser for Peyton at the habitat reuse store and Patrick and Peyton have been working hard to sand and paint it. Peyton was excited about his new dresser and therefore we hoped willing to give his old dresser and bed to his baby sister once it was ready. He declared he wanted dump trucks on his new big bed too, so Santa Claus brought him a new bedroom set.

Fixing up the dresser became a much bigger project for Patrick than he anticipated (of course),requiring several trips to Home Depot and Lowe's for parts, but I really like how it turned out. He worked really hard and it turned out very nice - it looks great in the room!

How Embarrassing!

2011-12-21T14:03:00.004-05:00

Kids are often brutally honest and don't have much of a filter. I've heard horror stories of the inappropriate things that kids say out in public. Now I'm getting to experience it first hand. And for whatever reason, Peyton has taken to calling people out on their weight.

As he and Patrick were grocery shopping the other day, they passed someone that Patrick admitted was on the larger side of size. Peyton suddenly belted out (not so quietly), "Dad! That guy is FAT!" He's pretty sure the guy heard him. This led to a discussion about the things that are not so nice to say to people. But trying to explain where this line is to a 3 year old is not exactly easy.

Then this week, Peyton's class had a Christmas party for all of the parents to attend. Another little boy in his class has a dad that I've met and chatted with on a number of occasions, and as we made small talk at the party, Peyton interrupted, "You have a big fat belly!" This led to my mumbled explanation of how we've been joking about my big growing belly as I totally avoided eye contact, apologized, and slinked away. This guy wasn't huge or anything, and he took it in stride, "Oh! That's from all the cookies I've been eating!" Thank God Peyton didn't say it to his wife that gave birth to their child a few months ago now. As I tried to control my rising blood pressure and red face, we had a discussion about how we don't say things like that to people.

So, I would like to apologize in advance to anyone out there that my son insults. We're working on the issue, but I can't promise he won't be perfectly blunt with you during your conversation with him. He's certainly not learning these bad manners at home!

Heaux Heaux Heaux

2011-12-18T09:46:00.003-05:00

Our Santa Picture - 2011. Isn't Peyton so handsome in his argyle sweater vest?!

A comparison

2011-11-30T22:34:00.006-05:00

I'm now 29 weeks along, which means only 11 more to go (more or less). After a round of steroids, my back is a little better, and I'm able to tolerate sitting and/or standing for longer periods of time. I'm not ready to do cartwheels or anything, but I"m thankful to have a little more function back. The physical therapist told me that it may not be until after the baby is born, possibly not until after I'm finished breast feeding, that I actually feel fully recovered. But I can at least sit through a meal now without having to choose between laying down for some relief and getting enough food in my belly.

One side effect of the back issue is that I waddle a little more than a normal pregnant woman, apparently causing the woman at Sam's last week to ask me if I was due on Thursday. Uh, no, I have 3 more months to go. She responded that I must be having twins then. Uh, no, there is only one. She told me she thought one might be hiding in there. Gee, thanks a lot! But I wondered whether I seem to be smaller, bigger, or the same size this pregnancy as with Peyton. So I pulled out a picture from 29 weeks with Peyton (left) and took another picture today to compare (right).

I don't know...maybe I was bigger with Peyt? I will say that I don't think I've gained as much weight this pregnancy. However, today I was measuring 30 weeks, which is about a week ahead of schedule. According to my 32 week post with Peyton, I was measuring 32 weeks....who knows. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how big this little girl is .....in 11 weeks!

Halloween!

2011-11-11T16:41:00.006-05:00

Halloween was a little quieter this year. Unfortunately, no trip to the pumpkin patch :( But next year, we'll go back and have a great time! These days, our activities are limited to things where I can find a place to lay down so we strategize before we do anything. I was feeling up to going to Trunk or Treat, though, so we did get to have a little fun. Families decorate the trunks of their cars and kids go around and collect candy. I knew some friends of ours would have their trunk decorated so I would be able to sit in their car for little breaks. There was also a little green space where the kids were running around so I was able to lay down in the grass. Because I'm now visibly pregnant, it seems to be slightly more socially acceptable for me to lay down in strange public places.

Several months ago, I asked Peyton what he wanted to be for Halloween. We discussed several possibilities but he seemed to settle on being an astronaut. I'm not really sure where he came up with the idea or why that was what he wanted to be, but I was happy to honor his request. A little shopping on amazon later, I found a few for him to choose from and he picked the one he wanted. As soon as it arrived, he wanted to put it on. He even posed in front of the fireplace for a picture. (He's not too much into taking pictures these days).

We usually like to do some kind of family theme, so Patrick and I thought about how we could complement Peyton's costume for the Trunk or Treat event. I settled on being "outer space" and Patrick was an alien. We managed to get a family picture, although certain participants were not willing to look at the camera.

Trunk or Treat was a week before Halloween, but I assumed Peyton would be an astronaut for Halloween as well. The day before Halloween, a friend asked Peyton what he was going to go dressed as for Halloween. I fully expected his response to be an astronaut since that's what we talked about for months. Nope. A pirate. I reminded him that he was going to be an astronaut. Nope. He was an astronaut last week for Trunk or Treat. He needed to wear a different costume. Like he's 16 and can't wear the same dress to a second prom, even though no one was going to see him twice in the same costume -there's totally different crowd in our neighborhood!
I know my son well enough to know that when he has an idea in his head, there really isn't any changing his mind. Luckily, I had a pirate costume in the closet from a kindergarten teacher friend that had a bunch of extra dress up costumes that she passed on to me. I'm not sure I could have pulled off buying a pirate costume with less than 24h notice.

It poured down rain in the early evening on Halloween, but it finally stopped long enough for us to walk around our neighborhood and gather some candy from a few houses. There aren't many kids in our subdivision, so we only saw two other families out and about, but Peyton still had a fun time. And I was happy to get to see him run around in his pirate costume gathering candy that I would subsequently get to steal and eat myself.

23 Weeks and Counting!

2011-10-22T11:57:00.004-04:00

I figured I haven't compared my growing baby to any fruits or vegetables yet during this pregnancy, so I'm way overdue! I'm at 23 weeks and at this point, an average baby is about 11 inches long and weighs about a pound, about the weight of a mango. But then again, I don't have average sized babies, apparently, so who knows how accurate this is.

The other night, Peyton put his ear up to my belly to see if he could hear the baby. Whatever he heard, he thought it was the most hilarious thing he'd ever heard. We caught a little of it on video.

I'm still living life confined to the floor, unfortunately. The consensus is that I have a herniated disk in the L4-L5 region of my spine. Because I can't have any imaging done while I'm pregnant, its unclear how bad it is. But at this point, imaging won't tell us anything that would change the course of treatment of a pregnant lady. There are a few more options once I have the baby if its still a problem. But for now, chiropractic care, physical therapy, and depending on how much longer this goes on and whether anyone will write me a prescription, possibly steroids to help reduce the inflammation of the disk. Its still unclear to me whether this will get better anytime soon. When I initially started seeing the chiropractor, she said it would take about a week and a half to help me feel better. I'm three weeks in to the chiropractic care, and I would say I'm only marginally better. And a lot of that may be that I've really given up on trying to have any kind of a life and I pretty much just stay off of my feet. I will start seeing a new physical therapist on Tuesday, one of only 2 in the area that has a special training in spine health. I guess as long as there are options and possibilities on the horizon, I should remain optimistic. But I'm 6 weeks into the back pain and everyone thought I would be better by now. I'll continue with the combination of PT and chiropractic care for now, and see where that takes me. I'm managing to get myself back and forth to work everyday, sometimes driving myself, other times depending on the generosity of my hubby and my fantastic coworkers. I have a mat and a pillow on the floor of my office, so I'm able to stay comfortable most of the day. The students that I meet with sit at a table and we discuss the task at hand with me on the floor. They're all pretty used to it and don't find it odd at all anymore. Some days are better than others, but here's to hoping there are more better days than bad days to come.

As for our house, we didn't have any luck selling it. The market is especially slow this time of year in our neighborhood. The time to sell here is March - June. We just felt like it wasn't worth continuing to lower our price, so we've decided to take it off the market. We had already decided not to build a house in Apex, as we had planned earlier this year. Patrick's new job in its new location didn't warrant such a long commute for both of us. But we still have our hearts set on living in a bigger house, both for our expanding family and to accommodate guests and visitors. With me on the floor and another little one on the way, we especially need our family's help now, so we'll need a place for them to stay! We've decided to put our house up for rent and hope that this will be a much quicker process than selling it. We'll go ahead and rent a bigger house for now as we consider school districts and ponder trying to sell our house again in the coming years.

Stay tuned for exciting updates from the Harrell household...

The Name Game

2011-09-30T14:14:00.003-04:00

I guess I'm about 20 weeks now and that means we're halfway there! I had a great pregnancy with Peyton, but I can't say I'm having as much fun this time around. I'm typing this sideways with one hand while lying down because I'm having so much trouble with my back that I can't sit or stand comfortably for more than 15 minutes. Its a problem that started about 4 weeks ago and has gotten progressively worse. Its hard to know exactly what is causing the issue since I can't have any imaging done, but it could be anything from my scoliosis, sacral instability or a bulging disk that is causing it. My physical therapist is banging her head against the wall, as is Aunt Di who has spent a lot of time on the phone with me trying to talk through what might be going on. Patrick is being so awesome, I couldn't ask for a better husband, but he's really having to do everything around the house and with Peyton because I can't do much of anything. Quite frustrating. Peyton is being such a sweet boy, it makes me very proud. He asks how I'm doing and gets ice packs for me and "checks everything out" while I'm laying on the floor. He's being quite caring and sweet. I just hope I get some relief soon and I don't have to spend the next 4.5 months on the floor.

Onto more fun topics, we're in the process of choosing a name. We're going to keep this one a secret like we did last time. Thats for a number of reasons. 1. Its just fun to keep everyone in suspense. But more importantly, 2. We want to reserve the right to change the name and 3. We don't want to be influenced once we've decided.
That being said, we're taking suggestions. Here are our loose criteria:
1. We don't want it to be the most popular name out there - that automatically discards the Olivias, Sophias, and Isabellas.
2. We would like for it to have some kind of family connection. Peyton Christopher has a lot of family meaning to it - Peyton is a variant of Patrick and Christopher is a family name from my mom's side of the family. So if any of you family members have some good names in the family tree, let us know.
3. It has to work well with "Harrell". That means no Hannah Harrell or Laurel Harrell.
4. We don't want the name to subject our daughter to years of teasing on the playground.
5. We don't want the name to remind us of people we'd rather forget.

Our baby name book is somewhere in a box in storage so that won't be any help, so let us know in the comments if you have some suggestions!

The Big Gender Reveal!

2011-09-24T17:19:00.008-04:00

So, here we are; almost mid-way through the pregnancy. And I wish I had more time to update the blog. But life just gets in the way sometimes. Peyton certainly keeps us busy!

We had our big ultrasound the other day. I was around 18 or 19 weeks, so it was time to find out the gender! Something inside of me told me this one was a girl. I don't know what it was. Something very similar inside of me told me Peyton was a boy, so I kind of hoped my instincts were right. I thought it will be totally awesome to have one of each. But statistically, those Harrells like to make boys so I questioned whether my instincts were right.

Here is an updated picture of the baby:

And this picture apparently shows that its a girl! (But I had to take the US tech's word for it.) What I do know is that I couldn't see anything that indicated that it was a boy:

As part of what is becoming a tradition with some girlfriends from graduate school, we all got together for a big gender reveal. I bought both pink and blue balloons and the idea was that Peyton would present the right color at the right time.

This isn't the best video because my finger kind of covered the lens (oops), but Peyton tripped as he was coming into the kitchen for the reveal, which kind of dampened the fun as we worried more about whether he was ok rather than what color balloon he was carrying. But most of my friends were surprised as many of them had guessed it would be a boy.

It was at this point that we explained to Peyton that the baby in Mommy's tummy was a girl. He had been telling everyone that it was a boy. I wondered if he had some kind of connection that I didn't know about. But my friend Rebecca caught a later conversation on film where we were still trying to convince him that it was in fact a girl in my tummy.

The good news is that he seems to have come around and will admit that the baby is a girl if you ask him now. He tells everyone its his baby. So I'm happy that he has taken the news well and is excited about the new addition to the family.

My Mommy is a Teacher!

2011-08-17T18:02:00.002-04:00

Explaining what I do is a little complicated. I don't teach courses anymore; instead, I work more in an administrative role with our Biological and Biomedical graduate students at UNC. I still teach workshops from time to time, but for the most part I work one-on-one with graduate students enrolled in our program that need to improve their critical analysis, or their writing and oral presentation skills - skills that are important for becoming a successful research scientist. I like my job at lot - unlike teaching 200 students, I get to know my students very well and I'm really proud of their accomplishments as they improve throughout their time working with me.

Anyway, I had never really had a conversation with Peyton about what I do, but I guess in a sense I would still consider myself a "teacher". That seems to be the simplest way to explain it to him, as opposed to the 100 words or so it usually takes me to describe what I do. He has come down with strep throat (poor little guy), which means Patrick and I have to juggle our schedules so that one of us can be at home with him. Today I happened to be teaching a couple of workshops to our incoming graduate students, as this is orientation week, one of our busiest times. So, I went to work in the morning to teach the workshops and came home at lunch so that Patrick could go to work. When I came home, Peyton asked me "Where you went?" I told him I had been at work. "What you do at work?" was his next question (I'm always prepared for a series of them). Hmmm...."Well, I'm a teacher". "A Teacher?! NO way! .....Daddy, is Mommy a teacher?" Yes. "Whoa!" Suddenly, I had become really cool in the eyes of my three year old. "Well, what you did at school today, Mommy?" Funny, I ask him this question everyday. His usual reply is, "I don't know". Again, wanting to keep it simple, I told him that I taught some students some math. "You taught your friends?" "No, students" "You mean friends?" "Yes, yes, that's what I meant." I guess in his mind, friends are the people that go to school and sometimes its just easier to agree than to explain. "Did you go outside to play, Mommy?" This was my favorite question. Ahhhh....to be 3 again where I could just go outside to play for awhile as a necessary and integral part of my day. I didn't have the heart to break the news to him that he will eventually outgrow the recess part of his day.

The strep throat came on pretty quickly, starting with severe stomach pains and eventually progressing into a fever and sore throat. We caught it relatively early and got him started on antibiotics. He's feeling a lot better already, and claimed the ice cream that Mrs. Lauren and Amelia brought him to help him feel better (aren't they sweet?!) made his throat feel better and made all of the germs go away.

Someone Wants to Say Hi!

2011-08-04T11:49:00.004-04:00

We have hopefully made the rounds in announcing our big news to mostly everyone. But for those of you that may have missed it: We're preggars!

We're very excited, and are happy to have made it through the first trimester. Things have been going well so far, and all the memories of being pregnant with Peyton are coming back.
Things like:
I find Patrick's jokes way more funny when I'm pregnant. (Why? I have no idea.)
My emotions have the ability to swing one way or the other at a moment's notice. And they swing big.
Food is a very central component of my day. All day. Every day.

I had forgotten a thing or two about being pregnant. I have been very, very, very tired during the first trimester. I really don't remember being this tired with Peyton. Patrick says he remembers that I was. And apparently, my labor wasn't so fun. I obviously don't remember it being all that bad because I've signed up to do it again.

I do remember that I had a large baby. Indications so far point to another big baby. I started getting a belly at 5 weeks and quickly had to abandon my normal clothes. Hiding it until I was ready to tell people was a challenge. Not to mention that the ultrasound tech told me yesterday that the baby is measuring a full week bigger than it should be at this point. Yep, sounds about right.

We haven't explained the situation to Peyton yet. No need for him to worry for 28 more weeks about all of the attention he will be deprived of with the addition of a new baby in the house. Patrick did teach him to tell me that I have a big fat belly, so perhaps he will start questioning the reason behind my enlarged abdomen soon. So far, he's content to just laugh along with his daddy.

As I mentioned, I had an ultrasound done yesterday. This was part of a screening they do for trisomy defects when you're around 12 weeks. It was a little too soon to tell the gender, but here are some pictures that were taken. The baby waved several times and the tech was able to get some great shots.

The head is on the right here and the baby is on its stomach:

He/she flipped onto its back:

A good closeup of the arm:

He/She looked at the camera and waved!

The heartbeat. A solid 165bpm (For those of you keeping score, I looked up Peyton's heartrate around this time period and it was 178bpm). These days, no one believes there is a correlation between heart rate and gender.

Upcoming Trip

2011-06-29T15:31:00.003-04:00

We're planning a trip home for the week of the 4th of July, and unlike every other trip we've taken down there since Peyton was born, we'll be driving instead of flying. Peyton is clearly a routine-oriented child, and he likes things to be done the same way each time. So the conversation about driving to Nola didn't go very well:

Me: So, we're going to New Orleans soon and we're going to drive in the car to get there.
Peyton: Is it far far away like Disney World? (Everything is measured according to DW distance now)
Me: Well.....its a little farther than Disney World.
Peyton: No, that's not how we get to New Orleans. We get in the car and drive to the airport. And then we take a bus to get to the airplane (he's talking about the shuttle bus from the parking lot). We take an airplane to the airport in New Orleans and then Lollie comes and picks us up, Ok, Mom? That's how we do that.
Me: Uh...well, we're going to do things differently this time. We're going to drive all the way there.
Peyton: NO! WE'RE NOT DRIVING! WE'RE TAKING AN AIRPLANE! (and, yes, he's pretty much yelling at this point).

Oh, this is going to be a longgggggggg car ride.

Treme

2011-06-04T16:23:00.002-04:00

Some of you are probably familiar with the HBO series Treme, featuring a unique neighborhood in New Orleans and the musical side of the city. Patrick and I have just finished watching the first season, and the theme song is quite catchy. We taught Peyton a few lines.....(don't worry, we don't actually let him watch the show, he's a little too young). Looking forward to seeing season 2 when it comes out on DVD.

Peyton's New Friend

2011-05-30T15:24:00.005-04:00

Peyton has a new friend. His name is Christopher Harrell.

I had been holding on to a Build-a-Bear gift card for some time, waiting for the right time for Peyton to appreciate the process. I decided it was time for us to take a trip and let him create his new friend. It had been awhile since I had been to Build-a-Bear, but the process is pretty simple: You choose the "skin" of whatever you want to make and there are lots to choose from: bears, monkeys, rabbits, dogs, cats, frogs...if you can stuff it, you can make it. Then you decide if you'd like to put some kind of sound inside of your new friend, you stuff it with stuffing to the desired fluffiness, warm a little heart, make a wish, and put it inside to make your friend come alive. You also add a tag to the inside that can be scanned if your new friend is ever lost so that they can reunite it with its rightful owner. From there, it gets all sewn up. You can take it over to the bath tub to clean it all up (with air and brushes), then you give it a name, and print out your new friend's birth certificate.

Peyton picked out a puppy dog (one of the more expensive skins, I might add), and I steered him away from adding a sound like a yippy, annoying dog bark, although the sales lady tried her best to sell Peyton on the idea. We stuffed him all up, making sure he could stand on all 4's but not too much so that he would still be soft and cuddly. We added his heart and Peyton made a wish (who knows what went through his head at this point, but I secretly made a wish for him). Peyton spent a lot of time and care with his new puppy at the bathtub, making sure he was nice and clean. As we filled out the birth certificate (and I took great care to remove my information from every marketing email list), I asked him what he wanted to name him and he said, "Christopher Harrell". Hmmm...interesting choice in names since Christopher happens to be his middle name. I guess he has just a small repertoire of favorite names at this point.

Although we had pretty much maxed out his gift certificate at this point, I thought I'd let Peyton spend a little of his birthday money on an accessory or two. I thought the dog collar and leash would be a cute addition, and we could leave it at that. Nope. Peyton liked the dog collar and leash, but then he wanted the puppy to be on roller skates so that he could actually drag him around. But now I have to buy two sets of roller skates because our animal walks on all fours and they only sell two at a time. Fine. Let's go. Well....you can't put on the roller skates unless you buy shoes too. Once I agreed to the roller skates, there was no going back. I couldn't tell Peyton that we couldn't get them anymore or else I would have to deal with the wrath of a 3 year old when I went back on my word. And you guessed it, those only come in pairs as well, so now I need two sets of shoes for my 4-legged friend in addition to the two sets of roller skates. Well, we're still spending birthday money here. Finally, puppy dog, collar, leash, shoes, and roller skates later (for all 4 legs), we were on our way out the door, with me swearing that it was a very dangerous place for 3 year olds.

Peyton was so excited to get home to introduce Christopher Harrell to daddy and Nellie. I didn't think either of them would react favorably. Daddy took it better than Nellie, but I think she'll warm up to him eventually. Once it was time for Peyton to take a nap, I knew he would want Christopher Harrell to go with him. However, I didn't realize that Christopher Harrell was going to need a bed. Silly me. And a blanket. And you have to take his leash and roller skates and shoes off for him to take a nap. Of course. After finally doing the nap-time routine for both Peyton and Christopher Harrell, I said "good night Peyton" as I was walking out the door. "But MOM! You didn't say good night to Christopher Harrell!" Oh, dear.

Naturally, I could still hear Peyton up in his room playing after about 30 minutes so I went up to remind him that he was supposed to be taking a nap. I pointed out that Christopher Harrell was still in his bed taking a nap like he was supposed to be. But then my son pointed out to me that in fact Christopher Harrell was not sleeping because his eyes were not closed. How do you argue with that?

I managed to snap a picture of the two new best friends post-bath tonight. Peyt is wearing his PJs and his Mickey Mouse hat. And, yes, the bed time routine now includes putting Christopher Harrell to bed too.

The Lowdown on the House

2011-03-17T20:27:00.008-04:00

Its finally time to share the details of our house! We're building a house in Apex, NC, south of where we live now. Patrick and I both have good jobs and we have good friends here, and we have a made the difficult decision to stay in this area for now. We miss our family and friends back home terribly, though, so we've chosen a house with what we think will be a very comfortable guest area for visitors (hint, hint!). Check out the floor plan - one modification will be that there will be a full bath downstairs for the guest bedroom. (See - comfy!)

The house is in a brand new neighborhood that is being built so we've had the exciting opportunity to pick out our cabinets, counter tops, flooring, exterior paint color, etc. Here is a peak at our cabinets (bottom left - espresso), floor (top) and counter tops (bottom right).

Thank you to everyone who voted for our exterior color and passed along their comments. Patrick and I have gone back and forth trying to decide between the two. One some days, we were leaning one way and on other days we were leaning another. This evening, we were both leaning Timberbark, so Timberbark it will be.

This is a sight map of our neighborhood, and the arrow points to the location of our future house. It will back up to an open space, which will eventually have something like a playground or gazebo or something in it.

The neighborhood is near the railroad tracks, which we're not exactly thrilled about, but we think Peyton will think its the coolest thing ever! The street in front of our house isn't cut yet, so this building process is still going to take some time. The sewer and water lines need to be run, and the lots need to be graded, and this will take about 4 months. From there, they will start building the houses in Phase 2 (of which ours is one of them). This will take about 3 months. So, we're not expecting to be able to move in until October-ish. That gives us plenty of time to sell our house. We're going to start meeting with Real Estate Agents soon, and our plan is to have the house on the market by the second weekend in April. There are a few other houses in our subdivision that are up for sale, and they've been on the market for awhile. We're keeping our fingers crossed that someone looking for a good starter home will fall in love with our house and everything we've done with it. Hopefully they'll be as happy here as we've been.

Our New House Exterior

2011-03-16T18:21:00.004-04:00

So, I promise a post is coming on the details of our new house. But, quickly, I'm taking a survey to get people's opinions of the exterior color of the house. We've narrowed it down to 2 choices - as you can see, one is a brownish/green color, the other is a blue color. The pictures above are the design of our house, and I have colored in the different colors (I know its not the best coloring job, but you get the idea.) We can't do anything like white trim with the blue house or change the color of the shutters, etc. Once we choose the main exterior color, the trim and shutters are predetermined. There were lots of colors, and we've narrowed it down to these. Please choose your favorite in the survey on the right. Feel free to leave comments to explain your choice.

(There are a couple of other houses in the neighborhood that are the brown color, but there isn't a house in the neighborhood that is the blue color yet.)

***Disclaimer****We are in no way obligated to choose the most popular choice for the exterior of our house :)

Disney

2011-03-13T19:42:00.010-04:00

Peyton's first trip to Disney was a lot of fun! It had been about 15 years since Patrick and I had each last been to Disney World, and many things have changed. Neither of us had ever been to Animal Kingdom, and a lot has changed in Epcot and Hollywood Studios too. I wouldn't say much is different about The Magic Kingdom. The parks were a little more crowded than we anticipated they would be, but we eventually figured out how to get the most out of our experience. There is always something to do in Disney, so we tried to get as much out of our time there as possible, without compromising Peyton's nap and sleep schedule. I think we did pretty well overall, with a minimal amount of melt-downs on his part.

We left home on a Friday night after work and drove to Savannah, GA, which was about 6 hours. We had anticipated that Peyton would fall asleep in the car and it would give us a chance to do some decent driving in peace and quiet. However, Peyton had other ideas and stayed awake asking about Mickey Mouse until about 10:45pm. He finally fell asleep and we drove a little longer. Once we settled into the hotel, Patrick and I crashed. I think I had just started to fall asleep when I heard, "Mommy? I want to get back in the car and keep driving to Mickey's house." It was 1:30am. My memory is a little foggy but I think I ended up sleeping on the floor that night to try to get Peyton to settle down in his sleeping bag. He was up again at 6:30am, bright and early! We drove on the next day to Gainesville, FL to see our good friends the Boones and the Harris's. We had a great time grilling and hanging out, but our little one was of course anxious to get to Mickey's house. We promised him it would only be one more day.

We finally arrived at our hotel and got all checked in on Sunday, eager and bright eyed to start exploring Disney. We weren't going to go to the parks until the next day, so we decided to head over to Fort Wilderness, a Disney campground, to catch the Chip and Dale Sing Along and Campfire. We took a bus, a boat and another bus to get there (2 hours later). Good thing we left our hotel with plenty enough time to spare (so we thought!) We had a great time singing songs, dancing, and making smores, so it kind of made the trek there worth it. (Although next time I will just get in my car and drive to Ft. Wilderness 10 minutes away).

All Peyton could talk about on our loooooong drive down to Disney was when he was going to get to see Mickey Mouse, so the first thing we did in the Magic Kingdom on Monday was look for Mickey Mouse. We weren't sure exactly how he would react when the actual meeting time came, but Peyton walked right up to Mickey and Minnie and gave each of them a big hug. As the week progressed, he met Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eyore, and Snow White. His favorite thing about visiting the Magic Kingdom? Riding the monorail. The rides, they were ok. But the monorail - that got him excited!

Epcot has an amazing show in the evening called Illuminations. Its a laser/fireworks show and Peyton loved it.

He also loved the Finding Nemo ride. Especially all of the aquariums that you can see after the ride. Maybe its time he gets an aquarium..... Anyway, we also took Peyton on the Fast Track and Soarin' rides in Epcot, both of which were rides that we weren't sure he would like. Fast Track is a test track simulation by GM, similar to the types of tests the cars they manufacture go through. It goes up to about 60 miles an hour towards the end. He wanted to go back on it after it was over. Soarin' was definitely my favorite ride. It simulates a ride in a hang glider over mountains, water, etc. You're actually looking into a 180 screen and feel like you're flying. Peyton thought it was pretty cool too, although he's not talking about it like he talks about the monorail.

We did a character breakfast one morning and Mickey came by our table to say hello. We also got to see Goofy and Donald. Minnie and Pluto were nearby as well.

The Safari ride in Animal Kingdom was definitely one of the highlights. We got to see giraffes, gorillas, and elephants. It was raining quite a bit that day, but we got our Disney ponchos for an absurd amount of money and kept on going! We actually went back a few days later to ride some of the other rides and see more of the animals. Peyton's favorite part about this park was the Dinosaur playground. Lots of slides, and a sandpit where he could dig for dinosaur bones!

Overall, we had a great trip. We learned a lot about how to do Disney and we'll do some things differently next time. But until then, I think all that Peyton will talk about and remember is the monorail.

Christmas

2011-02-13T10:38:00.004-05:00

Hello! Its February - where the heck is the Christmas post? Who's in charge of this blog anyway?!

I guess its been a busy couple of months for the Harrell family. The blog just hasn't been at the top of the priority list. I could promise to do a better job of keeping up, but I don't want to make any empty promises. And I certainly don't want to put anything in writing that could be held against me. So, I'll do what I can. And maybe I'll try to talk Patrick into helping out with a post or two. I think he's more entertaining anyway.

So here is the Christmas post!
Every year we take Peyton to see Santa and he's done a really good job of sitting on his lap. I figured at some point he might get scared of Santa or be uncooperative. Although he told me he was only going to sit next to Santa this year, he actually did sit on his lap. I think he figured if he didn't, he might not get the airplane he wanted for Christmas. So, here he is sitting on Santa's lap, just after telling him that he wanted an airplane.

Santa was very good to Peyton. He brought him the airplane he asked for and a recorder (which I actually haven't seen since Christmas, and I didn't even hide it on purpose), as well as a table and chairs set for our kitchen for play-doh and arts and crafts activities.

We also went to Nola for Christmas, something Patrick and I were apprehensive about. Peyton had a hard time the last few times we travelled, so we anticipated more of the same on this trip. But once again he proved us wrong and he was very well behaved and had a great time with all of his cousins. It was so good to see our families and we had a great time catching up with friends in between as well.

We do a Christmas marathon starting on Christmas Eve morning through Christmas Day evening. Its pretty much non-stop for two days, but after doing it that way for so many years, Christmas wouldn't be the same without it. I posted more pictures on Facebook, but here are a few highlights:
Peyton opened lots and lots of presents. He has had a great time with all of his new stuff...if only we had a place to put them. Oh, yeah, we're buying a new house. Post on that to follow....

Me and my Paw-Paw, one of my favorite pictures from this trip:

Peyton followed Will around everywhere he went. Will is a big kid himself, so I think he had a fun time playing with Peyton.

Peyton's Song

2010-11-27T10:31:00.005-05:00

Peyton wanted me to sit in his fort with him yesterday morning and play music with him. His music set consists of a set of drumsticks, a tambourine, some bells, and a shaker. As I obliged and played both the tambourine and bells simultaneously (I know, I'm multi-talented, right?), he came up with the words to a song all on his own.

"Mommy, Mommy went to town; On an airplane on vacation; Hooooo, hooooo, hooooo, hooooo....."

By "airplane", he meant a G6, and "vacation" clearly means a trip to New Orleans because that's the only place we ever go on vacation.

I didn't have a video camera to capture the actual moment that the song was composed, but we did encourage him to recreate it later. Not quite the same, but you get the idea:

Halloween

2010-11-01T20:34:00.008-04:00

We had a fantastic Halloween weekend! Friday night, we went to a nearby community that has a big pumpkin festival - all of the workers carve pumpkins and then put them on display. It was really very cool.

It put me in the mood to carve a pumpkin, but there really wasn't any time....maybe next year.
Peyton had a great time listening to the live music and running around to touch all of the pumpkins. I even caught him blowing out the candles inside of one. I think another kid showed him how to do that.

Then Saturday night Patrick and I got dressed up and went to party! He was an artist and I was his painting. Peyton helped him paint my shirt.

Trick-or-treating in our subdivision is usually pretty quiet, so some friends invited us over to their house in a neighborhood full of kids. It was worth the 45 minute drive! There were tons of kids running around in costumes. Lots of Buzz Light Years, Princesses, Harry Potters, etc.

Peyton was the only pilot, and he had a blast. He got the hang of the trick-or-treating thing pretty quickly. He would run up to the door and yell "Trick-or-Treat!", but more in the tone of "Gimme some candy!" At one point, he turned to me and said, "No, Mom, you stay here (at the end of the driveway). I go by myself." Alrighty then. He's 2 and he's already embarrassed by me. I was hoping I had another few years before that would happen!

After he was completely exhausted from trick-or-treating, we let him pick out a piece of candy to sit down and eat. He chose the M&Ms. And then thankfully he had no idea that the rest of the candy completely disappeared right to Daddy's office. (I had to sneak a few pieces for myself too, of course!)

I think by next year, he'll be a little wiser, and we won't be able to get away with that.

Fall Happenings

2010-10-28T10:28:00.007-04:00

Fall in North Carolina means lots of fun - beautiful weather and the NC State Fair!
The hit of the fair: the Pig Races (literally) and the corn.

He doesn't need help.

Don't touch his corn.

Why do I bother shucking it for him at dinner time?

We also spent the morning recently at a pumpkin farm. You can shuck corn to feed the goats and pigs, but they were way too full to eat. Instead, we played in a corn filled play area.

There was a big pile of hay to play on, a hayride, and Peyton got to pick out his own pumpkin from the patch. He had a great time!

We have also started celebrating Halloween. A local Mom's group sponsored a "Trunk or Treat" where kids can go trick or treating from car to car, all decorated for the season. Peyton's current obsession is airplanes. He loves to go to the observation deck at the airport and watch the airplanes take off. So, I bought him a pilot costume for Halloween. Here we are leaving for trunk or treat. And of course he has his monkey bag with him. Because pilots need luggage!

Sign of the Cross

2010-10-28T10:24:00.003-04:00

We've been working on Peyton's prayers, keeping it mostly simple: the Angel of God prayer, and the Glory Be prayer.
Then we started working on the sign of the cross. Here's how that is going:
Us: In the name of the Father
Peyton: And of the Mother (although it sounds like "and of the mudder")
Us: Ok, and of the Son
Peyton: And of the Moon
Us: No, there's no moon in this
Peyton: Yes, and of the moon
Us: Fine, and of the Holy Spirit
Peyton: AAAAAAAAA-Men!

Uncle Matt and Aunt Abby Got Married!!

2010-09-29T13:55:00.008-04:00

Peyton was in charge of the rings again, this time for Uncle Matt and Aunt Abby.

It was a beautiful wedding at Michabelle's Inn in Hammond, and Peyton certainly left his mark.
I'll let you see the video for yourself.

At least he walked up the aisle.

Always thinking about how to keep him entertained, we bought a couple of disposable cameras to keep him occupied. It took him all of about 10 minutes to shoot an entire roll of film. Most of them came out like this:
I think there is an abstract artist in there screaming to get out.

But a couple of them came out pretty good. Here's a picture of the paparazzi:

Adventures in Nola

2010-09-22T14:40:00.003-04:00

Last week, we traveled to New Orleans for Uncle Matt and Aunt Abby's beautiful wedding. This would be Patrick's brother Uncle Matt, not to be confused with my sister's husband, also Uncle Matt.
As the days were getting closer to the wedding and the suitcases were pulled out and packed, our little man woke up with fever and an ear infection. Lovely. We worried about how he would feel on the airplane and whether we'd have a screaming kid on our hands when the pressure changed. Luckily, he did really well. We gave him some good doses of antibiotics, a little ibuprofen, benadryl for good measure, and some tasty apple juice to drink during take-off and landing. Besides yanking on his ears a little bit, Peyton didn't seem to care about them at all, so our potion of meds seemed to do the trick.
We landed in Tampa for a small layover, but didn't have to change planes. Patrick asked if he could get off and get something to eat for Peyton, which they allowed, but this left Peyton and me up to our own vices. While we were just sitting around, I asked the flight attendant if Peyton could meet the pilot. Next thing I know, I hear a voice beaming, "Hi! I'm First Officer Joe!" and there was one of the pilots standing there to greet us. He invited us to sit in the cockpit and take a look around. I admit, all of those buttons scared me a bit. And it scared me to let my two year old within 10 feet of them. All we needed was for him to open up the luggage bin with one small touch of a button and have everything fall out of the belly of the airplane. When Patrick got back from getting food, Peyton was sitting quietly in his seat with his new airplane wings pin and coloring a picture of a Southwest airplane. I guiltily had to admit that we sat in the cockpit without him.

While hanging out at Lollie and Pops's house while we were home, Peyton took to playing my mom's guitar and singing his own song. I have no idea what he is singing, but it has something to do with New Orleans. That's really the only two words I can make out.

Wedding details and pictures to come....

Red Light, Green Light

2010-09-02T20:31:00.002-04:00

Patrick and Peyton were playing a game. Patrick would say, "Red means....?" and Peyton would yell out, "Stop!" "Green means....?" "Go!" This went back and forth a few times. Then Patrick thought he'd mix things up a bit and try to stump Peyton. He said, "Yellow means....?" And to his surprise, Peyton answered in a very drawn out way, "Go reeaaaaallll ssssllllllloooooowwww....."

An Adjustment

2010-08-31T08:41:00.004-04:00

Peyton has started his new school, and he's doing pretty well. His teacher told me that he had one of the best first weeks she has ever had with a new kid. Patrick told me she tells everyone that, but I'm going to believe that she was telling me the truth. But he seems to be doing well there. They have a different theme each week and they focus on different topics within that theme each day. One week they did music, another they did sports. Last week they did feelings. Now, when he's mad about something, he tells me he's "grumpy." They have lots of toys and trucks to play with and a big yard outside where they play twice a day.

While things were going pretty well at school, we noticed that he started waking up super early in the morning and waking up in the middle of the night, which he very rarely did before. He came in our room one night around 2:30am talking about the blue airplane outside his window. He went on and on and on....in my incoherent state at 2:30am, I kept putting him back in his bed, and he kept coming back! Patrick had a little more sense about him and finally rocked Peyton back to sleep. We came to the conclusion that he was missing all of the hugs and cuddle time that he got with us, and Mrs. Lauren when he was with her. He just seemed to want to be held a little more, which was totally fine with me!

However, all the hugs in the world wasn't preventing him from coming to our room at 5am to tell us that he was awake and ready to watch cartoons. We'd bring him back to his bed and he'd come wandering back to our room a few minutes later. At a more appropriate time, we would just get up. In his mind, if he was persistent enough, we would just give in. For him, he didn't seem to be grasping the concept that there was an actual time when it was time to get out of bed.

We decided that he was a little too young to tell time, but started looking for something that would help him understand the difference between night and day. And it was time to be drastic. $35 for a freakin' night light seemed a little extreme to me, but I decided that if I could sleep until 6:30am (I've stopped dreaming of ever sleeping until 8am again!) it would be worth every single penny. So we invested in the Good Nite Lite and crossed our fingers that this would help him understand the difference. We set the timer in the back so that at 8pm, the night light looks like a moon. At 6:30am, it turns into a sun. Well, by golly, it worked! He gets so excited about waiting for the sun to come up. There have been several mornings where I can hear him in his room talking to himself or singing, but he stays in there until he sees the sun. And then he throws his door open and comes running in our room to tell us that he sees the sun!

Our master plan backfired slightly this weekend, however, when it was time to take a nap. He informed us that the moon wasn't on. Right. We wondered at that point whether we would have to buy another one of these lights so that he would take a nap. Luckily, we convinced him that it was ok to take a nap without the moon. The pleasant part was that when he woke up from his nap, he stayed in his room because he didn't see the sun. Hee hee. I was tempted to use this to my advantage, but decided that I didn't want to push things, so I went and got him up.

This morning, I was afraid it had all come to an end. He woke up about 5:45am and came to our room to tell us that he needed to potty, which is fine, we have no problem with that. But my concern at 5:45am was that I had 45 minutes more to sleep and I figured I could just kiss those precious minutes good-bye. After he went potty, I told him that the moon was still on so that meant it wasn't time to get up. I explained that he needed to go back to bed until he saw the sun. I figured he would come back 15 times in the next 45 minutes. But back in his bed he went and he stayed there until 6:30am. Now, of course I didn't go back to sleep because I expected that at any minute he was going to come running back into our room. But I'm ready to sing the praises of this night light because it actually works!

Taking the responsibility off of us as to whether he's supposed to stay in bed or get up has made things much easier. He's willing to listen to the sun and the moon. Is there another light out there to tell him when to pick up his toys? Or when to wash his hands? Oh, the possibilities!

Peyton's New School

2010-08-04T21:11:00.004-04:00

Peyton will be starting a new daycare on Monday - Children's Campus at Southpoint. Today we stopped by to introduce him to his new playmates and teachers and visit for a little while. I explained to him before we went that he was going to be going to a new school with new teachers next week. I told him that we were going to visit today and that I was going to stay with him while he played but that next week he would go by himself. He seemed a little apprehensive at the thought of being left there but I explained again that I would stay with him today. Then he wanted to bring his backpack. I'm still wondering how he knows that kids bring backckpacks to school. Although not necessary, the teacher did say that he could bring his backpack and put it in his cubby everyday if he insisted.

We arrived to his classroom and all of the other kids were eating their snack. He took advantage of all of the toys being available and dove right in to play. With what, you ask? The trucks, of course! The teachers kept the kids at bay for a little longer and let Peyton explore the room and get used to his surroundings. After about 10 minutes, Peyton put his hand on my cheek and sweetly said, "Mom, you go home now." I think he's going to do just fine on Monday. Me, on the other hand, that's a whole other story.

Peyton the Musician

2010-08-01T09:21:00.005-04:00

We were recently at our friend Jason and Rebecca's house and Peyton was watching "The Princess and the Frog". Its a great movie, based in New Orleans, with fantastic music. Peyton has always been a fan of music, tapping his foot to the beat and shaking his booty. Recently, he has started to play air trumpet when he hears a trumpet playing.

Patrick and I met in marching band, of course, and so its only natural to assume that Peyton would play music one day too. Its not to say that he won't be a linebacker too, because he seems to be on a trajectory that makes him large enough to be a successful one. But if he's going to be a football player, he will need to have full appreciation of the band nerds that provide the entertainment.

It turns out that many of our friends here in NC also played in band in high school. We've joked that we could probably put all of our friends together and have a pretty decent band. Anyhoo, our friends Jason and Rebecca are exact replicas of me and Patrick. They met in high school, they both played in the band, went to college together, Rebecca went to graduate school with me, and she even had a dog named Zack growing up. Jason whipped out his trombone while we were there and started out by letting Peyton play with the trombone slide to make different noises while Jason blew into the trombone. Then he started letting Peyton blow into the trombone himself. I think he does pretty well for a two year old. Check it out!

NOLA!

2010-07-31T14:41:00.005-04:00

We recently came back from a great trip to New Orleans for a few weeks. It was jam packed full of fun. We had my cousin Jesse's wedding, my cousin Michael's wedding, the Foret family reunion, a couple of 4th of July celebrations, Matt and Abby's wedding shower, and side trips to the aquarium, City Park, the movies, and the science museum. Patrick and I even got to spend a few days by ourselves - we spent a few days in the French Quarter and took a trip to Gulf Shores and had a great time.

Here are Claire and Jesse:

Here is Peyton and his cousin Abby - nothin' but trouble, those two!

For more pictures of our adventures, click on this link:
NOLA pictures June/July 2010

Peyton didn't like that we left him behind and protested by peeing himself and completely forgetting that he was potty trained. Potty training is a lot of work and I was pretty disappointed when he was no longer cooperating. Thankfully we seem to have him back on track - I actually had no idea how effective the treats and stickers were. I reintroduced those and they seemed to have the effect we were looking for - he hasn't had an accident in quite awhile. In the meantime, he has learned how to pee standing up and has learned how to pee on a tree. Each were desperate attempts to make going to the potty more interesting and appealing.

Since then, he and I have been hanging out together and checking out what all the cool moms in Durham do with their toddlers. Its been quite a lot of fun. Peyton will start his new daycare in just another week. I think he's looking forward to making new friends and learning all kinds of new things!

Random Peytonness

2010-07-20T22:08:00.004-04:00

Peyton often does things throughout the day that make me laugh, scratch my head, and wonder "where in the world did he pick up on that from?!" I'm off right now until I start teaching in August, so Peyton and I are getting to spend quite a bit of quality time together. At first, I worried about how I would keep him entertained, knowing that when he gets bored he gets into trouble. Usually a lot of it. But we're actually having a great time together - blueberry picking, Gymboree classes, story time at the library, outings at the park, etc. And he manages to stay out of the trouble for most of the day, although he has his moments.

Anyway, this morning he did something that I thought was interesting. We were standing in the bathroom and I was trying to get him dressed. He's not usually interested in cooperating and has some kind of strategy to stall. This morning, he was distracted by the box of kleenex in the bathroom. He pulled a kleenex out and quickly put it up to his nose and said, "A-choo! A-choo! A-choo!" He was acting like someone that was having an allergy attack, yet all it was was a bunch of sound effects. Where did he get this from?!

Clearly, he's watching and observing everything around him. He's starting to make connections and understand larger concepts. He spent the afternoon at Lauren's yesterday and she even said she was impressed at how much he's developed in the last 3 weeks since she'd last seen him. His thoughts are starting to come out in much clearer sentences, and he's able to express himself more clearly. Its really amazing to see him develop. I'm having a great time at home with him!

A Mischievous Little Ring Bearer

2010-06-30T16:22:00.003-04:00

My cousin Jesse and his beautiful bride Claire asked Peyton to be the ring bearer in their recent wedding. I was honored that they wanted to include him in their special day, but I immediately started worrying that he wouldn't fulfill his very important duty on the big day. He's 2, with a mind of his own, and a very strong-willed one at that. If he didn't want to cooperate, there was going to be no convincing him otherwise. My Aunt Dede assured me that it was ok if he didn't do it, and that I didn't need to worry about it. Whew!
As the big day approached, we took Peyton's measurements for his tuxedo, bought him some fancy black shoes (which I had to hide because he wanted to wear them all the time. He loves shoes - gets that from his Nanny!), got him a nice haircut, and even practiced walking up the aisle at our church after mass one Sunday. The practice went off without a hitch - Patrick took him to the back, explained to him what he needed to do, and I sat in the front. We practiced with the ring bearer's pillow from our wedding, and sure enough, he walked slowly up the aisle toward me smiling, delicately holding the pillow, and looked like he was a pro! As well as our little practice went, I figured we might not be so lucky on the actual wedding day.
On the morning of the wedding, we had about an hour's drive to Rayne, LA, after spending the night with the Gulottas in New Iberia. This had been carefully planned so that Peyton would take a nap on the way to the wedding. He slept the whole way there, and I was grateful that everything was going according to plan. The next part of the plan included eating lunch and getting dressed in Aunt Donna's cottage. Peyton insisted on only eating the grapes on his plate, and none of the cheese and crackers. But at least we convinced him to put the tuxedo on. Either we took his measurements completely wrong or he's grown a few inches in the last few weeks because the tuxedo pants didn't quite reach his ankles. We also put a pull-up on him because I didn't quite trust him enough to tell me when he needed to go potty and the last thing we needed was for him to pee in his tuxedo. Then we would have had a bottomless ring bearer.
We arrived at the church a few minutes early, long enough for Peyton to have a tantrum or two in the dressing room with the bride and bridesmaids. Oh, boy, I thought. This may not go well. I took my place at the front of the church and Patrick held him in the back. He kept telling Patrick that he wasn't going to do it and would throw himself on the floor crying. Meanwhile, I was holding my breath as the last bridesmaid walked up the aisle and Patrick placed Peyton into position next to the flower girl. She was older, understood reason a little better, and accepted our explanation and instruction to just walk down the aisle with or without him. Patrick told Peyton to go, and I finally started breathing as he took off running down the aisle. He ran towards me, although he held the pillow in both hands, but left the poor flower girl in his dust. This was nothing like we had practiced, but he got to me and said "I did it!" He was so proud. He then flopped on the floor in the middle of the aisle, so I leaned over and scooped him up so that the bride could make her entrance. It wasn't elegant, but he made it up the aisle.

Once the ceremony was over and it was time for pictures, I was hoping that Peyton would be a little cooperative and pose for a few. He is notorious for not wanting to have his picture taken. Seriously, what is the complex about? He's 2! As the bridal party stood in position, we carefully placed Peyton next to the flower girl and ran out of the frame for the photographer to get his shot. Unfortunately, Peyton was quick in wandering away or turning around so the photographer was having trouble getting the perfect picture. The best man offered to hold him for a quick shot, which Peyton protested, arms flailing and screaming. I'm sure the pictures came out great. We gave up after a couple of minutes, and tried to move on to the reception hall. On the short walk from the church to the reception hall, Peyton saw some tractors and ran off into a field. He gets distracted easily. Gawd, it was hot outside!
Once coaxed inside, he became fascinated with the candles on the tables and wanted to run around and blow all of them out. I let him blow out a few and then I cut him off. I know, I'm mean! Meanwhile, he spied some grapes on the food table and started grabbing them with his dirty hands until I made him stop. I'm not so sure the people that he cut in line appreciated his dirty little hands in their fruit. I thought that if I made him a plate of fruit he would stop grabbing it off of the table. But he apparently didn't want pineapple. Just grapes. He threw them back in the bowl. I retrieved what I could remember was his, but I'm sure some got away. Sorry about that, wedding guests. He pretty much spent the rest of the reception running around, touching things he shouldn't, and trying to take sips of other people's drinks. At one point, he took a sip of someone's wine, just as Patrick and I dove in to try to stop him. (Please don't judge me). When all was said and done, he was sleeping before we hit the interstate. It had been a long day! He sure was a mischievous little ring bearer. Its a good thing he's so darn cute!

Advances in Spelling...Well, Maybe Not

2010-06-16T21:40:00.002-04:00

You may remember a post a few months back about Peyton's spelling abilities.
P-E-Y-T-O-N
Whats that spell?
Tobi!
So, we've continued to practice, and I was starting to think that I had him convinced that not all words spell Tobi. This was progress.
Tonight, as we played with his letters in the bathtub, he started placing letters in an order and calling them out:
P-O-O-I-U-T
He looked at me, and as serious as could be said, "That spells rocket!"
Now, just so we're on the same page, even though he didn't get the exact spelling of rocket correct, I still think my kid is a genius. He was clearly on his way to spelling it correctly.

Outta There!

2010-06-01T15:23:00.002-04:00

There are some times in a little boy's life when he needs to sit and ponder the wonders of the world. Or, he just needs a little more time to get all of the poop out. With Peyton, we read books and look through Daddy's magazines, which are conveniently located next to the commode, in order to pass the time. His Pops taught him to stay "Outta There!" whenever he's watching a baseball game. This should be done with a flick of the thumb. Since we are raising him as a Tiger Fan, we've also tried to teach him to say "Geaux Tigers!". You'll see that Peyton gets a little confused between the two:

No Accidents!

2010-05-29T14:21:00.002-04:00

I don't want to jinx the situation, but Peyton hasn't had an accident since Wednesday. This is really great. He's been able to hold it for longer periods of time and seems to have the general idea of the potty concept. We've been busy the last couple of days with Gymboree classes, lunches with friends, trips to the park, grocery store and swimming pool and he's done great with all of this.
Everywhere we go, the first thing I look for is the restroom. I've actually been quite surprised with the level of cleanliness in most of these restrooms. I really haven't been grossed out yet, and I get grossed out in public restrooms pretty easily. I actually tend to avoid them at all costs. But with a little one that can pee or poop at any second, I've made sure that if I need to make a run for it, I know where I'm going and the quickest way to get there. I'm going to be really embarrassed one of these days when he makes a big stinky poop in one of these restrooms, but so far he has saved these for home. We are still reminding him to go to the potty every hour or so when we are home, and I'm noticing some resistance that I actually think is because he knows he doesn't really need to go yet. Other times, he'll go without much of a fuss and do his thing. I think we're going to need to start giving him some opportunity to tell us on his own that he needs to go, since he's only done this a few times. I think we make him go frequently enough that he can hold it in between and he doesn't have a need to tell us.
I think that big accident the other day upset him enough that he realized that he needs to go on the potty and not his pants, which is exactly what I needed to happen. I feel like we've done pretty well with the potty training, and I really shouldn't complain. He's pretty much got the hang of it. After reading that stupid book, I thought he would get it in a day or two, but as I talk with other moms and read stuff online, he's picked this up pretty quickly, and 5 days is really reasonable.

Day 6 - A Success Story!

2010-05-27T23:00:00.004-04:00

Out of the blue this morning, Peyton told me he needed to go pee-pee on the potty. We rushed into the bathroom and he easily peed on the potty. I made such a big deal about it that he told me "Be Quiet, Mom". But this was grounds for a celebration. He had never told me that he needed to pee-pee before. It was only the pooping part that he had figured out (which I was extremely grateful for). There were a couple of other times throughout the day that he asked to go to the potty and there were some times when I asked if he needed to go that he responded "yes" rather than his usual "no". We survived the day without any accidents, too, which I thought was a HUGE accomplishment! So, maybe, just maybe, he's starting to get the hang of this. But I've been a mom just long enough to know that just when you think you've got it figured out, something unexpected happens to ruin that feeling of accomplishment. But today I'll take what I can get, and I'm happy that we've come this far. I'm anticipating that tomorrow will be a good day too, since its my birthday and only good things can happen.

Dear God, is it Already Day 5?!

2010-05-26T20:28:00.005-04:00

I bought a book several months ago. "Potty Training in One Day". I read it front to back, reread the important chapters, and I was easily convinced that this method would work. I was on the bus one day when another woman, a mother herself probably, commented, "that's rather ambitious!" when she saw the title of the book I was reading. I thought, obviously, you haven't read this book. The author was completely convincing that this was a foolproof method. Basically, you and your child potty train a doll that is capable of going pee-pee on command. As the doll has accidents, you and your child explain to the doll that he needs to tell you when he needs to go to the potty. He shouldn't go in his underwear. You use a system of stickers and treats as rewards when the doll is successful. As you're doing all of this, your child is supposed to be picking up on the concept of going on the potty. All of the rewards gets them super excited and anxious to go on the potty too. As the day progresses, you give the child underwear and they start the process of potty training. Because they've taught the doll, they understand the concept, and its easy as pie to get them to hold their pee and go on the potty. Yeah, right! As I'm writing this, I'm laughing at myself for ever falling for this crap. I've always known I was gullible. But seriously, I can't believe I didn't know better.

So, here we are. Day 5. I guess we're still seeing small improvements. Yesterday afternoon, I decided that Peyton and I needed to get out of the house. We went strawberry picking (which was a hoot, Peyton loved eating more strawberries than he put in his bucket), and we were probably gone for about an hour and a half. I was pretty impressed that Peyton was still dry as I was getting him out of the car. As we were entering the house, I noticed him start to grab his crotch and took this as a sure sign that he needed to pee. I hurried as fast as I could to the bathroom, but before I knew it, there was a puddle on the floor in the hallway just outside the bathroom. So close! A little later as he and his Daddy were watching 101 Dalmations, he confessed that he had an accident. I thought this was promising because he at least told Patrick that he'd gone in his pants. I was cautiously optimistic.

Today, a babysitter came by the house to stay with Peyton while I went to work. (Mrs. Lauren is away this week.) We started setting the timer for longer periods of time, and the report from the sitter was that he told her when he needed to poop, as he did for Patrick yesterday. So this was a really good sign. He seems to have the hang of pooping. She also reported that he only had one accident that morning. I asked if he told her or if she just noticed it on her own and it turns out that Peyton peed in his pants, said nothing, and continued to play with his trucks. Ok, he had the afternoon to redeem himself. When he got up from his nap, I took him to play at a neighbor's house, who coincidentally is also potty training her daughter, so we commiserated together and offered each other some moral support. He did pretty good while he was at Kalina's house, going to the potty twice with about an hour in between. The difficult part was getting him to take a brake from playing with all of the cool toys to try to potty. Once home, however, we started having a little trouble. He was difficult all through dinner, which ended abruptly after he started throwing his food. He continued to be whiny and cross (probably because all he'd eaten was a little bit of rice for dinner), and all of a sudden peed all over himself. This seemed to upset him even further. This may sound harsh, but I was actually quite pleased that he got upset that he peed on himself. It contrasts with the morning accident where he was perfectly content to wear wet underwear. My hope is that the accidents will become less frequent if they upset him.

So, tomorrow we enter day 6. I don't think there is any turning back now. We have a big morning planned: a gymboree class and then lunch with my lab on Franklin street. I plan to have a bag packed with clean underwear and clothes, probably several sets, because I'm bracing myself for the worst. This could turn into a disaster.

I realize these posts are getting longer and longer, but this is quite therapeutic for me.

We've Made it to Day 4!

2010-05-25T13:36:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I admit that I was close to giving up yesterday. As we go through this process, I feel like I'm a new mom again with the feeling that I have no idea what I'm doing! Yesterday evening was a little rough. The novelty of the potty was wearing off and Peyton was really over the whole thing. He was being less and less cooperative, which probably had a lot to do with the fact that he's been cooped up in the house since last Thursday. First he had fever, then its been raining and now we're potty training. At one point he bit me, and I had just about had enough. I thought, maybe he's not ready. He goes on the potty just fine when he wants to, but he was starting to resist sitting on the potty. He was still not telling us that he needed to go either.

Patrick stepped in and took over and Mommy took a break. He seemed to do a little better with Dad, and Patrick had to give me a little pep talk to convince me to keep going. Today as we enter day 4, they spent the morning together while I went to work, and I think it helped tremendously that Peyton had a Gymboree class scheduled this morning. Patrick got there ahead of time to let Peyton use the potty, which he did with no problem, even in a strange bathroom on a strange potty. Patrick asked the teacher to tell Peyton that it was time to use the potty mid-way through class, and that worked really well too. Once they got home, Peyton told Patrick that he needed to potty and sure enough he pooped! This was quite a large victory for us. It was the first time that he told us on his own that he needed to go. We're hoping that he will continue to do this, but only time will tell. We will start increasing the amount of time between the reminder of the beeping timer, and hopefully he will start to voluntarily go on his own. But for now, we're happy with baby steps and so far he hasn't had an accident today!

A Glimmer of Hope for Potty Training Day Three!

2010-05-24T09:59:00.003-04:00

Yesterday afternoon went pretty well, especially because there were no accidents! Every 20 minutes when the timer goes off, Peyton knows its time to go to the potty. We have noticed that if you ask him if he needs/wants to go to the potty in between, he won't do it. The buzzer seems to have the effect we need though because he races to the bathroom immediately. He's potty chart is filled with stickers and he's gotten lots of treats, and even some special presents!

When he woke up this morning, the first thing he talked about was putting his underwear on. I take that as a good sign. However, he didn't want to put shorts on. We've been letting him run around in his underwear for the last few days, but a babysitter was coming over this morning so I thought it would be appropriate for him to have pants on. He didn't agree. So, he's still running around in his underwear, which is fine because we haven't left the house in three days. Tomorrow, however, is a different day, and he's signed up for a class at Gymboree. He will not only need to wear shorts over his underwear, but there won't be a buzzer that goes off every 20 minutes to remind him to go to the potty. I suspect we'll have some accidents tomorrow.

Potty Training Day Two

2010-05-23T10:27:00.002-04:00

Peyton has no problem going pee pee or poop in the potty. None whatsoever. He gets stickers on his potty chart and he gets a tasty treat, like an M&M, jelly bean, piece of cake, piece of brownie, etc. But he also has no problem peeing in his underwear. I was secretly hoping that this would make him uncomfortable or that he would at least be bothered by the fact that Thomas the Train was now all wet. Nope. So, we now just set a timer every 20 minutes or so and he goes in the potty then. He seems to like the timer method. We're just hoping that he doesn't feel the urge to pee for the rest of his life every time he hears a beeping noise.

Potty Training Day One Update

2010-05-22T18:35:00.002-04:00

Well, we've not been quite as successful this afternoon, as we've had a few accidents. We knew that these were bound to occur, so we're doing all we can to protect our furniture and carpet. After the last accident, Peyton was disappointed that he didn't get a treat. I explained that he wouldn't get a treat this time because he went pee pee in his pants. The conversation that followed went something like this:
Me: What happened? Did you have an accident?
Peyton: Yes
Me: You have to remember next time to tell us when you need to pee pee on the potty.
Peyton: It's too hard....

Its too hard?! Are you kidding me?! Where does he come up with this stuff? How the hell does he know what is hard?

Potty Training Day One

2010-05-22T11:34:00.004-04:00

Today is potty training day. Oh boy!
We've been talking about the potty and where pee-pee and poop belongs and we've been reading books about the potty and talking about underwear. Peyton will usually go when we sit him on the potty, so he knows exactly what to do. And he's started asking to have his diaper changed after he pees or poops in it. So, we've been laying the foundation for the potty training concept. This weekend works out as the perfect time to transition to underwear and go the whole nine yards on potty training because Peyton is running a fever and we're home bound anyway. So far this morning, he's peed in the potty every time we've sat him on it (about every 20 minutes a timer goes off), and just after lunch he sat down on the potty and pooped. Yay! So far so good.....

NOLA

2010-04-26T21:05:00.003-04:00

We are starting to have conversations more and more with Peyton. Most of the time, he completely shocks us with what he comes up with. Yesterday, he started talking about airplanes, and then he told us he was going on an airplane.

Mommy: Where are you going on an airplane?
Peyton: New Orleans (This came out of nowhere for us - how the heck does he know this stuff?!)
Daddy: Oh yeah? Who are you going to New Orleans with?
Peyton: Daddy! Me and You, Daddy!
(How come Mommy wasn't invited?!)
Mommy: Who are you going to see in New Orleans?
With some prompting, he names all of his grandparents: Lollie, Pops, Gramps, Lulu, and Papa.
Peyton: And Blackie! (Of course, yes, lets not forget the dog! He hasn't stopped talking about Lulu and Papa's dog since he visited in March - too funny!)

Unfortunately, we don't have any plans to come to NOLA anytime soon. He'll have to keep dreaming!

Peyton's 2nd Birthday

2010-04-03T12:09:00.010-04:00

Peyton's birthday has lasted a very long time. He got to celebrate with the Ragas family at Chuck E Cheese a few weeks ago, then he got to celebrate at the park last weekend with all of his little pals, and then we took him to the NC Zoo for his official birthday on April 2nd. I guess its no wonder that he woke up the other morning and wandered around the living room saying, "Presents, 'r you?....Presents, 'r you?" over and over again.

The weather was beautiful for his party at the park, and I learned a very important lesson: It is far less stressful to have a birthday party at a location other than your own home. It took about 15 minutes to set up, and about 15 minutes to clean up. The kids had a great time running around the playground, writing on the sidewalk with chalk, and eating cake. Way better than spending 2 days getting ready for the party and 2 days cleaning up afterwards, and much better than fighting over toys in our living room, that's for sure!

Here are a few fun pictures from the party:

Peyton and his pal Camden

The shelter with all of the food

Peyton and his girlfriend Amelia

My friend Laura made the cutest cake ever for the truck-themed party. As you can see, Peyton thoroughly enjoyed it!

We had a blast at the zoo on Peyton's birthday. Again, the weather was gorgeous and it was a perfect day to be out at the zoo. Peyton loved seeing all of the animals and making animal noises. I'll let him tell you all about what he saw (my apologies for letting him talk while he was eating. Its the only time he's sitting still long enough for us to have a conversation with him and catch it on camera). You'll hear that the highlight of the day was not actually seeing the animals, though.

Some pictures of our day:

Peyton and his monkey friend

Playing in an ostrich egg. Those things are huge!

Checking out the elephants

Peyton and Daddy hanging out by the giraffes

I'd say it was a fun and successful trip to the zoo. This was Peyton before we made it out of the parking lot to drive home:

Doctor Mommy

2010-03-31T19:13:00.002-04:00

This was a conversation Peyton and I had at dinner tonight:

Me: What's Daddy's name?
Peyton: Patrick (although it takes a trained interpreter to understand this)
Me: What's your name?
Peyton: Peyton
Me: What's my name?
Peyton: Doctor Mommy
Me: Jessica
Peyton: Silence....then Doctor Mommy
Me: Jessica
Peyton: Doctor Mommy
Ok, I give up. We'll work on this later.

Singing Fool

2010-03-06T08:54:00.004-05:00

Peyton loves, loves, loves to sing. One of his favorite songs to sing is one that his Lollie taught him, the blackbird song. He has even been working on the hand motions.

The Little Chef

2010-02-26T19:10:00.005-05:00

I think that we may have a budding chef on our hands!

Peyton and his pal Amelia made yummy cupcakes today at Mrs. Lauren's. I can only imagine the patience he had to practice in order to wait while Amelia had her turn to make the cupcakes too.

He looks quite serious, reading the instructions very carefully.

And then he got to taste his creation!

Breaking News: Important Dates!

2010-02-11T15:27:00.002-05:00

So, I never thought the day would come when I could actually say that I have a defense date. All those years of many experiments gone wrong, a few experiments gone right, a million worms sacrificed, data analyzed, tears shed, its finally coming to an end. Sort of. I won't quite be finished in the lab, but I'm defending. Mark your calendars.
Monday, March 29th at 2pm.

For those of you more interested in the graduation ceremony itself, I will receive my hood on Saturday, May 8th.

P-E-Y-T-O-N

2010-02-11T09:42:00.003-05:00

Peyton has gotten really good at recognizing letters and saying his ABC's. Each night in the bathtub, we play with foam letters and practice spelling things. This is a conversation that we have nightly:
Me: P-E-Y-T-O-N What's that spell?
Peyton: TOBI!
Me: No, it spells Peyton!
Peyton: No, Tobi!

I guess when we were home at Christmas, he wandered into my sister's room and started reading the letters on a wall hanging in her room - T-O-B-I. At the time, we were really impressed that he recognized and could say all of the letters correctly. We told him that spelled Tobi. So, now he thinks that everything spells Tobi.
Ok, well, I guess we'll keep working on this.

Adventures in the Snow!

2010-01-31T12:34:00.006-05:00

We got lots of snow this weekend in NC! We haven't seen this much snow in NC at one time in a few years. Yesterday it was really windy and still snowing/sleeting, but this morning the sun was shining and everything was so beautiful covered in snow. We bundled up in lots of layers and headed out to play. We made a sled out of the top of a cardboard box and we even tried to make a snowman, but it became clear to us that we are true southerners and we don't really know what we're doing. Our house is at the top of a big hill and the road slopes down from us, so it made the perfect place to go "sledding". My mom has been in town, and has had to stay a couple of more days because of the weather, so she got to enjoy the snow too!

Here are a few pictures of the snow:

Here is our attempt at sledding:

Songs and Cheers!

2010-01-31T11:54:00.003-05:00

We've been teaching Peyton all of the important songs in life - the LSU fight song and the Saints' song among them.

I think he's already a little tiger in training!

He knows the Saints' song too, but he knows we want him to sing it for the camera and he's only willing to cooperate to a certain extent, so here is a shortened version of the Saints' song:

As the "Pants on the Ground" song went viral, we decided he should know that one too!

A Good Laugh

2010-01-12T21:24:00.003-05:00

Its always fun to make Peyton laugh. Every now and then we find something that just makes him crack up. We got the video camera out after I just happened to blow a raspberry and Peyton acted like it was the funniest thing he'd heard all day. We had a good time listening to him laugh so much.

Ho Ho Ho Ho!

2009-12-10T20:42:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas!
Peyton happily sat on Santa's lap and told him all of the things he wants for Christmas. Apparently a bike is at the top of his list. We were in Target the other day and passed the bikes. "Pey-pey, bike!" is all Peyton said over and over again. Santa made note of this, no worries. But he's also made note of some of the tantrums that Peyton has had lately. Too bad Peyton is too young for us to hang this over his head yet.
We're looking forward to our trip to NOLA soon and getting to see everyone!

Funny Little Guy

2009-11-22T17:15:00.002-05:00

As Peyton's vocabulary is growing, he's starting to say some of the funniest things. He cracks me up! I just thought I'd share a couple of funny things he's said recently.

Last weekend, my mom was visiting, and of course we went shopping. We had bags of stuff (mostly for Peyton) when we returned. She and Peyton were playing and Peyton picked up one of the plastic bags. He watches Patrick and I pick up after our dog on all of our walks, and apparently he has been analyzing everything we do. He took this bag and turned it over and over and folded it and kept folding and turning it over until it was all wound up. He then handed it to my mom and said, "Poot!" She's still laughing about this.

Then just this morning, Peyton and I were playing in the living room. Nellie kept trying to make herself comfortable sitting in my lap on the floor, and of course, this meant that Peyton also wanted to sit in my lap. As the two of them pushed and shoved each other, Peyton leaned forward and passed gas. He said, "Nice!" just as Nellie got up, huffed, and retreated to the other side of the room, as if she couldn't take the smell. I'm not sure where he learned that it was "nice" to fart. Boys!

Fireman Peyton to the Rescue!

2009-11-01T15:28:00.005-05:00

I started thinking about what we should be for Halloween a couple of months ago. As usual, Patrick pushed for us to be Blue Man Group or Smurfs, both of which involved painting ourselves blue, neither of which I was very interested in. He's campaigned for these themes at least 5 years in a row. Its kind of funny that this is what he wants to dress up as because Patrick can't stand a mess, and I can't think of anything messier than painting myself blue. In the end, we decided to capitalize on one of the Peyton's favorite toys - TRUCKS! He loves trucks, especially his firetruck. So we dressed him up as a fireman, which he loved. Patrick went as a fireman too and I dressed up as a dalmation.
Our festivities started Friday night with a visit to a nearby community that was having kids night, complete with beltie goats that Peyton could get very close to. He was so excited!

They also had a bluegrass band playing. Peyton grooved and showed off his mad dance skills and amused the band. They had over a hundred pumpkins on display, with some really fantastic designs. I haven't had time to carve a pumkin in years, much less fancy ones like these!

Then we had some friends over Saturday night for a kid-friendly Halloween celebration. I made a pot of gumbo from scratch (the roux and everything, no cheating this time!) and we went to a few houses in our neighborhood to go trick or treating.
Its not easy to get 8 adults and 4 toddlers all in a good mood and ready at the same time. But we did manage to take a quick snapshot before we all set out.
Fireman Peyton pushed his firetruck all around and knocked on doors like he was a pro at this whole trick or treat thing. Lucky for him, there weren't really any other trick or treaters around so people were quite generous in handing out portions of candy. Well, ok, lucky for Patrick and me because we don't really let Peyton eat any of it yet.

Then we he got tired of pushing the truck, mom had to push it the rest of the way home.....
We didn't stay out too long. It was quite warm out and meltdowns started to occur throughout the crowd. Maybe next year we'll have to get Peyton a wizard hat, since he took a liking to this witch hat....

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-29T06:48:00.005-04:00

What is fall without a visit to the pumpkin patch? We visited the coolest pumpkin patch a couple of weekends ago with Peyton's pal Amelia. It was actually more like a farm, complete with goats, cows, a corn maze, hayrides, and lots and lots of pumpkins.

Peyton was thrilled to be able to feed the goats "Baaaa!"

We also enjoyed the hayride. Anything with trucks and tractors is really cool!

There was a little maze of hay that was just Peyton's size

And a corn maze with lots of different paths to run through! Here he is with his best gal pal, Amelia

He really enjoyed running with Mrs. Lauren.

What a cute picture of Mrs. Lauren and Mr. Chad!

And we got to pick out our very own pumpkin. We ended up cutting ours fresh from the vine!

Old MacDonald

2009-10-27T20:45:00.003-04:00

Peyton loves to sing songs. He's learning how to chime in every now and then. Here is our version of Old MacDonald. I must warn you that it gets a little repetitive. And you have to listen to me sing - sorry.

Poison Control

2009-10-09T16:22:00.004-04:00

Well, its another first. My mom had to call poison control for Peyton. She was babysitting while Patrick and I were tending to other important family matters. He was supposed to be taking a nap, and the pack and play was close to a chest of drawers. He opened the drawers, started pulling out the contents and throwing them all over the place. He was intrigued by a little jar of vaseline, one that I had put there with his thermometer for safe keeping. He dug his fingers in deep and spread it all over the place. In his hair, all over his clothes, all over his bed, all over everything he could get his little hands on. We figured he ate some too. How much? We're not sure. My mom went to check on him midway through his nap and found him fast asleep in what appeared to be a very wet bed but turned out to be very greasy. She freaked out, woke him up to make sure he was ok, and called poison control. Not to worry. It may serve as a laxative but otherwise he should be fine. 4 hair washings later, he's still a little greasy, but otherwise seems to be perfectly capable of getting into more mischief soon.

I think it will be awhile before Lollie gets over this one. She was more traumatized than anyone.

4 Generations of Harrells

2009-10-06T08:36:00.005-04:00

The Harrell family lost a loved one this weekend. Big Daddy was 81 and lived a great life. When we were home in August, we snapped this picture of all 4 generations of Harrells - Don, Brian, Patrick and Peyton.

There is no doubt that Big Daddy will live on in his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Peyton will know how to hang sheetrock by the time he's 10, tile the floor by 12, and build his own house by the time he's 15. He's already showing a fascination with airplanes. He points to the sky and yells out "plane!" every time he sees one. Maybe he'll be a pilot too someday.

We'll miss you, Big Daddy!

Peyton's FIrst Bloody Nose

2009-08-30T11:06:00.004-04:00

We have celebrated many firsts with Peyton - his first tooth, his first steps, his first words, and many more. We tried to delay his first bloody nose as long as possible, because we didn't think it would give us that warm fuzzy feeling inside that the rest of the firsts have. And this weekend we got to experience first hand that very thing, and it wasn't much fun, just as we had predicted.

Peyton really is such a boy - he loves trucks, cars, sticks, and the outdoors. He loves to explore and climb on everything. Its really a wonder that its taken this long to see blood. But he also likes shoes (he gets that from me, I guess). Yesterday we had just been sitting on the steps putting his shoes on. Its also where Patrick and I keep our shoes when we take them off inside. Peyton and I were getting ready to go to the grocery store and I walked back into the kitchen to get him a snack and a sippy cup to take along. Peyton remained at the foot of the steps and was playing with the other shoes. The only thing I can think is that he slipped trying to climb a stair or two to get to another pair of shoes. I heard the thump, ran to pick him up as he started to scream and held him tight. As I pulled him away to take a look, I saw the blood. Yikes. It wasn't pretty. He must have smashed his nose and bit his lip because both were bleeding Poor little guy. But he's pretty resilient and it didn't take him long to forget the entire event. The only reminder is a little swollen lip, thank goodness.

I'm behind

2009-08-20T22:07:00.007-04:00

As we continue to fly through the summer, we're staying busy as usual. Once again, I'm behind on my blog posts. No surprise there. I will try to do some more catching up this weekend. But in the meantime, I should let everyone know that I have successfully managed to prevent Peyton from throwing our dinner all over the floor again and that he now has a set of markers that only color on specific paper and nothing else. I've never raised a toddler before and no one ever told me that there was such a thing as special markers, but Aunt Deanna has set me straight. Lesson learned. In other milestones, Peyton has officially reached the 30lb mark (and he's not even 2 yet) and is expanding his vocabulary beyond "Truck!" but that does still remain his favorite word.

Here are a few videos that I thought you might enjoy.

In this first video, we have decided that our kid must be a genius. The books say kids learn their colors sometime after age 2. However, our kid clearly knows his colors. Well, ok, he knows the color blue.

In this next video, we decided to let Peyton play in the hose one hot Sunday afternoon. It looked like fun, and he sure enjoyed himself. He has taken up swimming in a small pool we set up occasionally in the backyard too, but all of my pictures of that were lost in the unfortunate death of our hard drive. (But thankfully those were the only ones I lost) So seeing him play in the hose will have to do for now.

This is also a fun video of him dancing. Check out his dance moves. His daddy taught him!

Sunday Gone Awry

2009-07-26T20:58:00.008-04:00

I admit, I had ambitious Sunday plans. I wanted to get the laundry finished and folded, I wanted to start packing for our trip to NOLA later this week, and I wanted to make a casserole for our neighbor who is finally home after a long stint in the hospital. All of this on a day when Patrick has to work all day. Not to mention that Peyton seems to be teething again, which always puts him in such a peachy mood.

Initially, I felt like I was handling it just fine. A little motrin here, a little orajal there, lots of episodes of Word World and the Micky Mouse Clubhouse, and somehow I was managing to survive. I was making two pans of King Ranch Chicken Casserole, one for the neighbor and one for us. I usually try to make a few things on Sunday to help us get through dinner during the week. Based on my calculations, I figured that a pan of this casserole could easily get us two nights of dinner this week. I managed to cook and cut up the chicken, chop the bell peppers and onions, and make the sauce while Peyton was taking his nap. Then I realized that I had forgotten to buy cheese for the casserole, a rather essential ingredient. A trip to the grocery store and back, with a side trip to Rita's Italian Ice for a gelati, was pretty uneventful once Peyton woke up from his nap. I even remembered to go green and brought my own bag with me. While I assembled the casseroles side by side, I put Peyton in his high chair to color. I obviously wasn't paying very close attention to him because the next thing I knew, his high chair tray was covered in marker, his face had splotches all over it, pieces of his hair were green, his clothes had marker all over them, and when I shrieked when I saw him, he stuck his tongue out at me to show me exactly what else he'd been coloring besides the paper.

Just after I took this snapshot, I cleaned Peyton up, took him out of the high chair, and signed his name to the picture he had just colored to bring next door to our neighbor, Emily. While I had my back turned for a brief minute to sign his name, I heard something crash to the floor accompanied by a small whimper from Peyton. And this is what I saw.....

Yep, a casserole all over the floor. I'm pretty sure I was fighting back tears.

I had already promised dinner to the neighbors so Peyton and I brought the only intact casserole left over to their house. I was tempted to ask if we could stay for dinner.

Uncle Paul's Visit

2009-07-25T13:54:00.006-04:00

Uncle Paul recently made a last-minute quick trip to North Carolina. He spent the entire day on a plane from California and drove down to Fort Bragg the next day, but he had enough time in between to squeeze in a visit with us and it was great to see him!

He has a few other friends in the area, so we all got together at the Rishers to have dinner together.

Peyton likes going over to the Rishers because they have CARS and TRUCKS! It was very nice of Brett to share all of his stuff with Peyton.

Peyton and Brett Risher

Sal's family also came by. It's hard to believe that Ryan was just a little older than Peyton when we first moved here. I think that means two things 1) Kids grow up really fast and 2) I've been in graduate school way too long.

Ryan and Taylor Cammarata

Mommy and Peyton's Weekend of Fun!

2009-07-05T20:43:00.013-04:00

Peyton and I just had a fantastic weekend together. Patrick hit the road Thursday morning bound for Florida and a weekend of catching up with old friends. While he was having a great time, Peyton and I had some fun of our own.

Thursday evening, we caught a few innings of the Durham Bull's baseball game with some friends. Peyton looked like such a big boy in his seat. As the crowd clapped and cheered for the game, Peyton got very excited (I think he thought the crowd was cheering for him!) He checked the player stats in the program and marked the progress of the game on the score sheet.

On Friday, I brought Peyton in for his much-needed haircut. I obviously have a lot to learn about boy haircut terminology. When the lady asked me if I wanted it cut around his ears, I said yes because I wanted it to be trimmed around his ears, not left so long. Apparently, she took that to mean (and rightly so I'm told) that I wanted it short around his ears. Once she made the first cut, it was clear that we were not on the same page, but it was too late. Sniff, sniff.... He does look handsome, but I miss the shaggy curls. Hopefully they will grow back!
Surprisingly, Peyton was a very good boy during his haircut. I went to a place that specializes in kids haircuts. He got to sit in a car while the lady cut his hair and she even put on the movie Cars on a little screen right in front of him. Peyton got so excited about the movie that he stood up and pointed a few times at the screen. (I immediately went to Target and bought the DVD.)

On Saturday, Peyton and I went blueberry picking with some friends. At first, he'd pick the berries and put them in his bucket. But it didn't take long for him to realize that these were edible and the next thing I knew there weren't any berries left in his bucket. From there, he would just pull right off of the bush and eat them. Forget the bucket. As I paid for the berries that I picked (and kept far away from Peyton), I gave the man some extra money to cover the cost off all of the ones Peyton ate. He didn't seem to think he could have possibly eaten that many berries to make a difference, but he's never seen my son eat. I was somewhat concerned that Peyton would have a stomach ache or something that afternoon, but he seemed fine, thankfully.

Saturday evening, we went to a 4th of July BBQ at our friends, the Rishers. They live in Cary, a few miles away, in a neighborhood full of kids. One of the moms set up a blanket and brought out two buckets full of cars, trucks, and airplanes. Peyton was in heaven. It occupied him for the entire 3 hours we were there. He barely even stopped to eat. That tells you how much fun he was having. He didn't make it long enough to stay for the fireworks, however. He let me know in no uncertain terms that he had enough and was ready for bed.

Sunday morning, it was a bit rainy outside, so we scrapped the plans for the park and opted to make cookies instead. Yum, yum!
We also sat down and watch Cars together. "Car!" "Truck!"

Sunday afternoon we took a trip to the Museum of Life and Science with Peyton's pal Kalina. The museum is always a great place to play and explore. Peyton especially loves putting balls down a shute. He also got to get close up to a cow and hear it moooooooooooooooo! Once the kids were sufficiently worn out, we called it a day and headed home.

So, Peyton and I had a great weekend together. I'm completely exhausted!

Some of Peyton's Firsts

2009-06-30T21:11:00.015-04:00

This is a random, cute picture of Peyton that I like.

Onto more important things...we have celebrated a couple of firsts with Peyton recently that I haven't gotten a chance to post about.

Peyton completed his first 5K with us recently - the Triangle Race for the Cure to raise money for breast cancer research. While I'm pretty sure that kid has the energy and stamina to run the 5K all on his own, we decided that it wouldn't be appropriate for him to show us up since it was our first 5K as well. Instead, he sat back and relaxed in his stroller and enjoyed the view as the trees blew by and his parents did all of the work. There were a lot of people lining the street with hoses and water guns to spray everyone down and keep people cool in the blistering heat. He did a great job of cheering us on, and I think we'll do it again (but not until the fall when its cooler outside!)
Kudos to my labmate Adam that ran the competitive 5K earlier that morning in 20:20(!) (after getting no sleep the night before) and then ran the family 5K with us afterwards to encourage me through to the finish. I think it was an effort for him to run it so slow with me (I'll refrain from giving out my time), but I appreciated Patrick, Peyton and Adam all cheering me on. I did have to slow down and walk part of it (but only a small part!), but it was my first 5K and I was pretty happy with the fact that I even did it.

Peyton also had his first haircut recently and this was quite an event. Patrick's grandmother, Big Momma, told me before Peyton was even born that she wanted to make the first cut, so I made sure to save it for her. He's got quite a bit of hair on that head of his, and the little ends of it curl so cute! But I agreed that it was time for a trim. So when we were in New Orleans back in May for Aunt Tobi's wedding, we went to the beauty shop where Patrick's aunt works to give Peyton his first hair cut. Big Momma made the first cut and then Aunt Lisa took over and cut the rest. We had to sing and keep Peyton entertained because he acted as though cutting his hair actually hurt. He kept trying to squirm away, which is exactly why I would never attempt to cut it myself at home. He'd end up with a botched hair-do by the time I was done with it. But he looked really handsome when Aunt Lisa finished. However, its been two months already and he's definitely due for another one. He's looking a bit like a hippy. Maybe a haircut will be one of our stops this weekend.

Short video of the squirmy worm (sorry about Patrick's off key singing. If he would have just matched my pitch, it would have sounded better.)

Animal Noises

2009-06-16T21:42:00.004-04:00

I have recently discovered that our son can make all kinds of animal noises. I think he's been practicing with Mrs. Lauren.
Here's a video of us going over the animals in "The Very Busy Spider" by Eric Carle. Mrs. Lauren doesn't have this book, so its not just that Peyton knows the order of the animals or anything. He's just that smart!

Got Milk?

2009-06-13T20:45:00.002-04:00

Part of motherhood is the fact that you can't remember anything: your short term memory is shot, you leave the house without essentials, you forget why you drove to the grocery store, you leave your wallet at home, etc. My sister calls it "momnesia". I have left the house on more than one occasion without the diaper bag. I have left the house with the diaper bag but without anything useful in it. I have left the house without - brace yourself - the sippy cup! Luckily, on these particular occasions there was milk available for my thirsty little one, but it required a little creative engineering to concoct a way for him to drink it. We've punctured a hole in the cap of a water bottle that we filled with milk and Peyton just sipped the milk through the hole. We've also dipped a straw in a cup of milk, covered the top with our finger, and transferred the straw quickly to Peyton's mouth and let it drip inside. I had no idea that there were so many creative ways to deliver milk to a child.
Tonight I thought ahead. I brought the sippy cup. We were going out to run errands and thought it would be wise to bring a sippy cup with water in it. I didn't actually realize that we would be out for such a long time, but it was getting to be around dinner time and we decided to stop in Moe's for dinner. I learned something very important tonight - not everyplace has milk. And let me tell you that that was not ok with Peyton. He drinks milk with each of his meals, and I guess I hadn't realized what an important part of his meal this actually was. We sat down to eat dinner, he ate a few bites and then he started signing "milk". I gave him his sippy cup of water and what I got in response was "Whhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!", which I translated to mean, "What are you, nuts? You think I"m going to drink water during dinner? HA! I WANT MILK!" And then he threw the sippy cup on the floor and pitched a fit through the rest of our meal.

Lesson No. 546: Make sure you have milk in the sippy cup at dinner time. Pack it in an ice chest if you have to tote it around. Or call ahead to any restaurant that you are considering to ensure that they have milk on their menu. At the very least, don't actually order a meal and sit down at a restaurant that doesn't have milk. Leave to find a more respectable eating establishment.

Harrell Family Update

2009-06-09T21:24:00.009-04:00

So I'm told that its been awhile since I've updated the blog, and I see that indeed it has been since Mother's day. I've also been reminded that not everyone is on facebook, so not everyone can see everything that I post there. But the thing is, facebook takes a lot less time to update so I'm using that as my excuse.

Time is at a premium these days, as we run around after our 14 month old that is into absolutely everything. We can no longer sit him up next to us with a rattle to chew on while we fold laundry, read the newspaper, or type on the computer. Nope. Now, if we try to fold laundry, he comes and pulls it off the sofa and streams it across the living room. If we try to read the newspaper, there is suddenly bits of paper all over the place. If we try to type on the computer, he bangs on the keyboard and types illegible notes to random people in our address book. And if we try to close our eyes and ignore the mess, he runs over to hug us really tight and plant a big giant kiss on us to remind us of how cool he really is.

Peyton is getting bigger by the day and smarter by the minute. He imitates everything we do, from brushing his hair with my big brush to trying to put the keys in the door to open it up. His biggest obsession is trucks. Everything is exciting about trucks. Truck, truck, truck, he says it over and over again. And in case you missed it, he reminds you - Truck! Occassionally, he will mention another word or two - flower, momma, dada, book, more, milk, cracker - and he is also known to moo or squak like a monkey. He's also communicating through sign language - please, more, cracker, all done, bath, milk. And a lot of frustration comes out when he knows what he wants and can't seem to communicate it properly. He loves to go for walks in the evening, especially in his wagon! And of course he still likes to eat. A lot.

I was away last week for 5 days for a workshop in Maine, so Peyton and Patrick hung out all week together. They did really well - I think they barely missed me! We were able to skype a few times, so I was still able to see them everyday.

Before I left for Maine, my mom was visiting for the weekend and we went to pick strawberries. Peyton had a blast picking the strawberries and collecting them in his bucket. But every few minutes, he would decide he needed a break and would sit down and eat a few. The evidence is all over his face and clothes. He kept saying "Mmmmm...Mmmmm!"

Just a short video of strawberry picking:

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T14:15:00.002-04:00

A fellow mom forwarded this poem to me, and so much of it rang true to me. I thought I would share it. (Original Author Unknown)

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
Or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
My plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
And my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
So doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
Watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put them down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
When I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
Could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
Having my heart outside my body..
I didn't know how special it could feel
To feed a hungry baby..
I didn't know that bond
Between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
Could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
Every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
The joy,
The love,
The heartache,
The wonderment
Or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
Before I was a Mom .

Aunt Tobi Got Married!

2009-05-09T16:35:00.009-04:00

We come from a big family and Peyton has lots of great aunts, great uncles, cousins, and everything in between. But I have just one sister and Patrick has just one brother. Patrick's brother Matt has been Peyton's only uncle up until a week ago. But Peyton now officially has two uncles because now he has another Uncle Mat. My sister got married last weekend and we went down to New Orleans for all of the fun and festivities.

Peyton got his first haircut while we were there and he got to spend some quality time with the Harrells while Patrick and I participated in all of the wedding festivities. They got him all dressed up and brought him to the wedding, and I realize that I'm a little partial, but I think he was the cutest thing there!

Patrick and I got to hang out together like the good old days and go to jazz fest with some friends.

We also went to the air show while we were in NO and got to see the Blue Angels. Peyton liked pointing at all of the airplanes.

It was also Uncle Bill's 50th birthday, so we got to celebrate that with him too!

It was a whirlwind trip but we enjoyed it and we're happy to add another Uncle Mat to our family!

This link will take you to the gallery of all of the pictures and I've separated them by category:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jharrell528

Peyton and Amelia

2009-04-24T20:44:00.002-04:00

Just thought I'd share an adorable picture of Peyton and his pal Amelia that Mrs. Lauren snapped yesterday.

Hoppy Easter!

2009-04-15T21:13:00.012-04:00

We celebrated Peyton's 1st Easter this year because Easter fell before he was born last year. First, he got to go on an Easter egg hunt at UNC with his pal Amelia. Amelia brought her own Easter basket, but we forgot ours. Luckily enough Amelia was willing to share her basket, so Peyton went around and picked up the little Easter eggs and trinkets and filled up her basket.

There was even a Pinata that Peyton got to smash.

He got right up in there with the kids when the candy came smashing down and scored me a snickers!

For the actual Easter weekend, we headed to the mountains to meet up with Patrick's parents. We had a nice time walking around the shops in the town of Black Mountain and took a nice hike while we were there.

Patrick's cousin Laura lives in Knoxville so she and her family came and spent the night with us for Easter.

We dyed Easter eggs (ok, well truth be told, Peyton just smashed the egg and tried to eat it. I dyed his egg for him.) The Easter bunny brought baskets for the kids and hid eggs all over the cabin for them to find Easter morning. Chloe and Eric even helped Peyton to find a few eggs.

Chloe, Eric, and Peyton

Peyton's 1st B-day Monkey Party!

2009-04-15T20:31:00.014-04:00

We had a little birthday party for Peyton weekend before last.The theme was monkeys. Shocking, I know.

Some of Peyton's little buddies came over to help us celebrate in addition to other friends and family. Mrs. Lauren did a great job facilitating the art project. The kids got to paint pictures on a big banner and she kept everything under control. I can only imagine the chaos that would have ensued if I had tried to manage that! She's a child whisperer. You know, like Ceasar Milan for kids.

I made some monkey cupcakes for everyone to enjoy.

And my friend Laura made Peyton's smash cake. She did such a good job!

This was Peyton before he ate his cake.....

And this was Peyton after he ate his cake.

I think he thoroughly enjoyed his day!

More 1 year adventures

2009-04-04T08:16:00.007-04:00

I thought there were a few other videos that I should share from Peyton's big day.

In this first video, Ms. Lauren is singing a song and Peyton is helping her. I think we might have the next American Idol on our hands.

For his birthday, Aunt Cindy sent Peyton some authentic cowboy boots from New Iberia! They have a little heel on them, so they are a little different from what Peyton is used to. But here was his first attempt at walking in them.

Peyton's 1st Birthday!

2009-04-02T21:53:00.007-04:00

My goodness a year has passed! I've thought a lot today about exactly what I was doing last year on this day. Last year, I woke Patrick up at 3am to tell him that I had felt my first contraction. He tried to talk me into going back to sleep. He figured we could get a few more hours in. Yeah, right. I was too excited at that point. And in pain. We got up and started packing and by 7am we were at the hospital.

I looked up at the clock at about 4:15 this afternoon and remembered that at this time last year, I had been pushing for an hour. Only 2 1/2 more to go!

I had no idea what the next year had in store for us. Its been a lot harder than I thought it would be, but even more wonderful, exciting, and awesome than I thought it would be. Peyton has brought us such joy, from that first belly laugh when Patrick was playing peek-a-boo with him, to his first attempt at a GI Joe crawl, to his first steps, and his first word (which I believe was "clock"), this year has seen so many milestones. I'm still in awe that just a year ago today he was a tiny thing (by his standards, anyway) that had just entered the world and that he has now morphed into this little being that is starting to really understand the world around him. When he runs over to hug me, I am filled with this warm feeling and a happiness that I can't describe. I can't wait to get home to get that hug everyday because it makes everything better. I love being a mom and I wouldn't trade it for anything. This is just the first year - I can't wait to watch him grow and explore even more.

I take birthdays very seriously and I wanted to do something to mark the occasion. So we took Peyton for his first McDonald's breakfast this morning to start out the day. He ate some yummy pancakes and wondered what all the fuss was about as I snapped some pictures.

Then he got to go to Mrs. Lauren's to play with his pals Amelia and Camden. They even got to make pudding today and Peyton got to stir the bowl. I hear he really liked it. Perhaps we have a young chef on our hands!

When we got home this evening, we had a small treat for Peyton. He's going to have a real cake for the first time at his birthday party this weekend, but I wanted him to have a little something today, so I got him a little fruit tart. He tore right into it, barely waiting for Patrick to cut up his fruit for him. And Patrick and I sang him "Happy Birthday!" while Nellie sat under the highchair and cried because he wasn't sharing. Or maybe because of our singing. Peyton is still working on blowing out the candle. Right now, he blows hard out of his nose, but I think he at least gets the concept. We'll keep working on that one.

Geaux Tigers and Heels!

2009-03-24T21:26:00.008-04:00

We took Peyton to his first basketball game last week when the LSU Tigers played in the NCAA tournament. They happened to get assigned to play the first two rounds in Greensboro, which is just about an hour west of here. The first round was on a Thursday afternoon so we went with Chad, Lauren, and Amelia to cheer the Tigers on. Peyton enjoyed the game, taking in the big crowd and all of the noise.

He especially enjoyed waving his pom-pom in the air when it was time to cheer.

But he even managed to take a little snooze during halftime.

The best part was the ice cream that he got to eat for the first time. After the Tigers beat Butler, the Heels came out and rolled over Radford. Midway through the Heels game, the kids had enough so we headed home, but all in all it was a really great day and I think Peyton and Amelia were very well behaved.

Because LSU and UNC each won in the first round, they had to play each other in the second round on Saturday. And one of them would advance to the Sweet 16 while the other team's season ended. I really felt torn about which team to cheer for. I did my undergrad at LSU, where I learned all about football. Then I learned all about basketball when I got to UNC and watched them win the Championship in 2005. SEC football is equally as exciting as ACC basketball, but the reverse for both conferences has always been inferior, and I've always been able to keep the two separate. Until the LSU basketball team took over the SEC this year and I started worrying that the two teams would meet. Sure enough, they did. Lauren and I cut up an LSU shirt and a UNC shirt and sewed them back together to show our divided loyalty. It was amazing how much attention those shirts attracted. As I walked into the arena, I still wasn't sure who I would be feeling it for more. But it didn't take long for me to figure out that the purple and gold still runs deep in my blood and I really wanted those Tigers to win. They put up a really strong fight, and even took the lead a couple of times. Unfortunately, the Tar Heels' endurance wasn't a match for the Tigers, and the game ended with the Tigers heading back to Baton Rouge. But it was a fun game to watch. We had really great seats, thanks to the LSU Alumni Association. And we even got to indulge in some Popeyes, the LSU way to tailgate, since the closest one to us also happens to be in Greensboro. I'm back to being a Heels fan, and since they beat the Tigers, I hope that they at least go on to win the Championship this year.

More pictures are here.

Cool Dude

2009-03-15T14:23:00.004-04:00

I can't believe that Peyton is almost a year old! Wow! The last couple of months have seen a lot of changes. He's now running around, understanding a lot more, and starting to say a few words. Patrick and I have deciphered "ma ma ma", "da da da", of course, in addition to some forms of "clock" and "bye". He likes to imitate whatever noises you make so he likes to blow raspberries and make monkey noises too. If you ask him where someone is, like "mommy" or "daddy" or "Nellie", he usually points in the right direction. He's starting to have opinions about what he wants to play with and we have discovered that he doesn't like to be told "no" when he wants to do such things as climb in the dishwasher or eat Nellie's food. Too bad.

I haven't posted pictures in awhile, so there's a bunch to look at. His friend Amelia has come over to play a couple of times, and they took a trip to the museam together. There are also some pictures of his visit from Lollie and Pops, as well as a bunch just hanging around the house.

The pictures are posted here.

Happy Mardi Gras!

2009-02-25T20:49:00.003-05:00

Mardi Gras is an annual event in New Orleans, and one that Patrick and I have fond memories of growing up. I can always remember going to the parades every night leading up to Mardi Gras, standing on Veterans across from the Pontiac dealership. On Mardi Gras day, we'd get up early, put on our costumes and head out to the parade route, ladder in tow, where we'd set up our spot between Causeway and Bonnabel. It was an all day event, we'd walk up and down the street, seeing friends and family who had staked out their own pieces of grass on the neutral ground. The parades would take several hours to pass and we'd catch lots of beads, cups, and stuffed animals. Once home, we'd get to play with our loot until the evening ended with complete exhaustion.

I would imagine that I crossed paths once or twice with a cute boy and his family that were dressed as Indians, dalmations, or cows, among other things through the years. Little did I know that I'd one day be a part of that family that were hanging out at the Harrells! And now we have a little one that we'll bring to Mardi Gras one day.

Even though we couldn't be home for Mardi Gras this year, we did a few things to celebrate the occasion and help Peyton get to know a little about this New Orleans tradition. We went to a Mardi Gras party with the LSU Alumni association Saturday evening and ate king cake and jambalaya. Lollie and Pops came to visit and brought lots of beads to play with. And Mrs. Lauren and Amelia taught Peyton all about the Second Line. Apparently, Peyton was a natural. He was holding the scarves when the second line song came on and he started waving them around like he had done this hundreds of times before.

Here's the video. He takes a couple of seconds to come around the corner, but he makes it!

Be My Valentine

2009-02-14T11:50:00.002-05:00

Peyton finger painted a masterpiece that I think will sell for millions one day. He gave it to me for Valentine's Day. I think Mrs. Lauren helped him with it a little bit. Just a little. While mostly abstract, you may notice handprints as part of this beautiful work of art.

Learning How to Walk

2009-02-10T21:43:00.006-05:00

Over the last few weeks, Peyton has been working on his walking skills. He's gone from resembling someone that's had a little too much fun on Bourbon Street, beginning to walk but deciding it might be easier to crawl, to someone that just had a few too many at the neighborhood bar, and can manage to stand for considerably longer periods of time.

This first video was taken last Tuesday. Of course his ever faithful friend Nellie is by his side. By the end, he decides that he's more interested in playing peek-a-boo. And, yes, I know his shirt is too small. But changing him again after I had him dressed would have been way more effort than it was worth.

In the next video, taken a week later, you can see how much he's improved. He's pretty much into everything now. I guess he'll start climbing on everything next. Oh boy!

Poor baby needs a haircut. He's starting to look a little scruffy. But I'm not quite sure how to get a vibrant, curious 10 month old to sit long enough to cut his hair because I'm sure that he'll want to eat the scissors.

Peyton's First Snow

2009-01-21T20:40:00.004-05:00

Monday evening we went to bed with the promise of snow the next morning. Sure enough, the neighborhood was blanketed in white when we woke up. It snowed throughout the day - Patrick estimates that we got about 4 or 5 inches. We bundled the family up in layers upon layers of clothing and set out to take a walk. Nellie kept running up to each of our neighbors' porches hoping someone would let her in from the cold. She was not interested nor amused by the white stuff. She was just darn cold and wanted to go inside. Peyton didn't have much use for it either. We sat him down in the snow, betting that he would take off crawling, examine the snow, try to eat it, something noteworthy. Instead, he just sat there, apparently too cold to want to do much of anything. We took the hint and brought him inside, but not before we snapped a few pictures. After all, you only experience your first snow once.

More snow pictures and other January events are here.

Peyton's First Steps

2009-01-13T20:19:00.005-05:00

Peyton had his 9 month checkup last week, and he's doing really well. He weighs 23 lbs, 14 oz which puts him in the 90% for weight, so that means he's back on the charts after soaring above 97% there for awhile. The doctor was pleased with his developmental progress: he's clapping, crawling all over the place, pulling himself up on furniture, picking up objects and moving them from one hand to the other, eating all kinds of foods, picking up food and feeding himself, drinking out of a sippy cup, mimicking sounds (he loves to make raspberries), babbling like crazy, and overall a really healthy kid. On Friday, we noticed that 4 of his top teeth are coming in all at once. He has let us know that this makes him quite unhappy.

We told the doctor that Peyton would stand on his own if he was distracted and didn't realize that he wasn't holding on to anything. She suggested putting some objects in his hands so he would think that he was holding on to something. So, this was Peyton last Thursday:

And this was Peyton this evening (5 days later):

Pretty soon, he'll be running all over the place!

Where did he come from?

2009-01-11T20:00:00.008-05:00

Conversations with people about our son often go like this:

Person: "Oh! What a beautiful little boy!"
Us: "Why, thank you very much! We realize that we are biased, but we think he's pretty cute!"
Person: "Would you look at those beautiful blue eyes and blond hair - where did he get those from?"
Us: "Yes, we think its quite remarkable that he has blue eyes and blond hair."
Person: "Well, are you sure he's yours?" (This is usually directed to Patrick)
Us: "How could anything that cute not be ours?!"

While we are certain that Peyton is 100% Ragas and Harrell, the jury is still out about who he looks like.

Peyton's First Christmas

2008-12-31T17:10:00.007-05:00

Peyton enjoyed his first Christmas. We traveled to New Orleans to spend the holidays there, flying not only with Peyton but with our dog, Nellie, as well. We were those people in the airport that other people look at and wonder, "What were they thinking?!" All in all, it wasn't so bad. We figured that even flying through Atlanta's airport on the weekend before Christmas was better than spending two days driving from North Carolina to Louisiana.

We packed in visiting with as many family and friends as we could, and Peyton enjoyed the boxes and wrapping paper the most, although he did get some pretty cool presents.

We had an early Christmas lunch with the Ory's on the Sunday before Christmas, and Peyton enjoyed playing with his cousins (well, during the time that he wasn't snoozing.) Then the Christmas festivities revved up on Christmas Eve morning at Patrick's parents in Robert. From there, we traveled to Metairie to see my Dad's family. Then we took a small break back at my mom's before heading to Big Mama and Big Daddy's Christmas party that evening. Before we made it back to my mom's that night, we stopped at Aunt Di and Uncle Bill's Christmas party. Patrick and I agreed later that we may have done a little too much that day. I'm exhausted just writing about it again.

The next morning, we woke up to see what Santa Claus had brought to NO (even though he had made a stop in NC before we left for LA and brought Peyton some toys there too)! The thing Peyton liked the most was the shoebox full of wooden spoons. He got lots of new outfits and PJs and toys that make lots of noise! Overall, it was a very exciting Christmas morning. Then we traveled across the lake to see the Wedigs for Christmas at Mimi's. We finished up our day back at my mom's for Christmas Supper with the Sehrts.

It was good to see everyone, and we enjoyed seeing Peyton play with all of his aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. He even got to see his friend Aubrey, who lives in TX. It was also nice to have lots of people around who wanted to help out so his mommy and daddy could have some free time too!

I've posted some pictures of our week home here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jharrell528/Christmas2008

The Kindness of Strangers

2008-12-30T17:02:00.004-05:00

The one good thing about traveling alone with a baby is that people are very, very nice to you. It was time for Peyton and me to head back to NC this morning, after a wonderful visit home to NO for Christmas. Patrick and Nellie had flown back home on Sunday so it was just me and the little man to conquer the airports alone.
I thought I could handle Peyton, the stroller, a rolling carry-on piece of luggage, a large diaper bag, and another rolling checked piece of luggage all by myself. I should say that traveling with Peyton has gotten considerably more difficult since early October when I last flew alone with him. But thank goodness the older couple sitting next to me on the first leg of the flight insisted on standing up and getting out of their seats only moments after takeoff so that I could retrieve the pacifier Peyton threw on the ground when he got mad. And thank goodness the man insisted on rolling the carry-on at least to the top of the jetway for me at the end of the flight (I should mention that he was walking with a cane in the other hand.) I was also grateful that the man sitting next to me on the second leg didn't mind the oatmeal flakes that went everywhere when Peyton knocked the bowl because I wasn't adding water and feeding him fast enough. I was also very thankful that the pilot of the plane helped me roll everything to the top of the jetway at the end of that flight too. And the woman that helped me drag everything to the curb once I retrieved my checked luggage so that I could wait for my ride was also very nice. And there were countless other people that offered to help throughout the morning as I schlepped through the airports struggling to maintain my sanity. I was reminded today about the kindness of strangers and I am very thankful for all of their help in our safe and sucessful trip home.

Ho Ho Ho Ho

2008-12-19T21:44:00.002-05:00

Peyton sat on Santa's lab and wondered what was up with that long white beard. He couldn't quite figure it out. He told Santa that he couldn't wait to see all of his family and friends in New Orleans and was looking forward to his first Christmas!

Museum of Life and Science

2008-12-18T20:28:00.009-05:00

This past weekend we took Peyton to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. He enjoyed himself quite a bit. There were all kinds of new objects and textures to play with. Not to mention that he got to push his afternoon nap back a bit.

He especially liked the blocks. Well, his mommy and daddy liked building stuff with the blocks.

And he liked knocking them over.

He's such a boy!

Random Peyton Videos

2008-12-10T14:27:00.006-05:00

I was looking back over some of the videos that we took of Peyton in the last month or so, and these two made me smile.

In the first, there were some periods of calm and silence, interspersed with periods of craziness.

In the next video, Peyton is showing off some of his cool dance moves. Patrick says that he doesn't think he gets his dance moves from me, but I think that with practice, Peyton could definitely be as good as me some day ;)

It's all Over

2008-12-06T15:23:00.003-05:00

I was watching Peyton crawl around this morning, and he became quite interested in our shoes near the front door. I kept moving them away from him because he kept putting them in his mouth. It seems like only yesterday that I could put them on the landing of the stairs and they were out of sight and out of mind, and he'd move on to something else. Not today.....

Patrick is installing the baby gate as I type this post.

Gobble, Gobble

2008-11-29T11:51:00.013-05:00

Peyton's first Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. His pals Amelia (pictured) and Kalina (not pictured, sleeping) came by to help him celebrate. He had turkey, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin to celebrate the occasion.

And because I'm just a little crazy, I made turkey feathers for his highchair to make things a little more festive.

Then on Friday, we took Peyton for his first hike. He enjoyed looking around at everything.

Well, at least for a little while. Then he decided it was the perfect time to take a snooze. Just like his mom, he falls asleep in the car, in the stroller, on a hike. Anywhere there is soothing motion.

We stopped to eat lunch and figured he'd wake up. Nope. Just kept on snoozing.

Teething

2008-11-16T06:38:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, my once good-natured, happy baby turned into this whiny, grouchy baby with quite a short fuse. And then the culprits behind the transformation of my child's personality appeared: two little whitish structures in his mouth popped up. It was a relief to see that there was a perfectly good explanation to his behavior and I stopped considering the possiblity of shipping him off to his grandparents until he was old enough to reason with, say like age 5 or so.

I don't have any pictures yet. Every time I try to pull his lip down to get a good shot, he sticks his tongue out, so now I have a bunch of pictures of his tongue. I'll save them until he's older and I'll show them to his girlfriend.

Wait, he keeps banging on the keyboard. I think he has something he wants to say:
2 3WS11SAazaaaaaqq

I think that means that he is denying all charges against him in this post.

Trick or Treat!

2008-11-01T07:39:00.004-04:00

I think Peyton enjoyed his first Halloween! He got to go trick or treating with his good pal Amelia and collected lots of candy that he can't have. Really, it was more for our own amusement more than anything. We're willing to admit that.

I've posted a few pictures. Matt and Mary stopped by with their flower, Kalina. We dressed up as zookeepers and took our little monkey trick or treating. Chad and Lauren dressed up as farmers and took their cow trick or treating. We went back to the farmers' house for a party and caught up with another farmer (Michelle) as well as the chicken (Peyton's pal Camden) and the egg (Mark). We had a good time. http://picasaweb.google.com/jharrell528/Halloween08

Big Adventures

2008-10-24T09:28:00.007-04:00

Hello Everyone!
Peyton has been quite the busy little boy lately. He's becoming quite the traveler too! We recently took a quick trip home to shop for his Nanny's wedding dress. Actually, Peyton wasn't too interested in shopping, so he spent some quality time with his Lulu and Papa instead. But he also had a great time visiting with all of his grandparents and great-grandparents. He even got to go for a stroll down Magazine Street with a "policeman dressed in blue" (Everybody sing the song, now...), known to Peyton as his Gramps.

Peyton is crawling all over the place now. Nothing is safe anymore! He wants to explore and put everything in his mouth - especially those things that he shouldn't have. He's eating solid food, and doesn't turn much away. He's already had green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, avocado, carrots, and squash. We try something new every few days. The only thing he wasn't too crazy about at first was the avocado, but I think it was mostly because it wasn't a very ripe avocado and he didn't like the texture. I tried again after I pureed one in the food processor and he liked it much better that time.

For the most part, Peyton is a pretty happy baby. We get the biggest kick out of his giggling and laughing.

I've posted a few new pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jharrell528/SeptOctPeyton2008#

This week is the State Fair in NC, so we went to check out all of the animals. The best part was the pig races, no doubt about it. Unfortunately, it was during this time that Peyton decided it was time to take a nap, so he missed out. But Patrick and I enjoyed them anyway! You should watch the video, they're so darn cute:

Growing Boy!

2008-09-08T19:46:00.006-04:00

Peyton is growing up quickly. We started him on rice cereal this week. He seems to like it and Patrick doesn't think it tastes too bad either. I disagree, but Nellie definitely likes it. I got distracted and put Peyton's bowl down on the floor. Next time I looked, it was squeaky clean. I asked Patrick why he washed it and he said he hadn't touched it. There's only one other explanation: Nellie.

And Peyton has just started learning how to crawl. He's been getting up on his hands and knees all week and would just rock back and forth. But tonight, he went for it. Nellie better watch out because here he comes!

We recently had some much needed time off for vacation, and initially headed to Gulf Shores, Alabama. However, Gustav had other plans for us, so after getting all the way to La Grange, GA, we turned around and came home. Still feeling like we needed a vacation (La Grange just didn't cut it), we headed to Myrtle Beach. We were there a few days before Hanna reared her ugly head and made us run from there too. I think that's the last time we plan a trip in September. We did get to spend some quality time together, which is really all that matters, but it would have been nice if we didn't have to keep running from the storms. Peyton didn't understand why we kept putting him back in his car seat for rides that never seemed to end. His parents didn't understand why he would wait to poop until after we were back on the road after a lengthy pit stop.
Here are a few pictures form our vacation to the beach:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jharrell528/BeachTripSept2008#

My mom's mom and my dad's mom both celebrate birthdays on August 17th (at least its easy to remember), so Peyton and I took a quick trip home to help them celebrate.
And here are some pictures from that trip:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jharrell528/PeytonAugust2008#

Pictures

2008-08-22T13:26:00.005-04:00

Recently, my mom, grandmother and sister visited for the weekend. Since we had 4 generations here, we decided to take some pictures. Patrick was able to set up his camera and lights in some of his studio space at work and we did different combinations of people for a variety of pictures. I think they came out really nice. It was hard to get Peyton to cooperate. I only wish I had a video camera to film the clowns that were trying to get him to smile from behind the camera.

Unfortunately, I wasn't smart enough to bring enough home with me last weekend for everyone, but I knew that we could always print more. I have posted the pictures here. If you would like copies of one, some, or all, please email me to let me know what pictures you want (they are numbered), what size, etc by Tuesday, August 26th. Obviously 4x6, 5x7, and 8x10 pictures are all cropped differently, and the photographer (Patrick) would like to be able to crop each picture to the specific size that you would like. I will take care of printing the pictures and will pass them onto my mom, dad, or Mrs Jayne and they will get them to you as soon as possible. I can always print more after the 26th, but I can't promise that it will be done in a timely fashion :)