My Cute Family

So, Adam was left up to dressing Harrison all weekend, including the weekend. He didn't have to make all of the decisions. I left him clear instructions as to what he was to wear to each event. Just before I was about to walk down the aisle at the wedding, I saw a guy wearing a hat in the church. My stomach dropped. I knew that hat. And I knew underneath that hat was my husband's head. Of course, I love the hat, but not in a church, especially not in a church (and for that matter) at a wedding in the South. Later when I arrived at the reception, I quizzed my friends as to why they let him walk out of the house with a hat on...then, I saw Harrison. He had a matching hat on his head. They said he was too cute with Harrison. And he was. I could see how they were distracted by how adorable the Brantley Duo looked.

Harrison Takes a Dip

We made a trip to Birmingham for Julie and Clay's wedding and we decided to have Harrison take his first little swim in a pool. He was a little tired when we went swimming, but I think he loved it. He didn't cry at all. Hopefully this will be the first of many swims. Adam and I LOVE the water, so Harrison is bound to love it.

Harrison's 1st Virus

It's official, Harrison has his first virus. You know the doctor told me that I would know something was wrong when Harrison has a big change in demeanor...fussy, won't settle, super tired, etc. Well, Adam and I noticed that he was acting a bit different the past couple of days. He would be playing and then all of the sudden, he would break out in a cry that would make you think his hand had been severed. Thankfully, that was never the case; he would just vomit afterwards. I definitely would prefer the latter of the two. I also knew that cry was a "something pains me" cry. Unfortunately, I have usually been the one accidentally inflicting pain upon him (twice), so I recognize that cry. As an aside, I have read and been told that I would be able to differentiate cries and I never thought I would be able to in a baby. I can tell when a toddler is crying in public if it is fake, but I wasn't sure about baby cries. Besides, he doesn't have the capacity for fake cries, yet...I don't think. Anyway, I digress. The kicker with Harrison was yesterday when I was trying to feed him, I put the bottle in his mouth, and he kept on spitting it out like it was a sour pickle. That was very unlike him. Normally, he is so excited to get to eat, he is beside himself. I knew something was wrong. I took him to the doctor this morning and he told me that he definitely has a little virus and that it could stick around for 3 weeks! What?! I assumed after that, he would offer some medication to turn the potential 3 weeks into 3 days. No such luck. Harrison will just have to weather this storm. The doctor said that if he wasn't gaining weight, then there might be another course of action. But since Harrison weighed in at 16 lbs, weight gaining isn't an issue. He still seems pretty happy. In fact, I have attached a video that I just shot of him trying to figure out his jumpster. So, he's okay. For now, I just have to monitor him...stools, sleeping, eating, etc. You know, those important things that I have been "monitoring" for more than 3 months now. We leave tomorrow for Harrison's 2nd plane trip. Hopefully his little virus won't make this trip to difficult.

Rain Delay in Golden

Yesterday, Harrison, Adam and I went to Golden after church so Adam could do some kayaking. As soon as we arrived, it started thundering and raining. So we popped open the trunk of the Volvo and waited out the storm together. Harrison seized the opportunity to take a little nap. I think he liked the sound of the rain hitting the roof of the car. I took my camera to take pictures of Adam on the rapids, but by the time he actually got out there, I had forgotten...oops. But I did get him waiting out the storm...that counts for something, right. I think I actually forgot because the entire time Adam was out in the water, I was contemplating the future conversation that will occur when Adam tells me he is ready to take Harrison out on the river. I was slightly panicked thinking about it. Hopefully those days are a couple years away.

The Baby Cow Makes His Debut

Yesterday Harrison made is his first (you know it won't be the only) appearance in his Cow suit at Chick-fil-A. Adam's store is having his Guest Appreciation Week and I thought it would be a great time to bring out the cow outfit. I am not sure that Harrison loved it. Actually, I am pretty sure that he rolled his eyes at me when I put him in it.

On another note, Harrison is 3 months old today! I cannot believe how fast time flies! It has been 3 months and I am still trying to figure out when Harrison goes #1 in his diaper, why it comes out the back of it...any ideas?

He Sleeps!

Well, I was afraid to send an update on this, but for a little over three weeks now, Harrison has been sleeping all night. By all night I mean, we put him down around 8:30 pm - 9:00 pm and we get him up in the morning between 7:00 am and 7:30 am. I believe he would stay in there longer, but Adam likes to feed him and spend time with him before he goes to work, so that is why he gets up that early. Anyway, we are SO thankful that he sleeps so well. Adam and I get some great time together at night after we put him down, which is really good for us. I do realize that this is not typical of every baby, but we are grateful Harrison is this way. Sometimes in the morning when we (usually Adam) go get him he is wide-eyed or he is still sleeping. Either way, if he is awake, he just hangs out in his crib talking to himself. This morning I woke up at 6:15 am and I just watched him (in the video monitor) until about 7 am. He was so cute. He had turned himself all sorts of ways (he must sleep like his father...I would imagine if he had covers to steal, he would) and just cooed the morning away. It was too cute. I could have watched him for hours. When we actually go to get him and peak over the crib, he beams the biggest smile in the world...it would just make you melt. When I go to get him, I just let him stay in the crib and we exchange smiles and coos for a couple of minutes. Ahhh, I wish I could set-up a live feed for people to see this. So, I tried to take a picture of him as soon as we made eye contact this morning and this is what I got.

Father's Day 2K8

Father's Day has been an absolute blast. We started off this morning with a great breakfast and Harrison's first attempt in the Jumper, aka Johnny Jump-Up, aka Door Way Jumpster (see photo). Then we went up to Indian Peaks for a hike and fly-fishing for Adam. It was a really quick trip (well, we walked almost 6 miles, which wasn't quick at all to me), but it was so fun to be outdoors in the Great Rocky Mountains with our son. We found a little lake that we love and I am sure that we will be back soon. Harrison also found a friend that he absolutely loves to talk to. His name is Eddie the Elephant, and yep, he's purple. There is a photo included of him gazing at him on our hike back down today. Enjoy the pics and my sweet husband's first Father's Day!

Sweet Harrison

The Brantley house has been busy recently getting ready for Adam's Guest Appreciation Week next week at his Chick-fil-A. Thus, I haven't really been taking too many photos of Harrison. Here are some that I snapped of him this morning. I apologize for the fuzzy pic. I am still trying to figure out my camera. If I have the flash on, it totally changes the color of the picture (giving Harrison hair that appears red), but if I have the flash off, it turns in to a fuzzy picture. I have a lot to learn about photography! There is also a picture from the other day of Harrison on his surfboard in Clemson onesie. Adam puts him in this onesie every time that he dresses Harrison and it is clean. He says he wants to get his money's worth (if you don't remember from a previous posting, that is the only article of clothing that Adam bought Harrison). Oh, and I feel like Harrison is on the verge of rolling over (though it may be a month). I can't wait to post about it when he actually does. For now, I am happy to see that his bobble-head is getting less "bobbly."

Fun with Harrison

Adam and I really have the best time ever with Harrison. When Harrison eats for his final time (7 pm) each day, I give him a bath, and then Adam and I usually play with him for about an hour before he goes down for the night. I absolutely LOVE these times. I tried to capture it on video last night, but I didn't really get Harrison being very cute. Well, let me rephrase myself...Harrison is always cute, but he had gotten tired by the time I decided to start shooting video. So what you see in this video is a very weary Harrison, but what you hear is even better. Adam really cracks me up in this; mainly because this is how he always talks to Harrison and I think it is SO endearing.

Other pictures that are on here are of his bath time tonight. Like I said, I give him a bath every night and he doesn't hate it, but he doesn't really love it either. However, tonight I had a breakthrough and I got him to smile a lot, so I had to grab the camera. When I actually tried to capture his smiles, these are the faces I got. I thought they were pretty funny. Maybe he already knows that I was invading is privacy?

The other couple of pics are of him mastering tummy time as a naked surfer, sitting in his Bumbo like a big boy, and showing off his pretty blue eyes.

Harrison's Chores

Adam and I have started to verbalize some of our internal thoughts about what Harrison is going to be doing in the next couple of years. Something that we have agreed upon is that we are going to have some "non-negotiables" that we want Harrison to do as part of learning to become a big boy. In other words, we have some chores that we would love for him to learn from. Now, don't get me wrong, the things that I am about to list aren't things that Adam and I don't want to do; we just think it would be valuable for Harrison to do them, you know, to learn a sense of responsibility. This is just the beginning of the list. We are open to suggestions.

1. Marley & Chewy Duty: this includes feeding them, brushing them (twice a week), and throwing the ball for them. These are relatively fun activities because our dogs are great.


2. Yard Duty: picking up poo from the dogs (I guess this could be grouped with #1) and cutting the grass (he may need to be a little bit older for this one).


3. Laundry: now I know that this may surprise a lot of people, but I think it is good for a child to do their own laundry at some point. I have been doing my own laundry for I don't know how long. I think my mom had me doing my own from the time I was old enough to throw the objects into the wash...I distinctly remember not being able to see in the top. I had to climb on top to press the buttons to get it started. While this may be a little early, it wasn't a big deal for me when I went off to college to do my own laundry. I was an old pro by this time. A lot of people that I knew in college had to do their own laundry for the first time when they went to college. This won't be the case for Harrison.

I am sure there is more to add to this list, but this is all I can think of right now.

Harrison Causes a Stir

So Harrison and I made a trip to the Colorado Department of Revenue yesterday to do some tax stuff for Adam's store. Well, the Department of Revenue is equivalent to the DMV as far as excitement goes. Everyone just sits in a room, stares at a wall (because no cell phones are allowed) and waits for their number to be called. Needless to say, the room is quiet and awkward. To help ease the tensions, Harrison decides to start cooing as loud as he possibly can over and over again. People start to giggle, I start to get a little embarrassed, and Harrison continues to get louder. He finally quiets for about 3 minutes, then he lets out a fairly loud "bottom burp," as Puff calls it. It vibrates on his car seat to make it extra loud. The room erupts with laughter. I get really embarrassed. He does it one more time. At this point, it seemed like they were never going to call my number. Finally, they did. And we left the Colorado Department of Revenue, but not without Harrison leaving his mark!

Harrison meets Jackson

While we were in Charleston, Harrison got to meet his new best friend, Jackson Farrar. I think he is about four months older than Harrison and he is so darn cute. When they met, it was very cute. Jackson rolled over and I think he tried to nibble on Harrison's hand. It was too cute. If Harrison could roll over, they would have definitely been nose to nose. If you want to see more of sweet Jackson, there is a link to his blog on mine.

My Babies R Us Breakdown

When Adam and I were registering for baby items at Babies R Us, we spent two hours deciding which stroller & car seat we wanted (and with that comes the decision if we want a travel system or not). We found one that we loved. Thankfully, Adam's parents bought it for us as a baby gift. Well, Harrison and I went to Babies R Us yesterday to look for a couple of things. One of the sales associates came up to me and told me that my travel system (the car seat & stroller combo) had been recalled. I was shocked...our European travel system was supposed to be the best, and as far as I was concerned, it was the best. I asked another sales associate if I really needed to trade mine out for something new (thinking that some recalls were silly). She explained to me that they were being recalled because the car seat doesn't latch to the base properly and upon impact, the car seat could fly out. Clearly, there wasn't an option, I had to get something else. I strolled the aisles, confused like I was when I first started to shop for this item. Only, this time I was sans Adam and I had a 10 week old with me. I had no one to bounce ideas off of. I contemplated walking out with my recalled travel system twice because I couldn't make a decision. But then I thought about my sweet son, and that wasn't the safest thing for him, even if I couldn't find something as cool as I had before. After 2 hours, I finally made a decision. The new system isn't as cool as the one I had...and frankly, I don't think it is as comfortable for Harrison. My meltdown came when it was time to trade out the new stuff for the old stuff. Harrison was sleeping, and I somehow had to put together the new stuff in the store, take him out of the old, and put him back in the new. So, I had to sit on the floor of Babies R Us and put everything together. These things aren't that easy to put together. Once I finally got all of the new items out to the car, I had to put the new car seat base in...I put it in backwards and then it got jammed. I couldn't switch it out, and Harrison started to fuss a little as we were approaching his feeding time. I thought, "what would Adam tell me to do in this situation." He would tell me to take a deep breath. So, I did. Then I sat in the passenger seat of my car and cried because I couldn't get the car seat base to come un-jammed. But my deep breath did work; I went back to work and got it to hook in properly. I know that it is silly. I am still not happy with what I bought, but Harrison will be safer in it.