Birthday Celebration for Margaret

Harrison and I high-tailed it to Charleston for the day to celebrate Margaret's birthday. If you can't tell from the pictures, Harrison thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Aunt Maggie. Harrison even put down a burger and fries at Poe's. This kid gets cooler everyday.

2 Year Check-Up

Sweetest. Face. Ever

Who do you think put the "2" candle in his mouth?

Poor kid can't even smile for his birthday pictures.

Harrison had his two year-old check-up this week, and he seems to have passed with flying colors. And I guess Adam and I have too since they still let us keep him. I was sure two years ago when we brought him home from the hospital that we weren't fit to be parents. But two years later, he is still breathing. God is good.

Here are his stats from the check-up:

Weight: 31 lbs, 12 ozs (87th percentile)

Height: 38 inches (greater than 95th percentile)

I'm not sure about his height. That seems tall. In addition, the doctor seems to think that he will be tall. Adam and I are pretty average (in height, that is), so we shall see what happens. Oh, and thanks Devon, for the pictures. I had totally forgotten that you snapped some pictures for us. We love them.

Happy 2nd Birthday

Telling everyone he is 2

H giving Tatum a sloppy one


Aunt Maggie as we like to call her; she isn't a 'real' aunt, but we love her like one

Harrison and Adam opening up his workbench;
we learned a good lesson...build it first

Harrison waiting to devour his "dump dump" cake

On March 19th, my sweet boy turned two years old. I cannot even believe it. I kept saying to Adam, "Can you believe it has been two years?" It truly is unbelievable how fast it goes by; now when people say, "he'll be driving before you know it," I think they may be right. Anyway, so for Harrison's 2nd Birthday, we had two parties. No, that doesn't mean next year he gets three. On Friday, we celebrated at Chick-fil-A with Harrison's friends from school and others we have met since we arrived. It was so fun to celebrate him with other little kiddos; well, until he had a head-first run-in with a little girl on the playground. Then, on Saturday, we celebrated Harrison with our families, which is why we moved back to SC. It made me so happy for Harrison to have all of his grandparents in the same place. This just would not have happened in Colorado. Next year, we just have to get the aunts and uncles down to celebrate. One thing I learned this year is that I definitely have to appoint someone to be the photographer prior to the event. What was I thinking? I hardly have any pictures! Last year, he hated when we sang Happy Birthday; this year, he asked for us to sing it again.

Numbers...

I've seen this idea on a couple of blogs, so I thought I would emulate it to fit the subject of my blog.

• 22--average number of times Harrison asks me to watch "Cars" everyday
• 6--number of minutes Harrison watches "Cars" once I do oblige
• 0, 1, 3 --differing number of times Harrison poops each day. This is important as regularity in bowel movements (same time of day, everyday) is a readiness signal for potty-training. If this is, indeed, a necessary readiness signal, it's a miracle that I was every potty-trained.
• 400--average number of times I hear the words "no" and "mine" daily
• 10--number of times Harrison protests that he can do something on his own daily
• 9--number of times I have to respond and help when Harrison previously insists on doing something himself
• 8--number of times Harrison twirls over and over again before falling down
• 4--number of push-ups Harrison can do alongside Adam (with his knees down, of course)
• 11-number of blueberries Harrison can put in his mouth at once
• 35--number of times Harrison says "uh-oh" if he temporarily misplaces his monkey
• 19--average number of times Harrison says "more" after seeing one dump truck pass us on the road

Love and Marriage

Allison and Emerson came to visit for a couple of days last week. They came to entertain Harrison as I recovered. Turns out, they ended up thoroughly entertaining me. As most of the blog followers know by now, we (Allison and I) are working on an arranged marriage for these two. But after this visit, we have decided that they can't date until they are in their twenties. We figured they wouldn't be emotionally ready for each other until then (I know, it is ridiculous that we even had a conversation like that, but we did). Plus, Harrison is going to have to save lots of energy for little Em...she is a firecracker. We loved having both of the Reed ladies here and we miss their love of life around this house. And, of course, Harrison misses trying to put the moves on Em. We are going to have to work on his not-so-suave nature.

Hans

He doesn't even have to smile to be the cutest kid in the world. I love my little Nordic Boy. Maybe we should shorten Harrison to Hans...

Crazy Week or So...

About a week ago, Adam and I headed to DC for the annual Chick-fil-A Seminar. It was a pretty amazing experience, as usual. We got to hear from both Bill Hybels and Andy Stanley; both transformed my way of thinking in different ways. We also got to hear from Dr. Charles Carter, as we do every year. He talked about gratitude, which is a familiar topic, but seemed to have implications in my life that I was unaware of at the time (I will address this later). After Seminar, Adam and I decided to stay in DC to be tourists for a couple of days as well as see my brother and sister. But let me rewind.

So, I found out a couple of weeks ago that I was pregnant. I had so much excitement and fear. Blood work was required for me since I had an ectopic last summer. So, while I was in DC, I got a phone call from my doctor that my blood counts aren't what they wanted to see and I needed to get some more blood work done ASAP. I literally think my heart-stopped. I was on a boat on the Potomac and I couldn't even do anything. I immediately began to pray and text two of my friends to pray for me. I got back to the hotel and freaked out (I can usually control my emotions...this time I couldn't). So, I get blood work done the next day and then I just have to wait. Wait, wait , wait. Sweet Adam coached me through things so it wouldn't ruin our trip to DC. He reminded me that all I could do is pray; other than that, there is nothing I could do. He was right. The whole trip, I never heard anything. We had a great trip and looking back, I see the Lord protecting us. So, the night we got back home, I started to bleed a little bit. Everyone who knows anything about being pregnant, knows this is no good. The crazy part about this is that at this point, I still don't have the results of my blood work back. I called the on-call doctor, she said to wait until Monday. Adam and I didn't feel good about that as it was Saturday night. So, we called Dr. Martin to ask his thoughts. He thought we should head in to the doctor so we can make sure nothing happens to my good tube. Since it was close to midnight, we decided to go to sleep and then wake up in the morning and go to the ER. We did. After lots of tests, we found out that it was another ectopic pregnancy. It implanted in my right ovary (my right tube was previously removed). The doctor has no idea how it got there. Everything about it is so bizarre. Anyway, I had surgery Sunday night to remove a tiny remaining piece of my right tube and my right ovary. And so, in the midst of my circumstances, I've been thinking about what I'm super-grateful for:

1. Harrison: my sweet boy who is happy and healthy


2. My mom and mother-in-law, who jumped in their cars to come up to take care of Harrison and me (and help Adam out too).


3. Being in SC: I don't know what we would've done if we were still in Colorado


4. Allison, Ashley, & Tiffany: for lifting me up in prayer and being a warrior for me when I felt super weak


5. Dr. Martin: for letting Adam bother you with all sorts of questions and giving us some great guidance


6. Left Tube: for still working


7. Adam: words cannot express my gratitude for my husband who has put himself aside for me; I'm continually in awe of the way he loves me


8. For My Savior: my hope and strength in my Lord; so thankful for the promises He gives me; without my hope in the Lord, I don't know what I'd be doing now