14 Month Old Updates

Harrison took 4 steps on his own today. We tried to get it on video to share with you all but we couldn't get him to do it again. It was the end of the day and he wasn't really into being pressured into doing something he didn't want to do. None the less, this day will be marked in the baby book as the day he took his first steps!

I thought I would take this opportunity to document a few other things Harrison has been up to lately.

• He can now say bath time. It is the cutest thing ever! The first time he said it he was eating dinner. After he gave us the sign for all done I said, "Harrison do you want to go have bath time" and with all his might he pushed out the words "bath time". He absolutely loves a good bath! Even so much so that he now allows me to put him on his back to wash his hair. He floats and splashes and just has a good ol' time.
• Harrison can now sign please, thank you, all done and more. The interesting thing about more is that he signs it now for whenever he wants something. When we don't understand what he wants he then intensely signs please. He then gets utterly frustrated when we still can't figure it out... We're working on that.
• You might think we are crazy but Harrison is now experiencing time outs. He is not allowed to go up or down the stairs without asking us first. If he does, he gets a time out. We put up the pack N' Play in the kitchen to facilitate this. We've been doing it for about three weeks now and wouldn't you know, he doesn't go up the stairs without first getting out attention and saying please. Who ever said 14 month olds have no idea, doesn't know our 14 month old little man.
• Harrison has foam bath letters that stick to the bath tub walls when wet. For about the last month he's been putting them on the wall. He's figured it out. AMAZING!
• He now tries to grab the spoon and fork from us and tries to feed himself. It goes everywhere and most of the time his aim to the plate is way off so we help him out but he wants to be Mr. independent and lets us know, often.
• That brings up the next thing, he is eating what we eat at almost every meal now. He would prefer that we sit down and eat with him too.
• We are working on "Harrison, come here" and "stay still", I think it's going to take a lot more work than it did with Bentley.
• He is all out the silliest boy I know. Sometimes he'll just fall over on purpose and laugh. Sometimes he'll rub his face into the carpet. When he does something good or exciting he claps for himself. He laughs a lot! Especially when he thinks mom or dad is funny.
• He climbs on Bentley and Bentley looks at him like a foreign object. He often times will just get up and walk over to me in the mean time Harrison has fallen completely over on to the ground and is laughing. He also loves to play tug o' war with Bentley.
• Every once in a while he will ask to go up the stairs, crawl all the way to his room, point to his bed and ask to go to sleep. WE LOVE THIS!
• He talks a lot. Especially in his car seat and in his high chair.
• When I sing, he sings along and by that I mean that he often finds the note I'm on and holds it. I think we might have a musician in our family, we'll see.
• Shoes are his thing. He tries to put his own on and he tries to put ours on. It's fun to watch him try to figure out how.
• Harrison has been teething since he was 4 months old and let's be honest, it's not been fun for the whole family. This week his top eye teeth have been working their way through. He already has all four top and bottom and all four molars. 14 months old with 12 teeth! I think that's why walking came a little later then most of his other friends. The kids has been too busy gnawing on his finger to ease the pain rather than try and walk.
• Most of the time he can grab or point at his feet, ears and nose when you ask him where they are.
• He HATES diaper changes and changing his clothes. I'm reading every mommy website out there to find the best advice. It's a nightmare. We dread bed time especially.

Well I think that's enough for now. Here are a few pictures of Harrison on the stairs. Notice the tooth filled grin!

Going up...

Coming down...

He scoots down from step to step. We couldn't quite convince him to turn around and go backwards. Just wasn't going to happen.

He's been letting go of things and just standing for about two weeks now.

This picture was from this weekend.

We have also been standing him up and letting him go. Until today he just stood there and then sat down. We cheered him on every time even so.

We went on a drive to find snow this last weekend.

Here he is with his little gloves (thanks to great grandma Bev).

He was cold, can you tell?

He looks so small in that picture it's hilarious!

Lastly, we head off to a cruise in the Caribbean on Friday. We are so excited! I have my meds and Harrison has 20+ new toys ($1 or so each, don't worry) to keep us both happy on the flight. Funny story, we went to the pharmacy on Sunday and the pharmacist said awkwardly, "I hope you have a good trip" and I said to Nathan, how did she know? Well my anxiety meds said "take one 30 minutes before flying" and my motion sickness meds said "take 4 hours before cruise". Nathan and I both laughed as we assumed she was probably thinking, "Wow, all for a vacation? Really?" haha. It's true I do love Jesus and I can't wait for heaven but I don't really want to arrive via dropping from the sky and I have a tendency to replay scenes from Lost while I'm on a plane so I need something that stops my mind from going a little crazy... and protects Nathan from a fractured hand :)

We'll be sure to send pictures after the trip!

Love, the Jones'

P.S. My class is going great and I hope to blog about some of the highlights soon! Maybe Nathan will guest blog sometime soon too :) Currently he has been calling 1,040 donors over the last two weeks thanking them for their support. He's such a nice and thoughtfun development manager :) Oh and go see the movie Conviction if you haven't yet! Then google Conviction and Prison Fellowship. It might help some of you understand why Nathan does what he does and why I love that this ministry is a big part of our lives.