Harlan and the Bee

Yes the rumors are true, little man went round with a bee. At first account I believed that poor little man was ambushed while he was sleeping but recent events have led me to believe that he might have been awake to witness the vile little insect swarming around. (the event being that he FREAKED out today at dinner when a fly landed on his nose! :() Anyway, he did get stung, to the right of his nose, and scared Mommy when he started howling in pain for no apparent reason while we were in the car. And it was one of those stop your heart kinda wails when you instinctively know that this isnt a fit about wanting out of the carseat, but instead that your baby is in pain. I also then noticed the "bad bee" swarming around his head. Mommy pulled to the side of the road, assured that little man was in no acute distress, then made our way to the nearest place we could get some tylenol and motrin. As the day progressed you couldnt much tell that he had even been stung, his face was slightly red, but not too much. However as the day drew to a close little man started having some swelling to his r eye. This is what it looked like by bath time:






Looks like he got in a fight, doesnt it? He woke up this morning with a fair amount of swelling as well. We have dosed him with benadryl, and luckily for the most part, it doesnt seem to bother him. It just looks awful. And as I mentioned, he now has a fear of all flying insects. Can say that I blame him, do you?

Now on to the reason we were in the car in the first place. We were off to attend Mr. Kolton's first birthday party. Kolton is Mommy's friend Dawn's nephew. (got that?) Harlan was definitely not himself that day , thanks mainly to the bee sting i believe, but after he got some food in his belly, he started to enjoy himself.
He wore this hat for about 1.2 seconds and then managed to take it off and snap his hand with the elastic, sending him running off to mommy crying, he did have a rough day

Birthday boy Kolton wasnt a fan either

"I told you I didnt want to wear that hat Mommy, even for a picture with Dawn and Kolton!"

Kolton was a champ with his smash cake. He really loved that icing!

Trying to play the sympathy card on the floor

With Darlene, Dawn's Mom. She was very excited to get kisses from the little man

Play time. (now don't let let the depth of this picture fool you, kolton at 12 months old is every bit as tall as little man, if not taller.)

Good buds

"Mom what is it with you and making me wear stupid hats!"

How do you entertain little man........

while getting the oil on the car changed??

You find a spot of grass at the bank next door and let him get some energy out!

You may even let him think that he has the outside chance that he may get away from you and run around the parking lot, without letting on that it really wont happen

Until you remember that he is alot faster than you and may actually get to the parking lot if you dont put down the camera and keep a better eye on him.

You then let him bask in the discovery of a big stick while he begrudingly looks at you for a picture

And watch him try several times to pick up the stick and remember to duck as he swings it around, so you dont get knocked in the head

And you make sure Daddy is there to offer a little support when little man finds a second stick and forgets how to properly walk in all the excitement.

You also make sure there is a tree handy to bang the sticks up agaisnt, because really the sticks arent much fun if you cant hit something with them!

banging them against each other will work also when banging them on the tree is no longer fun

You must also try to pose little man under the tree and then make funny noises to get him to look at you so you can take that oh so perfect picture.

and then hope you got the picture on the first try bc no amount of persuading is going to get him to look at you again.....

.....until Daddy starts acting funny too!



Mommy then keeps taking pictures when we are safely tucked back in the car...to which little man decides that he has had enough of the pictures

and would really like mommy to quit taking them now!

oh the look of defeat...mommy is gonna take em not matter what

We then stopped at toys r us for a little early christmas shopping, and playing peek a boo in the cart is a favorite game for us. There was one toy in particular that mommy wanted for little man and word on the street is that it will be a popular toy this year so we had to go early. I will tell you what it is if you PROMISE not to tell little man.......Ready...oh this is so exciting......he is getting the Mickey Mouse hot dog dancer!!!! Mickey does the hot dog dance!!! oh the hot dog dance is a big deal around here......now remember Its a Secret!! We were also able to find a used Mega Block castle on ebay and got a great deal on it and it actually arrived yesterday! Santa is storing it in little mans closet until christmas morning...we are just helping him out is all.

See even the excitement was too much for little man!

This video is entitled "perfect timing"....the car is finished as little man starts getting a little bored with the grass.

This n That

I would like to start out this blog entry, with a goodbye. This week our family said goodbye to Bruce who lost his battle with cancer. He was as his friend said at his funeral "a teddy bear on this inside" He is in alot of my memories, with my favorites being trips to Indiana Beach or the trip to Branson we took a few years back. Our family also is indebted to him for one of the greattest gifts we could have recieved, Liberty. He will be missed and remembered fondly.



I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the many members of our extended family that showed so much love and support this past week. Sometimes it is easy to forgot how much strength can come from family and they truly amazed me this week. Thanks for reminding me how wonderful you all are!!



In other news, Mommy got rid of all the bottles in the house today. The past few night we have went to a bath, book, bed routine (notice that other "b" is missing!!!) with a snack before bath. So far, so good. I think he was really ready which i think has made it easier. He was really attached to that bedtime bottle, often times going to the fridge after he had his jammies on say "mil, mil", only to push the bottle away after drinking about half of it or so. We are not against a sippy of milk before bed, but the preferred method is not to have one, since we brush his teeth after bath. Keep your fingers crossed for us that it continues to go as smoothly as it has these past few nights.



I cant remember if I have posted about his before or not, but we recently accepted an offer on our house and it will close on wed!!!! This is very exciting for us! We have been looking into options in the North Vernon area, but are being kinda picky and are fortunate to have a place to stay while we find our "forever house" (well at least our we will be there for awhile house)

Thats about all the new stuff that is going on right now that I can think of. Harlan and Mommy have plans the next couple of weekends with friends and family so hopefully there will be some exciting blog updates coming soon. Then we are capping off October with a big weekend at the camp for the annual poker run/costume party. Daddy even has that weekend off of work! As for Haloween we bought Harlan a costume that he absolutely hates, cried everytime we put it on him, so I have ordered him a second less annoying costume. I am keeping under wraps though so I can debut it all to you in pics when he wears it!!

Now on to the pictures!
Harlan in his Colts gear helping Mommy with laundry

Aunt Lissa and Harlan at the hotel. Harlan said "Aunt Lissa" several times with lots of coaching while we were there. Lissa was thrilled!!! (p.s. note the look on his face- mommy is getting that look alot these days, and i dont think i like it very much!)

Testing out the beds for durability and comfort!

Another great Harlan face

Tonite at dinner. We had a great walk in the park with Nana and then had Mexican to fuel up after our walk ;)


Playing in the pack n play at the hotel. No-one wanted to be on camera at 7 am. can you believe that??? haha and i wonder what mom was gonna say after you know what?? i am sure it was a smart a** comment anyway!!

"Excuse Me Miss,

but your baby is about to fall out of your stroller." Yes i really did hear that this weekend at a quick stop at the outlet mall. Harlan had been sleeping when i put him in the stroller and somehow Mommy thought he didnt need buckled in while sleeping. Needless to say he woke up with the choas at the mall, flipped to his belly and tried to shimmy out under the tray. How embarrassing!!!

In other news little man received his flu shot booster today without crying. He just looked at the lady like "is that it?" I pulled up his pants, set him on the floor and he was outta there. By the time we reached the waiting room he was babbling to Mickey (yay Mommy for remembering Mickey) and you wouldnt have guessed he even got a shot at all. Daddy says Harlan is made out of iron, just like daddy. What do you think???

Happy Birthday Sean!

Yesterday Harlan and Mommy attended the first birthday party for our friend Sean Micheal. Mommy used to work with Sean's mommy at Methodist and we have kept in touch over the last year. Although this wasnt Harlan's first birthday (he went to Aunt Libbys party when he was 4 days old!), it was an rare opportunity for Harlan to play with a group on children his own age. (There were 3 babies there that had just turned one in the last month) The weather was pretty blustery for an early October afternoon, but that sure didnt slow any of the kiddos down. And there was plenty for them to do! There was a big sandbox to dig in and a lego castle that Harlan was drawn to. Mommy will actually be looking for one of these lego castles as a possible christmas gift for little man. (which may be a little difficult as Jamie had purchased this at a garage sale and did not know if it was still available) We may also have to look into a tricycle as Sean received one for his birthday and Harlan attempted several times to hop on and ride away. Here are a few pics Mommy snapped in between chasing kidddos around.

The birthday boy Sean and Harlan in the sanddbox


Surprisingly little man only lasted in the sandbox for a few mins, he was much more content running around, trying to get the boos (balloons) and trying to steal the tricycle.

"What kind of trouble can I cause with this?"

This is the Lego castle that had little man enthralled. He managed to collapse the whole castle within 10 mins of playing with it!

But was very willing to help rebuild it

more construction


He just thought this was so cool

"I knight you Sir Harlan"



What a flirt!

Stealing a shovel for use in the castle

The birthday boy!

Happy Birthday Bean! (aka Sean)

Afterwards Daddy met Mommy and a very tired Harlan for dinner and it took several distractions to keep him from a meltdown at dinner. Luckily it worked and it was one point for Team Mommy and Daddy (Team Harlan is still way ahead though, but who is counting)

Dear Aunt Janet,

I am so sorry that I scared you with my dare devil tumble down the stairs yesterday. I know better that to try to go down the stairs forward with no help, but i just got so excited to see Dutchess that I couldn't help myself. I hope you can take comfort in the fact that my head doesn't hurt today, not even a little bit, and there is only the smallest little red spot on my head. You wouldn't even notice it if you didn't know it was there. Next time I stay with you, I promise lots of hugs and kisses in apologies for this incident. Please know that it may happen again, but i will try really hard to remember what I was taught, and to go down the stairs backwards. Hope you can forgive me because I enjoy spending time with you ever so much!
Love Harlan

P.S. Thanks for the ice cream!
"My sincerest apologies"

"See no red mark, and it doesn't hurt!"

A kiss for you!


Trying to reach out and give hugs too



"I am glad we can both laugh about this now!"