Ho Ho Ho Ho!

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

More Peyton Videos

I thought I'd share a few cute videos of Peyton. We've been working on words lately. I realize that you may not understand "Peyton" speak, but I, as his mother, can understand every word.

Here he is identifying Nellie:



The other day I put some strips of masking tape down on the carpet to make a track. All I asked Peyton to do was to grab his trains, and he started "Choo-chooing" away without me even having to show him the track. He's a smart little guy!




Here's a little bit of Peyton's singing talents. If we start the song for him, he likes to jump in with a few words he knows.
At the end, he tells the camera "hi". He definitely knows what this means. We were eating out the other night and the waiter came over to take some dishes away, and Peyton said, "Hi!". The waiter was preoccupied and didn't respond, so Peyton repeated himself. Again. And again. And again. I finally pointed out to the waiter in the nicest way possible that he was ignoring my son. He said hello back and Peyton smiled from ear to ear.



And last but not least, we're amazed at the power of the television and the show "Word World". Peyton gets completely mesmerized by it. Amelia came over the other night to play and apparently she is also mesmerized by it. The kids had eaten dinner and Patrick and I wanted to sit down and eat our dinner, so I put on an episode of Word World so that we could actually eat. Amelia was sitting on the couch and Peyton was sitting in the red chair. The next thing we knew, both of them were sitting in the red chair together. And neither of them was even blinking.

Peyton's FIrst Bloody Nose

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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?

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

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!

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!

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