The meeting of the cousins

Being the 5th grandchild on the Gapinski side, Nora had plenty of older ones to fawn over her.  And fawn they did.  Cameron (age 6) and the twins, Gavin and Kendall (age 3) love their little cousin.  Gavin is especially sweet and always calls her 'My baby Nora'.  She'll be well watched over by each of them!

The two granddaughters

Sweet Gavin and his baby Nora

A new face, well sort of...

We've been remiss in keeping this blog updated. Spring is a terrible time of year for both of us. With the greenhouse business for me and spring plays and end of school for Brian, we don't have much free time. And then this summer saw the addition to our family of our beautiful daughter Nora Elizabeth. She came 9 days early, a healthy 8 lbs 1 oz surprise on July 6th. She came quickly, only 5 hours of labor and was born (in water) only 17 minutes after arriving at the birth center.

She has been a precious addition to our family. Harrison is quite fond of her even though she was his "baby brother" for the first 2 weeks. With two kids now and no less of a hectic schedule, it may be hard to update this blog, but we will do our best.

Our kid is weird

There are so many things Harrison does that are just plain weird. We usually pull out the camera, snap the photo, and then try to decide who he gets it from. I will say, I always had an infinity for dressing up! So I think these shots come straight from the Gapinski side of the family.

In Brian's Browns shirt

His homage to Kenny Chesney, he loves this cowboy hat

I don't know. This is what we're talking about.


And sometimes, clothes just don't let him really express himself.
So he takes a more natural approach.

Toronto and Detroit

In the beginning of November, Harrison and I went to visit friends in Detroit and then over to Toronto. Harrison was an angel on the trip and truly enjoying visiting with Ryan and Teresa in Toronto and with Jill Osmon, my dear friend, in Detroit. And it was there in Detroit that Harrison learned two valuable things. Mr. and Mrs. Osmon taught Harrison to give "knuckles" (aka a terrorist fist jab.) He also learned that putting on a University of Michigan hat to amuse the Osmons would make his dad, a Buckeye fan, very unhappy! But Harrison LOVES hats. I can't tell you how many times he puts a ball cap on and walks around for hours refusing to take it off.

It was also right after this trip that we discovered that we are expecting our next child!! I'm due the middle of July and we are excited to add another precious child to our family. Harrison remains neutral on the subject, but we think he'll really like having a sibling.

Halloween!

What I did this summer

There are always big events you want to share (birthdays, first steps, etc.) but sometimes its the little things that give you a better perspective. So, I decided that Harrison had to put together a presentation of his summer time activities. I am, of course, ignoring the fact that he bangs on the computer keys (thus wouldn't be able to type all this out). We didn't get everything on camera but I hope you will enjoy Harrison's pictorial of summer 2009.

Reading "boots" with mommy. He would spend hours doing this if you let him. I think Oma has something to do with that!

Sharing his sippy cup with Ben Carson at the State Fair. They are best buds.

We got new bikes!!! So we went riding a lot this summer.

The patio and in the dirt is where Harrison thrives. He always pulled the dirt out of the tomato plant pots and played with it forever. We spent most of the summer out on the patio playing with everything we could get our hands on.

Corn on the cob!

Next to his books, Harrison loves his cousins the most. They fuss over him and he loves all the attention they give him. He'll play basketball with Gavin (I believe Gavin taught Harrison to say 'basketball', actually) and play dolls with Kendall.

It is pure joy to see these kids play together so happily.

It was a great summer!!!!

Oh the silly things we do!

At 14 mo. Harrison has developed so much personality. He definitely likes to entertain us; as Aunt Amanda says, he is the son of two theatre majors, so that's not surprising.

Now that it's mum season I get to be home with Harrison 3 days a week. It's great fun -- he helps clean up the house, we go on bike rides, and I get to see what he finds interesting.

Here's a video of him from Friday afternoon. I can't say it's the most intelligent thing he's ever done but it was certainly entertaining. Enjoy!