Go, Harrison, Go!

I plead nearly two weeks without internet access as my excuse for not posting sooner. That and incredible laziness.

In a rather large nutshell:

There were many presents for Harrison (a wooden train, legos, an array of cars and trucks ("whoo! whoo!" he says as he pushes them), an arseload of clothes, more clothes, a playmobil menagerie, muppet cds, an assortment of books, a sweet classic red radio flyer tricycle (with bell! and streamers!) animal bowling pins, a wooden barn with farm animals, a collection of plastic animals, magnets, etc. etc. etc.). It wasn't an insane amount of toys and only one of them makes deafening electronic bloops. We were able to put away many of the baby toys that he'd outgrown, so Harrison's room is only slightly more filled with junk and my geeky obsession with the spare bungalow aesthetic is mostly satisfied. (I know. I do realize that I am doomed.)

There were family visits (Val, Tara, and my parents a few days after Christmas); friends over for dinner (Jamie and Kama; Ashley, Andy, and Emma; Inga, Mike, and Kaiva); several bottles of wine; lots of baking and consumption of the results. There were 10 days away from work and computers and blogging.

Christmas was spent at the Jurenkos and Christmas Day was low key. Actually, it was so low key that Doug, Harrison, and I didn't bathe and spent the day in our pajamas stuffing our faces with polish food. (Note: this is not a bad way to spend Christmas.)

Harrison had a few bad spells of tantrums, throwing things, scratching, flailing, and whining. God help us if it gets worse as he approaches two. I find that I am mostly patient with his mood swings. I think they come from frustration that he understands so much but can't communicate very well. (Perhaps I am rationalizing this with hopes that as soon as he can talk more, the tantrums will stop.) Mostly I find it hard not to take his fleeting meanness personally, like when we're snuggling sweetly and then Mr. Hyde takes over and starts pulling my hair, smacking me, and yelling "No!" in the snottiest tone imaginable. I will get over it. Or I will run away from home. Or send him to an orphanage. Doug told me it is not appropriate for me to joke about drowning your own children in the tub.

The other 95% of the time, Harrison is awesome in the dictionary sense: inspiring awe. We saw so many changes in him over the holiday. His vocabulary of spoken words is growing slowly, but his comprehension is incredible. He's always listening and we've had to start spelling certain words. Words like "T-V", "C-O-O-K-I-E", "C-R-A-C-K-E-R", 'O-U-T-S-I-D-E", and "S-N-A-C-K". Oh, and "M-U-P-P-E-T". Fucking "MUPPET!"

I created a monster and that monster is addicted to The Muppet Show. Well, just to the Muppet Theme song and Kermit's introduction. Fifty times a day he runs over and points at the turned-off T-V and grunts and gestures at the DVD box and does a dance. This is the indication to "Put the damn Muppets on NOW PEOPLE! What part about this grunting and pointing and dancing don't you understand!?" We mostly comply.

He's also learned his first proper names: "Melmo" "Ernie" and "BooBah". Sorry, real humans.

We're still in a period of mourning about the death of the Christmas tree, which was removed from the house, put out on the curb New Year's Day, and picked up for tree recycling on Monday. I keep finding Harrison at the front door, looking longingly out at the street. Whenever we say the word "tree", he goes to the door and says "bye bye!"

Yesterday he said "Da Oh!" whenever he pointed at the book "Go, Dog, Go!" Yesterday he pointed at the office building where Doug and I work and said "Dada!" when he and I drove by on our way home from daycare. Yesterday he took a CD out of the case, put it in the CD player, closed the tray, and pushed play. Yesterday I gave him some raisins and he looked at my like "Aren't you forgetting something?" and then went to the cereal cupboard, opened it, got out the bag of Cheerios, and handed them to me. Yesterday Doug came home and told me that on the drive in Harrison pointed at our office and said "Mama!"

Aiyah. That was just one day.

Happy New Year, everyone! I'm excited about what the rest of 2006 has in store.