Fabulous Four ~ Parts 2-4

OK OK...I'm sorry! I've been having a lot of computer trouble and not been able to connect to the internet, so I've not been successful at posting parts 2 through 4! Since I am now 2 full weeks behind in my entries and have a lot to post, I have to cheat here and combine the rest of years 1-3 leading up to his 4th Bday, which will be my next post!

Part 2
He learned to walk at 14 mos and only had 4 words until he turned 2..."mom", "dad", "pup" and "no". (are we sure he's my kid?!) He learned his body parts and pointed to them on cue, my favorite was when asked where his feelings were and he'd point to his heart! His 1st haircut was at 15 mos (I cried!) when I got tired of people asking me about "her"!!! He survived our house fire of Jan 2004 when we lived in a hotel for 6 wks. That spring before Harrison turned 2 my Grandpa Wood passed away. That was also the year our Calgary Flames made it to the Stanley Cup and we all got caught up in playoff fever!



Part 3
Enter the Terrible Twos! His actually started long before that, but at least now I had a better excuse for his hurricane like behaviour! His 2nd Birthday party was a puppy theme and really cute, despite a house full of people and kids while it poured rain like a monsoon outside! My dad ended up back in the hospital for 3 wks that June, and was unable to attend Harrison's party, so the lil gaffer (as my dad calls him!) ended up celebrating twice as we had a family party at the Foothills Hospital Cardiac Care Unit on his proper birthday! (June 16)
That is also the summer our house in the city went up for sale and we moved out to the 1/4 section (160 acres) of land south of High River, AB with the most amazing view of the Rocky Mountains anywhere, as seen in this picture! There's Harrison with my parents' dogs, sitting on a bale of alfalfa, with the view of the Rockies in the background. And another picture of Harrison and I with Yankee, our Louisianna Catahoula Leopard Dog (hound family) on more bales of hay, with a view the other direction of our field of alfalfa as far as the eye can see! Harrison loved living on the farm and being able to roam free.


Part 4
Then he turned Turbulant Three! Wow, what a year it has been! He had a birthday party at the Calgary Zoo with a Safari theme (Madagascar cupcakes!) that included entertainment by Barney, who happened to be performing live at the zoo that weekend!

By now we were living back in the city with my parents and he started to settle down a little more. His speach really started to improve and I noticed a dramatic drop in his tantrums as his vocabulary increased. He enjoyed swimming lessons, playgroups and his music class. He began to blossom socially and his curiosity about the way the world works began to show as his language got better. This was also the year I took my job driving the school bus allowing him to come to work with me, which has proved to be perfect in every way for both of us. I never have to leave him in childcare and he feels important and a sense of ownership and pride in taking responsability for his "own job", as he's as much a part of the driving team as I am, and he loved every minute of it!!! All those "big" kids sure helped too!

So there you have it....the early years of Harrison's life leading up to his 4th Birthday!!!