Sunsational Spring Break

Spring Break could not have arrived at a more opportune time. Sick of the snow and cold, Pierce and I escaped to Florida to visit with Nana and Gigi for almost a week. Pierce was an excellent traveler on the planes, and even earned his "wings" on Jet Blue. The flight attendants were impressed with his behavior and his social nature. We cruised the aisles a few times, and Pierce said hi to all of his fans, and always reminded us to "shhhhush" when he saw other passengers sleeping.

We arrived in Florida to glorious sunshine and spent some great time swimming (at least 3 times a day), playing at the park and beach, singing and playing with Nana and Gigi, going to the zoo and the local children's museum and trying new foods. Pierce had a real hot dog (with "dip-dip" of course), fresh squeezed orange juice, and chocolate chip cookies (thanks, Gigi!). Vacations are for splurges! It was so nice to be spoiled by grandma and great-grandma for the week.


We flew home on St. Patrick's Day to sleep in our own beds and pick up Halsey before we flew out again for a long weekend trip to New Orleans for a family wedding. It's too bad Pierce doesn't travel in his own seat, because he would have racked up some serious airline miles by now.

The weather was perfect in New Orleans, and we spent our days exploring Audobon Park, Audobon Zoo and Laura, a Creole plantation, outside of New Orleans. Pierce saw his old friends, the elephants, giraffes, lions, tigers, gorillas and orangutans. He also was HUGE fan of flamingos ("'mingos"), and bravely pet a boa constrictor, turtle, goats and sheep at the discovery portion of the zoo. It was a great trip!


Pierce's language is exploding and he sings his abc's, wheels on the bus and twinkle, twinkle little star, which really is "tinkle, tinkle, up so high". He repeats nearly every word we say and tries to identify his colors and letters (he's got purple and "O" down pat). He's a barrel of fun at 19 months...and we can't wait to see what's coming down the road!

Welcome Timmy Harrison!

We drove down to Bedford, NY to meet Timothy Beck Harrison on Saturday! Timothy is 2 weeks old and the son of great friends Scott and Alisa Harrison. Pierce gave Timmy a nice snuggle and even allowed mom and dad to hold Timmy for a little while before saying "Pierce's Mama" or "Pierce's Dada" and asking to be picked up. Pierce loved the little baby toys that were out, and spent some time trying to squeeze under the bars on the gym mat, and snuggling and going "night-night" in Timmy's lounge chair.
Timmy is adorable and Scott and Alisa are over the moon! We can't wait for our future adventures together.

Growing Up!

We had Pierce's 18 month check up last week and he continues to be a bruiser size-wise. He is 34.5 inches tall and weighs 31 pounds. Geesh, no wonder my biceps are bulging! His vocabulary is growing every day and some of his new favorite words are "messy", "tall", "whoa", and he's attempting all of the colors--"boo" (blue) seems to be his preferred color as of now. It's pretty amazing that he tries to repeat any word he hears, and attempts to speak in full sentences, which can be frustrating for us and him at times.

He is trying to master a new skill--hopping. Though he hasn't quite gotten the feet off of the floor part down yet, he is an eager participant as you can see in the video clip. You'll also notice the ring of drool around his neck. His eye-teeth are all coming in at once and making him a drooling machine!

His new obsessions include trains and cars and spotting buses on the road! He also loves toting his stuffed animals around (Elephante or "Fante" is the favorite), and it is not uncommon to have breakfast and dinner with Fante in tow. He also loves babies, and sneaks into the infant room at daycare to visit all of the little ones. He leans in and rests his head on all of the babies before giving them a hug. Hopefully this love of babies continues when we bring home #2 permanantly in June!

He continues to be so much fun, and busy all of the time! We're constantly on our toes and constantly on the move.

Announcing...

Some very exciting news to share with everyone (though most of you already know). We are thrilled that Mini-Morris 2 will be arriving at the end of June (expected due date: June 25th)! We are keeping the gender a surprise, but have been talking to Pierce about the arrival of a new baby. He loves pointing to my belly and saying "babies, babies"! It's only 1 in there, but we can't wait for him/her to join the family. I am about 20 weeks along, and will try to take a picture to post.

Welcome 2011! (better late than never)

As I'm looking at the date I started writing this post (Jan. 4th), I am beyond embarrassed by how long it took to complete! I could give a litany of excuses, but let's just chalk it up to winter laziness. The good news is that beyond the holidays, little has happened, besides snow galore. We've spent 3 1/2 snow days at home climbing, jumping, building forts, shoveling, cooking, making play-doh, shoveling some more, and recovering from illness. It's been a long winter already, and it's only February. Good thing Halsey and I are headed to L.A. in a couple of weeks for a getaway and a little sunshine. Pierce has to wait until March to head to New Orleans for a wedding and a little warmth!

A belated Happy New Year to everyone! We have been enjoying the start to a new year, and spent time unwinding after a busy December full of parties, outings and travel. We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating in California with Nana, Pops, Liz, Chris, Foster and Uncle Drew...or according to Pierce "Doo-doo". We then continued the celebration in Winchester with a belated Christmas celebration with the Morrises. Pierce loved the Christmas tree (more than even the presents), and cried "twee, twee, twee" when we eventually had to take it down. Good thing there's always next year.



In January, we trekked to Bedford, NY to visit Scott and Alisa Harrison for their annual New Year's/housewarming party. There had been a big snowstorm the night before, so Scott, Halsey and Pierce enjoyed some playtime outside.
My New Year's resolution is to be better about updating the blog. I promise no more two month lags between posts, and some great pics of Pierce. He's coming up on 18 months....so I'm sure we'll have a stat update soon. In the meantime enjoy some slightly outdated photos!

Traveling Machine

Pierce just made another weekend flight to New Orleans to celebrate the naming of a tugboat after Marmie (the Elizabeth B). It was a nice little escape to leave cold Boston and spend 2 days in the 70 degree weather of the South. Pierce also got to meet (and charm!) some extended family that he had not met before, and make his first trip to an aquarium and a zoo. He is in love with animals right now, and regularly makes the animal sounds for a sheep, cow, cat, horse, and dog. Unbeknown to us, however, he is also working on tigers and lions! At the zoo he looked at the lion and began roaring. Much to his delight, the lion actuallly roared back. Some other favorites were the elephant, monkeys, zebras and the creme de la creme...the giraffe.


Pierce's vocabulary is growing daily and new words from just this weekend include: mine, no (hooray!), trash, giraffe, snack and tree. Wow! He's getting so big.

Meeting Gigi and Giving Thanks

Two weeks ago we traveled to Florida to meet Gigi (my grandmother) for the first time! Foster, Chris and Liz joined us on the trip and Nana met us there, too. We had a great time cavorting with the boys on the beach, swimming the day away, and visiting many of the favorite haunts of my childhood. The weather was wonderful, and the trip was waaayyy too short. We got back on Sunday and had a couple of days back in our normal routine before celebrating Thanksgiving with Marmie, Papa and Aunt Darcy in Manchester.

We were so excited to have Pierce sample his first real Thanksgiving dinner, and served him up a plate of turkey, veggies, rice, gravy and cranberry sauce. Too bad he wasn't feeling super hot and opted to eat one bite of cranberry sauce and a big bowl of cinnamon ice cream. (Guess he got Mom's sweet tooth). It was fun celebrating with family, and we managed to fit in some nice walks along Singing Beach and some paddle tennis, too.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we ventured to Smolak Farms in Andover to cut down our own Christmas tree. Pierce had a great time toddling between trees on a hillside, and we picked a beautiful one to take home. It's up and decorated (along with the rest of the house) and we're shifting our focus to the next holiday to celebrate. Can't wait to see Pierce and Foster together for Christmas this year! Hopefully I'm a little better with the blogging between now and then.