Special Edition: my first trip to the zoo by Emily Harrison

Today's blog is told by Emily...she took her first trip to the MN Zoo and loved it!  We bought a membership for the year, so we'll have many more adventures, but this first one was pretty fun!

Today I got to see lots of animals at the MN Zoo.  We started with watching the dolphin show.  Those dolphins were amazing and are trained so well, much better than mom and dad have Sammy and Maggie trained!  They were very fast and jumped very high.  The dolphins also liked to play with balls and eat fish.

Mommy and me at the dolphin show

The funny dolphin

After that we got to do look at the other water creatures.  We saw fish, sharks and sting rays!  Mom and dad said I was too young to touch the sharks this time, but I will get to do that another time.  We also saw some bright fishes that live in the coral reef.  They were very pretty!

It's a little dark, but the fish tank was bright and colorful!

From there we went to see some African penguins.  They were fast swimmers and fun to watch!

We then went to see the snow monkeys.  Lots of the snow monkeys had babies like me!  They were so cute and we even saw some babies chasing each other and playing parkour off the walls.  It was fun to watch them!

Mommy and me looking at the monkeys

We then saw a lot of other animals, but one of my favorite were the pretty flamingos.  Daddy and I liked looking at them together.

We also saw wolverines that were pretty cool.  They reminded me of honey badgers!

Then mommy and I compared our wingspans to birds.  Hers was a lot bigger than mine was, but it was still fun!

The last animals we saw were cougars and lynxes.  They were very big!

It was too cold today to see all of the animals, but I can't wait to go back to the zoo and see them.  Mom said we can go back before she has to go to work and lots when it gets warmer out!  I had a super fun day and got really tired after our big adventure. 

Mom and dad are going to go out to eat tonight so I plan on napping when grandma Val comes to babysit!
More to come!
Emily

And in this corner...

We have Emily Lynn Harrison weighing in at 12 pounds 11 ounces and measuring 24 inches.  Wow!  That's one healthy baby : )

I'm 2 months old!!!

Emily is officially 2months old and today was her 2 month check up.  She's doing great!  She is in the 90th percentile for weight and the 95th percentile for length.  Yikes!  She's going to take after her dad I guess.  She is so alert these days and is providing Patrick and I with hours of entertainment.  Today was a milestone that I will not forget.  The doctor put her on the table to do a physical examination.  She laid Emily on her tummy and Emily immediately picked her head up and, wait for it, ROLLED OVER!  It was pretty exciting.  Apparently she has done it one other time as well, but only Patrick saw it.  The doctor said that she is acting more like a 4 month old!  She also received 4 shots at this visit which neither Emily, Patrick or myself were very happy about.

Enjoying  time on the playmat

Since I wrote last, Emily has also started sleeping much better.  She's been sleeping for 11-12 hours only waking up once to eat.  This new sleeping pattern has made for a much happier mom and dad : ).

Sleeping with dad : )

Getting ready for bed with mom!

Over the past few weeks we have been staying busy meeting new friends and enjoying this amazingly uncharacteristic weather.  Emily's new friends include Charlotte, Harper and Griffin.  She also got to meet aunt Theresa and cousin Michelle.  And with Michelle expecting her own bundle of joy this summer, Emily and I are excited to meet another new friend in July!  Emily also finally got to meet uncle Austin and take her first walk outside in the stroller!

Coming up, we have a full, exciting weekend of birthday plans for myself and we are going to take baby's first roadtrip next weekend to visit aunt Karen and uncle Marcus in Chicago.  Only a few more weeks of leave left and I find myself feeling more and more attached to Emily each day.  Going back to work is going to be very hard!!

Great Grandpa Wayne

Em loves uncle P

We're looking forward to the next couple of weeks of "firsts" and will try to do better with updating the blog in a more timely fashion.

More to come!
The Harrisons

New sounds

Emily has been making a number of new sounds besides crying!  I'm obviously more than a little partial to them, but they're pretty cute!  Take a listen below!

Emily's starting to give us smiles and laughs and we can't believe how much she's changing.  They're a little hard to distinguish in this video, but we wanted to share something!   Emily's an elusive one...I will continue to attempt to capture her new noises and facial expressions and share them!  But for now, enjoy what we've got!  Emily also likes visitors and going places, so if you want to experience the fun new changes in person, just let us know : )

More to come!
The Harrisons

Riniging in 2012 with a ONE MONTH old!

Well, 2011 was probably the best year I've had so far. Here's a brief breakdown of the greatness!

It started in January with a trip to Vegas with great friends to celebrate our 30th birthdays!

The birthday kids!

Patrick and I...great birthday gift.  Love you Patrick!!

In March Patrick and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by going out for sushi.  We were hoping it would be our last chance to enjoy sushi for a while and we were right : )

In April, on April 1st to be exact, we found out we were pregnant.  It was the beginning of the greatest journey of our lives!!  We also took a trip to Mexico courtesy of Patrick's employer.  It was beautiful and relaxing, but Mexico is a very different place when you're 8 weeks pregnant : )

Mexico!

In May, my sister married a wonderful man that truly compliments her.  I couldn't be more happy for them and, selfishly, for me...it's nice to have a brother-in-law that you like and get along with!

The summer was full of fun activities from a family outing to a Twins game to a fun trip to Izaty's resort on Lake Mille Lacs.  We also resided our garage and got to meet our friends new baby, Abigail Nolby!!  Patrick completed his first half marathon in August and Emily and I are looking forward to cheering him on in 2012 for more races!

Go Twinkies!!

Phil and Donette's wedding

Welcome baby Abby!!

Congratulations Patrick!!

The fall brought wonderful memories from the State Fair, a trip to Grand View Lodge (again, thanks REACH!), my cousin's wedding, my baby showers, bed rest and Thanksgiving.  It was the first year that I didn't run the Turkey Trot thanks to indecisive Emily!

And of course December was the most monumental time of my life.  The arrival of Emily has completely changed my life and I'm loving it.  It really is true what people say; I never knew I could love someone so much.  It's an overwhelming, all encompassing love.

My new family!

Our New Years celebration was fun as well.  We began the celebration at Stefanie and Josh's house with dinner.  We had a great time and Emily had Abby to celebrate with as well!  We then continued to Jeremy and Matt's house and had a good time even though Emily was dominating most of our attention.

New Years Eve at Abby's house

With the end of 2011 came Emily's one month birthday!  She has changed so much in one month!  She is so much more alert than she was a month ago.  Her hair seems to be lightening up a little from a dark brown to more of a medium brown and her dark blue eyes are striking!!

BIRTH day : )

One month old

One month old...still likes her tongue out : )

One month celebration at Grandma B and Grandpa T's house!

With 2012 here, I am anticipating another life changing year.  By this time next year, Emily will probably be taking her first steps and speaking her first words.  The thought of that is unbelievable.  I can't wait to see what the future brings for my new family!

Happy 2012 to all.
Definitely more to come!
The Harrisons