goodbye 2012

some highlights of december:

- harper's first trail of lights with friends joining in the fun
- weekend in new braunfels at a friends river house
- making christmas cut out cookies (twice!)
- one week visit with grandfather and grammy
- holiday dinner in sun city with grandma marie and grandpa ted
- gift explosion on christmas morning for harper
- harper beginning to babble. saying hi and buh bye
- receiving lots of christmas cards/photos
- reading christmas letters that included harper from various family members
- we finally found and tried the filipino food trailer! yum!

looking forward to a wonderful 2013. bring it!

thanksgiving

we had a wonderful thanksgiving again this year. 23 people and a baby sat around the ping pong table in the garage. things went pretty smoothly, i have to say. harper was happy to have her framily entertain her all day long. each time i saw her, she was with someone different. it is nice seeing her interact with everyone and also nice to get a little break too. harper also had a chance to spend time with amy's mom and bill. they visited us for a week over the holiday. we are looking forward to seeing amy's dad and rhoda over christmas too.

we are thankful for so much in our lives. i hope harper realizes just how much we and everyone around her love her.

hi mama

i came home yesterday and as soon as i walked through the front door, harper looked straight at me and said, "hi mama!" it was so clear! it was so sweet. it made me smile. she walked over to me and gave me a hug.

i love her!

bossy pants

auntie jean watched harper sat night while we went to our first UT football game. she gave her dinner and put her to sleep. jean heard about all of the babysitters having such success i think it made her a little nervous. come to find out, harper basically told jean what do and when, pointing at various things. she pointed to her mouth when it was time to eat. she told jean she was all done with reading and pointed to her crib. she is pretty much awesome. i'm allowed to say that, right? auntie jean texted in excitement saying she is part of the no crying club now since harper went to sleep so easily.
we love that she feels comfortable with others and is such an easy baby. fingers crossed it continues this way!

14 months old

our little girl is getting so big. i can't even remember what it was like when she used to crawl around.

we went to a concert last weekend while kerry and harris watched harper. very kind of them to volunteer and brave to want to put her to sleep. the last time someone put harper to sleep other than amy or myself, she had to cry it out. it was only for about 8 mins but auntie jean felt bad. that was four months ago and i just finished breastfeeding too. she wants to redeem herself since kerry had such success. after reading a few books, she said harper fell fast asleep. everyone was happy. we had a fabulous time at the concert and harper was happy with her babysitters.

she is soaking everything in. she understands what we are saying, responds to us and observes everything around her. it is amazing to watch.

and she is off!

we have an official walker on our hands. granted, she walks like a zombie with her arms down by her side, but it sure is cute. it is amazing to watch her develop. i'm glad she has padding on her bum because she still walks like she is drunk at times too. she is probably enjoying her outside time at school now that she is mobile. they go out twice a day for playtime. so far she still sits in her high chair when we go out to eat and stays in the shopping cart. i've heard that i should enjoy that now, since she soon will want to go go go!

i like it when harper...

makes the sign for water and holds one finger to her lips.

barks like a dog. you can ask her, "what does a dog say?" and she will make a cute high pitched noise twice.

gives hugs and kisses. especially when she blows kisses to random people. her kisses now have sound.

falls asleep in my arms at night after reading a book.

gets excited to see auntie jean.

gives high fives!

laughs at mommy so hard that she gets the hiccups.

our family in seattle

we had a wonderful trip to see the family in seattle last week. we took a 4 hour direct flight to seattle friday night. it was at 6:15pm, so we thought harper would be tired (considering she is usually asleep by 7:30pm) and sleep the entire time. nope. she was up for 3 hours and finally fell over during the last hour of the flight. it was challenging trying to entertain her for that long but we had snacks, books and the ipad. after arriving around 1030pm our time, uncle reeves (lee's brother) picked us up and took us back to their house. the boys were asleep and we stayed up for a bit talking and playing with harper. not sure how or why, but she was wide awake and sat with us til about 1am our time. it was probably a good thing she did that because she was on regular schedule from then on. pretty awesome considering it is a 2 hour time difference.
we had an awesome trip. we were able to hang out with the family, the weather was perfect (75 in the day, 60 at night) and the cousins were able to play together. reeves and ashley were perfect hosts. it was nice that the kids were pretty much on the same schedule as far as eating, sleeping and napping. that made things so much easier.
gran (lee's mom) was even able to spend some quality time with her grandaughter. she organized a perfect day at the park on sunday. we grilled out, ate lots and played. we saw lee's cousin carolyn again, met john's cousin and family, lee's friend and family and even met ashley's parents. it was a day of fun. the kids powered through by only napping for 20 mins in the car ride home. they had lots of fun being spoiled by everyone around them.
tuesday ashley's mom and gran watched the kids while the big kids went to play. we went wine tasking. started off with a yummy breakfast and bloody mary. ended with a headache. totally worth it though. we had a fun time going to 3 different wineries. the weather was perfect, sunny and 72. the kids behaved for the grandparents too. overall a good day for everyone. it was the first time i was able to really enjoy myself. not only did i know that harper was in good hands, i was able to drink without worrying about any breastfeeding issues since i stopped on 8/1.
this vacation certainly made up for my pnuemonia, fever, headache of a vacation to florida. did i mention that i felft awful the entire time?
we miss everyone in seattle already. wish we all lived closer together.

happy 1st birthday!

harper had a fun birthday extravaganza weekend. on saturday morning we went to the long center for bubblepalooza. there were lots of kids running around blowing bubbles and lots of music to entertain them. auntie jean came with us and we met our old neighbors there as well. harper was able to see her best friend kendall, who is 4 days older. it was close to nap time so we started walking to the car but she fell fast asleep. we made a last minute decision to walk across the bridge and eat at jo's. she slept on our walk over and even after we arrived at the restaurant. we all had a nice brunch together. that girl can eat her weight in pancakes. we went home to prepare for the bday gathering of the framily.
everyone was able to come to her first bday party, which made it even more special. we made fajitas and margaritas. there were balloons and a few decorations but lots of fun gifts! harper of course had her first piece of cake all to herself. we made a yummy banana cake with cream cheese icing. she was not shy about digging into it at all. actually, we had to take it away from her at one point. i think she was storing some in her cheeks for later. we thought she was either not going to be able to go to sleep from the sugar or throw up at some point in the middle of the night. neither came true! the gang had a chance to see her enjoy the gifts, food and company.
the next morning we gathered at cherrywood cafe on the eastside. the exact same place we met the morning i had her. i think it will become a tradition to meet for breakfast there the sunday before her bday. we enjoyed some breakfast tacos while harper went to town on a bagel. she is our little carb-o-holic. after a quick stop at costco while she slept in the car, we went home and headed back out for some pool time at deep eddy. she played in the water with daddy, papa, bryan, mommy and even some of her new toys. it was a nice relaxing afternoon.
our weekend came to an end after we went to our friends house for kendall's 1 year celebration. it was nice because we were the only people invited besides the grandparents, so harper and kendall were able to have a playdate. kendall wasn't as excited to dig into her cake like harper. she touched the icing and refused to eat or touch the cake. happer wanted to demonstrate how to do it, but we didn't let her.
her first birthday was exciting and i hope she enjoyed every minute of it. i on the other hand couldn't wait to go to work on monday to rest. : )

no more pears?

at dinner last night, we noticed that harper started turning red around her mouth. she has the random hives and red spots (she gets that from me) every once in awhile, so we didn't really get worried. she was only eating pears at the time. she has had cooked pears since she started eating solids, but only raw pears one time before this. i do have to add that we gave her a taste of peanut butter for the first time, but i am 99.9% sure that we gave it to her after her mouth started to turn red.

then her upper lip started to swell. then there was red and white splotchyness happening around her mouth. then her eye became swollen. it was scary. we made sure she could breath ok the entire time, but we just didn't know what to do. do we take her to the hospital? do we just give her benedryl? it didn't seem to be getting worse so we finally decided to give her benedryl and give her a bath, so we could wash whatever it was off of her face. she was crying, but it was a fussy cry, not a "i'm in pain cry." we changed her into her sleepy clothes and amy rocked her in the chair in her room. she was asleep in minutes. amy held her for a little bit, then i wanted to hold her just to make sure it wasn't getting worse or that she didn't have trouble breathing. i laid her down to sleep in her crib and watched her closely in the monitor. amy even went into her room a few hours later to made sure she was ok.

was it the pears? was she extra sensitive due to getting shots earlier that morning? was it the peanut butter? it was a stressful evening and very hard to see her cute little face so swollen. how in the world are we going to handle the blood and broken bones? ugh. we did ok as a team, on the same page as far as what to do. thank goodness amy is the calm one.

she slept for her usual 11 hours and woke up happy. her eye was still slightly swollen, so we gave her more benedryl before going to school. i told the girls to keep an eye on her and to let us know if she starts to swell again. i will probably call them around lunch time. i hope to see a cute non-swollen face when i get home from work.

look, no hands!

she did it! she stood up on her own. last sat we met her daddy and papa at barton springs for a nice relaxing afternoon. i was laying on the ground and she was climbing on me as usual. but this time she pushed off and was standing on her own. i was in such a shock i could barely get the words out for someone else to pay attention to what was happening. after i finally yelled out (not sure what i said) to the others, she was smiling, so proud of what she was doing. she fell forward, hands first onto me and then pushed up again to stand. everyone had a tear in their eye. she couldn't have picked a better moment to show us her new trick.

are you ready for bedtime?

last night was officially the first day of not breastfeeding harper in almost one year. it was definitely a strange moment having to kiss her goodnight as she sat in the chair with amy to read a book. for one year, i have been sitting with her every night, nursing her to sleep. i am going to miss that special time with her. i get to say goodbye to breast pads, nursing bras and hello to caffeine and being able to have more than one drink. amy was a little nervous last night but they both did so well. she sat with her, read a book or two, rocked her and then laid her down in her crib. she fell right to sleep. she has been sleeping in over the past 4 days. instead of getting us up at 5:30 to 6am, she has been waking up at 6:30 to 6:45am. a huge difference for us. fingers crossed she continues this new trend of sleeping in. harper is becoming a big girl. i hope night number 2 goes just as smooth.

goodbye breastfeeding

last night was the last time nursing harper. i'm pretty happy that i got thru an entire year of breastfeeding. granted, she had to have some bottles of formula/breastmilk during day for a few months, but overall i am happy i was able to provide for her for so long. when i nurse her at night, she basically gets super relaxed and half asleep by the time we are finished. it is extremely easy to put her to sleep. and so begins a new bedtime routine. will she sleep? will she miss nursing? is she even going to notice? guess we will find out tonight. the last two nights she has not been very interested in nursing, so i have had to lay her down pretty much awake. she fussed for a few minutes but realized she was pretty tired and laid down to sleep. so maybe it will not be so bad. lots of people and books say that the dad/partner should put them to sleep so she will not associate me with nursing and bedtime. again, i don't think she will really notice.
what in the world will i do without having to breastfeed anymore? shots? happy hour here i come! maybe she will even let others put her to bed so amy and i can have date nights. it's a pretty big change.
i was able to go out on my own last night while amy stayed home with harper. she is part of the slow readers book club that meets once a month, so ms. kerry had a wonderful idea of us starting our own club. it is a perfect way for me to be able to get some mommy alone time. we went to the whip in for a drink. i realized last night that it has been a year since i have been out without amy or harper (minus a concert that i went to with auntie jean). cheers to ms. kerry for thinking about me.

sign language

We are trying to teach harper sign language and it is so amazing that she understands what you are saying. Right now we use the sign for more, milk, change diaper and water. She recognizes the sign and completely understands what we are saying. We haven’t seen her sign until last night. The daycare she goes to taught her how to say please. It was awesome. She was pointing to her water as she was grunting. I asked her to say please and she put her tiny hand to her chest and made the please sign.
She is a mess these days. So fun to be around because she totally understands what is going on. Last night we went out to eat with her daddy and papa across the street at the Indian restaurant. She was flirting and being completely silly, doing things we have never seen before. We couldn’t help but just sit and laugh at her. At least she was in a good mood? Overall we had a fun weekend, including going to a children’s music show and swimming at deep eddy. I can’t believe she is going to be 1 year old in 2 weeks. We are trying to plan a bday weekend extravaganza. Nothing fancy and hopefully not overwhelming for her too. Anywhere there is music and/or food, harper is always happy.

milk is good!

she is officially drinking milk! she had no problem switching over too. we had to find the right sippy cup, but otherwise it was pretty easy. she is such an easy baby. we have to remind ourselves of this.
she also has a tooth and a half on the bottom. it is super cute. i think the second bottom tooth cut through the gums this week. again, we are thankful she did not get up in the middle of the night crying in pain. i've heard lots of horror stories.
i really really really can't believe she is going to be one year old in a few weeks!!

change is a good thing

lots of changes happened over the weekend. i stopped the morning nursing session, which is really strange. now we give her a sippy cup of milk and formula along with a snack cup of cheerios. she LOVES her snack cup. she seemed to be ok with the changes. we bought a few new cups for her to try out too since we are officially done with bottles. yay! no more bottles to clean. wait, now we have to wash sippy cups. oh well. the switch over to milk seems to be going well too. organic, lactose free, whole milk. over the next few weeks the amount of milk will increase and formula will decrease. eventually, i will also wean her of the nursing session at bedtime. i really can't wrap my head around trying to put her to sleep without nursing her, but we will have to deal with that when the time comes. hopefully bath time, a book and some milk with make her just as sleepy.
we also bought a new car seat this weekend too. the convertible seat is a more comfortable and larger seat for her. when she turns two, she will be able to face forward too. this will be helpful instead of both of us carring the infant car seat in and out of the car when we drop/pick her off at school. i actually pulled a muscle carrying it the other day. that was fun. perfect timing with my coughing pneumonia fits.
she was in a really good mood this weekend. her appetite was back. bath time was so much better without the screaming and she got some good quality time with her daddy and papa too. harper amazes us every day.

harpsichord

harper is changing ever minute. physically and mentally. sometimes we will look at her and say, "she looks different today." from being able to eat on her own to crawling around, we can't keep up with this little girl.
she has been on a few trips since i last wrote. we flew to kansas to see our dear friends get married. it was a challenging weekend with our first stay in a hotel. we didn't have any fancy toys, high chairs or swings to entertain her. we made it through with the help of the framily entertaining her and helping us out in every possible way. she also went on her first long road trip. we drove to destin florida. it was a long trip, especially since i was sick the ENTIRE time (i had pneumonia). don't get me started. i will need a separate blog just to talk about how sick i have been this year. even though we were in the car for up to 6-8 hours, she did well. poor amy had to entertain her a lot in the back seat since i drove most of the way. i get car sick and it is really hard for me to entertain. it was nice spending time with amy's brother, wife and the twins. i can't believe they are 3 years old already! we even drove thru new orleans. it was my first time there, but i really was not able to enjoy the food or scenery with a fever of 100 degrees and constant headache. destin beach was beautiful as well. harper didn't like the feeling of sand between her toes though. i hope that will change.
little miss has been extremely picky with her food. so picky that she likes to spit things out that she dislikes. funny for a second, but then frustrating the next. she loves her carbs though. that girl could eat an entire baguette if we let her. i think the pickyness has to do with her teeth. she decided to cut her first tooth while on vacation too. she seems to eat a lot at school, but not very much at dinner. soon she will be drinking milk and breastfeeding and formula will be a thing of the past. lots of changes coming up!

i'm growing!

harper's 9 month (she is really almost 10 months) check up went well. she is 50th percentile in weight (18lb) and height (27 inches), 75th in head circumference. her head is the exact same shape as her dad. we are hoping she got his brains too. the doctor was pleased overall.

she moved into a new room this week. she went from being a lamb to a turtle. most of the kids in this room are able to crawl and move around. lots to see and do in that room. it is full with 2 teachers and 8 babies. she is exhausted when she gets home. they say she crawls around and stands up all day long.

i can't believe she is going to be one year old soon. so much is going to change. no more breastfeeding, she will be drinking milk, eating most of the foods we eat and maybe only taking one nap at day at that point. it's going to be strange and exciting all at the same time.

madison, georgia

in may we went to visit amy's mom (meme) and bill. we always enjoy visiting
the cute historical town of madison georgia. our visits remind us of
staying at a resort because we certainly get spoiled while we are there.
great food, wine on the porch, swimming in the pool, etc. oh the porch!
don't get me started on how wonderful the front porch is. sitting in the
comfy chairs while the fans are going with a glass of wine in your hand,
waving to the people as they pass by. i made my request for the best fried
chicken ever and couldn't wait to get there!
harper's first plane ride could not have been more perfect. or maybe i
should say we got really lucky? she didn't seem to get upset when i woke
her up at 4am to feed her. we headed to the airport and crossed our fingers
that everything would go smoothly. besides me getting pulled aside to be
checked both times, it went well. i nursed her during take off and landing in hopes that the pressure did not hurt her ears. we entertained her and gave her some snacks. fellow passengers even commented that she was an angel. but i am sure they would be saying otherwise if she was screaming the entire time.
they were having a house tour while we were there which was a wonderufl treat. the houses were walking distance so we strolled to a few houses a day. all houses were historical and beautiful! meme is usually very involved in this tour so she knew all about each house and introduced us to everybody in town!
the trip was wonderful and very relaxing. mom/jan made it super easy for us borrowing a high chair, toys, pack and play, bouncer and other things that made harper feel at home. i miss sitting on the front porch and hanging out on the back sun room. harper can't wait to go back. she misses her meme and bill.

yep, she is crawling!

mom/jan (aka meme) has stated that harper officially crawled at her house last weekend. this is true. we witnessed a few knee scoots, but she was limited that day due to wearing a dress that day.
on wed, harper's teachers told amy that she crawled across the room. when we got home, she wasn't interested in it all. but yesterday, we all played in the living room and she was moving around like she had been crawling for weeks! her new adventures have even made her more vocal too. it was exciting, cute and now it is scary! we need to baby proof the house!
she decided to practice her new tricks by waking up at 5:20am this morning. i looked in the monitor and could see that she was standing, holding on to the rail. she would stand up, sit down, look around, clap her hands and played quietly in the dark for about 1 hour. didn't talk, didn't cry.
and so begins an entirely different adventure for all of us.

in the evenings...

evenings can get kind of hectic for us at times. by the time we get home, it seems like we have such a small window to get in some quality harper time. it usually involves us making dinner, getting her dinner ready, feeding her, bath time then nursing her to sleep. last night was an exceptionally busy one.
we both got home around 5pm. i played with harper while amy started on making some apples and pears for her. she also made some brownies for her teachers at school. it is teacher appreciation week. 6pm, amy took H and i started on dinner. we had pork chops and mock mashed "cauliflower" potatoes. we all sat down to eat together, as we do every evening. H had some sweet potatoes w/ rosemary and blueberries. note to self...blueberries are messy! she liked them, but my oh my are they not fun to clean up. 6:45pm, i played with H a little longer while amy cleaned the kitchen. we also made a nice little care package for the teachers at school. then it was 7pm. bath time! after a nice bath in her new big girl tub i nursed her to sleep and then headed outside to mow the backyard around 7:45pm. amy was tending to the garden and the fallen jasmine while i mowed the high grass, trimmed and pulled weeds until i could not see a thing anymore. by that time, amy had finished washing both dogs! wow, i am tired just writing about what we got accomplished last night. 9:15pm and we were headed upstairs with H still fast asleep. i ironed my work clothes as i do every night and got ready for bed. 9:45pm my head hit the pillow and i don't think i moved until the alarm at 5:45am.
i think we will take it easy tonight.

reasons why i can't wait to stop pumping/breastfeeding

* i can get rid of my nursing bras

* i don't have to wear pads that go along w/ the bras

* we can get a babysitter and maybe have a date night once she can be put to bed by someone else

* i can have more than 1 drink at a time

* no more pumping at work

* harper will hopefully be eating what we are eating by then

* did i mention that i can have more than one drink?

* i can drink caffeine again


so it has been almost 9 months since i started breastfeeding. i have been pumping for about 4 months. overall, i have enjoyed breastfeeding because there is nothing like being able to be that close to your child and knowing you are providing her with all that she needs to become a healthy, happy baby. but man oh man, it is tough. i am blessed that she took to it on day one in the hospital. those are the toughest days, usually when most mothers give up. you are faced with trying to feed a newborn and process everything else at the same time. most babies lose weight, become jaundice and are expected to thrive on breastmilk alone. having the babies latch on is also an entirely different challenge you are faced with. talk about some painful moments in the beginning. i used to look at other mothers feeding their children formula in a bottle, jealous of how easy that must be. not having to worry about if you could find a place to breastfeed in public, the pain you experienced every time she latched on, the pain from being engorged and being able to share the duties of feeding. when we used to feed every 3 hours, i used to think that it would never end. every 3 hours, over and over and over again. and it was all you. as much as amy wanted to help in the middle of the night, she couldn't.
pumping became my enemy at one point. i was having trouble at first and mostly psyching myself out. i just couldn't comprehend tyring to pump in between feeding harper every 3 hours. mentally i was exhausted. having a personal lactation consultant was definitely helpful. thanks kriss! once i began to go back to work, the pumping turned out ok. i pump twice a day at work, but still needed to supplement her bottles with some formula. lately, i haven't been successful when i pump. it has been very frustrating. could it be from the stress of the upcoming trip? or am i mentally blocking myself again? or maybe i am not drinking enough water. it is 94 degrees outside today, after all. i'm hoping to stop pumping after all of our vacations, around july 1st. then we will be transitioning her to real milk at that point. i can see the light. i will continue to breastfeed her in the morning and evening. there is going to be one big celebration on the day i stop breastfeeding. it may involve me drinking the entire day so i think we may need a babysitter. : )
i do know one thing. i am doing this for harper and that is one big enough reason to power thru all of the challenges i am faced with.

lolo and lola

harper is enjoying the time with her lolo and lola. she is sad that it took them 8 months to meet them, but is enjoying her time with them. they love to sing and dance with her. mom is constantly loving on her...well, actually annoying her in a cute way. she likes to pinch harper's nose. sometimes she will laugh and other times she will grunt at her. it makes us laugh. i think they too are enjoying her time with little miss. come to think of it, i don't think i have ever seen my father hold a baby. in the mornings i usually hand harper off to amy after i feed her so i can finish getting ready for work. it is their fun time in bed before she gets ready for school. since lolo and lola have been here, they have been taking her and entertaining her in their room. i like hearing the laughter from my parents in the guest room when they are with her. it's nice. i hope she gets to see more of them.

harper's first easter!

harper had a wonderful easter. she was able to spend time with her grandfather and grammy (bob and rhoda), gran (merrily) and meet her wisconsin family (john's sister and family). she got showered with lots of lovely easter gifts, of course. grandma marie made a really cool giraffe for her that everyone tried to steal. she now has lots of cute outfits for the summer too.
we went to our annual easter celebration out at sibby's and shelley's. wonderful as ever. the weather was picture perfect, great food and surrounded by family and friends. it certainly was different this year with harper, making sure she ate, got her nap in, etc. luckily, the grandparents offered to stroll her around while she napped so amy and i could eat. she had a super cute dress and bonnet on. you couldn't resist wanting to take a picture of her. it was like the paparazzi was out in blanco snapping pictures of her.
overall it was a busy but fun weekend. i'm still tired but have to prepare for the upcoming visit from MY PARENTS!

my first official wave

dropped harper off at daycare as usual ths morning. hugged and kissed her goodbye and handed her to miss jill, but today i walked away and waved at her. she gave me the cutest wave goodbye...it almost made me cry! she still looks like she is dribbling a basketball, but it is super cute.

family time!

harper will be meeting many more of her extended family over the easter holiday weekend, but she will be able to see Gran, Grandfather and Grammy again too. it is going to be a busy but fun time.
this past weekend, she met her (2nd) cuzzin Paolo. she can't wait to try new foods and hang out with him on his annual jerry jeff walker concert visits to austin. he even invited us all out to his cabin getaway in north carolina...yay!
told her to be nice to him and maybe he will make some of his homemade tasty ice creams on his next visit.

pit crew team success!

we had our first restaurant explosion, let's get her to the bathroom, need to change her entire outfit experience. not the last i'm sure, but it was hilarious.
harper was playing with her toys between us in a booth. amy wanted to praise her on how good she was being. well, as soon as she placed her hand on her back, there was a surprise waiting for her. amy looked up at me and said, "uh oh!" we politely excused ourselves to the bathroom and luckily we were in a nice restaurant that had a private and very clean bathroom. we worked together like a pit crew changing the tires on a race car.
i held her
amy took off her clothes
i rinsed her in the sink
amy wiped her off
we changed her diaper and
put on new clothes
meanwhile, harper thought it was hilarious laughing the entire time. not sure why exactly but we didn't mind at all. it may have been because amy and i were laughing and saying things like, "gross, ewwww and oh my gosh!" it went so smoothly, amy and i gave each other a high five before we exited the bathroom. i have to admit that i am kinda glad i was able to have a happy hour cocktail prior to the experience.

do the wave!

it's official. we called it yesterday. harper can now wave. it is a whole hand wave up and down, almost like she is dribbling a basketball. very cute.

crawling

little miss harper is so close to crawling. she continues to get on her hands and knees, looks up at us and has no idea what to do next. except get frustrated and sit back down. last night she was rocking back and forth, but no forward movement. not that we are in a hurry for her to start moving around. can't really imagine how things are going to change once she is mobile. oh no! we need to baby proof the house!
on top of that she is about to cut a tooth any day now. she is drooling like a faucet, poor thing. not in a hurry for that either since i am still breastfeeding.
oh the new adventures to look forward to.

adventures in solids

the following is a list of foods harper has tried so far:

carrots
parsnips
potato
turnip
butternut squash
peas
asparagoose!
sweet potato
acorn squash
pear
apple
avocado
pineapple

i think her favorite is the butternut squash so far. she makes the funniest faces with the fruits, especially when they are tart. as far as the asparagus goes, it will be much better when we can add olive oil, salt and pepper to it. she realized half way through that she really didn't like it. oddly enough it can take a child 10-15 times of trying something to begin to like or dislike it. amy (mommy) has been doing an amazing job making all of her food.
yogurt and meats are next month. can't wait! actually can't wait for her to be able to eat what we are eating. going out to restaurants and giving her our food, etc. we are close...so close.

her new trick

guess who is clapping? it began as a pat on the shoulder or your hand, but now she likes to clap! especially when you sing the chicken dance. it also requires you to do the moves to the dance as well. she loves, loves, loves to hear music and listen to someone sing. that is a hint to anyone that eventually babysits her. even the girls at daycare comment how she enjoys the musical toys in her room. that's our girl! i think she has excellent rhythm already, if i do say so myself.

yes, i know...

it's been a long time since i last posted and a lot has happened since then. i want to be able to catch up so i can write about what is going on with her on a daily basis. let's see...where do i start?
- the nanny ditched us 3 days before starting
- we scrambled to find a daycare
- found a daycare, got the last open infant spot only to find out they were not recommended by 2 different people
- cuzin jay visited to meet harper
- had our first christmas together. auntie jean came over. we ALL ate, pooped, napped and watched t.v.
- had our first trip over new years. had a long weekend in the cabins at juniper hills farm
- harper met her seattle cuzins, aunt ashley and uncle reeves.
- amy and i were able to go to a movie while daddy and papa babysat
- started daycare
- got both of us sick with diarrhea and possibly a cold
- she got her first runny nose/cold daycare ickyness
- we got sick again with sinusitis, bronchitis and conjunctivitis
- she is sitting up now
- rode in the shopping cart for the first time
- everybody is adjusting to daycare. i drop her off, amy picks her up
- sometimes harper sleeps for 10 hours! well, that includes an occasional visit with the pacifier, but i'll take it
- started on rice cereal and solids. she enjoys the vegetables more than the fruits
- can't believe she is 6 months old!