Monday, August 20, 2012

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. : )

Thursday, August 16, 2012

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.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

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.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

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.