who needs pull ups?

one week without using pull ups during nap time.

now if only we can master going all night with out them.

first ER visit

we had our fist ER visit over the weekend. luckily, it wasn't something that was critical, causing us to rush around and get stressed out about. on friday evening, h was being swung by her arms in total fun, but it didn't end up being completely all fun and games. she started to cry, saying her arm hurt. h wasn't moving it at all. now, this has happened before where she says her arm hurts, but it was usually better the next day. this time it was different. she wouldn't even walk and was scared to move it. she went to bed that night in tears and passed out pretty quickly. we gave her tylenol for the pain and 99 fever. it was an all around long day for her. her daddy hung out with her earlier that day, took her to the zoo and had lots of fun. unfortunately, she got a little sick at one point and threw up in the car. we think it was a combination of her not having much in her stomach, hot outside and a windy road. she was ok after her nap and 1 and 1/2 sunbutter and jelly sandwich. at dinner, she was acting a little fussy and even turned down pizza! right after dinner, she hurt her arm.

the next morning, she woke up to say her arm hurt and she wanted to go to the doctor. amy and i really didn't know what to do. she definitely wasn't using it, but would it get better in a day like before? what if it was a hairline fracture? i took an old sling that i had and let her wear it. it made it feel better to be able to isolate it close to her body. but when we moved it, it was painful. she was happy otherwise, watching curious george on the tv, sitting on the couch. jean and kris came over and noticed that there was something not right, especially since h was flinching when they looked at it. so we called our friend kate, who is a pediatrician. she was out of town but said that we needed to take her in to get it looked at. she thought it was something called nursemaids arm, which is fixed by manipulation of the arm. told us that she would have been right over to help out if she could. amy looked it up on the google box and pretty much diagnosed it before the call. it was very nice of her to give us advice. around 11:30 am we headed over to Dell's children hospital. kate also works in the ER there and highly recommended it if H ever needed care. they knew how to handle kids, especially those in pain. it was a good dry run for us to see where the hospital was located, how to check in, etc. everyone was calm and it wasn't a true emergency. the staff were friendly and super helpful. we waited in the waiting room for about 5 mins tops. they took us back and everyone seemed to agree it was nursemaids arm from what we were describing and how H was acting. the doctor looked at us and said that she wasn't going to like what she was about to do, but if it works, it will be instant relief. they asked one of us to have her in our lap. i, the wimpy one commented that i gave birth and my job is done. amy is usually the stronger one when it comes to h getting shots, giving blood or in this case, having to twist her arm. the doctor pulled and twisted her arm and immediately felt the pop. harper cried for maybe 10 seconds and then was ok. if she wasn't better within mins, we would have to do xrays and more work up on what was going on. the doctor then said that we needed to trick her into moving her arm just to make sure. she asked if harper would give her mommy a high five. sure enough, she lifted her arm and did it. it was a miracle! it was nursemaids arm for sure. she was quite happy. it could have been because the pain was gone...or maybe it was the rainbow popsicle they gave her afterwards.

we went home and she took a nice long nap. no problems with her arm at all. it was a good learning experience for us. not only will we or anyone else swing her by her arms, but now we are familiar with the Dell children's hospital.

sweet harper

i dropped off harper the other morning and her teacher told me a sweet story. the kids often play house and will tell someone to be the dad or mommy. one of her classmates, myla, lost her mom several months ago, will often say out loud, "i don't have a mommy anymore." now that statement is sad in itself, but the other day when they were all playing house, myla said it again. the teacher said harper told her, "i have 2 mommies. you can share with me."

on this day

harper said to me...
"mom, you look so beautiful today."

cue the tears

beach bum!

harper had her first official trip to the beach a few weeks ago. i'm not going to count when we went to destin, florida because she was only 10 months old and i had what turned out to be pneumonia the entire trip. at that time, she didn't even like the way the sand felt on her feet. the feet she was not walking on yet. so this is why we are counting this trip as the first.
went to stay with some friends (and former neighbors) in corpus for a fun long weekend. they just built their house on some family land and are right on the bay. it was perfect. their daughter kendal is 4 days older than h and her mom, whose name is amy, is also a pharmacist. we always have tons of fun with them and get along really well. we went to the aquarium, able to go to k's gymnastics class, ate at some good places, made some good dinners, drank and let the girls have fun. their parents have a condo in port a as well. we stayed there sat night. h loved the beach. playing in the sand and water. her favorite thing to do was to find shells with amy. they were super cute walking down the beach together searching for big and little shells. amy would tell harper, "good eye harper!" she said h would say it back to her, "good eye mommy!" after a few minutes, h asked, "mommy, what does that mean?" she also loved running into the water with us. we would take her hand and run into the tiny waves coming in and then run away from them. she was squealing like i have never heard before. thought she was going to have a problem with the seaweed everywhere, but i think that was just me.
we can't wait to take her back to the beach in a few weeks. some friends were kind enough to let us stay in their beach house in rockport. this time, daddy and papa get to go with us. she is super excited about going with them. it is going to be a little warmer then, but i'm sure we will still have a fun time. she is already so dark and it is just the beginning of summer! it's really great to know that we have some options for places to stay at when we decide to go to the beach now. we are super lucky!

camping

h went on her 1st camping trip a few weekends ago. we actually took the pop up out when she was still a baby, but we are going to call this trip official. stayed close to home and camped at pednerales. we had a huge tent which held 2 blow up mattresses and h's little tent. she was excited. she played in the dirt, picked up rocks and sticks, roasted marshmallows, played in the water and got down and dirty. it was a nice weekend. the weather was kind to us, as we missed a huge storm and only stayed for a bit. thunder, lightning and some rain didn't stop us from setting up camp. auntie jean, kris, bryan hung out with us all weekend, with visits from hilary, amo, mel (two of their friends) and papa. i even had the chance to teach harper how to cast her kids fishing rod down by the water. she picked it up fast. i was so proud of her. you have to have good coordination to be able to do that. after a few times, she decided that she wanted to throw more rocks in water. we wore her out each day and she slept well overnight, despite the strange sounds and creatures roaming about. it got down to about 50 degrees the first night. while i was freezing, she was warm in her little tent snoring away. if you ask what her favorite part of the trip was, she will say marshmallows. one of my favorite parts was getting her to say "red rum," (in a creepy voice) with a flashlight on her face, sitting by the fire. it was recorded. it was awesome.

we hope to go on many more camping adventures in the future.

still going potty strong!

well, i guess i shouldn't say potty anymore. she goes on the big girl toilet now. she lets us know when she needs to go, averaging around every hour. occasionally, she will ask for some chocolate as a reward. i am happy to give it to her since she thinks 2 m&m's is a lot! so proud of her. still doing pull ups at night and naptime, but that takes time i guess. when we are out, she will sometimes ask to go and she doesn't really need to. that isn't so much fun. don't get me wrong. i am NOT going to complain.

no more diapers!! no more diaper rash!! yay!