Harper's 5 Month Birthday!

Harper is 5 months today! It was mommy's first day back to work so Harper got to spend the morning with daddy and most of the afternoon with "glamma."  It turned out to be a gorgeous day so when mommy got done with work we celebrated with some fun in the sun!  Harper loves to glam it up poolside like her mom.  She's such a diva already.

Harper Rolls Over!

Today was a monumental day at the Siegel house.  Harper rolled over for the first time on her own!  Tummy time is paying off as Harper continues to grow stronger everyday.  Below is a link to a video of her playing on her play mat and rolling over.

Harper Rolls Over

Harper is also quite the talker.  She takes after her mom and dad in that respect.  She loves to tell us stories in her own language of baby babble.  Below are a few videos of her hanging out with mommy and daddy and talking away.

Harper Babbles

Harper Tries to Say "I Love You"

Harper Tells a Mean Story

Morning Talk With Mom

Harper Coos

Daddy's First Post!

My First Post

When Ryane first told me she was staring a blog I have to admit I was more than a little skeptical. For me blogging fell into the superficial, self indulgent, derivative literary gray area right along with tweeting, facebooking and cryptic texting. I did however start to see the benefits when after explaining, for the 300^th time, what had happened with Harper’s birth and the reasons behind Ryane’s complications I realized that I could direct all inquires to “our” blog where there was a concise personal and clinical explanation of Ryane’s condition and the reason for the early arrival of baby girl. All of a sudden this four letter word that I had avoided for so long was popping out of my mouth with alarmingly regularity. “When are you going to bring in some pictures of your baby?”  BLOG  “What did you say the name of Ryane’s condition was again?” BLOG  “How long was your baby at birth?” BLOG. Just like that I was singing the praises of our little piece of the internet like an art school drop out temporarily working at Starbucks while promoting their BLOG. The problem was I was taking credit for this creation and not really contributing to it……at all. I would help Ry every once in awhile come up with a caption for a pictures or comment on the theme of the homepage but that was pretty much it. I was the Christopher Columbus of the blogosphere claiming a discovery that wasn’t really mine and I was starting to feel a little guilty. The worst part is I’m supposed to be the writer in the family. I am the one working on the book and no it’s still not done. So I have to apologize to everyone who thought I was the man behind the blog and I have to apologize to my wife for not doing the one thing she asked me to do. She is an amazing person and has fallen into motherhood with the grace that few can. Watching her with Harper has brought me more joy than I thought was possible. She is selfless and wonderful and has managed to document so much in her, yes her, blog while running on minimal sleep, keeping a clean house, working out regularly and being a supportive wife to a neurotic and compulsive husband who never posted a word on the family blog. Lenghtly explanation for a first post but I thought I should clear a few things up before I started. I feel better now and ready to shed my preconceived notions about the medium and commit to contributing at least once a month so here we go……..

 I sat and had a long conversation with Harper this morning.  She is a great listener, a trait she got from her mother. After Harper listened to my rants about blogging she starting to talk in her newly found warble of a voice. She kind of makes extended vowel noises but has great ever-changing expressions so the audience stays captivated. In short she makes a lot of noise without really saying anything but keeps it interesting, finally a trait she got from dad. As she strung together her sentences of non-sequitors I couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that she was trying to communicate without any real help from anybody. In such a short time she has already transformed from an adorable little lump of playdoo into a tiny person struggling to find the right words to tell her daddy that blogging isn’t that bad. I am more excited than I ever thought I would be to witness her progressions as she begins to absorb the world around her and grow into the wonderful person I know she will be. I have so many things I want to say to her, so many things I can’t wait to show her and so much to learn from her that some times I want her to grow-up even quicker so we can get on with all the great things we have to look forward too. Then again as I held her tiny body against my chest after our conversation this morning and felt her tiny breath on my neck I realized that all that will come but I will never get this amazing time back. So for now I will be patient, shocking right, and enjoy our interpretive chats and the naps in my arms while wondering what she’ll be able to do tomorrow.

Summer Vacation!

I can't believe summer is almost over!  School starts in a week and mommy is getting anxious to go back to work.  Rest assured, Harper will be in the loving arms of her grandmas when she can't be with her mama.

This summer has been pretty amazing.  While we haven't seen the sun as much as we usually do, we were able to enjoy a week off at our annual vacation spot, Lake Almanor, with the Siegel Family.  Once again, Harper was a great traveller and slept the entire way to Chico where we stopped off to pick up her uncle Chris before making the final trek up the Feather River Canyon to our favorite Lake.  Lake Almanor holds so many special memories for our family, including our engagement back in 2001.  It was so fitting that our first family vacation with our daughter, Harper, was at this magical place.

1st Dress (the one mom and dad opened on Christmas Day)

Harper spent most mornings hanging in her lamb chair which she really enjoys.  She is such a happy baby in the mornings (mom's favorite time with her) and loved to coo and smile with us before taking her first nap of the day, which was inevitably always on someone's chest.

The boys would wakeboard and airchair first thing every morning while the water was flat, a past time mom used to enjoy before baby.  One afternoon they attempted to paddle board which was quite entertaining for the rest of us on shore, as Chris was the only one out of the three of them that was successful.

The afternoons were spent playing games on the deck and looking at the lake.  Harper wanted to be apart of the group and was very entertained by our game of cards.  She also enjoyed afternoon naps outside under the shade of the pine trees.



Despite the fact that we had a few rough nights (she kept mommy and daddy up from 2-5AM one night!), we had a great time at Lake Almanor and Harper made the memories that much richer.  We are already looking forward to next year's trip and can't wait to see how Harper will react to this gorgeous place when she is of an age to walk around and explore the surroundings in all its beauty!