Harper's 8 Month Birthday!

Today Harper is 8 months old!  This morning we took a long walk through the park with Laney where we met a neighbor walking his red tailed hawk.....quite interesting.  In the afternoon Harper danced in her jumperoo, her new favorite activity, and tried on her first pair of blue jeans.  We capped off the day with a play date with her best friend and big 'sis Laney.  I have a feeling birthdays won't be this simple for very long....

Happy Halloween!

Today is Harper's first Halloween!  She wore her fall pumpkin outfit during the day, then dressed up as a kitty cat for the trick-or-treaters and got cozy in her witch onesie for bedtime.



October has been a very eventful month.  Harper can sit up on her own!  She is also cracking up at all things funny.  Her belly laugh is so contagious and adorable!  She has graduated from her all milk diet and is now eating rice cereal and oatmeal which is exciting and messy all at the same time.  She truly recognizes all of the people that she regularly spends time with and is developing into her own little person.

It's been pretty amazing to see how quickly our baby girl is growing up.  It's going way too fast...

Happy 7 month Birthday!

Harper is 7 months old today!  She is growing so fast and is sitting up on her own now.  She is fascinated by her big sis Laney.  She loves the weekends because she gets to spend so much time with her mom and dad and doggy.

The Pack

As soon as the suitcases come out her entire demeanor changes. We had all just returned from a walk in the park but she was still fired up and wanted to run around the yard. She followed me into the garage expecting something different maybe one of the treats we keep on the workbench. I watched the flicker from her eyes disappear when I reached up and grabbed our biggest brown bag. She followed me back into the house her head hung in defeat. As we started to get Harpers things together she strategically put her self in the middle of the room so that we tripped over her every time we went to get something out of the closet.  It was as though she was saying “Don’t forget me.” Once the bags we packed and set by the door she wouldn’t leave Harpers side and every time I looked at her it was almost as if I could hear what she was thinking” If she goes I go.”  We put her in the back of the car with the rest of the things and she had a new spring her step. She licked Harpers feet and jumped up to try and kiss my chin. I didn’t have the heart to tell her she was going to Grandma’s for the week. As we pulled off the freeway and headed to my parents house I caught her staring at me in the rearview mirror….she was not happy. As we unloaded her stuff from the car she gave Harper a nudge goodbye and walked inside without giving me a peripheral glance. What she made me realize is that our little family was a pack and I was splitting it up. I knew it was only a week but the looks the dog had been giving me that day made me feel like I was committing a much greater offense.

            As we boarded the plane my abandonment issues stared to wane as the stewardess handed my first class breakfast menu. A surprise upgrade from my mother in law’s friend had already begun to place my guilt behind the growing excitement of being in Hawaii for the week. I drank my Mimosa (2) quickly, anticipating our first flight with an infant. In true Harper fashion our little girl proved to be the perfect angel. The crew and our fellow passengers commented multiple times about how great she was. I replied that that those chewable Flintstone Valiums worked remarkably well…..I don’t think they really understood my sense of humor.

            Our first day went smooth and then we remembered that there was one factor we had overlooked when originally booking the trip……the time difference.  The resort was a very different and peaceful place at 4:15 AM. Harper and I walked the expansive grounds stopping to admire all the man made waterfalls and lush tropical landscaping. We cozied up in one of the VIP bungalows near the ocean and watched the sun come up. I was a little tired and my arms were sore from carrying her for the previous two hours but the instant the morning sun hit her eyes she turned and gave me a huge smile. At this moment with the ocean crashing on the rocks below us I felt incredibly lucky to be sharing the sunrise and my life with such a wonderful little girl. I don’t know if Harper will remember that morning when she gets older but I know that I will never forget it. 

            The rest of the trip was wonderful. Harper got to wear all her cute little hula dresses and was the star of the show at every event we took her to. She got some quality beach naps in and got introduced to the ocean with mixed results, we’re gonna work on that.  

In the end we were sad to go but happy to get the team back together. As we pulled back into my parent’s driveway I could see Laney wiggling with excitement through the blinds. As we opened the door she barked with excitement and went straight for Harpers car seat to make sure her little girl was home safe. We may be different species but it seems as though our priorities are the same. I got down on the floor and scratched her belly assuring her that our next trip would be together…..as a pack.

           

Harper's 6 Month Birthday!

Today is Harper's half birthday!  It's hard to believe that she is already 6 months old.  It didn't seem so long ago that we were traveling to and from the hospital to see her, and yet she has grown so much in such a short amount of time.  Her personality is blossoming and watching her transition from infant to "real" baby has been an amazing experience that will be forever imprinted in our minds.
                      

Our tiny dancer continues to surprise us everyday with her developmental milestones.  She is now sitting up on her own and, when perfectly perched, can stand without any assistance for a minute or two.  She recently found her feet and tries to hold them with her hands.  She still loves to babble but her favorite new thing is take long hikes with mom and dad and stare at her "big sis," Laney, for hours.  For her half birthday, she had her first dance party complete with tutu and leg warmers.  So fun!

7 Years of Bliss

This weekend we celebrated our 7 year anniversary.  We dropped Harper off at Grandma and Grandpa's house and set off for our first baby free weekend.  We didn't even make it down the street before we started talking about our little girl and how much we would miss her!  Oh, how times have changed.

We checked into the Lafayette Park Hotel and enjoyed couples massages, lunch by the pool and a delicious dinner downtown.  The rest of our romantic getaway was peppered with conversations about Harper's newfound ability to sit up and the recent soul warming sound of her first laugh.  Click on link below to see Harper laugh.
Laughing Out Loud

We thoroughly enjoyed our time away but couldn't wait to get home, put Harper in the baby wrap and go for a walk as a family.

One-Uppers

A Story by Dad

         When Harper was first born I would eagerly share, with anyone that would listen, the story of her chaotic early birth, tiny stature and subsequent awesomeness. Nine times out of ten whomever was on the other end of my prideful rant would have an equally or more extraordinary story of their own. When I told people that Harper was only 4 pounds at birth, rounding down of course for sensationalism, they would claim to have either given birth to or personally been a 3 pounder. If I mentioned that my wife could have died during the whole process they would reply that they had actually died during labor only to be revived just in time to naturally give birth to 3 pound Siamese twins. The other end of the spectrum came in the form of what I started calling “ SuPreemie Stories.”  When I mentioned that my daughter was premature people would literally jump at the chance to mention their grandkid, neighbor, best friend, spouse or sister that had been a “preemie” but had grown to be a six foot ten, 375 pound center in the WNBA.

 “My cousin was only 2 pounds when she was born but she is a big, healthy, 250 pound 4^th grader now.”

It was as if these people thought I would find comfort in the fact that even though Harper was rather tiny now eventually she would be freakishly large so it would all even out in the end. After a few months of listening to rather odd childbirth and “SuPreemie” baby stories I stopped telling the barista’s and parking lot attendants about Harper’s arrival.

 A few days ago as we walked through the grocery store on our first daddy/daughter public outing I started to realize that just seeing Harper’s bright blue eyes and chubby cheeks prompted complete strangers to divulge their own infant stories. Then there was the new mothers and fathers who wanted to compare notes on progress and relish the chance to one-up us on an infant milestones. Throughout our journey in produce and beyond I was stopped multiple times by newish parents with questions that, without any time to answer, were turned into statements regarding the fact that their kid had smiled, laughed, spoke or walked quicker than any baby in the history of time. Between the random people and the fulsome parents a standard 20-minute shop had turned into an afternoon event. As we finally left the store I told Harper that I would never pressure her to do things quicker than she was ready to, just for the sake of bragging to random people in the grocery store. She gave me a big goopy smile and continued to eat her hand with the gusto of a much older child. My phone rang and I picked up to hear the voice of my good friend, another new father, who sounded very tired. He told me that his girl had been up all night and asked me how Harper had been. “She’s been great! Ry put her on a new schedule and she’s been sleeping 11 hours a night. She seems to be way ahead of schedule as far sleeping goes.” As I heard him hang up the phone I wondered if maybe I should have used a little restraint…..but c’mon 11 hours at 5 months, that’s got to be some kind of record.