Harper: 11 Months

Three hundred and thirty four days old today sweet Harper.  Wow, these past 11 months have absolutely flown by and I cannot believe that next month we will be celebrating your first birthday!

This month we traveled out of town for the first time.  And probably the last time.  Until you’re at least 10.  To say it wasn’t an easy trip would be a huge understatement.  You have never liked the car (as evidenced by the crying you did at 2 days old when we left the hospital), but you brought it to a whole new level when we drove down to Austin for Christmas.  It’s a 4 hour drive and you screamed your little lungs out (to the point of throwing up) for 3 of those hours.  Fun times for all.  We tried everything; singing, sitting in the back with you, snacks, white noise, stopped to nurse/diaper change, loud music, quiet music, ignoring it… nothing worked.  I think it just comes down to the fact that you HATE being strapped down or contained in any way shape or form.  When we finally got there, it wasn’t much better.  You were over-stimulated, hardly eating, barely sleeping and cranky, cranky, cranky.  So much so that we left a day early (at bedtime in hopes of less screaming, more sleeping in the car).  So, that was your first Christmas!  Pretty sure you would have been much happier had we stayed home and given you a piece or two of tissue paper to play with. ;)

You did manage to show us a lot of your sweeter side this month, though, too.  You have been giving kisses/hugs for a couple months now, but this month you really started doing it on your own, unprompted.  And it is the sweetest thing ever.  We were playing in the playroom the other day and you just crawled right up to me, pulled up on my shoulders, grabbed my face and gave me a big, slobbery kiss on my cheek, then put your head down on my shoulder (which is how you give hugs).  I think it’s your way of balancing out your extreme crankiness!

You are into everything and want to be doing everything and more that your big sister is doing (and in an ironic twist, she wants to do everything YOU are doing and will crawl around on the floor pretending she can’t walk just so she can be like YOU!). 

We had some friends over for dinner this month and you had such a fun time with the big kids.  (In the picture below, Avery is actually 6 months older than you, but you’d never know it based on size since you weigh more than she does!)

We saw Santa this month. You were not a fan of both the line & wait to see him, nor the big guy himself.  Maybe next year.  But probably not.

And we also had a fun “second Christmas” with daddy’s side of the family when they came to visit.  You and your sister were both spoiled beyond belief (with attention and toys!) by everyone this year – I think it’s safe to say you are two loved little girls!

You are still taking two naps a day (around 10 and 2:30) and they both usually last 1.5-2 hours.  Bedtime is between 7:30/8 and you start your day around 7:30/8 (with usually one wake-up at night…occasionally more, occasionally none).  You are a great napper and a not-so-great nighttime sleeper, but I know we’ll get there eventually! 

You still love your blueberries.  You eat 3 meals a day + snacks and nurse 5 times a day (typically).  You definitely prefer fruit over vegetables (really, who doesn’t?), but will usually eat a little of whatever we put in front of you.  And there’s NO questioning when you’re done because if I’m not quick enough to remove it, all the food in front of you is thrown to the floor.  We need to work on our table manners a little. ;) 

You’re babbling, crawling, pulling up, cruising on furniture, taking steps while holding onto our fingers and doing everything you can to keep up with your big sister.  Momma is exhausted by bedtime, that’s for sure! 

No doctor’s appointment, so I don’t have your official stats, but here are our guesses:

• Height: 30in
• Weight: 23 lbs
• Clothes: 18-24m for the most part. Some 12-18month and even a couple 2T tops!
• Diapers: Size 4 but you could probably move to size 5. 

Still no teeth!  I love your little gummy smile and I think I’ll be sad to see it go! 

Harper, even on the most exhausting days, I wouldn’t change a minute of my time with you.  (ok, well maybe if I could figure out how to stop the screaming I might…).  I love you, love you, love you pumpkin! 

love,

Momma