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

Happy 3rd Birthday Hadley!

In the blink of an eye, three years have come and gone.  My tiny, helpless little baby has turned into a sweet, thoughtful, beautiful little girl and is growing up so very quickly! 

I’ve seen a lot of those birthday survey’s floating around and decided this would be a great year to start that tradition!  I’ll (hopefully) use this same survey to ask her the same questions every year on her birthday.  Without further adieu, here is the first edition of the annual Birthday Survey!

Hadley Ann, You are the sweetest, most thoughtful three year old (really you’re sweeter and more thoughtful than most adults) I know!  What a blessing it is to be your momma!  It is such a sweet privilege to stay home with you and watch you grow and discover the world around you.  You have such a kind, tender heart; are an amazing big sister; and are a rule follower – to a T!

You’ve had so many milestones in the past year it’s hard to recount them all!  You’re in your big girl bed – 8p-8a most nights and still nap once a day for 2-3 hours.  For the most part, you’re a pretty good eater (for a three year old).  You definitely prefer the usual kid-foods (your favs are grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, pizza, mac&cheese, spaghetti, fruit, waffles, green beans and occasionally carrots and peas), but will try anything we ask you to try (and every now and then surprise us by liking something new!). 

We’re working on the potty training thing (4 days in today) and you are doing really well.  I’m not holding my breath, but I think we’re on the right track!

We finally kicked the paci-habit back in September and never looked back.  I thought it would never happen, but you surprised me by handling it like a big girl and after your prize (a Doc McStuffins doctor kit) you never looked back! 

Daddy and I are so proud of who you are becoming and we couldn’t love you more!  I just pray that you would come to know how much more the Lord loves you! 

Happy third birthday sweet pea!  I can’t wait to watch you grow and celebrate all your birthdays to come!!

Love,

Momma

Merry & Bright

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

I love seeing everyone's Christmas cards so I'm sharing ours with y'all today! I hope everyone has a merry and bright Christmas!







Sorry if the format of this looks off...I'm posting from my phone. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Halloween/October 2013–Harper’s first Halloween

October was a busy month for us (as it usually is) and came with a lot of first for Harper!  Her first time to the pumpkin patch…

Hadley is an old pro at feeding these goats!  This was her third time here.

It’s slightly harder to take pictures of two kids than it is with one.

We also went to the state fair!  This was Hadley’s third time there as well and Harper’s first!  This is one of our favorite things to do in Dallas. 

Harper’s first Halloween was a hit!  At the last minute I found a scarecrow costume for her, but it looked a little boyish, so we stuck a giant sunflower on the hat. ;) I had found Hadley’s Dorothy costume over a year ago on a clearance rack and had to snag it.  I’m so glad I did, it fit her perfectly and she looked so adorable!  We went trick-or-treating with our good friends, the Walthers, again.  Hadley and Brynn have the best time together, and their little sisters had a pretty good time, too!

I mean… is that not the sweetest thing ever?  Next to this one from last year, of course… I can’t believe how much they’ve grown!

Where has the year gone??

Thankfully I’ve had Harper’s monthly updates to keep me posting occasionally but it’s been since August since I’ve posted anything outside of that!  Whew.  Apparently having a crawling-into-everything-still-not-sleeping-through-the-night-baby and a (almost) three (cue the tears) year old makes for less time on the computer.  Who knew? 

That said, I’m going to use this post to attempt to get caught up through the holidays.  I apologize in advance if I jump around a little.  I have no doubt that this post will not be finished in one sitting!

Here we go… the last family outing I left you with was the zoo.  Since then we’ve been to the Texas State Fair, Pumpkin Patch, The Arboretum, countless family visits and meals out, transitioned to a new school and a big girl bed for Hadley (in addition to ditching the paci!), transitioned Harper to a big girl car seat (after MUCH research and buying/returning), enjoyed our first Halloween as a family of four, took Hadley to the dentist for the first time, celebrated 6 years of marriage, painted our dining room, hosted our first Thanksgiving, survived the great Ice-mageddon storm in Dallas (although parts of our trees can’t say the same) and are now gearing up for our first Christmas as a family of four! 

Okay, now that I write all that out, I think I’m going to break some of those up into separate posts.  So here are a TON of pictures…and then some more posts to come!

Hadley started at a new school this year (closer to our new home).  I was worried about her transition because she is a lover of all things familiar but she ROCKED it and is loving her new class, teachers and friends!

Shortly after starting school, we decided to finally tackle the paci as well.  I am so glad we waited until she was ready, because other than a week or two of spotty naps, she never skipped a beat!  She got to pick out a big girl prize (Doc McStuffins doctor kit) after her first full day of no paci and she never even asked for it after that! 

And as if the new school and no paci transitions weren’t enough, we decided to bite the bullet and go for the big girl bed, too! 

Waking up after her first successful night in her big girl bed! (Note the crib to the left…justincase) ;)

Ever since we’ve been slowly but surely working on her big-girl room designs.  I’ve painted the walls, re-arranged the furniture a little, added some new color and décor… but it’s not quite finished.  As soon as I can find some good lamps and the perfect something for over her bed I’ll post some pictures!

And while I’m on the subject of Hadley-milestones, I’ll go ahead and throw in her first visit to the dentist!  This visit was more of a “happy visit” as they call it, and they just counted her teeth and painted princess vitamins (aka flouride) on her teeth, then let her pick out a prize and sent us on her way.  She loved it and asked for weeks if her princess vitamins were still there!

And we had lots of fun play dates with friends and family! (Oh and as you might be able to tell, I colored my hair DARK brown somewhere in there, too.)

I’ll save October for another post!