Not For the Faint of Heart

Seriously.

I mean it.

If you are even remotely squeamish, stop reading NOW. This post will contain information about the disgusting messes these two are capable of producing:

















So you've seen a picture, you've heard the warning, if you continue reading, it's at your own risk.

I used to think motherhood had made me pretty tough when it came to things like spit-up, leaky diapers, cleaning up after the dog. But nothing had quite prepared me for some of our recent messes. Yesterday morning Harper slept a little late. When I finally got her up, not only had her diaper leaked (this happens from time to time, but usually it's just wet/runny), but there were chunks of poo (I told you not to read if you were squeamish) all down the leg of her pajamas. Gross!!! Most leaks I can just stain-stick and then toss in the hamper, but I clearly had to de-chunk the pajama leg first, gagging all the while. Later the same day, she had another baby-sewage mishap with a onesie. Again with the de-chunking. And much, much, much scrubbing of hands!

Then, this morning, I wake up to the sounds of Rebound retching outside the bedroom door. I get out of bed just in time to see him deposit last night's dinner on the floor, looking more like wet dog food than dry. I think I stood there staring at it for about 30 seconds. There's just no appealing way to clean up doggie hurl. Then Rebound prompted me to action by starting to eat it. I grabbed some paper towels and a dust pan, scooped the pile into the dust pan, threw it in the trash can, and then spent the next half hour washing my hands and sanitizing every surface that the gunk contacted (again, with much gagging).

There really ought to be a mommy bonus for days like these. I'll take 100 toddler tantrums over cleaning up anyone's throw-up. Any chance we can get through childhood without Harper ever getting the stomach flu?

Oh, and hat's off to those poor school janitors and teachers who have cleaned up other people's kids' puke for years.

Peek-a-Boo!

Peek-a-boo has been a favored game in our household for some time now. It has taken on new dimensions since Harper has found her feet. This weekend Auntie Shannon (my sister) was in town and Harper had a rousing game of pee-a-boo with her from behind our dining room curtains.































We were so excited to have a fun weekend with Shannon. It is sometimes difficult to live so far away from our Wisconsin family, we always have fun when they come to visit. Next week Grandma will be here for a visit. Not only do we have fun with visitors, it is great motivation for me to get the house cleaned and I usually get a few extra things finished while they're here. The Christmas decorations are all taken down now! Yipee! Thanks Shannon!
















Peek-a-boo isn't the only game we play around here. Just this afternoon Harper invented a new game. She wandered into our bedroom, where there were several laundry baskets. Harper put a sweater into one of the baskets, then (supervised and properly spotted) she climbed into the basket. Then she sat down in it and held the sides, so I pushed it around the floor and made race car noises (anything for a laugh). Harper really seemed to enjoy this and it began a series of events that we repeated over and over for the next half hour or so. It went like this:

Harper puts the sweater in the basket.
Harper climbs in the basket.
Harper sits down and makes vroom sounds until I push her around.
I stop pushing and vrooming.
Harper throws the sweater out of the basket.
Harper climbs out of the basket (this is a little trickier than climbing in) with help from me.
And Harper puts the sweater back in the basket and we continue from there. . .

If it hadn't been time for a nap, we'd probably still be playing in the basket. I do not pretend to understand what happens here, I just tell you about it!

I need to take a moment and say thanks to all of you who have left comments in the last couple of weeks. Seeing the comments on the end of a post is kind of like going to the mailbox and getting something that's not junk mail or a bill. So just know you bring that kind of excitement when you comment. It's fun to know who is reading and get little messages about how you're all doing. Keep the comments coming!

Pleasant Surprises

A couple of very nice things happened today. After the complaining of this morning, I thought you deserved to hear the nice parts of our day as well.

Nice thing #1: I did end up taking Harper out to the fabric store, on my time, not hers, and she was very sleepy on the way home. She ate lunch and went straight down for her nap. I got through the entire hour of tutoring this afternoon without having to go in and lay her back down once!

Nice thing #2: My friend Giselle was reading the post from this morning and called to give me a little mommy time on the phone. It really is wonderful to talk to another person who knows the frustrations of living with a toddler, pre-verbal or otherwise, who can both laugh and commiserate. Plus, I hadn't actually spoken with Giselle in a long time, so that was a very good surprise.

Nice thing #3: I have actually had some comments, which I find very exciting. One of them was from someone I don't even know! I'm not sure how one would just stumble across this blog. I know it can be done (obviously), but I always kind of envisioned it just being read by our friends and relatives. I don't mind if other people read it, I just didn't think it would be very interesting! (Maybe it wasn't and she won't be back. . . ) Keep the comments coming!

Note to Jennifer, the commenter I don't know, if you read this again: I actually live right outside of Dayton! If you want to leave your e-mail address here, I'd love to connect with you. Moms can always use other moms for support!

Even though I spend many days alone in the house with Harper, it's sort of nice to know that there are friends out there reading and thinking about us. We are not alone!!!

Holding onto My Sanity by a Very Small Thread

This is the delightful Harper that makes appearances often enough to keep me from going totally insane. Isn't she sweet? And she looks genuinely thrilled to be alive and wearing those terrific purple stripped pants, thank you very much Auntie Shannon!

Why am I being forced to the edges of sanity, you ask? Take this morning:

Harper whined when put I her on the changing table to take her very wet diaper off. Why would I torture her with dryness?

Harper screamed when I wouldn't let her to continue to pound on my desk with a remote control. (Why have they not yet invented weightless remotes that hover just out of the grasp of all toddlers?)

Harper cried when I put her milk on the table after the umpteenth time she shook it instead of drinking it.

Harper cried more when I showed her I couldn't give her any more yogurt because the container was empty and the yogurt was all gone.

Harper turned red with fury when I put the lid back on the container of apple wheels she was eating. She's no dummy. She realizes that putting the lid back on, or closing the box, or sealing the bag means she isn't getting any more of whatever she was enjoying. Oh the injustice of it all!

To top it all off, she walked over to the door, sat down on the mat, pointed at her coat, and I had the audacity not to put it on and take her somewhere! I don't give into her every whim and this doesn't please the princess but at all.

So I have already put her in front of Elmo and taken a few minutes to vent here. I also closed my eyes and remembered how she patted me when I came home and picked her up after working out yesterday. I remembered how excited she was to see me when I first walked into her room to get her out of her crib this morning (before I tortured her on the changing table). And I remembered how much more other people's children can drive me crazy when I substitute taught yesterday. Those times away from home are very important because they help me remember, despite all the whining and crying and protesting, that this is really the best place to work. . . most of the time!

Computer Pictures

She'll be typing her tell-all memoir before we know it!

Older by the Second

First of all, the response to de-lurking week (see "Are You Out There") was horribly underwhelming. So, even though it's over, I encourage anyone reading this to leave a comment. A big thank you to Giselle, the only lonely person to leave a comment last week.

The reason I started writing this was to keep our friends and relatives up to date about what's happening here in Ohio and with Harper. It seems she has been growing and changing so fast, the last couple of weeks especially. She is walking more than crawling/scooting now. For a while it seemed like she would only walk if two people sat facing each other for her to walk between. She really liked the part where we clapped and cheered for her. She has finally come to enjoy being on her feet and this is now her preferred mode of transportation. I still find myself surprised to look up and see her standing in the middle of the room.

















She also surprises me with the things she knows or knows about. On Friday, Nana and Dziatku came over for dinner and to do some babysitting. We were all sitting in the living room, playing, when I said, "Harper it's time for bed." She put down the toy she was playing with, got up, and walked into her bedroom! Although she still wasn't thrilled with being changed into her pajamas and abandoned in her crib. . .

Her cute factor increases as she learns. Lately, when you ask her to hug her Elmo, or any other stuffed toy, she squeezes it and says, "Awww," in a perfect imitation of what we say when she gives a sweet little hug. We're also really enjoying her approximation of animal sounds. She is particularly attached to a farm animal book my friend Dotto gave her for her birthday. Harper has her own sound for the duck, lamb, cow, pig, goat, and rooster. Out of the context of the book, you'd have no idea what she's trying to say, but her attempts are truly precious.

As with most things she's not supposed to play with, Harper seems obsessed with the computer. We can no longer hope for her to play in the same room with her toys while one of us uses it. She will walk over to the keyboard and push anything she can reach. One day she was tapping on the computer chair and making very insistant noises, so I sat her in the chair to see what would happen. Here are the photos of a girl who is most certainly paying attention to what we do:

Grrrr! (That's me growling at the computer.) For some reason my pictures of Harper on the computer do not want to be included in this post. Stay tuned. . .

Are You Out There?

Okay, apparently, something called De-Lurking Week is going on in the blogging world. For those of you not so familiar with the lingo, "lurking" is when you read something on a regular basis, but never leave a comment so no one knows you're reading. Many of you send me nice e-mails so I know that some people are actually reading about the exciting world of Harper and family, but I rarely get any comments. Boo hoo. :-(

So, in honor of De-Lurking Week, I encourage all seven or so of my regular readers to attempt to leave a comment. Go ahead, give it a try.

And, to reward your efforts, here is a picture of what Harper looks like as she's climbing up my lap because she'd rather play with the camera than be photographed:




This is also how I imagine Harper would look in one of those funny carnival mirrors!

Holiday P.S.

Two final thoughts:

This is a picture from my grandparents' house on Christmas day. The people pictured, besides Grandma and Grandpa, are my first cousins. Only one is missing. There are also three great grandchildren in the picture. The spouses and significant others of the first cousins were not included in the photo. Perhaps it is easier to see why Harper found this holiday a little overwhelming. The aunts and uncles present were not pictured either!


















And, on the long ride back to Ohio, sometimes you just run out of ways to entertain yourself:

The Final Holiday Photos

Harper found such joy in the opening of gifts this year, I can't let the holiday season slip away without including a few more photos of her Christmas delight. And yes, I know it's not really the holiday season anymore. The middle aisle of our grocery store already looks like Cupid threw up all over it. And before long little green people will be marching everywhere with glittery shamrocks. It's still Christmas at our house though. Not because we're still celebrating, I just haven't had luck in getting Matt to bring all the boxes up from the basement so I can put everything away. I have enough trouble remembering to dust and fold the laundry, I'm hoping to have the Christmas decorations put away before UD's spring break. What's a mom to do?

Anyway, here are some photos of Harper and her gifts Christmas Morning in Wisconsin:































Later Christmas Day at the great-grands':





















Opening gifts the week after Christmas with Ohio family:


































The great part is I can get out different toys every morning and they are new to Harper. It's nice to have so many things to rotate.

Holiday Pictures

Here are some more pictures from our visit to see Santa, for some reason I couldn't upload them on Monday. These are actually in the correct order. Even though we traumatized Harper on Santa's lap, she cheered right up when she saw the massive gifts. She must have retained some memory of opening her birthday presents because she was suitably excited with her holiday packages.



































It's next to impossible to know which pictures and stories to include from our Christmas travels and celebrations. We are finally just about recovered and back on track after a whirl wind of three cities, 71 relatives, over 20 hours of car travel, and many many pounds of Christmas cookies and wrapping paper.

Christmas Eve, at my grandmother's house, we arrived early and put Harper down for a nap when there were about ten people there. When she woke up, there were 31 people there. It took her about an hour to get over the shock (and by "get over the shock" I mean stop screaming, and by "about an hour" I mean nearly 60 minutes of baby shrieking at its loudest). Later, after she'd opened gifts, helped everyone else open gifts, and been fed several cookies and some birthday cake by her grandpa, she entered a kind of Christmas mania. She was laughing hysterically as my cousins piled wrapping paper on her.

















I also think a reindeer costume might be in order for next year.

















More photos to come!

Holiday Wrap-Up (ha ha ha)

Oh dear. . . blogging regularly and then taking a break seems to be a little like working out. You don't mind it so much when you do it often, but stop for a while and it is mighty difficult to get it back into your schedule. We've been home for about a week now, but I've stayed away from the computer almost entirely for several reasons:

1) Many events this week.

Monday: unpacking and dinner with the in-laws (it was soooo yummy!). The highlight of this evening was that I finally stopped nursing so I could officially eat all the shrimp I wanted to.

Tuesday: family Christmas gift-opening and celebration with the immediate Ohio family.

Wednesday: book club, which also meant staying up until the wee hours on Monday and Tuesday nights trying to finish The Grapes of Wrath. I did get finished, even though it meant reading the last few pages on the way to book club (I wasn't driving.)

Thursday: celebrating Nana's retirement with a delicious dinner at Bravo. Congratulations again!

Friday: We didn't actually have any plans on Friday, but I did have to make a massive shopping trip to prepare for the weekend of cooking and hosting of family fun. And I took Harper to the last three quarters of the varsity girls basketball game at Alter. She didn't like the noise at first, but was bouncing and pointing and babbling away by the end of the game. She clapped every time anyone in the stands clapped, she hasn't got her loyalties straight yet.

Saturday: Making potato soup to be served on Sunday and trying to clean some of the tennis ball sized dust bunnies off the floor so we could have the in-laws and MaryEllen over with out dying of total embarrassment. Thankfully we just baked pre-made pizza for dinner. We had a grand time playing games and watching football.

Sunday: Getting the house ready for some extended family to come and have the last of our many Christmas celebrations. This involved much of the day spent running around like a head-less chicken and nearly having a panic attack. With Harper it really is great to host stuff at our house, her own bed, high chair, etc. I do like doing it, I just tend to freak out in the hours leading up to company's arrival. I let myself take a nap in the early afternoon because I'd gotten up and gone to 8 a.m. mass. I don't know if the nap was good (I was more rested) or my undoing (I lost over an hour of valuable prep time).

2) ( Do you remember that I was actually listing the reasons I haven't posted?) The holidays were so full and busy I am at a total loss as to what to write about and which of about 200 pictures to include.

3) I have an overwhelming need for time to myself to read or write and I try to get this in each day, but it usually comes in the wee hours after all other breathing beings in this household are asleep. Because of the busy schedule I have been up into the a.m. several nights this past week. While I appreciate this time on my own, I almost always regret it when Harper beckons me in the morning. Today she beckoned at about 5:30, which is early, even for her. Unfortunately, going to bed in the a.m., unless I'm taking a nap, does not a refreshed mother make. I should resolve to get more sleep in the new year, but I don't see that happening unless we find a way to add about three more hours to each day, and Harper sleeps through them!

But now that we're back and most of the holiday madness has subsided, I will try to get lots of adorable pictures of Harper on-line again. And if you've read all of this you certainly deserve to be rewarded with some photos:

Harper enjoyed gifts, especially the giant ones at the little mall where we went to see Santa:
















Of Santa himself, the girl was not so fond:

















There's nothing quite like scaring your children to create those warm holiday memories. Happy New Year!

Glad Tidings

Hello to all our family and friends from the frozen state of Wisconsin! Actually, it isn't too bad up here right now. I was hoping to send a post before we left, including a fine photo of Harper screaming on Santa's lap. Unfortunately I didn't get my act together so well. Matt got home from a meeting early on Tuesday, our departure day, and I hadn't packed for Harper or myself. We were a little late getting out. I didn't think, "Hey, could we wait another 1/2 hour so I can post some pictures?" was going to fly. Matt was infinitely patient with me as it was. And when we finally hit the road our drive was uneventful. Sadly, I'm typing from my brother's laptop and there's no way to get the pictures from my camera into here. Oh well. You can all look forward to a long and photo-filled post when we return to Ohio. (In my defense, Harper pretty much refused to nap Tuesday morning, robbing me of much needed time to organize and pack.)

I also wanted to take a minute and publicly welcome Calum into the world. Cal is the brand new baby of our good friends Erin and Brett. I hope they don't mind the shout-out. We've been doing lots of praying for the little guy's safe arrival and it looks like it paid off! I was telling my parents about it at dinner last night and my dad says, "Great, I can take them off my list!" Apparently, once the baby arrives, you're on your own! People must have stopped praying for us when Harper turned about 8 months, the age at which she completely ceased to be reasonable! (Just kidding, we're very blessed to have a beautiful and healthy little tyrant.)

I do not expect to get on the computer again before the holidays, so Merry Christmas to all. If we had a mic I would try to record Harper saying, "ho ho ho," for all to hear. For now you'll just have to take my word that it is one of the cutest sounds in the history of the universe. Safe travel and happy eating to everyone!

Some Events are Exciting, Others, Not So Much

We have lift-off!

The big news is that Harper recently took her first, actual, honest steps. By actual and honest I mean that she wasn't being shoved back and forth between Matt and I, taking one half-step, and then falling into the other guy's arms. Which is the closest she's previously come to walking. There was also one evening when she took one little step between the coffee table and the couch, because she was holding onto something already and I think she just forgot to reach out with her hands first.

Wednesday night, December 14, Harper walked (five or six steps) between my mother and I several times. Her grandma was in town, picking up Jamie from UD, and spent the night with us. I was trying to show my mom the way Matt and I had been kind of pushing her back and forth, when she said, "Well we just need a little more space here." She scooted so far back I was sure Harper would fall and get a face full of carpet, but, wonder of wonders, she just kept stepping! It was exhilarating and we are all so glad that she took those first real steps in front of my mom, who is usually far away in Wisconsin. At one point she actually teetered right past my mom and out the door of the room we were in before she realized what she was doing and promptly sat down. We even got her to walk down most of the hallway leading to the bedrooms. She's not breaking any land-speed records just yet. We've done some more of the back and forth, but the walking hasn't caught on, she still prefers her own unique half-sit/half-crawl method of getting from a to b. This may have something to do with the fact that her walk makes her look like she's just stumbled out of the bar at closing time.

First steps are really all the excitement one can reasonably hope for in a week, but we seem to have more than our fair share of excitement around here. Tonight we are having some folks from Matt's work over for a holiday party. I'm quite sure I wasn't thinking clearly when I agreed to that one! Anyway, my wonderful in-laws were over hear helping clean the house yesterday (a three person cleaning team is much faster than a solo effort, imagine that!) when I asked my father-in-law to take some boxes down to the basement. He comes to the bottom of the stairs and says,"I hate to tell you this, but you have some water down here."

When he says "some water" I'm thinking that maybe Rebound left a puddle in the basement. Then I go down to have a look. Some water actually meant about a 1/4 inch of water that covered at least a quarter of the storage room down there. (The silver lining to this cloud is that my obsession with storing things off the floor or in plastic boxes finally pays off!) Water in the basement is bad news itself. It takes a turn for the worse when you realize that the water has come up out of the toilet in the basement. Gross!!!! Yes, we had a clog somewhere, so that when we flushed the toilets upstairs, it backed up and came out of the toilet in the basement.

Let's just say I am not mentally capable of handling toilet backup in my basement. . .

Thank the Lord for my in-laws, coming to the rescue once again. They left me in charge of the baby and took the wet/dry vac down and cleaned up most of the toilet water. Then a very kind 24-hour emergency drain/plumbing person cleared out our clog. Forget professional athletes, someone with that job ought to get paid millions every year.

It's the Little Things

This is the time of year when things start to feel a little crunched. That happy holiday bustle has turned into panicked holiday frenzy. The joy that overwhelmed me when Harper woke up from her nap and saw the Christmas tree (oooh, she said), has faded somewhat. We have things to get out and do, but frankly, she'd rather not be dragged in and out of the car a dozen times a day. And really, who can blame her. I know that we'll have a great time having Christmas with my family in Wisconsin and then more great times with bonus celebrations here in Ohio, it's just that getting ready for them is getting a little nuts. Our Christmas card envelopes have been ready to go for nearly a month, but there's no letter in them just yet. And I woke up Monday morning and realized there's less than two weeks until Christmas!!! Help!

Matt was in charge of Harper all day on Sunday while I baked and made candy to dole out with holiday greetings to our neighbors. Kind of a good will gesture since we still don't know some of them very well. Despite spending nearly all day on my feet and having a sore back the next day from leaning over a table well into the night wrapping caramels, it was nice not to be 100% percent in charge of anyone for a few hours. A much needed break. Unfortunately, when I went to deliver the tins of goodies this afternoon, only two of the eight people were home. Hopefully everyone will find the festive holiday tins on their doorsteps and get them inside before the stuff freezes, although the buckeyes are good that way. . .

Harper is reveling in some newfound independence, which is exciting and frustrating at the same time. She has had a lot of recent success with feeding herself. She can get the fork and spoon into her mouth with about 95% accuracy, as long as we put the food on first, and it isn't something like soup. The downside is that she now pretty much refuses to eat her yogurt in the morning unless we let her feed herself. At this point it's a very s-l-o-w process. I thought I might speed things up by putting the yogurt in a bowl that stuck to her tray, and letting her use this Gerber feeding utensil that is a sort of ridged plastic thing the food is supposed to just cling to. That worked for about five minutes before Harper decided to eliminate the middle man and just started eating with her hands.












































Something to smile about (besides the spectacle itself), even when eating with her hands, she didn't make too big a mess. Very little yogurt even ended up on the floor. That's my girl!

Peace on Earth

It's not exactly the lion and the lamb, but she sure loves that dog. Rebound is just getting to the point where he'll let Harper pet him or sit near him. He used to get up and move whenever she approached. Perhaps his new willingness has to do with the fact that Harper mostly eats table food now and feeds him pretty generously by way of the floor. In fact, we usually know she's finished eating when she starts throwing her food to the floor on purpose and then watching for Rebound to come and get it.
















It will be great fun for both of them when they can chase each other around. Rebound, in his exuberant playfulness has managed to knock Harper over once or twice. I don't think he's ever hurt her, but it does startle her. She'll cringe when he comes running into the room, even though he usually misses her. Since there aren't any other children or dogs in the house (and no plans for either in the near future), they are each other's best bet for built-in entertainment. Me, I only have so many hours of playing on the floor in me each day.

They act remarkably like siblings at times. Harper has recently discovered the joy of tormenting Rebound. The other day we gave her an empty tissue box to explore. She absolutely delighted in banging Rebound on the nose with it. He kept trying to bite onto it but mostly just ended up making his head bob all around. Harper found this uproariously funny. Since then she has found great joy in tormenting Rebound with any number of household objects. Last night it was the plastic spoon we use for pasta. He's a good sport. To be fair, she also tries to play with him in nice ways. Yesterday he was all curled up on the couch and she got a rope toy out of his basket and, with much effort, pulled it up onto the couch to give to him.

Once in a while Rebound does get jealous of all the attention heaped upon Harper. Usually he lets us know by eating one of her toys. We've discovered certain things we must put away anytime we leave a room. Like the Little People farm animals. Sadly the horse is no longer with us. Fortunately Fisher Price must have anticipated this exact situation and a set of replacement animals (a new horse for now, and the rest as insurance) will be on the way to our house shortly.

So they torment each other, tease each other, play with the other guy's stuff. . . but mostly they love each other. And if there can't be peace on earth, let there at least be peace in our living room.

Giving Thanks

Much to everyone's relief, the digital camera has been returned! After a few lonely days in Cincinnati, it is back in my obsessive clutches and I can continue to document Harper's daily life with an unreasonable number of photos. Whew. I'll sleep better now and I'm sure you will too. Thanks to Nana, who let us borrow her camera in the interim, without which the previously posted lunch photos would not have been possible. What are grandparents/in-laws for, if not to grant access to digital technology in a pinch?

Here, at long last, are a few photos of Miss Harper on Thanksgiving Day. I would like to point out that her adorable outfit was a birthday gift from our friend Susan and her family in Nebraska. (Don't worry Susan, my concerns about the outfit being too big were not founded!)


















Want to entertain the baby? Put her in front of a window. Even better, put her in front of a window that she can look out while hiding behind some furniture. To make it totally irresistible, add the lure of an outdoor cat to the mix. We spent lots of Thanksgiving Day looking out those windows.


















Did you know that wicker furniture is also highly entertaining? Harper made beautiful music by alternately pounding on it and running her little fingernails over the surface. The girl has the music in her.

















Thank you to Kathy and Dave not only for hosting a lovely Thanksgiving meal, but also for providing a room full of furniture the perfect height for Harper to cruise around to her little heart's content.

Our Sweet Little Weirdo

Hello People,

Harper here. Want to know what I had for lunch the day these pictures were taken? Huh? Do you? Here it is:

1/2 a rather large banana
1/2 a (smallish) can of green beans
1 graham cracker
1/2 a turkey dog
1 slice of American cheese
lots of milk

I swear, it's true.
















While I lost a piece here and there to Rebound or my lap, most of that actually went into my mouth. Hard to believe they are having trouble getting me to gain weight, isn't it? I eat like a horse. I'm slim because I'm on the move. After the hour it takes me to eat lunch, I am itchin' to get out of that chair and go, go, GO!

Of course it wouldn't be lunch time without some entertaining antics for Mommy:































I have to warn you, this last photo is not for the faint of heart. Please remove small children from the room. Are they gone? Good. Now look closely. . . see that orange-yellow spot near my eye? Do you know what it is? Guess, I dare you!
















That's right People, it's cheese, a small piece of cheese, on my eyelash. Around here, lunch isn't a meal, it's an event.

Can you handle it?

What Will We Look at Now?

I can't remember when it happened exactly, but sometime between leaving Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dave's on Thanksgiving and unloading the car I realized that - horror of horrors - we'd left the digital camera at their house. On the end table next to the chair in which Matt sat watching Thanksgiving football, to be exact. My first thought was, "What am I going to put on the blog?" As if it would be some sort of tragedy not to have recent pictures of Harper to post. In order to give us all some perspective, I thought we'd revisit a photo of Harper at Thanksgiving a year ago:

















Looking at that picture makes her seem pretty impressive now! There are lots of things that Harper seems to be taking her time with. We thought she'd never crawl or pull up and cruise around the furniture. And she up and did both when she good and felt like it! Now we are waiting for her first steps. If you try to tempt her into taking even one step without holding on to something, she just sits right down. She'll crawl right off the bed (yikes), but she's not much of a risk-taker on her feet. When part of me starts worrying that it's going to be another six months before she walks, I need to look at these pictures taken a mere year ago, and remember that she'll get there.

I wonder if any other new moms find that the baby book gives them a complex about how well they know their children? For example, there is a space to write Harper's first word and the date she said it. Well. . . what counts? Apparently some babies just up and say a distinct and clear word and the parent goes, "Hooray! Your first word!" Um, not our baby. We're pretty sure she says, "doggie" which sounds like, "deegee". She doesn't use it all the time, but has used it in context enough that we're pretty sure she means it. She also seems to say, "Daddy." And occasionally, "hi." Nana and Dziatku are thoroughly convinced the child says, "thank you." I'm not sold on that one yet, but maybe she's much more advanced than I imagine. Harper's favorite and truly first word is probably, "Oh!" But is that really a word? Does it count? When she sees something new or something she likes she says, "Oh!" She also says it often when "reading" her books. So which one of these should go in her baby book? And does, "sometime in October" seem specific enough for the date?

(Aside: as I was spell checking this post, the Blogger spell-check did not recognize the word "blog." Hmmm. . .)

Birthday-ed Out!

It has taken me much longer than intended to get this post up. After the whirlwind of visitors, celebrations, and presents that accompanied our birthdays last week, I have needed a few days to recover. The birthday evidence is scattered throughout the house. I'm hoping to have a handle on it by Christmas. . . In the meantime, here are a few thoughts and pictures about Harper's birthday celebration.
















Sometimes I'm just not a good mother. Example: I didn't take a single picture of Harper on her actual birthday. Her party, on the other hand, is very well documented. It begins with this lovely cake. Which I was sort of forced to make from scratch. . .

When I opened the box of cake mix, which had been lovingly selected at Kroger, I found that the bag was torn and the mix was mostly loose in the box. Now it was probably fine, but I didn't feel right about using it since it had been open. It just seemed too strange. So here I was, already in my pajamas, all ready to "bake," with no cake mix. I stood, baffled, for a moment, and then, gasp, got down a cook book and looked to see if I had the ingredients necessary to bake a cake the old-fashioned way. Thank you Betty Crocker. I was nervous about the finished product, but all the party guests ate the cake on their plates and no one called the next day with food poisoning, so I think it was fine.

After that I was inspired and I actually made vanilla and chocolate frosting to decorate with. Harper even smiled at the finished product, so I think she recognized it as a dog.
















This is Harper as guests began to arrive. I think the main question in her mind was, "Why do I have tights on if we're not going to church?" She was fairly social once things got rolling, and I think most everyone enjoyed the party. We had enough food and enough to drink. The only tears I can remember were from Harper the second time her Daddy put a party hat on her. She was less than fond of the elastic strap.
















Here we have Harper before she melted down wearing the party hat. Does anyone out there know why the cow has a purple mouth and one purple spot? Not complaining, just curious.
















Harper opened gift, after gift, after gift. We have very generous family and friends. This circus toy is one of her new favorites. Me, I'm just thankful we have some new toys. She still finds them interesting enough that I can occasionally get her to stay in one place for more than fifteen seconds. She also got some much needed clothes, a great children's CD (a life-saver in the car), and some wonderful books. Auntie M is insuring her literary future with titles like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Finally, after the piles of presents, it was time for the cake. Due to my own inability to let go of my natural anal-retentiveness, Harper didn't actually get to put her hands into the dog cake. In all honesty, I don't think it would have occurred to her that the large cake was for eating. Instead I made her her own little cupcake and we put that on her high-chair tray. I am not exaggerating when I say that, for the next twenty minutes, a dozen adults sat mesmerized as she ate that thing.

















Harper started out eating the cupcake like a little lady. She was picking tiny pieces off the bottom (her child-instinct must have told her that frosting-side down makes the biggest mess) and putting them, one by one, in her mouth. It was very serious business. The rest of us made almost no noise, aside from the occasional encouraging comment. Finally I flipped the cupcake back over, hoping she'd realize the joy of frosting, and shortly after that she tried to shove the entire thing in her mouth. Which lead most of us to cheer, and her nervous grandmothers to feel a little worried. Thankfully, there was no birthday choking.
















It took a really long time for Harper to finish dissecting that cupcake, and try to pick the crumbs up from her tray. Even after deleting the pictures that were just not good, we still have nearly two dozen photos of her enjoying her first cupcake. I believe there is also video footage. The first year of Harper's life has been so well documented, I'm feeling a little bit of pressure about the next, oh, eighteen years. Not to mention any subsequent children.

Thanks to everyone, near and far, who helped make Harper's birthday special. See you next year!

You've Come a Long Way, Baby!

November 2004



















November 2005