First Day of School

Wow, what a week!

Jon and Harper have been coming to visit me at lunch on Mondays for a few weeks now as my work schedule allows. They had just arrived and I was getting in the car when Jon listened to his voicemail. Harper's Nana had fallen in a parking lot and injured her wrist. She had driven herself to the E.R. and had figured her wrist was broken. She was right.

Obviously we were concerned for her and her well-being. She was in a lot of pain but was in good hands. After we hung up with her, I said, "well, I guess we're spending this lunch hour looking for daycare! And like that... our search began.

We visited 3 locations close to work, then we toured a place closer to home at the end of the day. We felt the best about the location closer to home for a few reasons. Jon is home during the day sleeping, so if anything were to happen, he'd be able to go get her quickly. Also, if we decide to keep her in daycare while I'm on maternity leave, it will be very easy to drop her off and pick her up. And finally, it just "felt right". No other way to describe it.

We had discussed putting her in a learning daycare center once the new baby arrived, knowing it would be a good age for her, and because we knew Nana wouldn't be able to have both kids all day long. Knowing that was about 5 months away was in our minds, so having it happen so suddenly was stressful and overwhelming. It meant a few of our initial plans had to be scrapped in order to accomodate the new major expense. We won't be getting a new, larger car as planned, which was an easy decision to make and we know God has our best interests in mind. We hope some day soon to be able to make it happen, but it's just not in the cards now. We'll be tightening our belts even more now with our spending, but we're so thankful to be able to have Jon home two days a week to lessen the expense and have her be a part-timer.

I had an extremely hard time coming to terms with putting her in daycare so suddenly. It's never been something I've wanted to do, and we feel so very fortunate to have had Nana available to us for such a long time. I ultimately wish I could be a stay-at-home mom and be her only caretaker, but it's not an option yet for us unfortunately. I had horrible feelings of guilt, thinking no one could possibly take care of her as well as me (or my family), but kept trying to reassure myself that this was going to be great for her socially and educationally, having new experiences and meeting all kinds of kids her own age.

Well, Harper did great! She had no problems being dropped off by Mommy and Daddy this morning. I think it helped that she had visited the site with us on Monday at our initial tour, and again on Tuesday with Daddy when they went to drop off the paperwork. At that time, she was allowed to go in and play with the kids in her class during their playtime, so nothing was totally new or foreign to her. We got her ready for the day and started our routine as we usually do, with a waffle and milk.


It snowed a very decent amount this morning, which I accept as a gift from God. Not only was it beautiful to look at, but it was a WONDERFUL distraction for me as I drove to work and had to concentrate on the road, instead of thinking about how awful I felt for dropping Harper off.



Every morning and evening we have to sign Harper in and out on the log. Here she is helping Daddy find her name.


Breakfast is served at 7:30, so Harper will probably be eating there most days, unless something is out of the ordinary. This morning it was cinnamon oatmeal, mandarin oranges and a cracker. She does pretty well with a fork already, so I didn't think she'd have any trouble with it. I sat her down at the table and helped her eat her first bite. We then each asked for a kiss from her, and she puckered up, then got right back to eating. We waved goodbye at the window and she never fussed or even flinched about it. It will be interesting the next few mornings to see if she reacts any differently to us leaving, knowing she'll be there all day.


When we were having dinner tonight, I gave her some milk from a regular cup to help her practice since the other kids her age don't use sippy cups in class. I put a very small amount in the bottom, but she still managed to spill it everywhere. Here is her reaction to the cold milk over her face and belly.

All-in-all, it was a great day for her. She was very obviously tired when I got her home which is to be expected, but she was in a very good mood. Each day we get a report from her teacher about what she ate and when, when she had dirty diapers, when she had wet ones, what they learned that day and any extras I should know about. It makes me feel like they really try to keep the parents informed and up-to-date about your child's activities. It's like they know you'd really rather be there than work, so they do what they can to keep track of everything. I really appreciate that!

As for Nana, she gets her hard cast tomorrow and will also be requesting further x-rays on her rib and right forearm as she's been experiencing a lot of pain in both those areas. Praying for a quick and speedy recovery for her!! She's got about 5 months to get healthy enough to take care of baby boy! :) We love you Nana!

21 Weeks

(A just because photo. Here she is a few weeks ago in one of my favorite fall outfits she has.)

Things here are going smoothly, though it's been a rollercoaster since we found out we were having a boy last week. I had a super hectic week at work due to changes and announcements which kept me very busy. Then Thursday night I got hit hard with food poisoning or the flu. Which ever it was, it wasn't pretty. I obviously stayed home from work on Friday and tried to recuperate once my body was done doing its thing. Thankfully Jon came through in a big way and stayed up extra long to take Harper to Nana's house and pick me up some Gatorade. I had just started to be able to keep liquids down, so I wanted to make sure I got as many electrolytes and vitamins back into my body as possible. A very busy weekend, including a couple hours at work on Saturday to make up for lost time (hectic week, I tell ya) did not allow for much recuperation at all.

Thankfully I'm feeling much better now and even better -- neither Jon nor Harper got sick. woohoo!! I never got a high fever, so I didn't need to go to the Doctor. And when I spoke to the nurse on the phone, she said I was doing everything right, so as long as my temp stayed down, I should be fine. Plus side to it all: I lost almost 10 pounds. Tough way to do it, though. I haven't been sick like that since I was about 11 -- 20 years ago!!! I mean it when I say I never get sick.

Baby boy is quite the kicker. I feel him at periodic times throughout the day, usually after I've just eaten. Brings back all kinds of memories of being pregnant with Harper. Still such an odd feeling and one that I doubt I'll ever get used to.

Harper likes to touch my belly and say "baby". She even kisses and hugs it when asked. We're trying hard to teach her to say "brother" but it just kind of comes out "blauble", so we'll keep working on it.

I swear that if I didn't know better, I would think that Nana had been having Harper take Mandarin language classes during the days. She is such a babbler, and it really sounds like a distinct foreign language most times. It cracks us up!

It's hard to believe, but her hair is finally growing in!! Okay, so it's not really getting longer yet, but it's definitely getting thicker. At bathtime, it now takes a good 3 or 4 dunks from the cup to get her hair nice and wet. :) Speaking of bathtime, she still LOVES it. She and I have a new game where she dips her hand in the bubbles then puts it in my face to blow them off at her. We do this back and forth, then I scoop some up and blow a big pile into her face, which cracks us both up. She LOVES to watch it happen to herself in the reflection of the bathtub plug. Such a girl to stare at herself all the time! She's also obsessed with the faucet, and gets so excited when it's time to rinse, she gets under it and puts her cup at the ready to catch as much as she can then dunk it on herself.

She has the funniest laugh ever sometimes. Of course, I love all her laughs, but there's one distinct one that comes out occasionally. She makes it so there's barely a sound at all-- just a wheezing almost. Oh, that does it to me every time. I'll have to get it on tape to show everyone.

Of course we're battling a bit of her testing her boundaries with us, and I'm reminded all the time of how important patience is with her. We're trying to learn the balance of giving her adequate warning, then taking action to get her to do what we're asking. For instance, she just got new silverware and she thinks it's fabulous to scrape them on the table. This is not okay with me for so many reasons, but mostly because I don't want her to treat her silverware like toys. So I give her one warning then tell her I will take it away. Once she disobeys and it sits for a few bites, I'll give it back. Most times she'll do it again, but I try to be very consistent to take it away each time she does it so that she learns the consequence. But also the reward of getting it back. It sometimes can make for very long (and cranky) meals, but soon enough she'll get it and then we'll be on to the next challenge.

Such a learning process for all of us!

It's a...

BOY!!!!!!

Jon and I are absolutely thrilled and beyond blessed to have confirmed the gender of the baby today to be a little boy.

Of course we really just wanted a healthy baby, and we were ecstatic as the tech confirmed everything looked great with all the measurements and glimpses into what she needed to get a look at. The baby is growing well and there are no problems detected by the ultrasound.

Truly, finding out it was a boy was just total icing on the cake. And what a fantastic treat that was!!

We are so excited to begin planning all the things we've been waiting to do like the baby's room, finding clothes and of course - naming him!!!!

Thank you Lord for a healthy, beautiful, wonderful baby boy!!!

Go Shawwty

Auntie Wendy got this Frogz toy for me for my birthday a few years ago as a joke. Harper loves it and she just figured out how to turn it on and off. She was so proud of herself, I had to videotape it.

It sings 50 C*nt's "In d@ Club" with a few of the words edited out. Such a crackup.

Happy Halloween 2009!

Harper had a great time this Halloween. It was her first time going trick or treating, so we were pretty excited for her.

Auntie Wendy actually made her tutu! She used dark pink, light pink and brown tulle and tied it with an adorable leopard print ribbon. Her friend Melissa also sent some pink wings, so we topped it off with a pink onesie, some tights and some pink glittery mary jane sneakers. And we had our fairy ballerina!

We hadn't really hyped up her costume too much, which was probably a mistake. The day before I tried to put it on her and she wanted nothing to do with the tutu and hated the wings touching her. I became a little worried, but I tried it again the next morning, with only a slightly better reaction. I decided we'd have to resort to a backup costume and make her a University of Texas cheerleader. Not nearly as cute, but super easy. We actually had her in her costume when we went to set up the church early in the afternoon, so a lot of our friends got to see her then. Once we got home, we thought we'd try just one more time. And, to our disbelief, when I held up her wings to show her, she put her arms out to put them on! We were stunned, but were so glad that she wanted to wear the tutu also. Success!!! All of a sudden she found the fun in it and seemed to enjoy it. The video we took below was the second successful attempt at putting it on when we were finally ready to go.

Here she is pretending to trick or treat at our front door. She really had a great time when we finally made it door-to-door. We didn't hit too many houses, but we did go visit a couple of friends homes to say hi. When we did go to a couple houses in our neighborhood, she certainly got the idea pretty quick to hold out her Elmo and look cute... then voila! People give you stuff.

All in all, it was a fun night and lots of memories made for all of us!

Gender Prediction Poll

I've posted a gender prediction poll. Our BIG ultrasound is the morning of November 10th, so I thought it would be fun to put up a poll to see if more people think this baby is a boy or girl.

Happy Voting!!!

Vacation Wrap Up

We just got back from our second annual vacation to Las Vegas and California! And overall, Harper was an amazing trooper and traveler. She actually slept well for the most part, which was a huge help in her keeping up and having a good attitude. We brought along ALL her sleeping helpers to make things as comfortable as possible, and though it was a lot to drag along, it was definitely worth it. We brought our video monitor, sound machine and a couple of her blankies and stuffed animals.
We could've said the trip was a total success-- if it wasn't for the plane ride home. It was unfortunately scheduled right when she would've taken her afternoon nap, so it was not a good start. And it went downhill from there. It was a terrible time for all of us, and the poor thing was just so tired and wouldn't sleep on the plane no matter what we tried. But we survived!!!

Here is a quick wrap-up of the highlights from our trip!

Plane ride there. She was an ANGEL! We wish we could've had the same child on the way back.

Kissing Hanz at his 50th birthday party. He's very special to our family - he's my former boss and he married Jon and I!

Family pic with the sisters and all their kids.

Getting Poppy to pucker up. She's got him wrapped around her little finger for SURE!


Had a blast in Mimi and Poppy's jacuzzi!

Loved hanging with "Auntie" Heather.

Finally got to meet Uncle Chris!

Auntie Wendy got a ghost painted on Harper's cheek at the pumpkin patch.

She got her first haircut!

Loved hanging out with the little pumpkins.

Mommy got to hang out in the mud on her 31st birthday. :)

Harper encountered "Nana" Chery's verrrrry large dog Charles.

She went to the beach for the first time!

And successfully ate a lemon, complete with sour faces.

All in all it was a wonderful trip, and a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday - surrounded by my friends and family for a week straight. Can't wait to do it again!