Like Looking in a Mirror

Lydia is the adorably cute daughter of a coworker of mine, who we recently found out is exactly 1 week younger than Harper. The more we talked, the more we were amazed at their similarities. Both are adorable (of course!), with blue eyes, sweet round faces, and very little hair. They also have a lot of the same wardrobe including bibs, pajamas and onesies. It's almost as if you could take Harper's baby pictures and replace them with Lydia's, and you wouldn't be able to tell a difference!

I do have to say though that Oliver led me to believe that Lydia, like Harper had very little hair. Apparently this definition takes on a different meaning for different people. Lydia had way more hair! In fact, I maintain that I could get a bow on Lydia, where as Harper is a looooong ways away from any type of hair accessory.

This past Saturday was a bowling fundraiser for Junior Achievement through work and Harper was so excited to be able to meet her new friend Lydia. Well, okay, their parents were more excited than they were but that's besides the point. Because it was a bowling alley, there wasn't much opportunity for them to actually play, so we had to settle for taking their picture on top of a ball rack and laugh at them as they poked and prodded each other, inspecting teeth and noses.

"Hmm, your eyes are blue like mine."

"How many teeth you got in there?"

"Me, I've got two right here and...."
"How many pictures you gonna take, lady?"

This picture here shows two things. 1) how exhausting bowling was for Harper and 2) how badly I need to clean her mirror.

It was great to meet you, Lydia Grace!! We hope to be able to play again soon!

May 2nd

This flier came in the mail today and I immediately got teary-eyed the second Jon handed it to me. As my eyes scanned over it, I settled on the writing at the top. "You've Come a Long Way, Baby!" Things are a bit emotional this week anyway as we reflect on the past year and marvel at how amazingly beautiful and perfect our daughter is. As I read this and looked at the pictures, I flashed back to almost a year ago, thinking how those 10 days lasted so long and were filled with so much emotion, heartbreak, prayers and tears. And how the unknown was so hard to accept.

We were so thankful for the NICU staff. The nurses there so caring and helpful, guiding us as first-time parents through the scary time. Encouraging us with kind words and being almost as bummed as we were with every setback. The rotating circle of doctors was something we never got used to, but we never felt like they didn't care, that they didn't want what was best for Harper and never acted like it was a burden when we had 10,000 questions.

We realize how truly blessed we are having to only spend 10 days in the NICU with Harper. We were reminded of that every day as we saw the tiny micro preemies and their parents. We are hoping to see a few people and maybe recognize a few of the friendly faces we came to know those 10 days. We are so thankful for everything they did for us and though we wouldn't mind running into all of them at reunions like this one, we pray we never have to see them while they're working again. :)

Reorganizing

I've conceded one drawer and one cabinet that Harper is allowed to dig into. She finds this quite satisfying and loves to take advantage.

Here she is putting the plastic lids in the order she sees fit. Which, by the way, looks nothing like my order. ;)

Our Little Bluebonnet

The Bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas. I found this quote by historian Jack Maguire when looking for a link to post about Bluebonnets:"It's not only the state flower but also a kind of floral trademark almost as well known to outsiders as cowboy boots and the Stetson hat. The bluebonnet is to Texas what the shamrock is to Ireland, the cherry blossom to Japan, the lily to France, the rose to England and the tulip to Holland."

It is very uncommon these days to find rolling fields of Bluebonnets, as they're pretty scarce, at least in our area, though it is a common tradition for Texans to plop their children in a Bluebonnet patch to snap a few pictures. Which is what we did on Saturday.

We had scoped out this location a few weeks prior and could see the blue patches starting to sprout which indicated it was going to be a pretty good spot. We were right, though the better patch was inevitably also being visited by a couple of bees, which made our pictures there very brief. We tried to be very careful and not trample the flowers, choosing to set her in an empty patch here and there, and watching where we stepped. The Bluebonnets are so beautiful and are only here for a few weeks so we didn't want to ruin the beauty for everyone else.

She was much more interested in looking at the flowers and grass than us, so we couldn't get great shots of her beautiful blue eyes, which is what I was hoping for. Apparently she thought it was kind of icky and was mostly complaining about sitting there. We still managed to get some good shots, nonetheless.

And now for her latest tricks

We filmed these on Sunday and Tuesday, which explains all the shamrocks and green.



Harper has been waving hi and bye for a while now. Last week Grandma taught her this new "trick" and Jon and I got to see it first hand on Saturday when we were out and about.

About a week before Mimi got here she started giving kisses. Notice the wide open mouth slobber fest, also known as kisses. Daddy has warned her that she is never allowed to kiss a boy like this.

Today when I picked her up from Grandma & Grandpa's, I was holding her and told her "I love you", at which point she leaned in for a kiss!! I couldn't wait to get home and show Daddy, so when we got home we recorded it.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We're not (very) Irish, but I still love the holiday. On too many occasions growing up I was that kid who wore green from head to do, even if the greens were all slightly (a lot) off. My mom always made green butter for our rolls, green milk/water, and we always had some sort of spicy meat from the crock pot that I can never remember the name of. Green is still my favorite color and my eyes will always been green. I guess you could call me Irish at heart.

Today is Harper's first St. Patrick's Day and while I didn't turn her milk green or give her green cheese (ew!), she did eat her green beans with such a verocity it makes me wonder if she would prefer to live by them alone. She wore her "Dad's Lady Luck" shirt to Grandma's today, along with her St. Patrick's Day bib. I must say she was quite the looker.

Of course, because I like to get more use out of things than just one day, she also wore another shamrock outfit to church on Sunday. Yes, she was that kid in the nursery. Green from head to do with the greens slightly (a lot) off. But darned cute, she was.

She doesn't have green eyes like I do but I'm quite pleased with the eyes God has given her as they are quite beautiful, just like her Daddy's. I look forward to all the future St. Patrick's Days to spend with her and carrying on some of my favorite traditions, as well as starting new ones.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Getting Ready to Party

Here is the story of the invitations for Harper's First Birthday. As with everything else, I'm doing her party on a tight budget, and the invitations are no exception.

I found this do-it-yourself card kit on sale for $2.50, so I snatched up 2 of the same style which gave me 16 cards. The kits each included 8 cards, bows, hearts, stickers, scrapbook-style accessories, rhinestone jewels and decorative pages. With the help of some extra scrapbook goodies Jane had leftover from the baby shower last year, I was able to get started on assembling all the invites.




Of course, it meant I had to find the time to do it, which turned out not to be so easy. But the couple late nights staying up assembling were definitely worth spending only $5 for everything. And I actually had some fun making them! I don't think I have the patience or creativity for scrapbooking or even projects like this more often, but it was a nice variation from the norm and I love the fact that each one is different from the other.



Because most of the people I sent "invitations" to are out of town and obviously unable to attend, instead of party info, I simply included a cute poem attached to the inside to mark the special event. Here's what it said:

I learned to laugh and squeal,
then sit and stand,

and I can walk now
if you hold my hand.

But the fun
has just begun,

lookout world,
I'm turning one!

I was also able to include a wallet sized picture of one of our favorite poses from the portrait day, which I hope makes it extra special for everyone we sent one to.

Updated Look

Almost one so we get a new layout for our blog. Such a lucky girl!

1st Birthday Portraits

While Mimi was in town for another fun-filled visit, we took Harper to get her birthday portraits done. She woke up with a fever that morning but we decided to try anyway, just to see if they'd turn out. She was such a trooper and lasted the whole time even though I'm sure she felt miserable. It turned out to be the start of 2 days of a high fever which made her feel a bit cranky, tired and clingy. She really was a good girl and ended up giving us plenty of smiles. Here's just a few to give you an idea.

Mimi loves to spoil her and brought her the birthday hat and dress which I loved. I had tossed around the idea of making her a tutu for her portraits but couldn't make myself find the time last weekend to do it. So when Mimi showed up with this, it was PERFECT! Harper wasn't thrilled about wearing the hat but it still looked cute sitting next to her in the pictures.

The polka dot dress was given to her for Christmas by Auntie Wendy, Uncle Kevin and cousins Camden and Tobin. I fell in love with it immediately and knew I wanted her to wear it in her portraits. It's too cute and I'll be so sad when she outgrows it.

The teddy bear is the infamous bear bought for her by Poppy at Christmas from Neiman Marcus. It looked so great in the pictures, I'm so glad I remembered to bring it.

The rocking chair is one that was made for my mom when she was a baby by her grandfather. We all used it as kids and now it sits in Harper's room. It's such a special thing I remember from my childhood that I wanted it included in her pictures. It'll probably show up every year until she's too big for it. ;)

And just because I think they're funny, I'll be posting some of the outtakes in a few days.

Asserting Her Independence

On the blog about her 9 month checkup, I talked about the plan to begin to wean her at 1 year and how I'd been wondering which one of us would be ready for that process to begin first.

My question has been answered loud and clear: She's ready. I'm not.

I'll spare the readers all the details, however it became very obvious that Harper was ready to be done being dependant on Mommy, and would much prefer the bottle/sippy cup. I wasn't expecting it to happen so soon and it took about a week and a half to really sink in that we were beginning to wean. Last Thursday was the first day I've ever not taken my pump to work with me and it was W-E-I-R-D. I truly felt like a part of me was not there.

As kids do, they do things on their own terms which is probably why it's been such a hard realization for me. I wished it could've happened when I was ready, on my terms. But - such is life and we lear to roll with the punches.

I'm just now beginning to let my mind wander into the positive aspects. As many times as I felt inconvenienced or burdened by choosing to be so steadfast in keeping up my supply and doing what I felt was absolutely best for my daughter, it's been such an honor and a privilege to have been able to and I tried to never take for granted what came so easily to us, when it did not happen so easily for other mothers.

So now, we're transitioning straight over to regular cow's milk slowly, mixing her bottles with what I pump and what I have stored in the freezer. So far, so good. No ill reactions and she seems to enjoy the change just fine. She's also enjoying the small bits of cheese we're offering and throughly enjoyed her egg yolk scramble Saturday morning. Sounds tasty, doesn't it? I'm choosing the less painful route and extending the periods of time between pumpings so as to let things taper off naturally. I'm sure in a few days I'll be blogging about saying goodbye to my pump for the long term, until it needs to be dusted off again for the next go around.

Growing up so quickly, she is.