2 year/7 week pictures

Yesterday we took the kids to get their portraits done. We had Harper get her two year pictures taken and they were Jasper's first professional pics on his 7 week birthday.

I was a little nervous about taking a temperamental 2-year old and an unpredictable 7 week old and trying to get a shot. But I was happily surprised at how well it went! We tried to get a picture with the two of them at the beginning, but Harper wasn't having any of it. After trying for several minutes and her not cooperating, we decided to go ahead and capture Jasper since he was in such a good mood. After she saw him do it, she was much more willing to participate, so we were able to get some really sweet pics.

Here's the results. I also posted a picture of Harper at her 7-week shoot at the bottom to compare she and Jasper at exact ages.

What We've Been Up To

We celebrated the 70th birthday of this guy...

Happy 70th Birthday Papa!

Harper rode a train...

Harper and Mommy went on a lunch date while Nana spent some time with Jasper...

We shared an ice cream sundae...

I've been enjoying this curly/wavy hair she got from me (since she didn't get much else!)...

And I've been taking lots of pictures of this little man...

And finally...

I got a smile... and captured it.

Life is good!

Big Sister

Harper as a big sister has been a welcomed surprise. She has taken to Jasper immediately and absolutely loves him. All of my fears of her being jealous have not been realized-- yet, at least. I allow her to be involved and help out as much as possible. She loves to fetch diapers and throw dirty ones away. She pulls a chair over to observe his baths closely and loves to try to comfort him when he's crying. We're obviously being careful to not let her go too far, but not restricting her access to him. It's a fine line sometimes, but I think we're all doing well with the adjustment.

She absolutely loves it when she gets to "hold" him. Here she is telling Mommy to "shhh" because the baby is asleep.

She felt Jasper needed a blanket since he was sleeping. This is obviously where Mommy steps in so as to make sure she didn't smother him! :)

Harper has a type of greeting and farewell she does where she bumps elbows. Here she is giving brother "elbows". I suppose he's been inducted!

The only sign of jealousy has been when Daddy holds Jasper, which is interesting to us. This is a picture of one of those times where she wanted to be held by Daddy as he was cradling Jasper. Thankfully Daddy was happy to oblige.

First Bath

We finally got to give Jasper his first bath last week! The little remainder of his bellybutton finally fell off (took forever just like his sister's!), and I couldn't wait to give him a good dunk. He's a typical boy and is pretty stinky, so we must not get too behind on his baths. :)

At first he cried. I had flashbacks to Harper where she just screamed and screamed the entire time.

But then he realized it was pretty nice and comfy in that water. Here he seems very contemplative as he enjoys the warm water.

But then I washed his hair and the tears started up again!

He quieted right up after the bath, and stayed awake for a long time after. I love a sweet-smelling baby after a bath.



He's had a few more baths since then, and NOT ONE TEAR! Not even a little whimper the entire time. I love that he loves it and definitely hoping he continues the trend!

Happy 2nd Birthday Harper!!!

I'm now the Mommy to a two year old!! I can't believe two years ago Harper was born. I want to steal my friend Erin's idea and post pictures from when she was born. However they're all on our external hard drive and I have a hard enough time just trying to get time to blog, let alone set myself down and search through my pictures on the hard drive in the office. I still hope to though!

Since Harper's birthday was on Easter this year, and her baby brother was born less than a month ago, we decided to forego a regular party with invites and friends and went with a low-key affair and combined Easter family together time with birthday presents and cake. It worked well! We went to church, then came home and had nap time. Nana and Papa came over with all the fixins for lunch, which was awesome! I am way more scatter-brained and sleep deprived than I ever anticipated I would be, so the though of trying to put together a lunch for everyone is just way over my thought capacity at this point. Thanks Nana! Harper opened presents and we all had cake and ice cream instead of pie this year. Here are a few highlights from the day.

This is our first photo as a family of four!

Papa decided to take his turn at holding Jasper.

Ah, so begin the adventures of trying to get two kids to cooperate for a picture!


Her first "official" Easter basket since we didn't really do one last year. Here she is excited about her chocolate bunny. I put one jelly bean in a couple of plastic eggs, but mostly filled it with toys. Every time she found a jelly bean, she looked at me as if to make sure it was okay she ate it. She'd never had them before and she thought they were fantastic.

Amazed by her cake.

Chocolate face!

Nana got Harper a Dora the Explorer microphone. Jon and I have warned her the microphone will soon show up at HER house.

Nana and Jasper

Nana and Papa came to visit and Nana finally got to hold Jasper!! They had been feeling a bit under the weather when we brought him home, so they avoided getting too close in case they might have something contagious. When they came by earlier this week, Nana's arms were ready!! Papa still hasn't taken his turn yet. :)

What She's Been Up To

I would apologize for not updating as I usually do, but I'm not going to apologize for having a 2 year old, a newborn and lots of sleep to get when I can! Add to that, I am still recovering from my c-section and realizing that I'm not actually SuperWoman and am having a harder time bouncing back fully this time around.

That being said, I still have so much to update on. I am committed to keeping the blog current because I love having it to refer back to as I watch my kids grow.

So here's what Harper has been up to this past week.

The girl is obsessed with buckles. She loves to do and undo buckles on anything and everything. Having Jasper here just means more buckles to play with!

Here she is with his car seat. Notice the feet off to the sides. She is serious about it.

Here she is with the swing we just set up today. Again, total concentration.


Enjoying some applesauce after a spaghetti dinner. Spaghetti automatically means she eats in a diaper, and hops in a bath right after.

One of the biggest highlights: Pigtails!!! I've been looking forward to this day for so long. She's not used to anyone touching her head in that way, so the first few times I put her hair up caused big tears, but I think she realizes now it's pretty quick and painless so we don't have much protesting, if any.

She wore her Big Sister shirt to church the first Sunday after Jasper was born. He was still in the NICU, so she wore it again on the first Sunday we were able to bring him with us. He had a Baby Brother shirt too, but Mommy didn't get a picture of it, so a picture will be forthcoming!