11 months

The countdown to a year is now just weeks! HOW?! I keep getting more & more emotional as the days speed by. I almost want the “big day” to get here so I can stop dreading it so much. Hehe!

Every single day Harper seems to be changing. From 9-11 months she turned from being a baby to a little girl….I can no longer deny it. I love the amazing personality she has developed, so sweet and trusting. This stage is amazing and so much fun, but I can’t help but cry for the loss of the infant stage. Holding, cuddling, rocking….those are rare moments now. I so wish I could go back in time and tell my new-mommy self to really stop and enjoy those sweet quiet moments, breathe in that amazing baby smell, and spend even more hours memorizing how it felt to have that tiny little body clinging to mine. I look forward to the night wakings now….for those few minutes Harper cuddles close and lets me rock and snuggle while she nurses. The house is dark and quiet, everyone is asleep, there are no distractions and I can truely relish in the moment. I dread the day Harper decides to wean. I know there will be more cuddles and night wakings….but it will be different. But as much as I miss the past I am loving the present and can’t wait for the future.

Harper at 11 months:

• Weight – 20lbs 3ozs! My arms have never been so strong!
• Favorite toy – Books! She is getting really good at turning pages and loves to flip back & forth through all her books. The touch/feel ones are the biggest hits
• She learned how to stack her wood blocks on top of one another a few weeks ago. She gets so impressed with herself that she starts clapping each time she puts one on top. Love it! She is also getting better and better at throwing/rolling a ball. She likes to steal Holly’s balls away (poor dog) and will spend 30 minutes throwing the ball across the kitchen and crawling to go get it.
• She can also spend what feels like hours pulling things out of things (yes I know that sounds weird). I have given up on actually folding and putting away clean diapers. The hamper now hangs out in the middle of the room so Harper can pull all of the diapers out….over and over. A box, basket, or suitcase filled with random things provides endless entertainment. Who needs fancy toys?!
• She is crawling like a madwomen with incredible speed. She knows when I’m coming to get her (to distract her from something she is trying to get into) and will start crawling at super speed while laughing. She usually starts laughing so hard she has to stop crawling. Little ham!
• She is also pulling up/cruising everywhere! She is getting brave and attempting to let go and balance…I fear walking will come soon. I am not ready for a walker! Strangely though she does NOT like to walk while holding our hands. Most kiddos love it but she will just lift her legs and refuse to do it. Hmmm….
• Her language development is getting more advanced everyday. I fear for the talker she is going to be! 😉  She knows dada & mama (though I only get the mamamama when she is tired or upset….so not fair!) and is working on duckie and bye-bye. Right now they come out du-de and nie-nie but she says them in the right context!
• She is also starting to really pick up on signing! She knows milk and will often sign to me when she wants to nurse and can recognize eat and water. She attempted to sign eat back the other day! Amazing! I’ve been pretty slack with signs so I’m impressed with how well she is doing! We have really started to pick it up this past week and are working on milk/water/eat/bath/more/all done/sleep.
• Sleep – she was doing amazing with naps (2 a day!! What what?!) and going to bed without a fight but sickness and a week of travel to California got her out of whack. 😦  Luckily we have almost gotten the naps back in control and the nighttime is slowly looking better! Unfortunately I think she might be teething so it could take awhile for her to get back to normal.
• Teeth – still just the bottom two! I have a huge fear that all of them are going to come through at once…yikes!

It is crazy how much they change in less than a year!

Now we are working on getting her playroom put together! I have most of the supplies, just need a few more essentials so I can put it all together. We are big into montessori principles so it is based off of a montessori classroom. I can not wait for it to be finished! Harper is going to love it! I am also finalizing the details for her birthday party. It has gotten toned down a LOT from our original plans but unfortunately June was a popular month for babies so most of our friends with kiddos are busy that day with their own birthday parties! Bummer! Oh well! Friends from Austin & California are coming, along with some family so it will be all good! As long as Dan, Harper, and I are together then it will be great!

Now the question is what to wear for family pictures?!?!

Mother’s Day

It is no secret that I am not close to my mother. She is actually not a part of my life anymore…..which has been a blessing. Growing up Mother’s Day was just another day, the only difference was I had to sign a card that my dad had bought and say the words “happy mother’s day” at least once before nightfall. Seeing the big hoopla that other families did just seemed strange to me.

Now I’m a mommy and I still don’t buy into the big hype that seems to surround it for many people. I don’t want big gifts or spa days (though I cannot wait until Harper is old enough to bring me some adorable handmade card/craft home from school)….flowers are overrated and the $80/person brunches seem silly.

It took my poor husband awhile to figure out that I’m not setting him up for failure on “hallmark holidays” by not wanting the big things. Diamonds on an average day =amazing! Huge bonus points….diamonds on valentines (or other holiday) = very sweet. Lucky for me my husband is big on the random romantic gestures!

For my first Mother’s Day I told him I wanted to spend the entire day with my 2 favorite people in the world, and for it to be low-key. He delivered! 🙂  I woke this morning to an adorable baby girl who gave me a huge grin and snuggled in bed with me for a few minutes (who needs anything else?!). Minutes later my sweet husband came in to change the stinky diaper the adorable baby had created (bonus points!)….and let me take a long hot shower uninterrupted (only mothers’ can understand how truely amazing this little act can be!!). Once I was ready I came out of our room to flowers (the one thing my husband refuses to stop doing each holiday no matter what I say!) and sweet cards from him and my two girls (Holly has gotten me a mother’s day card each year…such a good puppy!).

Then we were off! We drove to Austin for a fun brunch picnic at Zilker Park (I love love love this place!). A fluffy blanket spread under a tree, yummy food (mini broccoli spinach frittatas, bagels, and fruit salad), mimosas (yay!), and a little girl intent on crawling all over the place exploring = heaven! After our bellies were full we decided to take a walk around Barton Springs. We played on the playground, waved at the kiddie train passing, and enjoyed snow cones while watching the swimmers. The original plan included watching the Shakespeare in the Park play, but the TX sun was in full force and shade was limited so we decided to pack up and head downtown for the Pecan Street Festival on 6th St!

I love street festivals. One reason Chicago is so amazing in the summer are all the festivals going on each weekend! While walking around 6th looking at the vendors and enjoying the music I almost felt like I was back up north! 🙂  Eventually we decided to head back to San Antonio to start dinner and let my baby girl get ready for bed.

I haven’t been out in direct sunlight for long since I got pregnant (thanks to long Chicago winters and having a newborn strapped to my chest last year) so I am a cooked lobster, and I am exhausted from all the walking….but it was a perfect first Mother’s Day!!! Everything I wanted and more  🙂

While the day is meant to celebrate moms’ I looked at it as a day to celebrate getting to be a mom. I know how extremely lucky I am. Having my baby girl has made life perfect in every way. I can barely remember what life was like without her in it (I used to think that saying was kinda stupid!). My days are long, there is a lot more noise (and poop!), and some days I want to pull my hair out from saying “we don’t throw that” and “not for little hands”………but I have never been happier. One toothy grin and I can’t help but smile back. I now listen to “wheels on the bus” and “little red caboose” 24/7 and have found myself waking up mumbling the words to “patty cake”…..but I wouldn’t change it. Being Harper Jane’s mommy is by far the best adventure I’ve taken! I cannot wait to see what is next!!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the fabulous mommies out there who know how lucky they truly are!

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,Lullaby, rockabye, lullaby loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peek-a-boo
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullaby, rockaby lullaby loo.
The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep! I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.
– Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

(this makes me cry every time I read it)

And just like that….

Our days of co-sleeping are over. My baby has moved out!

I swore up & down that I would NEVER EVER co-sleep. Why start that habit?! Baby would be in her crib, in her room from day one!

Bwahahahahahaha! Yeah that lasted for about 3 weeks. Then we decided to move her crib into our room so I wouldn’t have to travel across the house every 2hrs for those night feedings. Not long after I threw in the towel. It was taking her over 30min to go back to sleep in the crib after eating, leaving me with only an hour before another session started! I read up on how to safely bring her into our bed and voila! we had sleep!!! It was glorious! I could nurse her without fully waking and she drifted right off as soon as she was full. While it wasn’t 8hrs uninterrrupted I felt human again! Suddenly the newborn period was no biggie!

Of course as soon as people heard that she slept with us the comments started. The most common one was “you need to break that now or she will never get out of there!”. I admit I had a slight fear of how the transition would go…..but at the moment I was enjoying decent sleep at night! Immediate needs won! 🙂  Dan and I agreed that we would think about transitioning her around 6 months….but then she began reverse cycling and we decided that it made more sense to leave her with us for a little longer! We moved when she was 8 months and it didn’t make sense to start something when the different rooms/beds would confuse her.

At 10 months we were settled in our new place and she was showing signs of being ready to transition out. She was waking frequently due to our movements and she had become quite the kicker while looking for more room! While I wasn’t 100% ready to move her out (I loved the cuddles!!), I did realize that she seemed ready. At first we tried doing a Montessori floor bed so that I could continue to cuddle/nurse her to sleep. Big Fat Fail! I’m not sure if it was the bed (having too much space around her when she woke during the night) or if it was the sleep regression that kiddos go through around that age but suddenly she was waking every 45-90min! After 3 days I was ready to call quits and move her back in our room, but a few of my mommy friends suggested we try the crib again. Can’t hurt right?!

We set up the crib and got serious about our nighttime routine. It worked! There were some tears the first few nights (Harper has always been a tension releaser though and had to cry a few minutes to fall asleep…..no matter if she is being held or not!). She wasn’t happy about being put in her crib and not nursed to sleep, but after a few minutes of reassurance and butt-patting she finally settled down and went to sleep…..for 12 HOURS!!!!!!! That had NEVER happened! Not once in 10 months! I of course stayed up all night staring at the monitor convinced that something was wrong! The next night was the same…..12 more HOURS of sleep. Absolute heaven!

Could it really be this easy?! What happened to “she will never leave”? She has now settled into going to bed between 7:30 & 8:00 (she gets a bath, diaper, lotion, pjs, bedtime book, nurse, crib) and wakes around eleven some nights for a quick feed and then again around 4-5am for a quick feeding before waking for the day at 7:30am! I wasn’t really ready to night wean and I love the middle night cuddle sessions so I am happy she is still waking up for 1-2 feedings! I tend to go to bed around eleven so I am only waking once! Now if only I could get the 7:30 wakeup time pushed back. We attempted to push back bedtime in hopes that she would sleep in longer but it did not work at all. I am not a morning person but luckily Dan is so he takes her on days he doesn’t work and lets me get another hour or two of shut-eye! Most amazing man ever!

Harper has been sick the last few days and I attempted to bring her to our bed one night when she was sounding pretty bad….but she did NOT want that! She cried and crawled all around until I took her into her room and laid her down in the crib. She repositioned and fell right asleep. :*(   My baby doesn’t need me anymore (ok I know it is not true but it still stung!). Being sick has thrown her sleep off a bit since she doesn’t feel like eating a lot of solids right now, and is wanting to nurse frequently at night. I’m sure once she kicks the bug she will go right back to normal!

Dan and I still can’t believe how easy it was! I really feel like there is a window of opportunity to transition a child into their own bed/room. I am so happy we co-slept for the first 10 months! The extra sleep and cuddles were so worth it!! It is nice to have our whole bed back…..but we still miss the little sighs & grunts.

I can guarantee that our next baby will be in our room from day 1. Bonus is that the next time I won’t spend a second worrying about the “bad habit” I am starting! I will enjoy every second of baby cuddles…..they end way too soon!

BLW – Update!

I recieved an email from a friend a few days ago asking about our approach to solids with Harper & I realized that I never really updated with how she took to BLW (baby-led weaning)! Only one word is needed to describe how it is going —-Awesome!!!

We officially started a few weeks after she turned 6 months with a yummy dinner of steamed broccoli, baked sweet potatoe “fries”, and applesauce. As we expected she picked it all up…smooshed it around…sucked/gnawed on it…..and threw it off her tray! Very little actually made it into her mouth! 🙂  She hated the applesauce (and still does) so that was spit out pretty fast!

We started with only dinner for the first few weeks to get her used to it and usually gave her 2-4 single ingredient items to try. She liked to chew/suck on them but if any piece actually made it into her mouth she would gag and spit it out (the part that freaks most people out). She handled it like a champ! Over time we increased the number of meals we gave her and branched out in foods. We recently began giving 3 main meals a day with 1 snack midday.

Harper didn’t really start ingesting anything until around 7 1/2 months and didn’t get very consistant at it until closer to 8 1/2 months. The greatest thing about BLW is that there is no stress! I always try to nurse her an hour before a meal so that I know her main nutrition is breastmilk (which it should be up until a year!) so I never had to worry about how much she was/wasn’t eating. Solids were strictly for fun/practice.

At 10 months Harper is eating like CRAZY! Most days I have no clue where she puts it!! 🙂  We offer her a plate of food and allow her to eat as much/little as she wants. Some days she cleans off her plate and will even go for seconds, other days she nibbles here & there but seems uninterested. She usually begins putting food in the drink holder on her highchair when she is done. We never try to get her to eat more once she shows signs of being full….even if she only had a few bites. We hope to teach her to eat when she is hungry & stop when she is full instead of cleaning your plate or eating because it is “time to eat”. Both of those habits are ones that Dan and I are still working to break ourselves of!

Most people give us the side-eye when they see us out eating with her (luckily it is decreasing as she gets bigger), and we have had more than a few “concerned observers” come over to say something…..but we usually ignore the looks & try to educate the ones commenting. There have been many gags & lots of messes, but nothing that a rag or bath can’t clean (and no choking incidents). From talking & observing many (not all!) of the moms in my different playgroups it just seems that this approach was the easiest and least stressful for our family. Definately something worth looking into if you have a little one! 🙂

And to answer a question I get alot – “What exactly does she eat?”, here is our families meal plan for this week. Harper gets everything we do!

MONDAY:

Breakfast – Scrambled Egg, Fruit

Lunch – Spinach & Cheese Quesadillas

Dinner – Black Bean Salsa Chicken

Snacks – Rice Cakes with Hummus, fruit

TUESDAY:

Breakfast – Oatmeal, Fruit

Lunch – Broccoli Bites

Dinner – Spicy Kale Lasagna

Snacks – Baked Veggie “Chips”, Fruit

WEDNESDAY:

Breakfast – Scrambled Egg, Fruit

Lunch – Turkey BLT with Avocado

Dinner – Leftovers

Snacks – Tofu “Fries”,  Fruit

THURSDAY:

Breakfast – Oatmeal, Yogurt

Lunch – Broccoli Bites

Dinner – Taquitos, Rice/Beans  (Happy Cinco!)

Snacks – Homemade Baked “Cheesy Puffs”, Fruit

FRIDAY:

Breakfast – Baked Frittata with Veggies

Lunch – Leftovers

Dinner – Spaghetti & Turkey Meatballs

Snacks – “Chips” with Hummus

SATURDAY:

Breakfast – Pancakes with pureed fruit for dipping

Lunch – Turkey Meatballs

Dinner – Balsamic Raspberry Chicken with Rice, Veggies

Snacks – Turkey & Cheese Rollups, Fruit

SUNDAY:

Mother’s Day! 🙂  We are doing a picnic brunch in the park and probably eat out for dinner! I cannot wait for my first real Mother’s Day! 🙂  I am looking forward to the day when she can start making me adorable things at school! 🙂

There you have it! No extra cooking/planning needed. Plus I love that I know exactly what she is eating and that it is low sodium, high (good) fat, non-processed foods. 🙂

Crazy just got crazier! ;)

I’m so behind on blogging I almost don’t know where to start! I do have an excuse though….not having internet for over a month is pure torture! I have stolen a few minutes alone at the bookstore to try and accomplish a few thing! Hopefully everything gets hooked up tomorrow so I can rejoin the cyber world!

The biggest update: We have a crawler!! Little Miss Harper tried for weeks to crawl and was extremely mad that she couldn’t. She could get up on all fours and rock but she couldn’t get the hands coordinated with the legs! She did compensate by learning how to roll, scoot, and wiggle to what she wanted though. Then on the 29th I woke up with her and set her down in the living room to play while I grabbed a cup of coffee. Out of nowhere she just took off! What?! I almost didn’t realize what was happening at first. She just woke up knowing what to do. Amazing!! Over the last 2 weeks she has only gotten better and is now pretty darn fast when she wants something. Life has become insane! The saying “you can’t take your eyes off for a second” is no joke. I am exhausted! She seems to automatically know what she can’t have and goes for it. Having a mobile baby in a house that is getting unpacked/organized and is in no way baby-proofed is not fun. Why oh why couldn’t she wait just a few more weeks?!?! Honestly though it is a ton of fun watching her explore her world. The last hints of baby are disappearing and in it’s place a little girl is emerging. The most bittersweet thing a parent can witness. I am filled with so much pride…even as my eyes blink back the tears of sadness. Why does time go so fast?

Other fun things she has learned to do is clap her hands (she is so proud of this one!), immitate us doing simple things (like head banging! Haha!), and she sounds like she is trying to say duckie! She isn’t quite there yet but I think that will be her first word (besides dada and momma). She is still as talkative as ever (when we tell people how “verbal” she is they always say “oh yeah my little one talked a lot too”…..then they watch/hear her and are amazed. It is crazy! I fear the parent/teacher conferences in our future!). She has also started trying to pull-up. She can get to her feet about 25% of the time. Once she starts walking you might have to put me in a straightjacket! 😉

I love being a mommy. Watching her grow and learn is a million times more amazing than I could have imagined. I have been so lucky to get to stay home with her this year and witness everything!

Ok, Ok…. I will stop with the sappy mommy stuff! 😉  The other big news is that Dan officially graduated from COTS last week and is home with us in San Antonio!!! YAY! That was the longest 5wks of my life. I am going to need a lot of wine and my amazing friends to get through our first deployment.

Miss Harper and I headed out to Alabama the Wed. before graduation and got checked into the hotel. I wasn’t expecting to see him until Thursday afternoon but got a great suprise when he told me he was allowed off base from 6pm-10pm! The last 30 min leading up to 6:00 took F.O.R.E.V.E.R! There were a few tears and lots of hugs once we were together. Poor Harper was a little overwhelmed and confused…she just kept staring at Dan trying to figure out what was going on! After a yummy dinner and lots of talking I dropped him off at the dorms (which was really hard to do!) and headed home to get ready for a full day of orientation and our first “dining out” in the Air Force.

I had a great time at the Dining Out (a semi-formal military dinner with guests) but I hated hated HATED leaving my baby girl with a babysitter (one that I didn’t know!!!). I was told there were a few tears (I decided not to probe into that…..didn’t want to know!) but all in all she did pretty well and played with the ladies 8yr old niece the whole night. It was very nice though having a “date” with my husband that didn’t include a baby! 🙂  Getting introduced into the crazy traditions of the Air Force (no clapping…must bang your spoon, always keep water in your glass….ALWAYS, butter individual pieces of bread…not the whole thing) and the GROG! 🙂  I think I’m going to like this part of military life! The formal AF Birthday Ball is in September and I am soooo excited to buy a fancy dress and spend the night dining and dancing! Dan looks pretty nice in his Mess Dress also!

On Friday was the formal graduation and then he was OURS!! Soooo nice! As an added bonus he recieved 3 paid travel days and 8 paid “moving” days! Yay! So excited that he didn’t have to use up any of his normal leave (30 days per year) to help me set up house! 🙂  He starts on Wednesday and I am ready to know what his work schedule is and when his deployment window is (more on that later!).

In the meantime we are busy getting life organized and started here in Texas! 🙂