First Big Steps!!

Okay, I'm marking it down in the books!!  Harper has officially started to take numerous steps!  So exciting.  I am one proud mommy.  As we all know, she's been 'almost' walking for over a month.  Maybe even two months.  She's even taken up to 3 steps on her own.  But tonight, I really felt that she was going to go for it.  She had been getting braver and braver...so I had my camera ready, and caught the little walker in action!

You go, Little Miss Harper!  Looks like she's ready to go for a RUN tomorrow!

Where did 11 months go!?

Almost an entire year has passed since the birth of our daughter.  It really leaves me speechless thinking about it.  I usually still feel like a flailing new mom who doesn't know what the hell she's doing--but then I think, hold the phone, I have almost a YEAR of motherhood under my belt!  What?!  That's just crazy.  Stop the train, it's going too fast!...

Josh, Harper, and I went to breakfast yesterday morning at the Range and an adorable little girl was oogling Harper.  She was probably about 5.  I said to Josh, "you know we're going to blink and Harper will be that age."  Oh, it's so true.  It all just whooshes by so quickly.  There have been a lot of ups and downs in this eleven months of parenthood, and despite some rough patches, I have enjoyed it more than anything ever.  Even on the hardest days when I've barely slept a wink, my heart is so full of love for our daughter and our life that it could explode at any given moment.

So, what's the ELEVEN MONTH OLD up to currently?

-She weighs 20 pounds-ish.
-She still has just two toofs.
-She still looooooves dogs.  Her favorite word is still 'woof woof.'
-She still likes to practice her other animal sounds, too.
-She mimics us a LOT now.  Both with words and actions.
-She likes to 'brush' her hair with her little baby hairbrush (so cute).
-She likes to say 'uh oh!'
-She claps her hands (also so cute).
-She calls me 'mum' or 'mum-mum'(melts my heart!!).
-She likes to walk laps around our couch.
-She 'walks', but still needs to hold something with one hand (mostly for comfort rather than for balance).
-She's still crazy about bathtime and loves water in general.
-She also still loves to be outside-especially in her swing on our deck!
-We are still breastfeeding, but nearing the end of that relationship.
-She now rides in a 'big girl' carseat and seems to like that a LOT better than the infant carrier.
-She eats everything, but in little amounts!  Right now she's loving beans, blueberries, yogurt, goldfish crackers, and nutrigrain bars.
-She loves being around people and will say 'hi' to everyone when we're out, even if they're oblivious to her (too funny).

We're also in the midst of planning her first birthday shindig.  I can't believe it's already time for that!  We took some cute pics for her invitation this past weekend.  Oh man...I love them!  Here's a little sneak peak of a couple:

Clapping those hands!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my birthday!  Woohoo!  Kinda silly, but I've been looking forward to being 28 my whole life.  For some reason, I've always felt that 28 would be a really spectacular year!  Yesterday, Josh kicked it off RIGHT with surprising me and taking off work!  Yay!!  That was a really good surprise :-)  That alone would have been the best present ever!  I taught a yoga class (and they all sang to ME for a change-awww!!), we ate lunch together, and then hubby sent me off to get a massage!  Surprise again!!  Awesome.  We finished the day off with a delicious dinner date at Scalo.  Yum yum.  Day one of being 28 kicked ass thanks to the people I love most.  Now here are some pictures of my favorite cuties:

28...so far so good!

Today was a little bit awful thanks to my jury duty saga...more on that later.  But, in the end, things actually went in my favor mostly.  For now, I will just say that the complete LACK of family values in New Mexico (particularly in our judicial system) is boggling my mind.  I guess I should not be THAT surprised, but it is actually making me seriously consider moving back to Texas where it is not a crime to be a stay-at-home-mom who breastfeeds her child (who is less than a year old-hellloooo!).

Weekend in Pictures

Another fabulous weekend comes to a close.  This one was jam-packed!  Saturday I taught yoga in the morning, spent lunchtime with two of my dearest friends Christine and Rachel, and then the Herbert's got all gussied up and went to the yoga 'prom.'  By the time we got home around 9:30, I was exhausted.  I conked out immediately when my head hit the pillow-a rare occurrence for me.

Harper standing up for the first time unassisted in Christine and Rachel's backyard!
So happy they caught this moment on film!  Awesome.

Headed to the Prom at El Pinto 

On Sunday we were able to sleep in (that's 7:30 at our house-yeeehaw)!  Josh made us waffles, we cleaned the casa, visited my grandma, and then headed to the UNM duckpond for some fresh air and duck-feeding adventures.  Adventure = there were only 3 ducks in the pond.  Womp womp!  We got a couple of cute snapshots though!

Makin' Waffles!  Harper helped ;-D

Ducks are funny :-P

Weekend's almost over, but tomorrow IS my birthday...so I guess I'll be excited about Monday just this once!  Definitely looking forward to 28...

Family Vacation!

Last week we spent a long weekend in Pagosa Springs, CO with our friends (The Maple's and The Brunton's) and all of our babies.  It was our first vacation with all of our families together and really was such a fantastic time!  The babes were immensely entertained by one another the whole weekend.  That was wonderful!  And us parental units also got lots of good big kid fun in once the babies went to sleep each night (around 7:30 or so).  Such a great weekend all around!  We played catch phrase, cards, made dinner for each other, ate breakfast all together, walked around town, went out to eat, lounged, hot tubbed, and even took a nighttime dip in the actual Pagosa Hot Springs.  Sadly my camera was dead the whole trip!  So I had to resort to iPhone photos...but luckily, Tara and Jonathan were armed and ready with their camera's at every moment!  Thank goodness!  Here are some of the memories we captured:

I love the drive up to Pagosa through Northern NM.  Just beautiful.

Cuties at breakfast! 

Ready to go hot tubbin'!

Lunch and beers at Pagosa Brewing Company (Josh's favorite!)

Babies and Daddies at Pagosa Hot Springs!

Kyle and his Co-Pilot Declan are ready to drive us back home!

What a trip!!!  Tonight we are off to the Second Annual Yoga Prom.  Oh yea, baby!  Harper is joining us, so hopefully we'll have some more fun pics to post tomorrow!

Harper's First Easter!

It was a GORGEOUS day to celebrate Easter, that's for sure!  We had a great day, celebrating at the park.  Truthfully though, Harper was more interested in playing with the dirt, pine needles, and pine cones than with her Easter basket!  Haha!  She is too cute!  We really had fun with her today.

Easter Bunnies are for Sissies!  Gimme some DIRT! 

 

Pure LOVE and JOY!  I love this family.

We were also SUPER productive today, as I have been an absolute slave-driver about our very long spring cleaning to do list.  But it feels so good to get big projects crossed off.  Right now we are *still* working on our kitchen remodel and are also reorganizing our mess of a laundry room.  Kitchen is close to being finished and laundry room too.  HUGE improvements!  We're both very pleased!  All in all, it was a blessed, beautiful Sunday full of fun, family, love, and extreme productivity.  I love it!  Happy Easter, friends!

Ten Months!!!

We are a couple days late on this, but........

Happy Ten Months, HJH!

Has it really been 10 months already!??!  In retrospect, it has gone by so fast.  Too fast.  I can already see Harper transitioning from baby to toddler.  Look at the difference!!!

Wow.  What a wild ride we are all on!  So what is Miss Harper up to at 10 months??

-Height and Weight...not exactly sure since we haven't had a well-baby appointment recently.  But probably around 20 pounds and around 28 inches long.  She's just a lil squirt!

-Not walking yet!  She has taken steps and is SO close to taking off.  Only a matter of time until she works up the courage.  But not quite ready!

-She loves animals, especially dogs!  She loves to hear dogs barking and will start mimicking them whenever we are out and about and one is yapping.  She can tell you what a dog (woof), cow (moo), chicken (buck buck), and duck (quack) say.

-She can also say dog, ball, fan (yes, she loves the ceiling fan-haha!)...probably some other words, but I can't think of them right now!  Her language skills have definitely developed this last few weeks.  Her current obsession are balls, so she says that one a LOT!  She also likes to say 'roll' (when she rolls the ball), and "whoa" or "wow".  C-u-t-e.

-She is starting to enjoy books a lot more.  Her favorites are a Baby Touch and Feel Farm Animal book and a little cardboard, Peek-a-Who book.  She loves to turn the pages when we read to her!

-She enjoys being outside and I cannot wait for some consistent nice weather!  Whenever we come in from being outside she cries.  Holding out for some warmer temperatures, and crossing my fingers for very little wind this spring...a girl can hope!

-She eats just about everything and likes to feed herself.  We even gave her salmon last week and she loved it.  She loves cheese and yogurt and her favorite baby food pouches are actually the veggie ones (I think spinach, peas, and pear is her favorite).  We also continue to breastfeed.

-She still just has her cute two bottom front teeth!

-She looks SO much like her wonderful daddy!  But people often comment on her dimple in her chin (that's from me!).

-She is *currently* sleeping a lot better than she has in the past.  We had to night wean her to make this possible.

-She recently decided that she likes to dance to music.  Absolutely adorable!

-She is bright, busy, silly, opinionated, beautiful, and sweet.  We love, love, love you, Harper!  Happy 10 months!!!!!