It happens to all of us...well, a few of us...

Probably one of my favorite episodes of Modern Family.
Thank you Cam for making me laugh as I remembered this episode yesterday and didn't panic.
Yes, I admit that I am one of the many moms who can say, "I locked my child in the car."
Thank goodness for OnStar...

14 months

She hates wearing shoes and socks.


She likes to brush her hair, and your hair.


She says "uh" after she gives you a kiss.


She still loves the wheels on the bus song.

She is learning how to brush her teeth.  

She calls everything that has 4 legs is a "dog."

She climbs UP the slide.

She is tough, yet also sensitive.

She loves to press the button to close the garage door.

She loves to turn the light switch on and off.


She loves books.

She puts a phone to her ear and says "hello."


She loves when you blow bubbles for her to pop.


She loves sleep.


She'll squeeze around your neck to give you a hug.


She can dance.


She can take her left shoe off very fast.


She loves strings.


She can point to your nose.


She has 12 teeth.


She no longer takes a paci.


She eats a banana every morning.


She will wear a bow for about 5 seconds.


She likes popsicles.


She likes to put our shoes on her feet.

She is a sponge.


We love you Harps!

First Day of School

Today was Harper's first day at her new school.  We will miss Mrs. Kristen, but look forward to the new adventure too.  She was all ready for her big debut.  As you can see, Harper has graduated to a backpack instead of the diaper bag, and she loves it!

She is a little unsteady with it on her back, but she'll get the hang of it!

Here is a face that we have come to know over the past few weeks / month.  We are starting a tantrum phase for sure.  Apparently once we started watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, all the school talk was for the birds and she let us know she did not want to leave the house this morning, she wanted Mickey and his hot dog dance time!

We were definitely worried this attitude might spell trouble for her new teachers on her first day.

Lucky for us (and them), she recovered and seemed to adjust pretty well.  They gave us a good daily report, and the first thing the teacher said to Emily when she picked Harper up was "She sure likes to eat!".  We are proud of her great appetite and love of most any food.  We hope it continues and she doesn't become a picky eater.

Anyway, in addition to the little report which tells us how much she ate and when she had a wet diaper or a "BM", we got this little gift showing her day today in photos.

 Apparently, she did pretty well, and at least today didn't seem to be the kid that cries constantly.  Somehow, they even got her to nap on the cot, which is astounding considering we can't get her to sit still for 2 seconds on the floor, let alone try to lay down in anything other than her crib.  Although we did notice someone in the photo is sitting beside her so maybe they had to hold her down at first!!!  HA HA.

She must have played hard because she was one tired monkey when Emily picked her up and she took a power nap on the way home.

Here's hoping day 2 goes as smoothly!!

Beach

After we got home from the lake, Harper and I turned around and left  the next day for the beach.  I took 2 weeks off, and we spent most of it away from home.  I was nervous about the ride down by myself, but we bought a new car seat right before so hopefully the new scenery would buy me  a few hours.  I checked some Baby Einstein videos out at the library and rigged up the laptop in the backseat and off we went.  The 4 hour trip took 5 hours and we only stopped about 5 times.  

Harper really did not like the beach. She didn't like the sand and I think the waves made her a little nervous. 

Jacob enjoyed digging and playing in the sand. 

This little cutie had a blast!!

We spent most of our time at the pool.  Dad gave us this fabulous tent that was perfect!

Since we just got back from the lake, Harper got pretty tired of the water by the end of the trip.  10 days straight in this raft was enough for her.  

Jacob loved jumping off the side of the pool.

Thanks Mimi and Poppy Steve for letting us come stay.  We had a blast! 

Harper's first 4th of July at the lake

Last year we weren't able to attend the annual fourth of July "blastoff" celebration at Lake Oconee because we had just been given the precious bundle of joy, Harper.   We had been to the lake a couple times this year already with Harper, but when everyone is there for the the 4th, funny things / stories tend to happen so we were excited to take her for her first experience of the fun, and to meet Wes, Renee, Matthew, Jesica, and Fran.

Harper got to meet and hang out with a new canine friend Scruffy, in addition to Maggie and Jack.  While she was happy to meet Scruffy, Wes & Renee's dog, we're pretty sure the feeling was not always mutual.  There were occasions of friendliness though and lounging by a beautiful lake on a hot summer's day creates a strong sense of camaraderie (yes its French, but it sounds Russian, so here's a shout out to Matthew, our Russian expert) that no baby or dog can resist.  Good times.

Harper even went "tubing" for the first time!  Hopefully, this was in preparation for many years of laughable fun when she gets older and wants to partake of the real deal.  Needless to say though, there was some nervousness amongst all the women when this this redneck tubing operation was hatched with a one year old.  It did go off without a hitch and Harps loved it!

With so many floating options at her disposal, during the heat of the day, she often chose the covered "barge" for her floating adventures.

Harps loves her Nonni!

Of course, the Long Shoals Junior/Senior Professional Golf Tournament was a big hit, even with the canine caddies.  The dogs hate for the guys to hit golf balls into the water (as you can see from the snarling Jack).  Maybe they are sad that a perfectly good ball is being dropped into the water, never to be heard from again.  It is funny to watch them go nuts though.

The new boat lift = Sandbar Jr.?  At least we don't need to go very far to lounge!

Harps even liked riding in her boat inside the boat lift too.  It was shady and she could let her hair "up".

Ryan had the fun idea to see if the giraffe baby pool would float in the lake when we were dumping out the old water and he was successful.  Is this thing towable?

Fran cooked a delicious low country boil for everyone one night on the dock.  Good eats, good friends, good times...this is the life!

Even Harps got to participate!  No shrimp for her, but she devoured the rest.

"GIMME SOME MORE SAUSAGE!" - Harper

Riding in a boat is fun, even if you do have to wear this awful, bulky life preserver.

We made our usual fun trip to the sandbar hangout area in the lake, but then a storm quickly arose forcing us to leave soon after we got there.  We tried heading back to the house to beat the storm, but it caught us, as can happen when you are motoring in a pontoon boat, and we had to "abandon ship" at the Ritz Carlton on the lake.  No doubt, there are worse places we could have had to wait things out.   We hung out at the little lakeside bar area waiting on the lightning to subside.  It was a pretty neat little part of the resort, very much like a lodge type setting.  Unfortunately, we did not get the treatment that Carrie Underwood or President Bush did when they visited the Ritz, but it was nice nonetheless.  Dan determined that we needed to make another addition to our "lake emergency kit" on the boat, a debit card or emergency cash.

I don't have any photos of the fireworks of course, but they were great this year as always. Ryan and I made our usual stop at Stateline Fireworks before we crossed the Alabama border into Georgia so we could get "real fireworks" instead of the dinky Georgia ones.  After all, what is fun about fireworks without an element of danger, as Dan can attest to.  No doubt, we put on the best show in the slew and possibly even the lake (at least we might complete with the Ritz or Reynolds Plantation for five minutes or so).  I think I have a video of some of the show, and I'll try to post it later.

12 months

Well, in my typical fashion, I am a little late on this post.   So here are Harps' 12 month stats. She was 29" long and 19lbs. 14oz. at her one year old doctor's visit.

When I finally downloaded all the pics from this month, I realized that I majorly slacked on taking pictures, sorry.

We pulled out the baby pool at the beginning of June (which we bought at the end of last summer on sale).  She definitely loves being in the water, but after being in it nearly everyday for 2 weeks, (after a back to back lake and ocean trip) she seemed to grow pretty tired of it.   

*Harper discovered how much fun toilet paper can be.  (Yea for us)

* She loves to say "uh oh" for everything and what is so funny is that she even uses it in the correct context

*loves saying "Aggie" (maggie)... too bad maggie runs from her most of the time

* She is obsessed with the cozy coupe car that she got for her birthday...pushing it, riding in it, whatever, she just wants to touch the thing as much as possible

* Just now started paying attention to stuffed animals that have been in the crib for months.  Every single time we go to get her out of her crib, she always starts handing us stuffed animals. She wants us to hug them and give them kisses, apparently that is amusing to her.  

"What is that on my face you ask...oh, just some chemical stain probably made in some foreign chemical plant."
Earlier in June she suddenly discovered that the crib railing makes a great chew toy.  This is what she looked like after an afternoon nap.  Her face and clothes were covered with whatever paint or stain was used, nice.   Ryan says surely it is unleaded nowadays, but if she ends up with some blonde moments down the road, we'll blame it on the crib stain.

*It obviously tasted pretty good because as soon as we put the protective cover on the front, she started working on the back rails.
*She still HATES riding in her car seat even facing front.  I honestly think she just does not like having to sit still and being confined from being able to move.  She will just arch her back and scream out randomly. It is like she is trying to break free from the straps!

*She points to things that she wants and so she points a lot!

*BUSY.  That is the one word that people use to describe her, busy.  I'd have to say we definitely agree.

We celebrated a very special guy on Father's Day.  Happy Father's Day Ryan!  I am very thankful to have him beside me on this parenting journey.  Harper and I are very thankful for him and love him very much!

The big news was that lightning struck our house a few days before Harpers birthday party.  Thank goodness it did not turn into a fire. Both corners of our porch looked like this and electrical items in the house have gone haywire.  It has been a pretty big pain, but we are thankful to still have a house considering what could have resulted.  That was a pretty expensive week for us.  I had to have a new transmission, the lightning strike, and of course the birthday expenses all in 1 week.  What joy!

*Crazy girl has learned how to take her clothes off during her so called nap time.  Then she acted like a wild monkey when I go to check on her.  Obviously someone was not interested in a nap that day.  
*She has figured out how to take her diaper off so we have to keep her in full clothing during nap time.  Ryan is petrified that he will walk in to a finger painting masterpiece one day.  It will be gross and hilarious seeing that I'm sure.
*She is also learning the routine about getting dressed. She will step out of pants and put her arms through her shirt when we get her dressed in the mornings / evenings.

*She has developed a fear of the hairdryer and vacuum cleaner.

*She is learning what NO means...learning, not obeying yet.

*She gets upset and frustrated when she doesn't  get what she wants.  We are overjoyed at the prospects of this when she gets older...

*We are trying to teach her that it is not nice to pull hair or bite.  When she is frustrated she likes to bite.  We sure don't need trouble at big girl school next month.

*Hershey's chocolate syrup is the first thing she grabs when we open the refrigerator.  She will always go for it and turn it up like she is getting something out of it.  She is truly after her daddy's heart and he hopes she loves chocolate as much as he does!

* Harper loves to stuff things in small places- magnets behind the fridge and wall, etc.  We are having to be extra careful with our babyproofing!

* She really is a good eater.  She will eat just about any meat and veggie, but still not a fan of fruit.  Banana is pretty much the only fruit she will eat consistently.  She loves to eat though and we are glad for not having to fight her in this!!!! 

* She took her first steps on June 27th and has been going full force every since.  Thank goodness that was the first day of my 2 week vacation so I was able to watch her try it more and more everyday. 

Birthday Orange Roll Breakfast

Sometimes on your birthday you forget your table manners.
Yes, those are Easter pajamas...we like to get our money's worth.

*She can always tell when we are eating something different from her. She only wants what we are eating and will stop eating her food and point / reach to our food. 

*She has started to love board books and will try to "read" out loud to us.

*She is staring to get her back right molar, but not too fussy about it surprisingly.

*She loves to hand us things and say "ank u" (thank you)

*She still puts her head down and gets shy around men.  Daddy hopes this continues though not in a flirtatious way.

Happy Birthday Harper!!!  We love you very, very much!!!

First Year Video

I have loved being at home with Harper these past few days.  It has given me some time to catch up on things and do some fun things on the computer.  I made a long movie of Harper's first year, but I didn't think anyone besides Ryan and I would like to sit and watch it for 15 minutes.  So, here is the condensed version.