6 Months of Harper Lovin'

My baby girl turned half a year old on March 29, 2012. I cannot believe it! It feels like yesterday I was giving birth to her!!  Each day I fall more and more in love with my daughter. I am not sure that she will ever understand the joy she brings to our lives and the contentment we feel in her.  I think the best part of Harper lately has been able to see how much she loves us back!  The way she watches us, interacts with us, etc., it's just amazing!

Weight: 15lbs, 5 oz (40%) she's doubled her birth weight now! We are excited she moved from the 29% to 40% within 2 months!

Height: 26 inches

Sizes: size 2 diapers, Wears some 3 months clothes but getting into 3-6 month clothes more

Sleep: We've been in the crib for about 3 weeks now. It has not be a great transition, but better than we expected! At H's doctor appointment she told us NO MORE SWADDLE. So, we've tried it for 2 nights and it is going ok! She does go to sleep with her 'Raffi going and with a little bit of a rock!  We are working on her sleeping through the night. We aren't there yet, but we have quit feeding her at night, so it's been helping. She's still taking several naps a day and we are working on getting her in her crib for those naps instead of holding her. At the sitter, of course, she naps perfectly in the pack'n'play! ha!

New Tricks: Well, I've already written that on her 5 month and 1 day birthday she began sitting up without help. She hasn't looked back since! She is able to balance herself on pretty much any surface or slant. It's so cool watching her play now! She also wiggles on her belly like she's going to crawl, but we aren't there yet! It will be soon! Harper also pulls herself up on her musical table and is able to lean and stand on her own! Such a strong girl!  She also loves to reach far for toys and grab them. She's got great hand-eye coordination. We've also been able to tell she is right-handed. She completely reaches for you know and it melts our hearts.  She also buries her head into our neck and we call that her way of kissing!  She also squeals SUPER loud and constantly mumbles! She is very good at mumbles these consonants: ma-ma-ma, ba-ba-ba.

New Toy love: Harper loves her sing-along picnic basket. She really enjoys pulling out the play food and putting it back in!  She also loves her musical table. She also loves to swing so we are excited to get her swing hung up at our house!

Eating: Harper is eating rice cereal like a champ!  She now eats one serving before her nighttime bottle and one during her 'breakfast' bottle. She has liked cereal since the first taste! She's pretty good at getting it all in her mouth! We will begin her on baby food this weekend!  She's been eating her cereal in her highchair only. We want to work on her knowing that when she's in the highchair, we are eating, so when she gets older it will be an easier transition to *hopefully* help her understand that is where you eat...not in front of the TV!

Personality:  We just can't get over her sweet and fun personality! She's SUCH a ham!! Totally gets that from her Daddy! :)  She PLAYS IT UP for complete strangers! She smiles constantly and is rarely fussy anymore.  For parents of a colic baby, you cannot imagine the joy this brings us! I was so, so worried she wasn't going to be a happy baby! So silly!  She is really not showing signs of being shy, but she does get separation anxiety a little when we are home and one of us walks away - but not going to the sitter! I guess she's used to it!  She's a great baby to tote around anywhere. This stage is nice because we can take her shopping, to stores, and out to eat and not have to worry about it.  She is just so intrigued by anything and everything. It is true amazement to see the world through her eyes!

Nicknames: H, Harpie, Harps, Ham Biscuit, Peas{her Daddy calls her this for Sweet Pea for short}, Stinks{joke}, babylove

BIG step:  Harper spent the night with her GG and GDaddy for the first time this month!! We celebrated our wedding anniversary (more to come on that) and we all 3 did great!

We celebrated her 6 month birthday by going to Puccini's and eating our favorite pizza! We tried Harper in the highchair in the restaurant for the first time. She thought it was great and was totally amusing herself {and others there! ha!}

Pictures are getting harder these days because she's going to do what she wants! haha!

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H and Dottie @ 2 weeks...

Six Month Professional Pics

Happy Easter and Happy Half-A-Year-Old to my sweet baby girl!

{photos by Matt Malicote Photography, find them on Facebook!}

Wow!!

I am beyond floored by the comments left on my blog, the emails I've received, and the FB messages that have occurred.  I cannot even begin to tell you how inspiring and motivating you all are. Seriously!

I think the comments really hit a note with me because they happened on a bad day when I was already down. I took the positive comments to heart and have read them several times over again. 

I had said in the last 2 years that in my New Year's Goals, I wanted to make sure that this blog served a purpose. Not only to document our life and now our daughter's life, but to also hold some type of meaningful purpose for others.  Some of the comments or emails I've received regarding the appreciation of honesty and faith brought me to tears - but the good kind this time!

I've taken the advice and have put a moderation on my comments {because the Anonymous was back for more :( }.  I think I have it set so that you much have an ID and I hope this will work. If it causes more work for you all to comment, please don't worry about it! I know a lot of times I want to comment on a lot of blogs, but I'm reading from my phone and it's just too hard to go through all those passcodes and such.

I'd love to host a give-away as a thanks for all of you taking the time to comment and send positive thoughts and prayers! Would anyone like their product featured? If so, email me at megek4@yahoo.com and we'll get it going soon!

For now, I'm going to relish in some more beautiful afternoons and get back to blogging soon.
:)

Here's a little smile for my day~

Dear Anonymous,

Dear Anonymous,

You did your job. And you did it well. If your hope was to make me feel like sh*t, well, you succeeded.  I wish I was the type of person that could brush it off and realize that you are probably a person without a lot of love in your life, without joy, and without comfort; but I can't.

What I can think of is that if you had been reading my blog for a while, you would understand that EACH and every day I worry about the choice that was made about not being able to nurse anymore. You would know that I struggle, on a daily basis, about this.  You would also know that my weight at this current moment, is something that I struggle with, too.  I've never had to worry about weight. I don't know how to eat well or exercise regularly and it has been quite hard to look at myself in the mirror each day with this extra 'baby weight' I'm carrying around.  Most nights, I get so down on myself, that I end up in tears because I feel so disgusted. 

So, thank you, for using my child's baby book as an outlet to let your anger and hatefulness land.  Thank you for making what was a TERRIBLE day on Wednesday become an even worse day from someone I don't know, but that would take the time to write such rude and hurtful things to someone you do not even know.  At least I hope you don't know me. Because, that would actually be worse. I guess.

Here are the comments left on my Hello Cereal! blog post:

Anonymous Mar 21, 2012 10:33 PM

Maybe you should not have had children since feeding them is such a burden. Lazy cow..

Anonymous Mar 21, 2012 10:35 PM

your disgusting lazy mother... damaging your baby for life with processed food not fit for rats... hope that does not keep you up at night... do society a favor... get your tubes tide so you do not make anymore stupid formula fed dumbed down babies


*This has truly made me think more about going private. I have different feelings. I know if I go private, the family who reads this blog will not be able to get to it as easily and they will not get to know about Harper as much. That part I hate. The other part, is that maybe Harper and our life should not be so open and honest on the web.  But, that's the part I love about blogging. I'm a real blogger. My life isn't perfect. No one's is, but I try and not act like it is.  And I feel that I've truly connected with others because of this and have been able to use blogging as therapy, connections made with other Moms, and a constant life-book of my baby girl's precious life. 



Oh, and Anonymous, I can assure you that my 'dumbed down' baby will be able to use you're correctly and know how to spell tied. Unlike you.

Picnic & Swing Date!

Man, I just LOVE little family things these days!

The weather has been totally unreal here. While a tad bit hot, the evenings are just perfect!  We decided to do a picnic at one of our local parks by our house and try Harper in the swings!

She LOVED it! From the moment we stuck her in there, she just went with it. Most of the pics she's staring at the little boy next to her who was having a slight meltdown...it was a little funny!

Looks like we may be entering into the redneck-plastic-swing-on-the-front-porch group this summer. Oh...what you do for your kids. ;)

Old Pro at sitting up!

my family of 3

lovin' it

I wish you could hear the giggles...LOVE that sound!

not scared one bit!

H got a little tired, so she took her paci and PUT IT IN HER MOUTH (latest craze) and then held on tight to *almost* fall asleep in the swing!

Our Fabulous Weekend {part 2}

{read part 1 here}

So, on to the next event of Saturday night...the Chili & Beer Tasting Party for St. Patrick's Day!! It also ended up as a UK game party since they were playing the Sweet 16 game! We invited our Life Group friends over and had a blast!

Mom & Dad kept Harper for a couple of hours on Saturday night so we could all have some fun! In the invitations, I had asked each couple to bring a beer from a different country ~ without telling anyone else what they were bringing.

After they arrived, I shoo'ed them out of the kitchen so I could set up the beers! Then we had the contest! Each person was able to drink a shot glass full of beer and then write on the black paper where they thought it was from! After everyone had guessed, I told the answers! It was fun! Then we enjoyed the beers we liked along with Chili {spicy and regular} and Pimento Cheese Pinwheels {recipe soon}.  The boys had a great time watching the game and screaming at the refs on TV together, while the girls enjoyed talking and playing some iPhone app...I know, try to not be jealous of our wild night.  It was so great to have everyone over, but I must admit, I was happy to have my head hit the pillow after a non-stop day of fun! {and to see my girl!}

Decorations &Food:

favors I made on Picnik, rainbow twizzlers

Appletini's and the Beer Bucket - soon to be filled up!

Beer Tasting Station! "Get Lucky" Banner

Friends:

cute Nola!

covered the beers in st. pattys day paper

the girls - amanda, me, allison (and walker), jordan, alison

my sweet hubby

On Sunday, we played with our nephews and my family and went out to eat with the whole crew {all the kids are SO good!!} and had Harper's 6 months pictures taken! I can't wait to share! We also started the sleep training to a whole new level...we decided to go ahead and put Harper in her crib! I mean, we can't get much worse with the lack of sleep happening right now!!  The first night, it was super rough...but it's gone better each night. We are SO hoping that all this routine stuff, the cereal, and now the crib will help our little one sleep through the night...and most importantly, let MOMMY & DADDY sleep through the night!

Oh, PS, UK won ;)

Hope your weekend was great, too!