13 Months

No, no, no, I'm not going to be continuing my monthly posts...but there are a few major things I just have to jot down from this month! It's amazing how quickly she develops!!

*New Things*

~ We had to change Harper's whole milk to soy milk.  This was a change I was really hoping to not make, but since the change, things have just seemed to work out better.  She LOVES drinking the soy and will drink it more with meals and on her own than she was with the whole.  We also think the whole was hurting her belly - causing some unwanted cries and possibly causing some tantrums... Since the milk switch we haven't had nearly the outbursts we were seeing.  Not sure if this is correlated, but it sure does seem to go together.

~ Harper is such a sponge these days! It's just crazy what she picks up and repeats! Some newer things are: she can tell you where her shoes are and the word, where her socks go and point, follow multi-step directions (for the most part if she's heard those words before), and where her nose is. :) she can also high five!!

~When we ask Harper if she's ready for bed or a nap, she motions her head up and down and walks to the stairs.  It's so crazy! She does the same thing when we say it's bathtime.  *Side-note: I was not all about the CIO, but luckily we didn't have to for long, but it is SO nice to just tell her it's time for bed and put her in her crib without any fuss!! (i wrote a post about CIO somewhere!)

~Harper communicates a lot with head shakes of yes or no. We are still trying *really* hard to not use the word 'no' with her unless it's something urgent.  We use 'not for Harper' or 'uh-oh' - which she says over and over again when she's dropping things or falls.

~Tough girl! I mean, she is totally rough when she plays.  She plays hard and can fall hard, but she will randomly cry.  She totally doesn't get that from me!

~Loves going to the Church Nursery and loves those girls there!

~She still loves to kiss all the time and has gotten in the habit of kissing the faces that pop up on my phone if I'm on speaker phone.  She also SAYS 'LOVE YOU' which is just about the SWEETEST thing thus far.  :)

~Words that she uses in correct context:
uh-oh
Buh-bye (and waves)
Dada
Momma
shoe
duck
love you
peaches
baby
doggy (yes, still totally obsessed...we have no idea why or how)

~Tantrums (our Doctor calls them frustration/language tantrums)
I have a post on this...but...we have begun to see what people say are the normal toddler tantrums.  She can get very frustrated when she wants something and cannot get us to understand what it is she wants.  We are really working through these and like I said, I've got another post dedicated for this! :)

~We are officially OFF the paci....but I let her have it at night, don't tell our sitter!! Our sitter actually broke her of the paci in 3 days! We did not exactly want her to do this or were ready for her to get rid of the paci, but Harper has been talking a lot more...so I guess that's good!

~Eats everything in sight and a lot of it! ha!

~Loves to dance and will begin dancing whenever she hears music or little tunes.

~Moved up to the next carseat! She is back to liking the car now that she's not squished and she can see things!

~Has a total of 6 teeth with 2 more breaking through.

12 MONTHS of {Harper} LOVIN'

Woo! A whole 12 months this precious baby is!!

Height: 28 3/4, 38%tile
Weight: 19 lbs, 16%tile - we've got a tiny baby girl!
Head: 46 cm, 76%tile

Size: Baby Dry Pampers all the time - 3, clothes: 9 months, 12 months

Hair/Eye Color: We officially have a blonde haired brown eyed baby girl!

Bottles: 3 bottles a day of Alimentum/beginning to slowly fad 2 bottles out...{I don't want to drop the night bottle - we like cuddling her too much!}  But we met with our doc. today and she has a very slow plan for us to switch to whole milk to see if Harper's sensitive belly can handle it. Our doctor was soo great about the bottle transition!!!

Food: tried any people food (besides nuts and honey of course) but still prefers baby food most of the time, loves all fruit, will begin trying more now!

Sleep: 7pm-6:30am Mon-Thur, 8pm-8am Fri.-Sun., two 1 1/2 hour naps on the weekends or when she's home, one 1 hour nap at the sitter's home

New Things:
*Directions: Harper follows several different directions and sequences of directions. "Where are your socks?" (points to socks or pulls on them - we say this a lot when we're getting dressed I guess?!), "Get your book" (currently she finds and grabs Mr. McGregor & the Flopsy Bunnies), "Kick the ball" (finds the purple football and kicks it with her left foot)
*Words: When Harper receives a snack she says "dank ooo" (thank you), and she also says it all the time for whenever she hands you something or she gets something from you! She says clearly and with meaning - Mama, Dada, ball
"oohs" when she's excited
*Movement: runs!, walks with her arms out when someone she knows is near her, claps her hands, dances to a few specific songs, waves, doesn't care too much for the stairs or cabinets anymore
*Loves:
dogs
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Baby Faith DVD's in the car (giggles and oohs!)
holding her water sippy - a new one without trainer handles
BOOKS - she's rather be read to than play with anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
shapes and things with wheels
Cinnamon Maple Sticks from Gerber
holding gator or her baby when she gets tired

Shots:
She had 3 shots and her finger pricked. She did great and cried for about a minute! Thanks Daddy for coming today!

Can't believe it! After weekly pregnancy updates and then Monthly Updates of Harper; she is really 1 year old!

Doctor was very impressed and said she thinks we have a strong girl on our hands! She said her personality and demeanor looked great Harper is so laid back but also in to everything! She's pretty happy all the time!  Her bestie is still 'Raffi! She loves him!

**Birthday Party Post coming soon!!! It was this past weekend!!!**

11 Months of Harper Lovin'

Oooh dear! This month birthday was a tough one! I cannot believe my little girl has been with us for almost a year.  Where in the world has the time gone?!  This past 11 months has been the most amazing time in my entire life.  I mean, I can just not imagine each day without our little Harper.

August 29, 2012

totally HARPER!

Stats:

Weight/Height: we find out next month!

Size: diapers - 3's Pampers only, 6-9 month clothes, some 9-12 month clothes

Sleep: she's currently only taking 1-2 short naps at the sitter's home, but on the weekends she's still taking her 2 good naps!  Night sleeping is still going wonderfully {fingers crossed!} but she goes to bed around 7:00 because of being SOO tired from playing with her friends at the sitter's home all day.

Day time Routine: Since I'm back to work, Harper is back to the home sitter.  It was a tough transition this month, but I think we are at the end of it and Harper is very happy to see her little buddies.  Because H is walking everywhere, she thinks she's older and plays solely with the 2 2yo's! ha! So, her sitter says she wears herself out daily chasing them around!

New Things:  What an incredibly sweet girl we have been blessed with! H loves to hug and love on her baby and pink 'gator.  She also will randomly come over to you and lay her head down or hug your back. It's really cute!  H also has learned to dance a little!! She shakes her left hand {she's a lefty...what?!} and twists her little body! Sweet thang!  One thing I'm loving is that when H walks, she will lift her hand and want to hold yours as she walks.  Not all the time - so when it happens it's so sweet!  Harper also LOVES dogs! I mean, like she LOVES them! We have no idea since she's never around animals, but it's hilarious.  She will chase after them and just go up to them and wave.  Oh yea...she finally WAVES!  But, she only waves to dogs, kids, and when she hears the train that goes by! hahaha :)  She still babbles a ton, too! We are with the same words and have added "duuc" for duck {mama, dada, ba(ball)}  She also sits in the tub all by herself...and loves it!

Food: We are still on baby food for the most part, but we do let her try different foods.  I am just not super comfortable in this area and I don't really think H's pediatrician is very helpful in this!  She does LOVE water and will only want to drink out of straw cups.  We've cut out 1-2 bottles, too!

Personality: She's still her same sweet girl! She's very independent and pretty much aggressive in knowing what she wants and will try her hardest to get it/to it.  We love that about her! She's a very go-with-the-flow type of girl, too.  And of course, since she's our first, we think she's soo smart! hahaha

We love you sweet girl! Man, we are SOO LUCKY!

I mean...how?!??!

{double digit'} lovin' - 10!

ahh! We are in to the double digits with our sweet baby!! WHAT?!?!?

July 29, 2012  Harper turned 10 months old! CRAZY!

*weight/length: no idea! We don't visit the doctor (knock on wood) until 12 months.  I'd guess around 18-19 lbs.

*diapers: recently started using Pamper's 3's just because we had a box when we ran out of 2's.  Still Nighttime 3's at night.

*clothes: 6 months, 6-9 months, and some 9-12 months / she also always has to have shoes on now because she wants to walk everywhere we go! no more stroller rides - yikes!!

*nicknames: Harpie, Harps, Peazer/Peas (daddy's short name for sweet pea), baby girl, sweet girl

*sleep: YAY! No more rocking, crying it out, or singing! We just lay her down awake and she knows just what to do! She's taking 2 naps a day pretty much on schedule.  Her night sleep is 8pm-730/8am.  She sleeps with her 'Raffi (sound machine) and a bunch of paci's all in the crib.

*food: about 26 oz. of Alimentum a day, 2-4 fruits/veggies a day, we've switched to Gerber Oatmeal instead of rice cereal (long story), and she's eating a few 'real' foods - cheese, bread, beans, fruit

*Movement: GIRL IS WALKING! So crazy! She's been taking steps since her 9 month b-day, but the past 2 weeks she's really learned to walk! She walks everywhere and it is sooo funny to watch! She won't even crawl anymore. She LOVES walking! She can go very, very fast sometimes and it's a little scary, but I think she has excellent balance! She mostly walks holding a toy in her hands and still doesn't fall!

*New Things: Harper can throw a ball and pick up balls with one hand.  Harper visited the aquarium this month and loved watching the fish.  Harper is able to walk in the baby pool and just loves playing with the other kids in the pool.  Loving trying to rip out eyelashes! Ouch! Harper loves songs right now and enjoys doing motions with them - itsy bitsy spider, pat a cake, etc.  She also loves books.  Finally we are back to sitting in my lap and reading pop-up books, books with lots of color (but that are short!) and peek-a-boo books.

*Talking: Okay, Brian and I are very afraid!! haha! :)  Harper loves to babble - must be a girl thing?! She wakes up on the dot almost every night between 12am-1am and 5:30am-6:30am and babbles to herself.  I mean, loud ya'll! It is super funny! Then she will go right back to sleep! She also babbles all day long!  She is saying with meaning: MaMa (love!!), DaDa (love!!), and a few times 'ba' for ball.  She is still a good little listener and it's just crazy what a sponge she is! As I said in last month's post, when I say "go get your book" she knows and grabs her book.  Now we can say the following things and she will grab that item - baby, gator, ball, bug (her rocker).

*Toys: Harper would rather play with a dump truck or car over any baby doll! *must change that!* haha! She loves her shopping cart, her stuffed alligator, and her ball.  But, mainly she likes to put toys in something and then throw them out - over and over again!

*Teeth: 2 bottom teeth, one upper tooth is breaking through!  Everything is still going into her mouth!

Happy 10 Months sweet baby girl!!

9 Months {of Harper Lovin'}

Harper Alan turned 9 Months on June 29, 2012.  Crazy!

Here's what our big girl is up to:

Weight: 17lbs 11oz. {29%} 
Height: 27 1/4 {40%}
Head: 45 cm {78%}
Diapers: size 2, Nighttime size 3
Clothes: can wear 6 months or 3-6 months, am going to wash and try the 9 month clothing I have!

Food: Still on Similac Alimentum and takes 26 oz. a day. Harper was a great eater until about a week ago. Now she's all of a sudden basically refusing to eat?! Who knows. But she was eating cereal twice a day, fruit twice a day, and a veggie 1-2 times a day.  Harper has eaten a few real fruits that have been cut up - watermelon, strawberries, and cantelope.  The doctor told us to start soft table foods since H seems to want to be an independent eater!

Teeth: H has her two bottom teeth, but we found out she's teething with her two top teeth at the appointment!

Sleep: Harper goes to bed around 8-8:30 and sleeps between 7:45-8:10.  She's pretty much on a nighttime routine and if it's at all off it results in crying out for about 10-30 minutes in the middle of the night or having a hard time going down (resulting in CIO, which I hate).  It's so weird to me that she can't tell time, yet we can put her to bed 20 min. late and she knows?!?!?  As far as naps, we get one good one in the morning (good for her - 1/1/2 to 2 hours) and the afternoon nap is touch and go.

Activities/New Things: Harper still loves being out and about.  She is SO stinking good and it just warms my heart to not have to worry.  She is a 'creeper' though and just stares at new people or the table beside us in a restaurant! ha!  She loves to be around other kids and is just fascinated by watching them, too.  She loves her cousins and gets to be around them lots and we've made a few new friends for her at her Gymboree class.  Her favorite thing to do is still CLIMB. The girl is a monkey.  Too bad I have had her b-day theme planned since she was 4 months or I would have totally changed it to a monkey theme!!!! She absolutely has no fear and climbs anything and everything.  She squeals with delight and gets so proud of herself!  Harper has also gotten VERY good at standing on her own.  Since she was very young she has preferred to stand and play with a toy rather than sit, so this is not surprising.  She's got great balance and can stand, stand holding a sippy cup or toy, or push off from the ground and stand.  Harper has taken a few steps without holding on, but falls quickly.  I'm not trying to push her into being an early walker. :)  She does love to walk with you holding her hands and is kind of fast!  She also loves her walker toys the best. Sometimes I hide those for a little while. Whoops.  She also loves banging toys together and the noise doesn't bother her at all! Harper is also a huge fan of the pool and loves to splash and kick - but she gets very upset if she is splashed in the face!  Another new thing is that she has found her hair! She pulls and tugs on her hair a lot. It's pretty funny...except...she's starting to rip out her bows! Agh!! I keep telling her she will look like a boy, but it doesn't seem to upset her in the least. :)

Talking/Understanding: Harper used to say Dada and Mama, but now, pretty much everything is Mama. She does say Mama with meaning, but she also says it all.the.time. Remember the night waking...she loves to say it then! :)  Did anyone else feel at this age so weird that your baby is like a human being? I mean, she actually understands things we say and I just think it's so weird.  Right now, we are working on listening skills (haha). So, I tell her to go get her book and bring it to me AND SHE DOES. I tell her to crawl up the ramp at class AND SHE DOES. When she is getting into something she shouldn't (like the fireplace) I tell her "Not for Harper" and she turns to look at me and stops. WEIRD. It kind of freaks me out but I love it.  She's so real! HAHAHA  She is back to loving her books (we took a hiatus because she never would sit still).  She especially loves the flap books or button books.  She remembers where each button is or flap is on each page and squeals with delight when it's her turn.  We also have this barn book that makes animal sounds and she makes a sound after each button. Too cute!  She makes a "brrrr" sound with her mouth a lot. Usually when she is motoring around with her walker or crawling. It sounds hilarious.

Personality: I love my girl's personality and disposition, but I think it's changed in this month.  I am not sure if it's the age and that they are starting to have more stranger anxiety or if it's that she's with me all the time instead of her sitter - but she is very clinging to me.  {doc said it was totally normal for this age and expected} She would once go to anyone but now she has to warm up to almost everyone.  She used to instantly smile at anyone but now, again, she sometimes takes more time to warm up.  I really hope this changes. I honestly do not want her to be shy! I was such a shy kid and it's so hard!  But all in all, she's a super happy -full of life girly and I couldn't honestly ask for a better baby! I know I am blessed!
... and on that note I will tell you we think she's already throwing TANTRUMS! For real? Does this happen this early?!  When she has to get a diaper change it is like the end of the world.  She throws her head and body back and bawls until it is over or tries to crawl away. I mean, who wants to sit in their poop all day?Not me. I'm getting better with the art of distraction {aka letting her eat my cell phone} but I think it is just redonkulous. Again, doc says it's normal for a super mobile baby like Harper.

What do we do with our Time?:  Well pretty much every day is an adventure. We play at home, usually go shopping somewhere, go to the pool, or go to a friend's house. We also do lunch dates with others..and just the 2 of us, too! :)

And here's her pics...sooo not like they used to be!!!!! :(