Harper lately

Harper has been wearing me out lately.  And she can't even crawl yet.  Yikes.  As I mentioned in the last post, she is rolling and scooting all over the place.  She especially loves to scoot herself under things...

 But since she can't move forward yet, the smile is quickly followed by a frustrated cry...

And I should have mentioned in her 7 month post that diaper changing has gone from easy to challenging to impossible!  It is a serious battle to keep her on her back long enough to be changed.  

 {yes, that is poop in the diaper}

Harper is gradually getting better at trying real food these days.  The "baby led weaning" approach is definitely better for Harper than the "baby food from a jar" approach to get her to eat.  I'm really glad I didn't get one of those fancy baby food makers.  It would be so like me to have bought one and then never use it...

And lastly, I love, love, love how Harper crosses her ankles when she sits and plays...

so, so cute :)

7 months + 31 years

We had a lot of celebrating to do this past weekend.  Harper turned 7 months old and I turned 31 years old.  As a result, I have another post with lots of pictures for you :)

7 months old {Friday}

At 7 months, Harper...

• still sleeps through the night, but she does wake up earlier than she used to.  She's usually up between 6:30 and 7 am.
• takes 2 naps a day, usually lasting from 1 to 2 hours each, but it really varies.  Most days are good.  Some days are not.  Harper has been having a little harder time going to sleep at nap time in the past couple weeks, too.  I think her wake time is increasing and I'm having trouble figuring out when exactly she needs to go down for a nap.  Too early and she won't go to sleep, but too late and she gets really upset. 

• doesn't crawl, but she rolls and scoots all over the place.
• "talks" with a lot more inflection, like she's having an actual conversation.
• blows bubbles or raspberries {or whatever you call it}.
• gets mad if you take a toy away that she wasn't done with {especially the bath toys}.

•  nurses 5 times a day and still wants nothing to do with baby food.  She is a stubborn one.  She has started taking "bites" of what I'm eating {baked potato, couscous, granola bar, hard pretzel, pizza crust from Pizza King... she really liked that one.} so I'm trying not to worry.  She's still so little and doesn't need anything but breast milk for nourishment right now anyway. {I have to keep reminding myself of this.}

 Bayou Bend Gardens {Saturday}

My 31st Birthday {Sunday}

I share my birthday with quite a few people, including my grandfather, my "nephew" Hayden, and my good friend Haley.  Haley and I usually have a joint birthday celebration, and this year we chose to do brunch at Chelsea Grill.  It was a lot of fun.  There was even a live jazz band that played "happy birthday" for us :)

our sweet friend, Laura, made two cakes for us

 good food + good friends = a great birthday!

It really was a good birthday, and Jason got me exactly what I wanted... a Keurig machine!  I love it!!  If you are a one cup of coffee in the morning kind of person like me then I highly recommend it.  No measuring coffee and no clean up!  Not to mention the coffee tastes much better than the kind I used to make :)

Harper's 1st Easter

Jason, Harper and I went back to Longview this past weekend to spend Easter with our families.  I have to say, two trips to Longview in one month was a little exhausting, and Harper didn't sleep much at all on the drive back home on Sunday.  We did have a really nice weekend though.  Here is a recap in pictures.

We attended the Easter service at First Lutheran with Jason's parents on Sunday.  Harper did very good during church and received lots of compliments on how cute she looked in her adorable smocked dress that Jason's mom made.

We went to my parent's house for lunch after church.  Harper wasn't a happy camper by this point.  I guess when you are awoken early from your first nap, kept up during your second nap, and there are 20 people in one house eating lunch... well, I can understand.  So as a result, my usually photogenic baby girl didn't give me a good smile for the camera.

Campbell trying to make Harper happy

don't you just love her dress?! 

 relaxing with Grammy and Nannie

 an unsuccessful attempt at another family picture... 

little stinker :)

One of Harper's favorite things to do

I took a ton of Easter pics, but until I work my way through all of those, I thought I'd post a couple pictures of Harper from last Thursday.  Harper loves looking out the big windows in our living room {in fact, this morning I stood her up to look out the windows and she started "crying" when I moved her away... even sitting down wasn't acceptable}.  But she was extra delighted when she could watch her daddy mow outside!  She just squealed and squealed with delight :)  

Texas Independence Relay 2012

Jason's fourth {and maybe last} race is over.  It. was. hot.  I don't know how all the runners did it.  If you haven't heard of this race, it's a 203ish mile run from Gonzalez, TX Bastrop, TX {they changed it this year} to the San Jacinto Monument.  It's usually the first weekend in March, coinciding with Texas Independence Day, but someone had a really bad idea to move it to the end of March this year.  Teams can have up to 12 runners and there are 40 "legs" that you alternate running.  I think Jason's team had 10 runners this year and he ran 4 legs, adding up to around 22 miles total.  They started on Saturday morning and ran through the night- no stopping- and finished late Sunday afternoon.  Crazy, huh?  

Since the first year, Haley and I have made it our tradition to meet up with the team on Sunday and cheer them on.  Oh, and take pictures...

the newest member of our cheering squad :)

before Jason's last leg

the slap bracelet hand-off from Kevin

Memorial Park

waiting on Jason to finish

most of the team

almost there!

finished!!

And what did Harper and I do while Jason was gone on Saturday?  We went to a "Breakfast for Dinner" dinner party at Erin and David's house.  They outdid themselves again...  homemade granola, egg strata, fruit tart, creme brulee french toast... it was amazing.  I'm so glad we have friends that love to cook :)