10 Months- February

Harper is 10 months old and pretty and pink and spunky and sweet.  

This month, she's become an easy laugher, generous with her "hi's" and a force to be reckoned with in the baby crawling wars.  

This months' shoot was a little problematic since SOMEONE that we know is a woman on a mission.  Forget about staying still!  This girl likes to scoot! Plus- 10 is a very hard number to coordinate. Not only do you have to hold TWO things at one time, but you have to hold them upright, forward facing and keep them from sliding off your lap.   

It's a good thing we have a good big brother to help as our set design assistant.  And provide bottled water for our famished baby model. 

Finally!
...sort of

 

 This month's milestones include crawling at ninja speed with her left leg kicked out, eating table food more and more, babbling like a sweet little baby and starting to take her own bottle.

That last one has actually been kind of a big deal.  Harper would NOT take her own bottle until this month.  At all.  I'm a little contrary to a certain "P" word...rhymes with frincess.  I think perhaps because I watched a little too much Full House growing up and never did like Michelle Tanner who was her family's "little princess".  Blek.   I swore to NEVER call my daughter a princess and have been typically averse to all things Princess (excect Kate Middleton, who in all fairness is a Duchess...but I digress) BUT I will say that Harper was a wee bit of a little princess when it came to her bottle.  Two of her baby sitters told me- both of which had little boys- that when Harper took her bottle, all of the little boys including Gavin would gather around her and fight over who got to hold her bottle.  Another one would fight to get to hold her hand.   I can only conjure up Cleopatra- like images.  I guess that's a good reason why little Princess Harper (I promise to never ever say that again!) didn't want to take her own bottle.  I guess this month the school of hard knocks kicked in and she decided that she didn't need a stinky old boy to feed her a bottle...other than her daddy.  Who is definitely not stinky.  Kind of cute actually...

(sorry to deviate from the numbers only pictures- but this pic was too cute not to share.  My little girl is so lucky to have a daddy that loves her so much!)

Where were we?  Oh yes.  Month 10. This month Harper also started mimicking talking on the phone.  I LOVE this.  Any time we say "hello" she immediately puts her hand with whatever she might be holding up to her ear.  You can kind of tell that she's doing it here.

Harper loves her big brother Gavin so much..and he definitely has enjoyed getting to play with her more and more.  He will try to feed her little bites of food at eating time.  He's started to get pretty good at breaking off little pieces of whatever he's eating and saying "little tiny bite". It still terrifies me most of the time.   

 She's started showing a little bit of will though, that's for sure.  She is sweet and pleasant most of the time..but try to take something away from her and she'll let you know that she wanted it.  She snapped at Gavin a few times, which was a little bit new. 

 So happy to watch my little chubby cheeked, fast crawling, own bottle drinking lovely lady grow another month older.  

Oh Great God

This face reminds me

 

that His ways are so much higher.

 

Thanking God that He knew we needed this blue eyed girl

  even before we knew that we did.

 

Love you, Harper Addison.

Prayers for my Children

A friend remarked a few months ago about the significance of my children being able to one day read pieces about their lives in writing through our family blog.  I had always thought of a blog as pictures with captions...not that our pictures are anything super special, but that was the "driver".  But her comment gave me a thought about what I was being able to create for my kiddos through capturing some of these stories and moments.  One of my favorite things as a kid was to hear my mom tell us stories about when she was a little girl...and she'd tell us the same stories over and over again about her friend named "Hamster" and the little girl down the street who always said "I'm going home" when she didn't get her way and she'd always tell it with the same inflection every time she said it.  Now as I've gotten older, it's neat to hear my mom tell me things about my characteristics and personality from when I was little girl that are now true today.  Part of why I blog is to remember those things and hopefully give that as a gift to my kids.  I realized what a neat opportunity it would be for Gavin and Harper to some day read stories about themselves that will hopefully remind them where they came from, tell them things about their own personality and remind them of a mommy and daddy who love them so much and take so much pride and joy in raising them. I guess through the magic of blog printing, I can have this printed off some day and when the world wide web no longer exists and everyone cyber commutes to the moon and lives on their own solar island or something, they can have this ancient relic called paper (that will likely be banned as the world will have gone green) and read things that I wrote about them.  Not that we can't just tell them in person...but there's something about the written word that's pretty cool and timeless...and besides the fact that I'm way better in writing than I am in person.  Have you met me in person?  Kind of a weirdo. 

Anyways- one of the things that I want for my kids to know is not only about themselves, but the prayers that I prayed for them and will be continuing to pray for them. So I've started a segment on my blog called "prayers for my children", a follow up to my post a few months ago that has shaped the way I pray for my kids.  

So here goes.

Phillipians 1:10-11

For I want Gavin and Harper to understand what really matters so that they may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ's return.  May Gavin and Harper always be filled with the fruit of their salvation- the righteous character produced in their lives by Jesus Christ.  For this will being much glory and praise to God.

And of course I'll add a cute picture of them.  Because who doesn't like to see a cute picture that looks like this- 

 

9 Months- January

We are in the count down to 1.  The last "quarter" of Harper's first year.  Nine months has come...and almost gone!

For some reason these pictures make her look like such a big girl!  

I guess that's because she is!  

And pardon my "9" that looks a little like a Chia pet this month. I was trying to spice things up a little bit with yarn.  Spicy.

In my last post I talked about how Gavin loves reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" book.  There's a line that says "one Sunday, the warm sun came out and POP!..."  Well, that's what happened this month.  Harper's personality POPPED!

Not that she was a big, dull dud or anything like that before.  Just this month she has really started to develop some spunk and personality and individuality.  I guess I can run through the highlights...

Teeth!  We have a little baby Lauren Hutton on our hands!  Harper got her top two teeth this month an they are growing in so cute, but with a definite little gap in between her two teeth (see below).  Did I mention that it's adorable?  I wasn't sure.

She's definitely got some "woo hoo" hair going on.  Right around her ears she's got a little Bozo-esque look that flips out.  It must be the Oklahoma humidity, right?  Thank goodness we have her fully outfitted with bows galore, so it's not a problem.  And besides that, we love it!

Harper is starting to eat some table food and loves Cheerios, puffs, those weird little Gerber meat stick things (puke) and teeny tiny little bites of whatever we're having for dinner.  Harpie is a good eater, but we've noticed that when she's done- she's done! She definitely lets you know.  Especially with her bottle- if she decides she doesn't want it any more, she'll turn her head away, bat her little hand at it and I think I've even caught her shaking her head "no" at it before.

Harpie is becoming quite an accomplished clapper and waver.  She was doing these things last month, but has excelled even further in Month 9.  Now she's gotten to where if you say "Yay!" she'll start clapping with a big grin on her face.  She loves to smile and laugh and her herself squeal with delight.  There's a lot of delight going on because there's a lot of squealing going on at our house.

She's taken after her brother's love of music and her toy of choice right now is either a little gray microphone that we have or a fake remote.  She loves to put them in her mouth and blow little raspberries.  I think one of the things that Matthew and I like the most about her is the way that she'll cuddle into your shoulder when she's tired or snuggly.  So very precious.  She's always been a little more on the cuddly side...and we don't mind at all.  She's also very social.  She loves to "talk" to people and wave at them.  When I walk up to her classroom at church, she's always sitting or playing on the floor and just chattering away.  I'm just not quite sure where she gets it.

And as the days fly off the calendar in February, I know we're only days away from month 10.  What more cuteness could this next month possibly hold?   

Scrapbook Moments

Harper and Gavin are the cutest little buddies.  I could not have asked for a better sibling relationship at this point in their lives.  Sure, there are moments where they bite each other, get into competitions at the dinner table to see who can scream the loudest, and (funnest of all) try to steal each others food.  But to that I say, who doesn't?!  I am so happy that my kiddos have each other's friendship- they are quite the sibling duo.  Here are some fun moments that I have been allowed to be a part of as Gavin and Harper's mama:

Peek-a-boo:
Gavin loves to try and teach Harper how to play peek-a-boo.

He is so enthusiastic to get to teach her something and she is so enamored with her big brother. She hasn't quite yet mastered the art of peek-a-booing herself, but what's the rush when you have this guy to crack you up?

The Very Hungry Caterpillar: 

Okay- this is only the best children's book in the history of the world.  No arguments. Where else can you learn colors, fruits, days of the week, counting, the life cycle of a butterfly and that eating a whole lot of junk food on a Saturday will give you a stomach ache?  This is also the newest book that Gavin has started reading...and I seriously mean reading.  (Okay, I probably mean "memorizing what happens on each page and learning a few key phrases that will make his mother squeal with delight when she hears them", but that didn't stop the "My baby can read" people, did it?!)  Gavin loves to read the "patter book" talk about each of the fruits on their day of the week and says "he's still hunnry.." Genius?  I think so.

It's especially cute when he reads to Harper.  She usually has to be preoccupied with something else to help her not to try to grab at the pages while brother is reading, but she is none-the-less very impressed with Gavin's reading ability.

Little Miss Messy: 

Okay- so I seriously have no idea how this happened.  One minute, I'm bringing this tiny baby girl home from the hospital and the next minute, I'm picking up banana puffs that she poured over the entire living room.  

No joke.  Harper can now pull up...and is also enjoying the culinary wonder that is (are?) Gerber baby puffs.  The other night I left a container- lid closed- on top of the coffee table.  Harper managed to crawl over, pull up on the table, grab the container, sit back down, open them and then proceeded to eat her coveted snack.  

I know that some people might think of this as the minutia of life.  We've traded in a social life for banana puffs, reading about current events to reading patter books and traveling the world to making trips back and forth to the potty. I'm reminded daily thought that these moments are fleeting; that while the days seem to creep sometimes, the years really do fly.  To those that think this is life's minutia, I'll say that the world can wait. I've got a floor full of banana puffs to treasure, tiny little butts to wipe, wet noses to catch and snuggles to soak in.

8 Months- December

While the world celebrated Mary and Joseph knocking on Bethlehem inn front doors, Harper was celebrating her 8 month birthday. 

Sidenote: I only mention the Bethlehem innkeepers due to the fact that this was the primary part of the Christmas story that we focused on with Gavin this year.  We spent significant amounts of time this Chrismas season with our Fisher Price Little People nativity walking Mary and Joseph down the streets of "ahem", I would knock on the wall and say "do you have any rooms?" and Gavin would shake his head emphatically.  "No room, no room," he'd say.  Ergo, the shout out...and a sweet 2012 memory tucked away. 

BUT back to the main note. Harper is 8 months old (I can hear a little voice of mommy guilt ringing in my head saying "and has been for 13 days now." To which I say, "Shove it, mommy guilt.").  I'll say it again since I've clouded it with many superfluous other things- Harper is 8 months old!!!

Harper is a very sweet and sassy 8 month old; mostly sweet and occasionally sassy. 

She loves to smile, eat, clap, wave, make funny faces, laugh at her brother, crawl and be tickled.  All of the important things in an 8-month-old's life, I suppose. 

Two of the funnest things this month have been starting to clap and wave.  If you'll recall, Harper waved for the first time at Thanksgiving- in true hostess fashion, but has definitely fine-tuned the skills over her eighth month.  We were also thrilled to have her clap for the first time at my sister's birthday party earlier in December.  I'm pretty sure I stopped the party and bragged on her the rest of the night.  Not sure about any of the adult birthday parties you've been to lately...but I'm guessing we're going to see fewer birthday party invitations for Matthew and I in 2013...

Harper is still pretty little.  She weighs about 16 or 17 lbs.  I sometimes forget how old she is because of her size.  We went to the doctor this month and he diagnosed her with an upper respiratory infection and said "that would be pretty bothersome in a baby, but with a child her age..."  I was so sad to hear that she's not considered a "baby" any more.  

Harper does like to eat though!  So far she hasn't turned anything away!  Sweet potatoes, carrots, zucchini, peaches, pears, bananas, peas...and her new favorite- Cheerios!  I love watching her eat Cheerios.  Rather than pick them up with her two fingers, she'll make sure she gets the tip of her pointer finger good and wet and then will just point her finger out until the cheerio sticks to it and then will pop it in her mouth.  You can see the finger tip pointing motion situation kind of illustrated below.

Another big event this month is that Harper can MOVE!  She's a crawling machine- not really on all fours yet, but definitely on her belly.  Home girl can scoot!  She can also stand up against a table or something else supportive.  We're just waiting for her to balance and stand by herself.  She's almost there. 

When she's not busy dancing in her high chair or sucking on her socks, Harper is busy talking.  She's a very serious "dadadada" warner.  She tells us very adamantly and various times throughout the day.  She also likes to squeal in response to Gavin.  

 Another month of joy in the books- another month thankful that God knew what we needed more than we did.  We're thankful for our little surprise.  She's a delight to our lives.