Thirteen Months

Harper playing on the bed. This is how we "box" her in when we need to get things done in the mornings! Surrounded by pillows, which act like speed bumps for the fastet roller in the West!

I broke my cleanse in amazing style...we went to Texas Road House for fried chicken & beer.

I am proud to say I made it 18 days, next time I'll shoot for the entire 21.

Harper's working her jazz hands here...

She absolutely loves this play table, especially her little laptop!

...busy working away!

I am afraid to realize that we're working on a bit of a baby mullet here, oh my!

I am at a loss for how to style this hair do! Hopefully we'll be on our way to a ponytail soon, like mother like daughter :)

Harper had a great 13 month birthday. We had another fun, relaxing weekend at home for the most part. Harper & I ran a couple of errands on Sunday afternoon and she sure charmed everyone at SurLaTable! We even received a 20% discount because I think the lovely woman that rang us up was so impressed. She waved & clapped, screamed & smiled her little heart out, she loved being the center of so much attention! We certainly are looking forward to nice, sunny spring days ahead! Hopefully filled with lots of walks & time at the park....Happy 13 months dear Harper Grace.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Had to wear the green today! Harper is so funny, she just loves to make her "picture" faces for me whenever she sees the flash, silly girl. We have the pediatric cardiologist tomorrow afternoon, hopefully all goes well. Then, another super organizational weekend ahead! We wish everyone a Happy St. Patricks Day ;)

Marching along...

Harper's OT, Miss Desiree brought out a "seat" for Harper to practice sitting on. The plan is to work on transitioning to standing from here. But for now, it's a lovely place to sit & dig into all of our new toy storage containers.

Thanks to help & suggestions from Desiree, we had such a great week exploring all kinds of new culinary adventures! In the picture above, Harper is working on a baby cereal bar & banana! She now loves to feed herself crackers, waffles & toast. Transitioning to milk is going surprisingly well! We'll be finished with bottles (and that pricey Alimentum) in no time...hopefully fully on milk by April 1. Just this morning, she ate a whole half piece of toast all on her very own!

Here, I'm helping Harper use her hands to hold up her sippy cup. This is a big deal as she has totally refused to help hold anything when it comes to drinking (be it bottle or cup). She's working on holding it all by herself & lifting it up to get the water out, getting better at it by the day! Of course, in the picture above, she knows Mike is taking a picture & can't resist to ham it up:)

March has been a good & very productive month for us! Hence, my lack of pictures! Meme came over a couple of weekends ago & we totally re-organized the kitchen, it is amazing how much room I feel like we have now - simply wonderful. We built storage cubes + bookcases to organize Harper's ever-growing collection of things (toys, books, clothes - she's got it all, and lots of it!). I think we are one good weekend away from being totally organized & finally settled in the house (almost a year after we moved in!).

On a personal note, it's been a great month for me too. I started a detoxifying cleanse on March 2nd. Today is day 15 & I have been very devoted to all of the rules & whatnot. It's been a very cool experience. On the super plus side, I've lost 13 pounds (bye-bye baby weight, finally!) and I am hoping to continue with a much stronger & healthier diet after the cleanse is over. Mike & I have really enjoyed making all of the dinners (for him) and lunches (for me) together every evening after work. He's been a great big help with this whole adventure and makes my twice daily juices in the juice maker (a contraption I still haven't dared to use!).

I know that we are all looking forward to spring! Finally, after several months, there is no longer a massive snow bank in our front yard, little green blades of grass are starting to pop out & I think it's supposed to even be sunny tomorrow! Welcome Spring!

Happy Birthday Harper!

Got her first Birthday card in the mail on Friday...

Being silly with Daddy + our squinty "happy face" :)

ahhh, the Birthday tutu!

family portrait

BJ & Jackie came over Saturday afternoon to visit Harper & help out with the official birthday portrait. Jackie has been wonderful in helping us capture Harper throughout her first year, we cannot wait to see the magic she created on Saturday!

Harper was a great sport with the tutu and photo session. After it was finished she was happily changed into some comfy's to hang out with her Aunt & Uncle.

The sight of Harper's 1st birthday party, Harrison Hills. Lovely birthday banner hand-painted by her babysitter Michelle.

Harper enjoyed her first balloon on her birthday too - pure magic!

Harper & Eva always have a fun time playing together, what a good "big sis" :)

Harper's birthday weekend was wonderful! She had an overnight on Saturday night with Meme & Grandpa Gorder so Mike & I could celebrate with the other birthday girl of the weekend (my dear friend Sara turned 30!). On Sunday, Harper had a great turn-out for her first birthday brunch & was a fabulous hostess! She enjoyed all of the company, balloons, her first cupcake & everyone's generous birthday gifts. Mike & I celebrated how much we love our beautiful, sweet baby girl. She is everything we could have hoped for and is a very loved & celebrated young lady. Happy First Birthday Harper Grace and may you have many more!

Our Happy Hearts Weekend

We kicked off the weekend in our usual style, playing in the living room!

Think this is Harper's new model look! The squinty eyes...very fashionable!

Working on scootch-ing all around the floors - so much fun to go backwards!

And roll over...

I can't bring myself to trim her bangs which now hang in her face, so for a while we'll be embracing the "pebbles" look!

Daddy took his girls to Wheatfields for Valentine's breakfast....yummy!

Harper always looks like she's screaming with this face...in real life, it's totally silent, this is how we "pose" for all pictures now - heehee...

Such a big girl in her high chair!

Can't believe her birthday is this Sunday! ONE year, holy moly....

What an incredible ride it's been, so filled with joy... LOVE you so much - our dear sweetheart!

Enjoying the Small Things: Nella Cordelia: A Birth Story

Enjoying the Small Things: Nella Cordelia: A Birth Story

I found a link to this the other day on a Down Syndrome blog group I belong to.
(I warn you to have a kleenex close by if you read it.) It's amazing how similar & yet
different I felt to this woman when we received Harper's diagnosis.
She's an amazing photographer & has a great way with words.
Just something I thought I'd share, enjoy! Jaeme

February Fun!

While winter slowly passes by we find lots to do inside!

Harper's new moves include knocking down block towers that mama builds as quickly as she can, signaling to us (with hands up in the air) when she's ready to be picked up & scootching backwards on any hard surface!

She's an absolute riot, a total giggle-fest! Oh, Harper what did we do before you were here? Can't believe your first birthday is less than two weeks away, time goes by so quickly!