Monthly Archives: July 2014

Next Time Harper

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The past month has been tough for me.  It’s been a combination of things….work is crazy busy, not enough time to do the basic things such as cooking, grocery shopping, laundry, tidying the house, paying bills, and other paperwork, Avery and Emerson being very testy.  I would find myself getting annoyed with them and not enjoying and appreciating them like I should.  I was seeing the weeds and failing to see the flowers. I knew I needed to snap out of it, but constantly feeling like there was so much to do and so little time to do it all on, made it hard to simply snap out of it. 

I don’t know what occurred but Sunday morning I woke up feeling refreshed and like my old self again.  I wish I could say it was the good night sleep I had but I can say with certainty that was not the case.  The morning started with some cuddles that I thoroughly enjoyed and after breakfast the whole family took a few minutes to play and be silly in Harper’s room. Even though we had somewhere to go and a specific time we wanted to leave, I took the time to just stop for a minute and enjoy the fun family time we were having in Harper’s room!

Our plan for the day was to go to Frying Pan Park.  We hadn’t been there since spring of last year.  Wow, what a difference a year makes!  For one we had three kids now instead of two!  Emerson was very much into seeing the animals.  Avery was still scared of the animals at first, but she wasn’t petrified as in years past and she did emerge from the stroller to attempt to face her fears and would actually get super excited when she saw an animal.  Avery would see an animal, point to it with such enthusiasm, but then moments later be ready to move on to the next thing. 

Emerson was quite content to watch the animals. It was really neat to just see her take it all in.  She was not at all afraid even when the goat stuck his head through the gate and started eating the stroller.

Harper had a great time getting out and walking around!

We saw cows, baby calf, sheep, goats, pigs, lots of baby pigs, a horse, peacocks, and chickens. We explored the dairy and old house from late 1800’s.  When we were in the dairy, I was trying to explain what a dairy was.  Since Avery loved milk, it was the perfect opportunity to explain where milk comes from.  When I told her milk comes from cows, she kindly added on “and mommy’s boobies.”

We even attempted to capture all three girls in the same picture together.  Who said you needed to see faces to have a good picture!

And then it was time for Mommy and Daddy to get into the picture too (separately that is).

After we had made our rounds of the animals, the girls wanted to drive the tractors.  They were having a great time.

Avery even drove me to the airport.  Now this is what I call first class!

Next time Harper…next time!

We attempted to go on the merry-go-round twice.  It only runs 15 minutes past the hour.  We didn’t know that the first time as we were watching it go around.  Basically we just missed it. We weren’t certain if we were going to be around an hour later for the next one.  Turns out we were but we were too far away at the time and the girls don’t quite understand what making a mad dash for it would have meant, so we promised them for next time. 

Once the merry go round didn’t happen, we let Avery and Emerson play on the playground.  Harper meanwhile had fallen asleep in her stroller. They were having a great time.  They were being KIDS and it just warms my heart to see them running around, laughing, and playing with one another. 

Next time Harper….next time. 

We weren’t planning on eating lunch out but it was getting close to lunch time so we decided to try out Gordon’s Grill, which is on the premises.  It’s basically fries, burgers, dogs, chicken nuggets, etc….nothing at all remotely healthy.  It was reasonably priced so we gave it a try.  Justin and I had the barbeque….it was okay.  The fries were so deep fried that honestly Justin (who doesn’t discriminate too often when it comes to fries) and Emerson (who doesn’t discriminate too often when it comes to food) knew that these fries weren’t even worth eating and we ended up throwing some of them away.

Later that afternoon we took the girls over to my parents to go swimming.   It was around Harper’s second nap time and while part of me felt guilty for not taking her in, I knew that Justin and I would be able to concentrate on Avery and Emerson more this time if it was two on two versus three on three.  (Yeah, my dad was there but you know how that goes!). Anyway, the girls had a great time in the pool and every time they go in they seem to get more and more comfortable with the water. 

Next time Harper, next time.

11 Months

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Harper is 11 months already.  Some days I can’t believe it…my little baby is hardly a baby anymore and in less than a month, she will be 1!  That is just insane to me.  I think I am going to be one of those moms that always can’t get over how old my children are….or how old I am 🙁….but that is a blog for another day!  Anyway, Harper took her first steps at just over 9 months.  Although we were proud of those steps and many others, we weren’t overly encouraging her to walk at such a young age.  First, she hadn’t been crawling that long…she got around real well but by means other than true crawling (a lot of scooting)….and crawling was an important development that I didn’t want her to take lightly!  Second, I wasn’t ready for her to be that mobile yet!  So while there were a lot of steps at 9 months and 10 months, it was literally the day that she turned 11 months that those steps turned into walking.  On her 11 month birthday, it was probably 50/50 walking and in the 3 days since then, she has pretty much become a full blown walker….to the point where last night I realized she needed real shoes…one’s that were actually supportive for walking and not just decorative!  So here she is at Stride Rite buying her 1st pair of shoes!

And here is Harper and proud big sister Emerson who picked out those hot pink shoes!

Eleven months so far has proven to be a big month for Harper.  At 11 months (or just shy by about a week), Harper’s two top teeth magically started appearing out of nowhere.  They are only just coming in, but they are huge.  And one on the bottom is coming in as well.  FINALLY!  I secretly was beginning to wonder if she had any baby teeth….THANKFULLY she does.  But don’t be fooled those teeth (or lack thereof) were not keeping Harper from eating and enjoying her food.  Over the last few months we have been introducing more and more table food and sometime last month Harper’s meals turned into all table food.  She joins us at the table (in her high chair) and she shovels the food into her mouth (a lot like Emerson did at the same age).   I don’t think she like peas or corn that much, but other than that she isn’t too biased when it comes to food. 

Happy 11 months Harper….one year is just around the corner!

July 4th Weekend

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This past weekend was 4th of July Holiday Weekend.  It really was a great mix of family, friends, neighborhood, bbq’s, pool time, fun, and even a few errands in between.

The weekend started out with horrible thunderstorms late Thursday night.  They lasted through the night and when I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to nurse Harper, I was a little worried that the neighborhood picnic event scheduled for 10:00 would be called off.  I shouldn’t have been worried though.  In a few hours timeframe the weather turned sunny and was in the high 70’s and not humid.  It was gorgeous.  We went to the event and had a chance to meet a few more neighbors, which was nice.  The girls were a little too young to participate in some of the events but it was still really neat nonetheless just to see yet again what a great community we live in.

Friday afternoon we set out to take pictures of the girls with the primary goal of getting a good picture of all three of them….one that we could use for their birthday invitation.  EPIC FAIL in that sense!  The girls just did not want to take their picture together. I don’t know what was going on but they just wouldn’t cooperate and all three stay put at once and that stayed true for the whole weekend. 

Friday’s pictures and this includes several rounds of photo sessions throughtout the day.

By the way this orange outfit has become Emerson’s all time favorite outfit the past few weeks.  If the pants are dirty, she wears an orange skirt to go along with it.  We do laundry fairly often so she probably wears this outfit about 3 times a week.  Maybe I should do laundry less…lol. 

Avery on the other hand is wearing one of her bathing suits from two years ago.  I was planning on having Harper wear it and Avery wanted to try it on and I think it actually fit better now than it did two years ago…guess that diaper took up a lot of space!

Friday afternoon we went to Brophy’s.  Avery even wore this bathing suiit there….and not even under her clothes.  This was her outfit!  The Niday’s were there as well.  Emerson’s tummy didn’t feel well at first but after awhile I think she forgot about it and was fine.  The girls had a great time playing with Hannah’s toys and each other.  The girls are becoming increasingly independent in their play especially when we go to someone else’s house.  It is nice! 

We got back to our house in time to watch our neighbors do a few fireworks in the cul-de-sac.  All three girls were scared at first.  We ended up putting Harper down to bed.  Emerson eventually was okay watching them but covered her ears the entire time.  Avery never really warmed up to them so she went inside with daddy to watch them from the kitchen bench.

Saturday morning we went to the Farmer’s Market. Karolin, our new au pair, even joined us! 

Saturday afternoon Justin and I did something that we don’t do very often and actually spent 6 ½ hours together without the girls.  It was good.  We went for a nice bike ride to Reston followed by some yard work (mostly trimming our overgrown garden).  Then after a quick shower we ran a few errands and even went to Matchbox for a late lunch/early dinner.  We got back in time to even spend a few hours with the girls before it was bedtime.

Sunday morning we went to Meadowlark.  While we brought the camera as we always do when we go to Meadowlark, the goal of the trip was certainly not to get a picture of all three girls together, but once we got there, I thought why not try AGAIN….

Their lack of cooperation for the staged picture had me becoming increasingly frustrated.  Justin kept having to tell me to let it go.  Finally I gave up on the picture and we all continued to enjoy ourselves more. Thoughts of getting Harper in the picture began brewing in my head. 

 The girls started running in the fields and were having a great time!

I thought if I placed Harper in the grass the girls could run on opposite sides of her and we could get a picture of all three of them and the girls would be more cooperative since it wasn’t as staged.

As you can see both girls ran to the same side of her!  The idea worked much better in my head!

We got some cute pictures but not the one that I was trying to create for their birthday invitation.  BUT I am all about the flowers….and I LOVE some of these pictures of my babies!

Sunday evening we went to my parent’s house for some pool time and a barbeque.  Each time we go in the pool, the girls are gaining more and more confidence.  I just smile as I see them playing in their rafts…it is so cool to see these little kids that they are becoming.  All in all we had a really good weekend!