Eight Months

Picture session in our backyard with Harlowe's summer swim hat. She loves her little thumb.

I am all caught up with blogging and I do not have anymore pictures to post, yeah! Harlowe is eight months but closer to nine months to be exact; although, I like to post her milestones at the end of the month because she changes everyday.

She is sitting up like a big girl, but she wants to stand all the time now, no more sitting. She is into everything and anything, exploring her environment non-stop. Her crawling is not the most graceful thing but she gets around with no trouble.

There is no more putting her down when we think she is tired because she will turn herself around and pop right back up again.

I love coming home in the mornings from work; because, she is always up and now I find her sitting up in her bed sucking her thumb, with Dustin snoring in the background, ha. She gets the biggest smile, giggles and squeezes me tight when I pick her up, it truly makes my day. It is so amazing how this little human being has changed me.

She loves her little pointer finger and when I am feeding her, she will put her fingers in my mouth, up my nose or in my eye. I literally have to shoo her hand away from my face or turn away from her. She has clawed my face up with her razor sharp fingernails. The harder I try to keep them short, it seems like they get even sharper.

As you can see she loves her little thumb, it truly comforts her. She loves, loves, loves Harley but he doesn't want anything to do with her. She is too up in your face for my poor Harley. She loves all dogs really because she will just giggle and smile when she sees a new dog.

She is still an amazing eater, she has eaten pretty much everything you can think of, even the bad stuff. Everyone knows I cannot put down the sweets so Harlowe of course needs to partake in the goodies. The great mom that I am, ha, has given her cake, cookies from the mall - oh so good - I have to get one every time I go, gummi bears, and Dustin gave her a piece of chocolate. I know my mom is going to die when she reads this but hey, she will be exposed to the goodies sooner or later and it might as well be sooner, ha. But seriously, Dustin and I love this new frozen yogurt place, Swirl, it is the best frozen yogurt and Harlowe loves it. I always get a full cup because I know she will at least eat a forth of it.

Dustin and I love this little girl to pieces, she is the light of our lives. We love you Harlowe more and more each day.

Happy Belated Father's Day

 

Us in Lake Tahoe.

The first for both of us and we loved it there, it is so beautiful and the Lake was heavenly. We were lucky and had great powdery snow so my butt didn't hurt too much when I fell but Dustin is a pro at snowboarding.

Dustin with our first baby, Harley, he is ten years old and still kicking. We love good old Harley!

Us in Puerto Rico, one of the forts in San Juan. Puerto Rico has beautiful beaches and the weather there was humid but so nice, not too hot. This was Dustin's first time kite boarding and he fell in love with it and had to buy a board. We both took lessons, but me, not so good, I about drown my instructor. We want to go to South Padre and go kite boarding again this summer. Hopefully, I won't drown Dustin because he said he would be brave enough to give me a lesson.

We hiked up the rain forest, I dragged Dustin up the entire mountain and it took most of the day. He really wasn't interested but he is a great husband and entertained another one of my great ideas, ha!

We also had a great coconut drink when we got up the mountain. They just stuck a straw in the top of a coconut and it was excellent.

One of the waterfalls we saw in the rain forest.

Dustin on top of the fort, isn't the water just gorgeous!

Dustin and his parents, we took them to see a Cirque show for an early birthday present.

As you can see, Dustin's dad is a jokester just like Dustin, ha. Happy Father's Day to a great Father in Law.

Us on a snorkeling boat in Hawaii, I was seven months prego, and we had a great time. I love Hawaii!

My baby relaxing, catching some rays.

This is Dustin, Fred (my bro), Christina (Fred's wife), and Parker (their son) on a helicopter ride at the Big Island in Hawaii. Needless to say, big mistake on my part, seven months prego and turbulence doesn't mix well. I was a sweaty mess, Fred said I had pit stains when we landed. I was saying to myself, I just got married and now pregnant which I waited so long for and now God, I am going to die, ha. No, really, that is exactly what I was thinking and poor Parker didn't like the ride either.

Dustin setting up his kite

Happy Father's Day, Dustin, you are an extraordinary father, husband, and my best friend. You are God's greatest gift to me, you make me smile, you make me laugh and I love the life I have with you. Harlowe is very blessed to have a father like you.

There have been many nights in the past where I would sit up and wonder, sometimes cry and always pray for a man like you. I would sometimes think why, God, are you doing this to me? But through it all, I found you and it brings tears to my eyes, how God's plan is so much greater than I could ever imagine. I am so glad God has blessed me with a partner like you! Even though in the rush of life, I don't stop and tell you this enough but you are truly loved and cherished.

I hope you have a great first father's day, Harlowe, Harley and I love you!

Dustin Attacks

Harlowe is very active while eating and wants to feed herself or play in the food. And Dustin doesn't have the patience I do with my sweet angel, so of course Harlowe hit the spoon and carrots went flying onto the wall and onto his shirt. Dustin thought fit to get Harlowe back and painted her face with carrots, poor thing didn't know what hit her. When Dustin went to clean her face off, he belted out an, "oh my god"! My sweet angel's face was stained orange for a little while; needless to say, my little girl will have patience and perseverance when dealing with people because she has to put up with her crazy daddy, ha. Just wait until she can talk back and fight back, Dustin will have his hands full.

I am really at a loss for words tonight, the only new update is Harlowe has two bottom front teeth.

Nothing really going on in our world, we are trying to get our house in order because we are going to put it on the market soon. Dustin really needs an office since he is working from home and our house is just to small. We are getting granite put in hopefully this week and Dustin missed out on a weekend in San Antonio to strip the floors and buff them.

Our house is coming along but we have a lot of stuff so hopefully soon I will find the time to get organized, that is the goal for the month. Does anyone ever feel moody if their house is total chaos?

It is funny, I feel guilty if I clean the house when I am off from work because I think I should be spending time with Harlowe. I sometimes tell Dustin I feel guilty, like I am not putting in enough time with Harlowe. When I say that, I mean educational time; for example, reading to her, teaching her how to walk or just teaching her new things. Dustin thinks I am crazy because our daughter does not go to daycare and if this is all I have to worry about, I am doing pretty darn good.

I guess that is our life for now and it is a great life.

My Birthday Dinner

Harlowe being a big girl in a high chair

My two big eyed babies

Me and my momma

Harlowe's first margarita, ha

It looks like she is doing pretty good with her sippy, but don't let her fool you, she is chewing on it. But I guess we are getting somewhere since she is holding it with two hands.

This was my birthday extravaganza, a night out on the town with Harlowe, Dustin and my mother. We had a great time at the Mockingbird Cafe and the food was delicious. Can you tell there is a pattern with the margaritas? When my mother and Dustin get together, the margaritas start flowing, and Harlowe had to get in on the action, ha.

Usually Harlowe goes to bed early and starts getting fussy around 6:00pm, so I was a little anxious about going out to dinner. But Harlowe did great, we feed her and gave her a bath before going out to eat and she did wonderful. She was a perfect angel, she ate off all our plates and even had foie gras, not my idea of course, Dustin's. She is a great eater, she will literally eat anything you put in front of her, we are really lucky.

Anyway, I enjoyed a great evening and had a great fish dish, all in all it was a great birthday. We even went to the Chocolate Bar to have ice cream for dessert, yum.

I wanted to thank my mother for helping us through the month of  May and celebrating my birthday with me. I also wanted to thank Dustin's parents and brother for the great gifts. And Dustin's grandfather for the thoughtful card and gift.

And thanks to all my friends for calling me and thinking about me. I really am blessed to have such great friends and family.

Last but not least, to the love of my life, thank you for loving me each and every day, even though some days I know it is hard, ha. Bringing a smile to my face and making me laugh, even though sometimes it is at my expense. For being my rock and such a wonderful husband and father, I thank God for bringing you into my life everyday!

Seven Months

We try to let her have fun with her food the nights we give her a bath

She loves her peas

Trying to feed herself

Her bouncer which she loves

Lately, Harlowe has been such a joy to be around and her personality is really coming out. She loves to eat pretty much everything. We have totally given up on the one item for three days thing. We have been trying to cook more at home and whatever we eat she eats; although we love the salt and her dishes are salt free. She has tried chicken tortilla soup, spaghetti and meat sauce, gyoza (a Japanese type dumpling) with rice and chicken with green beans. As you can see I have been eating more meat, yuck, but I guess blended salads everyday would be out for my poor baby.

We have tried to give her more finger foods and she has the puffs and Cheerios down pat but other foods seem to choke her and she takes forever to feed herself. So we still blend her foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner but give her finger foods for snacks.

She is not really interested in drinking milk anymore either, so needless to say my milk production is slowly dwindling down. She only wants milk in the mornings and at bedtime and I can sneak in a snack of milk here and there throughout the day.

She is getting more independent everyday, lately she is so involved in checking out her environment she gets distracted easily during feeding time. It seems like if Dustin and I want to have a conversation while she is eating she is totally involved and looking back and forth to whomever is talking. She is a total mess but we love her so much.

What can I say about our precious little girl? You are wearing six to twelve months clothes, you have been pretty much right on track when it comes to clothes. You are wearing a size 3 diaper now. The crawling thing we are still working on, you are going backwards just fine but not forward. You love to be on your feet, you always want to stand and will pull up using our shirts as support. You don't like lying down, you always want to be sitting or standing. You do the cutest thing when we change your diaper, you bow out your chest and make the funniest faces. Probably Dustin will be the only one to know what the heck I am talking about. You are into everything now and Dustin can attest to that, he says that to me just about everyday. You are not really taking the sippy cup, you think it is a new chew toy but we are working on it.

You are the sweetest most precious baby in the world, everyone says how cute you are. You make our hearts melt when you smile so big and giggle when you see your dad or me. You are saying mama and baba, which I don't know if she associates these words to anything yet but she is saying them. We are working on Your Baby Can Read DVDs everyday, and no she cannot read yet, ha. I don't let you watch TV yet, only the DVDs. Although, you are not really interested in watching TV, the DVDs hold your attention for about 10-15 minutes.  You love your books and we read to you every morning. You love chewing on your pacifier, you use it as a chew toy, which keeps her pretty distracted when I am cutting her nails.

We love you so much and you are growing so fast, I cannot believe how the time flies. You make me feel so good about life and how blessed we are to have you. I cannot thank God enough for all the blessing we have and you are a big one.