Fifteen Months in pictures

 

Busy month boys and girls!!! I was looking back on last months post and Harper was in a bathing suit...this month in a snow hat....How did this happen so fast? I'm not ready for winter yet.  No really...we're still not in our house and I have NO WINTER CLOTHES!!! I'm not ready!!
Harper is growing by leaps and bounds! We have the dreaded 15 mo appointment (read: full of shots that I'm planning to request spacing out ) next week so I will know better her height but thanks to a QuickCare visit this past weekend I know that she's 24lbs. 
This will be our first visit with her new pediatrician, I'm praying he has a good sense of humor or I don't think it'll work out between us
Her signed vocabulary is still far ahead of her spoken vocabulary, but I'm told she will catch up in due time.  
Apparently I didn't knock on wood when I said my kid was a garbage disposal because in 30 short days she has turned herself into the worlds pickiest eater. Clearly she's not starving (umm 24 lbs remember?)  Can a child survive on chicken apple sausage, waffles and fruit alone? Well folks we're about to find out!!
Top loves are still her Cozy Coup, baby doll and books.  She loves ALL THE BOOKS! She's taken to bringing a pile of books to a corner and going through each one of them page by page.  I see a bean bag from Santa in her future!!

A lady always carries her purse

 At a photo shoot with Aunt Stacey

LOVES her baby doll

Benefit soccer game for the White Family at St Joe's 

 Team Sole Sisters taking 3rd place women's relay team...BOOM

Celebrating two years of wedded bliss.  We were told "Don't come home early" (Living with the inlaws does have some benefits!) so after a shishi dinner at Grace we hit up Rivalries for a beer and some Red Sox.  Next year I say we skip the fancy dinner and hit up 5 guys instead. Shaun loves selfies, can you tell?

Mowing the lawn with daddy at Nana's new Maine house

Seriously? Can we move in?

T-Rex

Loves Chipotle like her momma <3

Cousin Maddy turned F I V E this month, so they went out for a celebratory spin in the Gator. 

Women drivers...no survivors

Little daredevil climbed the rock wall leading up to the slide all by herself (with me standing right behind her obv)

 Hanging with her buddy Owen at his new house (yes I have house envy)

Not feeling so hot...Quick Care here we come....oh hello inhalers we've missed you (not really)

I'm not ready for cold season....it's been so nice to be illness free for a few months!

LL Bean pumkin fest.  Not really geared towards kids Harper's age but there were plenty of dogs and team mascots around so Harper was entertained anyway.

See you Chickens next month!!!

14 Months

Age: 14 months 

Weight: 23 pounds 

First trip to camp was a success!  The family is fast outgrowing the living quarters up there (too soon for the kids to sleep outside in tents?) but fun was had by all.

Fun fact: The trails at Pineland Farms are in fact (BOB) stroller friendly.  Don't go expecting a leisurely walk however, both myself and my friend (who was pushing twins in a double BOB god love her) were drenched by the end of our "walk".  Also their cafe is amazing.  For $1 you can get an itty bitty baby cone of ice cream, perfect for 14 mo old hands....as you can see Harper whole heartedly agreed (totally my kid)

While Shaun and I were

off doing this:

Harper spent her first weekend away with her cousins

She had tons of fun on her weekend getaway (almost as much fun as we had on ours!!) playing with her cousins and all of their toys.  I'm pretty sure coming home was a big fat disappointment!
(The hubs and I are trying to keep from taking over the inlaws house while we're there so Harper's toys are pretty limited)





Favorite toys this month: After the above mentioned weekend with her cousins some of her toys just weren't cutting the mustard anymore.  She was obsessed with their cozy coupe and their bouncy horse.  We caved and bought her the cozy coupe but will probably hold out on the bouncy horse until Christmas (each toy is good for at least 45 min of play which in toddler time is like years)

The weekends have been gorgeous so we took Harper apple picking for the first time.

We paid for a peck...probably should have paid for a peck and 1/2.... Harper helped herself to trying each and every apple the orchard had to offer.  
We took a tractor ride...may or may not have had an apple cider donut or five...good times

Playing hide and go seek with daddy

This and that:

*Rarely do I pick Harper up in the same outfit I drop her off in (she's a slob, what can I say) This resulted in our first unintentional mama and mini matching outfits. I'm actually surprised this didn't happen sooner. I don't tend to buy her "baby" clothes, rather things I would wear :)

*Harper now knows 10+ signs.  What a HUGE help.  Instead of whining at me she'll come ask for "help" , tell me she wants to "eat" or "drink", or my personal favorite that she wants to "brush her teeth"

*While in general she's a garbage disposal she has started to excercise her will about what she will and won't eat (that's fun)

*Oh pacifier...how I love and hate you. We're going to battle soon, real soon.

*You know you're a mother when your out for a run and your ipod craps out and the first song that pops into your head is the theme song to "Daniel Tiger's neighborhood" 

See you next month!!!!

13 months

Nothing quite says happiness like mom letting you jump in the lake fully clothed!!

ooooh DIRT!

Age: 13 months. I will be the first to admit that I was not a fan of the infant stage (Harper and I had a rough go of it the first 6 weeks or so) but I'm digging this whole toddler thing. Talk to me again when we hit the terrible 2's

Favorite Activity:   Anything outdoors.  We had a busy month this month full of family visits, trips to the animal park, lake, and beach.  This is a girl who is happiest on the go and with people to watch

so impressed with the ducks!

beach baby

first carousel ride.  She wasn't quite sure she liked it

Favorite Toy: My my this little girl is fickle.  Violet the talking dog has now been replaced by her baby doll Julia and her Aden and Anais security blanket (they come in a 2 pack...genius and has totally saved me a few times this month)

Favorite Book: Snow white and the 7 dwarfs. She picks this book out of the basket I keep in the car every time. It's funny to listen to her babble as if she's actually reading the book.

This month Harper learned:

* Facing forward in the car seat is AMAZING! It's like a whole new world! (And her legs aren't squished at a weird angle anymore)

*Peek a boo is the most hilarious game ever!

* Harper has had a language explosion this month and has added quite a few signs to her repertoire.  She can now sign mom, dad, please, bye, thank you, baby, all done, milk, and more.  Please is by far her most used sign followed by daddy (hmph!)  Initially she would just copycat what I was signing but she will now answer questions with the correct sign.  (Do you want more?--> please)  Sigh...warms this interpreters heart to see her little chubby fingers signing (and so much LESS whining now!)

* Bike rides with auntie are so much FUN!!! and so are scooters!

This month mommy learned:

*To give up on sitting down until Harper is ohhh I don't know 18.  Up down up down up down... just not worth it!

* Where Harper gets her hair coloring from...

...enough said.

Other family news:

*We've finally broken ground on our new house!! Hoooray!! We're only 2.5 weeks behind schedule...not bad right? Right? The original estimated completion date is October 31 so I'm going to say if we're in by Christmas I'll be happy.  This house building business is not a impatient persons game but I'm doing my best (hurry hurry hurry!!). I'm pretty sure my builder will hate seeing my email address by the end of this. 

*We made it through the bridal shower and bachelorette party now it's T-18 days until Melissa and James' wedding!!! 

*Next race is the Auburn Lakes 1/2 in two weeks.  Very excited for what will probably be my last 1/2 of the season.  The last sentence is subject to change, I can be talked into races very easily ;)

Until next month...

TWELVE (oh my god how did this happen so fast?) MONTHS

Age: 12 Months She's been moved into the toddler room at school which means she's officially a big girl

Weight & Length: 22lbs and 30" long, still growing out of her clothing faster than I care to spend $ on them…thank goodness for hand me downs :)

Favorite Activity: Climbing stairs…and she's fast!!! Turns out that Harper is quite the dare devil,  climbing stairs or going down the slide solo at daycare are no big thing so needless to say she's been keeping us on our toes!!  

Favorite Toy: Sadly Bubba the Bear has taken a backseat to Harper's new favorite toys--> Violet the talking dog (she cracks up every time Violet says "I love you Harper") and the new baby doll she got for her birthday.  

Favorite Book: No clear favorites this month, instead Harper has decided that she loves ALL the books.  We have book baskets in both her bedroom and the living room.  When she's exhausted herself from climbing stairs (or the gate has been put up, same same) she'll go sit by her basket and go through each and every book.  I'm hoping to turn her into a bookworm like I was :)

This month Harper learned:

* How to sign "Please" and "Thank you" on demand.  She hasn't mastered any signs to tell me exactly what she wants but at least she's polite about her whining haha.

* How to brush her teeth.  Now that we have 7 plus teeth we've introduced teeth brushing 2x daily into our routine.  I let her "brush" for a few minutes (which really is her sucking on the tooth brush or gagging herself by accident) before I take over.  She loves loves loves the toothbrush and our brushing sessions almost always result in her screaming to go back for more.  I guess I can't complain that she has good hygiene habits right?

* Birthdays are AWESOME!!! They come with balloons, and bounce houses, friends, sweet presents but best of all CAKE!!!!
Nana and Grampy Rick were visiting from Texas right before her birthday so lucky little lady had two birthday celebrations :)

This month mommy learned:

Shoot I don't know, it's been a whirlwind of a month between my mom visiting, Harper's first birthday, building a house and hosting bridal showers….it's all been a blur.  I do think next year Harper's birthday will be a more simple affair…I was so busy doing things at the party I don't feel like I really got a chance to enjoy the day with her. Lesson learned. 

Races:  I almost got talked into running a 9 mile trail run...errr death race up a Mtn (thanks Danielle) but luckily/unluckily when I went to sign up for it it was sold out.  For a race that I had to be talked into doing I was pretty bummed I didn't get to run it.  Maybe next year??  Next race is a 1/2 marathon the beginning of September.  It's not nearly as flat as the Rail Trail so if I can keep my finish time under 2 hours I will chalk that up as a success!

We do birthdays right in this house

Bounce House = worth.every.penny.
All the kids were entertained and parents got to relax…ahhhh

Harper and Miss Sarah…everyone should have a Miss Sarah <3

Grants Bakery…yummmm

Not so much of a fan of the cake the second time around.  It's ok…she'll learn

Harper on her actual birthday at daycare 

From this...

*BLINK*

To this...

Stars and Stripes

(look at those thighs....I die)

I have been dreading the beach...

Sand, sun and an 11 mo old? No thanks.  All I could envision was Harper shoveling 

fist fulls of sand into her mouth and pooping out sandcastles for a week.

Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised :)

Sometimes I have good great ideas...ok Pinterest has the great ideas, I was just smart enough to actually use this one, and it was a gem!  

In prepping for our first trip to the beach I was trying to figure out how to 

be able to let Harper "play" in the water...enter Pinterest.  

We brought a cheap shower curtain from the Dollar Store, dug a hole, lined it with the curtain and filled with H2O--> VIOLA! Kiddie pool for one!  

No fewer than 10 moms with little ones stopped and said "Brilliant, totally stealing that"

Steal away (Thank you Pinterest!!)

Dunk in the ocean...she wasn't a big fan

Once we'd had our fill of the beach we went home and cleaned the sand out of all nooks and crannies we headed to the Eastern Prom to enjoy the festivities for a bit 

(Mom, seriously...this hair color is all you)