Eight months have passed since Harper entered the world and she has changed so much in such a short amount of time!  It’s truly amazing to witness the development of a baby first hand.

At 8 months old, Harper:

• Has fully mastered pulling up and is now cruising on the couch and anything else she can get a hold of
• Has 6 teeth and 7 & 8 are soclose!
• Loves playing peek-a-boo
• Has developed a taste for crib wood (thankfully we got it covered up!)
• Enjoys playing with her baby buddies
• Is sleeping better, but is still very inconsistent with it
• Is eating “real” food at least once a day and still nurses pretty often
• Is constantly on the move

One of my favorite parts of the day is when Daniel comes home from work (hooray another adult!).  Harper gets so excited and immediately crawls over to meet him or starts leaning his way if I’m holding her.  If he happens to do something before picking her up she gets quite mad and voices her discontent….loudly.  It’s so sweet to see how much she loves her Daddy!

Another funny thing that Harper does is that she “poses” for the camera.  Anytime we pick up our phones or camera to take a picture she smiles.  It’s so funny that she seems to know exactly what to do and probably says that we have taken way too many pictures in the last 8 months!

I know I say this every month but…. holy moly, where is the time going?  Everyone says “time flies” but that is a serious understatement.  They should say “the first year passes at warp speed”.  We are now closer to Harper’s first birthday than her birth.  Whoa.

Harper Kate is really such a sweet baby.  She’s pretty easy going as long as she isn’t hungry or tired.  Speaking of tired… Harper has traded in her predictable nights for completely erratic ones.  The eternal optimist in me keeps thinking she’ll go back to sleeping through the night.  Maybe it’s a survival mechanism?  She still naps well, so that’s a plus.

In the way of milestones, Harper:

• Real crawls
• Pulls up on everything
• Has 4 teeth!  Her top teeth came in a couple weeks ago… 3.5 months after her bottom two!
• Has mastered the “M”, “B”, “H”, “K” and “G” sounds so far.  When she learns a new sound she says them over and over so we had quite a few days of “mamamama” and “bababa”.  For the h sound she said “HA! HA!”  It was really cute.
• Likes to jump in her doorway jumper
• Takes 2 naps a day and goes to bed around 7:30 or 8:00
• Still nurses every 2-3 hours.  She eats solid food occasionally and she really seems to like fruit.

Our boards are 6ft long, but they hang 6 inches off the floor so they measure up to 6′-6″. We left the back of the boards unfinished which left us a great place to leave a personalized “Happy Mother’s Day 2012″ message. With a little bit of work and a small budget you could have a way to chart your children’s height that’s also portable if you ever decide to move.

We decided to hang ours in the beginning of our hallway. It is a great way to start our wall of pictures. (Which isn’t quite finished yet.)Maybe we can get some pictures of it in use pretty soon!

If this is your first time to our blog then Welcome.. and I guess things won’t seem any different to you.

This time a year ago a group of us from our church were in Alabama helping cleanup after the tornados. I can’t help but to remember them this Memorial Day weekend too.

“We do.”

May 13th- Mother’s Day and Baby Dedication. Meg, Harper, and I stand in front of our church family with our Pastor between us and another family of four. Even after being on stage every week playing in our praise band, right now, with no instrument in my hand, I am nervous. I’m not expected to give a speech, not expected to sing a solo, not even answer some biblical trivia. (Thank Goodness) But what I am about to do, at this moment, is still just as nerve racking.

Meg stands just to my left holding Harper. (Who is giving everyone she looks at the stare down) Directly to my right stands our preacher holding his Bible and a certificate with our names on it. When I notice my nerves are probably controlling my facial muscles I make a quick correction and replace with the appropriate smile. The pastor begins with introductions.

Next Pastor Chris starts the dedication process. (No don’t worry we don’t do any weird sacrifices or anything like that.) The dedication process for us is just a few short questions for Meg and I, and then Pastor Chris asks the congregation to help us and keep us accountable.

It was truly a great experience and I feel like I will strive to be a better Christian example for Harper because of our accountability with our church family. After asking the congregation to help you raise your daughter in a Godly manner it may make you view your lifestyle a little different as well. I am extremely thankful for our Pastor, church family, and our physical family that was also there for our support!

*This post was drafted 3 weeks ago… oops!*

At 6 months old Harper Kate:
Talks a lot!
Likes to “yell”
Is thisclose to crawling
Still only has two teeth, but her top two are on their way
Has figured out object permanence (so we can no longer move things out of her sight to keep her away)
Easily transitions from sitting to laying down to a crawling postition
Enjoys bouncing in her jumper
Occasionally eats solid foods

Six months is such a big milestone for us as first time parents. We’ve managed to keep our tiny human alive for half a year… a feat that seemed questionable when we left the hospital with her! It’s been so fun to learn about her personality and explore the world through her eyes. She figured out how to hold air in her cheeks and then blow out her lips… something that we don’t even think about! She loves to explore our living room and closely examines things like the rug or ottoman. She is definitely a curious girl. When we go somewhere new or see unfamiliar people, she just stares and observes her surroundings. Not the most friendly thing, but our girl needs to know where she’s at or who she’s with.

Parenthood has been both challenging and rewarding and I am so thankful for joy our sweet girl brings to our lives! The world is definitely a brighter place when it has a little Harper in it!