Santa Claus

Our little family ventured out to the way crazy mall today, flu bug and all, to see Santa. We thought it might make us all feel a little better to get out and about. Mommy realized when the car seat base had to be put back in her car today that Harlan had not left the house in a week, and could use some fresh air.

Our first stop was the Olive Garden for some good ole soup, salad and breadsitcks, yum yum!!! We tried Harlan in a high-chair today and was really impressed with how well he did. We sat him in between us and took turns picking toys up off the floor while we ate. But it was alot better than passing him back and forth during our meal. Check out how well he did in the high-chair



Next it was off to the mall to see Santa. I was really excited to see how Harlan would react. I guessed fairly good because he is not yet to that phase where he recognizes people as strangers. Also he is used to a big guy with a beard! We got up to the front of the line, put Harlan on Santa's lap, and stood back so the picture could be taken. They has this big noisy rattle thing to get the kids to look at the camera, and Harlan ate it up. He thought it was great! Harlan and Santa were best buds. The following are pictures of pictures that Daddy took for us, so we could share them with all of you!



Don't you love the Santa outfit that I just happened to let him wear today (haha it was all planned)

Check out our elf video below......it was way too funny not to share!!!!!!!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Harlan said Mama...kinda

It was while he was crying this morning, but it was a definite "Mama", and it came out several times. I don't think he intended to say it, i think he was crying and moved his mouth and it came out, BUT maybe he will say it on his own soon. It was music to my ears to hear. Can't wait to hear it again!!!

"I will destroy you, Big Blue Meanie!!"

SO PROUD

I caught my child licking the snot off his top lip and smiling like it tasted good......i hope he got that from his daddy.

*~ OUR THANKSGIVING ~*

Harlan's first Thanksgiving didn't quite go as planned. Mommy came home to a sick baby boy after work last night. Daddy had done a phenomenal job of taking care of the sick little guy, giving him tylenol and rocking him. When Mommy got home Harlan's temp was 102.3 and he was burning up and miserable! This fever sure made for a long miserable night. Poor guy. He would sleep for about 30 mins or so then wake up crying that pitiful i dont feel well cry, and it would take another 30 mins to get him back to sleep. This happened all night long. We were alternating tylenol and motrin during this time to help treat the fever. By morning his fever was down to 101, but neither one of us had gotten much sleep. Poor Daddy had to sleep in another roon so he could actually function at work today.

Our original plan was to go to Gigi's for Thanksgiving, but Mommy didnt think she was up to an almost 2 hour drive after a night of little sleep. Mommy is also feeling under the weather, so it seemed like the best plan was to stay home and be sick buddies for the day. So that is what we have done. Harlan and Mommy stayed in our jammies and took it easy for Thanksgiving. This evening Harlan seems to be feeling alot better and is only sporting a low grade fever. He has been playing some and smiling some which is an improvement from this morning. He actually rolled from his belly to back this evening, the first time that Mommy has seen him do it!!!! I dont think we are too far off from crawling. He is still suffering from a good amount of congestion and has quite a runny nose. He hates to have his nose wiped with a tissue and if he sees any part of the BIG BLUE MEANIE (the nasal aspirator) he starts crying. I have had to launch ambush attacks on him, poor kid.

Having a sick kid SUCKS. I have seen a good amount of sick kiddos in the ER so far and it is much worse seeing it on the Mommy end than it is on the nurse end. It's hard knowing your little one doesnt feel good and there isnt much you can do, except hold them and rock them. As I type this, Harlan is sitting in Mommy's lap, talking to the overhead light fixture. I think he is gonna make it!

I was able to get a few pics today despite the snot and sniffles:
This was the sick little guy napping in his swing this afternoon. I think he was trying to roll to his belly in his sleep, but there just isnt room in the darn swing.

This picture actually shows alot. One that he is feeling better, and two that he is becoming mobile. He actually started out laying on his back under the play gym and rolled over several times and pushed himself around on his belly to end up here. Mommy watched and it was cool to see him get himself to another spot. No crawling yet, but he is gonna figure it out soon, i just know it.

"I may not feel good but I will still give you a smile"

Happy 6 months Harlan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Harlan is 6 months old today!!!

Where has the time gone?????

LOOK HOW BIG I AM!!!!!!!!!!!!



I am still baffled how he breathes like this, but he does.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Harlan had his first official Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday. We had it at our house and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It was so nice being around family for the day. Here are a few picstures from that day:
Harlan in his "My first Thanksgiving bib"

The little turkey had too much turkey!

"Am I related to all these people??"

Sitting with Daddy during a fun game of werewolf. "your the werewolf"

A rare Thursday post!

I know you are all waiting for an update on the sleeping situation. Harlan slept on his belly all night last night and mommy didnt touch him. I even put him to bed on his belly to save him the trouble of flipping. I am sure in another week this wont even matter anymore. I cant wait to get to that point!

Harlan before we left to meet Grandma Judy this morning. I dont think he is a fan of warm fussiness that is his coat. I got a dity look in the mirror during the whole trip. Well at least he was warm!

The Sleep Report

Mommy needs therapy. No seriously. Some good couch, therapist, dr. phil-type therapy. Don't believe me??? (ok well i am sure you knew this anyway) but i have proof. look at what i am doing to myself and my family. take a look at these pics:



Now if you taking care of the little bugger and found him asleep like this in his crib, would you be ok with it??? Would you be concerned he couldn't breathe?? Probably not. It is quite obvious from the pics that he is in no way in any danger of suffocating. Right. I couldn't stand it. It made me keep obsessively checking on him until I had to flip him over. Seriously if I didn't I wasn't going to be able to sleep. So that is what I did, I flipped him over. and that led to this:


One very sleepy baby on Daddy. And one very annoyed Daddy that Mommy was flashing a camera at them, while he was trying to rock the baby to sleep (but c'mon it was a great father/son photo op)

Well he finally did fall asleep. and was laid back down in his crib. and flipped to his belly. again. come on harlan, seriously can't you just do mommy this one favor and sleep on your back. oh no. i know in my last post i seemed so happy that he wasn't waking up anymore when he flipped over, but now i am not so sure that is a good thing. my solution???? Harlan slept in our bed again! I am beginning to think that he plays on what makes mommy axious because he likes to sleep in our bed. Tonight I really need to let him be, and get over it. but it isnt easy. I think these days, we are bombarded with information from the day we get pregnant, about the "right" way to do things that it is hard to make your mind think a different way. Back to sleep, is all we heard in our classes and at the hospital, everywhere. Now if i let him sleep on his belly and he suffocates, i failed to protect him, bc i got all the pamphlets at the hospital that told me what to do. I know that every night it will get easier, esp as we all get more sleep with harlan in his own bed, but this is our current struggle.

Luckily, Harlan ended up with one sane parent and they posed for a pic together.


Mommy is also really loosening up on what Harlan can have to eat. He still needs his formula and baby food but a little taste here and there shouldn't hurt. (although i am going to try to keep him away from the highly allergenic foods like peanut butter and chocolate until he is 1 year like the pedi suggests.)
Here is Harlan sampling an Olive Garden breadstick. ummm yummy

He also helped today with the shopping list


We also bought Harlan his first sippy cup today. I don't really expect him to drink much out of it, but I want him to be able to play with it and practice holding it. He can get something out of it if we hold it up for him. We are only putting water in it, so it wont hurt if it leaks or spills or anything. Here he is trying it out


I must now go make my therapy appointment :)

HE DID IT!!!

He slept on his tummy!!! Now i know this is confusing, because i have made him sleep on his back since the day he was born. I am very nervous about him sleeping on his belly, even now. But the kid was driving me crazy and i now i am so thankful he is able to sleep this way. Remember how I said he was rolling to his side, then belly, whoch was waking him up. well this just got worse over the weekend til he would wind up in bed with us. well last night after we laid him in bed, his little eyes popped open and he went straight to his belly. we decided to watch him and see what would happen.first of all he spent a good 10 mins scratching his fingers on the mattress. the sheet made a scratchy noise when he grabbed at it, and that kept his attention for awhile. then he turned his head the other way and conked it on the side if the crib. it made us laugh ( another example of fine parenting), and we tried to laugh quiet as not to disturb him. finally daddy turned in his little crib waterfall toy and he cooed at it until he feel asleep. a little while later, i woke to find him snoozing on his tummy. he must've rolled to his tunny and just went to sleep, instead of waking up and crying!! i flipped him back over (just cause tummy sleeping still makes me nevous) and went back to sleep. I must have been more anxious than i thought about it bc i must have woken up and put him back on his back 5 times before morning even though he was sleeping fine on his belly. i think tonight i might just leave him there and try to get some good sleep too.

"I am gonna get outta this, i know i can!"

"I am just adorable"

"Mommy, lets get a picture of me and you"

just chillin

Harlan's new snack

Public Srvice Annoucement

IT IS A BAD IDEA TO TEXT AND DRIVE!!!

IT IS EVEN WORSE TO TEXT WITH YOUR MOUTH AND DRIVE!!!!


LET THIS BE A LESSON TO ALL!!!

the misadventures of Harlan

Bathtime didnt go as planned last night. Daddy had stood harlan up in the tub to wash the "expensive bits" as he calls them and had just said "look mommy at how good harlan is at holding on to the duckies head" when ......i am sure you know what is coming next............he took a head first dive into the side of the bathtub. I am sure it sounded alot louder than it really was, but he definitely gave it a good whack. now harlan didn't cry at first. There was a good 10 sec pause there when he kinda looked around and then he just opened up and let out the most pitiful sounding wail you have ever heard. so i grab a towel and daddy whisks him out of the tub. after some cuddles from mommy and daddy and laughing at the "babby in the mirror" he seemed to have forgotten about the whole incident. He still needed his hair washed due to an earlier peeing fiasco, so we put him back in the tub to finish the job. well guess what happened when we returned him to the scene of the crime. oh yeah total waterworks again. oh and to make it better, mommy accidently poured the water in his face when I was trying to rinse his hair. yeah this bath was very quickly going downhill. so back outta the tub, back in a towel and more cuddles from Mommy and Daddy. of course after lotion, jammies, and bottle, our little one was back to his normal self. and even slept through the night. i guess that was his way of saying I forgive you mommy and daddy.

"Haha, that would be a funny story, if my head wasn't aching"

"can you believe these two?? and i'm from the same gene pool!"

"Since you guys can't get it under control for my bath, I will take care of the lotion!"

Baby, It's Cold Outside!!!

But that doesn't stop us from having fun inside the house. We were pretty lazy yesterday, preferring to spend the majority of the day in our pajamas and watching movies. Harlan watched "Made of Honor" with Mommy, and laughed at Mommy when she laughed at the movie. Later Mommy turned on Spongebob just so Harlan wouldn't get chick-flicked out. We also watched the Colts game with Daddy when he came home from work.

TOOTHWATCH 2008: We think we may have spotted a tooth on the horizon. We aren't completly sure what we are looking at, but there is a definite white bump on Harlan's upper gum. Like where the left one of his 2 front teeth would be. It is small, and daddy says he thinks it kind looks like a blister, but it is very white so it could be the edge of a tooth too. His gums look fine though, so I can't say for sure. I think he is getting a little annoyed with Mommy trying to look at his gums all the time. I guess I will know when he has teeth when he bites me when I stick my hand in there, right?? Don't worry, I will play the part of the papparazzi very well though, and let you know the asking price for a picture of the first tooth, when it arrives.

Harlan has become quite a good helper with laundry. What you dont believe me??? I have proof, check out these pictures!!

"Hey what's this stuff?? I wonder how it tastes??" (Dont worry I didn't let him suck on the fabric softener bottle for too long ;))

Harlan - the clothes go in the basket, not you!!!

Harlan watching Spongebob. Well kinda, he has the attention span an a 5 month old, so he only watches for a minute or two then moves on to something else.

Harlan giving his buddy a ride. I am not so sure you wanna use Harlan's taxi service if you have to ride hanging out the window!!

"Hey Daddy, I got this one, you can let go"

"Ok Daddy, we will do it your way."

Teething or rolling???

Baby Harlan is experiencing some rough nights lately. He is ending up in bed with Mommy and Daddy more and more these days. Here are my theories:

1) He is teething and maybe his mouth is starting to bother him more, esp at night. His gums still look fine, but he really likes Mommy to rub his gums. OR

2)Now that he is rolling over, he starts to roll in his sleep and it wakes him up. Last night Mommy and Daddy found him on his belly awake after he had been deep asleep. We have found him sleeping on his side too. He sometimes naps on his belly but i think if he ends up that way in his sleep, it wakes him up and he doesnt like it.

or Daddy's favorite : maybe it is a growth spurt. ( He says all mommies blame everything on growth spurts haha)

Even though I dont sleep very comfy with Harlan in bed, it it so nice to have the warm little bunch of love snuggled up to me at night.

Daddy and Harlan before leaving to meet Gma Judy today. Mommy got to go back to bed for an hour!!

Rolling from back to belly

Busy week

Yes our family has had a busy week. Here is a summary of Harlan's first Halloween weekend.

Friday~ Happy Halloween. Harlan went trick or treating with Gigi and Libby. Harlan went as a puppy (see pics below). Reports are that he was the cutest little trick or treater out that night!

Saturday~ Mommy, Daddy and Harlan headed down to the Watt's camp for a Halloween party. Lots of family were present and Harlan had smiles and giggles for everyone. Harlan met Aunt Ana's father and niece from Brazil and he really liked them. Ana had him giggling and laughing a bunch, you know that really funny belly laugh. Of course Mommy forgot her camera, so no pics from the fun. Rumor has it that Harlan might be going on his first Rhino ride sometime soon. (Not the animal, the ATV!) It has seatbelts so grandpa can strap his carseat in and go. I predict he will love looking around, esp up at the tress as they go by, or he will fall asleep from the sounds of the motor. Harlan also really liked the big campfire. The orange glow had him mesmerized.

Sunday - we had a lazy day, headed home, and didnt do much of anything else. Mommy and Harlan even fell asleep before the we could see the Colts beat the Patriots.

Some new exciting things going on in Harlan's World ~

*Harlan in now rolling from his back to his belly all by himself, without mommy cheating and helping. He did it first at Gigi's house last week and has been a rolling fool since then. This morning I found him in his crib trying to roll but his feet were caught in the bars on the side of his crib. Did I mention I still really need to get those bumpers on that crib*

*Daylight savings time means nothing to Harlan. He is going to bed an hour earlier but he is also getting up an hour earlier. Darn you daylight savings time! My idea of welcoming winter is not getting up between 7 and 8 am to feed my chuncky little baby. The good news is Harlan does lay back down in bed with Mommy after his bottle and sleeps another couple of hours. Mommy is not an early riser (that's what working nights will do to you)*

*Teething. I believe Harlan is somewhere in the teething process, but luckily he is not in the uncomfortable stage of teething. He gnaws on his hands and anything else he can and he drools like crazy. His cheeks are often really rosy too. This morning he did wake up crying and was very difficult to soothe. After trying everything Mommy started rubbing Harlan's gums. I was trying to feel if anything felt like a tooth. Nothing did, and his gums did not look swollen or red. Daddy brought in some oragel and life was good once again. So we may see a tooth soon or we may not. We will be watching. Let's call it TOOTHWATCH 2008. Dont you need something else to watch now that the election will soon be over?????*

*This morning Harlan went with Mommy to get some bloodwork done. Three different people who were ooohh and ahhing over him asked me "how old?" When I told them he was 5 months I got the same response from all three. "Wow isnt he big for 5 months?" Well, no actually he is in the 50th percentile for height and weight. The funny thing is, just 3 months ago, all i heard was how little he was for 2 months old. haha that just shows you, everyone has an opinion, but you dont have to listen to them all*

Well that is a quick update. I have posted some pics below for your viweing pleasure!

Pictures

Harlan's halloween costume: a puppy (could be a bunny 'cept for the tail)


Harlan napping in our bed after a long, fun weekend.

Is Harlan teething?? You be the judge! Here he is gnawing on his teething toy (which he prefers room temp)

Check out the amount of drool on his shirt!! He is a drooling machine!

"I love drooling all over Daddy!"

Harlan's new favorite thing to put in his mouth ~ his hands. And there are lots of sound effects that come with this trick.

"Daddy this cucumber is delish!"

Check out Harlan's new ride. It is his new walker and so far he has only figured out reverse, but he sure LOVED scooting around in it.

"Daddy pimped my ride!"

This is Harlan's other new toy to improve arm strength. He needs this so he will stop trying to scoot across the floor using his face! He can turn himself all the way around using his arms.