THANKFUL

Harlan and Mommy would like to take a break from our daily adventures to give special thanks to the people that mean so much to us.

First and foremost we have to give a HUGE thank you to Daddy. He gets puked on, peed on, yelled at and cried to, and never complains. Daddy gets up with Harlan in the middle of the night to rock him to sleep, or stops on the way home after a long day of work to grab diapers or dinner. He puts Mommy and Harlan first and we could never do it without him. WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH DADDY!

Next we have to give a big hug thank you to our parents aka gigi and gma and gpa watts. they have stepped up and helped us with babysitting every week and deal with flip flop schedules with no complaints. they are the first ones to say "call me if you need anything" and they arent kidding, they will be right here. i am sure i havent made it the easiest either. i went through alot of anxiety at first, which i know is normal, but i felt support from all the family around and reassured everytime i called to check on the little guy that every thing was alright. it is because of them that i feel at peace when i leave the most important thing in my life with them. i know without a doubt that Harlan is getting everything he needs and all the love they can give him. most of all i want to thank them for making justin and I feel respected as parents. i didnt get it at first, and sometimes felt a little not good enough for the job, but i know you guys believe in us as parents and keep that with you when you have harlan with you. i thank you for that soo much more than even i knew. but most of all i thank you for loving Harlan as much as you do, for being positive people in his life, and for loving justin and I the way you do.

we also have to thank Harlan's aunt and uncles (travis, ana, lisabeth, laryn, and libby) who all love Harlan absolutely more than anything! harlan has some exceptional people to look up to in his life and you all are on top of that list. I love all you so much!

we also need a thank you in here for B.C. as well. he is my cousin and he is Harlan's weekly Wednesday sitter. they spend a good 11+ hours together and from what i understand, have a ton of fun all day long. B.C., I wouldn't trade the time Harlan spends with you for anything. you are another exceptional role model and i can tell he adores you.

there are tons more people that impact are lives in positive ways and i hope everyone knows how much we appreciate and feel blessed by our friends and family!!!

About a week....

since our last update. How could that be?? I guess the outside world has been very entertaining for us since. Harlan spent a wonderful day with BC last Wed like always. Then he spent Thurs night with Gigi, home with Daddy Fri afternoon, baby shower luncheon with Mommy's work friends on saturday, libby spending saturday night with us and gma judy here to babysit yesterday while Mommy put in some extra hours. Harlan has been taking it all in stride with his great go-with-the-flow attitude. Some highlights from the week:

*Harlan is babbling like crazy. he says ba-ba-ba-ba-ba alot. all the time. and guess what?? he is even saying Mama!!!! at first i thought it was just him crying it. like a noise that just comes out when he is crying, but no he is definitely babbling it. it sounds awesome. no dada yet, but it cant be too far off.

*haraln is pulling himself up on his knees mostly. i was in the bedroom folding laundry yesterday and i look over and he is peering at me over the side of the crib. wasnt expecting that yet.

*no crawling, but he gets himself up on all fours and rocks, then face plants it. i have been trying to show him that he doesnt need to use his face but he doesnt get it. he can also get in like the tripod position with his head on the floor and will walk up to his tippy toes and kinda be standing on his head. i know it is hard to picture, i will try to get a picture of it soon, bc it is pretty acrobatic if you ask me.

*teeth: no idea there. he still has some signs of teething but your guess is as good as mine. good thing i am not a meterologist bc i obviously have no knack for predicting things. oh wait - maybe i would make a good weather lady then :)

*eating - this is still a slow process. harlan is sampling alot of new things but not really eating any solids on a regular basis. which i think is no big deal. we have moved on to stage 2 foods with pasta and i am considering trying meats but it will probably be a few more weeks. harlan isnt a big fan of new textures and so it takes awhile to introduce new things to him. he does LOVE puffs now and yogurt melts. he also tried a lemon the other day. he held it up to his own mouth and sucked on it. he didnt act like he hated it.
the story behind this picture: i was feeding harlan some sweet potatoes and corn when he got ahold of the container and spilled it all over the tray. he then proceeded to smack his hands in it as hard as he could and it splattered all over Mommy. he was so happy playing in the food. good job little buddy


up at the side of his crib, on his knees


"Mommy something is wrong with this toy!"


Harlan has recently become way more interested in his toys as you can see here. he can usually play content with his toys for 15 mins or so by himself.

Family Pictures

We ventured out in the cold today to get some family pictures made and also some professional pics done of Harlan. Harlan slept in til 11 am (he went to bed late) and napped and ate prior to the appt. And was in a great mood to top it off. Until he got in front of the camera. He was a grump. I don't think he liked the lady taking the pics, I didn't. She just seemed BORED with her job. and I felt rushed thru the entire thing. like she took 3 shots of the family. just 3 and he was crying in 2 of them. luckily we ended up with some great shots, and i got a great framed picture collage thingy of harlan. the pictures will be online in a week or so, so i can share them all with you. they are adorable, i mean it is harlan after all! and he was happy go lucky the rest of the day of course. i am sure this is not the last time he wont cooperate with something haha.

yesterday, mommy, daddy and harlan took all of the laundry to the laundromat to get it all caught up. that is an incentive to keep up on laundry, just to stay outta there. not that there is anything wrong with laundromats. it just isnt very entertaining to a 7 month old that wants to be mobile but isnt. he was very frusturated with staying in one place, and i didnt think letting him crawl on the floor there was a very responsible decision as a parent. thankfully i had our new best friends, puffers = gerber puffs, with us and that kept he somewhat occupied. he now LOVES them and will open his mouth to let you pop them in for him. he did make the cutest little laundry helper

Here he is helping daddy play the touch screen video game

Later he decided to try to fit through his jungle toy. ithink he was going after the yellow ball that got away. I am telling you this kid is gonna figure this crawling thing out soon!

We took Daddy dinner.....

and since the outlet mall happens to be close by, we ran by there and did some shopping. Harlan got a couple new videos at KB toys since they are going out of business and were ridicuously cheap. Currently he is watching Rolie POlie Olie and seems to like it. Doesn't do much for me haha...but keeps him entertained for a minute or two.

Lately Harlan has started sitting in his bumbo at the sink while I do dishes. He like to be right up in the action and attempts to help out.

If you are wondering what is stuck to his cheek, it is a yogurt melt. How it got there, i couldn't tell ya. Apparently slober plus melt = sticky!

Hey mom, I got this covered! Let me at 'em!

Harlan will wave his magic wand and all the dishes will wash themselves!!! I WISH!

Harlan at the outlet mall! He sure is snuggled up warm and cozy!

He looks thrilled, doesn't he??

We are in Mourning.....

over the loss of our Colt's football season! We could go on about maybe a little biased refs or that fact that we couldn't catch a ball, but we will just say goodbye and patiently wait til next fall so we can watch all over again.
We did get a ton of great pictures during the game!!!

For everybody that read about yesterday's rough start to the day, you will be relieved to know that it did in fact turn around. Here is Harlan playing nicely in his crib so mommy could fold some laundry

this is a picture from harlan's pre game party! he had a blast with his truck tia ana and tio travis gave him. he did figure how to propel himself forward while mommy was snapping pics and the forward motion threw him off balance which must of made him hold on for dear life, bc he went over and the truck went with him. no loss of life or limb though and he was back on it all smiles!


Harlan's fine motor skills are coming right along. he can pick up just about anything, esp the balls that go to his jungle toy

which is better? purple....

or red????

not orange....i will share you with the hippo!

this is so much fun......don't you wish you were at my pre game party??

yay for touchdowns!!!!

Harlan loves to stand up and withlots of help he can do it!

hang on little buddy

hey daddy i am gonna use youe beard to stand uo ok?

ok your shirt then

i made it!!!

proud daddy and harlan!

by the beginning of the fourth harlan was hungry and off to bed, dreaming of next season

Getting up on the wrong side of the bed

This morning shortly before Daddy's alarm clock was scheduled to go off at approx. 5 am this morning, we were awaken by a pitiful cry coming from the other side of the room. Somebody was awake and not happy. I groggily got up and headed over that way, tripping over Riley who had come in to see what the fuss was, and picked bubby up to give him some hugs and cuddles. He was burning up. His head, his back, his feet, every part of him was really warm. So Daddy and I hunted for the thermometer for a few mins and then attempted to take a squirmy, ticked off, obviously not feeling well, kid's temp. (which was 101) So he ended up with nothing on but a diaper, tylenol on board, in mommys lap chugging a big bottle of formula. I had no idea he was sick, he has no runny nose, no stuffiness, no cough, and has been a pretty happy little man the past couple of days. With a full belly Harlan snuggled back in bed with Mommy and we caught a couple more hours of snooze time. When we got up, the fever was gone, and Harlan was happy go lucky again. He even took some time to eat a couple puffs, and let Riley steal the rest


He still continues to be symptom free, so the fever is one big mystery. We continued on with our day, playing and laughing. Mommy let Harlan have some floor time where he happily played with the go baby ball rolling thing, and his little people cars and people when he just lost it. He went from happy baby to screaming his head off. At first I thought maybe he had bumped his head of hurt himself in a minor way on something, so I scooped him up, snuggled him and sat down on the couch with him, where he proceeded to have a COMPLETE BREAKDOWN. Seriously you would have thought that I had cut off fingers. I started thinking in my head, what happened, did I accidentally bend his arm when i sat down, did i squish him, did i scratch him with a ring and not know it? did his fever come back? no he doesnt feel the slight bit warm? It had to be something, this kid was screaming like i had never heard him scream before. I stood up and started bouncing him a little and talking to him and he calmed down, quit crying, and laid his head on my shoulder. I thought ok, this is better, he is tired. So i go over to our chair that rocks and sit down to rock him to sleep. But it starts all over again. the most dreadful screams ever. ok, so now i am figuring it out, you want me to stand up and rock you. you little stinker, did you have to scare mommy and make her think she had accidentally caused harm to you to get what you wanted??? so there i am with a pretty almost zonked kid on my shoulder, swaying back and forth, standing of course, when I happen to notice a flash a brown go across our window outside. CRAP!!!! Is that really our Riley, that I let outside to go potty probably over an hour ago???? You have got to be kidding me, i bet she has had a ton of fun out there, but she probably needs to come back in. but how do i get her back in and not wake this angel sleeping in my arms. I grab a blanket and cover him up, go to the back door, open it and look out. where's the dog?? out causing trouble no doubt. so i am gonna to have to holler for her, no problem, the blanket is over harlan, it will be ok. no sooner do i yell "Riley come in" then i hear screaming from under the blanket. Great idea Mommy. Maybe of you had remembered to let the dog back in in the first place, you wouldnt be standing at the back door freezing with a screaming kid and a missing dog. Well it just so happens that Riley picks today, of all days to listen, and comes right in at that moment! Yes score #1 and thank you girl. Now just back to get Harlan back to sleep. Well, I did it, I resorted to the one thing that I knew would put him to sleep. Even though he had eaten an hour earlier, I made him a bottle, sat down, gave it to him, and 2 oz later had a peacefully sleeping baby.


Who cares if he is asleep on the couch, wrapped in blanket, using the towel from daddys shower today as a pillow? Who cares that our footstools that are the same height as the couch are pushed up against it as a barrier to Harlan rolling off the couch? Who care if Mommy can't leave the room, bc there still may be a chance that he would wake up and roll off the couch, even with a fort protecting him? Harlan is sleeping and not crying. I have a feeling he will wake up my happy smiling baby and we will enjoy the rest of the day. Daddy will be some soon, and we will all get to watch the colts in the wild card playoff game tonight. Sometimes we all wake up on the wrong side of the crib!!!!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!

Harlan would like to wish everyone a happy new year. We are all worn out from a busy week but will be back in excellent blogging form over the weekend!!!!!!


Last night we said goodbye to 2008, the year that brought us this beautiful miracle!!