New Year's Card

Life has gotten away from me. I completed our New Year's card on New Year's Eve, as we watched the ball drop. It may be arriving to mailboxes a little late, but at least it's done.



Yep, that's three posts for the day. If you know me, you know I'm kind of a numbers nerd and I couldn't pass up a blog post (or three) on 1.11.11!

Kissing Skills

We've been up to serious business here in the Allen home. After months of extremely open mouth kisses, Harper is making awesome progress on her kissing skills.

(Panda, am I crazy or does she look like Jack in this picture?!)

Luckily, she is still holding on to her apprehension of men - which although we're not encouraging, we're not exactly discouraging. especially considering this new... skill.

Rewind: Thanksgiving 2010

A few days before Thanksgiving, Harper came down with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. We had originally planned to travel with my family to my hometown to watch the High School football game and eat with friends. Not wanting to spread H's germs, the three of us stayed back in New Jersey and had our own dinner, while my family traveled.

We woke up late and were pleasantly surprised by a little snow storm. Harper had so much fun playing in the snow and trying to catch some on her tongue...

...until she realized that she was cold.

In the days following, we woke up at unreal hours to get some great deals on Black Friday, explored my parents historic (and adorable!) new town, and laughed at lots of viral videos with my family.


We completed the weekend by celebrating three birthdays, including Harper's first (where she was completely spoiled)! It took her some time to figure out what presents were all about, but was a pro in no time.


When cake time arrived, Harper performed flawlessly. She surprised all of us when she blew out her candle on her own. I'm sure she's been practicing for months.

Happy Halloween

It has been years since we really dressed up for Halloween. As usual, Harper has made the festivities so much more fun.


Last night, we transformed our storage room/basement into our "spooky" basement, complete with haunted house, spider webs, witches, bats and ghosts. This evening we had a little pre-Halloween bash with a few of our friends - many of whom have kids close to Harper's age.

The costumes were awesome!


My lovely friend, Krysta, made ALL of the delicious food. It was so cute, creative and delicious.


Earlier this week, my dad was able to come spend the evening with us. That night, our church was having the annual Halloween party. We had a great time!

eight months

On July 30th, Harper turned eight months old. At the time, we took a few notes, but have not had a chance to give a full update. So, without further adieu...

This month Harper had several firsts: her first plane ride, first camping trip, first family reunion, introductions to her great grandparents and the first time playing with her cousins, among several others.

Eating - Harper mastered eating real food this month. She enjoyed a meal of Gramma Jan's spaghetti and meat sauce while we were in Montana. The noodles disappeared into her little body (and to the seat of her high chair) nearly before we had a chance to take a bite of our own food. It was as if she had been introduced to a whole new world - and hasn't looked back. Ever since that trip, Harper protests the idea of eating pureed baby food. The only way we have been able to get her to eat it is by offering her some real food, wait for her to open her mouth, and then slip in a spoonful of peas, squash or some other nearly unrecognizable food. Before too long she had figured us out and would spit out the baby food as soon as she recognized it.

In other eating-related progress, Harper is doing really well at drinking out of a cup. She doesn't care much for her sippy cup, but loves drinking out of water bottles, glasses, or whatever else we are drinking from. This month, Harper also discovered the joy of snacks. It is amazing how many baby snacks there are. During a mountain trip in Montana, Harper even learned to share her baby "cheetos" with her Aunt Arielle.

Mobility - Harper has gone from an army-crawler to a bona-fide crawler. She really mastered the art while chasing her cousins around her Gramma & Grampa Allen's house. This month she also started pulling herself up on couches, coffee tables, legs of chairs and in her crib. As expected, this development has not been without its bumps and bruises.

Teeth - Harper got her second tooth this month, which was a much easier process than the last tooth. In fact, we didn't notice or suspect it was happening until it had already broken through.

Dexterity - Along with being able to pick up small foods, Harper has started to examine objects by turning them over and over in her hands - it's adorable.

Other items and pictures of note:
Harper started laughing a lot this month. However, the laughs sounded more like clearing her throat. She would "laugh" nearly all the time and would have laughing conversations with anyone that would humor her.

Playing in the mirror:

Enjoying occasional visits from Grandpa Manning while he's in town for business:

Riding on shoulders/tearing my hair out:

Hair update:

300 days ago

Three hundred days ago today, I became a mother.

I am way behind on my record keeping... but wanted to post a sampling of the pictures we took over the last few months. We've had a great summer and had tons of fun to write about. It just might take me a while to get it all down.

help

I learned a few days ago that one of my colleagues has a very sick little girl. Her illness came on very suddenly and, although she has been seen by some of the nation's best doctors, she is presenting a complicated set of symptoms that are making it difficult to provide a diagnoses or a plan to help her.

To make the situation more complicated, my colleague's wife is currently battling breast cancer. She had been keeping a blog to document and update friends and family of her status. That blog is now also being used to offer information about their daughter, Leighton.

http://kickincancer.wordpress.com/

I am feeling a quite helpless this morning, as Leighton seems to have been going through a significantly rough time over the last couple of days. There isn't much I can do, so I thought I would reach out to anyone that reads our little blog, to keep this sweet family in your thoughts and prayers. They really need it.