Sunday Dinner

Gina's parents try and have everyone over on Sunday nights for dinner. Harper has been to several of these family dinners, but we haven't really taken any pictures. Until tonight of course, as it was Grandpa Ron's birthday dinner. Luckily enough, Harper was in a great mood. Also helpful was Aunt Lesley being there to joke with Harper about the mini-van some more. Harper really gets a kick out of it.

Grandpa Ron:


Grandma Georgia:


The grand-parents, mom and Harper:


say mini-van again:


mmmmm, my fingers are awesome

The big update

So Harper just took her first vacation. I was extremely nervous about it, as we were driving to Milwaukee, some 650 miles away. Too say it went better than expected would be an understatement. We left Memphis at 10pm, hoping to capitalize on Harper normally sleeping thru the night. And at 530am, we actually had to wake her up to eat, as we were already stopped and didn't want to chance starting back up and her waking up as soon as we hit the highway again. Then she was great the entire weekend - 4 days of meeting great grandparents, aunts & uncles, second cousins, just about everyone on Gina's side of the family. Even disrupting her routine was not a big deal for her. Then we took the same approach to the drive home and made it all the way to West Memphis before Harper made a peep. I would say the first road trip was a huge success. I am still recovering from driving all 11 hours up, and 7.5 of the 9.5 hours it took to get home. A big thanks to my parents for letting us borrow the mini-van. Gina's sister Lesley went with us and was a big help with Harper in the van, and kept joking that it was Harper's future mode of transportation. Uh, NO! Couple of pictures below, and going to try and load the rest to Flickr or some other photohosting site that will be linked later.

Pre-road trip:





Milwaukee pics:
Great grampa Joe


Great Aunt Marcia


Second Cousin Kathleen


Nap time with Great Uncle Tony


Aunt Lesley and Great Gramma Millie


Great Aunt Sue


Yes, we were that tired when we got home ...


Harper's sweet smile

Happy Mother's Day

Don't worry, I didn't forget Gina's first Mother's Day, we just had a very busy weekend. On Friday night, we went to my sister's house to have my mom's birthday/mother's day dinner. Then on Saturday afternoon we went and hung out with cousin Brad, who had flown in for the weekend to spend mother's day with Aunt Marcia. And on Saturday night I ran to Lowe's and surprised Gina with sushi from Sakura for dinner. Finally Sunday, I cooked breakfast, then Gina went to Banana for 2 hours, before we went to Lesley and Jay's for an amazing brunch. While we there we got a big surprise, my best friend Shannon called because he was in Nashville for mother's day, and was willing to drive to Memphis if we would be around. So of course we said yes, because he had yet to see Harper. All in all, a pretty successful first mother's day from Gina's perspective.

Mom and all her "kids"


My beautiful girls


Uncle Shannon's first meeting

Sweet dreams

Don't miss the actual blog post and photos below. Sorry about the orientation, I couldn't figure out how to rotate it.

Developments

Sorry for the long delay in posting, because there really is no excuse. I don't want to jinx it, but Harper has found a routine, and is sleeping through the night too. We can put her down anytime between 8 and 9pm and she won't get up until about 430am. She still eats just about every 2 hours during the day. But when she isn't eating or sleeping, she really likes to "talk" to us. I think the biggest thing, that really makes us go nuts, is she will smile back now, and will mimic you if you stick your tongue out at her. Unfortunately I haven't been able to snap a picture while she is going it. Gina took some great ones though.

Pretty smile


Sleeping beauty



Harper's first Rock N Romp


In her new outfit today, looking cute

Found it ...

We were over at my sister's a couple of weeks ago and Harper found her thumb for the first time. The pictures we got weren't in focus, so never got posted. But this week, Gina managed to get some great shots of Harper. We aren't really pushing her to suck her thumb, so the fact that she can't consistently find it is good, but it is very cute.

Not quite.


Now I got it!



Can't get enough of the eyelashes.

More Easter pics

On Masters Sunday, only fitting to get lots of pictures with the azaleas outside my parents house.





With her cousins Morgan & Grace.



Aunt Allyson.

My First Easter

Lots of pics.







Check out those eyelashes!

Place your bets ...

Gina and I like to guess how much Harper will weigh before each doctor's appointment. Yesterday was Harper's 2 month check-up, and her first since she was 2 weeks old. I guessed 12lbs 9oz and Gina had 13lbs 1oz and we were both way off. Her actual weight is less than we both thought, at 11lbs 3oz, which puts her in the 75th percentile. Funny how big we thought she was compared to her actual size. We also thought she would be longer, 18.75" at birth and now just over 22". The doctor said she is looking great and right on target for everything though.
I listened to Jay and took the camera off the mantle and went outside this morning with Harper to get some pictures in her first dress. At first she wasn't too pleased, but she calmed down and gave us some great shots. More to come this week once we get her in her Easter dress tomorrow.

6 weeks

We went to the hospital this past week to see our friends Brian & Erin and their new daughter, Taylor. I do not remember Harper being so tiny at birth, and she was 8oz lighter than Taylor when we saw her, and she seemed like a feather. Since yesterday was Harper's 6 week birthday, we put her in the outfit in which we brought her home from the hospital. The change is pretty amazing, how she fills out the pants more, and how much higher her head is in the car seat. She is also now able to hold her head up pretty much on her own. I can not believe how quickly the changes are occurring. One of these days, I imagine I will come home from work and she will be crawling to meet me at the door.

Tummy time

Coming home from work, it is always fun to hear about how Gina and Harper spent the day. Today, Gina insisted that I look at the pictures on the camera. We try and have activity time after each feeding, and recently we have started on tummy time to strengthen her neck and prepare her to crawl. Well today, she was working so hard, she fell asleep. And in the process gave Gina some great photos.