life in type

on being one

the only thing i can think of is....i can't believe we survived. im alive, emersons alive and thomas is alive. the memory of the panic i felt when people would say, "oh it will get better, just get through that first year" is still palpable for me. i kept thinking there was no way i would make it. time goes by during all those moments and somehow we come out the other side just fine. nothing in the world can bring you to the brink of tears AND the edge of a cliff in the same day except parenting! it is the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. one minute your heart is fine and where it should be, the next it's in your stomach, and then in your throat and sometimes dashed on the floor. ultimately, it's just no longer yours anymore and floats along with your energetic, haphazard little one. 

being a one year old. 

i am bigger than average. especially my feet but mostly my head thats the size of a large 3 year olds.

i have a lot of crazy faces - am chatty like mom and goofly like dad. 

i eat like a champ - zucchini is my favorite. 

i am super ticklish....anywhere....anytime. 

i like to go outside - to show this i drag both shoes to the door and pout until im found. 

i love yoga and my downward dog is better than moms. 

the mobile mom made me is in shambles because i can now reach it. i play in my crib all the time.

if anyone needs to know how to take up an entire king sized bed when your 2.5 ft tall, i can show you.

my favorite show is pocoyo. but i only get to watch it once in a while. or a lot when im sick. 

i love the things im not supposed to get into the most. like cords, plugs, lamps, leaves and dirt. 

i can walk. i always go where ever mom is not, those are the best places...someone should tell her

im a budding chef like mom, but i think my kitchen is cleaner than hers. 

mom thinks im the cutest thing ever! and i would have to agree. 

 

love,

t & k

6 months

we made it! emerson is now 6 months old and we are all still alive! he has been sick a lot this winter and just finished getting over rsv and is doing much better. he's tried a few foods and seems to like squash the best. he has two little teeth proudly standing their ground. his blue eyes have started to get a little brown but don't seem to want to fully commit to one color or another. his hair is still out of control! doesn't want to do anything but spray across his head in 4 directions. he is a wobbly sitter. likes to laugh when you blow on his feet and belly. l-o-v-e-s his jumpy swing! loves getting his picture taken (which you can see below) and has gotten a little spoiled from us holding him a lot while he was sick. thomas is taking his online classes to prepare for his program this fall. he can't wait to start! i'm still working with melanie a couple hours a week editing which is a great outlet for me. other than that we do a lot of laundry, dancing, listening to the disney station on pandora, taking trips to costco just because, cooking, clothe changing :/ and singing.   we're done being sick and ready for the warm weather to kiss us hello!

20 minute photo shoot with mom :) ...little ham....

teeth!

loves to play with his toes

 

love,  t & k

 

parents

it's an odd feeling to be a parent. first of all, i still don't feel like a parent and the word 'mom' still doesn't seem to now be something i can call myself. secondly, i now understand why parents only seem to talk about their kids. it's not because the don't have the wherewithal, interest or intellect to talk about anything else. it's because all of this stuff is utterly new, mostly confusing, exausting and a lot of the time a mystery. you find yourself talking about it all the time because doing so answers questions, or atleast makes you feel more comfortable about the things you can't answer. it also happens to take up most of your time. most conversations are centered around your ongoings and a parents ongoings happen to be 90% kids. 

with that said, we've had a lot of fun these past 3 months. the first 6 weeks were the hardest but things slowely got better. i got more sleep and selfishly i say...more time for myself. both make me enjoy being a mom much more. our little man gave us intentional smiles for the first time at about 8 weeks and hasn't stopped since. he now is vocal via squealing and cooing. we're also pretty sure that he's teething because of the constant and sudden drooling that started at about week 11. apparently that isn't uncommon on the harper side of the family. cloth diapering is going well - a little more wash but it's saving us quite a bit of money which is nice. he LOVES the bath, holy cow. i've heard many parents call the tv a babysitter, but that's what we call his bath time. you can lay him down on his back and sit there next to him and read or listen to music and he will kick and play for quite a long time. so much so that i have to redo the water because it gets cold. fun to watch him play. 

anyway, enough rambling, here are the photos...

getting out of the bath.....he absolutely hates :)

his favorite place to fall alseep

visit with great grandma and grandpa a

visit with great, great granny green - that's right, 2 greats. 5 generations

visit with great grandpa garner - kepaw

visit with great granpa puma

 

this man did a lot of traveling in his first few weeks of life. 

more to come later

 

t & k

 

the past 2 weeks

try as we might, it has been hard to keep everyone we love informed of our ongoings during this particularly exciting time in our lives. hopefully this post will let everyone know the story and the excitement that was had. we went to the hospital late wednesday night to start a slow and gradual induction. one i was supposed to be able to sleep through so i didn't worry much about napping that day to get rest (don't know if i could have if i tried). we were really hoping not to have to induce but my doctor thought 9 days late was teetering on the worrisome side of things. the on call doctor decided to start me on low level of pitocin, thinking i'd still be able to sleep for a few hours. turns out, im super sensitive to it, and within 2 hours my contractions were on top of each other. awesome right!? haha. thomas was helping me get through them but with no food and no sleep, my body was slowly fading, as was my blood pressure. our only hesitation with getting an epidural was the limitation of movement and the extended pushing phase. however, i was already hooked to a million machines i couldn't get away from and i had made no progress since getting there. we decided to get it b/c i don't think i could have endured rolling contractions for 15 hours :) p.s. i hate pitocin! after 6 hrs, i still hadn't made much progress and our little guy starting burrowing himself into my rib cage. at first it was uncomfortable but after a few hours, it was excruciating. it took thomas and myself to push back on his little bum to get some relief. things kind of happened fast after that. an hour of the crazy contractions and rib pain and i was a 9 and feeling the urge to push. we were excited b/c they were thinking we would have to have a c-section up until this point b/c i was not progressing. this is when we realized he wasn't moving down at all and it would take me a few hours to push him out. and his heart rate spiked and my blood pressure dropped. end result, c-section. although things didn't go to plan, our little man only had a few respiratory complications but was soon brought to us in recovery and after 20 hours of labor we got to hold him. it was a strange thing to hear him cry and see his face. i kept thinking...he's real and he's here and he's ours and we get to take him home! haha. mostly we were excited for everyone to meet him and to have him apart of our family. we can't wait to show him all the things and people we love. we're getting the hang of feeding him and getting into a flow that allows us both to sleep and enjoy him without getting frustrated. recovering from the surgery has made me rather dependent on thomas and my family and friends who have all been so great. i don't know how women do this alone! thomas has been invaluable with everything baby. even feedings! our little guy is unusually strong for a new born (as in he can roll over, hold his head up and has a mean right hook for a 2 week old) which makes feedings hard and thomas has been there to tame the guns on our little guy so i can get him to latch on. of all the hurdles we though we'd encounter when breast feeding, a punching newborn was not one of them ;) it's pretty funny most of the time.

over all we've laughed more than we've cried these past several days and have no regrets. we love our little addition and all the funny things he does.  we decided that there is nothing worth getting uptight and upset over so we just spend our days laying around with him and getting lots of cuddle time in. you know....before he grows up too fast and is 18 and off to college! (nooooooo!!!) 

crazy eyes!

cutest milk face ever!

big hug for momma :)

thomas' story:

Don't worry folks my story will be forth coming. When I figure out what day it is you will get your story. 

 

all our love

t & k

40+ weeks

normally i think i would be more sad about the coming and going of my due date BUT i decided to get a bad cold last week so i'm glad i've been given the chance to get better before the big day. we're excited for it to come but i really do feel great for lugging this huge belly around all the time :) im a lucky one!

we'll keep you posted! 

t & k

6 weeks to go...we hope :)

time flies when you're having fun! i think the best antidote for anxiety in a pregnancy is to stay super busy, which i realize now can be difficult when your big and swollen and all you want to do is sit down. but, we've managed to stay very busy and forget all about the fact that our time as 2 is slowly trickling away. kind of crazy!

 

t & k

virginia beach

this 4th thomas and i got the chance to drive to virginia beach to see my brother bill. it was about a 9 hr car ride, but wasn't too bad (as thomas did most of the driving). we were able to go to the beach a few times and to colonial williamsburg on possibly the hottest day ever. but we had fun and learned a few things nonetheless. we ate a lot of good food - i think i hit my fish taco quota for the year :) if you happen to be out there any time soon we can give you a few great places to eat!

thanks for the good times bill!

had to get a shot of the post office in williamsburg for my mom :)

it was the perfect place to visit to celebrate independence day - to actually stand in rooms and on floors where debate, argument and ratification took place.

 

t & k

news :)

long over due for many of you to know! some of you we were able to contact personally and are sad we couldn't tell you all that way. rest assured that we love you just as much! so onto the news.... thomas and i are indeed pregnant :) yay! we are about 20 weeks a long and having a baby boy. all is well in the pregancy, although if you had asked me that a few weeks ago i may not have sounded as excited. i had 24 hour morning sickness until i was helped out by my doctor and that made things a lot more comfortable and i stopped losing weight, ha! i was told it was ok to get a massage after your 1st trimester so we scheduled one. turns out, it's just not a good idea to get a massage from anyone who isn't prenatal certified regardless if they say they know how to do it. i'm seeing a chiropractor to help out my back which is getting better. thomas is great! he's working hard and has been studying for his entrance exam to graduate school and did well. we find out if he's accepted in may. he's so supportive and doesn't seem to mind my complaining :) he's been the best companion i could have asked for. i wish i could say the same for myself :)

anyway, i just got back from NYC for a business trip with my boss/friend melanie mauer. we had a blast and worked really hard. we managed to have a mini shoot of each other in central park so i now have a few images of my growing baby bump to show you. no, we don't have a name yet, just a long list. 

 

love you all!!

t & k

 

good-bye 2011

an update of the past few months...

we had thanksgiving on the farm in danville. it was a success but left us with a few improvements to make on my grandmothers dressing recipe. we might have to do more work to find out what, "till it's good", "just enough" and "add enough of" mean. we played yatzee after the meal and i can't remember who won but that's not really important right? what's important is that we were all together and the turkey was basted with butter :)

thanks to melanie mauer, thomas and i were able to get updated photos of just the two of us. she always does a great job of showing you on film what your relationship feels like. and it was a super fun session. even thomas had a blast! which is not untypical of time with melanie :)

 

the browns

summer fun with our nieces and nephew :)

 

 

t & k