Spring has sprung!

Across the nation it's been a very mild winter.  As our first here in Alabama we don't have anything to compare it to, but are told that it's not typical.  The warm temperatures have brought spring to us early this year...and we're not complaining!  It's beautiful!  The city is covered with blooming dogwood trees and bright, vibrant Azalea bushes.  Our backyard smells like a candle shop and looks like a painting.  It's been in the 80's much of the past couple weeks, setting record highs all over the nation and already feeling like summer here.  In fact, we've had our air conditioning on for a week already.  Unfortunately, Dr. M's allergies are not liking the blooming trees and the visible blanket of pollen on everything, but he's been a trooper spending time with E out back.  We've been enjoying the Arboretum, dog park, back yard, picnics and local art fairs.  It's a beautiful spring, even if it is early!

View from our back porch!

Not sure what these are, but they smell amazing (the bumble bees agree).

Beautiful, petite flowers in the yard.

These are huge (maybe 6 in across) and have been blooming almost all winter!

Berries on the tree next door.

St. Patrick's Day 2012

We had a wonderful family-filled St. Patrick's Day!  The weather was AH-mazing!  We seriously couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.  So, what better to do on a beautiful day than have a picnic?!  First we stopped by the Children's Museum for some festive holiday fun for E.  He had a blast searching the museum, collecting green coins that he could exchange for prizes.  He thought it was SO cool, in fact, that when it came time to exchange the coins, he had a hard time parting with them.  

 After coin collecting we headed over to the Quad to find a nice shady spot in the grass to eat lunch.

E even hid his coins in the trees and grass and went looking for them again.

 Baby girl loving the weather and playing in the grass too!

We had a lovely day together!  I even made my very first carrot cake that afternoon when we got home.  No green beer, cabbage or corned beef, but it was still perfect :)

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!

Harper is 9 months!

Our little lady is two thirds of the way to turning one!  Though we keep telling her to stay this age forever, she doesn't seem to be listening.  She's so happy and content and as we always say about her "just loves being her" right now.  She's still army crawling, but is super fast at it.  She's building some serious arm muscles dragging her belly around and pushing with her tip-toes.  One of these days I need to attach a swiffer cloth to her belly and let her help me clean - you should see her onesie at the end of the day.  Needless to say, she's into everything and loves exploring the entire house.  Her favorite thing to watch and play with is her big brother, of course.  She thinks he's hilarious and they have so much fun together.  I love watching them play.  She still has amazing blue eyes and reddish, blonde hair.  She's got one tooth on the bottom, but I think the other one is going to pop through any day.  She's eating two "meals" a day now (oatmeal is her fave!) and is even feeding herself cheerios and puffs.   Nursing is still going great and we recently cut out the 3am feeding (woohoo!).  She still takes two naps, but the morning nap is getting shorter and shorter (sigh).  I love how happy she is to see me when she wakes up in her crib.  She squeals and babbles constantly.  She's an active little thing, crawling, rolling and chatting all over the place.  She also loves to play peek-a-boo (by putting her hands over her face) and patty-cake (clapping her hands).  I love watching her grow and discover the world around her.  I never imagined that this once colicky, reflux baby would be such a joy in our life.  She makes everyone smile and our family complete!  We love you baby girl!

9 Month Stats:
weight - 16 lbs
height - 27 1/4 in

Doc says she looks good, but has referred us to an allergy specialist due to her constant reflux, congestion and eczema (I'm looking forward to getting some answers too!).  She's still petite and staying in the bottom of the growth chart for weight (5%) and dropped a little in height, but doc thinks we just caught her before a growth spurt.  We see the cardiologist again in April.  Ahhh, I forgot how much you stress about your child's growth at this age - those darn percentiles!  It doesn't make it any easier that everyone that meets her comments on how small she is...   Well, she's our petite princess and we think she's perfect!

Elliot - 2.5!

Our baby boy is now two-and-a-half years old!  Amazing how quickly the time passes when you're counting each month of a new baby's life....you almost forget that your 2-year-old is changing too.  I can't even begin to describe all of the amazing ways he's grown in the past 6 months (but I'll try!).  He's imaginative, creative, compassionate, funny, smart, sensitive, curious, independent and soooo handsome!  Eli is such an amazing child.  I love seeing the wonder in his eyes when he sees something new or the expression on his face when he's really concentrating.  His main passion continues to be all things letters and numbers, but is closely followed by the solar system and the US states.  His favorite "toy" is the entire set of foam bath letters.  He insists on sleeping with ALL of them, taking them in the car, in the bath and loves dumping them in Newton's bed (but is also great about sharing them with his sister).  The iPad and the many apps we've downloaded for him are also a favorite of Eli's.  Honestly, he's learned so much from it, we can't complain about how much he uses it.  His favorite TV show is now Team Umizoomi. The show tag line is "mighty math powers" so we don't mind him watching it at all :)  He's very observant and notices even the smallest details in things - which makes hiding something difficult.  Even if something is out of place, he's quick to notice and change it back.  We talk to him about using the "big boy potty" but hope to be done with diapers this summer (3.5 is the average age for boys to potty train, so we're on a good track).  We plan to move him to his toddler bed at that time too, until then, he still seems to be loving his crib.  School days are still a favorite of his.  He loves to tell me what he did in class on the car ride home (recently they've been studying the ocean).  The weather has been so beautiful the past several weeks that Eli is loving playing in the backyard with the dogs.  I love hearing him tell stories to himself and play with the rocks and sticks.  A little dirt under his fingernails and scrapes on his knees just make him cuter.  I could go on and on about what an amazing little boy we have, but those of you who know him already know how incredible he is....so here are a few recent pics of our handsome little man....

The Children's Museum is still a favorite!

Umizoomi zone....

Loving the backyard!

Getting a head start...

Loving the swing out back too.