A lot has happened since June. Harper learned to roll over from her back to her tummy and then from her tummy to her back. Now she rolls EVERYWHERE!! If she's not rolling her way around, she will lie on her back and scoot her way to what she wants. It's pretty amazing to watch her see something and then figure out a way to get to it. She can pretty much sit up on her own without any support. She still hasn't figured out how to get to a sitting up position from lying down, but I'm sure that will happen soon. She is eating baby food for breakfast and dinner. And she has two teeth! Her hair is growing in. I can't wait to see what she looks like with a head full of red hair. She is such a happy baby and smiles so easily. She also is very contemplative. Some people say that she's so serious, but I think she just observes the world around her. She loves Baby Einstein DVD's and laughs at the puppets. I think she's going to have a great since of humor. She LOVES it when her daddy makes her laugh! She is a daddy's girl for sure!
Derek is busy at the tattoo shop and loves what he does. He will be going to Richmond, VA this month for a tattoo convention and a roast of Doc Dog, an old-timer in the tattoo industry. He owns a shop in Ybor City (Tampa) and Derek has gotten to know him well this past year. It will be the first time that either of us has been away from Harper for more than just overnight. We'll see who has the harder time while he's gone.
I have been very busy with work at Crowder's. I went to Chicago overnight several weeks ago for a buying trip. It was very hard to not put Harper to bed or see her when she woke up. I will be going to Atlanta in January for our bi-yearly buying trip and will be away for about 5 days. I am not sure how well I'm going to do with that. We'll see. I had my gallbladder out last week. I guess if you have to get rid of an organ, that's a good choice.
We are very grateful to be here with our family. Harper gets to spend one day a week with each of her grandmothers and gets lots of time with Ethan and Nia and her aunt SuSu and uncle Tim during the week. I don't know what we would do without them and we are very thankful. I love that Ethan, Nia and Harper will have such a close relationship. I can't wait to see how much fun they have together when they are a little older.
Here are lots of pictures to document the past couple of months:
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| Nia holding Harper. We have a picture like this of Susan holding me. I hope that they'll be as close as sisters. |
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| 4 generations celebrating Maw-Maw's birthday in June. |
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| Such a great smile! |
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| Harper's first road trip. We went to visit our sweet friend Katie at Southwind (a Young Life camp) in July. We love Katie and wish she lived closer. |
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| Harper's first dip in the pool. |
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| Trying to get a good picture of the three cousins. Weren't quite successful. |
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| Harper at 4 months. |
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| Trying this whole eating thing. |
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| Getting better at the eating process. I still say that there is no bigger test of patience than trying to feed a baby. |
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| Ethan playing with Harper. She smiles as soon as she sees him. |
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| Harper's new favorite thing...the exersaucer. |
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| A girl and her dad. She looks just like him. |
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| Harper at 5 months. |
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| Jammie time! (ignore the painting in the background. that's what happens when you're married to an artist.) |
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| Happy girl after a good nap. |
We're going to Tim and Susan's tonight for pumpkin carving and will be trick-or-treating with them tomorrow night. I promise to have pictures up of all of those festivities soon.
