Quite a busy month!!

It has been quite a busy month! Harli and I went to Clear Lake a couple days early to have some girl time up there before Kory came up to celebrate the Fourth. We went a four hour walk one day, a bike ride (well, Kory and I) another day, and just hung out with Gene and Bobbi. It was nice to get away and enjoy the nice weather. Harli didn't get to see fireworks this year. She did however feel that 1030p was an appropriate bedtime while at Oma and Papa's.

Harli and I were in the Summerfest parade in Ankeny with the campaign. Harli napped through part of the parade but made sure she was awake for part of it...can't miss out on anything! Govenor Branstad wasn't at the Summerfest parade because he was in the Lake Mills parade. Harli did get to hang out with Kim Reynold's, though. Kim is quite the fan of Harli!! Harli has been helping me make phone calls for the campaign. Harli gets to walk around the office by a couple different people when we volunteer. She loves the attention and the staff loves her!

Harli turned nine months old yesterday. Her nine month visit came with no shots...yea!!! She is 20lbs 3.5oz and 27" long. She is also in the 70th percentile...up significantly from the 10th percentile at birth. She is a long baby. Clearly she didn't get that from me! She is such a happy baby! She has two bottom teeth and we think she is working on a top tooth. She walks if we hold onto her hands. She crawls at worp speed and everything goes in her mouth. She has started free standing. One day soon she will start walking on her own...scary!!!

On the campaign trail

Harli spent today walking (well, riding) in the Johnston Green Days parade on the Polk Co Republicans float for Govenor Branstad. Kory and Benjamin joined us. We handed out candy and Eric Hellman notepads. I'm not sure who had more fun...I think Kory might win, though. He got a pretty big kick out of handing out the notepads! I also managed to hit about 45 kids while throwing candy! Oops!! Hopefully I will have more parades to practice not hitting kids. Harli had a lot of fun trying to eat the candy before I threw it out. Many people commented "Look at that cute baby" while we were on the parade route. I think she might have taken some attention away from Govenor Branstad! The Chet Culver camp had quite the hissy fit when they found out they were behind us in the parade lineup. Oh well!!! Get over it big boy!

Harli, Benjamin, and the dogs did a great job shopping for Kory's Father's Day presents! He got Season One of 24, a miter saw, and NorthFace shirt and shorts. Since we will be out of town tomorrow, Kory got his presents early. He was very surprised by all his presents and was very happy to get them early!

Harli has mastered crawling everywhere and has decided that she is ready to move on to pulling herself up to stand on anything and everything. I see a walking baby in our near future. We thought she would be walking at 9 months, but she turns 8 months next week and is already walking when we hold on to her hands. I think she will be walking on her own well before 9 months. She is quite the independent little girl! There is no stopping her and if you try, she lets you know how she feels about that!!

Hello, Summer!

While Kory worked all weekend, Harli and I headed out to Adel for a picnic with my aunt, parents, and grandmother. Harli had fun playing with Bogey and Vivian (the dogs). They are both little dogs so they are easy to chase and pull on. I'm sure Bogey was glad once we left; Vivian on the other hand had no clue Miss Harli would be spending the next two days with her! After lunch, Aunt Caddie took Harli and I on a golf cart ride. Harli drove the cart...until she felt asleep at the wheel! She was holding on so tight that Aunt Caddie had trouble turning the wheel. After Aunt Caddie's, we went to my parents house. Since Harli and I didn't want to hang out all weekend by ourselves, we hung out with my parents, brother, and sister...and dogs. Sunday night we just hung out and watched TV. I also spent three hours reading the Guthrie Center Times. What a great paper!! I didn't realize all the fun news that was in there. My brother made the front page because he is the new pool manager, page two was dedicated to some lady's duck themed baby shower, Joe Kapaska took up page three with news of him winning cribbage the week prior, and the last page had "What to do in case of a tornado". Oh and somewhere in there you could find that the couple getting married in two weeks was registered at Dowd Drug. I found the baby shower news and the bridal registry rude because what if, like myself, you were not invited to either of these festivities and had to read about them in the paper. I felt extremely left out of the Guthrie Center fun by not being invited. Did I know these people...no...but they shouldn't advertise all the fun they are having unless they invite everyone. Its only fair! :-) I was so intrigued by all this news that I couldn't put the papers down. Monday, we went to the pool and hung around the house. I headed home Monday late afternoon so Harli could have some Nana and Papa time. I can only imagine the amount of spoiling she received while I was gone! It was a great way to start the summer!

Harli has mastered crawling and is now is determined to start the walking process. She crawls over to the couch, table, or us and pushes/pulls until she is standing. She is a very independent little girl. I'm sure by her 9 month birthday she will be walking. Watch out world!! She also knows which toys are hers and which toys are off limits. Remotes, cell phones, her brother's iPod, and the laptops are way more fun then her toys. She will lunge for toys that aren't hers and just give us a look when we present her with a toy she should be playing with.

Harli's second tooth has broken through. This teething experience wasn't near as bad as her first tooth. She has woken up in the middle of the night a couple of times and has only had one real meltdown. We haven't had to use much Tylenol (don't worry...we use the store brand) this time, either. Maybe when her third tooth comes in she won't even know! A mom can dream!

Well, that's all that is happening in the world of Harli right now. I am going sign off because someone is a little sassy that I am not giving her my undivided attention!

7 months old

7 months ago (7 months, 12 hours, and 45 minutes to be exact) Harli graced us with her arrival. I'm that mom that says "I can't believe how quickly it has gone!" All our friends and family said it would, but I didn't believe them. :-)

Today we went out and bought new bath toys since Harli uses the big girl bath tub now. She loves it!! She decided that playing with her toys was a little more fun than splashing around. I tried giving her a mo-hawk but she has so little hair that you can barely see it.

Everytime we look at Harli we realized how truly blessed we are!

On the move

I have been slacking on the blog updates lately. It has been a busy month! Harli was Baptised, we had friends in town, I've been working quite a bit, Kory and I went to Chelsea Handler for Mother's Day (totally amazing!!), and Harli is on the move.

Kory and I are quickly realizing that we NEED to babyproof sometime in the near future (as in this week)! At first she just laid on her tummy for a couple of seconds and then would fuss. We slowly worked up to scooting backwards. Now she rolls all over the place and gets on her hands and knees and rocks. I have a feeling by the end of the week she will have mastered crawling. Harli really likes to stand and hold on to the couch like a big girl. She has no fear. She falls and I freak out and she just looks at us and laughs.

Harli started fruits this week. We fed her primarily veggies before to get her used to a few different kinds. Now we incorporate fruit into meals along with veggies. So far she likes apples and bananas, but she isn't quite sure what to think of peaches. We have also tried rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, and multi-grain cereal. So far the verdict is that rice cereal is all Harli wants to eat. She is not a fan of oatmeal cereal or multi-grain. She would give me a look that said "What are you trying to feed me? Bring back the good stuff!" She is doing a great job of eating cereal and a bottle for breakfast, cereal and veggies and fruit for lunch, and the same for dinner. She does get two snack bottles in there also. No matter how much or little she eats, she will be hungry is EXACTLY three hours. Harli is doing a great job sleeping through the night...which makes for a happy mommy and daddy.

Buddy is learning quickly that Harli can pull when he goes in for a kiss. In a few months, he will have wished he ignored Harli like Samantha does. This weekend, Harli spent the weekend at my parents' house and she was all over their dogs Vivian and Bella. Vivian is a little black fluff ball (more common referred to by me as my hooker baby - only because of her name) and would go in for lots of kiss. Harli would just pull on her ears and curls. It didn't help that when laying on her tummy or sitting up, Harli is the same height as Vivian. She was in perfect reach at all times. I'm sure Vivian is happy to have Harli back at home with us so she can get some rest and have all the attention back to her.

We have a tooth!!

Harli is teething! We have been waiting for this tooth to finally come through for well over six weeks. I now know why at the simple mention of teething parents cringe! Harli has had a fever for two days and has been quite fussy...so definitely not her usual self. She is only fussy a few times a day, otherwise she is her usual happy self. The minute that tooth starts bothering her she lets us know. We have found that Tylenol is the only thing that helps. We tried Baby Orajel but she drools so much that it doesn't really help. I just want this tooth to finish coming through so Harli isn't in pain anymore.

Harli had her six month check up today. She weighed in at 16lbs 6.5oz and measured 26.5". We thought she had an ear infection, but Dr Fackrell said Harli was healthy. As always, he was very impressed with her. She had lots of stories for him. She also showed him how well she sits on her own as well as her jumping skills. Harli had to get her shots today and she was less than impressed with that.

Yes I'm that parent..."I can not believe Harli is already six months old!" I don'y know where the last six months have gone. Time is definitely flying by. Pretty soon we will be planning her first birthday party!

Yummy...feet

This has been a pretty uneventful week. Harli is feeling better and most days doesn't spit up all day long. I would say the medicine is working. Granted, I was hoping that it would magically cure her spitting up...a mom can dream! Kory spent five days in Vegas for work...yes, actual work. His company's annual conference was held there this year. Since no other spouses and children were going, Harli and I were told that we would be just fine at home. Next year the conference is in Orlando...Harli and I WILL be there! Harli and I spent the last five days having our Mommy/Daughter time. We went for walks, to the gym, shopping, and having fun in the sun. Its nice to not have to pick up after two certain boys that live here! They aren't that bad, but they do tend to make a mess. Harli has really missed her daddy, though. When he calls to talk to her, she gives the phone kisses and gets a big smile on her face. I know Kory has missed her terribly. He called when she was crying and it broke his heart.

After working diligently for a couple of days, Harli has managed to get her feet in her mouth. She is very pleased with herself. Once she gets her foot in her mouth and start chewing, she starts giggling. Its the little things in life that make her so happy! I'm not sure which she likes better, toes or green beans!!

Goodbye spit up...

We took Harli to the doctor the beginning of the week because she till had a cough and her spitting up was getting worse (not sure how that was possible). Dr Fackrell said that the amoxicilin got rid of the ear infection and cold, however it made the spitting up worse. Since she was spitting up so much it was causing more acid in her throat causing her to cough. She is now spitting up stomach bile. Our poor little girl!! This still hasn't phased her because she is still a completely happy baby. She is now on Zantac twice a day. When I left the doctor and called Kory to give him the full report I told him Harli was being put on Zanax (the sames are WAY too similar). He replied "I'm pretty sure you mean Zantac. Zanax is for anxiety disorders." I'm pretty sure he would like me to be on Zanax so I mellowed out a little bit!! :-) We are only on day 2 of the medicine so we haven't seen a whole lot of progress. We'll see what next week brings.

Harli has slept through the night the last three nights. We're hoping she will stick with it. We have started giving her a late bottle (8p or 9p) and that helps get her through until 630a or 7a. I think it is helping now that she is getting three meals with rice cereal; two of which she gets vegetables. We are back to rice cereal because she didn't really care for the oatmeal cereal. She has tried carrots and decided those were pretty tasty. Now we are on to green beans...YUM!! Today was her first day of green beans and so far so good. I'm hoping she isn't a picky eater like a certain someone I know...no, not Kory. The one thing I won't feed her is peas. I can not stand them, Kory can not stand them, so I have decided that Harli can not stand them.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Yes, its a day early but we will be busy tomorrow so I'm posting early. Harli met the Easter Bunny yesterday and LOVED him! A friend asked me how we got her to smile in her photo and we honestly didn't do anything. Harli smiles all the time and when there's a camera around the big smile comes out. The girl in front of Harli had a different opinion of the Easter Bunny. She was NOT impressed and had a terrified look on her face most of the time. We didn't realize that you can bring your own camera to take the photos instead of paying for them. We will be doing this from now on because one 5x7 was $11.26 (with tax, of course). Clearly the cost of candy has gone up a little bit and the Easter Bunny is feeling the effect of the recession because he is using highway robbery to get money to buy all the candy. Oh well, its her first Easter so we paid the Easter Bunny and went on our merry way.

Harli is very excited to see what the Easter Bunny has brought her. I'm guessing she will be getting two new pairs of shoes, a puzzle, a shovel and pail, and a book. Just a thought! Benjamin is too old for the Easter Bunny but I'm hoping he is happy with his Easter basket since it includes candy and a iTunes gift card.

Another first...

Harli has her first ear infection. She had a cold that started twelve days ago and has not gotten better. On Friday, we finally went to the doctor because started touching her ear. I have heard the horror stories from my mom and mom-in-law about Kory and I's ear infections as babies. So the minute I saw her touch her ear, I was on the phone! Harli, of course, doesn't seem to notice that she is sick (and is terribly conjested) because is still as happy as ever and continues to never cry. She is fine during the day, its first thing in the morning and late at night that things get bad. She is so conjested that she can hardly breathe, which has lead to snoring. Between her and Kory's snoring (yes, she is still sleeping in our room...NOT in our bed, though), I haven't been getting the best sleep. Dr Fackrell said she had the beginnings of an ear infection and an upper respiratory tract infection. He was so impressed at how happy she was even though she was pretty sick. Honestly, this kid doesn't know how to cry...which we are pretty happy about! While we were at the doctor, Harli got weighed. She is 15lbs 8oz!! Granted this is with her clothes on (which Dr Fackrell said added at least a pound) but we will take it. I was hoping for 13.5lbs. Harli LOVES her oatmeal cereal. She is finally starting to fill out and get some "chunk" to her.

Today, Kory thought he would introduce Harli to his favorite store...Menards. Kory could live at Menards if I would let him! Since he's the one that works on the yard and house projects, he is a frequent visitor of Menards. I told him he needed to get a part-time job at Menards to score a discount. Kory took Harli on a little tour of the Garden Center and a brief tour of the store. We were in a hurry so she didn't get the full tour; we will save that for another day. She had lots of fun and was full of smiles the whole time. I'm sure that made her daddy very happy...until I showed him the massive playground I wanted him to build her. I showed her the playground and she had a big smile, her daddy just said "someday" and quickly walked to a different aisle.

Harli is still working on the whole scooting thing. She now pushes up on her knees while burrying her face in the pillow. This pushes her more backwards than forwards, but we'll take it since she is making an improvement. She is also doing a great job of rolling from her tummy to her back. She learned how to do this quickly because she isn't so much a fan of tummy time. Harli hasn't said her first word yet, but we think she is getting close. She started saying something that sounded similar to "mama" and has learned to make the "ba" sound. She pretty much talks all day long, so we're sure words will start coming out sooner or later. I'm not sure why she is so talkative...whoever would that come from?

5 months old!!

Yesterday, Harli turned 5 months. It doesn't seem like it has been five months since I told the doctor that if one more emergency C-Section came through the doors that I would become an emergency C-Section! Harli continues to amaze each day with how much she learns and grows. She has become quite chatty (no idea where that came from!!) and is working on scooting. She loves to see how hard she can bounce in her bouncy seat. I'm afraid one day she will bounce right out. She has also learned that one of her "friends" is velcroed on and she can take him off and bite him.

Harli has her second cold. She had one when we were in Florida and has a similar one now. She has trouble breathing because she is so conjested. The worst part is that she will choke and turn bright red. I get so scared each time. If Kory is home I just scream for him to come help. I hate that I can't do anything to make her feel better. She is such a happy baby, though. Her demeanor hasn't changed any. She will choke and then go back to playing with her toys like nothing happened.

This past weekend, Aunt Caddie bought Harli her first pair of sunglasses. They are ADORABLE!! Since the sunglasses were next to the swimsuit and surfer shirt, Aunt Caddie bought those too. She looks so cute! She tried her swimsuit on today and she loves it. We practiced her swimming skills in her bathtub. She is very excited for Waterbabies to start so she can show off her cute bikini body, movie star sunglasses, and wonderful swimming skills. Watch out Waterbabies, here comes Harli!!!

Happy St Patrick's Day

Harli had a WONDERFUL first St Patrick's Day. This is one of my favorite holidays...mainly because I'm Irish, but it was also my grandfather's favorite holiday. Harli and I started our day with breakfast at CJ's with Carly and Ellie. Ellie is one month older than Harli. Of course, CJ's was for Carly and I, but we thought we should introduce the girls to the wonderful world of CJ's at a young age. After breakfast, we headed downtown for the St Patrick's Day parade. We thought it was going to be an hour long parade (I couldn't quite remember the duration because the last time I went we had started celebrating at 7a!). We were wrong! An hour and forty-five minutes later, the parade finally ended. The girls took a nap towards the end of the parade. Ellie stayed asleep, but Harli was worried she would miss something so she only took a fifteen minute nap. The girls each caught a few beads and they were pretty happy about it. After waiting in line in the parking garage for forty-five minutes, we headed home for a nap. It was a great St Patrick's Day!

A big week

Harli has remembered how to sleep through the night. I thought it would be a couple of months before you started sleeping through the night again. Thankfully I was wrong. She is still in her pack-n-play in our room. I think this weekend she will make the big move to officially sleeping in her own bed. I wanted her to start sleeping through the night again before we moved her into her own bed. We have tried to put her in there before but she has not been so happy about it. We are hoping she likes it a little bit better this time. She is back on her schedule of going to bed at 8p, waking up at 7a, taking a thirty minute nap at 10a, and taking an hour and a half nap at 2p. I love schedules and it makes things so much easier having Harli on one.

Harli is still enjoying her rice cereal. You can't shovel it in her mouth quick enough!! She is working hard on rolling over. She has already mastered rolling from her tummy to her back. She is working hard on rolling from her back to her tummy. Her shoulder gets in the way and she gets frustrated. Harli crawled for the first time yesterday!!! It was only a couple of crawls but we'll take it. We were so proud of her!!! She has found her voice and likes to talk ALL day! I'm not quite sure who she got that from. :-) She found out today that she can shreak real loud so she spend the vast majority of today shreaking! Its only Wednesday and she has already had a big week of milestones. Our baby is growing up way too fast and its only been four and a half months!

Harli has become a big fan of Dora the Explorer and Clifford. She is not a real fan of Sesame Street. She giggles and smiles throughout both shows. I get the songs stuck in my head and can not get them out. At least I'm learning Spanish thanks to Dora!

Rice cereal

Last week Harli started rice cereal. She wasn't sure of it after the first bite but she LOVES it!! She now has rice cereal for lunch and dinner. She doesn't like when it runs out and she has to go back to formula. She has also learned to put the spoon in her mouth on her own. She also likes to stick her hands in her mouth while she's eating. By the time she's done, quite a bit of cereal ends up on her face than in her tummy. After this box of rice cereal, we are going to move up to oatmeal cereal and then to real food...that's when the real fun begins.

Now that we are working on Harli's schedule again, she goes to bed around 8p and wakes up between 4a and 5a. She eats and then goes back to bed until 7a or so. She takes a nap at 10a and then again at 2p. It is so nice to have her on a schedule so we don't have to guess when errands can be run and plans can be made. Were just waiting until she decides to go back to sleeping through the night.

Since today was beautiful outside, Harli and I went for a walk. She had so much fun!!!

Beach bum

Today Harli had her 4 month check up. She weighs 12lbs 10oz (slight over twice her birth weight ) and is 24.5" long. She was such a good girl during her shots. Dr Fackrell was VERY impressed with how well Harli is doing. She is doing a great job trying to sit up on her own and continues to hold her head up on her own. Dr Fackrell even commented on how "curious" Harli is. I told Harli that was fancy for nosy!! Harli loves when we say "that's fancy for...". I think that means we read our Fancy Nancy books too much! Dr Fackrell gave us the go ahead to start rice cereal.

We are finally back from Florida. What a week!!! We left Monday. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 635p. I checked before we left for the airport and it still said the flight was on time. We check in and the lady says it has been delayed an hour (720p). All the signs in the airport said the flight was still on time for 635p so we figured she meant the other Allegiant flight. We ate dinner and headed to the gate. The sign by the gate says 720p, so we waited. They started boarding the plane at 730p...ten minutes after our delayed departure. Twenty minutes later, they make an announcement that they are going to stop boarding because one of the flight attendants noticed a bar on the slide shoot (the inflatable slide) was broken but the mechanic was looking into and boarding would resume in twenty minutes. Forty-five minutes later, they make another announcement that the mechanic is thirty or so minutes away (umm...forty-five minutes ago you said that the mechanic was already looking at it). Forty-five minutes later the mechanic finally arrives and the boarding starts thirty minutes later. Kory called the rental car place in Orlando to let them know we would be there way after the 1015p arrival. He then called Allegiant to let them know what was going on with our flight and tried to extend our trip. After the guy told him it wasn't his problem that the flight was delayed and Kory spoke with a manager, we were able to fly back the following Monday (yesterday) for only $60 more (total for three people). So we boarded the plane and are excited that we just extended our trip two more days. After waiting on the tarmac for another FORTY-FIVE minutes we are finally in the air (only about four hours later). We landed at 130a and by the time we get to our hotel room it was 3a. Harli was great the whole time. She slept the whole plane ride. Many people stopped us afterwards to let us know how impressed they were with how she tolerated the four hour wait and the plane. She then got real sick Tuesday. She was congested and coughing and choking. We tried Infants' Tylenol but that didn't really do a whole lot. On Tuesday, we headed to Sarasota (other side of Florida). On Wednesday, I took Harli to a walk-in clinic and the butt-head (sorry, doctor) said that we shouldn't have put Harli on a plane and that's why she was sick. I said whatever and we went on our merry way. Since she was getting worse and would choke in the evenings to the point where she got red and stopped breathing, we headed to a pediatric clinic. The wonderful doctor said that it was NOT due to flying and she just had a cold and it would eventually pass. She suggested saline drops for her nose to dry things up and said we were doing everything right. She much better by Sunday. We spent Tuesday through Monday on Lido Key, which is part of Sarasota. We ate at a lot of local places and drank pretty much all day (obviously not Harli). Harli and I didn't want to leave Florida. Harli loved playing in the Gulf of Mexico. The water was still very chilly but we walked the beach every day. The temp was chilly until Saturday, when it warmed up and was sunny. Kory and I got FRIED on Sunday. We spent all day on the beach. I put sunscreen on Harli about four times so there was no way she was getting any color!!! The flight home was good. Harli took a fifteen minute nap and talked to everyone the rest of the time. I think she was telling everyone about the wonderful houses that we saw while we were down there and how she thinks her daddy should buy some.

3 months old!!

Miss Harli Grace is now 3 months old!!! She is getting so big and becoming more interactive with everyone around her. She is grasping things (mainly her mommy's hair) and reaching for things. She loves to sit in her interactive bouncy chair and play with her woodland friends. She tells them stories all day long! We have just started putting her in her jumperoo and she has lots of fun getting to know all her new friends. Harli is trying out sleeping through the night again. She goes to sleep around 8 or 9 at night and wakes up around 430a, eats, and then goes back to sleep until 7a or 8a. This is making her mommy and daddy VERY happy. We're just hoping she decides to stick with it for a while.

Harli had fun watching football this weekend, well it started out fun I guess. She watched her beloved Colts beat the Jets and secure their place in the Super Bowl. Her evening went a little less stellar when her beloved Vikings and Mr Brett get sent home without a win and without their time to shine in the Super Bowl. Her daddy did NOT take the loss very well and was very sad. Harli plans to make a phone call to Mr Favre and tell him that he needs to come back next year and win the Super Bowl not only for her daddy but for all the Vikings fans. We'll see how that turns out.

Harli had her 3 month photos taken on Saturday. She was very awake when Cindy got here and was a good girl when the photos started. She was naked so of course she was happy. Then she started getting a little sassy and fell asleep. Once we were finished taking photos of Harli sleeping, Cindy left. Harli heard the door shut and she woke up smiling and giggling. She thought she was pretty funny!! You can see Harli's 3 month photos at www.cjphotoia.com/madson.htm. Cindy did a wonderful job!!

Spoke too soon

Kory and I were so excited when Harli had finally decided that she was ready to sleep through the night. We told our family and friends everyday that she had slept through the night and were so happy. Well, apparently we have spoken too soon. Harli has changed her mind and decided that she was over sleeping through the night. She is only getting up once a night so it really isn't that bad. She doesn't like to nap, though. She takes a twenty to thirty minute nap in the morning and one in the afternoon and that's it. She is afraid she will miss something! I think she might have just been going through her twelve week growth spurt. We still can't believe that Miss Harli Grace is already 12 weeks old. I'm not sure when that happened!!

I have started a new job. I'm working at On The Border a couple evenings a week. This still allows me to stay at home during the day with Harli. My friends that stay at home and are always busy and on the go. I never knew why...until now. Between the gym, errands, cleaning, laundry, activies, and playdates its easy to let the day get away from you. I wouldn't trade it for anything, though. I feel very fortunate for being able to stay at home during the day.

Harli has started doing more and more Tummy Time. She is still doing a great job of holding her head up on her own. She is now starting to kick her feet during Tummy Time. From what I have read, this is her "first steps" towards teaching herself to crawl. When she starts crawling, we are going to be in trouble. She will be on the go and into lots of things.

Finally getting the hang of it

Harli is 11 weeks old. She is getting so big. She smiles all the time and is such a happy baby!! After teasing Kory and I a couple of nights in the last few weeks with sleeping through the night, Harli has FINALLY got the hang of it. She has slept through the night since Tuesday. I'm really hoping that I didn't just jinx us. Each night, she sleeps just a little bit longer. When she slept through the night on Tuesday, I thought she was just being a good girl for my birthday. She isn't taking as long of naps throughout the day so I think that's why she is so tired at night. Whatever it is, we're not complaining and will take the sleep during the night!

Harli has found that she LOVES being naked. She is most happy when she is in her diaper only. This would be fine and dandy if it weren't 20 below outside. She just gets the biggest kick out of it. We only let her do it for a little bit each day because we think she will get too cold. The minute we start putting clothes on her she lets us know that she does NOT appreciate it. We get such a kick out of her.

GO HAWKS!!!!

harli was so excited to get to dress up in her Hawkeye outfit one more time for the Orange Bowl. We, of course, had to take lots of pictures. She was wide awake during the first half of the game and cheered along with her daddy. As usual, Harli and slept through the 3rd quarter and begining of the 4th quarter. We woke up just in time for a great end to the game!! Harli was very happy to see her Hawkeyes finish a great season with an excellent win over Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl. GO HAWKS!!!

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We wish everyone a very blessed and enjoyable 2010. We are very excited to spend the year watching Harli grow and learn.

This year we had a very low key New Year's Eve. I read a book, Kory watched football, and Harli slept. We are quite the wild bunch! Once the ball dropped, we all headed to bed. Harli only woke up once in the middle of the night. She has decided she isn't quite ready to sleep through the night yet. We're hoping she decides to start sometime soon, but getting up once a night to feed her and then going right back to bed really isn't that bad.