No, Not St Louis Photos

I've got something better to share with you today. Maybe not the best quality (ok, definitely not the best quality---this is a video from my Blackberry), but it's a modern day miracle. Our boy can walk!!!

He took his first steps on Thursday. We tricked him into taking 2 steps while he wasn't thinking about it. Then I tricked him into a couple more on Friday (that's what good moms do---trick you into doing exactly what they want), and then there weren't any more steps to speak of.

Suddenly, yesterday he just stood up and walked. The strangest thing I've seen lately. I was starting to think it was just a fluke, then he stood up and walked some more. He was taking about 4 steps before he would fall/give up and crawl. By the end of the day, he was able to take about 7 steps. Today, he only walked this one time that I caught on video. If John or I stand him up, he immediately sits back down. He totally wants to do it his way and in his time. I don't care how he does, just so long as he starts doing it soon. (My right arm just screamed "Amen!")

So without further ado I present to you, Harvey vs Gravity:Part 1.

St Louis

Here are a few photos from last weekend. There are more to come, but right now Photoshop is acting all squirrelly and Harvey is crying for some unknown reason (at 9:30! He never does this. Always lights out around 7:15 and he's asleep. I'm afraid something's brewing.......), so I'll get back to editing tomorrow.





Uhhhh, dad? What's dat fing on your wip? You should get dat wooked at............

Yeah! Da dwink guy is comin!! I sees him! Can I has a coke?

Really, does it get much better than this? That sly grin, the big boy hat. Melting this mama's heart.

Harvey and I desperately need to work on our posing skills. Desperately.

Good Intentions

This past weekend we went to St Louis for 2 Cardinals games, then we spent the day in Eldorado on Monday visiting family. We took over 500 photos this weekend. Today I had big plans to edit photos, write stories and put it all on my blog, all while being super mom and getting some much needed housework done. Negative Ghostrider.

Somewhere around the time Harvey exploded my mineral blush all over the living room carpet/his face and mouth/his outfit as we were about to walk out the door for his doctor's appointment, when we were 5 minutes late for said appointment and were consequently there for an hour and fifteen minutes for a quick visit and 3 shots, when we made a "quick stop" at Trader Joes and he screamed until I carried him around the store while pushing the cart and picking up everything we need for the week, when I picked Harvey up from his chair after lunch only to realize too late that he had massive diarrhea and it was all over my arm, and when I was cleaning up said diarrhea and it was all over the changing pad/his hands/and the wall, that I decided to just get real and the blog could wait.

I uploaded all the photos on my computer, it started to thunder, and I immediately jumped in my bed, snuggled in and took a nap until Harvey woke up.

Way better than editing and blogging. It's not everyday that you actually can take a nap during a thunderstorm.

So until I have some time to get those photos together, I thought I would do a quick update on Harvey's doctor's appointment.

Weight: 27 pounds 13 oz---88th percentile. Up from 81st at 12 months.

Height: 33 1/4 inches---95th percentile. He grew an inch and 1/4 in 3 months.

Head: 19.29 inches. 92nd percentile.

Harvey put 2 words together today for the first time. He now says "Uh-oh.....gone". Kind of. "Gone" sometimes sounds normal, and sometimes has extra letters and syllables. But that's definitely what he's saying. Probably because mom and dad tell him that every time he throws something on purpose.

Still no fruits and veggies in his life. But, he has accepted yogurt again, so I sneak in some fruit and veggies in the Horizon Blends yogurt. Yogurt blended with a fruit and a veggie---tricksy mom.

He is a funny boy. So giggley and happy (almost) all of the time. He reaches out for strangers and is happy to be held by anyone. Unless he's tired/grumpy/teething. Then he's either all mommy or all daddy. It changes frequently. Always keeping us on our toes.

All 4 of his first molars are working on coming in (3 are all the way there), and his top eye teeth are coming in too. He's allowed to be grumpy some days, I guess.

Hopefully tomorrow night I will have some photos from our big weekend. But for now, I'm off to snuggle while its raining once again.

Meet Sam

My newest photography subject that will be photographed against his will by me forever and ever, amen. That's the beauty of being a nanny-momtographer you know. This is Sam, Mary Helen's new little brother. And one day, he will be Harvey's little buddy. But for now, he is Harvey's arch nemesis. That's another story for another time. For now, let's enjoy a few sweet little photos of little Mr. Sam.

It's not easy bein little.

More Cell Phone Photos

I was looking through my cell phone photos and realized I have some funny ones. These need to be shared with the inter-webs. Need. So here are some not so high quality, quality shots of Harvey to get you all caught up on the life and times of Harvey.



Hi! Do you fink I'm pwetty? I wike snacks..........




After I took Harriet's pigtails out, he kept pulling his hair just ot make sure there was nothing left in there. This made for an awesome hair day.




Speaking of awesome hair days........the day before his first haircut, this is how he woke up from nap.



Doesn't he look so much happier with less hair?



Darn molars ruined our day at the pool. Such a pitiful photo.



Harv and MH cookin up a storm.



He cried when I took this apron off. So I put it back on. Who am I to take away his pretty pink apron and ruin his crazy good time?

The Mullet Cut

We finally did it. Today we took Harvey to have his neck cape removed (thanks Uncle Lee!). It went really well. We took him to a kiddie hair cut place called SnipIts in Brentwood. Harvey was a complete angel while in the chair (waiting in the waiting area for 40+ minutes, that's another story), and it was great. They only cut children's hair, so we figured that's the best place to take (untrained animals) toddlers to (be groomed) get their first haircut. There was a seat belt on his chair, which proved to be key when he dropped his toy and lurched forward to get it. And the hairstylist just kept cutting. No matter which way he moved, she just kept foraging forward. She knows that's the key: finish quickly at all costs.

Oh, and no pressure with the crazy momtographer in your face, shooting over 100 photos in the 4 minutes it took to cut his hair. Hey, you just never know which shot it going to be "the" shot. So I just keep going, crazy mom style.

So here are some "before" photos. This is what Harvey's hair looked like yesterday when I got him out of bed. No lie, I did not do anything to make it look like this (except for the fact that he maybe had some sunscreen in his hair from when we went to the pool before nap. But otherwise this is natural. )

And here are today's photos.




The first cut. Man, doesn't he just look so sweet with his DogDog?

As you can see, the colors in this place were crazy. So I tried to break it up with some black and white shots.






And we're going to act like this is not completely nasty. That's how you get through life with a toddler---just act like there aren't really that many germs on there.



Uh, yeah. I wike my pawrt a wittle more wike dis......lemme show you.






All done!



Uhh, hey wady. I fink you left some hairs on my arm......

Perfect first haircut!

Yesterday

I wanted to have a little mini photo shoot with Harvey and his Dog-Dog yesterday. He only allowed Dog Dog to upstage him for just a moment, then he had bigger and better things to do. Toddlers!




Check out the grip he has on his bff. "You're not goin no where's, Goggie. You're my fwiend, gots it?".






My favorite from yesterday. Hands down.


Just keepin' it real here folks. This is how most everything ends these days. In tears.

As I write this, Harvey is standing next to me banging on the piano while hiccuping like a maniac. Sure hope our neighbors enjoy waking up to "music". Cause it's loud. And crazy sounding.

Some funny stories to get the day started off:

-Harvey likes to make this "Owww" sound like he's barking (more like howling). We were on a walk the other night and he heard a dog barking and he started making this sound in response to the dog. The dog then barked back, Harvey howled back, the dog barked back, Harvey.......you get the point. This continued until they couldn't see/hear each other anymore. So, a long time. Then a little later on our walk, a lady was walking her small, skittish, dog. Harvey was silently checking out the dog, then when the dog was right next to Harvey's stroller, he let out a nice shrill "Owwww!" at the dog. That poor dog jumped sideways in the air and scampered away, looking over its shoulder at Harvey. Way to fake him out Harv!

-As we were about to walk up to our house, we saw a friend of John's driving by. We stopped to talk to her, and she let Harvey get in the car and sit on her lap. Harvey just knew he was a big deal, sitting in the driver seat and all. He kept turning the wheel side to side, then turning on the windshield wipers, squirting the windshield wiper fluid, then jingling the keys in the ignition. Then he would look at John and I from time to time with a huge grin on his face and wave "bye bye". Little turkey. No separation anxiety there. Not even a little bit. He's driving while sitting on a pretty ladies lap. What's not to love?

-Yesterday we all went to Trader Joes to get a few things. It was a little past Harvey's bedtime, so he was pretty cranky. Squealing and squirming and trying to get ahold of everything we put in the cart. So grouchy. Finally, John takes him out of the cart and we go up front to check out. All the sudden, Harvey is the most charming, sweet, grinning baby----for the lady that was checking us out. He was smiling and waving and doing all of his tricks for her. She gave him stickers and that was it---he was just over the moon. Such a flirt.

Then we put him in the car and whined until we got home and put him to bed. The end.

A New Look

Harv has been trying out a new look lately. I think it's totally working for him.

I don't know what it is about sucking in his bottom lip and sticking his tongue out, but it's his new favorite thing to do. I think it's pretty darn cute, really.


On another note, I'm really going to miss these rubber band arms and thighs when they're gone.




And this sweet little baby mullet


We're going to attempt to cut it off tomorrow. "Attempt" because with all of his new tantrum tricks he's picked up (throwing his head back, screaming, pelvic thrusting, back arching----you know, a toddler), I just don't know how he's going to handle sitting still while there are scissors next to his face. Blegh, it makes me a bit nervous just thinking about it. I think we're going to try one of those kiddie haircut places. At least they're used to his kind there. And maybe some bizarre Wiggles action will help distract him long enough to have his mullet "wings" safely cut off. We'll see!