Best Two Days of His Life

Over the last week, Harvey has experienced the best two days of his life. Yup, best two days out of nine whole months. Here's why.

First: His cousin Lorelai's first birthday. I know, this may seem strange that someone else's big day would be one of his top two, but you'll see why in a bit.
The theme: Tinkerbell. Obviously.

And here is Miss Tinkerbell herself.

I wanted to get a shot without her passy, and this is what I got:

Perhaps she needs it after all.

He desperately wanted her dress. I'm moderately concerned.

The big event. I thought she would dig right in, but she didn't seem to like it so much at first.

So dad "helped". I love that face!

And now she's loving it! And wanting you to join in.

And now to Harvey's best day ever #1.
Big boy got to sit and eat his own piece of cake---without frosting of course. Gotta save something for his first birthday. And, we wouldn't want to upstage the birthday girl. (And more frosting for mommy. There, I said it.)
He was super intense and focused the whole time. Just shoveling it in as fast as he could. He only stopped to look around when Lorelai was getting out of her chair. Probably afraid his cake time was over.

He also got to wear a Tinkerbell headband just like the birthday girl. He loved it. Or maybe just my mom and I loved it. Whatever. A good time was had by all.

And best day ever #2:

A day at the park. It was finally warm and sunny yesterday, so we decided to get out and get some fresh air. And take 400 photos. Literally. It's an illness, I know.

We found a swing set with some baby swings and decided to let Harvey try them out. He had never been in a real swing, so we weren't sure how he would like it.

First, the wind up:

And he's off! And loving it.

I love this photo! Such reckless abandon.

And the wind in that already naturally crazy hair. Too perfect.

Then the big boy wanted to take a spin.

Such a perfect day. While it was one of Harvey's best days ever, John and I will also cherish those memories as well. It's so fun and refreshing to watch your children experience things like this for the first time. We've all played on swings a million times and they're not that exciting to us. But to a newbie, that's some pretty exciting stuff, "flying" through the air, the wind in your wild spiky hair. I love it.

The Sweetest

Man, I have some of the sweetest photos to share with you..............tomorrow. But here's a sneak peek.
You can almost hear the squeals of delight now......

This is How Harvey Feels Right Now

He's so over it. He's sick for the first time---ear infection/virus. Life gets a little crazy when kiddos get sick, so we're still a little out of sorts. It's like we have a newborn in our house again, getting up several times a night and then starting our day extra early. He's starting to feel better, so we're getting more sleep. Hopefully I can get it together and edit the photos from this weekend to put on here. This photo is actually from Lorelai's birthday party, right when he was starting to get sick. He loves Tinkerbelle. And his mother who takes waaay to many photos of him.

I Know....

....that I am the luckiest.

I love you, my sweet Valentines!

All I Want for Valentines Day......

Is my two front teeth. Or I'll settle for one.

If you look close, you can see his top right tooth came in today. Just barely caught it. Such a ham for the camera.

100 Photos

This was taken a few weeks ago before a big storm in Nashville. Tornados in January. Very strange. Nothing like a storm to demonstrate God's power. So here is God's Handwriting #2.

The Mom Face

I took Harv to the doctor this morning for his official 9 month checkup (just really wanted to make it feel important, so I put "official" in front of it. Really made you think it was a big deal, huh?). Everything went well, Harvey is perfect (duh) and a total genius (tell me something I don't know). He skipped the basic babbling--mama, dada, baba---and has moved straight into hahaha and gagaga. See, genius. I was really kind of worried about his speech, but his Dr. assured me that he's totally fine and has just moved onto more advanced noises. Harvey even demonstrated (over and over) all his many phrases so Dr Huss could hear them all. We're were all so impressed.

One interesting thing that has been happening lately: Harvey has started to really throw some temper tantrums. Every time you get him dressed your faced with hand slapping, screaming/crying, feet kicking, and some serious pelvic thrusting to demonstrate how much he dislikes getting dressed. Same with the highchair, or anytime you're messing with him when he doesn't want to be messed with. So, my response: enter---The Mom Face. Oh yes, I have been perfecting this technique on other children for many years. You know what I'm talking about. The stern voice accompanied by the head cocked to the side, eyebrow raised, and the evil eye. I knew my mom face was really coming together a few years ago when I was nannying Sophie, a five year old. One day, we were playing and she took the game too far. I gave her a warning, and then out came the mom face with her most final warning. She looked right at me and said "Oh man, that's your serious face. That's not your Mrs. Sarah play face. You must be gettin' mad." And that's when I knew, all that practice was finally coming together.

So the last couple of weeks, I've been debating whether or not it's too early to be mom facing Harvey. One part of me feels like I don't take any c-r-a-p (spelling words on here like I have to in real life) off of anyone under 4 feet tall, including Harvey. The other part of me feels like he's too young to be "disciplined" at all. But, we have to start sometime, and that's how behavior gets out of control before you know it. Back and forth all the time. There have been a few times where I have gotten stern without even thinking about it. I just stop what I'm doing, look him right in the eye, and sternly tell him to "Stop". That's all. And he does. For just a minute, of course. But it's getting his attention. He knows, mom doesn't normally talk to me like that. And her face, what the heck happened to her face?! Is she having some kind of small stroke or something?

While we were at the doctor, he was asking about tantrums, saying we're right on track. I admitted that I had been getting pretty straight forward with him and attempting to be stern about tantrums, but that I felt bad because I know he's so young. Our doctor said that's good, and normally he has to have "stern" talks with moms about not sweet talking all the time, that they need to try to be tougher with their children. Oh no sir, not me! I'll be tough on him all day, you just say the word! I like strict, and the face that comes along with it! :) So look out Harv, mom and dad are going to be cracking down on tantrums. Not like it's going to stop them---they're inevitable for the next 20+ years. I know I still like to throw a tantrum every now and then. Feels so good.

Ok, here are the official (there it is again) 9 month stats.

Weight: 22.94 pounds. 83rd percentile (Down from the 90th last time). Gained 2.5 pounds

Length: 30.75 inches. 98th percentile (same). He's grown 1 3/4 inches.

Head:18.58 inches. 92nd percentile (down from 93rd). He's up about 1/2 inch.

Hoping to get some photos edited and up here today. Got a lot left to do though, so we'll see! My new lens should be delivered today, so I will definitely have some new fun photos soon!

I will leave you with these images. I let him "help" me with the pantry one day a few weeks ago. Boy thought he had died and gone to Heaven! If only he knew how to open a jar............

Harvey's Nine Month Favs

Ok, so I'm all ready to tell you about the life and times if Harvey at nine months.

*While he doesn't crawl, this kid can get around. He has discovered all kinds of things that he likes to roll/shimmy towards in our house. He likes to roll on over to the entertainment center to push some buttons on the DVD player and to stick his hands in the VCR. And to rip any Netflix envelopes that happen to be laying there. Very helpful. Now, getting to the entertainment center requires a series of flinch/squeeze-your-eyes-closed-because-you're-not-sure-when-you're-going-to-bump-your-head rolls. He just keeps rolling until he eventually bumps his head. Then he knows he has arrived. He also rolls to the fireplace to open the trap door that hides the ignitor, the curtains to give them a good tug, the back door to make the loudest noise with our wooden blinds, and the little springy stopper behind the backdoor is also a favorite. So, crawling is not necessary for this kid. He doesn't mind a little rolling around and head bumping to get into some good trouble.

*He loves to flip in his bed and sleep on his tummy. He seriously laid in his bed like Flat Stanley until just a few weeks ago. We would put him to bed on his back in the middle of his bed, and find him the same way 12 hours later. Then all the sudden, he just realized, 'Wait, I can move in here, just wike I move out dere!'. And so he does, all the time. His bed and Pack-n-Play are not that wide, so it takes some serious moves to flip around, but he manages!

*Harvey loves to beat mercilessly on anything he can get his hands on to see what it will do. This is his main method of discovery in life. We call it the 'slappy paw'. This kid's hands are huge, like bear cub paws. He pounds faces, his tray on his highchair, any and all toys, etc. You get it close to him, he'll give it a thorough slapping.

*Harv has 3 teeth now, all on the bottom. And somehow (going to google this soon), he is able to make a sound that sounds like he's grinding his teeth. But against what? There are no other teeth in his mouth. So bizzarre.

*Sleep. He's such an amazing sleeper. He wakes up in the morning at 7:00. Then he's back down for morning nap from 9:00-11:00. He plays for a bit, then he's down for afternoon nap from 1:00-3:30/4:00 (typically 4). Then back to bed for the night at 7:00. Yup, that's about 17 hours a day. Insane. And, temporary. That morning nap is about to be obsolete, the afternoon nap might even get shorter. Regardless, he's a great sleeper. And the best part, there is no song and dance trying to get him to go to bed. We just go in there, put him in his sleepsack, put him in his bed, and done. He does the rest. He actually doesn't even like to be rocked at all. Kind of sad, but I'll take that over rocking/singing/begging him to sleep.

*He's really decided that he's waaaay too cool for all that baby cuddling junk. You try to pull him in for a good hug, and he's using every fiber of his being to push his head back away from you. The other day I tried to hold him like a baby, and he got stiff as a board, both arms stretched out to his sides, and he was bowing his back trying to get away from me. Where do they learn this?! Man, Harv, you should still think your parents are the coolest. Ever. Cause we are. Have you seen me dance? Yeah, I'm awesome. So just let us cuddle a little more. Three more months, then you can be independent. That's how that works, right?

Tomorrow we have his 9 month checkup, so I'll update with all his stats tomorrow!

Nine is Fine

Well, he's been out longer than he was in! Harvey hit the big 009 yesterday. I was still pretty sick and neglected my motherly duty to do a photo shoot with him. I know, what kind of mother am I?! I attempted to make up for it today by doing a photo shoot during the Super Bowl. He's definitely a male because he was pretty distracted by what was going on with the TV. Guess they're just born with the tendency to stare at the glowing box when there's a sporting event on. Even when they're waaay too young to know what's going on. Anyway, here are a few shots from his nine month photo shoot.

In honor of the Super Bowl halftime show, Harvey wanted to wear his The Who t-shirt. Man, he's so with it. And so happy.

Disclaimer--I just wanted a neutral background. Someday when I've eaten enough to be able to see straight, I'll edit out the wrinkles. Until then, just look at the cute boy in the middle.

The sign is not welcome here anymore.

Just a boy and his bird.

He's SO much bigger than Fred now. Breakin my heart.

Catching up on the game.

I just love him.

Sometime soon I'll write more about Harvey at nine months. Today I went alllllll the way outside for the first time in 6 days, so I'm exhausted! More to come soon.

The Funk

We've got it. I've been sick since Tuesday----and I'm still not 100%. It's probably going to take awhile to come back from this. I don't get sick often at all (last time I was this sick--Spring 07), so I don't take it very well. And now, John is laid out on the couch. So ready or not, I've got to pull it together 'cause I'm mom. I told John last night that I wish we had moms around here. But, now I'm the mom. This is the one downside I've found so far in this job description. I'm just holding my breath, praying Harv doesn't catch this super bug. Able to change from flu like symptoms to intense stomach virus to (now) a sore throat. What the heck? Maybe someday we'll rejoin the outside world. Maybe.................(feeling a tad dramatic on day 5 of my illness. But I'm playing it off well. :) ).

What a Week

I feel like I'm always attempting to catch up these days. And yet I never feel all caught up. Guess that's my new normal. Anyway, it's been a crazy week in the Clore household. Harvey went to his grandparent's in Illinois, I hosted a bachelorette party Thursday night, there was a crazy winter storm and lots of wedding activities for my friends Natalie and Nick, and then there was a wedding (shocking, I know). And somewhere in all that, John and I finally painted Harvey's nursery. In all our free time. Here are some photos to help me feel like I'm getting caught up (although we all know I'm really not. It's a fun to pretend).

Wednesday:



I was a baker, a caterer, a florist, and (mostly) a mother. Seriously, Harv spent quite a bit of time playing "let's watch mama get things ready". He really likes that game. Only one rule to remember: mama's busy, so share all your troubles with your toys. Fortunately, he went to Illinois that night where he got some SERIOUS attention. He's so neglected. :)

Thursday




The limo driver snapped this beauty so I could be in a photo.

The par-tay bus.
Embarrassing Natalie as best as we could.

Then this happened Friday:
This was the first real snow since I've lived here. I've been dying for a snow storm to shut down Nashville. And of course, it happens the one weekend that we really can't stay in. So John and I risked life and limb to get to all the wedding festivities this weekend. Apparently this really threw me off my game because I don't have anymore photos until the wedding reception. I was all out of sorts.

But first, Saturday before I headed to the church, we did this:
We finally painted the nursery. Ah, that's much better (in my opinion).

Despite all the weather drama, it was a beautiful wedding, and I was honored to be a part of it all. So excited for you two! And, I'm insanely jealous you're in Hawaii for the next two weeks!

Sunday John and I worked on cleaning and putting Harvey's room back together, and then we finally were able to go get our little guy.

I missed this:

Those cheeks, that hair. I could just eat him up. While we did miss him, it was good to have a weekend alone. It's good to take some time out every now and then just to focus on being husband and wife without all the added pressure of being mom and dad. And, it's good for the little man to spend some time with his grandparents, to have special time where he can get away with murder. Everyone needs to have a chance to cut loose every now and then, even if you're just 8 months old.