We are a day past our first Christmas together...I can't believe it has already come and gone. We had such a great time and we will have such special memories of our first baby's first Christmas. We all got sooooo many awesome gifts and we are thankful for each and every one of them. We shouldn't have to buy any toys for Harry for quite some time and Travis and I are looking forward to going shopping to spend some of our cash and gift cards we received! We started off the day here at home and opened some presents here. Then we were off to Granny's house for some excellent food and our gift exchange. Granny's house was about to burst at the seams with our growing family and the abundance of gifts! We wrapped up the day at Mom and Dad's for some more yummy food and presents. Let's just say the Odyssey was jammed full on our ride back home. Yesterday helped us to realize once again how truly blessed we are, not with just material things, but with family and each other. We are such a lucky family!

Can you believe it??!!

I just wanted to post some pics of Baby Harry to celebrate his 8 month birthday (although it is a day late!!) We also wanted to show off his new "smile"...this is his new look when I whip out the camera! He is so funny!!



This is Harry and Aiden. Look what a difference 7 months makes!!



That was a great meal!!



This is Harry's mean face...I got the last laugh though! I finally got a good picture of his top two teeth!!

Harry has discovered a new favorite toy...strangely enough, it is an orange triangle. Who would have thought?? It is just a plastic triangle that goes with a box that you can put different shapes into. He doesn't show any interest in the toy or the other shapes that go with it, just the triangle. I'm thinking he will really enjoy geometry! He hasn't yet figured out out to crawl while holding the special jewel so he tosses it ahead of him, crawls to pick it up, and continues the process until he gets where he wants to go which is usually to the dogs' bowls, Christmas decorations, anywhere that he shouldn't be going. Funny kid. 

I had four day weekend last week. It was so great! I got a lot of our Christmas shopping done, we went to a few Christmas parties, and we had some of our buddies over last Saturday. It had been awhile since we had all been together and we had a lot of fun! Harry really enjoyed the extra attention from everyone. He even got an early Christmas present, a Purdue football from Molls and Barney (thanks again!).

I haven't noticed Harry doing anything new this week. I think we have had enough developments for a while! He has learned to navigate up the two steps in our bedroom really well. I tried to teach him to go down the steps with some not-so-good results...he did well with the first one, then lost his balance on the second and fell right on his face. He cried for about a minute or so then he was fine. I think we probably won't try that again for a little bit! We tried some Puffs (kind of like a piece of cereal that dissolves quickly for you non parental types) and he did really well with them.

Oooh! Lots of stuff to knock off or steal!

Last night Katrina (our babysitter) hosted a Christmas party for all of the kids that go to the daycare and their parents. It was really nice to meet everyone and get to know the kids a little better since I only see them for a few minutes each day that I drop him off or pick him up. She made dinner and everything. How she manages to do that while watching multiple children while I usually can't do it while watching one child is beyond me! She is really sweet and good to the kids, and I feel really lucky that we were able to find her. She also gave us some great news...she is moving to a new house about a mile away from us!! We didn't mind making the drive since we really like her, but now it will be convenient as well!

After a bad start to our day today (Harry spilled a whole glass of strawberry milk that I stupidly left in his reach on our new carpet) we decided to go to eat lunch with Daddy. Then we walked down to the kids book store to get a couple of Christmas books. We then made a trip to Target to get some Resolve (of course, we didn't have any!) and to get a few more presents. And really, what day isn't made better by a trip to Target??



Okay, where is that stinkin' triangle??

I'm coming for ya!

Harry has officially entered the world of mobility! It is amazing how fast he has caught onto crawling...he is really picking up the speed! If he is not sleeping or eating he is on the move. He chased around poor Oscar tonight as he was inoocently trying to play with his rope toy. He didn't seem to mind too much. Hopefully he thought it was fun! Harry has also figured out how to pull up to a standing position on the couch. I saw him do it yesterday for the first time and I was shocked! I got excited for him, then he immediately lost his balance and landed with a thud! He probably surprised himself too. I am so happy that he is able to explore more of our little world here, but it sure is a lot harder to watch him! It cracks me up how he can find every little security breach we have in the house. He is such a curious little monkey!



Standing Tall

Sleeping is going a little bit better. He has only been getting up once a night and going back to sleep fairly well. That is a big improvement over last week so I am thankful for that! I don't know if it is because his teeth are almost all of the way in or if this is just a new pattern. I sure hope not. I got used to those restful nights very quickly!!

Travis reported that Harry did really well at swimming class this past Saturday. He was really alert and he even started to kick some! I am really excited to go (and observe only!) this weekend since I will be off. Speaking of being off, I actually have Thursday through Sunday off so I am really pumped up for my 4 day weekend! It will be nice to spend a lot of time with Harry and Travis and finish my Christmas shopping! It sounds like it will be perfect mall weather since we are in the middle of a big cold snap!

I realized the other day that I only take pictures of Harry when he is happy and I don't have hardly any pictures of him crying or upset. You have to have some embarrassing pictures of him to show his girlfriends, right?? I got a perfect opportunity the other night. I was feeding him his dinner and he was getting tired a little earlier than usual that night. I, for some reason, thought that would be a great time to try a new food. Chicken Noodle dinner to be exact. He flipped out on me. He would take a bite and act like he was going to gag. He ended up with it all over his face, in his hair, and even in his eyelashes. The only thing that calmed him down were some of his beloved bananas. The pictures don't do it justice! The poor little guy...he was crying, but as soon as he saw me get the camera he tried to stop and put on a happy face like I always try to make him do. He is such a good kid I can't even get a good picture of him wigging out!!