357 days old...

I can't believe it is almost here...Harper's first birthday. Has it really been a year? The year flew by and we hardly noticed it. Now Harper is about to celebrate her 2nd Easter in under a year (which I find pretty awesome) and shortly thereafter...her birthday. I have slowly been planning her party and I love that it is during spring. Her party will be at the end of April -- here's hoping for lovely weather.

As I reflect on the past year I can say without a doubt that being a mom is one of the hardest jobs in the world. There are moments when I want to cry (or I do cry), where I want to get away for a while -- where I call John and tell him to pick up dinner on his way home. Yes it is hard to be at home all day. (as I imagine it is hard to be at work and away from your baby all day, too.) It is particularly hard to be at home all day when it is cold and rainy. But I love morning cuddles. I love watching Harper play by herself (if you can call her being amongst all of her toys "by herself") for at least an hour after morning cuddles and her bottle. It is hilarious to watch her imitate me -- which makes me realize I tell her "NO" and shake my head at her quite a bit. I love sending her daddy texts and photos of her during the day. I love Facetime with her grandparents and uncles. I love taking her to story time and playgroups. I love chatting with other stay at home moms who know exactly how I feel without me having to go into much detail. I also love the advice they give. I love the sound of the garage around 6:00. I love that my body (although definitely not where I want it to be) protected and nurtured our little girl for 39 weeks and 6 days, and that I would it do it all again if it meant she would be just as happy and healthy as she is now. I have a deeper love and understanding for my husband now than I did before we had Harper. She has made us stronger.

We have been extremely busy every weekend -- traveling to Charlotte for Mason's birthday, going to Blue Ridge for the weekend, traveling to Macon for Madison's birthday...and soon, we leave for our cruise.

In other news...

-Harper is walking -- a little. She still prefers crawling, but she can go 6-7 steps before holding on to something. ahh!
- Harper no longer wants baby food. She now has four teeth and she wants to use them.
- Harper has cousin #8 and #9 arriving in September. We are so excited (and this might mean I go back to work to pay for birthday and Christmas gifts -- ha, kidding)
- My long-term leave is up in April. Yup, not going back. We all knew that.
- John and I will be running the Peachtree Road Race on July 4. whoop whoop. (we might also do a half marathon in January.) I still don't think I will ever be a runner. Between keeping Harper all day, John getting home at 5:30-6, making dinner, cleaning up, bathing Harper, putting her to bed and cleaning up...ugh...if only you could burn calories that way. We shall see. :)
- October is National Get Married Month. At least for our friends (and family) it is. :)


OK ok -- here are some pictures. ENJOY!

A Teething Baby...

...is a drooling, runny-nosed, fussy baby. It's been a long month and a half. Harper has 4 teeth. Unlike other children who have multiple teeth come in at a time, Harper's teeth like to tag-team. They come in one at a time. The bottom two teeth weren't so bad...but the top ones? Yikes. I am somewhat impressed at the amount of saliva and snot my child can produce. The extra saliva is causing her to have some red spots on her face. This has something to do with the enzymes in her saliva while teething -- who knows, really. Apparently this is all normal. I also stopped breast feeding this month. A few days after Harper turned 11 months old, I decided to stop nursing. It was very emotional for me. Surprisingly, Harper didn't seem to care at all. Really. She went straight to cow's milk (although  I have been mixing in some of my frozen breast milk.) Cow's milk before age 1? What are you thinking? Well, I talked to the pediatrician. She said it was pointless to get Harper to drink formula for a month and then transition her to cow's milk, so we went straight to cow's milk.


We went to Charlotte on Saturday for Mason's 1 birthday. He is the first of the trio of cousins to celebrate his 1st birthday. It was quite a drive for a 24 hour visit, but spending time with family is important. Harper enjoyed seeing her cousins.

Below are some pictures we had taken Sunday morning. 

11 months

Harper is 11 months (and one day) old. I am in shock. For many reasons, actually. I can't believe that she is almost a year old. Time is passing faster than I had anticipated. It is also hard to know she is this old because my body is not where I want it to be. A wise friend said not to think a second more about that because it is toxic to my journey. So, today I stared my Tracy Anderson Post-Pregnancy workout. It was tough. That on top of running should get me to where I want to be...but that's not what this post should really be about...



Harper is the sweetest little girl. She only gets fussy when she is hungry. Any problem she has can be solved with grapes. She loves anything off of my plate. She can take up to two steps on her own and it is dangerous to take your eyes off of her. She is teething which makes nighttime less fun. She currently has 3 teeth, with the fourth making an appearance soon. She loves music, dancing and animals. She adores babies and children. She points to things -- and actually means to point to them. Like flying birds or pointing at me when I walk across the room. She says something that sounds like a combination of "hey" and "hi." She actually says that at the correct time. She recently started saying "mamamama" in reference to me (HOORAY!) She can unlock my iphone with her little pointer finger. It is incredible to watch her move with such purpose. She shakes her head "no." Harper amazes us, entertains us, fills us with worry and with joy.

she likes to push up on her legs from this position

A trip to Disney with running on the side

February was an especially busy month for us. I had been simultaneously excited about and dreading February.  No, not because of those obnoxious Subway commercials -- how hard is it to say Februany?  Let's back up -- we had Lisa and Jerry Logan and Josh and Katie Pike over for dinner. It was a blast catching up and I can't wait to see Baby Boy Logan (aka Lil G.) Valentine's Day was sweet and John being away to Greenville, SC for a week wasn't terrible -- but the half-marathon (for which there was little training) was at the end of the month. The two days prior to the race would be spent at Epcot and the Magic Kingdom (note: next race will not have me walking in flipflops for two days -- fresh legs are needed for 13.1 miles!) I gave myself a couple of days to pack so that it was not overwhelming. (Typically on trips, I forget essentials like a tooth brush or underwear. This means that I have tons of underwear at home and several toothbrushes because I am always having to buy new ones. Any pump supplies? OY! We have a bunch!) I think I did a great job packing. Really. I impressed myself.

We loaded into the car with Ricky and Keri on Thursday night. We spent the night in Macon with John's parents. It was fun catching up and letting Harper spend some time with her grandparents. The next morning, we hit the road for Orlando. The ride down was pretty uneventful, mostly because Keri and Ricky were SO good to Harper. (Keri is one of the greatest people I know and I have a special place in my heart for her for these reaons: she always finds Snocaps for me even when I can't find them anywhere, she ran the half-marathon with me and was my biggest cheerleader, AND, most importantly, she is so good to Harper.) As soon as we checked in to our hotel (special things to Dottie Stubel for being the biggest fan of Disney and hooking us up with a great deal!) we changed, I pumped and we went to Epcot.

Keri crowned Harper on the ride to Orlando

Harper's first ride -- the tram to Epcot!

meeting Aurora -- Harper was not amused

It was a great day to visit Epcot and Harper enjoyed several rides like Spaceship Earth, Universe of Energy, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, etc. I am super dorky and love Epcot the most. We walked around the World Showcase, eating dinner and China and watching the fireworks display.

The next morning we had every intention of waking up to see the opening of the Magic Kingdom, but Harper had other plans. We eventually made it to the park and had a blast. It was so crowded.

we just walked through the gates at the Magic Kingsom

Jungle Cruise

Harper and her Daddy watching a concert

mesmerized by "It's a Small World"

I was so worried that Harper wouldn't take any naps at the park since we planned to spend the whole day there. I was clearly a silly thing to worry about....

 Harper even slept through the Winnie the Pooh ride. She woke up just in time for us to walk through the gift shop. She kept pointing at Winnie the Pooh -- so her daddy bought her a stuffed animal.

Harper and Keri

After spending most of the day at the Magic Kingdom, we left to meet Ricky at the hotel. He went to watch the Braves play that afternoon. His friend, David Hale, made the 40 man roster this year. We showered and got dressed so that we could meet David and his girlfriend, Megan, for dinner. Downtown Disney was packed. We lucked out and got a table at an Irish Pub. We sat outside with live music. It was a blast.

Megan, David and our waiter, Kevin.

Keri, Ricky and Harper

David finally held her!

Harper loved the live music. I play music all the time around the house and she loves to dance. If you haven't seen the video, you might enjoy watching this.

The next morning was the big race. Buses were running from the hotel to Epcot (the start and finish of the race) from 3-4am. Thankfully, we were outside waiting at 3:30 because the lines were so long. Yes, I was super nervous but at this stage in the game -- I was going 13.1 miles. I tried to dress up as Snow White. Keri was Aurora. I made the mistake of thinking my running tank top (with built in bra) would be sufficient for a nursing mom. WRONG! I went the whole way with my jacket zipped up -- yes, it was super warm. Lesson learned. We were in corral C, so we started 15 minutes after the start of the race. We found a couple whose pace I really liked and for 2.5 miles we rocked it. We had to stop for a restroom break and lost them. That was ok. We were still going strong. A little after 3 miles was a photo stop with all the fellas from Disney fairy tales. We waited in line -- meanwhile the leaders of the race were heading past us in the other direction-- done with nearly 8 miles. yikes! One thing that needs to be said is that we didn't run the race to achieve a personal best. I can't imagine running Disney race for that reason. You run it because it is an awesome environment with photo stops with characters that you would never normally see in a park (or the lines would be too long.) We stopped for photos with all the villains, Mary Poppins, Belle, Alice in Wonderland, a photo at the castle. It was great. So, our official time was slightly less than 4 hours wasn't entirely correct. (Also, we made a deal with ourselves that if we stopped for a photo, we would run harder to make up for lost time. It was exhausting, but very worth it.)

the villain photo stop

haha...I have 2 ponchos and 4 energy gels in my pocket

right before the race

"how are you?" "tired." "i can't even imagine."

It was hard. My longest training run was 6 miles. I was in pain. I kept saying that I was doing it for Harper and for John. I mostly did this for me. How could I let myself get so out of shape? That question brings tears to my eyes even as I type it now. In the back of my mind I also knew that John's flight was at 12:30 and he would need to get to the airport a few hours early. We needed to finish this race so that I could say bye to my husband.

There are two things that I never want released even if I die tomorrow: my Google search history and the playlist that got me through this race. I will admit, we walked one mile. Mile 10. That was it. We didn't even stop for pictures or anything after that. My knee was hurting so badly -- my feet sore from two days of walking the parks. Keri was awesome. She could have done the race a lot faster if I didn't hold her back. She stayed with me and cheered me on -- I love her for that. My goal was to do the 13.1 miles in under 3 hours. Although our official times says we did not, Keri kept our time on her phone and accounted for our photo stops. AND WE CAME IN UNDER 3 HOURS. For some people that isn't a big deal. For this overweight, out of shape breastfeeding mama, it was awesome. I had a vision of us seeing the finish line and running to John and Harper and crying (and hopefully nursing immediately!) That didn't happen. John needed to get the the airport 3 hours early. Ricky was taking him. No one was meeting us at the finish line. So here is the finish line and all I have are tears. Yes, I am exhausted and proud of myself -- but Keri and I want to share this moment with the men we love and they aren't there. We grab some waters, powerades and our sub-par snack boxes. We get our medals and take pictures. We wait in line for a bus ride back to the hotel to shower and head home.

This magical weekend ended abruptly -- it was bittersweet. I was very emotional the whole way home. I didn't get to say bye to John, and I was in pain. I knew that I had a whole week alone with Harper (who was getting sick.)  She was particularly fussy on the way home. Ricky and Keri were so good to me. I swore I wouldn't do another race.

My mom came and spent the night with me. She dealt with Harper the whole night. I got to sleep. I iced my knee. The next day I felt great. I was a little sore, but my knee didn't hurt at all. John had arrived safely to Budapest. I had nothing to cry about anymore. Now I want to sign up for another Disney race.