Baptism weekend

I know. I'm almost 2 weeks late on getting this posted. I've been kind of busy and haven't had the time to sit down and get it down. John has Olivia and they're watching football so I'm going to take advantage of that and finally get this done.

The weekend was awesome! We flew in on Friday morning to Austin. Olivia is a great traveler. She was not at all scared of flying and didn't cry once. I made sure that I fed her when we were taking off and landing so as to help her pop her ears from the pressure and it seemed to work. Most of the rest of the time she slept or quietly sat on one of our laps. John and I decided that she is a better traveler than we are. That weekend I lost my keys (they were on the shuttle for the lot we parked in, so thankfully, they were waiting for us when we got back) and lost my purse getting on the airplane (the woman boarding behind us picked it up and returned it to John). The strap had broken and I didn't feel it fall off. I told everyone that I became a parent and lost my mind. I have told Olivia that I used to be really together and with it. Now, not so much.

Once we got there we went to my sister's house and changed. Danny was there on his lunch break so we got to talk to him for about 10 minutes. Then we went to see Busha. It was her first meeting with Olivia and it went really well. Olivia was very well behaved. While we were there my cousin Mary Beth, Uncle Larry, Aunt Manny, and Erin's boyfriend, Ryan, all stopped by. It was a full house in Busha's little apartment. But it was really nice to see her one on one for a little while.










We stayed in a hotel so we went and checked in and then had dinner with Erin and Ryan at one of their favorite pizza places in the area. Olivia was pooped by that time but we still stopped by Target so that I could get a new purse. I went in for a red one and came out with a blue one. Oh well. Another example of my losing my mind: I left my drink from the restaurant on top of the car when I got in and it fell off as we drove away. I was so disappointed. I never do crap like that!


On Saturday, John, Olivia and I drove to Waco to visit Baylor and to see one of John's friends from his grad school days there. We had lunch at his favorite bar/restaurant, George's. Pat Green is a regular there but we didn't see him that day. My Aunt Manny hosted a happy hour and hors d'ouerves get together that night. Olivia got to meet her cousins Kristen, Thomas, Jason, Noel, and Ellie as well as her Great Aunts Barb and Laurie and close family friend Jan. Grandma and Grandpa had made it in to town by then so we saw them too. It was a lot of fun and Olivia did not seem at all overwhelmed by all the people and by being passed around. She and Ellie are about 8 months apart and they seemed to like each other. I am really excited to see them together when they get older.










Sunday was her Baptism. She was great during Mass and did not cry when the Deacon poured the water on her head. I knew she wouldn't. She loves her baths and we do pretty much the same thing, so she was used to it. She looked so cute in her gown. I didn't put her little bonnet on, but she did have really cute shoes on. Unfortunately, I don't think I got a picture of those. After church we went over to my Uncle Larry & Aunt Laurie's house where we had lunch and drinks. Olivia got to meet her cousins Price and Luke, her Great Aunts Sandra and Robin, and Great Uncles Rich and Andy. Busha was able to make it to the Baptism and the party too. We weren't sure she was going to be up to it, but she was and I am so glad. Olivia got some wonderful gifts. We so appreciate everyone that made it. It meant a lot to all of us.






On Sunday night, Jason, Noel, Erin, John and I left the kids with the grandparents and went to the Salt Lick restaurant. It's a pretty well known barbecue joint just outside Austin in Driftwood, TX. The food was good, but John and I decided that we are Memphis barbecue people, not Texas. The atmosphere was what made the place with long wooden table and benches. It was almost community style but you still had your own separate area.


On Monday we went over to see Busha again and took our "4 Generations" picture and then went down to Erin's house. She took us and my parents to lunch at Shady Grove. It was an awesome little restaurant too. They have a lot of live music there at night and I really want to go back to hear some of it. Monday night, after my parents left to drive back to Houston, Erin, Danny, John, Olivia and I all went to the Round Rock Express game at Dell Diamond. The RR Express are the AAA affiliate of the Texas Rangers. It was hot and humid, but it was $1 hot dog and coke night, so we took advantage. I, of course, got myself a pair of socks as I do at all new ballparks that I visit. Erin said she thought she saw Scott Servais (former MLB catcher for the Cubs and other teams) but I missed him so I'm not sure.


Tuesday we flew home. We were completely exhausted, but I think Olivia could have gone several more days. She did really well in the hotel. She slept through the night, even giving us 11 hours one night. She has been pretty consistent at sleeping at least 7 hours every night since she was about 8 weeks old. Now she usually sleeps no less than 9 every night. She turned 3 months old yesterday! The time has flown by, and she will start daycare on Monday. I will be 5 minutes away so I will probably head over there during my lunch hour on most days.

My brother turned 25 yesterday! Happy Birthday Danny! It's odd to think that the youngest Harper kid in my immediate family is a quarter of a century old. =)

Wine

So my parents are in town and I have had wine every night this week. I told my mom that I never drink this much unless they are here or we go to Texas to visit. And it's during the week! I am so old.

I started back to work this week and it has actually gone very well. It was difficult, of course, to leave Olivia, but knowing that my parents were taking care of her this week made it easier. I will see how things go next week when I actually have to take her to daycare. I'm thinking that I will need John to come with me that first day.

I will do a separate posting about our long weekend in Austin for Olivia's baptism. We had a blast and it just reaffirmed how much we really want to be back home in Texas. One day we will make it!

It looks like we are getting new neighbors soon. The house next door to us used to be own by an investor who rented it out. The story is that he had 6 houses here in the Valley and all of them went in to foreclosure. That was according to the people who were renting it. We're not really sure that is correct, but we're not going to complain. We are just really glad to have the people that own the house living in it. Living next to renters is no fun. Plus they had a dog that barked all the time. Of course, we're hoping to be out of here soon. A couple of weeks ago some graffiti was sprayed on the house on the other side of us and our adjoining wall/fence. It really made me angry and I told John that I didn't care if it made me sound like a spoiled brat or a snot, but I do not live in places that get graffitied. It's sad because this neighborhood was very nice when we moved in 4 years ago. Not that it's not nice now, but with all the investors that came in and rented out homes, it's kind of gone down a little bit. I guess that's just the nature of the market right now.

Here are more pics of Livi. She will be 3 months on Friday! She loves her football and will watch it almost all day with Daddy. Dad is trying to giver her Dallas Cowboys history and get her to be a fan and I am doing all I can to prevent it. We'll see which way she goes.

Tendonitis

Yes, I have tendonitis in my left wrist. I have been doing some physical therapy for it and wearing a splint. I'm supposed to wear it as much as I can. It helps but I feel stupid with it on. I wanted to put a couple of pictures of my sweet custom made splint on here so everyone can laugh at me. Yep, 15 years of softball and not once did I have problems with my wrists. Then I go and get knocked up and here I am.

A+ Baby

Olivia had her 2 month check-up this past week. She came in at 23.5 inches tall and 14 lb 5.5 oz! I say A+ baby as the title because her weight puts her in the 95+ percentile for her age. So instead of saying she's chunky (which of course she is) we are saying that she has an A+. Her height is in the 85 percentile. She also had her first immunizations at this appointment and she was not happy about it to say the least. She screamed for a couple of minutes after the shots (3 of them, plus an oral thing) but we were able to settle her down. She was fine for several hours and then all of sudden decided that she was going to scream inconsolably again. I did everything I could to get her to calm down and after 15 minutes or so (and some infants Tylenol) she fell asleep in my arms, only to wake up an hour later and scream again for several minutes. I even tried swaddling her for the first time in a long time but it really didn't seem to work. I can only assume that she was not feeling well from the shots. She had never done anything like that before. She was more sleepy than usual which the doctor said would be the case and she slept for most of the rest of the afternoon. I felt so bad for her, but she was fine when she woke up and we haven't had any other problems since then. She did get some cute little pink camo band-aids out of it.

I can't believe that she is already 9 1/2 weeks old. And I can't believe that I only have 3 more weeks of maternity leave yet. Let's not talk about that. Olivia gets more and more talkative every day and enjoys carrying on conversations with John and I. She is really good at the "ooh" sounds and has recently started a kind of high-pitched scream thing. It's actually really cute despite how I described it.

We think that she is going to be a thumb sucker. She loves to gnaw and suck on her fists and especially her thumb. Her hands have become her focus rather than the pacifier. She drools all over the place too. I didn't realize this, but apparently all the signs of teething like that can happen several months before the first teeth come in. So she is pretty typical in that respect.

We are all continuing to do well. I am starting physical therapy for my left wrist on Monday. The orthopedic guy I saw said that's what my problem was. I don't think that I've blogged about it before. It started in probably the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy and I thought it was just related to the swelling in my fingers that I would get overnight, but the pain never went away after delivery like it did in my fingers. So John finally got me to go to the doctor and luckily it wasn't anything worse than tendonitis. It can be extremely painful when I pick Olivia up and even when I turn a doorknob. So hopefully whatever therapy they have me doing will help.

Daddy is still working through his first time parent learning curve. Please take a look at the picture below to see what I'm talking about. I cracked up when I walked in and saw how she was dressed and John said that he wasn't sure he had done it correctly. And, yes, he was completely serious when he put the pajamas on. It wasn't a joke. I thought it was cute.

Getting big!

Olivia continues to grow and grow. I love her little rolls and creases. She has them all over! My mom, sister and brother all came into town this weekend. Erin was here from Thursday to Saturday. Danny was here Saturday and Sunday. My mom got here Friday and will be leaving tomorrow. It's been crazy but it's also been great to have the help. Erin babysat for me and my mom has been getting up at night. Although of course Olivia has decided she's going to sleep pretty well for Grandma. She slept 8 hours straight last night! It was the first time she had done that, and I hope it continues once Grandma leaves. She did poop on Grandma so that was nice. Plus, I was pooped on recently as well. The shirt I was wearing was stained and dubbed "The Shit Shirt". I cracked up laughing when it happened. Of course John was at work so I had to handle it all myself. Oh well. Of course I got a picture.




Olivia loves her baths so we try to give her one fairly often. She will sit there quietly and just enjoy it. She doesn't even seem to mind when water gets in her eyes.

We have scheduled her baptism. It will be on August 24 in Austin. That way our families can be there. It's much easier for us to travel than to try to get everyone to Phoenix. Erin is going to be her Godmother, and we haven't yet picked a Godfateher. We will do that soon. We are really excited about it. I can't wait for her to meet everyone and for everyone to see her.

She also finally went to her first Diamondbacks game. She really seemed to enjoy it. She was fascinated by all the lights around her. We stayed for 3 innings and had no problems with her at all. All the noise and cheering didn't bother her at all. I think that's a good sign! Now we just have to teach her to hate the Yankees and Braves (and Cowboys!). Check out her awesome shoes!

Here are some more random picks. I did not teach her to flip the bird. I'll blame that on my husband. And I guess the cat was trying to be modest while he was laying on the ground spreadeagle.

First visitors

I realized that I forgot to mention that my Aunt Manny came to visit Olivia a couple of weeks ago. She was so excited to come and we are so glad that she was able to make it. Olivia had a great time with her, and even welcomed her by pooping on her. =)

6 weeks

Olivia will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. Time has flown by. She gets bigger every day and is smiling more and more. She tends to be really happy when she is laying on the changing table. Why? I don't really know. But she seems to think that the ribbon and monkey picture on the wall are pretty funny. And mommy is pretty funny while she's changing her too. Works for me. I love it when she smiles!

We are currently looking in to getting her baptized. We are hoping to go to Austin at the end of August and may have her baptized there at a church that some of my family go to. Plus, we would have a better chance of getting more people there to meet Olivia for the first time. Most of my family lives not too far from Austin and may have the chance to travel there. And we'd get to see Busha which is the big deal.

I had my 6-week postpartum appointment yesterday. Everything is healing very well and he said that I have no restrictions so I can resume all normal activities. I plan on going back to the gym starting next week. I am not eager to see how out of shape I am. I'll be on the treadmill dying I'm sure. Next week I am going to see an Orthopedic guy because I've been having issues with my left wrist. During the last trimester of my pregnancy I was swollen and had pain in my knuckles when I woke up in the morning. About 6 weeks before I delivered I started getting pain in my wrist and thought it was the same thing. But it has not gone away and has actually gotten progressively worse. It is most painful on the thumb side of my wrist right on the bone. It feels like a little bump has grown on the bone and at times it feels like something is sliding over the top of it when I move it. So I am being forced by my husband to have it looked at. The fact that I sometimes have a hard time picking Olivia up is enough of a problem.

I got some more great pictures of Olivia this week. They are below. I also took a video of her on my digital camera. It was my first time working with it so it's not great but at least she was awake for it.

Chunkster!

We have a chunkster on our hands. I took Olivia to her one month check-up and she was 21 inches (20.5" at birth) and 11 pounds 11 ounces (8 lb 1.4 oz at birth - 7 lb 12.5 oz 4 days later)! That's almost 4 pounds in 4 weeks! I knew she had gained some weight, but I didn't think it'd be that much. She has all the cute little creases and rolls. The socks she wears even leave marks on her ankles because they are so chubby. So, yes, she eats like her mom. Her next appointment is August 6 and she will start getting all her immunizations that day. Mom and Dad are not looking forward to it. I am making John go with me to that appointment because I don't want to go alone. He didn't go to the one month one because there weren't going to be any shots. Plus, he probably didn't want to sit through all the questions that I had for the doctor. I had a bunch and he was very patient with me and answered all of them. I even asked about piercing her ears which I want to do while she is still little. John is going to need some convincing when it comes to that.

She is really smiling a lot more now. She thinks I'm pretty funny I guess. She also really likes the mobile in her crib. She loves baths as well. She will sit quietly and just enjoy as we wash her, and then I massage her with baby lotion after. She loves that too. Most of the time we just undress her in her room and take her to the kitchen and bathe her in the sink. Well I guess she decided she doesn't want to do that because on the way to the bath the other night she peed all over me. John was cracking up as I'm standing there with a wet shirt and pee all over the floor and dripping down my legs. I am really glad we decided to put laminate floors in!

Olivia is getting much better at sleeping longer at night. She usually averages between 4 and 5 hour stretches when we first put her down and then 1 1/2-2 1/2 hour stretches after her middle of the night feeding. In fact, the other night she slept 6 1/2 hours at one time. It was awesome! It made me nervous when I woke up and she hadn't gotten up yet, so of course I have to go make sure she's breathing. Ahhh, being a new mother. I just wish those second stretches were longer.

She has a move that we call the "O.G. Roll". Sometimes she doesn't like being up on our shoulders, so she rolls herself over into the crook of our arms so she's facing upwards. Here she is after she has performed the roll and some extra scooting.

One Month!

Time has flown by and Olivia is now one month old. She is able to hold her head up for an extended period of time, has rolled over on her own once, and is becoming more and more chatty every day. We went and had her picture taken yesterday at JC Penney for her one month birthday. We are planning on doing a 6 month shot, a one year shot, and so on. The pictures turned out awesome and we should have our order by the 17th. We also opted for the online gallery so once we have the link to that I'll put it in here so everyone can check out the pictures. Some of our own are below. She goes in for her 4 week check-up on Tuesday. I can't wait to see how much she weighs. She is a big girl!

Practicing her beautiful smile!

Tummy time with Elvis. Yes, our cat is huge.

This picture was taken this morning, so I apologize for the way I look. Olivia managed to roll herself into this position and was asleep. I guess she was comfortable. It also gives you an idea of how big she has gotten.

I have my 6 week post-partum appointment on the 15th. I should be cleared to go back to all my normal activities. I am looking forward to getting back to the gym. I feel like a blob right now. I have been trying to get out and walk but it is so freakin' hot here that I have to go really early in the morning so it doesn't happen that often. I am pretty much back to normal as far as how I feel compared to how I was before I got pregnant. I'd say that it took about 3 1/2 weeks or so for me to feel back to "normal". There was a lot more to the recovery process than I thought or realized there would be.

The sleep deprivation has not been terrible. Olivia really does pretty well at night and I am very thankful for that. I am able to get a nap during the day which really helps, but I am definitely eagerly awaiting the day that she decides she is ready to sleep through the night. The weekends are great because then John can help me with the late nights. I think he is realizing, finally, what I do all day and all night. With her up more and more during the day, it's exhausting!

Finally, I'd like to congratulate Jenn and Rian on the birth of their son Cameron Rian on June 28th. At 9 lb 5 oz he was a big boy. Both he and Jenn are doing really well. He is adorable and we can't wait to meet him!