Elie Maitland Harpster

As most of my friends and family already know, we were given the gift of our baby girl on Friday morning at 8:10 am via a planned C-section. Miss Elie was born at 37 1/2 weeks gestation which is a bit early, but we weren't too sure that her environment inside the womb would keep up....soo out she came! It was a much easier time than 2 years ago when I labored for 14 hours and then had to have a C with Jack. Our hospital stay went well, Elie slept and ate like a champ and even left the hospital at her birth weight of 6 lbs 13 oz, which is unheard of for most babes. At day 5, she is a complete angel....sleeping most of the time, but when she is awake she is incredibly quiet and alert and very in tune to her environment. She is eating like a champ (every 1.5-2 hrs) which can be tough on mom at times, but just looking at her makes my heart melt. She has her nights and days confused and likes to be up quite a bit throughout the night. She loves for us to hold her on our chest, and for now that is the only way she will sleep at night. She has seen her big brother Jack every day at least once since she was born, thanks to my mom and dad. Jack is officially coming home from his grandparent vacation tomorrow and we are excited but nervous too! Here are just a few of my favs from Elie's first 5 days of life. Again, we thank God so much for this second gift.

Jack and Dad

For Father's Day this year, we sent Tyee on a hike in the Gorge (Dog Mountain!!) by himself and then met him in Hood River for a picnic at the river. It was a windy, but beautiful, day and we had a great time. It is so hard to believe that our family of 3 will soon be gone! Jack ADORES his daddy and follows him non-stop when he is home. I am so lucky to be able to sit back and watch the two of them love on each other. Happy 2nd Father's Day babe, I love you so much!!

Puppy Boy

We introduced Jack to Meg and Chelsea's new 9 week old puppy, "Diesel" last night! It may have been a bit early....Jack did the best that any 2 year old could, but we think Diesel was a bit traumatized by Jack. He is so used to handling Sophie, that he just could not understand why this little pup didn't want lots of hugs. We will try again next week when Diesel has had a little time to acclimate!

The adorable puppy towel with Jack's name on it is from his Auntie Stace, Justin and Bennett for his birthday. Thanks guys, he LOVES it!!

Weekend Visit

Last weekend we had the pleasure of spending time with Tyee's dad "Grandpa John" and his wife Claire. They were up for a visit and also because Claire was in charge of the horses in the Wells Fargo float at the gay pride parade. Jack's first parade was quite a colorful one!!! We had a quick, but great time, with them and Jack has been asking about them since they left...and about the "horsies" of course!

My Baby Turns 2

I have been putting this blog off for some reason.....well I know why, I am 9 mos pregnant exhausted and have had HORRIBLE allergies that pretty much ruin my entire day and I wanted to be able to write down lots of stuff to remember my 2 year old Jack. So while I am currently "sneezy-free" and have my feet up, I am going to attempt to document what a special boy we have.

Jack seems like he has grown up the most in the past 6 months. I look back over pics from just January and he seems like an entirely different child. I mean I know we shaved his head, let him watch some TV now, and that he had his first poo on the potty, but its more than that. I guess I will start with speech.....he changes every day and I can not even begin to count the number of words in his vocabulary. Some days he is very intelligible, and others I can not understand him to save my life. The longest and clearest sentence to date (that made my eyes fill with tears of course) was a couple of weeks ago when after a very long and stressful day of work, I went to pick Jack up at daycare. He was playing happily outside with all of the kids and I quietly walked through the door... he saw me from across the yard, came running and said "Mommy, I so happy to see you!!!!" He has done that a couple of times and it just melts my heart. On the other hand, his favorite naughty saying is "Go away" and all that spend time with us know that he gets his fair share of time-outs for saying it. He even whispers it and thinks maybe that will not get him a timeout. He loves to talk about all the people in his life....he knows EVERYONE at "school" by name, about 12 kids and 6 teachers. He knows all of his aunties, sometimes uncles, ga-ga, grammie, Pa. He calls Sophie our dog, SOSIE or SOS which is so cute. He loves to talk about the airport/airplanes, buses, trains, bugs, food, his books, cooking with his new play kitchen. He loves to "making mommy coffee".

Jack knows most of the shapes, including rectangle (his favorite), circle, square, triangle, diamond, and octagon which he pronounces "ofrican". I can honestly take very little credit for the shapes...he learned that with my mom. He can count to 10, sing along to the ABC song, and knows at least 8 colors very consistently, orange being his favorite. We were at the store the other day and he looked up and said "Red diamond mommy" and sure enough there was a red diamond up on the aisle sign.

Of course all moms like to brag, and I honestly want to just remember these things! Jack can be quite a stinker and handful too. He is VERY possessive of all of his toys, can be quite mean and "bully-like" to our younger friends, and does his fair share of hitting mommy and daddy. That being said, he is also incredibly loving especially with me. He likes to caress my face and calls the mole on my face "a kiss from the sun". He is very snuggly, especially at night, and any kiss makes an owie feel better. He loves his lamby, binkis (way too much!!), baby, teddy, and all of his books. He has an amazing memory especially for places we have been in the car. Even if we approach a place from a different direction, he knows exactly where we are going.

He will eat quite a bit of different foods...he loves all meat, some fish, loves yellow curry, quesadillas, guacamole, milk, water, all snacks, all fruit, basically no veggies except fresh snow peas taken right out of the pod. Of course he loves cookies and sweets of any kind that we try to reserve for very special occasions, like birthdays and going on the potty!

Having Jack go to daycare 2 days a week was honestly one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make. However, after lots of tears and time, we are really glad to have him at his school. He loves a few of his teachers and I feel that they really love him too. He plays outside there A LOT, and it is really good for him to be around 10 other toddlers, most a little older, some a little younger. And being able to go to work definitely makes me a better mommy, which I never thought it would.

Regarding the upcoming addition to our family...no one quite knows how Jack will react. He talks about baby sister, and knows she is in mommy's tummy, but that's about it. I think he thinks I will be this slow, fat mommy for the rest of my life! :> He says he wants to "hold you" which means he wants to hold her. I hope he will be loving and protective and know that we love him just as much, even if he is not getting nearly the attention he gets now. All kids adjust though, right????

I know this next year will be a huge one in terms of Jack's language, independence and growth and I can't wait. So many things about Jack have gotten easier for me, but some things have also gotten harder. I do know that God could not have given me a better gift or first child than Jack and I look forward to all of the little moments and the big ones that are still to come in his life. Thank you again to all of my family and friends who have been such a support and help to our family. Especially my sister Meg who will drop anything to help me with Jack and has been such a support to me while I have been pregnant!

Sorry to be SO long-winded and now onto some pics!

HOT days!!

This past week was HOT, and we spend every waking minute outside of course. We went to the water park a few times, played with our friend Harrison, and spent lots of time in the backyard looking for ripe strawberries. Jack has been so wonderful and happy and is anxiously awaiting his "birthday party" with "cupcakes"! I think he is so excited for the cupcakes he can barely sleep at night...seriously...he talks about it each night before bed. We have a few more days to go bud!