Thursday, March 21, 2013

Baby Harriet.

Our sweet little girl was born March 19, 2013 at 12:55 a.m.  She was 8 lbs. 3 oz. (exactly 2 lbs. smaller than Elna was at birth) and 20 1/2 inches long, with a 14 inch round head.  She seems so tiny!  She’s absolutely perfect!

Our good friend, Stacy, took these beautiful pictures:

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Sisters

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And a few from our camera:

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I will post more pictures soon and hopefully write up her birth story as well.

Harriet Joanne is named after some special women in each of our families.  Harriet Harris is Brian’s aunt (DeWin’s younger sister) who passed away when she was 15 years old in a bike accident.  She died about a week after DeWin and Barbara were married.  She was a vivacious, dramatic, vibrant girl who was uninhibited and fun loving.  I love every story I have heard about her.  Barbara said she would have been just thrilled to have someone named after her.  Harriet was named after her grandmother, Olive Harriet Harris. 

Her middle name, Joanne, is a tribute to my Grandma Jody—Joanne Cowley Austin Linford.  My grandma is wonderful!  She is full of love, is thoughtful, optimistic and positive about everything and everyone, hard-working, witty, and full of delight!  At age 83, she is still healthy and full of life, and one of the most beautiful women I know.  She has been a huge part of my life, and I hope sweet Harriet Joanne will have the chance to know her for many years as well and become like her in as many ways possible!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

More cuteness caught on video.

If you only watch one video (bless you!), this first one is my favorite.  I LOVE how she says her cute little name.  And her monkey noises are pretty cute too.

Elna says “no” in the cutest way possible.

 

We go to the library several days a week for Tiny Tots.  Thursday has a very active hour—Elna sits on my lap while I do all sorts of songs and rhymes or we walk in circles doing fun things, or I lift her up above my head (which is very hard to do these days being as large as I am) for one song specifically.  About a month ago Elna started doing all of these songs and rhymes with her baby doll.  It is very cute!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Videos of E doing cute things.

There’s a good chance only Elna’s grandmas will want to watch these videos, but I think they are pretty cute, so I’m posting them anyway:

I love her little actions to “I’m so glad when Daddy comes home”—I especially like it when she says “knee”.  This girl says so many words these days.  I couldn’t even begin to count her words.  Still no connecting words in phrases or sentences though.  Soon, I’m sure.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Horses, yard work, big girl bed, and more.

I’d like to be completely caught up on the blog before the baby is born, and since that could happen any day (and possibly Thursday or Friday, depending on what this baby decides to do with his/her head), I thought I would get a few posts out in the next few days.

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Can you tell how sick Elna looks here?  Somehow she managed a pretty awesome smile despite feeling really awful!  A brief break of sun through the very stormy sick period we had with her.  She is no fun when she is sick!  But really, who is?

Friday after Brian got home from work, we went to go see the horses again at the equestrian center.  We went with some friends this time.  The kids loved the horses!  Elna is still in love/totally terrified of the horses. 

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Cute girls holding hands as they walked through the parking lot.


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Sawyer and Elna feeding the horse hay through the feeding hole.

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The three kiddos.

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Elna and Mercedez trying out some saddles for sale.

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Working in the yard with Daddy—love this little ragamuffin!!

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Peering at the dog through the fence.

I love Elna’s cute little face in each of the next pictures, so I am including all of them—her reaction to the dog is just so expressive to me, especially the last few!

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That one on the right is my fav!

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Determined to get to the park by climbing over the fallen down fence from our backyard to the park—not very happy that I wasn’t supportive of the adventure.

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Relaxing with Daddy.

And some pictures from my phone:

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E loves wearing these panties (they are supposed to go under a dress) and will wear them over her clothes or just over a diaper.

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The cutest toes I’ve ever seen—I took this picture because it was the first time Elna had let me (or anyone) cut her toenails in months.  I told her I would paint them if she let me cut them.  I had told her that many times before, but this time it somehow worked.  She loves her pink nails.

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This box spring has been a fixture in our family room since we found out our baby is breech—I try to lay on my back, head down, a few times a day in hopes of turning the babe.  Elna calls it her slide.  She has had a lot of fun on it, and luckily has not gotten hurt on it…yet.

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I took the next few pictures of Elna sleeping in her new big girl bed.  We were absolutely certain she would get out of bed within seconds of putting her in it the first night, but she went right to sleep.  Since the transition two weeks ago she has never once gotten out of her bed.  When she wakes up in the morning she just calls Mom or Dad really loudly until we come get her.  These pictures are pretty bad, but I wanted to document the miraculous event nevertheless.

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For some reason ever since she transitioned to her big girl bed I can’t go to bed until I have checked in on her.  I didn’t do this as much when she was in her crib, but I think I just want to hold on to these last few moments before life moves on for us.  Life is really so sweet right now and Elna is in such a great and fun stage of life.  I know it will be even sweeter with a new addition, but right now I just want to remember this sweet time with just Elna—we’ll never have them again.