White stuff

Harper's snow angel.

Trying to crawl and getting very frustrated.

Ooooh.

Staying Warm and Cozy

Any of you who don't live in Minnesota may or may not have heard we are in yet another large snowfall, paralyzing the city and much of the state. The snow didn't start until we were at church, so we easily made it home in time to hunker down and stay safe and warm. While at church, we made plans with our friends Erik and Lara to get together at our house for dinner. 5pm rolled came and went, and I was expecting a phone call from Lara canceling our date when they showed up at our door stoop coated with a flurry of snowflakes. 

Lara made delicious Pad Thai for dinner. I'll definitely be adding the recipe to my cookbook favorites. Like most of our dinners together we lost track of time, and by the time they thought of heading home, the snow had piled up enough the guys had to investigate their chances of getting home unstuck. After pushing out 5 stuck cars, the guys finally showed up and declared there wasn't a chance of making it home. Slumber party! Even though we've had similar snow falls this year, the timing of this one has made Monday morning travel pretty much impossible and has closed most businesses and schools including MSAADA. We completed Phase III drawings for the hospital in Haiti on Friday, so at least we made our deadline before the weekend. I am looking forward to another day at home with Harper and getting some more sewing done during his naps.

Speaking of sewing, my friend Jennifer sent me photos of the quilt I made for their wedding gift. It's the pattern Chantilly by Fig Tree Quilts. I altered the pattern to make it a queen-sized quilt, which involved calculating new block sizes for better looking proportions and avoid sewing hundreds of tiny blocks. I really love how it turned out, and Judy (from Too Crazy Quilters) did a great job on the quilting. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

And for all of you Minnesotans...Happy Snow Day!

10 Months Old

Last year this month we went on our babymoon. Now our baby has been alive longer than I was pregnant! Harper is a happy and finally healthy 10 month old! His string of viruses and colds seems to be over, but he is currently dealing with two top teeth trying to poke their way through. If it's not one thing keeping him from sleeping through the night it's another. Harper blessed us with a complete night's sleep Sunday night, but it's still not a regular occurrence. 

Harper likes to wrinkle up his nose with a toothy grin.

Here are Harper's stats and current milestones:

• Weight: 20lbs. 5 oz. 
• Length: 30 inches
• Gross-motor: pulling himself up to standing, crawling on hands and knees, kneeling, clapping
• Fine-motor: pinching and picking up items with his thumb and pointer finger
• Language development: clicking tongue, saying ba-ba, babbling, showing first attempt at signing "more"
• Sleepy-time: putting himself to sleep, sometimes sleeping through the night or up once
• Play-time: loves chasing his ball around, making rhythms (egg-shaker), dancing, climbing
• Foods: loves most anything except peaches (just like Josh and me!), especially likes yogurt, and spicy and tomato based foods
• Other: loves bath time, being outside and story time

What the next two months mean to me:

• First birthday party planning! Woot!
• Only two months left of breastfeeding (or thereabout). As much as I've enjoyed breastfeeding and the bonding time I have with Harper, I'm anticipating being done pumping and having my body to myself. You can be sure I'll be planning a few nights out with Josh and my girlfriends! Oh, and I'm also super excited to plan a sewing retreat this Spring!
• Excitement to see how Harper continues to develop and become more interactive with us and other kids.
• Sadness seeing my wee little baby become a little boy.

Get IN Get OUT

This morning, Harper and I joined the ranks of six other moms and a number of children outside the doors of Pacifier in NE Minneapolis. We were all pumped and ready for their big clearance event. I was super excited they were going to have car seats on clearance, as Harper has pretty much outgrown his. The infant car seat is supposed to go up to 30 lbs., and even though he's only 20 lbs., he's too long for it. I was prepared to buy the "cowmooflage" print car seat if that's all they had since it's such a good price, but I was the lucky one who jumped on the only grey version. After quickly snagging the car seat, I started my pile at the register and continued to bounce around the clearance racks. Next I snagged I package of two night lights, a pair of Robeez early walker shoes (12-16mo.), a grey tee-shirt, and this awesome table and stool set. I got the shoes, night lights and shirt 70% off, and the table with 4 stools and a bench was only...can you see the taped on sign?...$25! I had to read the sign twice, slowly, to make sure I didn't misread it. It will be awhile before Harper will be able to successfully sit on a stool, but I couldn't pass it up. 

Knowing I had found enough treasures, I headed to the register to pay and collect my things. Besides, it was quickly getting very crowded in the back of that little store. The staff at Pacifier was super nice and helped carry the large items to my car. I had to make a few arrangement adjustments, but magically fit everything in the Vibe (including our stroller and Harper's current car seat).

All in all, I was in and out of the store in 20 minutes and only spent $180. Not bad considering the car seat is originally $200 itself. Now that I've thrown off Harper's day with our clearance spree, here's to hoping he'll settle down for a nap.

Happy V-Day!

Since Harper would surely eat a Valentine's Day card, I skipped the card and got him an egg shaker. :) Charlie (one of Harper's buddies) had shakers with his music set that Harper really enjoyed playing with, so I thought he might like one of his own. 

Josh and I celebrated Valentine's Day Sunday evening after a walk around Lake Nokomis. We went to dinner at Salut, a French American restaurant. Josh ordered Steak au Poivre, and I ordered Duck à l'Orange. We finished dinner of with Crêpe Suzette. Délicieux!

Tonight I got home from work to my two valentines, flowers, dinner and dessert. What could be better?