10 Months Old

It's already June 14th, so that means that my sweet little Harper is 10 months old. And I am starting to come to terms with the fact that my baby is growing up whether I like it or not!

Thunder Thighs!

Harper remains a happy, healthy (just look at his thighs), and easy baby. He loves everyone and anything he comes in contact with. This month he has become really mobile.......he will not sit still! This baby is on the move! He's not exactly crawling, just scooting, rocking, and pulling up. He got his first "boo-boo" last week. He was playing in the kitchen while I was cooking dinner and he tried to pull up on the cabinets and he crashed on the tile floor. He now has a bruise on his forehead. Usually he is pretty cautious (he gets that from his daddy), but now that he is pulling up, he has no fear.

I love my new duck tub!

Our days of eating baby food are winding down. Harper prefers "table food," but I usually feed him a little of both. He had his first kid's meal at Chick-fil-a this month, he devoured it! I took the breading off of the chicken and sliced up the fruit cup. He really enjoyed that! It felt so weird not feeding him any baby food! He likes real green beans now, but not the baby food kind. I can't blame him, they smell awful! We've started alternating yo baby yogurt, rice cereal, and oatmeal for breakfast. He likes it all! He's rather picky about texture, he spits out watermelon, strawberries, and bananas. I really thought that he'd like fruit best because it is so sweet. He prefers chicken, sliced cheese, black beans, sweet potatos, squash, zuccini, corn, bread, and crackers. I have to give him pieces of food one at a time because he has no self-control. He stuffs everything in his mouth instantly! I have started to work on the sign for "more" but he hasn't done it yet.

Harper still sleeps a whole lot. He takes two naps usually for an hour and a half or two hours. He sleeps about 12 hours at night, from 7:30-7:30. Sometimes I think this is too much sleep, but he's definitely tired when I put him down. He sleeps with a sound machine, but I've recently switched from the heartbeat to white noise. Harper's room is right next to ours so I think he can hear Cam's alarm clock in the morning. I'm not always ready to wake up that early! Harper has falling to sleep down, he gets his paci and lamb and goes right to sleep usually. Sometimes he'll play for a few minutes, but he winds down pretty quickly. He can pull up and stand in his crib so we have lowered his crib this month. I love walking in after naptime to see my sweet baby standing up with his arms reaching out for mama!

I thought for sure Harper would be crawling by now or maybe even walking, but he is content just cruising around the furniture or scooting! He is starting to get into things. Although he is not completely mobile he still knows how to scoot into danger before I can scoop him up. Today he tried to eat a handful of Baxter's dog food! yuck! His favorite toys this month include the Leap Frog Musical Play Gym (fav), blocks, playskool homerun derby, fisher price stage, bouncy balls, and anything that he is forbidden to play with! I have tried to say, "no" when Harper grabs things that are dangerous. He starts to cry everytime, I guess I need to lighten up on my tone of voice! I swatted his hand very gently when he was grabbing my plate at a restaurant and he did not like that! I need to read up on discipline!

I love playing catch with Grammy!

Harper is jibber jabbering more than ever. I really can't decode any of it, but I know he is excited a lot by his tone of voice! He gets very loud when he gets going! He currently says dada, duck (duh), and dog (da). I'm still waiting for him to say mama! I thought for sure he would say it on Father's Day since he said 'dada' on Mother's day, but that didn't happen.

So big!

He is waving hi and bye bye to everyone and everything. He reaches out his hand when he sees something he likes and waves to it too. It's really cute! He now does the classic "so big." He reaches out both arms in the air making a fist! Sometimes he forgets to do both hands and he does just one. He looks like he's saying "power to the people."

I met my buddy charlie this month too!

Well I'm sure I am forgetting so much that happened this month, but once again we are so thankful for this sweet, sweet, baby boy!

Happy 1st Birthday Gentry

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Gentry,

Happy Birthday to you!

Yes, Gentry ate the ENTIRE cake!

Gentry turned one! He is the first one out of Harper's besties to turn one! We had the best time at his "construction" birthday party. We clocked in at 5pm and had so much fun celebrating with G. We "built" a taco salad, played on the bulldozer, used the wrecking ball to crash boxes, and enjoyed riding Gentry's bike. It was such a fun party. Angela, Gentry's mom is so creative! Harper clocked out at 7pm and went straight to sleep!

Cousins

Allyson, Harper, Shelly, and Charlie

Harper met his cousin, Charles Cole Clifford this weekend. Charlie was born in October and we've been dying to meet him ever since! Their daddies are cousins, and his momma and I can't wait to watch these two cute cousins grow up together. Charlie lives on a ranch in south Texas so he doesn't make it to Houston very often.

On Thursday when they arrived, the Heathcott side of the family gathered for dinner at Don and Charlotte's house. The Great Aunts and Uncles traveled from all over to see these two guys in action. They are just a little spoiled! The boys hit it off and had so much fun sharing toys! We couldn't resist throwing them in the bath tub for some cute picture. We love our cousin Charlie!!

Memorial Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend as a family. We did so many fun "firsts" over the past 3 days. Here is a recap....To kick off a fun Friday, Harper and I went down to meet Grammy at Tommy Bahamas for lunch. I just love that place, it has the best atmosphere. I always feel like I'm on vacation in the Caribean. Then we shopped around Market Street and I bought Harper's 1st Birthday Invitations!! A little early, but they were too cute to pass up! Then Friday night we went over to our friends, The Carrs, for dinner. They live in a beautiful home on Lake Conroe. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and had lots of fun watching Brooklyn and Harper play. Brooklyn is almost 2 years old and could be Harper's sister. They both have red hair and chubby cheeks!

We woke up early Saturday morning to go to the Houston Zoo. Harper and Cam made a date box for Mother's Day and a trip to the zoo was one of our dates! We thought that it would be packed since it was a holiday weekend, but we were pleasantly surprised. We found a place to park right off the bat and then we off to explore the zoo. Harper was probably a little too young for the zoo, but there were a ton of younger babies there! It was just so fun to spend the day as a family. We went to ALL of the animal exhibits, but Harper was more interested in the fences and gates that surrounded the animals. The Black Bear actually caught his attention. He laughed outloud when we saw the bear yawn. It was really cute! It was 95 by 11a.m. so we had an early lunch in the shade while we watched the ducks swim on the ponds. Harper was really well behaved and happy considering how HOT it was! After lunch we went indoors to see the amphibians and reptiles......there were way more snakes than anything! The only thing I enjoyed about this exhibit was the air conditioning!

So we thoroughly enjoyed our first trip to the zoo. I know there will be plenty more visits when Harper gets a little older!

Since we were already in Houston we traveled a few blocks to Rice Village and did a little shopping. Well I did a little shopping while Cam and Harper slept in the car! Then we went over to Aunt Renee and Uncle Ed's new house in West University. They built a beautiful home in a gorgeous neighborhood. We enjoyed touring their home and riding in their elevator!

After leaving Houston Harper was ready for a nap! He slept the entire way home and then some!

On Sunday we went to church and then out to lunch at Margarita's with some friends from our Sunday School Class. We went to Payton's 4th Birthday Party at Graystone Park after lunch. It was super hot outside so we stayed inside the clubhouse. Harper had fun going from lap to lap. It was a blue sky day so we took the Harper down to the April Sound pool to cool off. Harper enjoyed playing with his mommy, daddy, and buddy Cooper. It was his first time in this "float." I was super paranoid so I left his t-shirt on. I didn't want to damaged that smooth skin!

On Memorial Day we actually slept in until 7:40! Thanks Harper :) We let Harper take his morning nap and then we put on our sunscreen and headed back to the pool for a Luau. It was a fun relaxing day. I actually got a tan! Someone stopped me today and asked me where I got a "spray" tan!

To top of our awesome weekend Uncle Casey came down from Dallas for a quick visit with his nephew. We took him to dinner at El Dorado Jacks on the Lake and then back to the house for lots of play time. Harper loves his Uncle Casey, I think he thinks he's looking in a mirror when he looks at him!! They look so much a like with their red hair!

9 Months Old

Well I have been such a blog slacker lately, but the whole reason I blog is to record all the milestones in Harper's life. I'm not much into scrap booking, so this is my "memory" of Harper's first year. Here it goes......

A lot has been going on in the Heathcott Family with the biggest change being our move to Montgomery! We are so happy to be here and God has truly blessed us with a wonderful new home. Harper has made the transition quite well. He didn't skip a beat during the entire move. Since we've moved I've tried to spend a lot of time outside. Our neighborhood is full of kids so we try to get out and be social. So far Harper's favorite things to do outside are....swing on the deck, joyride in the golf cart, go to the April Sound Park, swim in Cooper's baby pool, and ride in his wagon. It has been really hot lately so we try to go later in the day. I can't even imagine what this summer is going to be like! Harper's schedule has pretty much stayed the same. He is still napping twice a day for about an hour and a half. I think he finally has the hang of napping. I give him his paci and turn on the heart beat machine and he talks himself to sleep. I find myself checking on him a lot because I love to see him be still. I thought I couldn't live without our video monitor, but it turns out I haven't even used it since we moved. Harper's room is right next to ours and with the entire downstairs being wood floors I haven't needed it. His voice travels VERY well in the new house!

Speaking of Harper's sweet voice.....He said his first word this month.......and we were not even there to hear it! Harper went to visit his Grammy and Poppy for a couple of days while we got unpacked and he got smarter! He started saying "hi dada!" Grammy called and let us hear him talk over the phone and I think our hearts melted. I can't believe we weren't there to witness this huge milestone! No worries, because he says it all the time! His first words were on Mother's Day and that made for the best present ever! Maybe he'll say "mama" on Father's Day. I guess he has his holidays mixed up :)
This month Harper began to get separation anxiety. He wants his MAMA! If I put him down and leave the room, he starts to cry. He is okay for me to leave him at the nursery at church or at the gym, but he does not want to play by himself! Which makes it pretty difficult to get dressed, eat, or unpack! He has also started to wave and give fives this month. It is so cool to see him respond to people. He loves to give fives and then watch how excited we get! He won't wave on command, but he'll wave his little fingers at himself! It's so precious to see him work his fingers.

Harper still loves to play! His new favorite toys are bouncy balls. He'll get so excited and squeal when you bounce a ball. I have a huge medicine ball and he loves to kick it and watch it bounce. This baby might play soccer rather than golf when he gets older. He also loves to play in the johnny jump up. He has discovered how to swing and jump. He is enamored with anything shiny or electronic. He likes remote controls, computers, cell phones, cameras, ipods, and alarm clocks! This is one techie baby!
Well Harper continues to be a healthy, happy, and heart warming little guy. I can't express what it is like to be his mommy! I'm living the good life!

Here are his 9 month stats:

weight 18 lbs 14 oz 25%

height 27 1/8 in 2o%

head 17 1/2 in 25%

Mother's Day

We've moved

finally! We still don't have internet or a phone, but I found a wireless signal this morning so I decided to write a post while Harper naps!We have moved all but one car load to our new house. We are not quite settled yet, but we're working on it. The movers came and moved the "big" stuff, but Cam made an executive decision that we would pack and move the little stuff........well...... never again especially with the price of gasoline and a baby! We have been back and forth for over a week and it is beginning to wear on us all.



Besides the actual move, we're doing great. We LOVE our new house and new neighborhood! It is so nice to be around people our age! Our neighbors have been so sweet to welcome us with sweet cards and flowers. Harper loves his new room, swing, and living close to G and Coopie. His room is pretty much the same minus the painting on the wall :( that was my favorite part! He has 3 windows in his room so we had to get creative with his furniture. We hung his swing on the back porch and he would just assume spend the entire day outside. He loves to watch the squirrels and dogs. I positioned it so he is in the shade and I am in the sun, so I might actually get a tan this summer!



Time to get back to unpacking boxes! Here are some recent pictures of the big guy!