Fun with Gracie and Hattie

I'm so exhausted and exasperated anytime I have to take the two "bitties" out of the house, that I forget we do have fun together. Harriet is fine once we start the car, but cries the whole time we're getting ready and into the car. The more you prod Grace along, the slower she moves, so my nerves are usually shot before we even leave to go anywhere, and I'm definitely fried by the time we get home and into the house. Like I said though, we do have fun in-between.

On Friday, we decided to go to Drumlin Farm. The weather didn't look too bad at our house, so we decided to chance it. However, half way through our drive, it started POURING rain. I could have dealt with a drizzle, but this was "get you soaking wet in 2 seconds" rain. We pulled into the parking lot of the farm to find families leaving in droves. Drenched kids and strollers were packing up as fast as possible. Soon, the lot was deserted and I started wondering what the heck I was thinking. Then, I decided to just wait it out for a minute since it looked like one of those quick summer storms, so Grace and I sang "rain, rain, go away, come again another day" for about 10 minutes. Sure enough, the rain let up. We got out of the car and we had the whole farm completely to ourselves. It was great! (note to self - the wagon is not fun to take to Drumlin Farm - take the stroller next time!) Our favorite thing to do at the end is to stop at the little gift shop on our way out. They have fantastic things for your house, garden, yard, and for kids. Grace always finds a true treasure there. That day, it was a really nice little book about the "Little Red Hen" to add to her summer reading list. She's signed up at the Stow library for the "summer listening club" and needs to listen to 50 (DIFFERENT!) books by the end of August. She's already got about 17 down, so we'll be just fine. She does like to repeat stories though and we have to remind her to read new ones each night so that they count.
On Monday, Harriet turned 2 months old. She now weighs in at 13 pounds 8 ounces and is 23.5 inches long. She is in the 97th percentile for weight and the 90th for height. Her doctor said she is "a darling, yummy baby." I whole-heartedly agree. I fall in love with her more every day.
On Tuesday night, I was planning to take Grace to Erikson's Dairy for a mommy/daughter ice-cream cone. We both badly need to spend time together sans Harriet. I wanted to leave Harriet behind with David, but I forgot that he was going to a church meeting. So, just before 8pm (Erikson's rush hour), I strapped both kids in the car and headed over to the ice cream stand (rounding to the library first to take back our videos and exchange them for new ones.) Harriet was having her night-time fussiness and hadn't eaten in a while, so I had planned to get one cone as quickly as possible, throw them back in the car, and bring it home to eat it. Grace had another plan. She wanted the full Erikson's experience. So, we pulled up, parked 20 feet from the window, got out and started waiting in line. All of their windows were open and each had a HUGE line. After a good 20 minutes in line behind people getting a sample of this, and two of that, and oh- wait, we need one of the doggie ice creams, we finally got to the window. (Erikson's will give your dogs a free scoop of ice cream on a doggie biscuit if you bring them to the window with you!) Grace ordered a "vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips in a cone." I only had enough cash for one cone, and she was disappointed that I didn't get one for myself. So much for everything being "all about Grace" - she does worry about other people contrary to what she displays during the day. Then, I tried to hurry her back to the car and get her strapped in - nope, she wanted to tail-gate it and eat her ice-cream cone in the dirt parking lot like everyone else. So, I took a deep breath, got Harriet out of her carseat so I could bounce her, and put Grace on the tailgate of my pathfinder. I WISH I had a camera to take a picture of that angelic face with sweaty hair and dirty clothes sitting in the back of my dirty car in the Erikson's Dairy parking lot with an ice cream ring all the way around her face and a smile big enough to fill the ring. She, who has not been good about sharing lately, let me help her eat her cone and made sure I got my turn having a lick.

little harriet or BIG HARRIET

Well, little harriet has turned into BIG HARRIET!!! She is now 8 weeks old, almost 2 months old, and weighs 13 pounds even! On Sunday, I tried to put a dress on her that Emily brought back from the Cayman islands. I've been waiting until the weather was warm enough to wear it. I couldn't believe it when I almost couldn't squeeze her fat little arms and torso into it. It made me so sad because Emily gave Grace a matching one that fits well and they could have worn them together all summer!! Not anymore I guess. Even David said that "we'd have to have another girl now so that she could wear that dress." (We'll talk about having more babies at a MUCH later date!)

I had to take her to the doctor yesterday (5 days before her scheduled 2 month appointment) because she has just had the worst time lately with eating. She is a volcano of sour milk all day long and has recently started crying whenever she's fed. Yesterday morning, I decided I couldn't wait any longer and I took her in. She has classic baby reflux. They did give her some zantac. It's supposed to make things better, but it's not a miracle by any means. I think she has felt better since getting the medicine, but she still does spit up and still does have a hard time eating. They say it might take a few days to really kick in and I'm hoping that things will get even better. Of course, it will get better as she gets older and her stomach matures, but for now, we are stuck with a fussy, gassy, wet baby who goes through about 4 outfits a day (yesterday, I went through 3 myself because I'm always in the line of fire!)

In spite of all that, she's still a doll. I am totally in love with her. She is beautiful and chubby and has a funny personality. I will look down at her and she'll just be grinning at me with a crooked, fat-cheeked, open mouth smile. It's almost like she's laughing at me trying to figure her out. She definitely knows things that I don't know!

Surprise! It's Father's Day

Well, I have to write down what Gracie did to me on Father's day because it was SO FUNNY. Actually, we sort of celebrated on Saturday when my family was here. We did it partly so they could be in on it, and partly because I had hidden David's gift in the garage and he needed the garage on Saturday.

It is next to impossible to surprise David. He has ruined lots of surprises in our marriage. He's famous for downloading my credit card information into quicken 2 days before a holiday or his birthday (not on purpose, but just because he's way too efficient!) I remember one Christmas - we didn't have much money, especially to spend on each other. He had already picked out a couple of gifts and knew what they were. So, I had one tiny thing that I got at Costco that he didn't know was coming. Of course, he had to be efficient and update our finances the week before Christmas and carefully scanned the receipt to categorize it, and found my gift spelled out as plain as day. I still remember how hurt and mad I was.

So, for Father's day, I decided I should get him something he really wanted but didn't have on his immediate radar. He usually has a short list of things he really wants and that he talks about and shops for online every single day (the bike trailer being one of them.) I knew he wanted a grill and we needed one badly, but we hadn't talked about it in a long time and he hadn't thought about it either. I also usually wouldn't spend that much money on a smaller holiday, so I knew he'd never think of it . It would be a bang of a gift and I was so excited.

I took my Mom and Emily to Home Depot with me to help me pick it out and get it home. I carefully hid it in the garage and swore Grace to secrecy. He knew there was a big surprise and he knew that Grace wasn't supposed to tell. He didn't think she would either. She is usually a good secret keeper.

So Saturday morning, I went out in my jammies and started pulling out the giant box on Grace's wagon. Everyone else was waiting inside until I got it in the driveway. Grace was holding David's hand and making him close his eyes. To make a little conversation with her, he jokingly asked her "Grace what did Mommy get me?" or something like that. She looked at him, and with a huge grin on her face, she whispered "It's a gwill." I guess the lot of them bust out laughing and were having a good time watching me as I was still stealthily pulling the gift out of the garage. They knew how mad I was going to be and decided not to tell me. But a little while later, they couldn't keep it to themselves anymore and had a good time laughing at me again.

So much for surprises.

It's Aunt Em!

Harriet and the rest of us got another set of visitors last week-end. My sister, Emily, decided she absolutely couldn't wait until August to meet and hold Harriet, so she came out for the week-end. She didn't want to travel alone, so she convinced my mom to come back too. It was a total treat. They were here just long enough to have a blast with us, and LUCKILY, the weather was mostly nice for them. We have the worst luck with weather and company (just ask my mom and David's mom and dad!)

Anyway, in our two and a half days together, we got a lot accomplished. Emily logged many hours holding Harriet - her sole purpose in coming. We went Father's day shopping and my mom got all of hers done and helped me get mine done for David. It would have been extremely hard for me to get to Home Depot and buy a rather large gift and get it home with my two tiny ones by myself. David also brought home a purchase he's been shopping for forever. He finally got a bike trailer so he can take the whole family on a bike ride. He was so excited about it, I almost just let him have it for his Father's day present. So, anyway, we went shoe shopping. We took Grace to see the movie "Cars" at the quaint little Maynard movie house. We ate ice cream at Erikson's Dairy (that's where the weather didn't cooperate - it was a downpour as we sat in the back of my car eating it!) David actually took Grace in the bike trailer over there and they got pretty wet on the way home. She also logged some good hours on her trike. David even hooked the bike trailer up to her trike for fun. We also went out to dinner, and made some good dinners. It was an action packed week-end. I am just so glad I got to see some of my family again this summer. It really made things nice and gave me the boost I needed to get through the weeks until we go to Utah for a long trip in August.

ok, I give up!

Well, I just spent the last (precious) hour making a new blog entry, only to have my computer get the "blue screen of death" just as I was finishing the last picture upload. So, now, I'm not going to try to replicate what I tried to do before. Does every effort have to be futile? I just put Harriet's FOURTH outfit of the day on only to have her soak the front of it immediatly with a big spit up.

so, to sum up:

*it's raining and has been for days - there are ducks swimming where you shouldn't be able to swim in our yard!!
*watched the animated movie "Spirit" today with Grace and got VERY homesick
for the west - especially for southern Utah. If you haven't seen that movie, you should
at least watch the first 5 minutes of it for the sweeping illustrations of the west.
*we're stuck inside with each other - lots of movies, lots of coloring, lots of anything on the computer
*people keep forgetting to let mom sleep
*started ordering groceries online today - good idea Melissa!!! LOVE IT!
*Harriet eats herself into a bellyache every 2 hours, is growing very fast, getting very fat, and starting to have little facial expressions in response to mine. I think she smiles? I swear it's not the gas. She definitely doesn't smile about the gas!
*Grace wants to be queen bee and is still upset about her demotion to "one of the princesses."
*David and Michelle keep having people tell them that they look terrible and/or wiped out.
*Harriet is now 6 weeks old and mom is supposed to have "recovered" from childbirth. Sure!

Here are a whole bunch of pictures for the fam to google at. I know that friends see one picture and feel that they're all the same, but a Grandma can tell if a hair has grown on a head or if a cheek is a millimeter chubbier. So, here ya go... Love y'all!