Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for this year, most of all our little girl. These last three weeks have been wonderful even though we are both sleep deprived. I'm thankful Dan has the next four days off of work! I'm pretty sure he is thankful that I get up all night with Harper when she's fussy and try to let him sleep (although I know he wakes up and hears us!).


Harper with mom in her Thanksgiving dress


Harper with dad




Harper is doing fabulous, gaining weight like a champ and eating pretty regularly. She is making some great faces at us, our favorite is the Zoolander-esque 'Blue Steel' (see below):



We had a great visit with my mom, although she left way too soon and I was on my own with Harper for a couple days while Dan worked. It was a great visit & we can't wait for her to come back soon. We are looking forward to our Hawaiian vacation in January with Grandma Willman (and hopefully with Grandma Daugherty too!)

Two Weeks Old!

Reinforcements have arrived! Grandma showed up late last week to help out with Harper and it has been wonderful having her around to hold and play with Harper. Today was bath day and we gave Harper her first bath - it was a great experience and I'm happy to report that Harper seems to enjoy the water as much as her mom does!





Harper enjoyed her first infant massage too, post bath.


Cute photo of Harper and her new best pal Chimpanzee!

One Week Old - lots of cuddles!

One thing I love about having a baby in November in Alaska is all of the cuddle time we have! el Guapo is being a good big brother so far - he is always looking on and when Harper sneezes he comes over to her to make sure she's okay, just like he does with me and Dan.



Harper has made it through her first week with us - it has been such a joy to share our home with the little angel! Tiring of course, she needs to be woken up every two hours for feeding, but hopefully we'll be on a 3 or 4 hour schedule shortly once she gains some more weight. We have a pretty strict regimen to keep Harper gaining weight - breastfeed for 20 minutes and then feed her breast milk by syringe for 10 - 15 min, and then pump more breast milk. I feel like a food machine!

As you can see from all the photos, Dan has been in charge of the camera, but one of these days I will get a hold of it and get him in one of these! My first attempt is below:



Photos of Harper and her belly cast:

Day 4

Harper has been a with us for just a few days now, and we're having difficulty remembering what we were doing last week. She's been highly entertaining, even though she mostly is a lump at this point. We're finding the hours are passing too quickly as we are engrossed by her engaging eyes, long fingers, and wrinkly feet! Holly and I spend our conversations debating whether her shrieks sound more like a teradactyl or a velociraptor and Guap just watches with curiosity from his bed. So far her best skill has been perfecting the Zidane, directly headbutting Holly's sternum- looks like we might have a soccer player on our hands.

Here's some photos!


Bundled up and wondering what's next-


Kinder interactions with mom-


Here's my view of Harper in her sling while Holly gets a well deserved nap-

Time to Vote

We took Harper for her first trip to the polls today - it was about all the movement I could handle but I think Harper had fun getting fresh air and seeing the sun. She is modeling her 'polar bear' outfit in her car seat.


More photos from her first 48 hours:

Harper Katherine!

SHE'S HERE!!

Harper Katherine joined us at 4pm on Sunday 11/22/08, and we are so thrilled to have a baby girl after so much speculation of a possible boy. She weighed in at 7 lbs 5 ounces, and measured 19 3/4 inches long. What an amazing journey we have begun...





Stay tuned for more!