Harper - 8 Months

Oh my goodness - Harper got to be sooooo fun this month.  Don't get me wrong, she still has a fair amount of grumpy days, but she is SO funny and cute.  And when she's happy I can think of nothing more delightful than her.  Because I'm lazy and don't feel like constructing proper paragraphs, the rest shall be in bullet form.

- She started babbling.  I LOVE this.  It is just so carefree and happy.  Sometimes she says "dada" (not meaningfully), but no "mama" yet.

- She loves food that has complex taste.  As in, if I just give her some carrots, she's like, "come on mom, would you want to eat that?  It's boring."  But if I season the carrots she's like, "now we're talking.  More please."  I love that she is like this.

- She can pick finger food up pretty easily.

- About the same on the sleeping, but has had a few nights where she didn't even wake up once to feed and has started to take her night feed later in the night (usually sometime between 3 and 6am).

- She still loves mommy, but has noticed daddy more and really likes him now.

- There's actually a lot of really exciting (to me) stuff she JUST started doing in the last couple days, but since technically they were after she turned 8 months, I'm waiting til her next post to talk about them.

Tom's sister, Jen, came to visit and we all went to the Aquarium.  Her girl cousins both wanted to sit by her :) .  Harper had no idea there were any fish there, but she liked all the people.

And the video: http://youtu.be/lg056Gkg9ZQ

**Harper being adorable while we were outside.  She's laugh every time the wind blew.  So sweet: http://youtu.be/TYVsFMHgD1I

Obligatory messy food pic.  This time, prunes.

Just playing with toys: http://youtu.be/nNfhhmxHiaA

My best friend from back in the day, Amber, came to visit!

Cute morning feet: http://youtu.be/1LORahoB3iw

We did a color run and Harper really enjoyed being in the stroller while we ran with it: http://youtu.be/t1DnUnq_g5I

*Watching Daddy play the guitar: http://youtu.be/R3Pc9x6PwY4

***Playing the guitar herself: http://youtu.be/s7jMH4Gt9iI

She likes to sing herself to sleep: http://youtu.be/HoTMHcl1_7c

**Being really stinking cute while eating: http://youtu.be/vLIP0pUBe4A

So excited to be at the pool!

Riding Mr. Turtle at the park.  Also, her wardrobe throughout this month's pics illustrates just how variable Utah weather is.

**Monthly adorable swing video: http://youtu.be/NhXwhhe4O1o

**Laughing while I jostle her: http://youtu.be/xJ5V6XsqbjY

*Just being delightful on the couch: http://youtu.be/23MybSKX45E

Blackberries

More blackberries

Enjoying one of our favorite spots - on the front lawn of our building.  I get my book and my sushi and Harper gets her people watching and toys.

Our new swaddler.  So much simpler.  You can just zip it up and you can unzip the legs if you like.

Family time at the park.  Tom and I threw the frisbee while Harper played on the blanket.

Video of this: http://youtu.be/Yk2X9IypYZA

Went to a drive-in movie as a family.  My first ever.

***This video warms by heart.  She's playing in her jumper and laughing at me while I sing and dance to a good song: http://youtu.be/AtPyBOZhxcI

Harper and I went out to breakfast and got a free bagel breakfast sandwich at Einstein's on my birthday.

*She's been doing this funny thing lately where whenever she picks up a toys she's particularly excited about she'll immediately shake both her arms (she can't shake just the one with the toy) and look up and smile (even if no one is there).  It's just really sweet and cute: http://youtu.be/C7E7WExx6lE

At the pool.

*She went through this stage where she blew raspberries a lot.  I'm really sad it's over.  Here she is doing it while playing with toys: http://youtu.be/tCYll_Etmdw

I love this picture.

Diggin' some tunes.

*Remember when I said she likes flavorful food?  Here she is LOVING some spicy Mexican food Tom had: http://youtu.be/FkiErF4_QBg

Our new wrap in all it's full splendor.

Got desperate one day and had bath playtime.  Love that she's strategically placing her hands.

He's such a good one they decided to honor him on the side of this building.

**I think this video is really cute.  She's just playing with a DVD case on the couch, but something about it is really delightful: http://youtu.be/7Wz8fHusCq4

Loves her feet now.

*Really excited about eating blackberries.  She, like, roars for us to give them to her: http://youtu.be/AS9Q4pI5ZD8

Her cute Mother's Day dress, courtesy of her Aunt Emily & Uncle Bob

Just playing in her cute Mother's Day dress: http://youtu.be/PuuaEFpv7Ng

She sat and stared at this one book for like 15 minutes.  Girl loves her books.

"Helping" me cook.

Eating a super messy pear: http://youtu.be/a6yHJvi0JIg

Gross pear aftermath

Loooooves these little jingly bells..

Playing with keys while my friend Jill and I garden. (Pic courtesy of Jill).

She LOVES to such on this necklace Jill made for her me.

*More happy toy shaking: http://youtu.be/MFwMLFYAfR0

*I think she's funny at the end of this video: http://youtu.be/iYXHDyTY86k

So, we decided to go to Zion for our first camping trip with baby.  It went horribly.  The first night, we found a spot at a glorified parking lot.  The second night even that was booked, as was everywhere else.  We couldn't even find a spot on BLM land!  Did you know that Zion is the most visited national park and only has 3 campgrounds inside of it?  And one of them only has like 12 sites.  Anyway, to add insult to injury, our stove didn't even work.  After spending half the day looking, we decided to just go on a short hike and head home.  And grandma, I already know you're going to say, "you could have stayed here!"  But, by then we were just tired and wanted to get home.  Anyway, there were a few good moments, but overall it was just tiring!  We learned a lot though and will try again in a couple months, because we're adventurous like that.

My view, from the font seat, on our way up.  Luckily, the baby was a champ the whole time.

Baby had SUCH a nasty nose the whole hike and we didn't have anything to wife it with.  Finally got desperate and used a leaf.  She also had ice cream for the first time (and residue on her face as a result).  She, of course, loved it!

Just being a gem and chilling on the grass after the hike.

Sooooo past her naptime at this point, but she was still so content. And the video: http://youtu.be/Th0NoW48IdE

The next few pictures are from where we ended up when trying to find some BLM land to camp on.  We were in the middle of nowhere on gravel / dirt roads with our Civic.

I love when she's so out that the binkie is half way our and she doesn't care.

We stopped by Grafton cemetery (ghost town) while we were looking for BLM camping spots.  This lady kept photobombing my serious artsy photos.  I call her the Ghost of Grafton.

**Girl loves her water.  Here she is splashing at the pool: http://youtu.be/no5TmLhfW14

**We were sitting out on the front lawn and a friend of ours walked by and gave Harper some fishy crackers.  She'd never had them before and was really loving them.  So, she'd pick one up and (because she was so in love with them) would sing and babble and kind of play with it while she brought it to her mouth.  This would usually result in her dropping it and going for another one.  In this video, she's eating fishing crackers and just being super silly: http://youtu.be/B0IPz7926HE

Lately when she looses her binkie, she arches her back real high and they fall under her bum.  One morning I found she'd been sleeping on two of them.  Could not have been terribly comfortable.

Girl looooves her books.  She just pulls them all out til it looks like this.

**Sometimes she makes this really funny noise that kind of sounds like a fake laugh.  Here she is doing it while Tom feeds her: http://youtu.be/uD8Ux5HsI1g

Stylin.

We got a sweet little baby pool so we can continue to sit our on the front lawn all summer.  And the video: http://youtu.be/TLYfVoNwYg0

And THAT is baby Harper from 7 - 8 months old!