HAPPY 11 MONTHS HARV

Where did my little baby go?  How did he turn into a little toddler overnight?

Harvey did not want to cooperate, but here is our failed attempt at a family selfie. We have so much fun with Harvey.  He loves to be "chased" by his daddy.  We call him Tommy Pickles because he loves exploring and going on adventures (Did you watch Rugrats??)  Baby Loves to Rock is his favorite book... maybe this is a sign.  It is so cute when he brings us the book.  He doesn't have much interest in cartoons, but when the song Hot Dog comes on during Mickey Mouse he gets really excited!  It usually only lasts about 30 seconds, but Derek found a clip of the song that lasts an hour.  Now you try listening to this over and over to see how you feel lol.

STINKER FACE

Harvey has always made the cutest facial expressions.  One of the first we fell in love with was his classic pouty lip (so cute and oh so sad at the same time.) When he was a few months old he started doing the same silly smile with his chin tucked in every time he got extremely happy. It seemed like he would only do it when he knew he was being cute lol.  Derek and I started calling it his "stinker face."  I'm really not sure how this came about, let's just say because it was so stinkin' cute.  Instead of describing it to you, here are some visuals.

So now that Harvey is 10 months old, his stinker face has evolved.  This is his new favorite face to make when he is really excited and knows he has our attention.  He is always making us laugh and bringing such joy to even the most simple things in life.  It is so amazing to see his little personality unfold more and more everyday.  
We love Harvey and his little stinker face!

HAPPY 10 MONTHS HARV

I want to dedicate this post to crazy little boy who is getting so big (too fast!)  We have so much fun together, I love being a stay at home mommy.

Sooooo with that, here is your monthly photo cube of Harvey's favorite moments.
 

Some fun facts about Harvey right now:

- Eggs with spinach is his favorite breakfast. He loves feeding himself.

- We have caught him saying dog. And he tries to "pet" them much more now.

- He loves throwing things with daddy.

- Out of all of his toys, he likes foam alphabet letters the best.

- He loves his kiddie pool and bath time.

So I want to start off by saying that breastfeeding is one of my biggest accomplishments!   I am thrilled to be able to provide continued nutrition and health benefits to my child.  It has also been one of the most challenging journeys I have been on, considering the first several months my son wanted to eat every 2 hours and did not have the best latch.  I wanted to share a few of the reasons I love that I am able to breastfeed my son...

- It's free.  I love saving money!!! And it's great not spending extra on formula and bottles.   

-It's convenient.  When I am on the go I don't have to search for a way to warm a bottle.  I also don't have to worry about sterilizing and cleaning bottles.   (And this saves time as well, which is more precious than ever now)

-Endless list of health benefits for baby.  I love knowing that my body responds to the pathogens (viruses and bacteria) that my baby is exposed to and creates protection  by passing the antibodies needed to him.  I feel so  blessed that Harvey has not been sick once!  Less doctor visits equals more money and time saved.

- Healthy for mommy.  Knowing that I am nourishing my baby makes me more conscience about my food choices.  It also keeps me drinking a ton of water.  Not to mention you are burning extra calories every day while bf-ing. :)

Unfortunately, there will always be those who are negative about your choice to breastfeed.  I have come to realize there are people out there who feel that if you make a parenting choice that is different from their own, it is a personal attack on them.  Please never let people who are not properly educated on breastfeeding make you feel bad or guilty about the decision that is best for your family.  I am so happy to be surrounded by positive friends and family who support us.   If you are having trouble breastfeeding, look up your local la leche league online and go to one of their meetings.  I am not an expert by any means, but I'm always open to sharing my experience with other mamas who need encouragement!  There are definitely hard times, but it gets easier and is so rewarding seeing how happy and healthy my baby boy is at  9 months and going strong. 

Check out this amazing gift mailed to me by my sweet sister on mother's day.  It's a teething/nursing necklace (chewbeads) It's especially useful now that Harvey is easily distracted.  So instead of pulling my hair/earrings while nursing, he can hold onto the necklace.  I also wear it while carrying him in the Ergo carrier so he has something to play with that he can't throw to the ground.  It is my favorite accessory!

In other news, please enjoy this never before seen photo of Harvey and his chubby cheeks at about 5 months.

Beach Baby

Hello World!

I wanted to share our short, but very sweet trip with you.  The picture below pretty much defines how we felt spending time with Puff and Briana on the beach (pure joy.) Harvey has been on EIGHT airplanes now.

Here are a couple tips I have for my other traveling mamas out there.

- Babywearing!  I love that they let you walk straight through security wearing your little one.  I can even collapse my stroller by myself when Harvey is in the Ergo.

- Gate check your stoller (or stroller/carseat combo like I have.)  It's free!  

- Pack a new toy just for the plane. (Or an old one they haven't played with in a while)

- Snacks. And save them for the plane, even though it's tempting to use them during your 2 hour layover.  I bring Puffs for Harvey (His absolute favorite at the moment are banana cookies, but  they are messy so those are only for desperate measures ha)  

- Transfer your diaper bag into a backpack. 

-Accept some help from strangers.  Now I'm not going to pass my kid off to someone I don't know, but if someone offers to break down my stroller, give me an aisle seat or entertain my baby playing peek-a-boo a few minutes I'm going to accept it with a smile.  There are still some kind folks out there.

Okay, so now it is time to begin the beach pix overload . . .


Harvey & Puff

Happy Boy

Harvey & Briana

Selfie with my favorite peeps.

Harvey & Me

So I will leave you with one of my favorites.  This is the face you get when you tell your baby not to eat sand.

A day in the life....

We wanted to share how lovely our Saturday was with everyone.   :)

We started off bright and early at the Nashville farmer's market. We left with sweet potatoes, squash, zucchini, honey (mommy's fav), eggs, cheese (hot pepper- Derek picked!) and green beans.  some fresh milled Sunday Morning Pancake Mix.  Harv loved the pancake samples and not to mention they are oh so healthy!  I can't wait to start making these for breakfast on Sunday mornings- just in time for Father's Day tomorrow.

When we got home we decided to let our little water baby play in his kiddie pool.  He has been "singing" in a high pitched voice when he is happy lately.  I love hearing his little voice more and more.   Isn't his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hat too cute?!? We think so.

Then he decided to do some exploring around the house.

Dexter says Goodbye!

Summer Baby!

I find myself taking so many pictures of Harvey on my iPhone.  I wanted to share some of my favorites from this month (too many to choose from, so I had to make a collage for you haha!)  I never thought I would become one of "those parents" whose Instagram turns into nothing but an online scrapbook for their baby.  Okay, well I hope I'm not that bad haha!  This 8 1/2 months has been flying by so fast.  Harvey has started army crawling all over the house.  Even though he doesn't do your typical crawling on his hands and knees, it is hard to keep up with the little monster- he is really fast!  He has also started pulling himself up and every morning we go into his room he is sitting up in his crib.  It seems like the next time I turn around he will be walking....  This is all happening too fast :'[ tear tear!

If you didn't notice, I made the last line of photos some Harvey "bloopers" from the month. The first one is Harvey totally in love with a banana he is eating from his mesh feeder.  The last picture is when I let Harvey hold the puffs while shopping... Big mistake haha!  The second one is my all time favorite though- I love the ultimate grump face, I can't help it!

Harvey has become quite the little water baby!  He loves swimming in Puff's pool.  We also have a kiddie pool in the back yard that we enjoy sitting in during the humid Nashville summer days.

Another one of Harvey's favorite summer activities is going to the zoo.  This weekend Daddy got to join us!  He loves riding in the ergo carrier, especially when it's on his Daddy's back. You can't see it in the elephant picture, but Harvey has a big grin on his face (it's hard to see the elephants in the distance!) We even got to pet a baby kangaroo.  Can't wait to see what other adventures this summer holds for our happy little family!