Unconditional Love: Harper girl is 12 months!

1 year! I just can't believe it. She is 12 months old and such a cute little stinkpot. She is 28 inches tall, weighs 21 1/2 pounds and is always smiling. She is in 9 month tops and 12 month bottoms and somewhere between a size 3 shoe in length and a size 5 shoe in width (such chubby feet!). She is such a happy little girl. Always laughing, playing, and making everyone else fall in love with her. Her Mimi always calls her a "self esteem booster" to everyone that meets her because she makes you feel like the most amazing person on earth.

I have been saying for months that I was hoping she would be walking by our beach vacation. She was taking steps a few weeks ago, but was not officially walking. On day 2 of our vacation, she just took off and became an official walker. She wanders the house now, just toddling along. She's happiest when she can carry something in her hands. I think she feels all grown up and important.

First picture of her walking

Our car battery died at the store and we had to wait for Cody to come get us.

She had a blast playing in the front seat.

She still says mama, dada, dog but has now added the ability to tell us no. Not in words, but in a sweet, smiley shake of the head. It mostly has to do with food. Telling us that she doesn't want more or that she doesn't want to eat her peas. It's pretty cute right now. She also got two more teeth (her top front teeth) while we were on vacation. Poor kiddo woke up screaming two nights in a row and had a new tooth each morning. She seems to be doing better but is still gnawing on everything in reach.

Playing golf with the dog in her kiddy pool

Her first bikini (I can't believe I let her out of the house like this!)

She loves the water table and she can play with it while we eat dinner on the patio.

She doesn't watch much TV, maybe 10 minutes at a time if she's grumpy or tired or I need a few minutes to do something. But if there is anything that she likes, it's definitely Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. When the intro song comes on, she starts bouncing up and down and smiling real big. She watched it with her cousin Grayson a few times and they were so cute sitting together enjoying the great Mickey Mouse.

(Not) Helping me pack for our vacation

First night wearing big girl pj's

She has suddenly become very attached to her pacifier. She wants one all the time. We give her a few at night in her crib because she sometimes loses them in the middle of the night. She will also sit in bed and switch them out. Put one in, find another, switch it out, repeat. And she's pretty skilled at turning it around in her mouth if she puts it in upside down.

AC on full blast

Doing her indian war cry

She loves almost all foods but definitely wants to be eating what Cody cooks us for dinner. She stares at us, mouth open, and holds out her hand begging for a bite. She now gets to eat a morning and an afternoon snack. She LOVES cheerios and nutri grain bars. I subbed in the church nursery last week and witnessed her crawl on top of another child to get to the cheerios first. We are stopping the bottle so we are still up in the air with the milk situation. We will see if she is still lactose intolerant or if she has outgrown it.

Her favorite cabinet has the cereal boxes so all morning she likes to walk

around carrying one while Maggie follows her, eating the dropped Cheerios

Snack time

The first time she tried one of these fruit puree pouches, she didn't care for

it much and squeezed it all over herself and me. I handed it to Grayson,

because he was the closest, and the next thing I knew he had drank the whole thing.

She is on a pretty good schedule right now. She wakes up at 6:30 and we get her at 7. Sadly, she doesn't know the meaning of sleeping in, but it all works in the end. Breakfast at 7:30, then we clean up the kitchen together and pick up the house. We usually play in her room for an hour or run errands. Snack at 10, lunch at 11:30 and nap at 12:30. She goes to sleep all on her own, no crying, and sleeps for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Have a snack, play outside, take a walk, or play around the house. Dinner at 5:30 and bath at 7:00. She loves bath so I let her play for awhile. Put on her big girl PJ's and spends time drinking her bottle with her Dad. Then it's off to bed at 7:30. We sing a song, pray for Harper and any of her friends that we think of, and then she cuddles up and falls asleep. We enjoy some time to ourselves and go to bed a happy little family.

Pooped in the tub, picked it up like it was a toy, had to get out real quick.

Finished bathing in the sink. Glad Dad was home to help this time.

On Cody's last day of school, they worked until 8pm. This was sent to Cody

with a text that said, "Night Daddy. Pooped in tub. Be glad you weren't here."

Riding the "tractor"

She is definitely in the phase of throwing temper tantrums but it really doesn't last long. She usually gets upset because we won't let her play in the dog's water bowl, the trashcan, the toilet, the cleaning cabinet, electrical plugs, all the fun stuff. We say "No no." I use my deep, scary voice, which of course doesn't phase her. But the minute you take her away from what she wants, she starts to cry, scream, fuss, whine, etc. Usually falling to the ground, looking up at you with sad little eyes and that bottom lip out. It's sad and cute all at the same time. Hopefully this phase won't last too long.