Christmas '12

Christmas came and went for us super fast this year.  We had been doing quite a bit of traveling in the previous months so it was nice to stay in town a bit.  A few days before Christmas we headed to the Tweedy Christmas celebration with lots of goodies, appetizers, dessert and lots of fun!  Harper loves it because there are lots of little cousins to play with.  Santa made a visit and all of the children sat on his lap to tell him what they wanted.  Of course Harper was really excited to see Santa and go up for a look but there was no way he was going to sit on his lap! Christmas Eve was spent at our house for our annual paella dinner with immediate family.  Christmas morning we did crepes at our house (since Erin and her clan were headed to Hawaii they decided to focus on packing:) with out parents as well.  It came out great for our first time!  We did a traditional Christmas dinner the next night at my parents house in Kingsburg and it was delicious:)  Harper really understood Christmas a lot more this year so it was exciting to share some traditions with him.  He had a real choo choo train under the train and every night he wanted to see it move and even the real smoke that came out.  Andrea gave him Elf on the Shelf and even though he is pretty young he loved it, he wanted to read that book every night before bed.  He ended up naming him Bruce (aka Batman) and would look for him every morning after he woke up.  We also did the 25 days of Christmas calendar.  He also was very happy to open his Santa gifts on Christmas morning, all Santa gifts in our house are wrapped in gold. 

 

Kickin' back after breakfast

 

 

Stocking stuffers

 

Drawing on a pad from Auntie Pat

 

New chair from Katie

 

Wagon from Santa

 

 

Being so sweet at Mimi's

For New Years we planned to go to the family cabin in Shaver.  Katie drove up from LA and we all left on the 30th to drive up to the cabin.  The day before we left Harper had some explosive diarrhea and then threw up later that evening at our neighbors, The Roses, luckily they have little kids too.  It was the 1st time Harper had ever thrown up and we thought it might just be from all the extra rich things he had been eating through the holidays.  We headed up the next day to Shaver (Harper seemed fine and slept fine).  When we got there Brendan was not feeling well and ended up in the back room all night with the same symptoms Harper had the previous day.  We are sad to say it ended up getting my father in law that evening at about 9 and then hit Katie a few hours later.  (All of this linked back to who had been around Harper Sat afternoon).  I laid in my bed praying for it to pass me over (Brendan tells people I put lamb's blood on my door;) but at about 2 in the morning it hit me too:(  So tough to take care of a sick toddler (because Harper ended up with massive d all evening long) and be violently sick yourself.  The rest of the family left at dawn the next morning to try and escape the plague, though Regan and Donna ended up with it as well.  I have come to find out it was the norovirus (which the new strain is soooooo contagious it is a wonder anyone escapes it).  It took a few days to really recover:(  We ended up watching marathon episodes of the Walking Dead (as Harper slept or napped) to pass the time.  We are now addicted along with Katie.  So needless to say our New Years was quite quiet as we lay in our beds trying to recover (we did end up coming back home by the eve of Jan 31 so we could be in the comfort of our own house.  Also luckily Harper did get some snow play time in before we all fell sick.

Getting ready for the snow

 

 

Finally recovered and feeling good!

 

Enjoying being "KING" on Epiphany Day

The weekend before I went back to work my good friend Jenny from high school got married at the Awhahnee in Yosemite.  It was soooo beautiful with all of the snow in the background.  We took Harper with us since we thought he could have some more snow play.  The ceremony was at the chapel and was very sweet.  Harper was trying to be a good boy and kept whispering (in his loud toddler voice-shhhh), it was cute and he wasn't too much of a distraction, so everyone said.  The reception was back at the hotel and was set up to overlook the snowy gardens.  Lots of yummy appetizers and drinks to start and then dinner was fabulous.  We brought the kindle with Dora loaded to keep Harper contained during dinner and it def worked!  He met some new people and made fast friends, especially with our table and also with Jenny's uncle Tom.  When it came time to dance Harper was the first one on the dance floor and was cracking everyone up with his moves.  He has not a shy bone in his body.  We had to hold him back during Jenny and Pat's first dance and he did not appreciate that.  At the very end he managed to get over to them and dance around them a little, I think it worked though and broke the ice so more people wanted to join in.  There were times he kept trying to get on his head and everyone thought he was trying to breakdance but he was attempting his somersaults from gym class I think.  He danced strong for about 6-8 songs and was sweating and turning red, then all of sudden the yawn happened and we knew it was bedtime!  Luckily we just had to go upstairs to our room, so nice:)  One of the cutest aspects to the wedding was the favors, purple mugs with our names written on them and little spoons attached, they had a hot beverage bar with cider, coffee, tea and hot cocoa with marshmallows!  The next morning we had breakfast in the beautiful dining room and then had some snow play outside. 

 

 

 

Nov/Dec '12

So November came and went and we are now sprinting (at least it feels like it) to the end of December!  At the beginning of Nov we went over to Cambria with my parents and Brendan's cousin and Harper's godmother Katie.  We had such a nice time relaxing with the ocean view, walks on the beachfront, wine tasting and a visit to Hearst Castle (Brendan had never been).  My parents were so helpful in watching Harper while we went to town to walk around, have lunch and try new things.  We decided to take Harper on the tour to Hearst Castle since he did so well in his stroller when we toured in VA and DC.  My parents stayed back that morning while we headed up, and there was a quick question of leaving Harper with them, but we decided he would like the views so he came along.  Well everything was going well until we went to get on the bus up the hill and the driver told Brendan to leave the stroller behind since they weren't allowed on the property.  We all looked at each other with horror (!) in our eyes thinking of this active little 19th month old trying to stay on the tour without a stoller strapping him in!  Needless to say Katie and I took turns taking him outside and then the staff showed us a little play room off the tour that really helped out.  After the tour was done Harper had a blast running around the gardens, ect.  That Sunday we took Brendan to a dinner in Morro Bay at The Galley. It was a wonderful dinner with great seafood and a fab mud pie! 

Harper with his puppy

Hearst Castle

 

The Galley

We celebrated lots of other birthdays in Nov including my Dad's on the 8th, our niece Lauren's on the 11th and Aunt Erin's on the 29th, so lots of nice birthday parties to share with family. 

Ready for pinata time

In the middle of Novemeber Brendan had a guys trip planned for SD, but Oliver's father in law became very sick and so they decided to postpone so my mom and dad volunteered to watch Harper over the weekend (and thanks Auntie Kaila, Auntie Stacie, Uncle Chris and Grampsy for lending helping hands).  Brendan and I headed down to LA and that night Katie took us out to the SOHO house (her friend is a member), and we met up with Ed.  We had a great dinner and the ambiance can't be beat.  They have a restaurant that appears to be outside on the top floor with trees and water and everything, but it really is all glassed in.  Very private to provide for the celebrity members (and yes we saw a handful, but very much the norm when we are out in Hollywood with Katie).  The best part was the cool photo booth-that was lots of fun!  Sat Brendan and I headed down to SD and met up with Ed and his girlfriend Antonella.  We had a fun time bar hopping in the gaslamp district and even found a great Spanish restaurant.  We shoud have stayed there for the evening even though we had reservations for Searsucker, which ended up a disaster because of the server, who was beyond incompetent and rude, plus the food and wine wasn't even good.  The next day's morning trip to Little Italy made up for it with the delicious coffee and bakery goods at the Sicilian restaurant Antonella treated us to.  Later that day we headed back up to LA and all of us including Katie met up that evening to go see Lincoln, which was a great movie.

Soho House, not sure why i can't flip it:(

 

San Diego

 Thanksgiving this year on the Tweedy's side was hosted by Erin-kuddos to her to hosting such a large event and it turned out great, lots of good food and company;)  That Sunday the Colbys gathered in Kingsburg at my parents and had another great turkey feast and also did family pictures that Brendan's father Pat so kindly took.  They turned out great except for the fact that Harper REFUSED to wear his hat...reminds of Halloween where he REFUSED to wear his Yoda outfit, so mom and dad walked around as Princess Leia and Hans Solo while Harper put on his batman cape and crocks-lol

We headed down to LA again the weekend of Dec 7th, but this time brought Harper along!  It was his first trip to Katie's house.  He did really well on the car ride thanks to the portable DVD player that the Rose Family lent us (thank you!)  That evening we went out to dinner (though can't say it was Harper's best performance;)  Afterwards we headed over to the Grove to see Santa.  Harper was so excited and was shouting out to Santa as we waited for him.  As we got closer he was waving and really happy.  He met another little girl in line, another Harper.  They were in a competition for who could yell the loudest.  At 7 and 8 on the dot the area around Santa's house sprays out snow (little bubbles) and Harper LOVED it, he had his hands up and everything:)  When we finally got up to Santa and Harper realized he was going to have to sit on Santa's lap he was def against it.  Brendan and I had to sit in on the pic with him. 

Snow time

Not so sure about this Santa guy upclose

 

On Sat we went with Katie to see her riding lesson and Harper got to see all the horses which he really enjoyed and was such a patient boy while Katie rode around (though we were afraid he was going to spook the horse everytime Katie came around he would scream her name). Afterwards we went to our fav breakfast spot, Le Conversacion. Harper decided not to take a nap all day (though some quick ones in the car), which is unheard of from him, but he did pretty well. Katie's friend Petra hosted their annual girls party where there is food, drinks, a gift exchange and the Victoria Secret's fashion show. Lots of fun and was able to meet some of Katie's good friends who I had heard lots about. The best part for Harper was Elle and Meika, the 3 year old girls, who took to him like glue, so he was happy as a clam. Sun morning we had breakfast with Katies parents and Alle at the Dining Car (which is another fav breakfast staple for us while in LA). Nice to see everyone since it had been a while.) The drive home was smooth.

 

All the girls

Elle and Meika loving on Harper

 

 

Last weekend Brendan and I both had some time to get things organized and some shopping done for the Holidays (though Brendan pretty much gets it all done online.  I need to learn that for next time, though I always say that.)  He was able to clean out the garage and organize it a lot better, though we still have way too much stuff.  We followed the weekend up with a walk down Christmas Tree Lane, it was crazy crowded but the boys (Harper, Cole and Baron) did pretty well for that long walk and enjoyed the lights and Santa.

I am finishing up the semester tomorrow unless the Mayans are right then I will be finishing up quite a lot more tomorrow:)  The semester has gone rather smoothly and my students are really pretty awesome:)  Though I am definitely looking foward to the 3 weeks off (an no haters I do not get paid when students are on vacation!)  We will spending the Holidays in town, so nice since I feel like we have been traveling quite a bit lately.  It all kicks of Dec 23rd with the Tweedys.  Looking foward to the annual paella dinner and breakfast crepes...yum yum yum.  Harper has been really fasincated with Elf on the Shelf and wants to read it everynight and looks for "Bruce" every morning.  Although he may be a little young to understand it all, he does pretty well for 20 months.  He will be so excited Christmas morning, now that he understands presents a lot better this time around.

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!

October '12

 

Seems like fall is going to be over before we know it.  This year the HOT weather has stayed waaaaay too long.  Last week it finally cooled down and it was so nice to get out and walk and exercise in the afternoons.  Brendan was working extra at the Fresno Fair, so lucky for him it wasn't blazing.  This is always Brendan's chance to make a little extra for Christmas and since this year Harper will understand a little better the concept I think Harper may be a little spolied:)  About 2 weeks ago I was able to take Harper to a zoo event with Oliver and LaShawn and Harper had a great time.  Though he couldn't see all of the animals since it was night, he did see some of his favorite, inlcuding the giraffes and the new sea lion cove exhibit.  He was so upset when we had to leave one animal to move on to another;)  We ended up going back to the zoo the next weekend with my mom since he was then able to seee all the animals clearly in the daylight.  He loves animals and can say most of the animal noises to go along with them.  Some of the highlights were: the sea lion who seems to know he is on display and comes up and hams it up for the kids, the giraffes (Harper's favorite), epsecially the baby, and the kangaroos, one of them had her baby in the little pouch-too cute!  When Brendan asked if he went to the zoo he responded yes and when asked what did he see, he said "raffe".  Last Fri night my neighbor Julie convinced me to go the fair.  Since Brendan works there so much, he doesn't really want to go on his own time.  He was working that evening there and told us it was a pretty calm night and the animal exhibits were all open, so Julie and her son Baron (2 months younger than Harper) and Harper and I headed down there.  It was a nice night and the boys were captivated by all the lights in the rides section, all the music, the animals and the food.  There was an "international exhibit" with lots of animals from around the world, inlcuding kangaroos, parrots, tarantulas, scorpions, lizards, turtles, ect.  Across the way was the annual farm animal exhibit which is always big, especially with all the of the ag in the valley.  We saw chicks, bunnies, lambs, cows, sheep, birds.  The coolest was defnitely when we saw a sheep give birth, though it did remind very much of Gracy's litter being born in April!  At the end we each got a cinammon roll and shared with the boys, and man, they were definitely fans!  Harper kept asking for mas (more in Spanish, which seems to be his fav word in Spanish these days). 

The sssssnake

New sea lion exhibit

Oliver, LaShawn and god-children

Baron and Harper at the fair

His favorite-raffe!

This past weekend Brendan and I headed down to Bakersfield for Marcie and Jaison's wedding.  We stayed at a really cool bouique hotel there called The Padre.  Got to hang out with some old college friends including my old roomate Bobbi and her husband, so lots of fun was had:)  The couple looked great and the setting was so beautiful and the weather was perfect.  Thanks Nana and Grandpa for watching Harper and for having dinner ready for us when we got home-what a treat!  The happily married couple are currently enjoying their honeymoon in France and Italy-jealous!

Looking foward to the some Halloween parties coming up!

Cheese-Halloween pjs (you can also see the healing black eye from a fall last Fri eve)

Harper went in for his 18 month checkup:
27.2 lbs (has been this weight for a few months now)
32.5 in (getting taller)
85 percentile for weight and head and 50th for height
Dr. Evans shared that Harper is well above normal vocab for this age (average word vocab 20-30 words), he has new words all the time that I don't even know how he learned, and he can link 3 words together on a regular basis and can answer more complicated senetences than just yes or no, for example when the doctor came in: he asked "Whose that?" and pointed to her and then we said the doctor and he repeated "doctor."  When she was asking about foods, Brendan asked Harper, "what is your favorite food?" and he responded "yogurt".  He is pretty good with pronunication though my fav is that he calls his cousin Logan, "Ogan".  Sometimes when you ask Harper who he is he even says "Ogan", guess he loves Logan a lot;)  When he says Harper, it comes without the "r" so he sounds like he is from Boston;)

With the vocabulary thing we have to VERY careful of what we say.  Last week we celebrated Logan's birthday at Tahoe Joes.  Brendan had a long week of work with some overnight work on robberies, so needless to say he was looking foward to relaxing.  We were all chatting and waiting for food and Brendan was letting Harper drink from the straw and glass of water he had in his hand from across the table.  For one second Brendan let go and of course Harper grabbed it and dumped the freezing cold water and ice into his own lap and got soaked and began to cry.  After a quick change of clothes he did not want to sit in his high chair anymore so Nana held him on her lap for dinner.  After dinner was done and the water had all been cleaned up by the busboy, Brendan ordered a gin and tonic and it had just been placed in the table when my mom asked Brendan to hold Harper for him and of course right after Harper kicked out and spilled the drink all over the floor.  Brendan let the "f" word slip out and although not everyone at the table heard that they sure heard when Harper yelled it out right after!  It was soooo funny and we were all practically crying.  Brendan didn't think it was that funny since he doesn't normally say that but of course the one time he does Harper repeats it for the whole table.

Pumpkins from the garden

New lettuce being planted

This bbqing business is serious work

What-Gracy isn't a horse?

Giddy-up!

End of Summer '12

Hi all,
Wow, I feel llike I haven't written in forever and there is so much to share, but I am sure I will miss a few things.  The end of the summer came very fast for us.  We enjoyed our pool a whole lot this summer, especially now that Harper takes swimming lessons every week.  He goes to Nana and me classes at the local swim school.  He is also still very happy about the gym classes he attends at My Gym.  It is neat to see him interact with others and meet other parents (though it is a small world and lots of people I already know there).  School started back and things have finally started to settle down, there were a few classes with 46 kids!  Now we are down to about 40 in Spanish 1.  For the most part they seem to be a good batch:) 

One of the last vacations we took for summer was to Reno to visit the aunties:)  We had a great time and it was so nice to have a little mommy and daddy time while Casey, John, Pat and mom and dad watched Harper.  Brendan and I were able to celebrate our June anniversary in August at our usual-Harrah's steakhouse in Reno, and it is always worth it!  On the way home we had a brief visit with Jenny and her two boys Caleb and Landon.

At the end of summer Brendan's brother Matt and his family came to visit and the girls are always so loving with Harper, too cute.  We had a famly reunion with the Tweedy side and Harper was able to feed the horses along with the other cousins.

Labor day weekend we had won a silent auction for a sailboat ride on Huntington Lake, so we took my mom and dad and Katie, Brendan's cousin with us.  We headed up to the family cabin in Shaver Fri night and left Harper with Grampsy and Grandma (Brendan's parents) for the day Sat while we sailed.  It was a beautiful day and such a fun experience, we had lots of snacks, wine and goodies on board, lunch at a restaurant on the lake and learned the basics of sailing, would love to repeat next year.  We spent the rest of the weekend in Shaver and Brendan's family came up for a bbq on Sun.  Harper had a bit of a cold and also we soon realized was getting in a bunch of teeth and his molars, so he was not feeling well, but as long as he was allowed to play outside he was in heaven.

Harper updates:
17 months now (at his 15 month appt-stats: height-30.14 in, weight-27, in the 90 percentile for head a weight).  The dr had already recommended getting him off the bottle at 12 months, but we had been dragging our feet.  She says it leads to more infections.  Also she said he was drinking too much milk and that can cause anemia, so we had to cut down on the amount and we also went from full fat to 2%.  He already used sippy cups for water, but was NOT a fan of the milk in a sippy cup.  I transitioned him from 5 bottles a day to 2 bottles and 3 sippy cups, it was def a battle of wills at the beginning, but soon became apparent that he could manage and maybe was playing mom and dad since he didn't throw the fits with his Aunties Stacie and Kaila or with Nana!  Here is a funny video where is so mad about the sippy cup but after the video he ends up quietly lying down and drinking it.
***I couldn't get the 1st video of his mini-tantrum to load, but believe me it was a testament to his strong will, but he recovered quickly:)  This is the recovering video:)