For The Love of Harper: October 2011

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Two months old

Our sweet Norah turned two months old this past friday and 9 weeks old today. It is so hard to believe. I mean it seems like we just brought her home yesterday. The time really does fly, just like they say it does. She had her two month check up and she is growing like a super weed! She is up to 11lbs, 7oz and 22.5 inches; 66th %tile and 56th respectively. She was 6lbs 12 oz and 20 inches at birth....talk about a little chunk. I guess she is making up for lost time. She wasn't quite back up to her birth weight at her two week appointmentt so we started to supplement with formula and she has done really well. She is such a sweet little thing. We are getting more smiles and more head control every day. And she is so strong! It really is amazing to watch her change before our eyes.

Check out those cheeks--she looks like she could smuggle a serious amount of acorns.

Tummy time!

Sweet little bum and lots of red :) hair.

Zeus and Luna enjoying some tummy time, as well :)

Friday, October 28, 2011

There's no place like home...

Hi, remember me? I have been *very* absent from blog land for a while. We have been pretty busy around here. Not only caring for Norah, who is 2 months old today (!!!) but also moving...yes, you read that right, moving. Really great timing, eh? It has been a whirlwind of a month but I finally feel like I am starting to catch my breath. Things take so much longer to accomplish these days and I am not near as productive as I once was but that is so okay because it means that I have a sweet little baby wrapped up in my arms who I get to hug and snuggle and kiss and rock and watch grow everyday. It's pure love. <3

As I sat down to write this post , I wanted to pick out a few pictures to go with this post. Two hours later, I have gone through almost my whole iphoto library getting caught up in how much time and life changes us (and how skinny I used to be :). Reminiscing about so many memories; happy times and horrible ones.

We have lived in our sweet little house for the past five and a half years. A lot has happened to us in those five and a half years, it was our first home (I am not counting apartment living) and I am desperately sad to be saying goodbye to it. It almost feels like I am leaving a little bit of myself behind, leaving the old me. I mean, that girl has been long gone since June 2010 but she had a lot of happy memories packed away in these walls.

There is also a part of me that feels like I am leaving a little bit of Harper behind. This is the only place that she ever had life, this is the place where we planned for her arrival with blissful abandon and then didn't get to bring her home, where her tree is planted, where we learned how to grieve for her, where so many tears have fallen , this was her home and it breaks my heart to leave. Some may say it is good to start anew, to make a fresh beginning but it is also hard to let go. I suppose I never will.

This is also the place where Chris and I got engaged, and the place we came home to after our honeymoon. This is where we brought our pups home and tortured them with countless halloween/thanksgiving/Christmas costumes and laughed our arses off at how wrong we were. This is where, despite the sad times, we have had countless good times, great times.

This is where we anxiously went through a pregnancy after our loss. The place that hope finally started to creep back into our lives. This is where my water broke and I went into labor on a random Sunday morning. This is where we brought our sweet rainbow baby home. It will always be Norah's first home, even if it was only for 7 weeks.

I realize that home is where your heart is and as long as you are with your loved ones, then you are home. I know that a house is just a house; sheet rock, shingles and brick but it's more to me. It's memories, laughter and pain all wrapped up with lots of love. This was and will always be our "gingerbread house" (notice the web address of this blog :)...a very special place.