All she wants for christmas...

Last week, Harper seemed almost uncontrollably whiny. It was as if our habitually mellow, happy baby was transformed overnight into a golam. To our relief, we soonafter found a tooth protruding from her top gum, which explained Harp's uncharacterstic demeanor as the result of teething rather than her being posessed by a Tolkian (fictional ?) character. Still, I have to admit that the thought of her being that whiny another thirty times (how many teeth do humans have again? At least we're not sharks) at the hands of new teeth had me a bit distraught. That's why I rejoiced with such furvor when I found not 1, but 4 new teeth growing in the lil' babe's mouth. Right now you can really only see the front 2, but the proof that all 4 front teeth are slowly coming into existance is eviodent when she bites into a piece of Lindt dark chocolate. Or when she bites poor little Parker's finger.


A few days ago, Rivs and Harp were caught in the rain. Rivs chivalrously shed his shirt (to the pleasure of many-a-TVA-wives) and put it on Harper to protect her.

Smokin' on a Veggie Straw.

Babies are as bad as puppies when it comes to begging for food. Also, we need a couch.



After we had ruled out golam, the small mark on Harp's upper lip had us questioning if Hitler was to blame. Luckily, we found the teeth. Seem them?

My Rockstar Recovery

I recently started teaching three classes at BYU-Hawaii for the International Peacebuilding certificate program. This, paired with a regrettably much-needed second job at the Coffee Gallery, a ten-month-old baby that has an affinity for placing perfectly chokable-sized objects in her mouth and a lovingly helpful yet very busy husband makes life pretty hectic. As a result, I am forced to interpret the WOW as I see fit by consuming all too many caffeinated (cold) drinks to enable the completion of class readings and homework corrections. Tonight the elixir of choice was "Rockstar: Energy + Hydration". Did it do the trick, you may ask? Well, let me answer that question by doing a double backflip, followed by a quick deep clean of my appartment and a resounding Oh-My-Goodness-YES!. The efficacy of said drink might also be manifest in the nature of this very blog itself; as I write about the Rockstar, my eyes jubilantly spring wide open even when willed shut.

Is this morally wrong? While you're deciding, let me distract you by showing you photos from this summer in Oregon.







See? I bet you even forgot what you were supposed to be making judgment upon.



Dangit.

Harper n Parker

Harper’s new BFF is a sweet baby named Avery Parker. Although their relationship got off to a rocky start due to Harper’s over-enthusiasm (made manifest in her attempts to squash her new friend in excitement by laying on her), Harper and Parker are now inseparable. Born merely 6 days apart, Harper has sizeable girth on Parker. But what Parker lacks in body fat, she makes up in her dainty, pure sweetness. In fact, I'd say that the two lil' babes balance each other out quite well. Not to say that Harper isn't sweet, but let's just say she isn't bashful when she wants Parker's toy. Or pacifier. Or food. Or hair. For the most part, Parker takes it like a champ, but her passive agressiveness gleams through her sweetness as from time to time, Parker will bite, hit or smack Harper in the face with a water bottle. When she does this, we all kind of silently cheer for her. Go Parker, go.

So whether it's eating snacks, taking in some sun, or knocking back a couple cold ones, Harper and Parker do everything together.

What If?

A friend recently asked what I thought life would be like if I hadn’t been knocked up that fateful day in February. This produced a mental thought parade with the ‘involuntarily sacrificial turn my life has taken’ as the main float. Poopy, whiny babies. Was this what I always wanted? Well, let’s just say that circa 2008, if I had serendipitously encountered a feral puppy and a feral baby human on the side of the street, it would have only been the fear of social damnation that would have ultimately persuaded me to choose the baby kid. Yes, I would have chosen to pet a puppy over holding a baby any day; to put a plastic-grocery-bag-encased hand on a warm pile of dog poop over changing a baby diaper; to get an indiscriminately loving lap from a hound over a slobbery smooch from a toddler.

So what if Harper had never been born? Would my life be more as I had imagined it, full of exotic travels, carefree days basking on the beach and sleepy Saturdays in bed watching movie after movie with my sweet babe Rivs? Imagine…instead of spending $100 on formula, I waltz into Forever 21 and pick out a sweet new outfit that would never end up smelling like stale milk or be permanently tinged sweet potato orange. And picture this: its midnight. Rivers and I are watching Season 3 of Arrested Development. The show ends. Rivers gently asks whether I want to watch another episode, to which I swiftly reply “why yes, of course! After all, what have we got to do tomorrow but sleep in till 10, eat banana pancakes and inconspicuously laugh at all the silly couples who have babies?” Wouldn’t it be more enjoyable, relaxing, exciting if life were still that way?

What if I had never seen Harper’s old-man newborn face, or heard her soft, pleading cry when all she wanted was to return to her home in my belly. What if I had never felt her soft, wrinkled hands gently prod my face as I fed her, or seen her toothless grin when she still fit in the crook of my neck? Would I be better off if I had never heard her gleeful giggle, or laughed when she thought the electrical outlets were tiny faces? What if I had never watched her crawl for the first time, give wet kisses to her reflection in the mirror, or wave goodbye long after a person has left her sight? Picture this: it’s 5 am. Rivers and I are asleep in bed. Harper starts to cry. I slowly get out of bed to tend to my child and find a baby girl standing in her crib, smiling ear to ear because her mommy just came to her rescue. I pick her up. She wraps her little arms around my neck and nuzzles her face into my neck. Tired, weary and not quite ready to start the day just yet, but I am filled with the love that consumes. And life is just as it should be: imperfectly perfect.

Back to Reality. Ha.

I've been hesitant to post a new blog without photos. It's been a couple months since I've uploaded any pics of Harper's beautiful face, and I feel that my words cannot compensate for the digital immortilization of her ever present smile. But I'm doing it anyways.

The novelty of being back in Hawaii is yet to wear thin. Every day I wake up excited for the new day ahead. This could be attributed to the fact that the ocean sparkles and roars just minutes away from our house. Or perhaps it's due to the fact that Phil, Tawny and Teya are our new neighbors. No wait-isn't it that Jenny and Axel live around the corner? Or maybe it's because our new BFFs Matty and Lindsay and baby Parker (who is 6 days younger than Harper) live right behind us. Or could it be because we get to see cousin Courtenay and BIG little brother Aaron (he's swole) almost every day? Yeah, take each one of these treasures, mix in a wonderful and HOT husband, a cute, happy baby and big ol' Costco shopping carts. That's why I'm in Heaven.

Unfortunately I don't have any stories to tell as of now. The longer I go without blogging, the less I think in terms of bloggability, and the less stories I bank in my brain for potential blog posts.

However, let it be known that Harper loves the beach. She has tan lines in her ample fat rolls. Rivs is working hard in school and cross country and looking goooood doing it all. Meanwhile, I've been momentarily suspending my scholarly duties and just having fun. Theses can wait. The ocean is calling.

Ok fine. Here's one I pirated from facebook. It's not much, but it should suffice until we get our laptop repaired.