for the love of Jess and Shan

Hlow is getting better and better with her intonations and her piecing of two words together. last weekend, Shannon and i were shoe shopping. Baby H picked up a really ugly/flashy/trashy pair of shoes and went, "wooooooooow." it was pretty amazing. also, Shannon has the summer off and has started taking Harlow one day a week for a "ladies day." they visit Jess. they play together. they lunch. they nap. they have a regular ball with it! today they were playing at the park and Harlow said, "oh well." she has since said it multiple times today. to die!

things i love:

1. Harlow piecing together multiple words and playing with intonation.



2. Harlow having Jess and Shannon to love her as much as she loves them
   


3. picture updates while i'm at work!

last week's date. Harlow modeling at Westfield State.

playing in the park today.

a day for catch up

i am horrible. work got in my way. i am too busy staring at my cute baby. no matter how you look at, i have been a terrible updater. so, as i like to do, here is an update in pictures.

i will begin with Harlow's first birthday. that was TWO MONTHS AGO in April. it was wild that my baby suddenly turned one. i still can't believe it. it happened so fast. she want from a teeny tiny little baby to a little kid. in the fastest year of my life.

some things that i know to be true in this one year of knowing her = she is thoughtful, funny, strong, willful, loud, but also soft, caring, loving, and a tid bit wild. she loves to dance and sing and kiss and throw balls. she likes to explore but also loves to sit with mama/papa and love. she is amazing. i look so much forward to knowing her more and more.

for her birthday - we had a lovely little party at our house. just immediate family, close friends, and a few of Harlow's pals. it was wonderful. the sun came out and we were able to play outside for a bit. the food was AMAZING. thank you for your help, Nicole! and thanks to everyone else that made it such a special day. it was perfect!

we still have plans to plant a tree using her placenta as fertilizer. soon! and we have a box full of letters from her friends/family that we are debating whether to plant or hide away.

here come the pics! the party favors i made with our Locke family scrap metal sign in the background...


the party favors! i made little compostable pots with sunflowers planted inside. littel Harlow flowers growing all over town!!!


the spread...



a replica of the cake we ate one year previous on her actual BIRTH day. a lovely little spring buttercream from Bread Euphoria. YUM!


"bacon and eggs" made by Nicole! too cute.


pigs in a blanket. i believe Alex made these??? or was it Nicole masked as Alex?


i made the fruit bowl! see, i'm not totally useless in the kitchen!


the cake for the adults. a vegan raspberry buttercream made at River Valley Co-Op!


Harlow's entrance to the party in her party frock after her morning nap. and then her cousin, Benjamin, laid a bunch of kisses all over her.





guests checking out the digs.


Harlow's first birthday cake! it was a sugarless apple cake made by mama. she LOVED it!!!



the party ended in a dress-less run around the yard. yay for first birthdays!!!

preparing for Hlow's first birthday

i know that the first birthday is a really big deal. a REALLY big deal. but i didn't know i would have so many emotions around it. i have been talking about it for weeks. "can you believe it?" and "our baby is all grown up!" and "can you believe it?" but today, when i started actually planning, it really hit me that my baby girl is about to be an antire year old. this was the most difficult year of my life. it was amazing and intense and beautiful and wild and...hard. getting to know Harlow has been the most amazing thing in my life but also the most challenging and painful. it's hard to explain the amount of love one feels for these little monsters. and it's shocking at the level in which you can love another. truly shocking. this year of knowing Harlow has found me shocked and amazed by capacity for love but also in awe of the little human she is. she is funny - beautiful - thoughtful - amazed - loving - joyful - and i think even witty (funny to say that but i believe it to be true). we have plans to plant a tree and pull the placenta out of the deep freeze for a little ceremony. we will most likely do that alone as a family together. then we are going to have a very small family/friends gathering to celebrate. in preparation for her first birthday today:

• i planned on making invites but then i found ones that i can print on paper that GROWS into wildflowers. can't beat that.


• i bought a teal 7" cake stand with glass dome because she is that special.


• i have been researching infant friendly cakes to bake.


• planning a menu.


• thinking about ceremonies and things we can't plant together in celebration of Harlow.


• asking her most loved to write her letters about her first year.

more to come in this journey to the end of year one. our first family photo...taken just about a year ago.

Harlow is a (feminist) supermodel...

V-Day onesies!

my little fish

step 1: get acquainted with the water.



step 2: in which she swims like a fish.

an update in pictures

my big girl. just two months until she turns one. she looks like such a kid already. what a charmer.


Amy and Ali got her a suit for Christmas. i took the clip on tie from the suit and added a newsie hat. smitten. she looks just like her Papa!


we went swimsuit shopping with Jess and Shannon. this green number is Harlow's first suit. she has since received one with a pink ruffle skirt from Grammie. so stylish she will be this summer!


the last time i visited my folks, i found a box of baby clothes that i had bought in the early 80s for my Cabbage Patch Kid to wear. score for Harlow! what kid doesn't want to wear a pink leisure suit from the 80s?


i bought some hair things to try and keep her hipster hair out of her eyes. seriously?


another attempt at keep the hair back. but more importantly, urgh, that profile!

words

i haven't uploaded any pictures recently. so here are two cell phone pics of the little monkey. i still find myself looking at pictures of her all the time at work, when she is sleeping, when i am out...i am just as smitten as day one. in fact, it only gets more and more so.

just thought i would update quick today. Hbomb said "book" last night for the first time. so she now has a lovely little repertoire of words.

• boooo = book
• duuu = duck
• maaaa = milk
• muuuu = moo
• pa pa pa = puff
• mamamamamamamamamama = mama

she is also very soon to start walking. she takes three steps at a time now before falling at me. it's pretty shocking and amazing. and she is so very proud of herself when she does. swoon.

quickie update

toof #5 popped through. she had her two bottom teef...then a top fang popped out. it was great when it was by itself for a few days. but then the middle one came in and now the other middle one. five little teef. so dang cute.

she has relearned how to sign "more." yay! although she still interchanges with clapping because they pretty much get her the same thing.

bigger update to come.

she'll be a (feminist) teen model yet

our friend, Kate, works at V-Day. she gave us these amazing V-Day onesies. so Papa did a little photoshoot. man is that baby starting to look like a kid! here are some of my favorites...

the updating continues

wow. a lot has changed. Harlow is just a few days short of being 9 months old. NINE MONTHS!!! i am shocked that this little creature has been in my/our lives for so long. Harlow Vienn Locke. born April 11, 2010. i type that as i recently gave someone the wrong birth date AND spelled her name wrong. ha.

she is strong, willful, solid, loving, funny, inquisitive and thoughtful. thoughtful. she is so thoughtful. it's amazing to see a baby in such thought with every action. she is oh so like her papa.

what else? where to start? everything is new! let me see what i can remember...

sleep: as you know, we went through four months of no sleep. it was horrible. difficult. trying. in fact, it made us a bit crazy. but we met with out birth doula, Michelle L'Esperance, met with us to talk about gentle sleep coaching. man, is she amazing. we just couldn't bring ourselves to Cry It Out...no matter how great it is supposed to work. the book that we pulled from is called "Good Night, Sleep Tight." of course we couldn't read it only sleeping a few hours at a time. so Michelle gave us a crash course. i later was able to read the handbook for the book. the moral of the story is that we went from Harlow waking up 6 times a night (every few hours) to sleeping 12hrs straight within three nights. it was magic. pure magic. it has been weeks now and she sleeps 10-12hrs a night. no big deal. just sleeping through the night. i am more than happy to talk with anyone about this further because it drastically changed out lives. drastically.

sings: she lost the sign for "more" after just doing it for a few weeks. she lost "more" around the time she learned to clap. makes sense since they're similar. but the "milk" is her new BFF. she understands what it means and when to ask for it. but she also likes to do it for anything that makes her happy (surprise surprise). so she signs "milk" when she wants to nurse but also when something is funny or the food is good or mama is singing or papa is dancing. it's kind of amazing.

crawling/standing/walking: she started standing around 7m. i don't mean standing as in pulling herself up...i mean standing. on her own. like it was no big deal. please see videos below for proof. it was shocking. she has been doing it for two months now and she is still just as proud every time she does it. hilarious. as for walking? it's coming soon. she toddles around all the furniture and anything that will allow her to grab it (humans, cats, other babies). she even takes steps without holding on. the most she has made are three before toppling over. but she is getting there! she was refusing to crawl. every time we put her down to crawl she would just stand. but she spent Christmas with her cousin, Benjamin, and i am pretty sure that he taught her to crawl. she started crawling as soon as we returned. she went to bed one night unable to crawl. and woke up crawling all over the place. it's amazing how that happens. walking, here we come.

and some picture updates to finish this post off...

this kid is nothing but face.


my new favorite picture of us. urgh, my love.


in her nursery. oh man, i never posted pictures of her nursery. i need to get on that. it's gorg!


just standing around.


with her twin, Gramps!


nothing makes you want to walk like Gramp's foot. good times.


new giraffe from Auntie.


my new fav pic of Harlow and her cousin, Benjamin. love.