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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Harper the Socialite

Harper’s first two weeks at daycare were great—she told me—she's very advanced. My first two weeks back to work were wonderful. I love being with Harper, but I don’t think I was cut out to be a stay at home Mom. I didn’t realize just how much I missed coming to work until I came back. Because of my high blood pressure, I had been on desk duty since January, so it had really been almost 7 months since I had done my normal job. It was great to see some of my long-time patients and just to get back into the swing of doing music therapy.

On Friday (July 31) Harper and I headed up to Radford in one car while Kevin followed behind us in another. A friend from there was getting married the next day, so we went to Roanoke to stay with the Janneys and visit with Cory and Melynda. It was a quick trip, but we haven’t seen each other in a LONG time, and it was great to catch up! I realized that times have certainly changed, as the room was filled with sounds of crashing toys and screaming little boys and conversations centered on Sesame Street (I’m not joking, at one point Cory and Alan were ranking their top three favorite human characters and I believe the comment “Don’t even add in monsters, that’s too hard” was shared). Regardless of the changes, the friendships are still there and that was great to see. Saturday, we drove to Radford to see Ann and Elliot get married!! Ann was beautiful!

After the wedding, I continued north to my parents’ house in West Virginia, and Kevin came back home to Virginia Beach. Thus began a whirlwind week of family festivities. I did take my camera with me, but took very few pictures, as my hands were usually full of other important cargo. I think my parents have some, but Harper might turn one before we get them off their camera, onto their computer, and emailed to me. So here’s a brief rundown of Harper’s busy social schedule:

Sunday: Went to church in Bridgeport and spent the morning in the nursery. Got to meet a lot of people important to my childhood and then went out to breakfast with my parents and grandparents.

Monday: Went to the hospital where my Dad works and Harper met all of his coworkers.

Tuesday: Tried to get Harper to take an early nap – she disagreed. So, we headed to the mall with a tired baby and then spent a little time at my grandparents’ house visiting. We left their house and drove up to Morgantown to have dinner with some of my best friends from high school—Traci, Amanda, and Katie. They loved meeting Harper, gave her adorable gifts, and she spit-up on each of them – typical Harper behavior. After not having a nap, I expected a pretty rough night, but Harper’s easy-going nature emerged and she just went with the flow.

Wednesday: Spent the day at home so Harper (and her Granddad) could catch up on the sleep they missed from being out late the night before. My parent’s friends (Avah and Jerry) came over for dinner to meet Harper. Jerry has lots of jokes to share, and Harper just smiled and laughed every time he talked to her.

And the week is only HALF OVER.

Thursday: Back to the hospital in the morning to meet some more people my Dad works with, and then an early nap to get ready for the night’s events. Michael (my brother) and Maria (his girlfriend) got into town, and we went to Buckhannon for my cousin Julie’s wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

My brother decided he needed a little playtime after a long drive in from South Carolina.

Friday: Good old blueberry pancake family breakfast, a little sesame street, and Harper was down for another early nap in preparation for Julie’s wedding that afternoon. My Mom was helping direct people down the aisle and I was reading in the ceremony, so Harper got to spend the majority of the time with her Granddad. She did great until I began to read and she heard my voice, but wasn’t real sure where I was. Of course Julie looked gorgeous, and the reception was at a local winery and was BEAUTIFUL!!

Saturday: Trip to Blackwater Falls and Thomas, WV. Ate lunch at the purple fiddle, walked down to the falls, and Harper was in and out of her carseat probably 10 times throughout the day. We then went straight to my grandparents for dinner, and the reality of a sleepy, cranky, fed-up baby began to reveal itself. Harper slowly began to fuss just before dinner, and had to be held/rocked all through dinner. Then came the carseat again and she exploded. My easy-going, incredibly tolerant little girl had reached her breaking point and she cried the entire 30 minute ride home. Nothing could console her, my Dad had a migraine, and everyone felt a little tense after being in a car with screaming for 30 minutes – my apologies for all who had to endure Harper not at her best.

Sunday: Up early to travel home! Harper slept for the first 5 hours of the trip and just began to wake up when I saw signs warning of traffic ahead. So, we got off the interstate and took a little lunch break (for her, not me) for about 30 minutes. We then sat in 30 minutes of traffic to get past Williamsburg and another 45 minutes of traffic to get through the tunnel. This made the trip last from 8:30 that morning until 5:00 in the evening. Harper was as tolerable as could be, and only cried a little at the tunnel traffic – and at this point I thought about joining in with her. We got home, unloaded the car, ate dinner, and went down to the beach for our church’s baptisms—what a night!! I was tired, she was tired, but it was definitely worth going down to be a part of the celebration.

Harper was an angel all week (minus the car incident, and I can’t say that I blame her), and I feel so blessed to have a child that is healthy, happy, and sleeping through the night. Everyone continues to say, “She’s so happy!” or “She’s always smiling and laughing” or “Look how alert she is!” and I am just proud to know that I get to be her Mom. J

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