Harper is growing up faster than I could have ever imagine. I swear I will blink a couple more times and she will be graduating college. She is about 7 and a 1/2 months old now. She is so sweet! Any day now and our lives will change forever since she is so close to crawling. She gets up on all 4's and rocks and has taken a few "crawls" towards something that she wants. I am excited and terrified at the same time. She finds every single thread or crumb on the floor and it immediately goes towards the mouth. AGGGHHH!
A few weeks ago, Harper was sitting on the couch and actually turned and put her little baby hands up on the arm of the chair and pulled herself up! I couldn't believe it! I actually got a couple of pictures of it. She has started pulling up on a lot of different objects that are low to the ground.
She is talking and babbling all the time. She laughs and giggles when I tickle her with my hair or tickle her tummy or up by her collar bone.
I told Scott the other day that I dont think I ever really experienced joy until I became a mother. Was I happy before? Sure! I was very happy but this is a different kind of joy that comes from somewhere deep within. When I am home with Harper and Scott, my life is complete. There are so many bad things going on within my family and extended family right now but when I am with Harper, my soul is complete.
I still struggle with working full time but we have more good days then in the past. The majority of the bad days happen when I am really stressed about a case, money, washing machine breaking, etc. I am learning to accept that I have to work and that it will be ok. I will do my best to contribute financially to our family (and pay my lovely student loans). Some days are good, some are bad. I really never understood how much work it takes to run a household once you have a child. My house is a mess most of the time and when I start to stress about it, I think about what some of the "older" moms I know have told me. Leave the house alone and enjoy your baby! I do what I can to keep things going and there are some days where most everything falls apart but other days, we do ok! However, even on the worst days, when I come home to Harper and Scott, I take a deep breath and let the stresses of the day melt away. Its like magic.
We are getting very excited about Christmas! Harper will be getting a big girl car seat (well, 2 actually since we have to have one for both of our cars). I am sure she will be thrilled. haha! I researched the heck out of the issue (surprise, surprise). I was really stressing out but the decision has been made. Scott and I are ready to start traditions with Harper and plan to go get a real Christmas tree from the local tree farm this week. We are going to leave milk and cookies for Santa and all that fun stuff! I think Harper will be more interesting in the paper and ribbons than the presents and thats ok. :)
