Harms House: January 2011

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Harms Xmas Photos

I finally got the pictures posted from Christmas in Illinois, thank you Grandma for sending them!!

Click here to see them: Illinois Christmas

It's been 60 degrees here the last couple of days so on Friday Payton and I walked to the park to hang out and have some lunch. She really enjoyed watching all of the other kids playing and spent a little time in the swing. She wasn't too sure about crawling around in the dry, hard grass, but eventually her curiosity got the best of her. We love the neighborhood we live in, there are walking paths all through it and several parks along the way.

Kole met us to play on his way home from work. I'm really looking forward to spending time outside at parks and pools and the zoo, etc. with Payton this summer and I am so thankful to have time off during the week to hang out with her. I always figured I would be a stay at home mom as that is how it was growing up, but right now for our family me working part-time and being home with Payton a couple days a week is the perfect balance.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

"Typical" Week

After ringing in 2011 I decided I wanted to blog about a "typical" week these days in our household. I'm not very good at traveling around in house and out with my camera in tow so I made a special effort and captured some pictures. The pictures and happenings in this post happened a little over the course of a week, 10 days to be exact.

I know I only think I am busy now, we hope to have siblings for Payton one day and I'm sure I'll look back and laugh at how busy I thought I was with just one!

Friday - Big D and Little T spend every other Friday with Payton and I, there are such sweet baby's and Payton acts like a little momma when they are around. I have to watch her pretty closely though, we're working on the concept of being gentle.

Until the boys are a little older and further along post-op (they both underwent open heart surgery about 4 weeks ago!!) I plan to stick around the house on the Fridays they come to play. This particular Friday I loaded all the babies in the Pilot and drove to visit Amber at work. They did great, I was exhausted though! It was nice to visit with Amber and to watch her coworkers ooo and ahh over the boys and I got to see a few friendly faces as well. (Amber works for the company I left in October)

3 car seats fit quite well in my backseat! Payton happy to be getting out of the house with her little buddies.

Not so happy a couple of hours later being overdue for a nap. The boys were crying too, but I didn't have the heart to take the time to take a picture and subject them to the torture a minute longer. Within a few minutes after pulling out of the parking lot all three babes were sound asleep and it was a quiet peaceful hour-long drive home.

Saturday - The Trujillos (Matt, Jenn, Ashtyn 2 1/2, Eli 7 months) came for dinner. We get together quite a bit for dinner and it was our turn to host. Eli and Payton had fun playing and Payton enjoyed watching Ashtyn, she's memorized by kids who are older then her. The Trujillos are such great friends and we always enjoy spending time with them.

Sunday - Payton's first swim lesson Sunday afternoon

Straight to Kelsey and Josh's after swimming for dinner to celebrate Papa's (my dad) birthday

It's really quite strange, but if there is a beer bottle or can to be found, Payton will choose it over any toy. I think it's because she sees all of us with them and thinks there must be something wonderful inside.

Monday - My day to catch up on cleaning, laundry, work emails, etc. until we leave at 3pm to pick up Lexi from school and spend a couple of hours hanging out

Tuesday - Work (spend an hour with the twins when I get home before Amber does)

Wednesday - Work, pick up Lexi, dinner with Florida family at my mom's, Lexi spends the night since Marjie is travelling. Wednesdays are my busy days, sometimes when I get to work I feel like I have already put in a full day as I have: gotten my self up and ready for work, taken care of the dogs, gotten Payton up and ready, work for a couple of hours, get myself and Payton out of the house and drop Payton at Kelsey's and get to work and it's only 10:30 or 11am! Kole plays bball and I play soccer Wed. nights, some times it's terrible timing.

Thursday - Drive Lexi to school in North Boulder, come home to work as our nanny had the flu (an hour with the twins when they are at the house)

Friday - No boys this day so Payton and I ran a bunch of needed errands and dropped by to visit Nana for lunch and then met Aunt Kelsey at the mall to finish out the day

Saturday - Laundry, cleaning, etc. Made some snacks for the friends we had coming to visit. Our great friends the Ainsworths were in town for a quick weekend visit to celebrate a birthday with family and made time for a quick visit yesterday. We miss them a lot! It was a short visit, but so nice to see them and for them to make time.

Taylor (2) was such a little mama to Payton, they had fun playing together!

This is what we came home to Saturday night after church!

The dogs had helped themselves to the trash can full of food, diapers and who knows what else.

We love our dogs, but there are times when I would gladly give them away!

We put Payton to bed and Kole cleaned up the mess while I went to the grocery store to get food for Sunday.

Sunday - I went to church with Payton to volunteer for the 9am service while Kole got the house and some of the food ready. The Bears made the play-offs so we had the fam over for snacks and football.

The Bears pulled off the win pretty easily, thank goodness, Kole's in a good mood now :)

Our life isn't anything glamorous, and I am often guilty of overfilling our time (I'm working on this, there should really be a 12 step program!), BUT I have the most amazing husband who does more than his fair share, a beautiful, healthy baby girl, loving family close by (and afar ;) ) and the best friends. I love my life, thank God every day, and wouldn't change it for anything!!!

Swim Lessons

We started swim lessons last weekend! We started in a Sunday afternoon class, but switched to a Saturday morning class this weekend as it works a little better with our schedule. She wasn't so sure at the first lesson, seemed a little overwhelmed, but she did great at the second lesson. She splashed and talked and smiled. She's not really learning anything except to be comfortable in the water, but it's fun to have an activity to take her to!

She has as a swimsuit, but I thought she might be more comfortable and easeier to hold in the water in a onsie. Problem was the instructors kept calling her he ;)

Warming up with daddy afterwards. She was chilly the whole lesson, her little teeth/gums chattered the whole time!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

9 Months

This past Thursday, January 6th, Payton Audrey turned 9 months old. She's really starting to transition from baby to toddler. I'll keep this post short as there are many pictures. I was only going to post a couple, but decided to post them all as it's a pretty good overall picture of the personality of our baby girl. She keeps us pretty entertained!

Payton @ 9 Months

Measurements: Don't have any to report this month, not sure when we go back to the doctor, but she is still growing, right past 6-9 month clothing and into 12-18 month clothing as a matter of fact!

Sleep: Still sleeping through the night, a little more soundly now that she is on the go and past 5:30 am which mom and dad are thankful for! Still two 1-2 hour naps.

Food: Will eat anything we give her, but getting a little bored with baby food which has made for some interesting times. She can pick things up off her tray and eat them, but if it's not dry like her cheerios or puffs then she gets distracted by how it feels in her hands and it never makes it to her mouth. She'll eat anything we're eating off our fork and would prefer it, I think. I'm not ready to move past baby food totally though so she gets a combination of things. She takes 4 bottles a day and has one week left of mom's stored milk (one bottle a day). Hard to believe she'll be on regular milk soon...

Teeth: Still just the two on the bottom, she's been chewing on her tongue quite a bit and drooling a little so maybe more are on the way.

New tricks: Crawling everywhere, quickly! Pulling up and walking around anything she can, climbing up stairs, and then falling down them, trying to mimic things we do with our hands and face, talking in full sentences (only she can understand)

Happy 9 months baby girl, you know we love you!!

Getting annoyed at me

"Ooo that's cool" - Janaan's favorite, she does this when she's watching us do something

Genuine smile

Forced because I think that's what you want me to do smile

I'm too cool for this

Are you watching??

I'm so proud of myself

You're so proud of me too!

Baumgarten Christmas (Christmas in CO)

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Sunday January 2nd. Since we were in Illinois and Kelsey and Josh were in NC we waited until after we were all back to get together. We made ham and scalloped potatoes (a tribute to Granny) and the crew brought brisket, biscuits, salad and dessert. We opened presents and then enjoyed an early dinner. It was a really nice day spent together. Even though our parents are no longer married which is not without its challenges for our family, I am so thankful to say this Christmas holiday was not one of them.

It's really nice to be able to come together as a (whole) family every once in while and for it to be a comfortable and even enjoyable experience. I really appreciate the effort my parents have put in to get to this point, and it means a lot to me that Payton got to celebrate her first Baumgarten Christmas with both her Nana and Papa. Love you guys!!

Papa got Payton this classic toy that is a box with shapes that go in to their respective wholes. It was the big hit of the evening, she loves to put things in and take them out!

Enjoying Josh's Christmas present from Kelsey, a new Ipad!

"Santa" was good to everyone!

Christmas dress

Mom, relaxing and taking it all in :)

Brian and Deanna (I hope I spelled her name right, Bri??) She joined us and brought an AMAZING homemade berry cheesecake that she even put the sugar in!