a second anniversary celebration

I have a new belief that the family should take off work on all birthdays and anniversaries. Robin and I hadn't discussed this prior to my birthday and he had a day full of meetings scheduled. So, we counted Sunday's trip to the Arboretum and a nice sushi dinner yesterday as my birthday celebration. Next year, we'll treat ourselves to a mid-week day-long celebration for my Tuesday birthday.

Robin was able to take today off and it was great to spend our second anniversary together! We treated ourselves to brunch, poked around several stores, shared an afternoon milkshake at Highland Park Pharmacy, took Harper for her first visit to the Nasher Sculpture Center and enjoyed Italian take out for dinner. It was a full day, but we really enjoyed the extra time together and our new tradition of work-free birthdays and anniversaries.

My favorite picture from our anniversary trip to the Nasher
Sculpture: "My curves are not mad" Artist: Richard Serra


Sweet Harper had a full day and decided she was not in the mood for a photo session.
Sculpture: "Tending, Blue" Artist: James Turrell

Harper's first visit to the Dallas Arboretum

the photographer and his muse

the muse

Mommy kisses

Mommy love

Daddy love

Harper rolls over (phase 1)

Harper's first tummy to back rollover caught on video

the garage freezer

I'm a committed vegetarian and Robin is an omnivore, so we rarely eat the same dish for dinner. So we each get some variety during the week, I'll spend a Saturday cooking several meals and I freeze them individual portions. Knowing we would have an easier time transitioning into parenthood if we had a good stockpile of individual ready-to-heat meals and knowing that I was planning to pump and freeze breast milk and prepare and freeze Harper's baby food in advance, Robin and I decided a garage freezer was going to be a necessity.

This summer in an attempt at frugality, we bought a used one at a garage sale. As soon as we got it home, we realized the guy who sold it to us hadn't been completely honest about the condition. Instead of hassling with taking it back, we cleaned it up, plugged it in, crossed our fingers and started stocking it.

Grammylou and Summer are both excellent cooks and also helped us stock it with tasty, tasty dishes. In fact, they slaved over the stove while we were in labor and recovering at the hospital. It was great to come home to preservative-free, delicious meals that we just had to pop in the oven or microwave.

In March, I walked out to our second-hand freezer stocked full of food and breast milk to find that it had reached the end of its life and everything in it, including 70-ounces (that's a little more than half a gallon) of breast milk had defrosted. If you know our history with freezers and refrigerators, you can imagine the panic that ensued. (We've lost ALL of our perishable food twice in the past two years.) Since the food was still cold, we decided it was okay to refreeze, and we crammed it into the kitchen freezer. However, breast milk must be used within 24 hours of being defrosted and should not be refrozen, so our lactation consultant advised us to throw it all out. If you've pumped, you understand my pain.

We had really grown to depend on our second-hand garage freezer, so we took Harper on her first trip to Lowes to pick out a shiny, new garage freezer. We are slowly re-stocking it with nourishment for both us and for Harper. We joined the bulk-purchase masses with a Costco membership and Robin now has more steak than he can eat in a month. I am diligently attempting to rebuild Harper's milk reserve, though it it's a much slower process now that she is eating more during her feedings. Now if only Grammylou and Summer would come back to cook for us...

Harper and her new freezer

an outing, turned cullinary adventure

The weather has been a bit rainy and cold and Harper and I needed to get out, so we met our good friend Anne at NorthPark Center for a brisk walk, light shopping and a chat over a lemonade. Conversation with Anne always meanders nicely and somehow I learned that she hadn't yet discovered Jimmy's Food Store in east Dallas. I had just received an email announcing that they had just received a shipment of Burrata cheese and I wanted to try it, so the three of us headed across town for a little taste of Italy. You can read all about our adventures at Jimmy's from Anne's perspective on her blog.

Not only is Anne a fabulously colorful friend and great conversationalist, she's a talented wordsmith who is committed to introducing folks to her community through her Worldstory's blog. If you haven't already found her space on the Web through ours, you should -- you're certain to learn of a spot in Dallas that you'd like to experience, as well.

Harper snuggled with Anne at NorthPark Center

Harper's newborn portraits, continued...

Here are some of our favorite pictures from our session with Kate that were not included in the previous post...

Our sweet girl has perfected this face. We've decided that it's simply hard to be a baby!

Cutie pie!

Our budding music aficionado

Harper's newborn portraits

Robin and I both have a love affair with photography -- especially now that Harper is in our lives. We had talked about commissioning a series of family photos, but decided we would just try to capture the moments ourselves. That's until we discovered Kate Mefford.

A friend of a friend commented on one of our blog posts. Out of curiosity, I followed the link to her blog. She had just posted a link to portraits that Kate posted of their newborn photo shoot and I loved her style and begged her to fit her into her busy schedule.

Kate stopped by on March 17 full of personality, decked out in green and camera in hand, genuinely excited to meet our family and ready to get to work. It's refreshing to have somebody who doesn't know you come into your home and capture their perspective of your family. Kate saw angles that we no longer see in our home and lives -- details that we take for granted or overlook. For an hour, we loved on Harper while she captured the special moments -- the in-between moments that make life special and endearing.

A few of the photos from our session are below and more are posted to Kate's blog. She's editing the bunch and will give us a CD of our session in a couple of weeks. I'm sure we'll post more of our favorites then.

I love Harper's look in this photo -- she's a daydreamer.

Most of my time is spent just like this -- entertaining Harper with exaggerated expressions and funny faces

This mirror is one of my most prized possessions and one of the only things I have from my Grandma Holubec, who passed away when I was three. She loved to spend time at garage sales and made this mirror from costume jewelry she found during her many treasure hunts.

This picture of Harper in Robin's lap is so endearing to me. Her daddy would do just about anything for her.

Aside from the picture Robin took of Harper and me just a few hours after she was born, this is my new favorite. I cherish every second of our playtime.

I really like the effect the wide angle has on this chair.

Music appreciation by osmosis.

Harper's recent visitors

Our friend Matt stopped by for dinner while he was in town for work. His wife Liz is expecting a little girl in May and Harper looks forward to a great long distance friendship with her. Matt's little boy is almost four, so he reacquainted himself with fussy baby syndrome as he tried to comfort Harper. It's all good practice, Matt -- come back soon!

Amber came by to cuddle with Harper and brought yummy homemade low-fat blueberry muffins. She works very close to The Orange House, so we hope she can come for a visit someday during her lunch break or for a walk after work.

Leah snuggled with Harper and made fun and goofy faces that kept her entertained. We hope Leah will come back soon and bring her boyfriend so he can learn to change a diaper! (and so we can meet this guy who makes our Leah so very happy)

Our friend Eileen just accepted a great job in the Washington DC area, so she and her husband Michael came over to meet Harper over brunch before the big move. There's always a nice, relaxed flow to the conversation when we spend time with Eileen and Michael. They are so warm and open -- we'll definitely miss them in Dallas, but look forward to visiting their new digs in DC. Congratulations, Eileen!

Signs of spring

My gardens have been terribly neglected since I found out I was pregnant. There isn't much growing in them and spring fever has me eager to clean them out and plant my spring vegetables. Last week, I wandered out to the back garden and noticed my artichoke plant -- the only living thing other than weeds -- was enormous! I've never grown artichokes, but I bought a seed pack last year out of curiosity and planted five. Only one came up and though it was pretty, it never produced anything. Since I didn't tend to my gardens this winter, it continued to grow and it thrived on gross neglect. Much to my surprise, it now has six chokes growing on it! I just can't wait to harvest them in a couple of weeks... yum!

... hopefully my luck will double and my asparagus will start to pop up.

Just Say No

When it comes to a bottle or pacifier, Harper's motto is and has been "just say no." Since we weren't looking forward to fighting the weening battle when she's six months old, we're fine with her anti-pacifier stance. Plus, she's discovered that sucking on her fist and arm is mighty satisfying, though probably not as pacifying as a little silicone nuk or nipple might be.

After a couple of weeks, the experience of trying to get her to take a bottle became so excruciatingly painful that we decided she just wasn't ready and we gave up. We consulted experts on different tactics to take and tried almost every bottle and nipple we could find but sweet, pertinacious Harper has it in her mind that the breast is best.

Luckily, we've been able to take a bottle break. Due to a turn of events shortly after she was born, I am now fortunate enough to be able to stay home with her until at least June. However, since I'll eventually go back to work and since I'd like to be able to go on the occasional girls outing or date with Robin, our break is coming to an end. Wish us luck... we've now added a new bottle to our collection -- Adiri Natural Nurser. Let's hope it works!

This arm is mighty tasty