About a HarriEd (with videos)

Here is a post all about HarriEd.  This is for the grandmothers, the aunts and uncles, the surrogate aunts and uncles, and any of H's other fans.  It is also for my memory, which seems to be fading since I kept telling Harriet that I was making pears for her when it was very obviously a bunch of peaches that were simmering away in the Le Creuset saucepan.  I'm pretty sure that she has nursed the brain cells right out of me...which makes her a smart little stinker, that's for sure.

What has HarriEd been up to lately?  Our days generally go something like this.

Get up: H gets up around seven each morning and is unusually perky and smiling for about fifteen minutes.  If her mommy and daddy prefer to not be perky and smiley and, instead, snuggle up with one another, this fifteen minutes is shortened significantly and H gets grouchy.  She then gets changed and dressed and ready for the day.  Harriet plays in her exersaucer while I make breakfast.

Eat breakfast: She has been eating. a. lot. of. food.  I made some homemade baby oatmeal for her (super easy and cheap) and when it is cleverly disguised behind pears or peaches, she will eat it without a second thought.  I always think, "Oh, I accidentally made too much," and almost without fail she proceeds to gobble up the entire bowl-full.

Play: It becomes obvious as to why H has to eat so much when she starts to get down and dirty with her toys.  Harriet has a box of toys which are Safe for Infants and she usually spends a good chunk of her day sorting through them for little things that are Not Safe for Infants.  Usually she will give up the search and content herself with trying to pull the tags off of stuffed animals.  Yesterday we had a little game going in which she held up the plastic lid from the baby food container and I made her stuffed sheep toy butt into it.  This was apparently the most hilarious thing that had ever happened.  She also really likes to look at books and, even more so, chew on the pages.

Nap:  Harriet often takes her morning nap in the Sleepy Wrap because, frankly, I still have things to do and it's just easier to have her nap whilst I unload the dishwasher or fold clothes or do my Bible study, and so on.  Her morning nap is still her longest and most consistent nap and usually lasts over an hour.

Eat lunch:  After waking up and getting acclimated to the world again, H gives another solid go at an early lunch of sweet potatoes or more oatmeal and pears.  Then she keeps herself occupied in the highchair while I eat my lunch.

Backpack time:  Sometimes Harriet likes to play after lunch, but often she ends up riding around in the backpack while I work on sewing projects.  This is a Very Happy Time since she gets to be intimately involved with whatever mommy is doing, and she can pull mommy's hair and chew on her necklace, and she is riding around higher up than everybody else.  Except for her daddy.

Nap: For the afternoon nap, H nurses to sleep on our bed, and then I either sneak away or lie next to her and read.  Depending on how much sleep I got the previous night, I will sometimes sneak a little nap in, too.  Harriet will sleep by herself in bed for 45 minutes exactly.  Then she will wake up completely (none of that half-awake stuff for her) and have to be quickly made to go back to sleep.  If I "catch" her before she is sitting up and ready to go, I can usually nurse her back to sleep for another half hour or so.  It just depends.

Play/Backpack/Snack:  See above.

Play with Daddy:  By the end of the afternoon, Harriet is tired of playing and shows this by clinging desperately to her mommy and wanting to nurse continuously.  This is when her mommy nurses her and then hands her off to her daddy.  And Harriet doesn't see her mommy for about an hour (hooray for the wellness center!) and realizes that life is perfectly fine (even fun) with daddy.

Dinner/Bath/Bed:  Harriet usually hangs out with us while we eat dinner.  Sometimes she takes a bath after we eat and on other days she just gets her pajamers on.  Then she amuses herself with us for the remainder of the evening, usually telling us stories and making us laugh with her silly expressions.  Since our floors are all hardwood, Harriet tends to slide around on them rather than scoot.  She can go from being on her stomach to sitting up to being back on her stomach again with great dexterity and skill.  Thus she manages to get where she wants to be.  She still pulls herself up whenever the opportunity comes her way.

Then she goes to bed, all snuggled up with us, and I pray that she will sleep longer than an hour before waking up.  That's one thing that we are going to start taking drastic measures about: Harriet does not need to nurse all night long.  And her mommy has got to get some sleep.  But that's another story for another day.

We love Harriet so much and can't imagine life without her.  As she continues to grow and develop she gets to be more and more fun of a person to be around.  She's a curious, delightful, sensitive, darling little person who is growing up awfully fast.