Happy Birthday, America

Being in D.C. during Fourth of July weekend makes you feel extremely patriotic. The crowds. The events. The music. The red, white and blue everywhere (including on the ADORABLE dress that Aunt Jen got for Harper for the occasion!). Just an amazing site. Having Harper here this year motivated us to get out there in the crowds, so we parked at my office and walked down to watch the parade along Constitution Avenue. We found a grassy area with some shade and had a great time.



After the parade and some hard-earned naps and showers, we spent the afternoon at a barbeque. And our teething daughter found much comfort - and provided a great deal of amusement to others - by gumming an empty glass bottle. Read again: it was empty!



You can view all of our Fourth of July photos in our Kodak Gallery.

Big Three Oh - Part Two

Now that I'm 30, I take back everything I said about Daniel being old now that he is 30. Well, at least I'm still younger than him (haha). My amazing teammates at work filled my office with balloons and homemade cupcakes on Friday, the day before my birthday, and then Daniel and Harper sent me flowers and got me an ice cream cake. Can't complain at all!

The birthday girl and a girl in her birthday suit.

Yummmy, cupcakes!

Decorations from the best work friends of all time.

Swimming!

We officially have a water baby. Harper adores all things water: swimming, baths, sinks, splashing. So although this summer has been miserable from the perspective that it is one of the hottest DC summers on record, it has provided many opportunities for Harper to be in the water ... and to show off her totally precious swimsuits and coverup.




Speaking of swimming, Harper is very lucky to have Aunt Elana, who in addition to loving Harper dearly also has a super-fun big girl swimming pool. We stopped by to visit Aunt E one weekend, and Harper had a great time, as you can see.

Father's Day

One key lesson I learned while in sorority (Go Gams!) is that big events require their own special t-shirt. So clearly Daniel's first Father's Day had its own apparel:

Harper and I had a great time planning Father's Day for the man we consider to be one of the greatest dads of all time. In addition to his t-shirt, he got two photo mugs emblazoned with pictures of his darling daughter (apparently next year I need to coordinate with daycare craft time). And of course he got all sorts of quality time with his little girl. Happy first Father's Day, Daniel!

As always, more photos can be found in our Kodak gallery.

Strasmas!

We've been lucky enough to see some pretty amazing events in the 8 years we've lived in D.C. - was at Obama's inauguration, saw the Pope in the Popemobile, cheered the Nationals on opening day when baseball finally returned to the city. We can now add "seeing Strasburg's MLB debut" to that list. Thanks SO SO much to Hillary and Ross for the tickets and to Aunt E for watching Harper!

Here is our photo album from the night Stephen Strasburg made his major league debut. Nationals v Pirates. Nationals Stadium. Washington, DC.

Incident Report

So today we hit another kiddo milestone: first time I got a phone call from school letting me know that Harper had taken a fall bad enough to require an "incident report." Our little adventurer was trying out her new standing skills, when she stepped into a toybox and proceeded to lose her balance and face-dive onto the tile floor, cutting her lip on her teeth. Since It was near the end of the day, I headed down to pick her up a little bit early for some quality snuggle time. By the time I arrived, she was feeling better and smiling, though she had a nice fat lip and a bag full of bloody clothes. My tough little bruiser.

Here's an iPhone pic of her lip, though it doesn't do it justice. Luckily by the time we were home to a real camera, the swelling had gone down. She's gradually toughening up her mommy and daddy.

Memorial Day & Madden

We have a new nephew! Madden Henry Dix was born on April 29, so over Memorial Day weekend we headed home to St. Louis to meet him AND to celebrate his big brother Logan's third birthday. While we were in town we also got to see my family, Daniel's best friend and his family, and a bunch of my high school crew and their kiddos. It was an awesome, jam-packed weekend! Nephew-focused highlights are below; full coverage of the weekend is in our Kodak gallery (photo milestones: 90 = Norah and Harper; 108 = lunch with my high school crew; 203 = Logan's birthday party).

The current extent of the Francis Family, including all three spouses and all three kiddos


The birthday boy, looking way too grown up for 3


Aunt O'Becca and Madden


Uncle Daniel and Madden


Rebecca, Harper and Aunt Jen

Downtown After Hours

Unending to-do lists at work and home mean that we don't get to spend near as much time with Harper as we'd like to (we'd like to spend every moment with her). But one way we've found that stretches our evening together-time is to just not go home. Instead of hitting the car after work, we've been grabbing the stroller and looking for adventures downtown. One of the lovely things about Washington in summer is that there is plenty to keep you busy in the evenings.

Playing in the grass beneath the Washington Monument.


Harper and I cheer while Daniel subs on our Mudhens softball team - which has been playing together since the year Daniel and I were born! - down along the Potomac.


Discovering a great little playground in the middle of downtown.


Harper and I stumble across a concert by The United States Marine Drum & Bugle Corps at the World War II Memorial. Excellent combination of patriotic marches and songs from the Broadway musical Hair.


Watching Daniel play for the Treasury Department team in the Congressional Softball League on the Mall.

Big Three Oh - Part One

It's official. Daniel is old. Entering his fourth decade of living. Marriage. Mortgage. Baby. It's all downhill from here...

Just kidding! Daniel is 30 and fabulous! To celebrate his big day, we took the afternoon off work to have a nice lunch (with adult beverages) and catch a movie (Iron Man 2), then got Harper from school and headed home for dinner and ice cream cake. And bourbon. Not for Harper and me; the bourbon was just for Daniel.

We didn't get Daniel a "present" per se, since we've decided to forego presents and instead throw a family birthday party this year for all of our milestones: Daniel and I are both turning 30, Harper is turning 1, and we all have the same friends! But for the fun factor of his birthday, I organized a birthday card project! Daniel and I had been lamenting the fact that all we get in the mail these days is bills and junk. So I contacted a bunch of his friends and family to solicit old fashioned, snail-mail birthday cards to be mailed to him for his big milestone.

I was shooting for 30. He got 47! It was such a treat watching him carry Harper down to the mailbox every day and come back with a smile, one or more colorful envelopes mixed in with the monotony. I kept hanging them on the wall so he could admire his collection and all the great birthday wishes he received. Thanks so much to everyone who participated! You really made his 30th special!

Oh, and Happy 11-Month Birthday to Harper, too! :-)

Mother's Day

It's not very often that you get to pick up a new holiday that's all about you, so my first "real" (as in, post-pregnancy) Mother's Day was so special! For starters, I got to wake up next to a wild-haired, smiling, babbling, adorable baby girl. At a hotel, no less, so I didn't have to make the bed or make breakfast or anything. Had brunch with Harper, Daniel and his parents, and then we headed to the Kentucky Horse Park to pet the horsies. Well, for Harper to pet the horsies. Before long we were back at the Louisville airport - where Harper was reunited with her friend JP she met on our in-bound flight - for our trip back to Washington. Not to get all sappy on you, but being a mom is pretty much the best gig anyone could ever have. Check out the Mother's Day adventures album here.

A Bluegrass Wedding Weekend

My wonderful college friend Beth Harney married her beau Mark Rosa at a gorgeous May wedding in Georgetown, Ky. If you know Beth, it will not surprise you one bit that every detail of the wedding was impeccably planned, from the guest bags at the hotel with local drinks, eats and treats ... to the pre-wedding activities (BBQ, horse racing, golf) ... to the special (and at times, hilarious) readings during the ceremony ... to the dance-floor flip-flops in assorted sizes ... to the late-reception appearance of mini-burgers, fries and funnel cake snacks. Top to bottom, just a beautiful, wonderful wedding weekend. Got to hang out with some of my college girls. Got to see Beth start the next chapter in her and Mark's story. Got to take Harper to Churchill downs. Fun fun times. Special thanks to MaMaw and Granddad Ballard for watching Harper during the wedding! Click here to see the album from Friday and Saturday of wedding weekend.

Harper and Daniel at Churchill Downs. One week after the 2010 Kentucky Derby.

Harper, Esq.

"When I grow up I want to be a lawyer just like my uncle"
~ Onesie from Uncle Doug (which matches the blue one Aunt Kim gave their nephew)

Well Baby 9 Months

How can Harper possibly be 9 months old?! Today was her 9-month visit, and once again she spent the visit flirting with everyone she saw and showing off her repertoire of tricks: crawling, waving, babbling. And she cut her very first tooth today, too, so milestones all around. The nurse practitioner we saw was great. She is in a unique position: she went to this pediatric practice as a kid, then she brought her kids there as a mom, and now she is a NP at the office. I was a big fan. She had great suggestions for trying to get Harper more interested in solids - wish us luck!

Vital stats at 40 weeks: 18 lbs 28 inches tall.
(Vital stats at birth: 7 lbs 7 oz. 20 inches tall.)

Aaart!

This week Harper's school celebrated the Week of the Child - and as the big finale, this afternoon there was an art show and ice cream social for all the kids and parents. We had a great time! Harper showed off her artistic flair. We got some tiny ice cream sandwiches. Awesome day.

Crawling!

Big, big week. Our girl crawled for the first time! She cleared the last hurdle on April 12 at daycare (tear). Kinda pierces a working mom's heart to hear the big news via a note at the bottom of the daily report. Luckily she wasn't a one-hit wonder: she crawled right to me when I picked her up after work, then she repeated the feat for dad when we got home. Eventually we got the camera out to catch her on film the first day; she was pretty tired by the time we got the camera out, but we got a snippet of mobility. Here are videos from days 1, 2, and 3 of being a crawler.

Crawling Day 1


Crawling Day 2


Crawling Day 3
Warning: crying babies in the background.

Barn Raising

Here's a sweet story to illustrate how completely little girls (Harper) have their daddies (Daniel) wrapped around their fingers.

Living in the city, in a condo without storage, our little family is short on space. To make our arrangement manageable everything we own is "low-profile" or "space-saving" or "compact." When we were expecting our little bundle, we had to be much more discerning about baby gear than most people we know because we literally had no place to put it. One of our pregnancy low points was wandering the aisles at Babies 'R Us registering for gear, with Daniel grumbling about where we were going to put all this ... let's say "stuff" ... while the hormonal mommy-to-be cried. We were a sight.

Fast-forward one year. We're at Babies 'R Us getting a baby present for a friend, and a space-saving highchair for us, and I tell Daniel that I think it would be nice if we got Harper some sort of sit-up-and-play toy, now that she's upright all the time. Knowing that our relatively small quarters are an issue, I point out to Daniel a small tray-type toy, pretty compact, in the $20 price range, thinking that he'll likely nix the idea entirely. I'm mildly surprised when he heads down that toy aisle to look at the available options. So you can imagine my great surprise when he comes back to me a few minutes later with a huge smile on his face, carrying a ginormous toy barn ... nothing compact about it ... certainly no place to hide it in our little condo. It is also the most expensive toy in the aisle.

Nothing but the best for Daniel's little angel!

Teasing aside, Harper ADORES the barn. We play with it every single night. She bops to the music and sorts the shapes and opens/closes the door and flips the light switch on/off: daddy did really, REALLY good. And he looks so cute wrapped around her little finger.

Easter Bunny Fun

The Easter Bunny was good to us. After several years of not seeing the big fuzzy hopper at our house, he made an appearance this year! First of all, he brought amazing weather. It was gorgeous all weekend, so we got to play outside, visit the Easter festival at our park, watch the puppies - all of Harper's favorite things. He also brought us a family Easter basket! For the parents it was 'his' and 'hers' bunny Pez dispensers - which Harper has since commandeered for her amusement. For Harper it was some colorful eggs and a bubble gun. What a great bunny! Here are some selected photos from the weekend.


Click here to see the entire Easter weekend album on Kodak. {Note: As part of my photo back-up plan, now that losing photos would kill me, I'm starting to load all photos to my Kodak galleries. For the family members who are interested, this will be helpful because you can download or order photos from the galleries in high-res. You'll have to wade through photos, because I take a lot of pictures and these are basically unedited albums. But this way everyone has access, and I have my plan B in the event of a computer meltdown.}

Cocoa Beach

We needed a break. Bad. So we took a page from the academic calendar and went on spring break to Cocoa Beach: our first family vacation. The three of us had a few days of fun in sunny Florida. Harper LOVED vacation. It was as if she could sense our change in mood when we shut out work and home ... and she loved it. We swam in the pool, dipped our toes in the ocean, walked on the beach, caught a Cards-Nats spring training game, met up with a good friend from college and her new baby girl, went to Kennedy Space Center, saw alligators in the wild, and logged Harper's 4th roundtrip flight on Southwest. It was way too short, but we had a blast.

If you're interested in the photojournalist's version of the vacation, you can view the full vacation photo album (fair warning: we're talking 250 photos). Or here are just a handful.

Spring is Here

This weekend the weather in D.C. was just amazing. Warm and sunny and clear the entire time. Washingtonians, who were pretty beaten down by the worst winter on record, were out in full force to take advantage of the first taste of spring. The Ballards were right there with them, spending both afternoons taking long walks on the Hill that ended with us all stretched out on a blanket at Lincoln Park. The weekend couldn't last long enough.

A Daycare Day in the Life

Hard to believe, but Harper has been in daycare for four months now. It seems like only yesterday when I couldn't visit, talk about or even think about daycare without bursting into tears. I've been told some moms feel relief when they get to return to a world of adults and leave the kiddo with other capable adults for the day. Not this mom: transitioning Harper into daycare was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Same thing for Daniel. And some days it's still really, really hard.

But only on the parents, apparently, because Harper LOVES daycare. When we get to her school every morning, she starts flapping about; and when we're signing her in and getting all her items put away for the day, she's craning to see what all the other babies are doing, trying to get down onto the floor ASAP. She loves her teachers (and they love her), and playing with a whole other set of toys each day, and interacting with the other kids in her class. Just this week we saw her gently pat the shoulder of a little boy in her class who was crying; it was the cutest thing ever. And apparently she is the dancer of the Bunnies class, always bouncing and dancing to the music they have playing all day.

So as much as we would love to spend every single day with her, I'm afraid we just can't live up to all the fun and excitement of daycare! Which I guess is a wonderful "problem" to have! Here are some photos of a typical day in the life at daycare.

Headed to school, activities include playing with the carseat duck and lion, talking to dad in the backseat, and looking at the city as we travel from the Hill to downtown.

Daddy gets Harper settled in in the morning with some toys and books.


Playing with little Addison.


Playing in the toybox when mommy walks in.


Watching mommy like a hawk as she gathers up bottles and papers.


Harper's crib, where she is an awesome daycare napper. Her teachers can't tell us enough how good of a napper she is.


Worn out girl, ready for mommy to stop taking pictures and pick her up, already!


Checking mommy's security badge while mom takes off and stores the blue parent-hospital booties.


Getting some fresh air at the park in front of school before we head back to mommy's garage at the office (2 blocks away) to head home. This is also one of the parks the Bunnies class comes to on their daily outings; when it's warm, they feed the ducks.





Conked out from a full day of fun and friends!