FYI - We had a baby

Most people get their baby announcements out by the time the baby is a couple months old. Most people have a simple post card printed and shoot it in the mail. The Harmans are a little different. I wouldn't say we have babies, just to make the announcements, but Ben does start thinking about the announcements before the baby bump appears. Our baby announcements have to be worthy of entering design contests, winning awards, and oh yeah - also sending a few out to family and friends.

Ben's been working so hard on this. For weeks our kitchen has transformed into an announcement making factory - stamping, heating, and sewing. He's almost done. Almost. These announcements are such a pain to make and so big that we're just making enough for family and design contests, plus we don't want people to feel guilty for throwing them away. So, Ben made me some post cards to send out, too. I'll be getting them off soon...

Hopefully Evan's birth announcement will be as well-received as Lucas's birth announcement. I'll post a pic of the final product when it's done... Until then, here's a video of Ben working hard.

You can't say we didn't try...

"Mom, do you know why I dumped all the bubbles out?
So I wouldn't keep spilling them on my shirt."

You can say that we should try to remember to feed our kid a better lunch so he's not cranky, not to wait until late in the afternoon when he's exhausted, go before the bluebonnets die, avoid allergy season, and just give up when he starts throwing a fit. Those would be good things to remember for next time.

Drawing With Lucas

The other day Lucas and I had fun with the MagnaDoodle. First he wrote his name, which I didn't know he could do (way to pay attention, mom) and then he drew some other awesome things!
a) my mouth, teeth and all
b) a whale, complete with eyes, nose, mouth and blowhole.
And then he wrote his name on paper today. I'm pretty impressed with my man - he hasn't done much drawing before, just scribbling.

Pinewood Derby

Today we had a "No Rules" Pinewood Derby at church. Lucas painted his car yesterday, we glued some hair on him, and when Ben got home he attached the eyes.
Lucas really just wanted to play with his car when we got to the church, so he almost ruined it by the time the racing started. It barely made it to the end of the track, but I don't think Lucas really cared. He would always help it reach the finish line. By the time we left, Lucas's car only had three wheels, but that's what happens when you drive it around the gym for a couple hours, leaning on it the entire time.

Lucas got the "Best Monster" award. I don't know if it really was a monster, but Lucas was happy and ate his entire Crunch bar award right there (after a doughnut & fruit snacks for breakfast - go us!). Ben's car got 4th place. (Evan just wanted to say "Hi" in that last picture).

Chris was kind enough to take a video of Lucas and Ben racing their cars with his fancy iPhone.

Click HERE to see another video of Lucas racing with other cars.

Happy 3 Months, Evan!

I can't believe this little angel is three months old! Time sure has flown by and he has grown like the weeds in our front yard.
Here are his two month stats:
weight: 13 lbs 6 oz. (88%)
height: 24 " (90%)
head: 41.4 (78%)

Here are Lucas's just for fun:
weight: 13 lbs 7 oz. (90%)
height: 23" (75)
head: 42 (90%)

It's amazing how similar they are! Maybe Evan will grow up to be bigger than Lucas so he can defend himself sooner. Poor kid - it's amazing how resilient babies are.

Evan is doing great, though. At this two month visit the doc said that since he was over 12 pounds and 2 months, he could start sleeping at night for 9+ hours. Apparently they just wake up out of habit and they can go longer. She gave me a game plan and everything.
This is how you get your baby to stop that middle of the night feeding:
When the baby wakes up, let him cry for two minutes. Go in, do whatever it takes to get him to stop crying and go back to sleep. If you have to feed him after 20 minutes, feel free, at least you got 20 minutes.
If you made it w/o feeding and he went back to sleep, the next night you increase the crying time by two minutes. You do this every night for up to 20 mins of crying - 20 mins is the max.
She said it worked for most people in 5-6 nights.
The first night it took me about 5 minutes to get him to settle down and go back to sleep, but he did. The problem was that I had to keep sticking the binky in his mouth every 15 minutes or so until I fed him at 6:30. I never really let him cry for more than a couple minutes because I didn't want to wake Ben and Lucas up. But, after the first night he always went right back to sleep with the binky - I never even had to pick him up. I just slept on a mattress on the floor in his room so I could put the binky in all the time. It was annoying, but as time passed he eventually went a few times and slept straight until 6:30. Now, he generally wakes up at 3:30, I give him his binky and he's fine until 6:00 or 6:30. BUT, he's also started going to bed at 8:45 instead of 10:00 like before. So, I'm a happy camper. He's also on a more regular nap schedule with an hour in the morning, then a long afternoon nap, and another evening snooze. He sleeps with his hands on his face. So cute.
Evan is a happy giggle machine. He's loves it when I touch his noggin and he gets a big smile. It makes getting dressed exciting because of pulling shirts over his head.
Lucas is adjusting to Evan. Sometimes we have an incident, but he's doing well overall and loves his baby brother. He does, however, hate it when Evan cries, and gets angry. And I shouldn't leave them alone in the same room for too long. Lucas will either stick his fingers in Evan's mouth, try to pick him up, snuggle him a little too hard or something else crazy.
We need to get more pictures of this kid. He's so freakin cute, but we just haven't taken the time to get good shots of him.
Oh, and he's been drooling a lot for a couple days. And today he was cranky. I really really hope he's not teething. Lucas got his first tooth right before he turned 4 months old. This could be bad!

Strawberry Fields Forever

Today we went on an adventure to Sweet Berry Farms with some friends to pick some strawberries. Jeana and I left at 10:00 and got to the farm around 11:00. I fed Evan while she got the kids ready for some pickin', complete with plastic bags over their shoes to protect them from the mass amounts of mud.
While I fed Evan he managed to produce the biggest blow out of his 13 week life. And, yes, I forgot to bring a change of clothes for him. So, like a good mom, I took his clothes off, wrapped him in a blanket and stuck him in the Baby Bjorn. He wasn't happy. I tried to keep him warm, but he got mad whenever I bent over to pick a strawberry, so Lucas picked most of our strawberries. When I put Evan back in the car seat, nice and bundled, he was much happier and even managed a snooze. Lucas even found a little red wagon to pull him along for the ride. (yep - I put a picture of the poop. Sorry.)

Anyhow, back to the farm... They had goats, donkeys and horses. Lucas really liked the animals. All the kids also made note of all the different kinds of animal poop and mentioned it whenever they saw some, which was often.

The baby donkey was my personal fave. I had never seen one before and this little guy took a liking to my fingers:

Before we left the kids all got strawberry ice cream or popsicles. Jeana took care of Lukie again during that portion so I could feed Evan once more. I did manage to get the last spoonful of Lucas's melted ice cream and it was divine.

When we were picking strawberries, I noticed that our box had a lot of strawberry blood in it. I thought Lucas had just pressed a little too hard on some of berries. When I got home and went through them more carefully, I came to the conclusion that he probably picked a lot of them up off the ground and I threw at least a third of them away because they were slimy and gross. Lucas was sad to see them go to waste, but we enjoyed the remaining strawberries in the best spinach salad ever. I'll buy Lukie some more berries at the store to make that strawberry pie he's been waiting for so patiently.

Thanks for a fun day girls. Jeana - I owe you. :)

Aspirations

In line at the grocery store:
L: Mom, what do you want to be when you grow up?
me: I want to be your and Evan's mommy.
L: What? No, you can't be a mommy... You need to be a farmer.
me: A farmer? I can't be your mommy?
L: No, you can be a farmer.

Very well then. I'll be a farmer and Lucas will be a fire fighter.

Easter

We had a nice, relaxing Easter. We dyed eggs Sunday morning because Ben was too busy Saturday working on the baby announcements (you just wait!).

Then we tried to have a photo shoot. Some people can put their kids in dresses, curl their hair and have them pose in the flowers. We are obviously not those people. Besides, Lucas would look ridiculous with curly hair.
It's hard to have a photo shoot:

Date

Today Ben and Lucas went to the library. On the way out of the hood they saw Scott and Jeana driving away too - they were going on a date. So, Ben had to explain what a date was to Lucas and told him someday he would go on a date, too.
L: I could go with Mommy!
B: No, you go on a date with a girl you like.
L: I like Mommy.
He's such a cute boy. I'll have to remember this in 13 years when he thinks I'm lame and won't be caught dead with me on a date...

AZ Trip

So, way back in February we went to Arizona for our good friend, Elijah's, wedding. We also had Evan's baby blessing while we were there. We didn't take nearly enough pictures and I feel lame for not getting these ones up until now.
Anyhow... there were several highlights of the trip.
1 - We got to see a lot of good friends at Lij's wedding. We only wished we had more time to play. BUT, we got to go to Bahama Bucks with some of them... Lij and Hilaree were busy that night. We also got to go to Bahama Bucks with Ben's childhood BFF and his family. And then again with my parents. We love Bahama Bucks, but that's not the only reason we go to Arizona.

2 - Family! Lucas got to see his Nana and Grandpa Pat and introduce them to Evan. But we also got to see Ben's Uncle Don & Aunt Jan, Great Grandma, and Aunt Susie. PLUS, we hadn't seen Ben's sister, Lee, since Lucas was born, so Lucas got to meet his 6 cousins for the first time. I didn't know how he would react to so many new kids, but it was great. They all got to the house and ran up to him like he was some sort of celebrity. They gave him hugs and had big smiles and it was so sweet. He immediately took to them and shared his bug toys. He loved his cousins and I remember at one point when he was sad he just looked at me and said, "cousins" in a pathetic little voice. We didn't get any great pictures of them playing. Ben was following them around the park with the camera, but I guess he never had a good shot. Here are some pics of them playing after Evan's baby blessing. Sam, Angela, Peter, Benny, Ada, and Andrea, we can't wait to play again!

3 - The Clarks! As in the Clarks-that-used-to-live-5-minutes-away-from-us-here-but-decided-to-move-to-Mesa-so-Tanner-could-get-an-MBA Clarks. Danielle is as hot as ever, running half marathons and such. Tanner is busy with school and looking for a job if anyone in Austin could hire him, please. Addie is still adorable and we got to meet Cooper, too! Lucas and Addie were reunited and got some playing time in. They used to kiss back in the day, but denied accusations of such fraternization. Addie was really nice and shared her little magnetic paper doll toys with all the boys (see above).

4 - Dentist. I got to go see Dr. Snow and he fixed my tooth that I chipped, except by this time it was two teeth. He just sanded them down a little so it wasn't so obvious. I love my dentist and Ben thinks I'm weird, but if you spent that much time with your dentist, you'd love him too.

My only complaint is that we didn't have enough time. It was a quick 4 days full of things to do. We needed more Silvertooth time, so Chris & Amy, come on out and play some time. Or we could just go to Cancun, but this time we'd need to book a family resort...

Thanks for hosting Nancy and Pat. We had a great time and we really appreciate all the hard work you went through. We love you!

Found...

Every night before I go to sleep, I make sure Lucas is ok in his bed. This is why. He fell out of his bed (or got out) three nights in a row! This time he must be dreaming that he's a super hero flying over the little IKEA rug city. Silly boy.
And yes, I know his jammies are ridiculous. Ben can't take him seriously in them, but he needs to be covered, since he obviously can't stay under his blanket. And they were only $4 at Christmas.