8 months.

Dear Hartley,

As usual another month has flown by, and I can't believe I'm the mom of an 8 month old! There's some sort of saying about how the days are long but the years fly by; that really seems to hit the nail on the head.

You have grown up so much this month. You went from a baby that would roll and inch around to a full fledged crawler. You are always moving and always getting in to things. You are constantly trying to pull yourself up to standing. You easily pull yourself up to kneeling but have yet to find the right ledge for standing. However, you can support yourself holding on to things like window edges and crib rails. 

You are attracted to all things dangerous: outlets, floor vents, and blind pulls. 

And yesterday you had your first real boo boo, which bruised instantly. You face planted on a bottle of lotion you insisted on carrying around with you. 

You love Winnie. You talk to her, and laugh when she does silly things (well, they are silly to you - I never get the joke). You pet her and play with her. You've kind of become her world. It's very sweet. 

You love baths. You love naked time. You love swimming lessons. 

You enjoy being sung to and read to. You enjoy trail walks. You seem to really like Target and the mall. You must get that from dad ;)

Your favorite toys are soft books. You also love your mirror, soft blocks and piano. Thank goodness the Sesame Street remote is losing it's allure. Though mom and dad have heard "I've got a remote, I'm ready to roll, making things happen because I'm in control" 50 thousand times. 

You still aren't a big eater but you'll eat green beans, sweet potatoes and carrots without too much of a fight. We refer to that as you "loving" those foods, and your nana was thoroughly confused by that. But the truth is, you'd rather be exploring than eating, and we can't fault you for that!

Things that aren't so loved around here: CLOTHES. You absolutely hate getting dressed. I've let you go without clothes a lot but I can't lie - I'm a bit scared with winter coming. You don't like diaper changes. You hate naps. Naps are basically earth shattering doses of torture, and you let mom know that. Every. Single. Day. 

We also learned you hate medicine. Really all types. You are an equal opportunity medicine hater. But your dad and I have felt awful for you. You went from having a virus to having an ear infection, and that's been really rough. Of course you were a champ at the doctor's: so well behaved. 

We are so proud of you for growing so big and strong and for having such a wild, adventurous spirit already. You are exhausting but adorable and fun! We couldn't love you any more. 

Happy 8 months, little one! The world is your oyster so crawl all over it :)

Oh and as I write this you're playing in Winnie's toy basket. Yes, you absolutely love dirty, smelly, disgusting dog toys. 

The beach and a sick babe

So I go less than 2 weeks without blogging and 537,982 things happen since the last entry. 

And to be totally honest, I'd rather be napping right now but I feel like I should post some updates before I write an 8 month post about Hartley in 2 days. Yeah, I'm going to have an 8 month old in 2 days! How crazy is that?! 2/3 of a year and we've all survived! That's pretty much how I'm feeling after these past couple weeks. Just thankful for survival. 

First I'll say, I had an excellent time in Ocean City the weekend before last. I went away for the night with two of my favorite girlfriends, and it was a blast. It was fun, relaxing and therapeutic. We ate tons of delicious meals, laid on the beach, went to the pool, and immersed ourselves in a different culture: car culture. We choose probably the most dangerous, trashy weekend to go to the beach - dates chosen by yours truly. But we stayed in such a nice hotel that it didn't affect our trip too much. Although there was that moment on the way home when I felt like Rebecca was drag racing a brown matte paint Volkswagen with neon rims so it could be argued it added to our trip. 

And we somehow got the best room in the hotel (probably Sabrina's early check in idea), and this was the view:

I came back and jumped right back in to life as usual. We skipped our Tuesday swimming lesson because Hartley still seemed off due to the virus she had been diagnosed with the week before. 

By Thursday she seemed fine so I took her to swimming lessons. She didn't smile and laugh like how she normally does but I chalked it up to the early class time. She took that lovely, long post swimming lesson nap, and then had her friend Kyle over for a play date. He was making these funny noises that seemed to bother her, which I thought nothing of. Hindsight is 20/20, and her having an ear infection hadn't even crossed my mind at this point. 

Thursday night she was all of a sudden inconsolable. It was really upsetting for all of us. So I asked Brian if he could take her to the doctor the next morning while I packed us for our Raleigh trip. I'm sure they'd say it was nothing, and we'd leave for our trip knowing all was well. 

Well, that wasn't the case. We found out she had an ear infection. Trying not to delve too much into detail, it was definitely the roughest few days since she was a newborn. Lots of fighting taking medicine and waking up in the middle of the night. There were many, many tears - and some of them were hers! 

I've learned some things though. My kid hates amoxicillin. Antibiotics cause a pre existing virus to flare up. I need to load up on Purell this cold season. And anytime a kid walks in my house with a runny nose, they'll be asked to leave before they can even touch anything. 

We are still battling this virus and ear infection. Things are not yet easy but I've gotten better at dispensing medicine, and I cry whenever I need to. I never knew just how bad I would feel watching my baby in pain. It's such a helpless feeling not being about to fix it for her, and it's heart breaking. 

I'm hoping the upswing is soon. I can't wait to have a happy, healthy Hartley back. 

I'll probably try to squeeze in another blog before the 8 month mark. There's something I really want to share on here. Don't get too excited. The past week or so has been the best birth control ever so I'm not talking about a baby crane 2.0. 

swimming lessons & crawling.

So yesterday was a very big day here. Hartley had her first swimming lesson.

Of course she wouldn't let me get a picture of her in her bathing suit so I settled for an "on our way to class" picture. And, seriously, doesn't my baby look so grown up? Ok, maybe it's just me ;)

And yeah, I'm letting her carry her Halloween purse before its October. 

Of course I left 30 minutes before class started even though the community center is probably less than 5 miles away. We got lost though and ended up being 5 minutes late. I am pretty much never late so I felt thoroughly embarrassed. I felt like such a slacker mom but the instructor was truly as sweet as could be and repeated the intro for Hartley and I. 

Hartley took to the water so naturally. I think the fact that it's a heated indoor pool just made it feel like a big bath tub. We sang songs that incorporated using the water like the "this is the way we wash our face" song. We played Ring Around The Rosie and did The Hokie Pokie. All the while we got water safety tips. We had the babies go across the pool while we held them on their tummies in a football type hold and on their backs with their heads resting on our chest. Hartley was one of only two babies that actually did some kicking which of course I was totally impressed by. She splashed a ton so sometimes we gave ourselves a little extra space from her classmates. 

Apparently 30 minutes of pool exercise was a lot because she took a 3 hour nap after class! 

I really liked the class. It was tough getting us ready to go and even tougher getting us dressed in the locker room afterward but still so worth it. 

In other news, my baby "crawled" today. The reason I'm using the quotes? She got up on all fours and purposely traveled in a forward trajectory two feet using arms and legs. That will be the Page Crane definition of crawling. Pre-motherhood I always thought milestones were cut and dry. Well I'm here to say, I was totally wrong. I'm always trying to balance giving credit where it's due but not "cheat". I keep a calendar of her milestones so it's always a big deal to me to get them as accurate as possible, even if she doesn't walk until 16 months like her mom ;)

I am oddly exhausted today so if you have extra energy vibes, please send them my way. We need to go to Target to look for a plastic swim diaper (and possibly a hot pink baby bikini as Hartley was mistakenly referred to as a "he" all class long). And the fact that I have no energy for Target is almost scary ;) 

Life Lately.

I always wish I had more time so I could come on here and write things down. I wish I could use it to chronicle everything and to vent when the proverbial (and literal) shit hits the fan. I feel like so many things have happened since I last logged on to talk about my 7 month old girl.

Somehow there's all this time we have to fill in the 11 hours a day Hartley and I are on our own, and yet time ends up managing to escape us. How does that work?

I don't really know where to begin this entry or where to focus. 

I'll start by saying we took our first overnight trip away from Hartley since she was born. We went to Annapolis to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. It was amazing. As much as I truly love my little girl it was so rejuvenating and refreshing to have 24 hours where my mind wasn't keeping track of food intake and poop. I told myself I'd take a bunch of pictures and write a blog about it but the truth is I didn't take my phone out much. That was much better than getting a ton of pictures. 

I loved that overnight so much that I asked my parents to take Hartley for a night in November so Brian and I could do an overnight to celebrate his 30th birthday. I booked a room at Landsdowne, and I might already be counting down ;)

On the day of our anniversary I actually went to the doctor to talk about my lady part issues. I was frustrated because they decided not to do a follow up sonogram. They said it sounded like the provera did it's job (essentially a chemical D&C), so if they did a follow up sonogram things would look normal. I would prefer for them to have checked to make sure but I guess I need to trust them. They started me on birth control. 

Honestly, taking birth control right now is just plain weird. God knows we don't know the future but Brian and I are pretty decided that there will be a 2nd baby crane someday (if the universe allows) so it feels bizarre to be preventing pregnancy. I'm not looking to be pregnant right now; my body and mind don't feel ready. But it's really weird to prevent natural pregnancy because if by some miracle I could achieve a natural pregnancy, I'd view it as a welcome miracle. 

That's enough about me. On the Hartley front, she is growing up so freaking fast. I have been on a picture taking binge because she looks less like a baby and more like a toddler with each passing day. Brian even said over the weekend, "she looks like a toddler now". Maybe it's because she's starting to wear 18 month clothes (though her 12 month stuff still fits) or maybe it's because of her size. She seems so tall now. I used to hate that people kept saying "she looks skinnier". Ugh, she's my baby, I don't want her to be skinny. Babies aren't supposed to be "skinny". But I think they just mean she's thinning out due the extra moving she's doing, and that makes her look older, too.

She continues to be on the cusp of crawling. She rocks back and forth. She has managed 1 coordinated arm and knee forward motion but I'm not counting it. 

Our new family thing is sitting on the floor just watching that sweet diapered butt pop up as she tries to figure things out. 

Over the weekend we went to Barrel Oak Winery. It was her second winery trip since birth and needless to say, it was a thousand times better than the first. It was a beautiful day for it, and she really loves being outside. 

She also tried out the baby swing at the playground for the first time this weekend. The first few minutes she was unsure but she was smiling and laughing in no time as her dad pushed her. I kept track of big sis Winnie. And all four of us got to go down the slides: Hartley in Brian's lap and Winnie in mine. 

We finished off the weekend with a family Target run. Hartley loves Target. She's always babbling and laughing as we stroll all the aisles. Yeah, she's my child for sure! 

We continue to work on the nap schedule. We're starting swimming lessons tomorrow. Basically, H's first fall is off to a fabulous start. I'm really going to try to get better about documenting it on here. 

Hoping everyone else is loving the nice weather and start of fall! Let's soak it up because Winter will be here before we know it! 

7 months.

Dear Hartley,

Today you are 7 months old! You get more wild and fun by the day! You are always smiling and laughing. You are just the epitome of a ham baby. I'm frequently told that you have the best disposition.

I wish I could bottle this stage up and keep it forever. You tire me out like no other but you are just the happiest, sweetest, giggliest little girl lately! 

This past month was a big month for you. You started eating solid foods. You totally hated the first couple weeks of it. But you're starting to come around. Here are the foods you've tried from your favorite to least favorite: sweet potatoes, carrots, applesauce, butternut squash, banana, avocado, peas. You love to play with your food and attempt to get the spoon in your mouth. 

You still love your bouncer. And dad and I love it because it can handle your energy level better than we can! Dad bought you a fisher price remote a few weeks ago, and it's a current favorite toy. Though you also love brushes, balls and books. You are obsessed with iPhones, which simultaneously cracks me up and drives me nuts. You love baths. 

You love being sung to and listening to music. Dad is always playing oldie type music for you but I stick  with pop stuff and occasionally gangster rap. 

You love being naked and hate having clothes put on you! Your dad has likened diaper changes to wrestling a wild boar, and I'd have to agree. 

This past weekend your dad and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by going out of town to Annapolis for the night. It was our first night away from you, and nana and poppy took care of you. They said you did great! And I know you had fun because you love nana and poppy so much. Poppy has taught you a new trick: ripping up magazines. You think it's a blast, and I think he thinks it's funny to watch you do it. This past weekend he saved a family handyman magazine for you to trash. We are quickly learning "not toys" are far more fun than toys. Especially jewelry - the most fun "not toy" toy! 

You continue to look like you will crawl any day. You mastered backwards crawling this month. It is absolutely hysterical. Between backwards crawling and rolling everywhere, we decided put up a play yard in the living room. You don't mind it but your best friend Winnie hates being separated from you so we usually have to put her in there with you. 

You are big into bouncing. You are the only baby I've ever seen that bounces herself when she's in someone's lap. You much prefer to be moving around on your own than being snuggled. You kind of feel like a toddler before your time! 

I think our current favorite thing is your laugh. It's adorable, and usually very loud. 

The toughest part of this past month was you boycotting naps. You really hate to nap! 

As always, I'm amazed at how our bond grows. We couldn't love you more if we tried.

Happy 7 month birthday, Hartley Glenn! You are so loved now and always. 

5 years of marriage.

Writing my cheesey anniversary post early because I'm not wasting a family Friday blogging :)

Dedicated to my hubby, Brian the Rad Dad Crane (my most loyal blog reader) 

5 years of marriage. How the hell did that happen? Weren't we just 24 years old in our leaky shoebox of a condo dreaming up what it'd be like to be grown ups someday? 

Now we've been married for half a decade, we live in a family friendly neighborhood in the burbs, and we're parents. Your age is going to start with a 3 pretty damn soon. I guess we might be grown ups now. 

Year five has taken a little more work than other years, and I guess that's to be expected when you add a member to your family. We're still figuring out how to be mom and dad while staying Page and Brian. And I'll openly admit, we're not all that used to having to put much effort into this thing so it's tough some days. But hands down, there's not a person I'd rather be figuring adulthood and parenthood with. 

And as cliche as it sounds, I'm loving where we are. Yeah, the mystery thing is officially dead after you saw me bring our daughter into this world but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in our relationship. I amazingly love you more than I ever knew I could on our wedding day. I'm so lucky to have you as my husband, the father to my baby, and my favorite: my friend. 

5 years in. A lifetime to go.

And I hope in 50 years we're still badass (actually, nerdy) enough to watch cheeseball horror movies and drink pumpking together. Your the only person I love enough to share my peanut butter m&m's with. 

Solid food.

So, let me just start by saying, a couple months ago, I was so excited to start Hartley on solid foods. 

"Oh my god, she doesn't even know what she's missing. She's going to love it! I can't wait to watch her try all these fun foods. I'm going to make my own, and it'll be so fun."

Okay, well, two months ago Page, you were so wrong. You will end up hating the shit show that is "trying solid foods".

My normally happy baby hates "solid" food. And I can't blame her, I hate it, too. It's insanely depressing. 

Every few days, I blend up food in that Tiffany blue food processor that I thought would make this "even more fun." I spoon it into these perfect little freezer containers specifically meant for my nutritious homemade baby food. When I put some on a spoon to feed it to her, you'd think I was trying to feed her dog shit with the reaction I get. The look of disgust. Tightly clasped lips that I can't even force a spoon into. Then after a while, I make peace with the fact that I'm wasting food, and let it make it's way to the garbage disposal. Then I stand at the sink watching it whirl down into the food graveyard. I scrub the little container, wondering why I even made that in the first place. And I repeat a second time later in the day - if I feel ballsy enough. 

Then I look at Hartley and think, "whatever you want. Just eat formula forever. After all, some women in the 90's lived on slim fast shakes alone. You'll just be one of those people I don't understand who doesn't love food."

And then I remember the doctor telling me that between 6-8 months is the best time for babies to learn. And shit, that clock is ticking. She'll be 8 months before I know it. 

So I've decided to make my way to my Mecca , Target, today. Hoping their baby food aisle with the adorably marketed, over priced fancy baby food will actually appeal to my kid. I'll Pinterest the shit out of this problem. Text my friends for advice. Go on amazon trying to look for a book on babies who hate food and how to feed them nutritionally sound meals they'll eat. Just reading that makes you realize how much parenting has evolved from the days that the doctor told you just to start on rice cereal and buy gerber jars. 

But I had to get on here and vent. And tell the world how I don't get it. I swear, I fiend for food like a crack addict fiends for a fix. Like, it basically would take a straight jacket to keep me from eating French fries if they're placed in front of me. I mean, even I ate some of Hartley's puréed bananas... if I had them in the house, I'd drizzle them in chocolate, mix in some rum and sip it through a straw. 

And I know, I know, there's a learning curve. But how long does it take? A few weeks? A few months? And how come no one tells you this? I swear I've seen a thousand pictures of kids devouring smash cakes. 

If I put a smash cake in front of Hartley, I'm pretty sure she'd ask to have to removed from her tray and replaced with a stuffed monkey. And then I would eat the cake in less than 5 minutes. 

Time to try a new plan. Because this just won't do. And add this to the "WTF? Why does no one tell you?" list. Yes, non parents take note, not all babies instinctively love solid food. Your garbage disposal and/or dog might start to really earn it's keep. 

"What is this, Mom? It ain't going in my mouth." 

"Trust me, kid. I'd rather be changing a deuce right about now."