Instant Khorma

Here's Harper at a recent Sunday afternoon Indian buffet.

That's all.

Happy Saturday, friends.

Reasons I Love My Wife

1 - 1000: Too numerous to mention

1001: That she thought this weird but fantastic shot was worth taking.

This is us recycling on a recent weekend. Earth day's coming soon, people. Start recycling early; just ask Harper.

Guess Who's on the Move?

You can expect better plots, more character development and snazzier lighting in the future. For now, we're just excited to be on the cutting edge of 21st-century blogging.

The Ladies of Elkins

We're almost always following Harper around with a camera, which is not surprising. What may be surprising is that for every one picture we post here there are hundreds that don't make the cut. Limitless though the blogosphere is, we still try to remain concise.

Even so, there are some personal favorites that have no business in the regular top ten. Top 20. Top whatever it is. Some that jump out and grab me for reasons unknown. These are four of those. Four split-second glimpses of what I catch out of the corner of my eye and are, when it's all said and done, probably more indicative of what life's like around here than some of the more composed shots of Harper you've seen lately.

Here, then, four shots of the ladies of the house. And how things look from where I sit.

Chicks and Salsa

When these ladies asked for more NAPkins, they weren't kidding! Here's an oldie but a goodie of Harper and her friend Millie having a latin ladies' lunch in Knoxville in December. Looks like Mexican food makes babies sleepy too.

Check, please!

Going Mobile

The previously stationary Harper is on the verge of joining the ranks of the ambulant. She knows she's close and is rocking back and forth, doing little baby push-ups and elbow-scooting around like a little baby soldier. Any minute now she will put the final puzzle piece together, put one knee in front of the other and she'll be on her way.

And when she does, I suspect (as everyone has warned) that everything will change.

Today we walked to our neighborhood bagel joint and sat outside and ate breakfast while Harper listened intently to an Italian man having an Italian conversation. She seemed enthralled and not the least bit shy about staring directly at him. This is her doing that.

Incidentally, the Italian man recognized Carmine as soon as we walked up. Well, he didn't actually know Carm, but her knew her breed (Spinone Italiano), which is a pretty rare occurrence. (Comments normally range from "She looks like a Dr. Seuss character" to "she feels like a goat.")

And in case anyone was concerned that Carmine's level of luxury has suffered since Harper's arrival, you can rest assured that she's still the most spoiled dog in town.

Hair, beautiful Hair!

Look how much hair Harper has! It's coming in at an incredible rate. Honestly, I would say 50 hairs a day. And that's a conservative estimate!

Phillips go to the museum

Over Christmas vacation we visited a local museum. While there we were told we could not take pictures of Harper inside the museum. "It's strictly prohibited," said the uniformed lady. This was disappointing news as clearly the real fun in taking an eight-month-old to the museum is photographing her viewing and touching priceless art. Anyway, the picture above was taken in the elevator where the uniformed lady couldn't see us. That's my "acting-up" face. Harper clearly wasn't comfortable with the disobedience. She'll come around.

Harper has been busy!

Harper has been busy. In the past month she visited all eight of her grandparents, her Great Grandmother, several Great Aunts and Uncles, her Great-Great Aunt (I'm not kidding), her "not-so-great in age but truly fabulous regular" Aunt Meghan and Uncle Ryan, her great grandfather, countless cousins and a truly staggering number of friends.

She has mastered waving, has sprouted quite a few new hairs, is considering crawling, rolls to the left and to the right and to the left and right again (very quickly not un-like a rolling pin); she grasps very, very, tiny barely-visible-to-the-naked-eye objects and then eats them, she can say "Da da, ba ba" and an occasional "Ha ha.” She belly laughs, which all clichés aside is the greatest sound in the world, and she smiles so hard her eyes close in delight. Forget Barnum & Bailey, Harper is the greatest show on Earth. 

I know, I know

A little something to whet your appetite. More to come!

Happy New Year!