Happy Valentine's Day!

Harper's got nothing but love for ya.

Weekend update with Harper Phillips

So, the thing about Harper is that she makes everything more fun. Due in part to her winning personality and in part to Buster's and my utter fascination with her every move. Speaking of, some of her most recent tricks are as follows: Cheerios. She loves putting Cheerios in her mouth, letting them get mushy and then spitting them out. She does the same trick with shredded cheese, avocados and bread. She still crawls without using her legs, which is actually far more difficult than the conventional form of crawling one might find a lesser child doing. She also loves to do anything as a family....even when it's pretty cold outside. Below please find we three chilly Phillipses taking Carmie for some playtime on a local public golf course.

Yes, um....one pound of baby food please.

Storing Nuts for the Winter/Peek-a-Boo

Harper's First Snow

Friends to the North, please keep your snickering to a minimum while I share with you a few shots of Harper's first snow experience. Our friends to the South (and our friends from the South) will not be surprised to learn that the amount of snow you see here actually shut down area schools.

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! 

First Christmas continued...

Harper opened her first Christmas presents last weekend at Mac Daddy and Grammy's. She loved it! 

Gummy smile

Harper still has no teeth. I know soon enough she will have a mouth full of teeth, a head full of hair and will be bossing me and Buster around. I look forward to those times, but I'll always love this gummy smile. Who wouldn't? 

Harper's first Christmas

So, it's Harper's first Christmas and all of the sudden Buster and I have crazy opinions about how we must do things. You know, so it's all perfect for Harper. Case in point, we bought a real Christmas tree for the first time since 1998 (our first Christmas as a couple). Below are the pictures of Harper choosing her favorite.

The Pilgrimage

When you fly for the first time with your new baby, people give you a great deal of advice. Pacifier, feed the baby at takeoff and landing, lots of toys, bring more diapers than you think you need and so on. Good advices, all, and much appreciated. But for anyone who knows how I fly, you know that Amanda wasn't up for taking care of two children on Thanksgiving weekend.

So we gate-checked Harper.

But once we got to Rhode Island (the Ocean State), everything was smooth sailing. We had our Thanksgiving meal at the home of the Pipers of Warren with a few new T-day traditions. Most notably: Our Thankful group of friends now comes with scads of children. Really, they're everywhere. What was once a long, lingering day of wining, brining and dining is now a hilariously hectic circus act. (Special tip of the hat to Stephen for somehow managing to still prepare a delicious and cornucopious spread.)

Which brings me to Special New Tradition Number Two: The pre-dinner raw bar including clams, oysters and crab dip (not technically raw, Amanda is pointing out). An inspired stroke of genius.















So, the kids: Harper met some new friends her size: George, Millie, Flavia and Doyle (who is actually more my size than hers). And she also got to meet her new grown-up friends too.


Not surprisingly she loved everyone.

That's Millie who is brand new.





















Here's Harper trying to talk to George who is talking on the phone. Unfortunately, George dialed the wrong number and got the croup on the other line and spent the following days recovering but remaining in great spirits, even making a trip to Boston and going out to eat at a restaurant.

























Here's what it looks like when two dads try to put babies in Baby Bjorns to go for a walk on the bike and walking path that runs right behind Asher and Erin's house. They were nice enough to house us during our visit.














This is the view from their back porch. Not too shabby.















Here's what it looks like when the dads are done and Millie appears to have flown across the street and gotten magnetically stuck to Sam's chest.














Here's Harper in a hat and me fighting off a cold. Not the croup, though.














Here is the wonderfully curious Flavia who constantly wants to know what everything is, and then asks again to be sure. She's especially suspicious of blueberries, concerned that they may at any moment go by a different name.

"Da?"
"That's a blueberry." (Considers for a moment...)
"...Da?"
"That's a blueberry."















Here's Doyle lying on a rock and Harper looking down on him. Literally, not figuratively. Doyle is smarter than Amanda and I. Collectively. He's probably going to be the president.


So there's part one of the trip. More to follow. We hope that everyone's Thanksgiving was filled with the kind of friends we have and the kind of good times we have with them. We're very thankful for all of it.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Harper finally had the chance to meet her Uncle Nick. She loved him immediately, of course! They spoke French to each other the entire time. Who knew that all this time it was French that Harper was speaking?!

Buster, Harper and I wanted to let everyone know how thankful and grateful we are that you are all in our lives. We love you all. Happy Thanksgiving! May yours be filled with love, warmth, and wonderful times. 

So grown up

Something has happened. Harper has grown up. As you can see, she uses a highchair with the skill of a child twice her age. She sits up on her own. She giggles at Carmine. She is ticklish on her belly and under her arms. She flips through books as if she is reading! She even ALMOST sleeps through the night (thank you, thank you, thank you). Oh, and she loves carrots.
I can't believe my little little baby is a little girl. It sure is fun.