{pucker up.}

Never before this year have I fully realized how amazingly awesome of a mother you are. I always knew you were super nice, extremely loving & caring, and thought you were pretty cool {up until I became a teenager, I suppose}, but now understand and appreciate it all SO much better.

So, thank you, mom. For being the mom you are.

For raising me to be who I am.

For giving Ben and I such a happy, fun-filled, wonderful childhood {and then some}.

For showing me what it means to be a mom, so that I can be the best mom I can to my own daughter.

i love you.

.   .   .   .   .   .   .

Mum.

Thank you for being the woman who raised Todd to be the husband & father he is to us.

Thank you for being my daughter’s grandma.

For teaching her how to make silly faces and spoiling her in a good way.

We love you.

.    .   .   .   .   .   .

And to my daughter, for when the time comes that you find this all on the internet…..

The day I became your mom—ahhh, it still brings joyful tears to my eyes to think of it—was a highlight of my life. No matter how much I dreamt of you and wondered what you’d look/act/sound like, God exceeded all those expectations and blew. me. away.

You’re my intense joy, my exhaustion….

my sweet little sidekick, my slobbery kisses girl….

my hyper spastic funny little chunky monkey….

my constant hunger, my blue eyes….

my heart overflowing with more love than I ever knew I had.

I am blessed to be your mother {and I give you full permission for you to remind me of this when you’re a teenager}.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the other moms out there, my aunts who’ve been like moms to me, and anyone who is a mom in every sense of the word but without a child.

{my, what big eyes you have.}

You were probably wondering all weekend, “where’s Elise’s ten month update?!?”.

No? Just the grandmas then?

Mommy procrastinated, but here we go…..

{perfect ten.}

Height & Weight…dunno. She was 19lbs last month, so I’m guessing she’s roughly 20lbs now. Wears mostly 12 month clothes (with an occasional 6′er that still fits), so she’s pretty average in size.

Sleep….Ah, sleep. This has been an interesting month for us. I don’t know if it’s her teeth, longer daylight hours, or what—but her nights have been pretty disrupted the past couple weeks. Bedtime is usually around 8pm, but she wakes a couple times between then and midnight (sometimes again around 2:00) before conking out for the rest of the night and eventually wakes up anywhere between 7:15-8:00 am.  I think that last night she slept ALL night without waking was when we were at Grandma & Grandpa’s in Idaho.

I think we also had our first experience with night terrors. Anyone else had those? Basically screaming like a wild pig, thrashing around in the crib, wanting nothing to do with being touched or held (thankfully it passed within 10-15 minutes, but it was a scary thing to see as a parent).

Naps….still 2 naps a day. Morning nap is usually 90 minutes, with an afternoon nap of 80-120 minutes. It’s funny (i guess); some days Todd will ask how her nap was and I’ll say “oh, just 75 minutes”.

How easily I forget that at one point I would’ve been ecstatic with that length of nap. Remember when we used to struggle with her naps? I probably didn’t complain too much about it on the blog, but nothing worked. I consulted every book/blog/advice I could find and the only thing that worked for us was her getting older and being able to sleep on her side/tummy.

Teeth…let’s have a looksie:

{uno. dos. tres! with #4 chilling below the surface}

Eating….She is still getting most of her nutrition from breastfeeding 3-4 times a day, and 2-3 feedings of solid foods. Favorite foods are avocado, bananas, cheeeeeeeese, puffs, pears. I suppose this month we’ll try some chicken.

Mobility…still rolls rolls rolls all over, but no crawling. She’s perfectly content sitting in place or rolling to whatever toy she wants. I think she’ll be like her dad and skip the crawling and go straight to walking when she’s ready.

{our very first school picture : pre-toddler group}

okay, is it just me, or does our baby suddenly look five years old?

*picture courtesy of The Memory Bank

{little miss striped hood}

Thankfully, out of the 12 hours of total travel time, we only had about 1 hour of screaming/crying. That’s only 8%! And the remaining 92% of the time, she just bababababababbled along, squealed (very loudly, like a pterodactyl), or took short naps.

Keys to success included having coffee for us adults, a fully stocked bucket of toys in the backseat, stopping for long lunch, and Todd’s speedy driving. Best of all, there was no massive diaper blowout like we had in the middle of Wyoming back when she was a wee little 1 month old.

{I think its safe to say that starting off your parenthood experience by taking a 2,000 mile road trip with a 1 month old will certainly make every other trip you do after that seem relatively easy peasy.}

Anyways……Idaho.

Hanging out at Grandpa & Grandma’s house.

Sittin’ proud in the high chair.

Same one her grandma & daddy both used when they were babies.

We enjoyed the wonderful warm weather and spent some time in downtown Coeur d’Alene and strolling by the lake.

{lil’ lady will wave at pretty much anyone who looks her way.}

A wonderful weekend.

And many thanks, Grandma & Grandpa, for babysitting so we could relax and have coffee/beer/pedicure/time to ourselves.

Well worth a couple minutes of your time, I promise.

{at a friends’ house while checking on their cats}

{at home with guster}

(a joint post by k & t)

Even with the mundane, I like to take at least one photo every day {usually with my phone—because it’s quick & easy, and usually of Elise—because nothing else seems as noteworthy}. I have about 50 creative ideas swirling around in my head of what I’ll do with all these daily photos someday, but in the meantime, I’ll share some with you.

(If you follow me on Instagram {@kteharris}, then you’ve already seen some of these pics.)

(And if you’re like, “InstaWHAT?”, then consider this your lucky day to see some new photos!)

.  .   .   .   .   .   .

i looooove chubby baby feet.

Easter morning sunshine.

landscaped during nap times. {i tore out 4 dying lavender bushes.}

watching the rain.

a rose for ellie rose.

garage sale find.

post-brunch fun @ Jason & Shauna’s.

strawberry + cake batter gelato @ sirena.

first taste. she liked.

8 mile run along river.

new ‘do by Sydney

big girl bath.

found a rogue Cheerio.

{swinging with mommy. waving at daddy.}