Today was our first official pool day of the summer, and Harper was in heaven! Last summer was a little tricky because she wasn’t walking yet, but I can already tell that we will be spending copious amounts of time at the pool over the next couple months. We decided to switch to a more family-friendly pool this summer, and I am so glad that we did. Today there were 4 or 5 other kids Harper’s age, and 3 of their moms were pregnant (one due last week!), so we both have lots of pool friends. Also the baby pool is HUGE and is only 18 inches deep, so Harper can walk through the whole thing without help. Today, not surprisingly, she decided to put the baby chair in the pool and spent 20 minutes just moving it around.

I was the only mom at the pool who forgot to bring pool toys, so tomorrow we will be making a trip to Target to stock up on “noodles,” boats, and watering cans. I also was the only mom who forgot sunscreen, but luckily my Italian baby came home with a beautiful tan while I am sporting a lovely shade of pink.

We are 4 hours into our 10-hour trip home from Georgia, and in between showings of Anchorman and Old School, I’m going to use my time wisely and give a recap of the weekend. We were all absolutely dreading the 20+ hours in the car, but it has turned out to be a beautiful and entertaining drive. We took 81 through Virginia to the Great Smokey Mountains, and the views are breathtaking. The car has also provided ample opportunity for recap of childhood road trips. This morning we were discussing our favorite road trips and Charlotte, being British, insisted that she had never been on a road trip. About 20 minutes into the conversation, she piped in with “oh! You mean a road trip like on Tour?”… only a rock star’s daughter can say something like that!

Our favorite part of the drive was the slow progression into redneck nation. At one point we needed gas and stopped at what we are pretty sure was the only gas station for 50 miles, which we renamed the “Red Ot”:

We also successfully filled out our redneck bingo card with: chainsaw art, man wearing wife beater and suspenders, skyscraper-sized crosses, trucks with gun racks, a truck with no license plate but a confederate flag in its place, and blatant violation of both seatbelt and open container laws.

The wedding itself was great fun. It kicked off with what we all agreed was the nicest rehearsal dinner we will ever attend, held on Adam’s family farm. I won’t even attempt to describe the details, but it was the most picturesque setting and the food was good ole’ southern home cooking. It was perfect and we spent the whole night trying to figure out why we live in the city instead of somewhere like that!

Last night’s wedding was equally beautiful, with the ceremony held on an overlook peering over the Smokey Mountains. The bride and groom were so relaxed and happy and we felt honored to witness their vows.

We took advantage of the setting and had a photo shoot, including a couple of official “belly shots”:

At 6:00 this morning we embarked on a 10-hour road trip to Young Harris, GA for our friend Adam’s wedding. Harper opted for a long weekend in Charlottesville rather than sit in the car for 20 hours, but we did bring Gordon and Charlotte along for the ride. Sidenote: the best quote of the trip so far was Gordon’s comment in a Sheetz gas station, “hey they don’t have any Perrier.” Anyway, I thought I would take this opportunity to write a brief pregnancy update, since my only other options are to either watch Enchanted or witness Gordon break open container laws at 8:30 AM (you think I’m kidding):

With just over 8 weeks to go, I am definitely starting to get uncomfortable. The first time around everything was new and exciting, and while this is also exciting, I am feeling all of the aches and pains of pregnancy much more than I did with Harper. I am trying to rest as much as possible, but by the end of the day I literally cannot stand up anymore! I also thought that this time around I might get a calmer baby, but so far it’s not looking that way – he is quite the kicker and usually aims right for my ribs.

In terms of preparations, Harper is moved out of the nursery and is settled in her new room, but we still have a few things to do to get the nursery ready. I’ve also sorted through all of Harper’s clothes and picked out the few gender-neutral things that we had for her. Now I understand why people buy yellow and green – we are swimming in pink! We are hoping that we don’t have a naked baby boy, but it’s not looking great at the moment. Lots of people have asked about names, and no, we haven’t picked one yet. We don’t even have a list! Hopefully after 20 hours in the car we will at least have a few options.

We will take a “belly picture” in a few weeks when I am officially as big as a house. Harper is enjoying my big belly very much and loves to kiss and hug it. It also makes a nice shelf for her to sit on

“Hold on mom, let me just finish this email and I’ll be ready to go.”

“I think the way to phrase it is ‘animal crackers are far superior to Teddy Grahams,’ don’t you think?”

This afternoon Harper put on a fashion show that was definitely runway-quality. The Santa hat was also involved, but I couldn’t get to the camera in time.

Harper has been sleeping in her new “big girl room” for almost a week now and she absolutely loves it. We’ve finished moving most of her stuff in, so I guess it’s time to post pictures. Obviously the wall decor (or lack thereof) still needs some work, but it’s looking pretty good for a weeks’ work!

First, the “before” pictures. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture when the room housed a queen size bed, nightstand, dresser, dressing table, computer desk and chair, but you can imagine just how crowded it was. A special thanks to LaLa and Big Daddy for babysitting our furniture so that Harper could have a new room!

And now, with new paint, furniture, and my personal favorite, blackout curtains. Also a shot of Harper demonstrating creative uses for her new reading chair.

I am a big believer in bedroom colors and how they affect sleep, so I wanted to paint over the bright yellow with something a little more calming. Her nursery was blue, so we went with purple so that it would have a similar feel. Also, Harper is obviously still in diapers and sleeping in a crib, but we wanted to go ahead and buy furniture that she can use when she outgrows both of those things. We took the bottom shelf off of the hutch above her dresser and put down a changing pad, so her dresser is doubling as a changing table. Her crib is really cool – you can take off the entire front side and simply screw on a “toddler rail” to convert it into a day bed, whenever she is ready. 

We kicked off Mother’s Day weekend yesterday with a trip to the National Zoo with our friends Dave, Jenn, Katelyn, Chuck, Faith, Emma and Luke to celebrate Emma’s 3rd birthday. It was quite a scene keeping 4 toddlers happy and in tow, but everyone had a great time. The animals definitely seemed to have spring fever – we saw zebras “courting,” for lack of a better description, and we got as close to the baby panda as we’ve ever been.

The caravan slowed down for a bit when Katelyn decided that she was going to push Harper, and Uncle Dave got in lots of practice for when he has 4 kids.

The highlight of the day was the Great Ape House, where Emma watched an orangutan eating it’s own poo for about 10 minutes. It was actually smearing poo on the glass and licking it off. I can’t say I was ready for dinner after that. As I was going through the photos from our trip, I commented to Portman “wow, you took enough pictures of the gorilla,” and he calmly responded, “well he was peeing.” Like I said, a very exciting day in the Ape House.

This morning Harper and Daddy woke me up with breakfast in bed. In true family fashion, Harper has started putting her feet on the table and rocking back and forth in the high chair, and this morning was no exception:

After breakfast Harper painted me a beautiful picture and then we worked on her new room. Harper has been sleeping in her new “big girl room” since Thursday and has made the transition beautifully. The room is gorgeous and perfect for a little girl – I’ll post pictures after we put on the finishing touches!

Harper has recently turned into a little ham in front of the camera. Here are a few recent shots of her showing off for the “mama-razzi”.

This afternoon during Harper’s (and my) nap, I was briefly awakened by what sounded like someone dropping steel beams on the roof. The house shook for just a few seconds and I heard the loudest rumble – it really sounded like a huge piece of furniture fell over upstairs. Well it turns out that it was a magnitude 1.8 earthquake and the epicenter was only 1.6 miles from our house! Harper managed to sleep through the whole episode, but I am excited to record “baby’s first earthquake” in her baby book!

Yesterday was a gorgeous spring day, so we spent the afternoon at the park with Trish and Colin, then headed into DC for our typical Friday-night family outing. The kids entertained themselves for a long time at the park, but we had to call it a day when Colin insisted on eating rocks for a snack. He really was not happy when his mom had to fish them out of his mouth!

Portman had a really long week at work, so he took off early and we walked along the waterfront in Georgetown before settling in for an overpriced dinner. Harper spent the entire meal watching the airplanes land at National Airport, which was never-ending excitement considering a plane lands about every 30 seconds. After a lot of people-watching, we indulged Harper in her second ice-cream cone of the week (and of her life!). She was falling asleep in her stroller, but still managed to wolf down most of her cone. She also learned what happens when you bite off the bottom of the cone!