My Pumpkin in the Patch

On Saturday, our family celebrated Harper's first fall by heading out to the pumpkin patch. While this was Harper's first visit to the patch, it was Rob's first visit too. Growing up, my mom made a point of celebrating every holiday (and when I say celebrate, I mean celebrate). For each holiday/season we had a host of family traditions, and while I may have complained about them at the time, these traditions are very meaningful for me now. I hope to pass my favorite ones on as well as establish new family traditions with Rob and Harper. So... after explaining to Rob that 1. we were going to the pumpkin patch as a family and 2. we were going there to take pictures of Harper next to pumpkins that we had no intention of buying, we were off. Here's what our outing looked like.

Check out her 2 new teeth - she worked really hard for them.

I love this kid.

Harper was way too busy people watching to look at the camera.

Last shot of the day. She was done and so were we.

I saw something at work today that I keep thinking about. I was walking through the children's hospital and I saw a little girl (she couldn't have been more than 3 or 4) who had a medical halo brace on. These braces are generally used to allow cervical fractures to heal. The brace was just about as tall as she was and was literally screwed into her head. The thing that I keep thinking about is that this little girl who was wearing this monster of a brace had a princess tiara attached to the top of the brace and she was smiling from ear to ear. I walk through the children's hospital every day and every day I feel my chest get tight as I see sick kids who don't deserve to be sick and parents who don't deserve to have sick kids. And every day, I thank God that He has blessed our family with a healthy, happy, beautiful baby girl. I hope that when the time comes that I don't walk through the children's hospital on a daily basis, I will still be rawly thankful for the gift that God has given us. 

Slow Motion Church Signs

The new season of a show called Time Warp started last night. This show is totally nerdy and totally cool all at the same time. The principle is simple - take video of things in super slow motion. The results are awesome. See for yourself...

Church signs are weird. For a long time, the sign in front of a church near my house said "Stop road raging or I will make rush hour longer. --God". Said sign now reads "Your secret is safe with me. --God". What are they going for here? I don't get it. If you need more evidence that church signs are weird, see below and check this out. 

Harper's Moon

Last night was a full moon - the Hunter's Moon to be exact. While all full moons have a particular designation, in our house, every full moon is called a Harper's moon. Harper was born on a full moon. In fact, it was a total lunar eclipse. My sweet friend Virgie took this picture of the moon on the night Harper was born (she also took pictures of our house and came to the hospital to take precious pictures of our baby girl - so thoughtful). We had a great view of this moon from our hospital room that night. As I held Harper on her first night in this world, it was awesome to look at this beautiful moon and think about what an auspicious day it was. 

Not only was there a full moon total lunar eclipse that day, there was also a huge ice storm that paralyzed the city of Cincinnati as well as much of the surrounding areas. Luckily, we had no trouble getting to the hospital that morning (we left the house at 5am just as the snow began to fall). However, our doctor and anesthesiologist had a heck of a time getting there. So did my mom and dad who drove up from Florida to meet their first grandchild.

So, next time you see a full moon, think of it as a Harper's Moon!

Oh yeah, and by the way... this kid of mine is reading already.

Community

Part 1:

So I have been trying to write this post for over 24 hours now and I just can't seem to get out what I actually want to say. I consider myself to be reasonably articulate except when it comes to trying to express things that are very close to my heart. This is one of those things. So... instead of messing it up, I'll keep it short and sweet. Community is essential. It prevents me from becoming a small human being. The community I had have in Cincinnati was life-changing. The community I am becoming a part of here in Nashville is wonderful and I'm excited to go deeper with all of you. Ok, enough of that.

Part 2:

I am wearing cool shoes today. I know what you're thinking - "What does this have to do with community?" Well, these are special shoes. They're called Toms (Shoes for Tomorrow). Go to their website to find out all of the good details (and pick up a pair while you're at it). In short, this company was started to provide shoes to people who would otherwise go without them. The way it works is that for every pair of Toms shoes that you buy, one pair is given to a person who needs them. Before I heard about Toms, the thought that there were people (many people, most of them children) in the world that couldn't afford shoes really never entered my mind. However, this is a huge problem in places like South America and Africa. Going barefoot in impoverished areas is very dangerous because it significantly increases the risk of contracting soil transmitted parasites like hookworms - very nasty little creatures that can lead to some serious consequences especially if you aren't the healthiest person to begin with. The bottom line is that I often forget that I am part of a much bigger community of human beings and owning a pair of Toms shoes is one small thing that helps me remember that. 

Think of it as an appetizer...

Ok, so I'm still working on my real blog post for today. But in the meantime, here are 5 things that you probably don't know about me:

1. 99.9% of the gum I chew, I swallow. 

2. I feel compelled to put equal amounts of deodorant under each arm. I count the swipes to make sure. 

3. I have pretty much quit all competitive activities in my life because I am way too competitive and it takes all the fun out of playing. 

4. I am a horible speler. 

5. I hate the feeling of bare feet on grass. I even hate just sitting in the grass. 

On another note, the following story will probably only be funny to our friends in Cincinnati, but I feel compelled to share anyways. Rob and I went out to dinner on Friday night at O'Charley's (near our house in Nashville). We were enjoying the rolls when all of a sudden Rob says, "These rolls are really good. They remind me of the rolls from that restaurant in Cincinnati. You know, the one on Crookshank." I say, "You mean the O'Charley's on Crookshank?" Rob says, "Yeah, that's the one." I laughed. Really hard. Like I haven't laughed in a while. I love him. 

Giant Steps

It's official. Harper is no longer stationary. She is crawling - well army crawling. She can efficiently zip from one end of the house to the other. With this newfound mobility, new phrases have precipitated in our house. These include: "Harper, don't suck on the guitar." and "Cat food is for kitties." among others. It's funny that Rob and I spent a lot of time over the past few months waiting for Harper to do these little developmental tricks and now that she's doing them, I wish she would just slow down and be my little baby girl for as long as possible. Oh well, such is life. Here's the evidence.

And here's another video just for fun. In this one, Harper is playing with my very first toy, Bun-Bun. It's amazing how well good old Bun-Bun has weathered the years.