I can tell you what I won't be winning.

The mother of the year award.  Jason won't be taking home the blue daddy ribbon either. 

It JUST hit us tonight that we have absolutely no one to watch our sweet boy next Thursday and Friday.  Originally, I was going to Colorado with my family for my cousin's wedding.  I made that decision when H still looked like the baby above.  Now that he's looking like the baby below, I rethought that decision.  It's over an hour to the airport, almost 4 hour flight, and then 3 plus hour drive to Steamboat.  That would be Thursday, and then we'd do it again on Sunday. 

My greatest blessing since having H has been my mother watching him every day.  I can't even tell you how good it's been on all of us, Gigi included.  But, it has made for a baby that is not too fond of a car ride.  I'd feel like a terrible mom for dragging him on that trip so I could party with my cousins.  Don't even get me started on how bad I feel or how sad I am to miss them AND my bro.  I do think I made the right decision though.  If you've ever been in the car with him for more than 30 minutes, you'd agree. 

Back to my original thought though.  Jason wasn't going to the wedding, because he is in his friend Jeremy's wedding the same weekend.  He leaves Thursday morning to go to Macon.  Mom and the rest of my family leave Thursday morning to go to Steamboat.  I already told my office I wasn't going on vacation anymore. 

So, looks like the Pack-n-Play is headed to the office Thursday.  I only have one closing, so that will probably be super fun for me and my girls at work.  Finger's crossed one of the folks I'm calling tomorrow will be free Friday!

Hardin, please know we would NEVER forget about you.  This is just 100% proof that Daddy and I take our absolutely incredible arrangement with your G for granted. 

Perspective.

I don't know if that's the most appropriate title. It probably should be "Humble Pie Taste Bitter."

If you ever want to guarantee a terrible night's sleep, write about what a sweet little sleepy head you have.

In all honesty, this was a terrible night for H, but I should be (and am) counting my blessings that this is the first time he has woken between the hours of 7:30 and 7 in a long time. Something hit him about 11:30, and it made us both terribly sad. He started chewing on Doug's ear, and then the screaming started. Tooth #4 has by far been the hardest for my sweet boy to cut.

I went in after a few minutes, gave him Tylenol, changed his diaper and started to rock him. Let's just say he's not a mama's boy tonight, because that baby wanted even less to do with me than his crib. I put him back in his crib with his friends, and he fussed for another 20 minutes. It took everything in my being not to go sweep him up. In all honesty, if I thought it would have done a bit of good, I would have.

Here's hoping my snaggletooth is no more tomorrow. It will also be nice for Jason to quit calling him Hillbilly Hardin.

Eight is Great!

 

Hardin, is eight months old today!  As always, this is the best age yet.  It is so fun to see his little personality at work.  He's constantly changing, but right now he is very curious, stubborn, physically strong, hysterically funny (he's always laughing at himself), a little clingy, a bit lazy, very silly, a lover of food, a sleepy head, and our favorite little thing in the world.  

Last night we went out for a friends birthday dinner, and on the way home Jason turned down the radio and said "I'm the happiest I've ever been in my entire life.  I just wanted you to know that." I couldn't agree more.  By time Hardin is old enough to read this, he'll know Jason is not the type to say stuff like that, so hopefully it will mean as much to him as it did to me. 

My mom asked for a framer of Hardin in this outfit.  G does an awful lot around here and ask for very little, so we try and oblige her request.  Hardin is not on board with this house rule yet.  All he wants to do these days is hold your hands and walk around.  When I sat him down to take a picture he greeted me with this face.  As soon as I stood him up, all smiles again.  Although my boy looks sad, I absolutely love this picture because that expression is Jason McWhorter to a tee! 

[If you use Blogger and have recently noticed a decrease in your picture quality... check out this article, http://www.betatemplates.com/2009/06/how-to-post-large-images.html#more.  I read a dozen articles and found that if you delete the "s600, or s400" completely, and leave the s1600 from early in the HTML, it works best.  Pictures are still lower quality than the original image, but no more total fuzz.  Now... to go edit over 100 post.  Awesome]

Good eats.

These pictures have nothing to do with the post, mom just had H dressed all cute when I got home today.  Plus, when H is eating, my hands are way too busy to be snapping pictures. 

For the past few weeks, I've been on what I call the Hardin diet.  Everything that I can eat, he can eat.  Lots of Chicken, fresh fruit, fresh veggies and Greek yogurt.  I've always liked the idea of baby led solids, and thought I'd introduce them as he started to gain interest.  Well folks, he's interested!

Every morning he eats his bottle and then shares my Greek yogurt.  He doesn't get too much of that, but he looks forward to every little bit I put in his mouth.  He gets a container of fruits or veggies for breakfast and lunch, and then he gets whatever we eat for dinner with his cereal.  He LOVES that part. 

For example, tonight I made stir fry with red peppers, mushrooms and chicken.  I cut his up into tiny little pieces and he sits and eats with us.  He "chews" every bite many times.  It's really quite cute.  His favorites so far are artichoke petals, chicken, plums (no skin), bananas, and tomatoes. 

As with most things, I have NO idea if this is too early or late, but it seems just about right for him.  Mom says none of us took to real solids this early, but made up for it in due time. 

A bit frustrated, but nothing a little Hardin can't fix.

I've been trying to ignore it and not write about it, mostly because I don't want to complain, but my stupid cyst is back. I discovered it right before I got pregnant and couldn't do anything about it until after having the baby. When Hardin was 6 weeks old, I had my first surgery to remove it. That lasted about 3 weeks until it started forming again. I had surgery in January to put in a drain and let everything clear out. Then a follow up surgery in March to take out the drain and put in a permanent filler.

Well, it's back, and worse than ever before. While I am extremely thankful it is benign and nothing is really wrong, it has literally been the biggest pain in the you-know-what as it is located where the top of my leg meets my seat. I've been dealing with moderate pain off and on for over a year, but late Sunday afternoon it turned to excruciating. I'm not sure what I did, but I couldn't move. Only lay flat. I used that as an excuse to cuddle up in bed and take a nap with Hardin. That helped much more than the Lortab.

I went to the doctor today and he took one look at me and said I needed surgery immediately to remove the cyst and resulting infection, and put in a new drain. So tomorrow it's back on the table for Tiff. Ugh. That will be followed by another surgery in 6-8 weeks to take the drain out.

The thing that bugs me the most, besides spending money, of course, is that each surgery has come with a 3-4 week ban on working out. Just as soon as I get in a groove with working out, bam, here comes another one. And you know how hard it is to get started again, but I will.

In other news, Hardin's top teeth are poking through! You can feel the left one and the right one is shining through the skin. He's been a little fussy and clingy, but nothing like the first two. Sunday we had an early morning play date with Mama and Them, and of course Julie and I spent more time talking than taking pictures. I sure do love a friend you can see once a year and feel like you saw yesterday. We got home and headed outside to take pictures because H was in the goofiest mood ever!

Happy 1st Fathers Day!

We celebrated Father's Day today because Jason is playing golf tomorrow.  I had a pile of files to drop off at my Athens office, so we packed up the babe and headed up for lunch and shopping.  It was the first time in our relationship I have taken Jason shopping with me to pick out his gift, but I have a feeling it won't be the last!  He got a yummy cologne and I hope he likes it for a while, because we both had headaches after smelling all that stuff.   

The highlight of our outing was my most favorite purchase in a long time, Hardin's new Atlanta Braves ball cap.  I've been on the hunt for a while, and it's just perfectly fitted with a little room to grow.  Oh I just love a little boy in a ball cap. 

The low light was the disgusting highchair at Five Star Day Cafe.  They only have one and there is no way that thing has been cleaned in the past decade.  His highchair cover is in the wash as we speak.  The food was delisious as always. 

To top off our day I cooked Jason a dinner consisting of a great salad, awesome seared jumbo scallops, and the worst grits he's ever tasted.  I always boil my stone ground grits in chicken stock but I was out.  I substituted beef stock and somehow they ended up tasting like beefy oatmeal.  Two out of three aint bad. 

Little baby Hardin, I sure do thank you for turning Jason into a daddy.  Other than watching you learn and grow, watching Jason as a daddy is my favorite thing in this world.  Happy 1st Father's Day J!

 

I need a wife.

While I was driving home today, I was thinking about my life and how content I am now. Finally. And Father's Day. And what a wonderful father Jason is. And how our lives now are a far cry from how they could have ended up after many of our mistakes. And how thankful I was for the blessings that landed us here. And how I'm really going to remember every second of this time because just like in all of our lives, times won't always be this good, but they'll get this good again if we try.

Then it hit me. I wonder if everyone I am happy with is as happy with me?

After evaluating how I am doing in my everyday roles, I decided I'm doing okay, but I need a wife. And I don't mean that in any disrespectful way. I think everyone could use a good wife, especially wives. In a little less than 5 months back at work, I am feeling pretty comfortable with my roles as mommy to Hardin, wife to Jason, and attorney.

But... My dry cleaning has been ready for pick-up for well over a month. It takes an act of God and complete abandonment of my staff to get my hair done. My poor mother has eaten less than desirable meals at my house during the day, out of necessity. I haven't picked out what I am getting Jason for Father's Day, much less purchased it. I'm out of so much stuff I've lost track. There are pictures to frame, gifts to wrap, clothes to iron, buttons to replace, hems to mend. You get the picture. All that stuff wives do with grace, without thinking a thing about it. Well it ain't getting done around here.


And I better not be bothered by it either, because I don't see that changing anytime soon. When the clock says it's time to go, I make a beeline for my baby. After we play, bathe, eat and get H down, it's all I can do to maybe go on a run, start a load of laundry and pour a glass of wine. Good thing I'm married to the most unobservant man alive, because he'll probably never notice how much I'm slacking in those areas.

Today was Hardin's first time in the big boy bath without one of us. He had a BLAST!

Remembering dad and watching baseball.

Really, I couldn't think of a better way to spend this day remembering my sweet daddy than at the little league fields.  It's been three years, and although I miss him every single day of my life, I miss him a little extra today.  I also struggle with the idea of Hardin never knowing him.  Like he's been cheated a little. 

Our neighbor's boy is an awesome ball player and J's been wanting to go see him play for a while.  In true McWhorter fashion, we waited until the last game.  The All-Star championship.  They won, and by won I mean the 10 run slaughter rule, against the big bad Gwinnett County Mill Creek team.  They were so excited, and it was awesome.  They move on to the state championship in Albany.

I had so much fun holding my baby and soaking it all in.  Especially the proud papas.  You could see Jason's mind going a-mile-a-minute.  He told me I better take a good look around, because we may be spending a lot of time at fields just like that one.  No pressure Hardin, we will both be equally excited about whatever hobbies or sports you decide to pursue, just as long as you let us be a part of it!

Hardin had a ball himself.  He ate for the majority of the time we were there.  He even went through the just in case we get stuck on the side of the road stash.  It's funny how he goes in cycles.  Sometimes I can't get him to finish a 6 oz bottle.  He also got dirtier than he has ever been in his life!  He rolled around in the grass with our friend's two younger boys, put God only knows what in his mouth... and loved every filthy second.  Dad would have been proud.   

May 2007

Summer Fun.

This is what our Friday night looked like.

This is what our Saturday looked like.

God willing, we will repeat these looks for the rest of the summer.  As my friend Julie would say... it just don't get no better. 

Tiff & Jerry

Jason's dad came by for a visit during daddy daycare today and it reminded me of a story I've been meaning to tell.  Years ago when we were in Ft. Myers for Christmas, Becky got out a bunch of Jason's pictures and let me have some.  One of my most treasured was a studio picture of Jason around 3-4 months.  When we bought the house, I framed that picture and one of me around the same age.  They've been sitting in our living room ever since.

When Becky came up for Christmas, she brought more pictures and we were trying to show Jason that Hardin does in fact favor him.  I went and pulled the framed photos off the shelf, Becky looked at me a little funny and said "um, that's Jerry not Jason."  I could not believe it, but Jason looks an awful lot like his dad so it's no surprise their baby pictures would too.

Now I'm sad I don't have a baby picture of Jason next to mine, and feel a little weird about taking the other one down now that Jerry and the family know the story.  I mean, it's still a nice picture, and I'd hate to offend him.  So, until I make my way back down to Ft. Myers (IN FOUR WEEKS!) to claim an eight by ten of Jason to put in the frame, Tiff and Jerry it is.

To complete the ridiculous shelf, you will find the framed family JCP picture and the bobble heads Justin and Cat had made for us for our wedding.  I mean honestly, what's creepier than a framed picture of your father-in-law as a baby next to yours, a JCP picture and a freakishly lifelike bobble head set of you and your husband.  Needless to say my decorating skills won't be featured in Southern Living anytime soon.  

... I must add, there is also a bobble head of Jason's all time favorite man, Dan Marino, and signed ball. 

Ladies Man.

We had an absolutely fantastic fun filled weekend with great friends.  Friday, Jason and H met me at the Mexican restaurant right after work.  We are trying to enjoy eating out with him while we can as we hear boys in restaurants can be a little trying between 1.5-2.5.  We came home and H man crashed from all the excitement.  Jason and I walked across the street with the monitor and sat on our neighbor's front porch with all the other parents.  For three years, they laughed at us every Friday night as we headed out to dinner and drinks.  We maybe ate at home 10 Friday nights before I got pregnant.  Little did we know family Mexican night and front porch sittin' with the neighbors was just as fun.

Saturday the H man and I headed to my aunt Sandy's house for Lindsey's baby shower.  H had fun laying around kicking with aunt Jackie.  We went straight to Olivia's naming after that.  As you can see from the pictures, Livvy was all about Hardin!  Such a cutie.  Hardin would have been all about her if she wasn't interested in him.  I'm telling you, all those things your mama tells you about boys start early.  He only wants what he can't have.  Boy, boy, BOY!  Faith, Mary Ellen and Liddie came to our house for a slumber party, and as always, Hardin loved having Liddie around.  Not nearly as much as I loved having two of my all time favorite friends around.

The outside temp started with an eight this afternoon (89, but I'll take it), so we headed to a park I've been wanting to check out on the river about ten minutes away.  By time we got there, H was asleep, the temp was 92, and there were no infant swings.  We skipped the park and took the long way to the grocery store so H could finish his cat nap.  Hardin gave everyone who talked to him a total poker face, and smiled and squealed at everyone who ignored him trying to get their attention.  What a mess. 

We topped off the weekend with a walk up the street to a double birthday party.  Hardin was in a thirty-minutes-from-bedtime zone out, so he wasn't exactly the life of the party.  I can't wait until he's a little older and can run around with the nine zillion kids in our neighborhood.  He also dang near lost it when all the other kids got a cup cake and he didn't.  The boy is all about food these days, and wants whatever you put in your mouth.  We left the minute the cupcake whining started.  The baby went to sleep and Jason grilled out steaks and made potatoes for dinner.

Now that was fun... but as usual J and I will follow up the action packed weekend with NO plans next weekend.  I'm so glad that man appreciates nothingness as much as I do.  

McWhoter Motor Speedway.

Time stamp from camera: 6:57:02pm

Time stamp from camera: 6:57:23pm

When we first moved in, Jackson Parker was 15 months old, and on the move.  Whenever he would come over, or I would watch him, he would run laps around downstairs.  There is a perfectly oval track for a little tyke.  I called it the Jackson Motor Speedway.  Cawley was next to discover it.

Well, Hardin is following right in their foot steps.  His little legs are finally long enough to use the racer walker and he loves it.  He gets this super determined look on his face and races around.  You can see from the time stamps that he is making some quick progress around town!  He does not like the fact that 1/2 of downstairs is carpeted.  I don't either, but unless he's ready to mow some lawns and pay for more hardwoods, he'll have to live with running around where he can until he's really walking. 

In other good news, his one month head check was this morning.  He's gained a pound and an inch in length, but only 1/4 an inch in head circumference.  That was in line with his growth in every other aspect, so we are good to go.  I don't know if I explained it enough before, but he was born with a big head, at two months growth was in line with his overall growth, at four months growth was slower, and then 6 months the growth was accelerated compared to everything else.  That was the concern.  There is no more concern.  As long as he keeps up the steady all over growing we are good to go.

Doc said she really didn't even need to play with him to do the neurological test, she could tell he was fine just from being in a room with him for a few minutes.  He was grabbing at everything she was using to look at his ears, nose, mouth and lungs.  I told her he'd been a little congested and she was just checking him over.  He was sitting, standing with help, talking up a storm, smiling, etc.  She said a great tell for anything neuro was desire and ability to grab and hold with both hands.  I'm sure Gigi and her poor hair will vouch for his desire and ability to do both... often!  Although we all knew the boy was just fine, it was nice to hear it from the good doctor. 

Oh... I almost forgot.  Today I bought my first pack of diapers for Hardin.  It wasn't even that we needed them, we've still got about 400 left from my diaper shower*, but we had to upgrade to the overnight diapers for his 12-13 hour stretch.  After last week's random wake-ups I considered them.  This morning I went in to get him and his diaper was totally busted and that gross gel was all over him, and I was sold.  Hopefully these overnight diapers will do the trick. 

*I work a lot with Keller Williams agents, and they wanted to do a shower in their office the men could participate in also.  They hosted a diaper shower, and it was the greatest thing ever.  We got over 1600 diapers at that shower alone.  I am incredibly blessed to work with such wonderful generous people!

Made it to mommy!