The Harden's

Monday, August 15, 2011

Today was the first day of "preschool" for porter. He is still in the same class at school, but today they start back on their abeka books. He moved up to this class last spring before the end of the year, and did really well.

He picked out his own clothes.... These days it either overalls or his alabama jersey.
Tara
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Sunday, August 14, 2011

Fun for everyone!!!

Saturday Jared went diving, Porter played on the farm with Memonk (monk monk's new name) and Jerry Ward, and I sewed all day with nannie.

Not just picking corn, Picking up corn....

You'll have to see Facebook for the pics of porter with John Barrett on the 4 wheeler.
Nannie and I did some super cute stuff, but I can't post it all yet because most of it was for a baby gift. Here is what I did for Stella.

I have two more that we did for Stella, but they are still at nannie's.
And here is Jared's prize lobster of the day.

Unfortunately it had eggs, so he had to take it back down to the bottom on the next dive. They did manage to get enough lobster that we had lobster gumbo for supper tonight!!

And we have some fish to cook this week too!!
Jared's new toy is a go pro camera that he used while diving this weekend. He is working on editing his video and will hopefully have some spearfishing videos to post tomorrow. How cool!!

Tara
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Saturday, August 13, 2011

ISR week 1

It is certainly making our evenings more eventful. Since I have been busier this week, getting there on time has been a challenge, but we've made it. Porter cried more each lesson all week long and by Friday I really had to work to get him to get in the pool at all. He cries a lot because he doesn't want to "grab the bar." It's a small PVC pipe bar that hangs into the water (and under the water) a few inches. Grabbing the bar involves being let go a little away from the bar, and inevitably going under the water while reaching for the bar. It's one step in the whole sequence of floating, swimming to the side of the pool and grabbing the bar. So far the only things he's done is float and grab the bar. And Thursday and Friday he didn't do the "grab the bar" skills. He cried and started pointing to it saying, "I don't want to grab the bar" as soon as he got in the pool, so they just worked on floating. Friday he started it and Sylvie was there watching and cheering him on, so it took his mind off the dreaded bar. He started smiling and floating and ended the week on a high note. Only 5 more weeks. It will totally be worth it if be can be safer near the water. Here he is after his lesson yesterday. (not wanting to have his picture taken as usual)

And last night before bed...

I let him sleep with me last night since Jared is gone diving. He slept until after 7:00!!! Yea for mommy!!!
Tara
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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Work, the beach, and ISR

Last week was really stressful at work. This week has been better. I'm sure the pregnancy hormones make things worse too. (lots of crying) Thankfully I am sleeping much better. We moved in our new office 2 weeks ago, so I finally have my own office. Mama, Bill, Jared and I spent Sunday afternoon sprucing up my space. We hung pictures and my academic achievements, moved in some furniture and it looks much better. If I had though about it I would have taken pictures. Luckily, it's not going anywhere, so I'll get some soon to post. My very generous parents have gotten me chairs and ordered a bookcase and credenza that will be in soon. I'm a blessed girl.
Last weekend we escaped the stress and relaxed at the beach. We fished saturday morning and swam in the bay Saturday afternoon. We napped well and ate well. We did take advantage of a few sales and started building porter's fall wardrobe. It was a good weekend. Here are a few of my hipstamatic pictures from the weekend. I am liking this app a whole lot, but just realized if I change my picture quality they will post more clearly, so these are a little blurry.

Porter started the ISR program this week. It's 10 minutes a day at the wellness center in Opp. Today was the 2nd day. He is doing well I guess. There were a few tears yesterday and more tears today. Mostly involving letting him go under the water near the bar at the side of the pool. The objective is to teach him to grab the bar, but he doesn't like the process. It is a process and I am glad he is getting the opportunity to do the course. He has no fear when it comes to the water, and he needs to be able to get himself to the side of the pool safely. He was offered stamps for his hands yesterday, but was a little traumatized at the end of the lesson. Today he was way more traumatized but accepted his stamps.

We will be able to film and take pictures at the end of the third week, so I will be posting pics in the water then!!

Tara
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Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Randomness

1. Porter is actually sleeping ALL night every night. It is very rare lately that he gets up at night and the few times he has it was because he needed to tee tee. And that leads to....
2. I am not sleeping at night. I was up for about 4 hours Sunday night between being on call, porter needing to tee tee and the general insomnia that I have had lately. My usual is being awake for about 2 hours a night. I don't really know why. Maybe because of the amount of stress with work lately??? I hope it is not because the child I am incubating is going to be up for hours on end at night. And that leads to...
3. I have an inordinate amount of stress associated with my job these days. You would naturally think, because of what I do for a living, that is had something to do with tough cases or other issues with patient care, but it's not. I would have never thought that my biggest struggle with building a practice and making ends meet would be completely unrelated to my ability as a physician to perform surgery and take care of patients.
4. The diaper bag we (mama) made is the beginning of the nursery. The flow fabric is the basis, and we have chosen several coordinating fabrics for the bumper pad, sheets, organizer, bed skirt, and diaper stacker. I can't wait to see how it all comes together. Jared thinks I'm going to have the whole house green before it's over with and my mom is depressed by the lack of pink.
5. We are possibly going to the beach again this weekend, and since it's tax free weekend in Florida, I thought it might be a good time to think about some fall/winter clothes for porter. I kept out a couple of pairs of jeans for porter from last winter that I thought we would try on to see if I could gauge what size he might wear. The 18-24 month size gap jeans fit perfectly. Guess he's cheap to keep in clothes right now!! Kinda sad that my almost 3 year old is the same size as some 18 month olds......
6. I had an appointment with the OB yesterday. An ultrasound was done to check anatomy, and it is still a girl. Stella Grace. I was also scolded for my weight gain. Meh. Whatever. So I'm gonna make it worth it. We had homemade buffalo wings with honey mustard and ranch tonight and red velvet Ben and Jerry's ice cream for dessert. Take that scale!! I was in the best shape ever right before this pregnancy and was under my pre-pregnancy weight when I stopes nursing last time, so I'm not giving it a second thought. Though it still bothers me that it was brought up. Again, whatever.
7. Continuing on the subject of food... Our friends Emily and Jon came over from monroeville Sunday night for what could accurately be described as a meat buffet. We had three different types of chicken wings, two kinds of pork tenderloin, and a slab of ribs. Great food and great company. I must give a review for the new buffalo Tabasco. Excellent. We used it according the the box's directions for a buffalo wing sauce, and it was so good we had wings again tonight.

I think that's enough for now...,

Tara
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