New milestones

At 19 months, Harper is growing and developing very quickly.  It seems like she has a new skill everyday. These are some new skills she's acquired over the last month:
~ Singing the entire alphabet A-Z plus the "next time won't you sing with me" part.
~ Counting to 20 and sometimes beyond
~ Speaking in full sentences on a regular basis.  One sentence she says pretty often that we are not happy about is, "I don't want it".  Sometimes I think she 1 going on 15.  We have been trying to teach her that "no, thank you." is a good alternative to I don't want it.
~ Beginning to use please and thank you.
~Recognizing colors and letters.  She is very good with yellow, green and orange and can recognize A, B, H, M and O.
~ One physical skill that she is working on is jumping, she can almost get two feet off the ground at the same time.

Doing a little better

Harper is finally doing better, though she is not 100% yet.  We have had a rough few days and I am starting to feel a bit stir-crazy.  We haven't left the house other than to run a few errands and when we have been home, Harper has been so clingy and needy that it's been impossible for me to do anything other than nurse and nurture her.  It is challenging every part of my personality to stay at home for this many consecutive days, looking at all of the unfinished projects that lurk around our house and not be able to even put away laundry without haven't my little hip attachment. Exhausting. But this is parenting, right? We love our little girl so much but are occasionally overwhelmed by the challenges of parenting, this has certainly been one of those times.

Our little peanut girl

Harper hasn't been feeling herself for the past couple of days.  Andy and I are not sure what is going on- teething, stomach virus or a strange reaction to cow's milk, which she had for the first time this week.  Unfortunately she hasn't been eating very well which is not a good thing at all for a girl who doesn't eat very well to begin with.  I haven't taken her to the doctor to confirm but I think she has lost some weight, it especially looked like it in this picture I took at the playground yesterday. We are taking it easy this weekend and pumping Harper full of probiotics, Chinese herbs and ginger tea, hopefully she is better by the end of the weekend or we will have to take a trip to the doctor, which will be her first sick visit.

Eating ice cream....

One of Harper's favorite friends: Zoe

Zoe's in the pool too!

Playing in her new pool

Harper meets a lobster

Happy Harper plays with our bird feeder

Chloe, Noah & Harper play in Noah's crib

Harper goes through the beehive

Tula heads through the beehive

Harper & Tula admiring insects at the Butterfly Pavillion

Snowsuits in May

Harper and I went for a walk around the corner today to bring some food to our neighbor directly behind us, Bill, who just lost his wife.  I'm sure she made his day a little brighter and she was in a particularly cheery mood because I let her have a lollipop. And yes, she is wearing a snowsuit.  Today was very cold and there is snow in the forecast for tonight!  At the moment it is just raining, hopefully it stays that way.

Harper's new friend

Harper has a new friend in the neighborhood, her name is Charlie and she will be 2 next week.  Charlie's mom and I met at a neighborhood play date and we decided that since we are both runners, we would get together one morning a week and let the girls play while we each took a turn running for 45 minutes.  We have done it twice so far and it has worked out great! Harper absolutely adores Charlie and follows her around, imitating her.  They have loved playing in each others cribs and I could barely get a photo because they were bouncing so much.

Hiking with Daddy

Harper and Andy spent the day together today, a treat for both of them, while I enjoyed a morning at the spa (courtesy of my wonderful husband...) and the afternoon celebrating the upcoming arrival of a friend's baby boy.

Lil' Kickers

Harper went to her first "Lil Kickers" practice today- soccer for 18-24 month olds.  Harper and daddy had fun running, stomping on bubbles and occasionally kicking the soccer ball. 

Harper's quote of the day

Me: Harper, it's raining.

Harper: Wash the spider out!
(and then she started singing about the "eensy, beensy spider".

Hiking on a beautiful spring day

Playing a game at Schlitterbahn in Texas

Resisting a hug from Noah on our hike

Happy girl in Texas

Monday at the playground

  

Today we actually went to two playgrounds- we met our friends at one in the morning and then stopped at another one on our way home from Evergreen, where I had an appointment with my acupuncturist, in the afternoon. If you look closely, you might be able to see a bruise in the middle of Harper's forehead. She had her worst fall to date on Saturday when she was at the park with Andy. Apparently she fell face-first onto the concrete. It looked absolutely horrible on Saturday and I was nearly in tears when I saw her, but we pumped her full of Arnica (homeopathic remedy for bruising) and by Saturday night the bump and bruising had gone down significantly.