Little Scientists

Harper and her friend Joe experiment with baking soda, colored vinegar and a variety of spoons and eye droppers.

Messy Reid

We let the girls eat ice cream sandwiches on our walk around the block this evening. No, I'm not sure what I was thinking. 

Spa Day

Harper is such a girly-girl. I have no idea where she came from since I am not! Other than getting her hair brushed, which is still a daily battle. Anna was visiting from Connecticut and we had a little spa adventure, Anna and I had pedicures and Harper had her toe and finger nails painted - red, of course. She was over the moon!

Recent happenings

Harper went to camp at the school she'll be attending in the fall (Creative World Montessori) for two weeks. It was Monday through Friday from 830-1230, which was quite an introduction for a kid who hasn't had a very consistent or strict schedule in quite a while. I was actually concerned that it was going to be too much. Surprisingly, she did fantastic, showing her maturity, which has really developed in the past few months. It's a mile from our house, so I rode them over on my bike every morning - with the girls in the trailer of course - and we all really enjoyed the rhythm and ritual of the day. I love that I can bike her to school, it is such a perk! The way they teach in a Montessori classroom is so impressive- it's like all of the amazing, educational, creative, learning tools that you see and think, 'I need to do that with my kids!' in one place. Since it was camp they had many special activities as well. They took a field trip to a nature center, had pony rides, a visit from some local firemen and a tour of the fire truck, swimming. I was not planning to sign her up for more but we were able to piece together ten days that we'll actually be here over the next month and she'll go for another, broken-up, two week session. She also is going to two sessions at Spanish camp, she had one session today and another next Wednesday. Again, she loved it and shouted 'bye, Mom!' and ran away from me when we got there. I'm so happy that she is friendly, outgoing and social. Makes life easier in some ways.

All of this camp time for Harper has given me the opportunity for plenty of one-on-one with miss Reid. She is officially a chatterbox, piecing together two and three word sentences regularly and coming out with all kinds of funny, clever sayings. She's hit the parrot stage. Harper loves to tell knock-knock jokes and Reid does too, it is adorable. The 'knock-knock' and 'who's there' parts are very clear, but when she responds, she tends to use a gibberish word but with the perfect intonation. We also like to do our exercises, she can do jumping jacks, squats and push-ups on command. She's still nursing all of the time and she's come up with a nickname for it. She calls it "nika." I have no idea why. Harper always called it 'nursey.' In a few weeks, we head to Connecticut and then will leave the girls with my parents for a weekend while we go to a wedding in Colorado. I have no idea what is going to happen to either of us without nika for a few days. But she likes to eat, I'm pretty sure she won't starve.

She's obsessed with climbing and standing on inappropriate places. The coffee table is a favorite spot. She gets up and then she screams, "help, help!" Another drama queen ... 

Morning at the playground. 

Father's Day at Lake Michigan

We took the girls out to the "beach" on Father's Day, which we were fortunate to also celebrate with Andy's parents who were visiting from Ohio. I will admit that I was a skeptical New Englander about this whole Midwest beach idea. I've heard people mention it a few times since we moved here and I've always assumed that the only reason they thought a lake qualified as a beach is because they had never been to an ocean before. Well, I was kind of wrong. Lake Michigan is so big that it really has a beach-y feel to it and there is plenty of sand to play in. As an added bonus, the waves are much, much tamer which actually makes it a relaxing experience compared to having young children around the ocean. We had a blast. It was such an easy trip, I think we'll make it back there often.

Sweet girl helping to make breakfast

Afternoon at the pool

Harper's a fish, she swims underwater and jumps in from the sides, the girl has absolutely no fear of the water. It seems to be contagious, as Reid now thinks she can jump in from the side too. The outdoor pool we go to is at the gym but I think I'll get enough of a workout chasing them around the pool, I may not need to go into the gym anymore.