Harper Grace: 4 Months Old

I love this age.  Harper is starting to find her personality and is becoming so responsive.  She is so much fun.  We love watching her grow up with her big sister!

• Harper is now wearing 3-6 month and 6 month clothing.  She can squeeze into some of her 3 month clothes, but they are a tad short.  We've retired all of her 0-3 month clothes into the garage sale tub.
• Her hair continues to grow on top and in the back, but has been rubbed off on the sides.  She has the best hair right now.  She has a pretty sweet poofy comb-over.  I could put it in a cute little Bam-Bam pony on top, but I've become a little obsessed with making her cute headbands.  It has also lightened up some, but is still brown.
• Her eyelashes continue to grow and are light brown.  They are super long at the edge of her eye. 
• She has blond eyebrows.
• Her eyes are blue.  I think they will be darker blue than Riley's, but they are definitely blue.
• She loves to suck on her hands.  Usually she will get her thumb, but sometimes she'll get 2-3 fingers.  We are constantly giving her paci to her instead.  I'm afraid to have to break her of thumb sucking.
• She is drinking 4 1/2 ounce bottles of pumped milk about every 3 hours during the day. 
• She likes to go to bed around 6:30, but we keep her awake until 7-7:30.  If we keep her up she'll sleep until 4-5am.  She is still able to soothe herself to sleep which is awesome.
• We haven't figured out a good nap schedule for her yet, but she seems to take a couple longer naps during the day.
• She LOVES her big sister.  I was recording Riley singing some songs over the weekend and throughout the whole thing you can hear Harper squealing to the songs.
• She is a great sitter (with support).  She loves to be sitting up and knowing what's going on around her.  She loves her bumbo, her Boppy Bouncer, and to be held.  If she feels like she's not getting enough attention or you've left the room she will whine until you come and pick her up.
• She still likes to be held in the sleepy wrap.
• She loves to stand up.  Her legs are starting to get stronger.  She will stick them straight out anytime she is upright.
• She is ticklish and has the cutest laugh.  She will laugh and laugh.
• She still loves her baths.
• She is starting to enjoy toys.  Her favorite is a butterfly teether.  She's getting really good with using her hands.  She also like to grab rings and put them in her mouth.

Soccer Star...Maybe Cheerleader

Riley started soccer a couple weeks ago.  Lets just say that it hasn't been the fun and exciting time that I hoped it would be.  Riley is participating in the i9 Soccer League for 3 and 4 year olds on Saturday mornings.  She has a 25 minute practice and then they play a 25-30 minute game.  The first morning was cold and rainy.  Riley cried the minute we started getting dressed.  She hates wearing the shin guards and socks - they hurt her knees.  They don't make cleats in a size 7t so I had her wear some old tennis shoes which apparently hurt her feet.  Needless to say, she cried through the entire practice and game.  She clung to either me or Brett as we wiped her face clean from the snot dripping out of her nose. We left pretty discouraged.  Riley insisted that she wouldn't go back. 

Throughout the week we continued to talk about soccer and once again she was excited to go play.  I decided to go ahead and buy her a pair of Adidas indoor shoes.  If she decided not to play she could still wear them to play in.  Saturday morning we started to get dressed and the crying began.  She bawled as we got her dressed, did her hair, put her shin guards on, took her shin guards off, and put them back on without socks.  I told her that we had to go and she had to at least cheer her team on since it was our game to bring the drinks.  She agreed and finally quit crying when we pulled into Hy-Vee. 

I have to say that game #2 was a success compared to Game #1.  Riley insisted on carrying her recorder (you know those things we all played in elementary school music class) with her through the entire practice, BUT, she participated.  She listened to the coach, followed the drills, and by the end of the game even talked to her teammates.  A huge improvement!  She even made it on to the field during the game.  She stood by the coach, chased after the ball, spotted her daddy on the sidelines, stood with him for a minute, went back onto the field where she pretended to fall down, look at the other parents, and then run to the sideline where I was.  She spent the rest of the game playing her recorder and yelling "Go Little Strikers."  We may have a cheerleader on our hands here.

Preschool Update

As I dropped Riley off today I talked to her teacher to see how she was doing.  She said that Riley is just now starting to talk while at school.  She is very "timid" and is the "baby of the class."  I let her know that I know Riley is listening because she tells us every night everything that they do at school.  She said that she has to really watch her body language to see how she's feeling each day.  I hope that in the next week or two Riley really comes out of her shell because she truly is an animated little thing! 

What Do You Think: Part 2

If you didn't think these girls looked alike before, check this out...

Riley - 6 months            Harper - 3 1/2 months

Portraits: Harper 3 1/2 Months, Riley 3 Years

 

 

What Do You Think?

Do these girls look alike??



Harper Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of Harper.  We have an appointment to get some portraits done of both of the girls this weekend.  Until then, enjoy these.  Both girls are growing so fast!

 Riley LOVES her baby and likes to hold her for about one minute before saying "I all done!"

 The girls playing.  Riley will sit next to her sister and talk to her all day. 

 So happy!

 "Mommy, you're getting that light in her eye!" - Riley, already looking out for her little sister. 

So sweet!

Riley's 3rd Birthday Party

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of Riley's birthday party.  Riley chose to have a princess party...actually, she asked for a Beast party.  We told her that she could have a Beauty and the Beast/Disney Princess party and she agreed.  Here are a few pictures from the day.

The Birthday Girl in her new dress-up clothes!

Riley's cake with "Belle, Cinderella, and the Beast (in pink)"  Sleeping Beauty is always the beast no matter how many times you correct her.

So excited for her new "Prince and the Frog movie."

Riley's Preschool Highlights

Riley was bouncing off the walls last night from all the excitement of her first day of preschool.  I couldn't help myself from asking her twenty questions about her day.  Here are some highlights:

• She didn't cry one time, but was a little scared.
• They have a fish.  He's little and doesn't have a name.  He swims in the tank.
• They have two crabs.  Red Car and Blue Car. ???
• She learned how to do the crab walk and then "hide in your shell."
• They did circle time.  Yesterday was Wednesday.
• She learned a new song.  "two little monkeys were sitting in a tree..." Something about an alligator couldn't get them.
• She played outside.  There wasn't a "jumpin thing" (trampoline).  She played princess(ese) and alligators with a little girl with blond hair and two boys.  The teacher thought of the game.  The boys were the alligators and trying to get the girls.  The girls rode off in "the wheel thing."
• She loves her teacher "Miss MAgen" (Miss Megan).  Miss Megan helped her go potty when it was hand washing time and sat by her at snack time.
• She had cheese crackers and juice.  She couldn't share her snack.
• The classroom rules are: be nice and share.
• She has "one, two" teachers.  She only knows Miss Megan's name.
• I asked what toys she played with and she said she didn't know. "You just get a toy, play with it, and put it back."
• She was ready to go back today!

Riley's First Day of Preschool

Today was Riley's first day of preschool.  I almost didn't sign her up because she just turned three last month and I thought that maybe she wasn't ready.  The closer that we came to preschool starting and knowing that two of Riley's daycare friends would be going I started feeling like she would be missing out.  So literally the night of preschool open house I called to see if there was an opening.  Luckily, there was and now Riley is my preschooler. Leading up to today Riley has been super excited to go to school and to take her backpack with her.  I was a little worried considering she cried and clung to Brett the majority of the time at the open house.  While all of the parents attended the meeting the kids (and Brett) played in the gym.  This morning there were only a few tears as Brett left and a couple minutes of her clinging to my shirt.  After a few minutes she was playing with the kitchen, checking out the fish, and playing with her little buddy Carter.  I talked to her after preschool and she said that she just played all morning and agreed that she'd like to go back next week!  A success!

 Outside the classroom

 Riley and Carter

 Next to her cubby

 Checking out the fish

 Playing with the kitchen

On my way out - looks like she's doing pretty good!

The House That Jack Built 2011

For Labor Day We made our second trip to The House That Jack Built at Lake Okoboji. We were lucky enough to have the entire Murphy family at the lake this year. Despite being a bit chilly (40 degree nights) we had a lot of fun and made some fun new memories. A few highlights:

• Riley caught a fish on her very own barbie "fishing pool" that she cast out herself. She was one proud little girl! She decided to throw it back into the water so it could go find it's mommy.
• Sending Uncle John to the store to get Harper a new paci. We left the house without extras and Harper spit the one we did have into the lake.
• Riley entertaining everyone by playing pirate soccer.
• Having Aunt Libby and Uncle David with us for one day.
• Rooting the Hawks onto victory at Tweeters.
• Roasting marshmallows over the fire on the beach.
• Making up songs with Grandma Kathy. [Riley has now started to make up her own songs all the time. The latest..."Everyone loves Ariel, Ariel, Ariel. Everyone loves Ariel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahhhh"]
• Playing with the "big kids."
• Watching movies in the car.
• Sleeping with both kids in two twin beds pushed together to keep everybody warm! Girls slept great, Mom and Dad not so much.
• Riley eating her "vanilla" (powder sugar) donuts on the porch.

We can't wait for the 4th of July when we get to go back! Here are a few pictures.

Riley fishing in her pajamas off the dock.

The House That Jack Built

Riley's fish!!!

Mommy and Harper on the swing.

Riley wishing she could swim!

Playing in the sand.