Riley Update

Riley seems to be growing up so fast.  She seems to have really blossomed over the past four months and just seems so much older these days.  Brett attended her preschool conference (while she and I were home with a stomach bug. Yuck!).  She is doing wonderfully at school.  We couldn't be prouder.  All of our concerns at the beginning of the year seem to have washed away.  We were mostly concerned with her social skills.  At home she is loud, boisterous, and funny.  But when you get her around other people she seems to hide and shy away.  We found out the at school she is not shy at all. She plays with all of the kids.  She is a great student who listens, follows directions, raises her hand, follows the conversations, answer questions appropriately, and is overall just good. She great with rhyming, letter recognition, patterns, comprehension, writing, etc.  She still needs to work quite a bit on her number skills.  Overall, we were very happy with what we heard from her teachers. 

Harper Grace: 1 1/2 Years Old

Harper is 18 months old today.  Seems hard to believe that she's half way through this second year.  I lot has taken place over the past 6 months and she is showing us that she has quite the personality and temper!  Here's what she's up to:

• She finally had some more teeth pop through.  She has two bottom molars that have come through and two more top front teeth that have come through the skin. 
• She is officially egg free.  We've noticed that it is much easier to avoid egg than we thought.  Many things are egg free, but we're still learning what to look out for.  Seems that we really need to focus on baked goods, custards, and breakfast foods.  We went to our first buffet since the diagnosis and realized that we probably won't be doing many buffets again in the future.  Almost all breakfast foods or buffet items have some amount of egg in them.
• She's rocking a sweet mullet and hair is constantly in her face, but I refuse to cut it yet.  Soon enough she'll be in for her first hair cut.
• She is wearing 18 month clothes.  Size 4 shoes.  Size 4 diaper.
• We transitioned her to a toddler bed which has been interesting.  The last few nights she's been getting up and making her way out of her room or just crying. Like her sister, she's figured out that Daddy is the softy in the middle of the night.  Several nights in a row he found himself in her room holding her (sometimes up to 1 1/2 hours) as she slept.  Unfortunately, this has caused a couple rough nights as I've been refusing to get her out of her bed.  This is where her temper comes in.  She screams, clenches her whole body and sometimes bites down on the railing of her bed. But after night two we've made some progress and the screaming fit was much shorter!  I'm hoping we pass this stage before baby boy arrives!
• She loves to be naked.  She hates getting her diaper changed and will fight for a good minute before you can get her to lay still.  Once she has her new diaper on she's up and off to the races.
• She is talking a ton.  We've heard her say "nana, apple, kitty, up, please, help, eyelee, Mom!, Dad!, gama, cheese, wa-wa, poop, ilk..."  She calls most animals by their sounds.  She knows how to let you know what she wants and she's persistent.  We will overhear her singing sometimes and it's usually to the tune of the ABCs.  She's able to get the first few letters and then all letters that sound like "eee"
• She continues to suck her fingers.
• She continues to climb on everything.
• She loves to hug and kiss.  Lately she's been hugging everyone tight around the neck and then giving 5 or so sloppy kisses. She loves to lay on Riley.
• She loves to wrestle.
• She's been using her spoon and fork and really getting quite good at it.
• She seems to use both hands.  I'm hoping that she's right handed so that will distract her from the finger sucking!
• She loves to get out every board game we have and through the pieces everywhere.  She usually finds Candyland first and throws all of the cards on Daddy's lap.

Changes

There are a lot of changes taking place at the Murphy house:

• We've finally painted over the pink in Harper's room.  It is now cream and brown.  We have yet to add any "boy" touches other than some blue curtains that we already had. 
• Harper's crib has been turned into a toddler bed.  We took one side off and put a little side guard on it.  She has sheets, a comforter, and a pillow...all of which she wants nothing to do with.  We've had two nights in the "big girl bed."  She did pretty well the first night after about 5 trips back into her bed and Daddy sitting in her chair to make sure she didn't get out again. Then last night she spent the majority of the night in a pack in play in our room after a coughing fit that led to throw up and a promptu 1am bath.  We're hoping tonight is better than the last.
• Riley's room has two beds (bunk beds that we've separated).  She's excited for Harper to join her in her room. We've changed Riley's bedtime routine.  We are no longer reading two books, chatting in bed, and laying with her for a few minutes.  We gave her a "one week notice" that we were going to stop the long routine because baby brother would make it difficult to continue.  She took it like a champ and has done great.  Now if we can just get her to quit waking Daddy up two times a night to tuck her back into bed after a bathroom break we'll be great.
• Our deep freezer is up and running in the garage.  We're prepared to have lots of frozen breast milk and meat. :)
• Harper's closet is slowly filling up with tubs of hand-me-downs from Riley and baby boy clothes.
• We are fastly approaching my last day of work.  I'm down to three weeks with a little two day Thanksgiving day break in there. I'd be lying if I said that I was super sad to be leaving my job.  I'm very excited to be home with the kids, but also very nervous to be in charge 24/7.  Pray that baby boy fits into our crazy schedule as easily as we hope!
• The double stroller is bought and in the garage ready to go still in the box.
• My little Chevy Cobalt has been replaced by a sweet mom-mobile, Dodge Caravan.  I swore I'd never be that mom to drive a van and here I am.  I have to say that I LOVE it, though.  Lots of space and every option I could dream of.  I think I love the power doors the most and the girls love the DVD player the most.  It's a bad sign when Harper points at the screen and whines the minute she sits in her seat. 
• We've been cleaning the house like crazy.  I even bought a new vacuum which I'm in love with.  It hasn't made it's way into the closet yet.  I never thought I'de enjoy vacuuming, but when it keeps pulling up hair and dirt I just can't quit using it!
• We've been selling the girls' baby clothes, old crib bedding, and a few other random things on Craigslist. Making a little room for some boy in our house!
• Lastly, we've decided on our little boy's name.  But, we've decided to keep it to ourselves this time around.  For now, we keep letting Riley spread the news that we're naming him Ian. Although she may call her brother by the wrong name for awhile she puts on a good cover for us. :)

Harper And The Allergist

Harper had her appointment with the allergist on Tuesday.  We were pretty certain that she had an allergy to egg.  Three times we've seen her break out in hives and skin rashes when eating, or just touching, eggs.  We have given her other things like pancakes and waffles that have eggs and she seems to do fine.  So we headed to the allergist to confirm our suspicions.  The allergist was pretty certain that we were describing an egg allergy and decided to check with a blood test.  Poor thing had to have her blood drawn from her arm.  She was a trooper and the nurse was great to get it over with quickly.  I called the allergist today to get the results and it looks like we'll be avoiding all egg and egg products for awhile. On a scale of 0-5 she had a 2.66 reaction.  Which means that there is clearly an allergy, but thankfully it is not severe.  She doesn't require an epi pen, but we do have to really start watching what we give her now.  Thankfully an egg allergy is one that most kids grow out of by the time they're 5.  We will have to take her back in 9-12 months to be re-tested.  I think I'll be making some more trips to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods in search of some egg free stuff.  I'm just happy to have some answers and to not be paranoid about everything that I feed her.

Super Harper!

Too cute for words!

Halloween 2012

2012 was the year of a cute little piggie and minnie mouse!  Riley chose her costume completely on her own back in September.  When we started talking about what she wanted to be for Halloween she immediately said that she wanted to be a pig.  So, piggie she was.  We found the cutest ears, snout and tail.  Then added them to a pink sweatsuit and stocking cap. She sure was cute.  When I dug out all of the Halloween decorations and costumes I found Riley's old Minnie Mouse costume and it fit Harper perfectly. She looked so cute and loved playing dress up and stomping around in her little black shoes.  She would leave her little ears on for a couple minutes at a time and then pull them off.

We missed out on Night Eyes and all other kid friendly activities this year.  We had planned to go to Living History Farms for their fun activities but Riley came down with the stomach flu that weekend.  We were able to come to my work for an hour so the girls could "trick or treat" through the office.  But that too was cut short when Riley (who already had pink eye) started saying that she didn't feel well and needed water.  Whenever she says she needs water we know her tummy hurts.  Trick or treating night was also cut short because Riley just wasn't feeling back to normal yet.  We did get the girls dressed up and went up and down our street (which really was plenty for our girls).  Riley told her joke which she modified (completely on her own) from her joke from last year:  Knock, knock.  Who's there?  Boo.  Boo who?  Don't Cry it's just a piggie!  Grandma Kathy stopped over to see the girls all dressed up and we waited until the following night to dress up and go show Grandma and Grandpa Burch the girls' costumes.

Riley had fun at her school fall party.  All of the kids got to wear their costumes and they had fun parading through the building showing them off.  They then sang a few songs for the parents and had some snacks before it was time to go home.  Riley said that all of the kids liked her costume and were laughing at her.

We learned that Harper LOVES candy.  Candy of any kind, but really loves chocolate.  She was begging for candy any time she would see a wrapper. Oh, and wrappers don't stop her from getting what she wants.  Every piece of candy that she received was chewed through the wrapper and half gone!  She trick or treated at a few houses. Each time she chose a piece of candy, put it in her pumpkin, then threw out every piece until she found the one she wanted. So cute.  Needless to say, all candy is now out of sight!

Poor Riley. Not feeling well at all!

Candy!

Yummy!

Trick or Treating.  Harper's excited about her candy!

Piggie on the move.  She was all business - moving from one house to the next.

Little Minnie

Happy Halloween

Harper Grace: 1 Year, 5 Months

Harper is 17 Months old, nearly 1 1/2.  She is such a character and I know that I'm going to have my hands full with her over the next 17 years.  Brett and I always talk about what we think our kids will be like as teenagers and adults.  We think she'll be the outgoing, carves her own path, independent one when she's older.  She's definitely the definition of "sugar and spice."  With Riley's reserved personality she may be the one to pave the way for her younger brother, rather than follow in her older sister's path.  Here's what she's been up to:

• She's talking like crazy.  She will put two words together now, but usually with some prompting.  She will repeat most words if you ask her to say something.  She is saying the animal noises to most animals.  Often times she calls animals by their sounds.
• New words: "ow," "yay!" "uh-oh," "Ri-Ri," "up," "please," "help."  She is always excited about something and we hear "yay!" over and over all day.
• She has a love for Elmo or "Elmie."  We never watch Elmo on TV, but she loves all books Elmo.  She will follow you around with an Elmo book pleading "Elmie" over and over.  All characters other than "Elmie" are now known as "Elma."
• She loves "ilk" and will steal anybody's cup in sight.  She never wants her own cup, but always wants her sister's.
• She still loves her babies. She will carry them around the neck and hold them up by her face.
• She continues to suck her two middle fingers on her right hand.  She is constantly a slobber face and develops a new little sore on her cheek every few months.  I pray that they don't scar!
• She finally had one molar break through the skin.  She is now up to 5 teeth. 
• She is constantly climbing. She is always wanting up on a chair, table, toy.  She will whine until someone helps her (usually her sister).
• She will fight over toys that she wants.
• She still loves shoes.  She will stomp around the house in any new shoes that she puts on.
• she loves to sing.  We usually can pick up parts of the ABCs and twinkle twinkle little star.
• We just had her at the doctor, but I can't remember her stats.  I believe she was somewhere around 20 pounds. 
• Any time she falls down or the cat bats at her she will grab her arm, frown, and run over to us saying "ow, ow."
• She is wearing mostly size 18 month clothes.  All of her 12 month jeans and pants are too small now.  She can still fit into some of her 12month onsies.
• She loves to cuddle and will sometimes sit on your lap and hang out through entire tv show.
• She has been going to bed around 7:30 pm and waking up at 5:30 every morning.  We are working on changing her sleeping habits because 5:30 seems to come awfully early!

Howell's Pumpkin Patch 2012

We took the girls out to Howell's Pumpkin Patch again this year.  We picked an extremely windy day to go so we skipped the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and corn maze.  Thankfully the girls are young enough to not know what they were missing out on. Here are a few pictures:

Daddy enjoying the activities.

Harper spent much of the afternoon snuggled up in the stroller.

Contemplating the jump!

Not so sure about the jump

Slide!

Washing our pumpkins after our great search for Spookly.

Happy Halloween!

Riley's First Swim Lessons

Riley started swim lessons at the Waukee YMCA this past weekend.  She is in the beginner level, Eel.  We worried a bit that she would get there and refuse to go in the water since the class is not parent/child, but she did wonderful!  They have a great set up at the YMCA.  The pool there is zero entry and has a slide for the end of lessons.  They split the kids up into small groups of 4-5 to one instructor and have 4-5 groups in the pool at once.  Riley started in a group of all boys and within 5 minutes they switched her into a group of girls with a girl instructor.  She loved floating on her back, but refused to go under water completely.  When she was all done she asked if she could come back tomorrow for another lesson.  Hopefully, she'll love them all winter long!

Preschool Update

We are well into the preschool year and I thought I'd give a quick update on how Riley is doing in the classroom.  We had a very rough start with crying and screaming fits the first four days of school.  Day one Riley made me stay an hour into the day before I literally snuck out of the room.  The next few days there was crying and even some screaming at the top of her lungs as we left.  We heard, "but I love you" and "but I miss you" each day.  According to the teachers, she eventually calmed down and had a great day. Every afternoon she would be very happy to fill us in on the fun she had.  Finally, we were all stressed to the max that we set a reward:  No crying, whining, or clinging at drop off on Thursday and Daddy would take her to "Old McDonald's" to get lunch.  Thankfully, it worked.  The following week we set the reward: All week with no whining, crying, or clinging and Daddy would take her to Old McDonald's again.  It worked like a charm.  Week three we didn't offer a reward and she didn't bring it up.  So, who says a little Old McDonald's can't solve your problems?

Since those first couple weeks Riley has been doing great.  She is excited for school, has made some friends, and is really starting to show an interest in reading.  She's always had a love for books, but now we hear her constantly reading the letters of words and making the beginning sounds.  She's recognizing her numbers more regularly and putting together sequences of numbers.  The one thing we really worried about was her lack of socialization with the other kids.  Every day we ask her who she played with and what she enjoyed.  Over the last couple weeks she will usually name one little girl, Ryenn, and then a couple others that she plays with. 

This year, the school has offered some add-on programs.  On Tuesdays, Riley attends music class for a half an hour after school.  On Wednesdays, she attends Spanish class for a half an hour after school. And on Thursdays, she attends Kid Power (a children's bible study program) for 45 minutes after school.  She loves all of the programs and looks forward to them each week. 

We've had little homework so far.  She's had to decorate a picture frame and put a picture of her family in it.  She's also had to bring an item from home every Thursday that starts with the letter of the week.  Our first big homework project came this week.  Riley is the Star of The Week.  We had to find pictures, her favorite book, her favorite toy, bring snack one day, and Mommy and Daddy had to write a letter to the class about Riley.  What fun!

Riley's Fourth Birthday Party

I'm playing a bit of catch up on a few important events these past couple of months.  First, Riley's 4th Birthday party.  We decided to keep her party to just family again this year.  But, we changed up the location and let her have her party at the local hotel with an indoor water park.  We rented a poolside room and bought the birthday package to celebrate.  Riley thought it was the neatest thing and loved having her cousins run around the water park with her.  I have to say that it was really a lot of fun.  All of the girls loved the slides and water, and the adults loved the pool side bar!  The big girls even swam until 10pm!  Overall, it was a great time and something that Riley will remember for a long time.

State Fair 2012

We took the girls to the Iowa State Fair (back in August) again this year.  We decided to make it a day and the girls had a blast.  We were out there from 9am-3pm and I think we all saw and ate everything that we wanted. Riley loved seeing the baby animals (even though they were so stinky!), Little Hands on The Farm, seeing the Hall of Law and the fire truck, the rides, and watching the kids bands.  Harper loved running anywhere she could, eating her Fair Square, and seeing all of the animals.  By the end of the day we were all pooped and ready to take our shoes and socks off and take a nap!  Here are some pictures of the fun:

I Phone Photos

Here's some of my favorites from the last couple weeks...

Sisters Sharing

Sisters Not Sharing

One of Harper's Favorite Spots

Joined by Big Sister saying "cheeseburger!"

Riley's Preparation for Baby Brother....Breast Pads Taped To Her Closet Door :) It's Still there, FYI.

Sisters Take 1

Sisters Take 2

Sisters Take 3...Harper on the Run!