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!

Self Portraits

Riley got a hold of my camera and I found these cute pictures...

 I love how you can see her personality...and that she looks somewhat cross eyed trying to focus on herself in the phone.

Our Saturday Mornings

5:30 am - mommy gets up to go to the bathroom for the tenth time. House is silent. Pitch black.
6:00 am - Harper begins to stir.
6:10 am-  We start to hear "ilk. Ilk. Ilk." From Harper's room.
6:20 am - daddy gets Harper and Riley milk.
6:30 am - Daddy brings Harper into our bed. She thinks its play time. I'm waking up to baby kisses.
6:32 am - Riley comes in, grabs her milk, and steals Daddy's spot in bed. Daddy makes her go back to her bed.
6:35 am - The room turns bright. Riley stumbles into our bathroom and leaves the door wide open. Mommy - "is this really happening?" Daddy - "yep"
6:38 am- Daddy takes the girls downstairs and lets Mommy sleep in.
Sunday...repeat...Mommy takes the girls downstairs and lets Daddy sleep in.

Please tell me that someday my kids will like to sleep in till the sun comes up!

Fall 2012

It's that time of year for playing in the leaves!

 Riley's an old pro and Harper's catching on quick!  Love this time of year!