Life and Times of the Murphy Five

Friday, October 7, 2011

Harper had her 4 month check-up yesterday. She weighed in at 12 lbs 5 oz (about 20th %) and measured 23 3/4 inches (about 20th %). I can never remember her head and chest circumference. Overall, Dr. Fred said that she looked great. She was smiling and laughing it up for him. Poor little buggie had to get 4 shots and one oral immunization. Thankfully she was back to smiling and playing before we left.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

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.

Monday, September 26, 2011

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!