The Garden

Brett worked hard on the garden this year and he asked me to post some pictures of his hard work! Ha.  Brett planted 12 tomato plants, jalapenos, habeneros, cucumbers, zuchinni, and broccoli.  He have basil and green beans in a pot.  We also picked up a blueberry bush to plant.  I'm excited to see how well everything does this year!

What She's Up To: Riley

• Gymnastics.  She loves gymnastics, but we're going to take the summer off to explore some other activities.  Last Saturday she was lucky enough to be the only one in class and loved the extra trampoline (her favorite activity) time.

• Playing with water.  She loves filling up everybody's water cups, moving water from one cup to the other, giving Sam his water, playing in the water table, watering the plants, feeding us grass soup.

• Bossing Loving her sister.  She loves giving Harper food, getting in her crib, giving and taking her toys away, and "watching" her. She is proud to share when she doesn't something new.

• Tying ropes/strings into knots and onto anything.  She's tied the fireplace doors together, the hooks on the fire place, strings to toys, strings to tables, tied herself up.  It could actually occupy her time for a good hour.  I foresee a Girl Scout on our hands.  She mostly uses shoe strings and jump ropes.
• Practicing her casting and reeling with her Barbie fishing poll.  She's so excited to go fishing at Great Grandpa Melvin's farm!
• Spinning around and around and around!
• Scooby Doo, Strawberry Shortcake, Tom and Jerry, Lion King.
• Making up songs.  I have to say, she's pretty good at this.
• Writing, especially with pens.

Harper Grace: 11 Months

Harper is 11 months old today.  Hard to believe in just one month she'll be a ONE year old. She has grown through this first year so fast!  Here's what she's up to:

• Just last night her bottom two front teeth broke skin!  I can't believe she is 11 months old and just getting her first two teeth.  Her top teeth teeth are very close to coming through as well.
• She has been waking up early morning for a bottle, until last night.  I'm hoping that the teething is taking a break and she will continue to sleep for us!
• She claps for more.  She will clap as soon as she wants more food.
• She's a great eater.  We've found with the second child that we are way more lenient with what she eats.  She loves just about everything we've given her.  We've started giving her whatever we make for dinner and she seems happy with it.  She still likes the puffs and baby food pouches.
• She's started drinking from a sippy cup.  We've stuck to water so far.  I'm planning to now introduce it more in place of her bottles.
• She's still drinking the high calorie formula.  We are very much looking forward to the transition to whole milk in our house! 
• She goes from sitting to standing without holding anything.  She loves to stand, but usually falls down after a minute. 
• She has taken one complete step on her own before losing her balance.  We thought for sure she'd be running around our house by now, but we're ok with her taking her time.
• She's wearing size 9 month and 12 month clothes.
• Her hair continues to grow and curls a little around her ears now.  It's slow to grow on top.
• She has the same cute smile as her sister.
• She loves her mama! 
• She says "mama" and "dada."  Sometimes she says something that sounds like Riley.
• She loves to cuddle anything and anybody.  She will crawl to the cat and put her head down on his tummy.
• She pushes the tummy of every toy that she owns hoping to make it play music like her glow worm.
• She lets us know when she's ready for bed between 7-7:30. She wants a bottle and to be put down in her crib.  She will not fall asleep in your arms no matter how hard you try.
• She pulls her hair and scratches the back of her neck when she's drinking her bottle.
• She points at everything.
• She loves music and continues to dance to everything.
• She loves to be outside and will yell until someone takes her outside.
• As soon as she sees the basement door open or hears the bounce house turn on she whines and tries to get downstairs.
• She loves her big sister.
• She loves splashing in the tub.  She has no fear and tries to pull herself over the edge of the tub as soon as we get into the bathroom.
• She has dry skin like her sister.
• She is perfect!!

Easter 2012

Checking out her goodies. 

Playing with some eggs! 

And a new theether. 

Cousins! 

Such pretty girls. 

Easter Egg hunt... 

April Fools Day 2012

We had beautiful upper 80 degree weather this year on April Fools day.  It was short lived as we're now back in the 60's.  But, we sure enjoyed all of the beautiful day outside!

 Sisters! 

 Finding snacks after breakfast.

 Harper and her tongue.  Come in already teeth!

 Harper's serious face.

 First hopscotch of the year!!

Harper's first Hop Scotch experience.  She liked hopping through the water with Mommy better!

Silly Girl

 "Riley, Smile for the camera!"

 "Riley, make a silly face!"

Love this pose!

  Riley's "kite" she made at school!

Crazy hair!!

Harper Grace: 10 Months

Miss Harper Gracie (as I like to call her) is 10 months old.  Hard to believe only two more months until she is 1 year old!  As fast as our winter was it seems like it was just yesterday that she was born. Here's what Harper's been up to:

• She most recently weighed in at 16 lb 12 oz and measured 27 inches long. She is 1 pound lighter and 1/2 inch taller than Riley was at this age.  I can definitely tell in some of the clothes that have been handed down to her.  They are a bit stretched out. :)  She is wearing some of her 6 month clothes, but mostly 9 month clothes. She's still in her size 3 diapers.
• Harper is still on the high calorie formula.  It seems to help her gain weight more consistently, so that's good.  She is eating on average 5-6 4 oz bottles each day.  She still wakes up at least once wanting to eat.  We've found that she will sleep better if she has a snack before bed.  We usually stick to oatmeal.
• She still has 0 teeth.  She has the top 2 and bottom 4 that are trying to push their way through. I will be very happy when they finally make their way through!
• She likes just about every food we've offered her.  Since she doesn't have teeth we aren't as liberal with what we give her.  Favorites include: blueberries, rice snacks, happy baby veggie puff snacks, cheese, graham crackers, kiwi, frozen mango in the mesh feeder, white potatoes, chicken, broccoli, cauliflower.  Like I said, she likes most foods.  We still give her the baby food that comes in the squeeze pouches.  She loves to suck them down strait out of the pouch.  Makes feeding her easy!
• She is clapping at everything.  She's working on learning how to high five.
• She is LOUD!  She is constantly making noise.  She says "hi" to anyone that enters the room, along with a wave.  She will say "mumumum" when she's hurt or crying.  She also says "dadada"  She will yell to get attention or cry (hard!) anytime that she is frustrated. She will find Riley in any room when you ask her "where's Riley?"
• Nicknames: Harp, Harper Grace, Harper Gracie, Sister.
• She is standing unassisted.  Longest is about 20 seconds, until she realizes she's not holding something.  She'll then slowly lower herself to the floor.
• She wants to be standing in front of the back door looking out of the window.
• Everything goes into her mouth.
• She loves going on walks.  They are one of the only things that will keep her awake past 6:30.
• She loves bath time.  She crawls all over the bathtub and tries to stand up 50 times.
• She loves to sing along to things and be sung to.  She's got rhythm.  She will begin to wiggle to any tune.  The funniest is when you see her wiggle and then realize that some commercial jingle has come on.  Super cute!
• When she's ready for bed, she's ready NOW!  She will lay right down and usually fall asleep.  She may stand up and cry for a minute, but she'll soon be asleep.
• Her hair continues to grow in.  It's not much longer, but it's getting fuller.
• Her eyes continue to turn bluer.  They look like they're going to be a lot like Riley's.
• She loves when Riley gets in her crib with her in the mornings.
• She loves to chase Riley in her walker. 
• She loves to play with puzzle pieces or memory cards and throw them directly over her head and down the back of her shirt. 
• She loves to crawl through everybody's legs.
• She is perfect!

Scrounging for leftover snacks :)