Harper is 11 months old!

IMG_3911.JPG, originally uploaded by Sweetypants.

Our girl is getting big! We've been asked more than once if she and Spenser are twins. She has cut three teeth on top (all in one week) and is working on the fourth. She loves to play pat-a-cake and peekaboo. She immediately starts dancing when she hears music. No real words yet, but she has lots of babbling. She can stand independently for up to 30 seconds at a time and is able to squat down to pick something up and stand back up without a problem. She's been swimming and seems to be a natural. She automatically rolls onto her tummy and starts kicking her feet.. She is very determined and, dare I say it, stubborn. She is absolutely delighted by the cat and endlessly fascinated by the computer.

Harper is 10 months old!

IMG_3892.JPG, originally uploaded by Sweetypants.

Only a bit delayed in getting this published. Turns out two kids are twice the fun and more than twice the work. Harper has cut an upper tooth. It's not a central incisor, so she's looking a bit snaggle toothed. However, she is working on cutting both front teeth at the same time!. She is quite speedy with the crawling and will go up the stairs in a dash if you are not keeping a close eye on her. The girl's appetite is HUGE. For dinner, she will start with a bowl of mandarin oranges, followed by green beans and then pasta stars with sauce chased down with some graham crackers or animal crackers. After a bit of a wipe down, she will then be trying to pick food off of our plates. Guess she needs lots of energy to keep up with her brother. The walking should come any day now....watch out, Spenser!

Harper is enjoying her ride in the backpack while I get some yardwork done.

Tired boys

Just wanted to add this photo of my two tired boys.  Eating chocolate and looking for Easter eggs can wear a guy out.

9 months old!

Harper turned 9 months old recently  She weighed in at 20 lb 4 oz and is 28 inches long.  She has two teeth on the bottom.  She not only pulls to standing, but is cruising like a champ.  Any day now, she will have her balance settled and start walking.  She is a very determined girl when she wants something.  If we leave something on the coffee table that she wants, she will work her way around the entire table until she gets to the spot where she can reach it.  If you relocate her to a different room, as soon as she is put down she is off and crawling back to where you took her from.  She still sleeps through the night, with a once in a long while wake up for a bottle of milk in the middle of the night.  She has been getting harder to put down for the night though.  There is usually a 30 minute period of wiggling, singing and bouncing around before she decides to sleep.  Overall, she remains our happy, calm baby.  (Dress provided by Grandma Gail!)

Spenser Update

I realized that Spenser has been getting short shrift on the blog lately. Our baby boy is rapidly turning into a big boy. Our little chubby boy is growing long and lean. His vocabulary has expanded exponentially and he is always surprising us with things that we did not know. He recently became obsessed with tunnels and everything is a tunnel, including the highway overpass.
He loves to make silly faces just to make his laugh. This is his monster face with requisite monster voice.
Jumping on the bed is fun!
Saying cheese for the camera. This is a new and recent skill that he has picked up.
Worn out from playing hard. He rarely just falls asleep where he is at. He actively fights sleeping at naptime and bedtime.
Just a lovely smile. He's very sweet and generally a good little boy.
Stuffing his mouth with apples.
He eats the slices like little pieces of watermelon....eating the fruit and leaving the skin behind.
He has very expressive eyes and is always making funny faces to get a laugh.
Putting his shoes on all by himself.

Harper's 8th month Birthday

Harper is 8 months old! She continues to be a very calm, relaxed, laid back baby. She's very happy unless she wants to eat or sleep, then watch out. She recently showed a bit of a temper when I took away my car keys that she had been happily chewing on. She was angry and incensed that I dare take away such a cool plaything.


She loves playing with her big brother. He's generally gentle and nice to her. He gives her hugs and kisses and likes to "dance" with her. He pronounces her name "Hopper", which my Long Island-native neighbor thinks is hilarious. He gets a bit possessive and jealous when she starts to play with "his" toys that he hasn't looked at in weeks.

She crawls around like crazy and it's hard to keep up with her. She's pulling up to standing and she's started crawling up the stairs. Baby gates have been reactivated.


Nosy baby. This is a cat hole in the basement door so the cats can get down to the litter box. We are currently having cork flooring put into a spare room down there so we can turn it into a playroom for the kiddos. She's checking out what all the noise is about.

Baby Girl update

It's been really busy the past couple of weeks. I've put up a few photos on our flickr account and will try to add more here soon, as I get a few days off this weekend. Harper has been crawling pretty efficiently for the past 10 days or so. She is now consistently pulling up to standing when she can find something to hang onto. She has also started climbing the stairs in the past four days. I haven't had a chance to witness it myself as I've been working, but C has sent me photographic and video evidence. She looks sooo pleased with herself!

Blue eyes the color of the sky.

 

His lucky Irish shirt.

Bathtime!

His funny face.

Bathtime!

He makes her laugh.

Bathtime!

 

News Flash!

Harper pulled up to standing while in the crib on Friday! She's still working on figuring out how to crawl. She does some great yoga positions: plank, downward dog, even rocking on all fours, but she just can't quite figure out how to go forward. She is very good at slithering around backwards on all the hardwood floor. C pulled out the upstairs baby gate and has it standing by for when she goes fully mobile.

7 months old!

Harper has turned 7 months old! Baby girl has two bottom teeth. She is eating crackers, cheerios, cheese and very soft veggies without a problem. She loves yogurt. She badly wants to crawl, but can't quite get the mechanics down. On carpet, she is able to get on all fours and rock. We have hardwood throughout the house so she usually squirms and slides backwards. She is surprisingly mobile this way. She continues to sleep through the night and is easy to get to bed....bottle, thumb, lights out. She is very good natured and only cries when she is hungry or tired. She loves to laugh at Spenser, who really hams it up to keep her giggling. She is endlessly fascinated by the cat, who does not appreciate the hunks of fur that Harper likes to pull out.

Her first time in the baby swing at the park. She loved it....kept giggling and kicking her feet. I tucked my scarf behind her so she was more stable.
Slightly fuzzy photo taken while she was riding in the mei tai carrier. I tucked my scarf around her because it was getting chilly in the shade during our little hike.

Spenser making funny faces in the back seat.

After we were done swinging and sliding at the park, we followed one of the trails down a really really steep hill and found a little creek. Spenser could have thrown rocks into it all day long.

You spin me round like a record, baby!

Grandpa No-No and Spenser on our recent visit to Oklahoma.

Happy 6 months Birthday!

Our gorgeous girl turned 6 months old on January 11th. We were in the midst of her first big trip to Oklahoma when she had her happy day. She seems to grow and change so much every day. At her doctor's visit, she now weighs 18 lbs and 8 oz. She is 26 3/4" long and her head is 17" around.

Right after we got home from Oklahoma, we noticed that the outline of a teeny baby tooth can be seen in her bottom gum line. A few days after that, we could start to feel the razor sharp edge of it, though it isn't poking through enough to be seen as a pearly white yet. We have since noticed a second tooth outline can be seen right next to it.

She sits up on her own. She loves to play with her feet. She will mimic sounds and is starting to "talk". She can easily roll from her back to her stomach and back again. She can get to her stomach from sitting. She is also an excellent copycat...clapping her hands or "dancing" when you do it first.
She loves Spenser and he's figured out that he can make her laugh. It's hilarious to watch him ham it up just to make Harper laugh.

Trip to Oklahoma

Here they are in no particular order, due to clamorous complaints about a lack of photos. I may put them in order and add commentary at some point.