long day

I have more stuff about the rest of our Utah trip but I will post that later.  Earlier today I was fixing Harper some lunch when I heard Rocko (my parents' lhasa apso) growl and Harper start screaming.  He had bitten her on the face.

I am not a huge fan of dogs, but I really like Rocko.  He has always been pretty tolerant of Harper as she chased him around, but she must have done something today that pushed him over the edge.  Harper loves dogs and I hope this doesn't change that.  I just hope we can help her to be a little more gentle and give animals a little more space.  But Rocko better stay away from my little girl in the future!

Luckily my brother Chase was home and he was able to go with us to Primary Children's hospital to get Harper stitched up.

I was pretty surprised at how well Harper handled the situation.  She screamed a lot at first, but she calmed down by the time we got to the emergency room and was very brave as she got an IV to be sedated for her stitches (she had to have an IV since she is allergic to eggs which are in the sedative they normally use).  They actually had a woman come in and talk to Harper about IVs and put a little IV in a doll's arm.  I think it really helped.  Harper got to keep the doll and colored on it with markers while we waited.

Harper chose the bumblebee bandage to hold on her IV.

I was really impressed with the doctors and nurses at the hospital and a really wonderful plastic surgeon stitched up Harper's face.  She had to have stitches on her nose, along a cut on her upper lip, and also in a puncture wound on her lip.  The plastic surgeon said that while it is never ideal to have cuts on your face, the location of her cuts were very good for healing with minimal scarring.  

It was so hard to see Harper out of it.  After she got her  stitches we could see the wounds a little better.  

I am so grateful that Chase was able to come with us.  He was so helpful with the kids for the 5+ hours that we spent taking care of this.

Luckily we had a late flight.  We made it back to LA even though just about everyone we saw asked what happened.  

friday

The highlight of today was definitely the BYU basketball game.  Wow.

In addition to that, Harper checked out the rapidly melting snow

Took a nap on the couch with Kelly

Jonah hung out with Chase

Harper helped Grandma make cookies

And the kids played with their cousins and we all went to dinner.

And while we were doing all of that Tom waited in this line

Sorry for all of the boring details of our day, but I know Tom misses the kids so I wanted to post some photos so he could know what we're up to.  

wednesday, thursday

As you can see, Harper had some fun with her cousins Hailey and Gavin yesterday.  They spent a long time just jumping off of the fireplace onto the floor together.  

Today Carly and I went down to Provo to check out BYU.  I am trying to persuade Carly that is where she should go to school.  We also made a stop by the candy counter at the bookstore.  Yum.

We drove by some of my old apartments and then walked around on campus.  This is Harper in front of the MARB which is where Tom and I met.

Afterward we went to Cafe Paesan, which is a restaurant in Orem that is kind of like Cafe Rio but with Italian food. Harper and Jonah were both very happy and giggly even though neither of them had any yummy pizza.

We are looking forward to spending the day with my Mom tomorrow since she has the day off. 

tuesday

We woke up this morning to this

So we spent the day in the house until some of it melted away.  Harper and I colored:

Jonah did a lot of crying.  He has had a lot of trouble sleeping in a new place and he is a little sleepy and sad.

After Carly got home from school, we went to my Dad's house to visit him and my grandparents.

Chase held Jonah while he finally got some sleep.  It has been so great to have some extra hands to help with the kids.

Utah

We are currently in Utah to visit family and see my little brother who just got home from his mission on Friday.  I was nervous about flying, and it was pretty much worse that I had anticipated.  The kids were okay until the stewardess brought around drinks.  Harper had a juice and I had a diet Coke.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Why would I get open drinks on an airplane with 2 kids?  Within about 10 seconds the juice was spilled all over Harper and the diet Coke was all over me.  I had a change of clothes for Harper, so after a few minutes of whining and screaming she had calmed down.  No change of clothes for me, so I got to spend the rest of the flight with Coke-soaked jeans.

Today we brought lunch to my Mom at school, but other than that we have just been taking it easy.

Kelly has really been taking it easy.

Carly and Kelly didn't have school today so we went to Target and the distribution center.

Chase has been catching up on all of the things that he has missed on the last two years.  He has already bought a new cell phone, laptop, and ipod and has been looking for a car.  Harper has really enjoyed seeing him play his guitar.

We have been having fun, but we miss Tom and I feel bad that he has an empty house for the next week :(

fun with hats

Harper loves hats.  Over the past few months we have been keeping a look out for some cheap, post-winter deals on hats and picked up a few for around $1 each.  If Harper is wearing one, she thinks Jonah needs to wear one too.

We are going to Utah in a couple of weeks and we are ready for the cold weather!

crazy girl

I took the kids to Costco this morning.  On the way there we saw several billboards for the movie Rango.  We have been telling her for the last few days that if she can keep her pull-up dry during her nap that Tom will take her to see Rango, so when we saw the billboards we talked about going to see the movie.  I guess poop must have been on her mind, because while we were shopping Harper made up a little song which she sang in a VERY loud voice.  It included lines such as, "Don't poop on clothes, don't poop on bed, don't poop on floor, don't poop on Baby Jonah," etc.  I hope my fellow shoppers thought this was as funny as I did.

quick Bakersfield trip / pinterest

On Wendesday we went up to Bakersfield for the afternoon.  Tom wasn't particularly swamped at work and we didn't know when that might happen again, so we left after lunch.  It was a quick trip but Tom got to help his Dad with some home repairs and help his Mom explore her new iphone.  Harper got to play with their dogs.

Harper and Tony

Tom + sheetrock

Recently someone told me about this website called Pinterest and now I am addicted.  Tom makes fun of me because I my internet bookmarks are a disaster and are completely unorganized.  Pages and pages of unorganized links that I will probably never look at again because I would never be able to find what I was looking for.

Pinterest is a way to organize and collect all of your favorite things.  It says on the homepage that it will, "catalogue the things you love."  You can make all kinds of folders like recipes, craft ideas, photos, etc.

Pinterest is just in beta so you can either request an invite or I can send you one.  Llet me know if you want one.

Also, here is a photo of Tom and Harper reading yesterday.  Tom has been really busy with work lately and Harper has sure missed him.

8 months / 34 months

Jonah on Valentine's day.  The sticker was Harper's idea.

Jonah is 8 months old today.  This morning we were at this little program at a mall and someone asked me how old he was, and I said 6 months.  No wait, he's 8 months!  What?  Jonah celebrated his 8 month mark by giggling uncontrollably while I was trying to feed him breakfast this morning.  I would spoon some baby food into his mouth and he would start laughing and the food just drooled right back out of his mouth.  It was hilarious.

A few new things about Jonah . . .

• He now says "dada" in addition to "mama."  
• He has no interest in crawling or being mobile in any way other than rolling.  He does not like to stand up and if you try to stand him up he will jump.
• He seems to have slowed WAY down as far as growth.  He still fits into the same clothes that I thought he was outgrowing 2 months ago.  

Watching basketball with Daddy.

• He does this funny squirmy thing when you pick him up which involves him rubbing his nose on your shoulder.  This has been unfortunate lately since he has had what Harper calls a "goober nose" for the last couple weeks.  
• Jonah loves to try to eat what is in your hand.  A couple of times I have been holding him while eating and I look down to see him eating the food that I am holding.  Keep your fingers crossed, we have seen no signs of food allergies.  

Harper holding Jonah on the couch.

Waiting for Daddy after work.

Harper will be 34 months next week.  

• She is now potty trained!  Well, pretty much.  She still wears a diaper during her naps and at night, but we haven't had any accidents for a while so I think she is pretty much there.  The funny thing is that she has such tiny little hips that most of the underwear I bought for her is too big. 
• Whenever she does something to help or cleans something up, she's says that she is doing it, "like a big girl."  I love it.  

• She loves to play dress up by putting on lots of hats and trying to wear her toys.  

Opening her Valentine from Grandma.

• She is trying to be done with naps, but I am trying to make her keep taking them.  She probably naps 2-3 days a week, but the other days she will still play in her room by herself for about 90 minutes.  This has led to a very messy bedroom.
• We are making progress with food.  Right now she has to eat 3 bites of whatever we are having for dinner before she can have anything else (usually fruit or a sandwich).  She even ate some split pea soup the other day. 

ie

These are things that Harper said today:

Mommy, want to watch a show-ie.

Harper wants some milk-ie.

Where's my shoes-ies?

Pretty much every word ends in -ie lately.  Last night Tom and I were wondering where she might have picked this up, when I realized that I should probably stop saying doggie, horsie, wipie, snugglie, etc.  That little girl listens to everything that you say.  Well, until you actually want her to listen.

temple grounds

We live about a 15 minute walk from the temple grounds.  Today I was thinking about walking over there with the kids and I was wondering why we don't do that more often.  When we got to the temple I remembered why.  Harper was running around like a crazy person.  She was super loud and was throwing these little rocks everywhere.  Not exactly reverent.   Don't be fooled by this photo.

Jonah wanted to get out of the stroller so I set him on the ground.  While I was chasing Harper around I noticed that he had a mouthful of grass.  Oops.

In an attempt to restore the enjoyment of our walk, we went into the visitor's center for a few minutes.  The visitor's center was recently re-done and it is really amazing.  Well, at least the front is.  The two times I have taken Harper, I haven't made it past the front of the building because they have this computerized coloring table that I can't pry Harper away from.  

This is Harper folding her arms and being reverent.  

Jonah charmed all of the sister missionaries.  He's such a little flirt.

saturday shenanigans

We are considering getting a new desks so we set out today to try some potential options.  Harper wanted to run around the very-breakable store like a crazy child so we had to cut that visit short.

We stopped for lunch, where Harper got a balloon with her quesadilla.

And visited Rodeo Drive for the first time since we moved to LA.  

Then we headed to Culver City to check out even more desks.  Jonah tried one out.

And enjoyed looking at himself in the mirror.

And after all of that looking we discovered that everything was too ugly or too expensive, so it looks like we will be doing more looking in the future.

Also, Tom got some new glasses this week (and a haircut).  Doesn't he look handsome?