Happy birthday to me (this is our 400th post)!

This birthday has been pretty low-key.  I wasn't really anticipating it, it doesn't feel like any kind of milestone, and it doesn't really feel like a birthday since HARPER IS DRIVING ME CRAZY AND WON'T TAKE A NAP.  But we did go to Santa Monica this morning to celebrate by getting some cupcakes.  Yum.  We had a groupon that I had purchased a few months ago so we got 6 cupcakes.  Since Tom isn't a big fan and I can't be a bad mother and let Harper eat a bunch of cupcakes, I guess I'm going to have to eat most of them.  Actually, what I meant to say is that I have already eaten most of them.  Oops.

Tom did take one of the junior mint cupcakes off my hands and Harper and I split the other junior mint and also the hostess-looking cupcake this morning.  This was her reaction when we realized that we weren't eating all 6 cupcakes:

 Full on tantrum.  Probably the worst tantrum she has ever thrown.

I didn't plan on making our 400th post on my birthday and it really just feels like I was making our 100th post.  I recently formatted our blog into books and had them printed for 2006-2008.  One book had our posts from 2006 & 2007 and the other from 2008.  The first book was a lot smaller than the second, so having kids has definitely increased our posting frequency.  I am hoping to do books for 2009 & 2010 this year, but for 2011 I am doing a daily photo project.  Basically I am taking a photo every day.  Mostly they are pictures of Harper and Jonah, but I am trying to focus on doing something interesting every day.  I feel like so many day pass without anything significant happening and they all blur together, so I am hoping that this will help me appreciate each day a little more.

first day of preschool(ish)

This week Harper started a little playgroup/preschool with some friends from the ward.  Harper LOVED it.  I took this picture before we left.   She insisted on wearing her sparkly shoes.

There are four other kids and we will rotate hosting the kids at our houses.  The schedule is pretty relaxed since they are so young (Harper is the oldest).  I think that it will be really good for Harper to spend a couple hours away from me every week and to have her own thing to do.  

I have started to give Jonah little pieces of my food when I am eating and I don't think he is going to let me feed him baby food much longer.  This little boy loves black beans and waffles.

Lately I've noticed that Harper acts really sweet toward Jonah.  She still steals an occasional toy, but she is very concerned about how he is doing and always makes sure that he has a toy to play with.  They were riding in a cart together the other day at Costco and Jonah started to fuss.  Harper reached over and said, "It's okay baby, I hold your hand."  I just about melted.

best friends

Harper and Kate are the cutest little friends.

Every Sunday when I tell Harper we are going to church, she asks to see if Kate is going to be there.

They had a blast at the park today.  It is so fun to watch them play together.

Siblings

These two are cracking me up

And driving me crazy these days.

Anytime Harper laughs, Jonah will start laughing.  But sometimes when she is crying Jonah thinks that she is laughing, so he starts laughing, which makes Harper really mad.  Also, it amazes me to see these two sit next to each other because Harper isn't that much bigger than Jonah.  

Jonah has discovered his tongue and is constantly sticking it out.   

 

And Harper is definitely going to need braces.  It looks like she has inherited my crazy crooked teeth and Tom's gap.  

Iron Will

Tonight Harper refused to try her mother's delicious mashed sweet potatoes. After much begging and pleading I finally told her that she could have one itty bitty bite or she could go to bed early without dinner.

She thought about it for a second and then told me, "ok Daddy, night night."

This girl does not bend. An inch.

Oh No!

Tom here.

So as mentioned in the previous post, Harper may or not have learned the phrase "we have to buy a new one" from Daddy.  She now uses it when we break something or we run out of something.  Here's a video of her thought process in action.

A few weeks ago we bought a new TV to replace our old, dying one.  We sold it on Craigslist for a few bucks and someone came to pick up.  The new TV was scheduled for a few hours later, but (during that brief time) Harper was really confused as to why someone took our TV away and what life was going to be like without one.

Observe her devastation and (logical) conclusion below:

7 Months / 33 Months

Jonah is 7 months old today.  We celebrated by making a visit to Cafe Rio in Manhattan Beach.  Jonah loved the Dr. Pepper.

Ok just kidding, it was empty.  But we did have some yummy pork salads and Jonah did eat some mashed up black beans and seemed to enjoy them.  

Now that Jonah is 7 months old he is a great sitter and really enjoys playing on the floor with Harper.  He is also a great roller and rolls and scoots across the floor at a slow pace. 

Lately when Jonah gets upset and wants to be picked up he says, "Ama," which sounds an awful lot like Mama.  It's probably not intentional, but I will take it.

He wants to put EVERYTHING in his mouth.  I know that is a normal baby thing, but Harper never really went through this phase.  Earlier today I put some puffs on his high chair tray.  He is just starting to be able to pick up food and put it in his mouth, and when he succeeded he started laughing hysterically.  It was too cute.  

He LOVES food.  So far, he has happily eaten everything we have given him except for blueberry applesauce.  He doesn't seem to have a preference for fruits or vegetables and gets very excited when he sees his baby spoon because he knows that he gets to eat.

He is still toothless.  Every time he is cranky I think that it must be because he is teething, but no teeth have appeared.

He is still big, but he has been dropping in the percentiles.  He is now in the 70th percentile for weight.  Hopefully that means he will stop outgrowing his clothes so quickly.

Harper will be 33 months in a few days.  She seems so old these days and she is changing so much.

Whenever she sees something that is broken she says, "Uh oh, it's broken.  Better get a new one."  She gets that from Tom.

She loves to sing and constantly surprises me by singing along with a song on the radio.  I better be careful what I listen to!

We are potty training and it is going much better.  I had been giving her chocolate covered raisons as a treat, but now that we have switched to M&Ms she is much more excited about the process.  Right now she can stay dry all day (except for her nap) as long as I constantly ask her if she needs to go potty.

She loves to wear the red shoes we got for her Halloween costume and calls them her "sparkly shoes."  Earlier today Tom told her that princesses always wear sparkly shoes and she said, "Oooh," like this was  a life changing statement.

Harper loves to run around and play with her friends.  The photo below is from our church parking lot where lots of people bring their kids bikes and let them run around for a couple of hours.  This one is Harper on someone else's bike.

She loves to eat canned corn.  Just plain.  In a bowl with a spoon.  She asks for it almost every day.  

She is such a fun girl, even though she can definitely be a stinker sometimes.  She is very friendly and happy most of the time.

What we've been doing

Giving Jonah his first graham cracker.  He LOVED it.  

Spending Saturday afternoon in Santa Monica.

While we were at the pier Tom took Harper on her first ride.  You can see in the picture that she was a little nervous.  

 Bringing dinner to Tom at work.

 And potty training.  It isn't going very well.

Hopefully potty training will go a little better this week.  

San Diego Wild Animal Park

You might have noticed that I didn't make a New Years post.  That is because we put the kids to bed at their normal time, ate a frozen pizza, watched a movie, and then did a puzzle.

We decided to head down to San Diego to the Wild Animal Park today.  We have season passes and they are expiring soon, so we are hoping to get a couple more visits out of them.  Harper was SO EXCITED to see the animals.  In the end she had a lot of fun but I think she was actually a little disappointed because I think she was expecting to be able to play with the animals.  She kept trying to climb in the cages.  Her favorite part of the trip was going into the bird cage where she got to feed the birds some nectar (one of them landed on her head and she laughed hysterically).

Jonah enjoyed the views from the stroller.

 We loved the gorillas.

 Harper has a long way to go until she is gorilla-sized.

 Harper fed the ducks.

 In front o fthe duck pond.

 We saw the lions.

 Here is Harper trying to climb into the cage.

 So cute.  What handsome guys.

 Harper at the condor exhibit.

 The elephants were my favorite part.  There was the cutest little baby elephant.  I loved it.

 Harper and Daddy.

 Exhausted but happy.

Photo overload Christmas post

I haven't made this post yet because I was overwhelmed by the number of photos that I knew I would include.  Here we go.

We drove to Utah on the worst day possible.  I rained and rained and rained all the way there which made me very anxious and I think I drove Tom crazy.  The kids both did surprisingly well in the car.  Harper was so excited to see everyone that she talked about it the whole way.  Tom was a saint for doing almost all of the driving.

She loved seeing Rocko.

 And making a gingerbread house with Grandma (she had a gum drop in her mouth in this photo.

 We loved eating at some of our favorite places and even got to go to a BYU basketball game (without the kids!).

On Christmas Eve we went to Temple Square to see the lights.  We got there early so we got lots of photos on the temple grounds.

 Check out Kelly's weird glasses.

 And beautiful Carly.

 Kara holding our little devil.  Don't I have gorgeous sisters?

 He's a happy guy.

 The whole family.

 Jonah with Grandma.  This is my new favorite picture.

 Jonah with Grandma and Grandpa.

 By the time the lights came on Harper was super ornery, but she was excited to see this tree.

Harper loved opening presents.

 Jonah loved eating the wrapping paper, but he loved his presents too.

 Harper's favorite part was the chocolate.  Not surprised.

 Harper loves to give hugs.

 Cute girl.

 And we visited with my Dad.  Here is Jonah meeting Grandpa for the first time.

Afterward my stepgrandparents and grandparents came over.  Here is Jonah with my Grandma.

 And then we went to visit Tom's Grandpa.  Here are the men.  Harper fell asleep on the way there and spent the entire visit asleep on the couch.

Afterward my sister Aubrie came over with her kids and Harper got to hang out with her cousins, Hailey and Gavin.

 Here is Kara with Grandma.  I think Kara (as well as most of the rest of my family) is confused about which school they should be supporting.

Here are Harper and Jonah in their Christmas outfits.

 Tom and Jonah got matching T-shirts.

 It snowed!  Harper lasted for a few minutes.  She was fascinated by her footprints.

 We got haircuts from Aunt Kara.  Thanks Kara!

We had a blast.  Too bad we couldn't stay longer.