Harper's birthday party

We had a very small little birthday party yesterday for Harper at Roxbury park.  Since the park is just a few blocks from Tom's office he was able to be there for part of the party.

Harper was so excited to have cake and see her friends.  Several of them were able to come and we had a good time sitting around eating cake and playing at the playground.

Jonah also had a friend there.

We had a giant chocolate cake so after everyone had a piece (or two) we let the kids have at it.  It started innocently enough.

And quickly turned into this:

You can see from the photo that the candles were never lit.  It was extremely windy at the park and we couldn't keep the match going long enough to light the candles.

Harper had a great time and keeps talking about her birthday party and playing with her friends.  I am so glad that we were able to do something for her turning 3 and we are very grateful to our friends for being there :)

Jonah is (kind of) crawling

Jonah started crawling on Sunday!  He is still a little timid.  Pretty much he moves forward a couple of feet, and then changes his mind and retreats.  This usually leaves him further back than he started.  It is very cute and it is funny to see him crawl/scoot/roll around on the floor when he sees something that he wants.

This video isn't very good but Harper was trying to jump in front of the camera and Jonah wasn't very interested in crawling so it will have to do for now.


Untitled from Erica Jackman on Vimeo.

3 years old!

Our sweet little girl turned 3 years old today.  She woke up this morning to presents which she insisted on opening while wearing her new princess dress that I made her (don't look too closely, mistakes abound).

Then she helped me make chocolate frosting for her cake.  I don't think she was a huge fan of the cake, but she did love the frosting.

Then we went to the park and spent some time playing.  Poor girl hasn't been feeling 100% and seems to feel especially icky this evening.

We are going to do a little party for her on Tuesday with some of her friends so hopefully she is feeling better by then.

Here are some things about Harper lately:

• She has a really funny way of describing things that happen to her.  Like if I ask her what she did at the park, she will start to list everything that she did and repeat a lot of the things on and on for several minutes: I went on the swings and the slide and played and climbed and played and went on the swings and played . . . and on and on.

• She has recently developed a fear of the scary parts of movies and I think she has started to have nightmares.  Poor girl.
• She tries to negotiate with me.  She will say things like, "Ok, I eat all of my grapes and then have fishies.  Ok."  Ok Harper, that's not how it works.
• We have made great progress with her eating new foods.  I made spaetzle for dinner a couple of weeks ago and Tom convinced Harper to try it and she loved it.  She will now try a variety of noodle foods (she calls them doodles) and will eat things sometimes if she sees Jonah eating them.
• She is very bossy.  If she sees Jonah reaching for something that he isn't supposed to have (or if it is something Harper doesn't want him to have) she will take it away and tell Jonah, "No no, baby."
• When she describes something that she has done she will say that she either did it like a princess or like a big girl.
• Every time I go into the kitchen she asks what I am doing, then proclaims that she wants to help me.  She drags her stool across the kitchen, climbs on top of it, and says, "I be very careful." 

Ok, I'm tired and that's all I can think of right now.  But I have been holding back photos so I could include them in this post so here they are.

If you can't tell from this photo, she is about to do a summersault.

10 Months

Jonah is 10 months old today!  He is refusing to nap so he is sitting on the floor next to me trying to grab the computer.

The main thing that has changed lately with Jonah is his determination to get places.  He still isn't quite crawling, but he can get around by scooting and rolling and pulling himself.  If he sees something he wants, he will get there.

He still loves food and is happy to eat a little of whatever we are having for dinner.  Actually, he will eat a LOT of whatever we are having.  He seems to like more vegetables than fruits (although he loves bananas) and seems to love all carbs.

He really enjoys going to the park and is a big fan of the swing.  He really likes to swing next to Harper and they will both giggle and laugh.  I love it.

Another one of his favorite activities is turning pages in books.  He can entertain himself for a long time just flipping through the same book.  He also likes music and will bounce and babble along.

He enjoys clapping and saying "hey," which I think is supposed to be "yay."  Unfortunately it appears that he has inherited my lack of coordination and when he claps there is very little clapping that actually occurs.

We love this sweet  and we are so happy to have him in our family.

Someone . . .

Is very close to being mobile.

He want from having no interest in crawling to being very close in just a couple of days.  I am a little scared.  Jonah likes to put EVERYTHING in his mouth.

quick photo

We drove to Bakersfield today to visit Tom's parents.  Unfortunately I had an awful headache so I don't have much to recount about the day, but here is a quick photo of Harper with Grandma.