Vacation - Las Vegas

Since this past week was Jonah's birthday and Harper was very sick, I haven't had a chance to blog about our vacation which is something that Tom has reminded me about at least a dozen times now.  Here you go Tom.

On Sunday afternoon we left to go to Las Vegas.  We had told Harper that we were going to go swimming on vacation, so she was constantly asking to, "go to the beach."  She calls all kinds of swimming going to the beach.  Every time we stopped she asked if we were at the beach.  Since we didn't leave LA until around 2 in the afternoon, we got to the hotel too late to go swimming so I think Harper endured the longest wait of her lifetime.  After all of that, I didn't even get a photo of us at the pool.

On Day 1 we spent some time walking on the strip since it wasn't outrageously hot.  It was very bright outside, so we got Harper some stylish shades.

We went to an exhibit at The Mirage where we saw dolphins.

And white tigers.

And then spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool.  After that we thought it would be a good idea to walk back to the strip (it was a couple blocks away) with no stroller and find somewhere to eat.  That ended in us wandering around for an hour with two heavy children until we finally found somewhere.

On Day 2 we started out at the Lied Children's museum.

 We played with water tables.

 Played with giant bubbles.

Flew airplanes.

And made art projects.

That afternoon we went to an aquarium which was probably the best part of the trip.  Harper really wanted to see the sharks and didn't really want to look at anything else until we found them.

I loved the jelly fish.  Pretty amazing.

 

 

After that we headed toward M&M world.  On the way there, we saw an old friend.  We saw this very same guy when we took my sister Kara to breakfast for her birthday when she was visiting us in LA last year.  I guess he moved to Las Vegas.

 We made it to M&M World and Harper was not disappointed.  That girl loves her candy.

That night I started some laundry in our hotel (the washer was in the room where the kids were sleeping) and put the kids to bed.  When I came back to put the clothes in the dryer, I opened the door and heard Harper making some very fake snoring noises.  And then I heard some crinkling sounds.  Harper had found her bag of M&Ms during the night and was pretending to be asleep so I wouldn't figure it out.  When Tom and I went to take them from her, she fessed up and said, "Harper has M&Ms in her mouth."  Yes Harper, we noticed.

all about Jonah

Today is Jonah's birthday!  We celebrated by visiting his pediatrician for his well child visit where he received 4 shots and got his blood drawn.  Very exciting.  That is in addition to the two trips we had to make there yesterday because Harper has another urinary tract infection :(  Hopefully the rest of the day will go better.

At his visit he weighed 21 pounds 7 oz and was 29.5 inches (somehow 1 inch shorter than he was at his last visit, I think they measured wrong last time).  He has continued his downward slide on the growth and weight chart and is now below the 50th percentile on both.  His head is still as big as ever and is in the 90-something percentile.  Harper has commented several times recently that Jonah has a large head.  

Here are a few things about Jonah:

• We haven't really found a food that he doesn't like.  He even likes Indian food and especially likes meat.
• While he is very sweet, he is also stubborn.  If he wants something, he will persist until he gets it.
• He can pull himself up, but doesn't really have any interest in standing or walking.  It takes real effort to get him to straighten his legs out so that he will stand.
• He gives big, open-mouthed kisses.
• He is afraid of most men.
• He loves to turn pages in books.  One of his birthday presents was an Elmo book with flaps that open and close, and I haven't been able to pry it away from him today.
• He loves music, especially this song.
• If Harper is laughing, he will start laughing too.  
• If Harper is holding a toy, he will try to take it away.  This has led to many problems.
• He is the funniest little crawler.  He really smacks his little hands on the floor when he crawls and he also likes to smack his lips.  It's pretty cute.
• He is so good natured.  He has a high tolerance for being hungry or tired and it takes a lot to get him upset.
• I think he's a Mama's boy, but he certainly loves his Daddy too.  When Tom gets home from work he doesn't want anything to do with me.
• I can't remember if I have mentioned this before, but if I am sitting on the floor he will crawl over and lay his head down in my lap.  I LOVE IT.  Harper has noticed this and will now crawl over and put her head in my lap.  Silly girl.

Overall, Jonah is just the sweetest little boy.  We love having him in our family.  Here are some photos from the last year.

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

May

June

goings on

We are getting ready to head out of town for a few days. First we are going to Las Vegas to try to relax and hang out at the pool. And then we are getting together with Tom's family. We have a niece and a nephew that we haven't met yet and we haven't seen everyone else in ages. Harper is so excited she keeps asking when she's going to get to see her cousins. She even helped me make some little presents for them and has been walking around the apartment saying, "These are for my cousins, I'm going to give these to my cousins." She's going to have a blast.

Jonah pulled himself up to standing for the first time yesterday.  He was trying to get to the ipad and was so incredibly pleased with himself.  He just kept giggling.

Lately Harper insists on being called Cinderella and is enjoying playing dress up and walking around the house wearing shoes that do not belong to her.  She also insists on wearing a dress all of the time.

Wednesday was our first ward BBQ of the year.  During the summer we have a potluck BBQ every Wednesday night in the ball field behind our building and it is one of my favorite things about our ward. There is lots of room for the kids to run around and a little playground.

Harper threw a fit when we had to go home and has asked to go to the BBQ several times since.  It's a good thing there are still plenty of BBQs left this year :)

Harper update

I have had several people comment to me lately how much better Harper's scars are looking, so I thought I'd do a little update on her.

The scars are pretty faded and not very noticeable.  I haven't had a stranger ask me what happened in a few weeks, although Harper mentions the incident frequently.  She doesn't seem too traumatized but if she sees a picture of her right after the dog bite she gets upset.  Here's a photo comparing how she looked the day of the dog bite, two weeks later, and then a zoomed in version of the above photo which was taken 2 months later.  It's amazing how fast she has healed.

You can see the scar on her nose, the long one on her upper lip, a couple of punctures on her upper lip, and then she has a small scar on the edge of her bottom lip.  The plastic surgeon told me that the most difficult part about repairing an injury like this is getting her lip lined up exactly right.  She did a great job.

Harper is such a sweet (and crazy) girl and such a great big sister.  This is Jonah and Harper at the park yesterday.

Jonah pretty much thought this was the best thing in the whole world.

Santa Monica with the Pedrozas

We got to see the Pedrozas two weekends in a row!  They came to LA on Saturday to use a Groupon at the Santa Monica Pier, and we joined them for a couple of rides and dinner.  

Tom took the kids on a couple rides.  Harper loved this one. . .

 And was, once again, terrified by this one . . .

Both kids were fascinated by the ocean.

And John took a family photo of us.  Just pretend that we took the time to take Jonah out of the carrier and that he was actually looking at the camera.

After this crazy fun-filled day, which began with her friend Kate's birthday party, Harper was exhausted.  We had to wake her up at 8:40 this morning so that we could make it to church and then we came home and she took a 4 hour nap.  Sounds like the Pedrozas need to visit more often!

Mother's Day

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I just got a new computer and it took me a few days to get switched over.  We really haven't been up to much.  Jonah is crawling like a little maniac.

And is as jolly and happy as ever.  He loves the swings at the park.

Tom likes to call Harper our "feral child" because she is crazy and her hair is always sticking up in every direction.  Last year we had an issue that when her eczema was really itchy she would tug on her hair and she ended up with quite the bald spot.  The hair has been growing back for a while now, but she has this crazy patch the likes to stick up.  Apparently it gets particularly bad after going to bed with wet hair.

On Mother's Day we went to Tom's aunt and uncle's house in Redlands with Tom's parents, cousin's family, and sister's family.  Harper had a blast playing with the kids.  They played with pretend snacks . .  .

and real snakes. . .

Harper has talked about the snake and asked about Savannah, Ella, and AJ about 75 times today.

I even got one of my children to sit still long enough to have their photo taken with me.

Thank you Cannons for inviting us over, we had a great time!