Playtime

At swimming pool, Lucy with an armload of toys and Harper sleeping and playing in her stroller in the shade.

This is the sight I came home to the other day. Ian feeding Harper and LuLu feeding LaLa.

Harper loves her mobile. Here are some of her expressions while under her friends.

At Botanic Garden

We headed to the Botanic Gardens to beat the heat, and to skip a day at the pool. Lucy stripped down promptly into her swimsuit and splashed in the big fountains and went digging in the dirt. Harper slept, ate and played in the shade, cooing at the big banana trees overhead.

Little Princesses

Pops, Grandma and Uncle D came to visit this week. We went to the zoo (of course, lucy's favorite!), swimming, the playground, out to dinner a couple times, chased fireflies in the backyard and Lucy and Harper both got lots of cuddle time with both of their grandparents. Lucy was nuts over Uncle D and wanted him to swim, read, and play with her constantly. She was also very fond of having Grandma sit in her room while she was playing. Harper spent the visit being held, loved and smiling at everybody (her new trick). She also started cooing a lot more and said "A goo" a few times- apparently a milestone at 6 weeks (she accomplished this at 5 1/2 weeks- genius!) We all agree that Pops is the best at putting babies to sleep and Harper liked spitting up on him. Lucy and Pops kept up their conversations about opossum poop, smelly feet and "being crazy" throughout the visit.

Food Dance!!!

Ok, so Lucy has inherited Aunt Lauren's "food dance" and wiggles, dances and gets so excited about food that she likes. The best food dance I've ever seen though was today. We decided to try having our groceries delivered for the next few months since taking 2 little ones to the grocery can add quite a bit of time to the trip. Today was our first delivery and you would have thought it was Christmas around here. Lucy was so concerned about the delivery all morning (they were a bit late) and then when they got here, she was bursting at the seems. After the delivery guy left, she immediately started going through bags and screaming, "They brought me bananas, they brought me goldfish crackers! Momma, there is yogurt in here! I love pretzels, how did they know I love pretzels. There are pretzels in here. They are my favorite kind!" There was butt wiggling, dancing, grins and giggles- all over the same old groceries we always get. I think we might cancel her birthday party and just have Peapod deliver us some cheese- Lucy will be thrilled. She also immediately needed to try everything that was delivered. She "needed" cheese, crackers, yogurt, pretzels, peanuts, bananas, berries, etc. It was ridiculous. She ended the whole scene with a yogurt in hand, reading a book and nodded off to sleep quickly at nap- probably dreaming of what they will deliver next week.

She is still so little

Harper is puny. Absolutely little and tiny. She is definitely bigger than when we brought her home, but still just a little peanut and everybody likes to comment on how little she is. I love that you can actually see her little thighs getting thicker week by week and her chin(s) filling out on her face.

She is getting stronger, too. We give her a couple minutes of tummy time at least once a day. She is ok with it for about 3-5 minutes and then she starts whining, but it is paying off. She is already able to hold her head up better, she can turn it from side to side while on her tummy and she can better roll to her side (which is where she always puts herself in her sleep, on your chest when you hold her, etc).

She is also able to track a person from across the room. Case in point, she likes to watch Lucy play and move about the room. You can see her following her with her eyes and she will even try to turn her head to see her better when she moves out of her line of vision. The best part, she is starting to respond to us. She has smiled a handful of times at Ian when he makes his pirate "arg!" sounds at her (in response to her pirate sounds she makes when she is hungry), she also stares at me when I sing to her and her eyes get so big when she sees one of us come into focus.

She also has a favorite toy, her animal mobile. Lucy always liked this as well and it is a real saver these days with Harper. She can lay on her changing table for up to 10 minutes at a time just watching her "friends" spin round and round. I can put her on the table, cue up the animals and help Lucy get dressed, play a game or clean up Lucy's room all while Harper is getting some quality playtime in.

She is growing so fast in so many ways, we don't mind that she is still so little- it helps remind us that we only get a short while with her as that little "peanut".

Baby puberty

Here is Harper shielding her face from the view of the camera. It seems that our little girl with the super soft skin and perfect pink complexion has a very bad case of baby acne at 4 weeks of age. It just doesn't seem fair that someone so little and sweet and innocent has to have a face that looks like the plague hit it. Lucy had this same thing, but not nearly so severe. Hopefully it is fleeting, but for now, it is spreading from her face to her neck, the back of her head, her ears, her shoulders, chest and back. It doesn't bother her, but we miss that smooth skin and perfect complexion she had just a few days ago.

Lucy's list of things she wants to do this summer

When Lucy finished school last week we sat down and wrote a list of things that she wanted to do this summer. The usual are on there- go to the zoo, splash outside, go to the beach with Parker, catch fireflies, etc. Of course, Lucy had to add some of her own personality to the list- "buy more colored paper, stickers and markers for special projects", "play with Ronin", and "go see the butterflies" were her additions.

Here is one of the first things we could accomplish: "make (and eat!) homemade popcicles". The simplest things like freezing juice in popcicle molds can bring so much happiness to a 2 year old, and she was even happier to share with Ian and myself, only a little sad that Harper couldn't have one as well.