Thursday, April 16, 2009

And if you hear a crocodile...




Harper is 11 months old! Here is a little update:
Harper is catching on- to everything. It seems like the past week she has taken a giant leap into toddlerhood. She just seems to be communicating more clearly and all the games and songs we've been singing and playing for months are making sense and she is able to participate. She now sings along to "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Row, Row, Row your boat". She knows one part of each that she sings and she will crawl over to me and try to get me to sing a song by singing the part she knows or by doing the hand movements. My favorite is at the end of Row, Row, Row your boat we add "And if you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream". She "screams". She will also try to say crocodile. Priceless.
Peek-a-boo is a nonstop game after dinnertime. She thinks this is very funny when Ian is involved and can play for half an hour sometimes.
Throwing things or dropping them. I don't even bother putting shoes on her anymore when she is in the stroller. Her little feet get pretty cold sometimes, but she would take them off and toss them if I put them on, at least this way we get to our destination with 2 shoes.
Following commands. She knows "come here", "no", "hand me that" and "let's go", among others. It is very nice to have her participate in these and saves us from a lot of Harper tantrums.
Cleaning up. She has started to clean up her blocks or put her toys into her toy basket. It is all a game and once they are all cleaned up she will promptly dump them out again. You have to be quick and take them away once they are cleaned up or we are repeating the whole process.
Using a spoon. She is starting to get the hang of it. She definitely prefers to feed herself than have me help her and she can scoop out of a bowl a little bit. Problem is that she grabs the bowl and dumps that before she even gets the chance.
Brushing her hair. Have brush, will groom. Then she adds, "Pretty".
Taking care of baby. She loves her baby doll and will give it a bottle, feed it pretend food, wipe its mouth, rock it, sing to it, kiss and hug it and walk it in the stroller. Then she takes it and bangs its head and says, "no, no, no!" That's not quite how we discipline in our house, but the imitation is flattering.
Climbing. She climbs stairs and people and today she climbed her first object. She wanted Lucy's crazy straw out of her cup and Lucy had moved it away from her. Harper scooted a box of wipes over and climbed up on it to reach the straw better. She wasn't much taller than before and Lucy was faster than she was, but the innovation was impressive. And a little scary.
Animals sounds. There is a difference in our house between dog and puppy dog. She can "woof" like a dog, when she wants to but she always wants to pant like a "puppy dog". She will also quack.
And standing alone. This is getting more and more frequent. She doesn't usually realize that she is doing it but when clapping is needed, and in Harper's world applause is often needed, she will stand alone and clap. She can also drink from a cup using both hands while standing. She doesn't really do this when we try to get her to, it has to be unconcious, but it is happening a whole lot.
One month to go until the big birthday. Lucy has many plans for a big party for her little sister, none of which, other than cake, will actually happen (airplane ride, moon bounce, and "lots of candy" are not in the plans). Will she be walking? Will she dive into her cake? Will we realize that it really has been a year already? My guesses are Yes. Yes. And probably not.

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