Tricky Trickster

Harper is a handful and she enjoys being so. Yesterday I put her down for a nap, or should I say, happy, happy playtime? Naptimes are full of me going in and laying her back down, her laughing at me, laying there for approximately 30 seconds kicking her legs as hard as she can against her bed and then jumping up to do something she isn't suppose to: breaking mini blinds, inspecting her feet, chewing her crib (her crib now looks like a Hamster lives in it). Yesterday I went in to go through the motions and she looked at me, smiled and handed me her diaper. Yes, that's right, she decided to take off her diaper and was waiting for me to come in so she could gift me with it. She was very proud. Good thing I had just changed the nastiness that was her diaper just a few minutes before.

To end some of this madness, I am cutting waaaaay back on her morning naptimes in hopes that she will be exhausted at afternoon nap. Today her only nap was in the car on the way to DC. She even slept through jackhammering next to the car when I was loading the stroller. Today's afternoon nap only required 2 trips in and then it was off to lullaby land for the "little troublemaker", as Lucy likes to call her.

Birthday party

We went to Asher and Aurelia's bday party this past weekend. Lucy had a blast and finally had a place where she could climb on everything in sight without getting in trouble.

Bank robber?

Harper on the loose

A Day in the Daffodils

We were heading out to the Cherry Blossom Festival today when I had a change of heart. It was pretty windy out and the Cherry Blossoms are around the Tidal Basin in DC. Wind over water at the Cherry Blossoms? Lucy and I did that last year and froze our keesters off so I decided not to subject Harper or Lucy to that misery. We will see Cherry Blosssoms, just not today.

So, what to do? We decided to go to the Long Branch Nature Center in Arlington. I've been wanting to check it out but hadn't had the opportunity until today. The nature center was closed, but we decided to picnic lunch and take a look at the gardens which were starting to sprout and watch the black squirrels that were feeding from the feeders on the property. Then we took a "hike" along the creek, looking for fish and swimming bugs. Those were Lucy's favorite. The bugs looked like little frogs swimming freestyle in the water and she thought that was hilarious. She also liked all the big rocks and trees to climb on.

Harper tried to do some crawling and walking, but just kept heading toward the water so we had to nix that idea- she's just too quick these days! Both girls seemed to like listening to the water rushing over the rocks and to the woodpecker that was very busy up in the trees.

Lucy topped off the day by "going potty in the car". Well, in her little port-a-pot in the car, an act that she hasn't done in a long time and now she finds this completely hilarious. She laughed and screamed "going potty in the car? that's crazy!" about a million times. Harper laughed,too, which just fueled the giggles.

After naps we headed to BV's town center to take our annual photos in the daffodils. Harper was not excited about the headband, she didn't cry, she just wouldn't keep it on. Then, when I finally got it on her and took photos for a minute, Lucy ripped it off of her head for laughs. Then that was the game the rest of the time. Harper loves flowers and says "Pretty" a lot when we see them. Then she will crush them if given the opportunity.

We headed to the playground afterwards to swing and enjoy the last bits of the day before we went to a good-bye party for our friends the Gassers, who are moving to Ohio at the end of the week. At the party, Lucy ran with her friends Owen and Parish in the fields next to the marsh and Harper looked on wishing she could run with them.
Overall, it was a day that hinted at the warmer days ahead and we were so happy for it that even their mom making them wear flower petals or bunny ears on their heads couldn't ruin it for Lucy and Harper.

Now that's an idea!

We went to Oxon Hill Farm on Friday to enjoy the warm weather and to appease Lucy. She has been asking to go all winter, but it is not a very fun activity in the cold, or on wet, muddy days. Friday was perfect, though, and Harper is really at an age where she appreciates the animals.

We went and saw all the animals which seemed to be enjoying the weather as well. The cows were walking about and scratching themselves on teh barks of trees, the roosters and chickens were walking about the farm (they had escaped from their pen) and were entertaining Harper endlessly, especially when one came within inches of her and kept crowing. She was stunnned, but she clapped and laughed after a moment. The giant pig was slopping around in his little pool and then rooted in the mud and the geese came right up to the fence and honked so much and so loudly that Harper, of course, had to repeat. She would not let me leave the ducks and geese, she would strained to see them if I tried to walk away so we just hung out there for a while.

When we were leaving I asked Lucy if she had had a nice time. She agreed that she had. Then she added. "This was a really great idea of mine. I've been keeping this idea in my memory reminder for a long time. It has lots of great ideas in it. Next time you need an idea, you let me know and I will see what ideas are in my memory reminder." Well, ok.

Little Helper

Lucy really is a huge help for the most part. She never minds throwing diapers away, taking things to recycling, taking dirty laundry to the hamper or taking her dirty dishes to the kitchen. Most of these things are even automatic these days. She will also set the table, clean up toys (even Harper's mess), and wipe down the table.
Her favorite ways to help are by feeding the dog, watering the plants, sweeping the bathroom or kitchen floors or "cleaning" the tv which usually just consists of her leaving a lot of finger prints all over the screen, but it is done with the best intentions.
Lately she has really wanted to help with real things with Harper. Not just tossing diapers or fetching burp cloths. She is now in charge of afternoon snack. When they get up from afternoon nap, Lucy goes and gets out two bowls and a snack. She fills the bowls, puts them on the table and gets Harper to her chair. I help Harper get set up and then must leave them be. Lucy "watches" Harper and helps her with her cup. She refills her snack if need be and then when snack is over she will clean up the mess, get a wash cloth, wipe Harper down and then pull out Harper's chair for her. Sometimes she helps her down, sometimes Harper just falls out of the chair and sometimes, not very often, Harper gets down gracefully by herself. This little 15 minutes of playing boss is Lucy's favorite time of day oftentimes. She is so proud and really happy that she has helped me.
She likes to dream of taking over the cleaning of the bathroom. A job Ian will happily reliquish one of these days. I'm hoping Harper loves to do dishes. And maybe the third will love to give foot massages. Now that's the life. Why do you think we are having so many kids?

I can read!

Lucy is rapidly moving closer to reading. Some things are just starting to make sense to her all of a sudden. For months I could ask her what sound a "P" makes and she would get it right. Then I would ask her what sound as "S" makes and she would make the p sound again. It just wasn't making any sense to her. Not any more. All of a sudden she is understanding basic phonetics and starting to memorize "sight words"- those are the words that many kids just memorize because they are so constant or so often repeated in easy to read books. She can now spell Mom, dad, stop, Lucy, Harper. She can also sound out many other words.
Don't get me wrong, she isn't picking up books and reading and we are just in the beginning stages, but the interest is there and she is constantly asking me to help her spell out things. She also loves to see a word and sound it out and "read" it to me. It makes her endlessly happy and she will "read" the same word to me over and over again all day long. Today she even sounded out dog and cat all by herself.
On another note, her writing ability has drastically improved as well. Not only is she able to write more letters but she has the ability to draw some basic pictures as well. Now all of the artwork you recieve from Lucy will have lots of "i, H, L, o, c,T, and p's" written on them- those are her "notes" to you. Her drawings all have her stick figure people on them, suns, bugs, fish, flowers, grass, and her version of hearts on them. I love her "people". They are the cutest with their big round bodies, stick legs and arms and faces drawn at the top of the bodies. She takes all of this work very seriously and is proud of each and every mark on a picture, especially signs or cards for people. She puts a lot of thought into what figures go into each drawing.
With all of this drawing comes color choices. I should say lack of color choice. Lucy loves black. When we have done paint your own pottery, I always know which piece is hers because it has the most black on it. The other day she was working on birthday cards for two of her friends and I suggested that she use only happy colors on the card. When she asked me to clarify, I said maybe red, orange, blue, green or purple would happy for a birthday card. She replied, "Well, black makes ME happy. I'm sure my friends like black,too." It's her art, I won't dictate or censor it, but I apologize in advance if your cards all look like sympathy notes. I just hope that her love affair for black stays in her artwork. I just can't imagine my blonde little Lucy coming home 15 years from now with black lipstick, dyed black hair, black clothes and nail polish. Maybe if I don't discourage the black now, then I won't be seeing so much of it later.
On the flipside, if she has ever, I mean ever, asked you your favorite color, you are stuck with it for life. She pulls out pink to use for Bon Bon, blue for Gramzie, Pop Pop, Grandma and Pops and red for Grandpa. You are forever assigned those colors, "because they are your favorite." I will be forever seeing green- good thing it's my favorite.

A Day Late

Lucy dragged out the pom poms and ran around the house cheering "C-A-T-S!" for an hour today. She happy hopped her cheers, she tried to teach Harper, she tried to, uh, teach me. Of course, the Wildcats season ended last night. Where was the spirit the past few days? She's all about calendars these days, perhaps a game calendar will come handy in the fall. She's got a bit more time to teach Harper the cheer before football season starts.

Parade Day

Hugs at the St. Pat's parade.

Daddy's little girl

A little toothy

Well, we are teething, again. Harper decided to be a total monster today and has been skipping meals the past day or so. I finally decided to check her mouth, and there it was, a jagged, sharp little tooth beginning to jut out. The good news, it is breaking through, the bad news, we have a lot more to go after this one.

A friend for each

We had our friends Caroline and Parish over a few days ago. Both girls loved having a friend over and I loved seeing Harper able to play with a buddy the same way Lucy used to. There was lots of taking stuff out of each other's hands, lots of trading of sippy cups and absolutely no sharing. Parish and Lucy pretty much just ignored the little girls and went about their own business, which revolved around rockets, bean bag chairs and cheese curls.

A day at the playground

With a body like that...

My kids love to be half naked, or just plain naked. I guess a lot of kids are the same way, but it still puzzles me. Lately, Lucy asks to take off her pants all the time. She says "My legs are hot". Even with 40 degree weather outside. Harper likes to crawl at top speed with her naked buns working at top speed. Around our house, diapers and princess underwear seem to be the unofficial uniform. Here's Harper begging for snacks in her diaper. With a body like that, who could say no- give that kid a goldfish cracker.

Feathers and tutus

Harper loves different textures of fabrics and I have been letting her clean out the dress up trunk to check out the fabrics and costumes. She loves the feathers, although they make her eyes itchy. She also loves satin and the princess dresses that have glitter on them. And the fireman's hats that crinkle when you press down on them.

Faheys visit

I never posted any photos of Lauren, Damon and Max's visit. As you can see, it involved including Max in the girls' daily (or hourly) tackle sessions, a trip to the American History Museum and time at the playground where Max took his first glide on the sings. He seemed to really like it and both of the girls liked swinging next to him. Lauren hoped that Max would be inspired by seeing the girls run around that he would jump in, instead, they tended to jump ON him more than he had planned. I guess that's what happens when you are the low man on the totem pole. It will be his turn next year to pile it on.

Waiting for Gramzie and Pop Pop

Here is Lucy waiting at the window for Gramzie and Pop Pop to arrive last Wednesday. It reminded me of all the photos that I have of her on Reggie's perch, or a stool or a chair where she was still barely able to see. I will try to find one of those photos and put them side by side. She has gotten so much taller lately and can reach things that she was never able to before. She can even help cook some without needing her stool.

Harper, on the other hand, is trying to learn how to stand on the stool. No balance, no attention span, and the inability to stand still don't get her very far, but she tries anyways. Reggie just pushes her out of the way and Lucy claims it is "her window". In time, she'll be the one tall enough to see and the one big enough to push her little brother or sister out of the way. In the meantime, it remains Lucy's window.

Now, that's funny

Lucy was trying to telly me "jokes" tonight. They all consisted of her saying something ridiculous and then repeated it in a "say what?" type of voice. For instance, she would say, "what do you get when you see a dancing apple?" I say, "what?" and she says (in a "what you talkin' about Willis?" voice) "dancing apple? It's a joke!"

I never got the joke, but she certainly thought it was funny.

What was funnier was what happened earlier.

Harper was playing with the giggle ball- a ball with two sides, one Burt, one Ernie. The ball shakes and giggles when you push a button on one of the mouths. If you push one side too long, the other side starts saying "Is it my turn, yet?" Lucy thinks otherwise.

She swears that the ball says, "Did the car turn, yet?"

I told her that didn't make any sense and told her what it was really saying. She argued with me for about 5 minutes, all the while, I was playing the saying over and over again. We took it to Ian who agreed that I was correct. She continued to argue and I played it one more time and she stops, smiles and says, "I was just teasing you. It was a joke!" Nice cover and we all got a nice laugh out of it. In a town of politicians, we just might have one on our hands. Flip flop.

Booty sleep

Some girls need beauty sleep, Harper needs booty sleep. Her new preferred sleep position is with buns in the air, tucked into the corner of the bed, thumb in mouth. Of course, this is after those buns have gotten into trouble for messing with the miniblinds or for peeking out the window to see what's going on on the street below.