Roar!

Harper knows that a duck quacks, a cow moos, a dog says "woof!" and a puppy pants. All the other animals, well, according to Harper, they roar! This is her new trick. It started with me showing her zoo animals-tigers, lions, even bears- and telling her that they roar. She then added elephants. Then every other animal. Fish roar, flamingos, owls, penguins, etc. They all roar. A couple nights ago Lucy and I were talking in the kitchen when I heard some noise coming from the girls room. It was Harper, roaring, with lion in hand. She also wants to read "Polar Bear, Polar Bear" and "Panda Bear, Panda Bear" all the time to get to the pages where the animals roar. She then will go back to those pages after we are finished and roar back at the animals. Good-bye Rooster, we have a lion in the house now!

Butterflies!

Lucy wrapped up her second year of preschool this past week. She loved being a "butterfly" in Miss Jennifer's class and was sad that the year was ending. She is not very sure about moving up to the pre-k classes next year as they are considered "the big kids" at school. Miss Jennifer sent home a great memory book that chronicles Lucy's year at school with photos of her and work that she completed month to month. It is great and you can really see the progress she made in coloring, etc. You can also see how much she has grown in the photos- no more baby face.

The grand finale of the year was the program where each class performed a song. They began with a whole school rendition of "Rockin' Robin" (recall that I was in an act that performed Rockin Robin in 5th grade in the school talent show). I wasn't able to get any good photos of that song or video as Lucy was in the middle and was dwarfed by the taller kids around her. What I did capture was her individual class performance of "She'll be Comin' Around the Mountain" (recall that my Pa used to sing this song to me all the time growing up and has many stories about doing so!) Lucy's stage fright took over a bit and she didn't sing very loudly or enthusiasticly, but she did do the motions and did a big bow at the end. I then heard the song at the top of her lungs for the entire rest of the day. Of course, had they added jumping, she would have stolen the show!

What wasn't seen by so many was Harper's response to the program. She danced and danced the whole time and gave a round of applause after each act. She even added a new move to her dance repertoire which usually just consists of bouncing up and down and doing deep knee bends. She added the hip wiggle from side to side. She was pretty proud and entertained many parents around.

Summer days are here again!

You know you are pregnant when...

I just saw Andrew Zimmerman eating something and it looked tasty. No idea what it was, I didn't stay on the channel long enough to see that it was probably some animal testical, brains or some squishy insect fried on a stick. No, I changed the channel and am now just dreaming of the yumminess that must have been.
I went to the doctor today to have my third ultrasound. This was a bonus since they didn't get a good view of little man's face last time so they wanted to check out his nose and mouth. Harper tagged along and Lucy was at school. Here is how the visit went:
8am, finish yoga and begin drinking the requisite 64 ounces of water I am to consume by 9:30.
9am- get Lucy to school and head to the doctor's office, already noting that the little guy is pressing mighty hard on the ol' bladder.
9:30, usually Harper's naptime, but she is happy. We arrive at the doctor's office and sit for 25 minutes until our name is called. No, they are not ready to see me, they just need me to fill out more paperwork (This is the third time with this pregnancy and I was just there a little over a year ago when pregnant with Harper. You would think they would know by now that I do not have an allergy to latex gloves.)
10am-We sit. Harper is all over the place. She is running her matchbox firetruck all over the carpet making vroom, vroom sounds. She is also approaching any other child and standing about 6 inches from them, just staring. She is being good, but we are approaching snack time...
10:15- Harper notices the stereo in the corner of the room. She ventures over to it and begins entertaining the room with her dancing/ deep knee bend moves. My bladder is going to burst. I ask if it is ok if I use the restroom. They smile and say no.
10:30- Harper has had enough dancing and firetruck action. We are onto bugs. She "boings" her blue grasshopper all over me, herself and the person sitting next to me. I begin playing "row row, row your boat with her to keep her happy." Rowing is not good for a full bladder.
10:35. No doc in sight. I decide to take a chance and head to the restroom. I then race to the water cooler to down 4 more cups of water so I am not wasting my trip.
10:45 they call us back one hour and 15 mintues after my scheduled appointment. Harper has to sit in her stroller. No nap. No snack. Long wait. She isn't very happy that she can't see me or can't run around. She lets us know the entire time. But there he is. He is big, according to the ultrasound tech, but is still measuring at 24 weeks. He weighs about 1 lb, 4 oz. His face looks just like a skinny baby Harper and Lucy. His lips are perfect, his nose is perfect. He is yawning and holding his foot up by his head. He showed off just enough to make the wait worthwhile.
10:55- we are leaving. Harper has a snack in hand and is asleep in the car by 11:03. I have more photos of our baby boy and Ian is calling to see how things went. I tell him "perfect".

Strawberry Season!

We headed out with the Butler gang to the Strawberry fields over Memorial Day weekend. I knew Lucy would have a great time and eat her share in the fields. I knew Ian would love seeing friends and getting his hands dirty in the fields. We knew Jamie Butler would be most excited about the cheese fries they serve at the restaurant we visit afterwards. I knew I would be excited about making jam with Bridget the following week. I figured Harper would just be along for the ride. I was wrong.

From the onset, she took command of the field. She saw what we were doing, yelled for a strawberry, was presented one, and it was all systems go from there. She decided to plop herself right down next to a strawberry bush that was brimming with berries and she ate them. All. She would stuff them in her mouth, sandy, with straw still attached, and whole, and eat them one at a time, but about one every second. She was a pig in a, well, strawberry field. Her chin dribbled juice, her clothes were covered in red froth and she would grunt and moan and giggle with pure happiness. It even brought on a bit of a food dance. She would bounce and dance while shoving them in her mouth. It was pure love. Juicy, sticky, color-yourself-red, berry love.

DOT

Ian started work last week at the Department of Transportation in the Inspector General's office. He will be part of the oversight for bailout dollars being used within the department. So far, this has meant very little change for the girls and myself. He leaves and returns at about the same time and I still hear from him during the day. (Because of this, I still think that maybe he just got a reassignment within the CIA. Who knows? I don't just pop in on him at work and he doesn't give much in the way of details. Yep, must be a covert operative. I, clearly, am not.)
For him, it seems to be more of an adjustment. So far the highlight has been that President Obama ate lunch at the 5 Guys burger joint next door. No, Ian wasn't there. But he knew about it before the rest of us. How's that for oversight?

Botanic Garden

Our pool is still not open and it is hot outside. To beat the heat, we invited Deb and the boys to join us at the Botanic Garden for some cool splashing fun. They've added a sandbox so it was a total bonus for the girls to be able to build in the sand. Harper loved playing in the dirt, splashing in the fountains, splashing in her watering can and playing in the sand.

Lucy loved the sandbox the most. She took a lot of pride in building mountains and then watching as rivers formed when she poured water over them with the watering can. She also loved running her hands through the lettuce patches they had planted and running around in the outer gardens with Ronin. You can add going up and down stairs to Harper's favorite pastimes at the garden as well. Lucy can't wait to have a house where we can plant a small garden, a tree and flowers (her priorities, not mine!) Going to the childrens' garden gives her a taste of that fun.

Floor Routine

There is now particular reason why, but some days Harper loves to be on the floor. She just rolls around for the entire afternoon or will just drop down in the middle of doing something to lay flat on the floor. This is one of those days. It always helps when one of her babies or stuffed animals is around, then she just rolls around with them as well.

Hair out of place

Harper loves to brush hair. Mine, hers and Lucy's. Lucy is a pretty good sport, as you can tell. This took place one morning while she dwas watching a tv show. Harper would not relent- she wanted Lucy's hair to be just so. Too bad 'just so' included getting beat in the head and having your hair brushed into your face, all while you are trying to watch tv.

Introducing, the dirtiest girls in the world!

We went to Lucy's class picnic today. We got up and got all gussied up. The girls each wore cute little dresses and had their hair fixed and were clean and cute when we arrived. 10 minutes later Lucy came over to show me a spot of water that she had spilled on the front of her dress. She failed to mention the mashed strawberries on the skirt, the orange popsicle on the collar, the purple popsicle on the front or the partial tattoo that was emblazoned on the sleeve. That was 10 minutes into the party. By the time we left, she had added pizza, juice, dirt, cheetoh cheese, watermelon, and the dye from cookie sprinkles. She was sweaty, stinky, sticky and one of her knees was bleeding.

Her sister was no better, she was covered in watermelon (I mean covered, she ate three whole slices and her purple dress was a new, darker shade of purple from the fruit juice), she was so sticky that rocks, straw and dirt were clinging to her. Her legs were slippery from bubbles, she had eaten dirt and there were traces of it around her mouth. She also had the requisite pizza, cheetoh cheese and cookie mess on the front of her. I took her to the bathroom three times to rinse her off and she was still a total mess. Oh, and ditto on the bloody knee. By the time we were leaving, she was tired. She could barely walk. Keeping up with the big kids is hard work. She fell asleep in the car on the way home, usually meaning a no-go for nap, but she, for the first time ever, stayed asleep when I transferred her to her bed. When I laid her down in her crib, rocks, dirt and straw fell from wherever they were sticking onto her sheet. She even stayed asleep while I sponge bathed her in her bed. One tired kiddo.

Lucy is bathed and both are resting. Harper has a date with the tub. By the time Ian returns home they will be back to their blonde, sweet smelling little selves. I'm sure Harper will still be able to pull a rock or a chunk of dirt from somewhere, though.

All good dogs go to heaven

We said good-bye to Reggie today. After several months of watching our formerly strong-as-an-ox dog dwindle down to fur and bones and struggling to get him to eat or drink anything for days now, we said good-bye. The girls went to a friends house and Ian and I drove him to the vet (Ian rode in the back so we could let the furry guy stick his head out the window on the way there, it was the happiest he had been in weeks.) No worries, he still tried to pick a fight with a pack of about 12 dogs in the entryway of the hospital, scrappy until the end.

Lucy has been sad off and on for a few days now but some of that is just because she knew how sad we were. She has already started asking about future pets. For now, we are content with remembering "Reggie, Reggie, he's our pet, he's the greatest, don't forget!" Here are our favorite memories of our favorite dog:

-Back it up- the booty was for scratching and he didn't care who you were, you were expected to scratch.

-The fact that he loved to lick the mixer beaters, just like a kid, when we made any sort of batter. Or the fact that turkey bacon and baked chicked would make him act like he had ants in his pants with excitement.

-Ears that rivaled Dumbo's

-The biggest sneezes, ever, many times followed by whole body shakes

-Faster than a cheetah, he knocked me clear into another atmosphere once when playing fetch

-Seeing him and Lucy looking out the window at the world below

-Reg running full speed into the glass door at Pops and Grandma's

-Coming home to find him having eaten all the molding in Ian's apartment, or photo albums, or lattice siding, or drywall

-His always knowing when Ian was out of town and coming and begging to sleep in the bed with me, on Ian's pillow.

-Sitting with his butt on the top stair and his legs on the stair below, watching the backyard and protecting us all from the evils of squirrels.

-Licking Lucy upside the face

-Closing him up in the downstairs kitchen when we first got him and were training him, only to realize that he had indeed escaped and snuck under our bed, scaring the living daylights out of Ian in the middle of the night.

-Doggie paddle days in Lexington. He loved it so much that he would exit the pool, vomit and then cannonball right back into the pool.

-He would run so fast and so far at once that he would have to make the largest, most amazingly fast loops to turn himself around. And he could jump, too. No ball was too high to try an catch mid-air, all while doing some crazy twist.

-When he swam several feet off the banks of the Potomac out to a couple of guys in a fishing boat so they could feed him a sandwich.

-His pink nose when he was a puppy

-After the ice storm when he would drag whole trees around the backyard

-Not waiting for Harper to leave her highchair, he would nuzzle his nose under her legs and behind to get at her scraps, she always laughed and giggled.

-Being the first to greet us, always, even when we were coming home from the hospital with Lucy or Harper when each of them was born.

We already miss him and he will always remind Ian and me of our time together before the kids came along. He was the one that was in the car with me when we left Lexington, left Pittsburgh and arrived in Virginia. He was my companion when I didn't know anyone in Pittsburgh and Ian was at school day and night and he was the one that kept me company and when I knew no one in Virginia and was home with Lucy. We met great friends because of him and explored new places with him. He was a great bud, a loyal protector and the funniest dog around.

So long GAO

Today is Ian's last day at GAO. We went to see him at work today, to play at the building museum next door and to load up the stuff from his office. The girls were excited to see him at work, to be able to have lunch with him and to explore the museum.
The GAO has been good to us. It was what brought us to northern Virginia, it provided Ian with a great work schedule so he could be home in the evenings to see the girls each and every night and the travel was very limited. It allowed him to work from home when I needed him to and take time off when our girls were born.
But now it is on to a new chapter. He starts work at the Department of Transportation on Tuesday. Travel will be even less, hopefully his commute will be about the same and his hours will pretty much not change. We are excited for the change of pace and some of the other perks will help us out as our family grows this fall.
So for those of you who are keeping track of the changes going on in our house over the coming months, a new job for Ian can be checked off. Next on the list (in no particular order): take care of sick dog, find and get new home that can fit our brood, see if our car can actually fit 3 carseats then (a) buy such carseats or (b) buy new car or (c) refuse to leave the house until we can afford new car, rent out condo to reliable and respectable renter, decide if Lucy will go to kindergarten in one or two years, and oh yeah, have a baby in mid-September. Checking something off the list feels pretty good, but no time to celebrate, time to move on to the next order of business.

Field Day

Lucy's school had field day last Thursday. Let me just say it should have been called "Lu Day". The day consisted of a moonbounce, happy hoppers, tunnels and other assorted bouncing activities, followed by popsicles and coming home to Pops and Grandma at the house. Teachers wre amazed at how well Lucy could get around "as though she lived on a happy hopper". Little did they know that she pretty much does at home. She said that it reminded her of her birthday party and she wants to have field day at her house sometime. That's easy enough, we just have to take the fun outside.

Hey Mister, drop a dollar in the hat!

We went out for Pops' birthday dinner and afterwards Lucy wanted to take a walk by the river so we headed down to the Torpedo Factory to see what was going on. Apparently, Lucy was ready to take her show on the road because when she saw this guys playing his steel guitar and a box of shakers next to him, she was ready for her close-up. Watch the video, you'll see what I mean. Afterwards she went up on a gazebo and performed "She'll be coming around the mountain" for the masses along with some dancing and some freestyle, free form singing which usually consists of her singing about whatever she sees. Oh, and the guitar player, he raked in the chips after her performance. She's quite the ringer!

Harper is 1!

Happy 1st Birthday Harper! We celebrated Harper's first birthday with a visit from Pops and Grandma, lots of cake, a birthday party and celebrating Pops' bday, too! Harper is a walking and talking machine. In fact, she has begun throwing tantrums everytime I won't let her walk or make her change direction (for instance, she wanted to walk into the Potomac River the other day at Mt. Vernon, I did not find that acceptable. She threw a tantrum. Good times.) As far as talking goes, she will repeat anything but her new words include "belly button", "moo", "hair", and "bowl". But perhaps the most notable vocals she performs are her screams. They are not crying, sad screams, but rather ones of protest, stubborness or just for kicks to let me know that she is in the backseat of the car and not happy about her situation. She screams in the car, at the dinner table, or whenever she doesn't get her way. Again, good times.

She has also become the total copycat. If she sees Lucy doing something, she is bound and determined to try it, too. That means when Lucy is finished eating snack, then so is Harper and she demands to get down from her chair the moment that Lucy does. If Lucy gets up in the morning and Harper wakes up, she no longer goes back to sleep, no, she has to get up too- and screaming begins with intermittent "Momma, Momma, Mommmmmaaaaaa!" until I rescue her from her bed. She will try to climb, she will laugh because Lucy laughs, and she wants to play with whatever Lucy is playing. Lucy is being mostly patient with her and is finding ways to incorporate her into her play.

She loves her babydolls. She cuddles them and takes care of them. She will pretend to feed them, rock them, pat them, hug and kiss them. They are one of the few distractions that usually work when she is being her rotten self. She loves to stick her entire head in the shower while I am in there. This leaves her soaking wet as well as the floor, she usually slips and falls and there I am, mid-shower, drying her off and picking her up, drying the floor so that she is ok. If I happen to mention "where's you baby?" when she enters the bathroom, it is as though she forgot where she was going and she will promptly and turn around and go and find her baby. She also now has a little Harper-size baby that she carries in the car, to the playground, etc when we leave the house. It is her new pal, although it still has not taken the place of the full-sized baby that she has been loving on for about 6 months now.
We've had a great first year with Harper, and all the spunkiness just makes her all the more fun. It was great for her to have additional family here to give her lots of attention and lots of birthday fun. She accepted the challenge of cake-eating a bit hesitantly, but came around in the end with some good cake smashing and lots of it on her face and hands. We are so proud of her and all the things she has learned to do and can't wait to see the next challenges she tackles next- as long as they are done without the screaming. We prefer giggles.