Harper

This one is all about my Harps! In case you missed the post on her ornery brother, Max, here it is.

Harper is the sweet and sassy girl to a T. She is a girly girl who loves to sing and dance. She is often found sashaying around the house. (No, really. She doesn't walk...she struts. It's hilarious!) She smiles to get out of nearly everything. And because she is so stinkin' cute...it almost always works! Stinker! 

She is the free spirit. She will often sing and talk to herself. (I posted a video below.) Harper marches to the beat of her own drum. She flirts and talks to everyone she meets. She is not shy and doesn't know a stranger. If you feel slighted by her brother's standoffish personality, she makes up for it with hugs, snuggles and kisses. 

She is not a dare devil. But she is a talker. She talks up a storm. Harper can repeat anything we ask her to say. She may not know what she is saying yet but she can say it. However, we have been super impressed with her verbal communication. She knows most animals and animal sounds. She can name and point to main body parts (eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, tongue, toes, feet, arm, hand, fingers, hair, belly button). She is getting pretty good at her colors too. I am amazed on how much she is learning. 

We were out Black Friday shopping (but much later in the day) and I told Harper that she was "so pretty". She said "Harper's pretty" as clear as anything. It cracked me up. 

We were waiting to see Max's doctor for his ears a couple weeks ago. There was a picture of a fish and she started making fish sounds. Then reading a book about an elephant, she acted out the elephant's trunk while trumpeting like one. I am in awe of our smart girl!


Some of Harper's favorite things:

• Sitting on anyone's lap...she will just back herself up into your lap and plop down
• Dancing to Disney Jr songs when they come on
• Nonnie--her grandma
• Saying animal sounds---her favorite is "Meow"
• Coloring
• Destroying paper
• Pizza
• Hot dogs
• Bath time
• Putting her coat/jacket on---but don't try to take it off. Geez!
• Uh-oh
• Throwing food down for Bella
• Throwing toys over the baby gates and into the kitchen
• Running---all while twisting her hips as she does
• Being chased--"Harper I am going to get you" sends her into a giggling fit
• Painting
• Brushing her teeth
• Playing bubble pop on the tablet
• Her Minnie Mouse doll--she says "Meeennnneeeee"
• Waking up in the morning---she is always her happiest
• Putting shoes on
• Reading books---to herself or getting read to
• Wheels on the Bus
• Looking at picture albums
• Cheez Its
• Cookies---anything sweet. She has a sweet tooth and loves it all!
• Taking her socks off and losing them around the house
• Pigtails (She looks adorable!)
• Being wrapped up in her bath towel
• Wearing scarfs or even blankets around her head
• Carrying her purse around
• Hugging her brother

This girl loves everything so it was hard to think of things she DOES NOT like. 

Harper is a good little eater. The only thing she now won't touch is bananas and she used to love them. She can put away meatballs and spaghetti like it is her job. She is smaller than Max by height and weight. 

She is also teething again and those top molars are no fun. She handles it better than her brother but she is definitely uncomfortable. 

Harper's hair is growing like crazy. She won't leave barrettes in so we usually have wild and crazy hair or in ponytails. 

Girl loves her accessories!

Loving on her brother

-Lisa-

Where Has the Time Gone? And other updates

Max and Harper have been growing, changing, and learning so quickly! They are over 14 months old. Seriously. It seems like they should still be like this...

But, really they are toddlers like this...

So, our house is a lot louder. It is filled with giggles. Blocks banging. Screaming from fighting over toys. Furniture being moved. Doors of our TV stand being ripped by the hinges. But gosh, it is so great!

Our house is also a disaster area. We now need new floors and refuse to have people over until it is done. (We needed new floors B.B.-before babies-but now we really need them!)

When can they start helping clean up??

They are learning machines, I tell ya! They literally can repeat anything we say. I told them "dangerous" when trying to rip the safety outlets out for the 100th time. Pretty soon, anytime they go near the outlets and we say "no", they say "dangerous". It's adorable. They talk all the time. We don't always understand their babbles but for the most part we can communicate pretty well. They sign "more" but also say "more" now when they sign. They say and sign "all done" and "milk". They say "uh-oh" for everything. Here is another list of their words: night-night, bye-bye, hello, hey, ball, dog, momma, dada, no, thank you, diaper, toothbrush, Bella, Grampa.

Many other words they can repeat but they don't really use when they are talking to us regularly.

They are not only walking, but running. So that's fun!

They climb like champs. On furniture. On us. On each other. In fact, Max has now started this aggressive hugging. I know that seems like an oxymoron but seriously, he starts hugging Harper sweetly and then winds up tackling her to the ground where he holds her down. All while appearing to be a loving brother. Poor Harps! She also gets the brunt of his biting. Although, I think he is getting better with this the more he learns to communicate.

We started a Timeout Corner. At first, I thought they were too young for this. However, daycare is teaching us a lot about what they can do! They sit at a big kid table, sleep on cots (not cribs!), and play on playground equipment.

The daycare teacher sent us proof that they sleep on cots when I didn't believe her.

Grandparent's Day at their school (All four of their grandparents were there!)

Big kid activities mean they get in big kid trouble too. Harper nearly fell off the slide on the playground and a teacher had to try and catch her and wound up scratching her cheek. Poor girl got a nasty scratch but I will take that over a head injury any day!

Harper's scratch

Max impresses us with his engineer mind. He inspects everything to figure out how it works. Then, this happened!

How the heck does a 14 month old make block towers?! That just seems crazy to me. Such a smarty pants! He thinks everything through...you can see the wheels turning. Usually, he is plotting his next move to get around the barriers we have in place or to do something he is not supposed to do. But he is such a lover. He gives the best smooches and hugs. But he also has a cry that breaks your heart. (Along with an ugly cry face to boot!)

Harper is the sweet, cuddly girl. She melts your heart with one glance. Her eyes smile from deep inside her soul. She is such a Momma's girl too! I love that. When she is sick or tired, only Momma can make it better.

Loves Momma and Me Selfies

They love this tub! No idea!

Both have been cutting multiple molar teeth. How awful for them?! They are handling it like pros. Harper still only has two top front teeth, three bottom front teeth, and now FOUR molars! Max has four top front teeth, four bottom front teeth, and now TWO molars! They are both working on more too. Thank goodness for teething tablets. They have made all of our lives better.


I have no idea how much they weigh or their height. We go to the doctor in October for their 15 month checkup. I would guess around 21-22 pounds. They wear size 4 diapers now and 12-18 month clothing. They are short so we usually have to roll their pants so they fit them. My shorties!


The twins have had their ear tubes in their ears for a couple months nearly...but we see their doctor that did the surgery this week. Max has an ear infection now but the tubes just let the infection drain out. It is gross! We put in ear drops a few times a day and wait to see the doctor. Hopefully, that will make it all better.

They eat everything in sight. Heck, they ate chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant last week! They are going to eat us out of house and home. And our dog is loving cleaning up the food they purposely throw on the floor.

No more ravioli in the middle of the day!

They sleep really well. There was one night last week that Max woke up at 2am. He didn't ever go back to sleep. He didn't cry, just thought it was play time. He didn't nap until 12:30!!! It was insane. And Jeremy and I were exhausted too! But normally, sleep is great. Although, I miss the rocking and soothing a bit...we just lay them in their cribs. They go to sleep on their own and self-soothe for the most part. Max still MUST have a pacifier to sleep. But he is pretty good about finding it in his crib in the middle of the night in case it falls out of his mouth.


Our lives are so busy. Between my two jobs, Jeremy's job, my parents' anniversary party, Halloween costumes, organizing closets, Zumba classes and trying to keep an organized chaos with the rest of the house...I am exhausted! But it is so much fun!

New Classroom before school started

Now some other random pics of the last two months. I have not been great with taking too many pictures so I am sorry!

They love bath time and splashing us. 

Max is now obsessed with his Tickle Monster hands

Pigtails!!!!!!!!!

Watching Dada mow

Dinos

See you soon!
-Lisa-

Randomness

Since I have waited awhile to blog. A lot has happened since...

Let's start with the babies:
We had their shots last week. They did great. No issues. Max was on the smaller part of the scale (10%) again. He weighed 19 pounds, 11 ounces and 28.5 inches long. Harper was right in the middle for her charts (48%). She weighed 20 pounds, 12 ounces and 28.75 inches long. Both seem to be doing well meeting all of the required milestones already.

Today, they had their tubes put in. They have been suffering with ear infections for months (poor babies). They did awesome! I couldn't have asked for better babies. They were starving I am sure since we had to cut off food at 6:30am and clear liquids at 11am. Their surgeries were at 2pm.

I will post some more of the cute babies later on too.

Update on me: My thyroid seems to have regulated a bit. I haven't GAINED any more weight. But I haven't lost any either. I guess I need to actually start working on that!

I had jury duty for the first time ever on Monday. I have had to call in all month but was never actually asked to report. It was kind of neat. I liked seeing the process. I knew I wouldn't be chosen as soon as I walked in the courtroom because I knew one of the prosecutors through mutual friends and of course had to declare that.

I have started putting my new classroom together at my new school. It is a tedious task but after a couple afternoons, I have made headway. I have attended a few PD meetings too. I don't really have to start my required meeting until the 31st. So I only have a few more short days of my summer. Sigh!

I have also started preparing for my second job. I will be a literacy education adjunct professor for University of Central Missouri this semester. I am teaching an online course that I actually took myself in my Master's program.

Now....


Babies!

Harper eating a lemon is so cute!!

-Lisa-

11 Month Update-One month to go

Holy cow! We have one more month before my babies are O-N-E!!

With each passing month, they just learn more and more things. We are in the stage that makes it incredibly difficult to keep them contained. We have rigged a pretty good system of blocking off our entire living room. But they somehow manage to find the smallest hole to climb through. They are SO fast! They are in the kitchen opening and closing drawers before we know it. The next thing on our list is finally baby proofing the kitchen so it isn't such a big deal that they escape there.

Our disaster of a living room trying to keep them contained

Instead of organizing the last month's events in a logical order, I am just going to do a random list of everything they have learned. My brain is disorganized and I have a total of 30 minutes before their nap is over!

• Max is OBSESSED with cell phones, laptops, tablets, and pretty much any tech device! We gave him an old cell phone of Jeremy's but after a few days, he was over it and wanted the real thing. Jeremy found him hiding out behind the couch with my phone. He cracks me up! He has called my mom, his Nonnie, and I heard her saying Hello over and over again. He also has taken a few selfies. Love this curious little man!

What apps to buy for Mom?

#Selfie

• They both love to blow kisses. It melts my heart. I dropped them off a daycare the other day and I said "Bye Bye" and blew them a kiss. They both started blowing them right back to me. Love!
• At a recent outing to the park, Max started getting scared of the swing. He has enjoyed it before but freaked. Harper loved it though!

• They also have started fighting over toys. It is sometimes funny but other times...good grief! I didn't know the brother/sister arguing would start so young.  Max is a biter. How do you stop this when he doesn't understand that it hurts?! He left a mark on Harper at daycare a couple weeks ago. I know this sounds awful...but at least it was his sister and not another kid. We have been trying to catch him doing it so we can enforce the no biting rule. He now tries to bite her and looks at us and stops. However, there have been other instances where he has got her! Argh!

• They are talking more and more. Hey, Hi, Hello, Bye-Bye-, Night-Night, Bella (our dog's name), Mama, Dada, No (only Harper does this one), and lots of other babbles. 
• They both stand for awhile without holding onto anything. Max has taken two whole steps by himself but nothing more. I really want them to walk before their first birthday so we have been practicing every night before bed!
• They eat all table food now. And they are such good eaters. They are really bottomless pits. Their favorite foods are grilled cheese, watermelon, pancakes, grilled chicken, ravioli, and cooked carrots. They love to eat but also love to make a mess and feed Bella. 

Occasionally, we nap in the highchairs.

• They are pretty good sleepers but always have been. They sleep about 10 hours at night. Max is still on a two nap a day schedule. Harper is down to one nap on most days. 
• They play hard. Sometimes wrestling each other (climbing up each other and then rolling around together. Super cute!). Sometimes racing. Throwing the ball back and forth. They love being outside in the wagon or going on walks/runs in the stroller. 
• They interact with each other all the time. Sometimes we find them holding hands as they eat in their highchairs. They are constantly laughing at each other or with each other. They team up to get into something they aren't supposed to. Usually Harper is the lookout. Ha!
•  Our hair is growing like crazy. Max is need of a haircut. My sister will do that VERY soon. Harper has upgraded to enough hair for a ponytail!

Look, I'm a big girl!

Crazy hair, dude!

• Their weights have kind of leveled off since last month. They weigh about the same. Max is 19 pounds and Harper is 20 pounds. 
• A lot of their weight issues may be attributed to their bout of ear infections. It all started back on April 24. We are still on antibiotics! Seriously. We have an appointment at the children's hospital here in KC to get tubes in their ears. I hate to see them go through any type of surgery but we need this done. Poor babies have ear infections that just won't go away. Once on antibiotics, their entire digestive system is thrown off. We use probiotics but they still have diarrhea. I will be so glad when they can feel better for good!
• Both are still in size 3 diapers. 
• We are almost all the way into 12 month clothing now. Max can occasionally fit into 9 month. They both still wear some 6-9 month too. 
• Harper has always been a super sweet and friendly little girl. She is still just the most loving baby. She loves everyone and melts everyone with her twinkling smile. 
• Max is getting much more used to people. He was always reserved and shy. He is definitely coming out of his shell now. I love that he is showing his fun loving, adventurous nature to everyone now. 
• Both of them now have 4 teeth. Harper finally caught up to Max.
• They are in love with our dog, Bella. They scream, squeal, call her, and just can't keep their hands off of her. Bella, who normally hates that stuff, is being so good with them. 
• Brushing their teeth has become one of their favorite activities. It is a fight to get the toothbrushes away from them. 

• Their first birthday party is coming up on July 13. We are doing it at a local park. The theme is Very Hungry Caterpillars. I have literally done nothing besides send out the invites. I have lots to do to get ready for the big day. 

Getting hugs from Uncle Curt

Cousins meet

Cool Dude.

Fun with friends!

Monthly pictures are becoming increasingly more difficult!

Best we could do!

-Lisa-