May 2016

Let's see, what do I have to say about this month?  Well, we of course worked a lot on getting ready to go to Paris.  SO MUCH TO DO.  Lots of daydreaming about Paris.  I had a birthday.  E learned to crawl (yaaaaaaay!  I finally have a kid who crawls!).  We had some warmer weather, which enabled us to do some more fun stuff.  The rest is in the pictures!

A little bit about Paris:

This month we got visa appointments (a true feat!), purchased a stroller and board for Paris (so much research went into this that I may write an entire post on it), listed a bunch of stuff on CL, purchased health insurance, started practicing French with some amazing CDs that I would highly recommend (Michel Thomas Method), and started reading some Paris themed books (perhaps a post with reviews when I've finished them all).

And of course, some funny Harper quotes:

• One evening I was headed out and Tom was going to watch the kids.  When Harp saw me leaving she turned to Tom and said, "mom's leaving! Don't whine dad!”
• One morning I asked Harper to go get Emerson's video monitor.  When she got it I asked her if he looked like he was awake.  She replied, "Yeah, he's awake, cuz I pressed the wake up button. It's my fault."  Side note: There's no "wake up" button.
• We were at the grocery store and she decided she had to go potty.  She likes to flush it herself, but it flushed automatically when she got off.  I said something like, "Oh, sorry Harp, but it flushed all by itself!"  She gasped and said, "Wow!  The potty is magical!"  Man, what would it be like to find a potty magical?
• We have a toy that plays music when you press a button.  Harp was playing with it and was telling me that there were Cds in there.
• One day she was brushing my hair and she kept telling me, "I’m trying to get all the strangers out of your hair mom.  I'm trying to get all the strangers out."
• One day I overheard her say to E, "baby, you don't have to hide your pain."
• One day she was having a hard time making good choices so I said, "Harp, the next time you're having a hard time making a good choice, just talk to Jesus and ask him to help you."  She said, "Talk to him the next time I see him?"  I said, "Well, you probably won't see him.  But, he's in your head and you can talk to him even if you can't see him."  She said, "Oh, so if I fall and break my crown, my head will crack open and Jesus will come out...and I can talk to him!!!"  I'm not sure what I said in response to that, but probably something like, "uh, yeah.  Yes.  Exactly."
• She has taken to calling grocery shopping, "groshely" shopping
• One day she skinned her knees, so for the next couple days she kept talking about how she had "skinny knees."

Onto the pictures!

We go on Sunday walks most Sundays.  We don't usually get very far.  This is why:

We have this chart where she gets star stickers if she makes good choices and if she gets enough she gets a reward.  One day, the reward was a "yes day" where I was supposed to say yes to anything I could possibly say yes to (aka, not if it's going to hurt somebody or something).  It resulted in her wearing Emerson's jacket:

And in her wearing jammies all day and getting to pick berries (or dead flowers?) and gather rocks after we left her friend's house, instead of going straight home:

As soon as it got even remotely hot, we whipped out the water table.  Summer = water for me.

Fun with mom's birthday balloons:

Ended up going to the zoo on my birthday and forgot H's glasses at home.  It had been a long time and I was glad to see that H was way more interested in the animals (even sans glasses) than before:

We have a similar picture of Harper and Victor in their matching strollers at this age.

She very much wanted to ride the ladybug.

Saw some little baby geese:

E got super messy with an orange, but I was just so happy that he ate some fruit for once and he was just so handsome that I didn't care:

Harper got super into her zoo map and was telling me where Paris was on it and how to get there:

Zoo = tuckered babies

Tom couldn't find the tape when he wrapped my birthday present, so he secured the wrapping paper in the most endearing way possible.  Also, things like this become ok when you're moving and trying to get rid of all your stuff.

More birthday balloon fun.  This was mother's day:

Super cute video for grandma, on Mother's Day:

Harper: "I'm just getting some work done, Mom."

Had a great get-together with some Romania friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in a looooong time.  We had fun coordinating our pants for the picture:

Note the heads of my two children.

We produced a bunch of kids.

Sometimes it's just fun to see what he'd look like.  Blurry preppy baby!

She was pretending my fabric scrap box was her bed.

Had a very lovely outing at Wheeler Farm:

See the rooster in the separate area, on top of the structure?  Harp said he was in time-out.

The kids playing:

E was super happy to get to ride on the swings.  It really seemed like he felt like, "I'm one of the big kids too!"  Super cute.

Was sick of all our usual haunts and was just scanning google maps one night, for some new parks and discovered that there's a LAKE right by our house that I somehow never knew existed:

Fun in Ana's backyard:

Fun with bowls:

Fact:  Harper ended up breaking the blue bowl.

E is SUCH a cheeser.  HAS to crane his neck over to smile anytime someone might be looking.

H: "Are you going to church to see your friends, mom?" S: "I'll see my friends at church, but that's not why we go.  We go so we can learn about God."  H: "This ball is God.  I'm going to sit on it."  Blasphemous toddler.

They redid our neighborhood park a few weeks ago and we went for the first time.  It's way better than the old one and this unconventional slide was a total hit with both kids:

Lego zip-line:

Messy pineapple baby.

He was doing this funny bear crawl a lot one day:

We're so glad when daddy gets home:

Had fun at the splash pad for about 2 minutes before the security guard kicked us out for wearing swimsuits and not having shoes on our non-crawling baby:

Went to the baby animal birthday party at the Thanksgiving Point Farm Country and Harp got her face painted.  She was SO cute while they were painting it and so happy about it afterward:

How we all feel after 3 hours of church.

I was brave and took the kids on a hike one day.  It was a great outing!

Staring at some poop.  A highlight of the trip.

The wildflowers were gorgeous.

He ended up with a whole swarm of ants under him with all the food he dropped.  Had to move him half-way through lunch.

Always coveting what sister has.

E's first time in the big boy seat!

I was so proud of her for going down the big slide.  Sometimes it's all I can do just to get her to go down the tiny ones.  But once she does it she loves it and it makes park trips way more fun for everyone!

Slouchy slouch.

Harp went to her first friend birthday party!  It was a blast:

Rainbow cake!

Little besties.  Hardest part of moving.

There was a random guy walking his tortoise!  He was a hit with all the kids and asked if Harp wanted to ride him.  Apparently he's strong enough to even carry his wife, so a toddler is easy.

Baby basketball:

Went to the Aviary with Sophia and Aline and it was way more fun with friends:

And that was May!