The Sleepy Idealist: January 2015

Alright, so this has been an interesting and, in many ways, challenging month! I feel like there's a lot to say about it. It was challenging for several reasons. For one, Harper was pretty much sick all month. Ever since half way through December she's been sick with one thing after another with just a day or two between each one. It has NOT been fun. She has also continued to get worse and worse at sleeping. As she is getting older, she is throwing a lot more tantrums and just being more defiant and opinionated, in general. Lots of screaming! Her demand to be constantly fed has reached a zenith! I have had multiple people tell me that they thought I was exaggerating about Harper's constant demanding for food until they saw it in person. It's intense. Another challenging thing was that she started swim lessons and was NOT a fan. She has basically screamed through all the lessons so far. She loves the water, but she doesn't like being controlled/forced to do things and doesn't like water on her face. And finally, we made a trip to the pediatric ophthalmologist and discovered that Harper is severely farsighted. This is what has been causing her to cross her eyes (it's from trying to compensate by focusing really hard, or something like that). As a result, she will be wearing glasses. I was just relieved to know what was going on, to not have to do surgery (at this point and hopefully never) and to have it be glasses instead of a patch. And looking on the bright side further, at least I personally think glasses will be adorable on her. Not looking forward to the pain of making her keep them on though!

Luckily, this month wasn't JUST challenging. For one thing, Harper learned a TON of new words. Like, way more than in any other month. I really feel like we can communicate with her now for a lot of things. She has started learning how to feed herself with a spoon too. I'm thinking she probably could have learned this earlier if I'd tried, but I didn't even think about it until now. She picked it up really quickly though, so she was probably moooore than ready. One happy thing for me was that I started an indoor garden! I got an Aerogarden at a garage sale for like $3 and planted a pepper plant and a tomato plant in it. And I have to say that, WOW, I am impressed! All you do is keep the water level to a certain point (which doesn't take much) and add nutrients (which come with it) when it tells you to and the rest is totally automated. It's been a couple weeks since I planted them from seed and both plants are already pretty big! They are growing way better than any I have ever planted outside.

Here is my plant setup right when I first planted the seeds.

And here it is a week or two later.

Another good thing this month was that my good friend, Alyse, came into town for quite a while! Alyse and I went to high school together and have been friends ever since. We were pregnant together, when she used to live in Utah, and would meet for lunch pretty much every single day. I'm always excited when she comes into town. This time, we worked on projects together. I have never really been a crafty person, but ever since Harp I have become a lot more so. I still don't like doing crafts that don't serve much purpose, but sometimes there are things that I want but don't want to spend a lot of money to buy. So, instead, I try to make them. Plus, I've found that it's just a really good feeling to make something with your own hands! So, Alyse and I worked on a bunch of things like that together.

Oh, and I just have to make a shout out to the awesome weather we've had this winter! Oh my goodness! It's been so warm! I know it's probably really a bad thing and caused by global warming and all, but I just can't get myself to be anything but happy about it.

Here's the monthly list of words that Harp has learned. At some point I'll stop writing them all down but right now I still enjoy it and it helps me remember so many things about the month.

Jesus (there's a picture of Him on our kitchen table which she likes to point at and greet)

sit down

happy (with sign)

breakfast

lunch

dinner

snack

panda (her favorite stuffed animal, which she sleeps with)

pirate (from a library book that she loves)

dance

outside

truck

milk

juice

yogurt

raisins

kick

pool

bath

park

Sheri (Alyse got her to say it. It was just weird to me!)

Ezra (Alyse's little boy, who is 7 weeks older)

hey now

goodness

great

nice

open it (sounds like, "uh-BEAT")

all done

down

keys (Funny story - Tom and I are notorious for forgetting things, like keys. Quite often we'll walk out of the house, then remember we don't have the keys and go back in. Harp has apparently noticed this, so the other day she was in front of me and about to walk out the door when she turned, looked up at me and asked, "keys?" I had totally forgotten them and was like, "thank you!!!")

Donny

waffle

berries

pants

hands

sun (she loves to point out pictures of it whenever she see them)

me (me and you and super confusing to her)

you

chicken

brush (usually meaning toothbrush)

bubbles

flowers

kisses (gives hugs and kisses on command)

car

motorcycle (shy-co)

walk

this (for anything she doesn't know the name of, that she wants)

chair

belly button (started off as "bag-EAT" and is now "button")

bye-bye

hi (went through a cute little phase where she said this all the time to me. I'd be in the kitchen and she'd walk in, cock her head and say, "HII!" super enthusiastically and with her little high-pitched voice)

basketball

light

spaghetti (getti)

rice

orange (oinge)

touch (usually as in don't touch)

owie

pizza

ice cream

eggs

go (usually, "go! go! go!" while running around)

phone

bike

glasses (ironically loves to point out glasses on anyone who is wearing them)

funny

bow

trash

bar (as in, granola bar)

cereal

one more

bonk (whenever she bonks her head)

plop (she likes to pretend to fall and say this)

blow

woah (whenever she hears a noise from outside or upstairs she'll stop, her eyes will get all big and she'll say, "woah!" Sometimes also when there has been no perceivable sound.)

train

choo choo

piggy

slide

ba (as in, the #8 in Chinese)

jacket

coat

Bogs (Tom's nickname for the stuffed animal I had as a kid, whose name is Bagge, pronounced Boggy)

where are you? (when we are looking for something)

night night

stroller

merci

bag

oatmeal

poop

jelly

off

bread

popsicle

star

spin

cough

basketball

Onto the pictures:

In the waiting room at one of our many doctor's visits.

One Saturday we decided to go out to eat for breakfast. We went to the Kneaders down town and then stopped by Tom's work for some reason. We had such a good time we decided to make it a monthly affair.

Looking out the window at Dad's work.

Riding the train.

Before Harp was born we bought her a stuffed Panda. Lots of thought went into the decision actually and we felt quite fond of the Panda. We really hoped she'd like him too. Well, just recently she has gotten super attached to him and it's super cute.

Went to the zoo:

And the park:

Since Harp started sometimes skipping her morning nap, I started embracing it and just planning other activities during that time. That has enabled us to start going to storytime at the library again. She's usually the craziest one in there because she isn't one to just sit in my lap, but she seems to really enjoy it.

They blow bubbles for them at the end and I always get this song in my head:

Tom often counts in Chinese to her. When he does, she tends to like the number 8 (pronounced "ba") for some reason. One morning I went to get her out of her crib and she was saying "ba." So, I started counting to her and she was looooving it. Every time I got to "ba" she'd whisper it with me.

Panda came with us to the park one day. She sat him like this on the chair.

She's not a big fan of walking on grass or dirt or snow for some reason:

She looooves playing on this bouncy walkway at the playground:

Just being cute in the bathroom while I get ready:

I love this video of Jill rocking her to sleep (something she won't let Tom or I do) because she just looks so sweet:

Wearing Daddy's earmuffs

I have a funky expression on my face, but I think she's super cute in this picture. Getting ready to go on an evening walk.

We went outside to go on a walk one day and I had to get the stroller out of the garage. Lately, whenever I open the garage she goes straight for this bouncer and wants to play in it for ages. She never wants to get out. She didn't play with it nearly as much when she was the right age and it was in the house!

On a walk:

Another doctor's visit

Poor sick Harp.

Crazy bedhead.

She loves to play in her old carseat.

Went to the library one day and had to return this toy, as it was part of a set of things we'd checked out. I made the mistake of letting her play with it one last time in the car and she didn't want to let it go after that.

Enjoying the legos at Barnes and Noble

A nice Harp-sized seat under the sink. We really explored the bathroom because we had to have her breath in the steam from the shower when she had croup.

Got together with my Romania friends and their kids. All the people that went to Romania with me were girls and ironically, (until kid #2) comes those of us that get together frequently all have just girls! This pic is missing one of the kids, who is also a girl.

This happened.

At the opthamologist, before all the "fun" began. They had to shine a light through a piece of glass, into her eye over and over to determine her prescription. After a while she kept trying to grab the glass pieces and I'd have to hold her arms down. She started to cry, which made her eyes close, so the doc had to pry her eyes open while she did it the rest of the time!!! Worst doctor's visit ever.

After the ophthalmologist she conked out in the car on our way home. She was sooooo out that she stayed asleep for a long time after we parked (which she never does anymore) and even slept for another 1.5 hours after I transferred her to the crib! Not only does she rarely take decent naps these days but she never transfers from the car to the crib!

Walked into the basement/laundry room one day and saw this interesting arrangement. That's a snow shovel, on a chair, propping up the ceiling?

Our local grocery store has been having amazing deals on berries lately. I love berries, but they can get so expensive that I rarely buy them. So, this was soooo exciting to me! Usually, because they're so expensive, I get just one container of berries and I hoard them all and don't give any to poor Harp. This time, they were so cheap that I bought a bunch and even had enough for Harp to partake (though I was still tempted to hoard). She LOVED them and would ask for "bewwies" aaaaaall day long.

Went to Walmart to look at glasses. She is actually saying, "glasses" in this picture.

One of my recent projects was to make this little family album with cousins, etc. out of an unused CD holder. I don't usually tell her who the people are because usually I just hand it back to her in the car. But, the other day she was flipping through it during church and she got to the page with my sister's kids. One of them is named Donny and she said, "Donny!" We thought it must be a fluke, but later she flipped back to it and said it again! We're still not sure how she figured that out.

One Sunday it was an especially warm Winter day, and we decided to go on a family walk to the park. We really really enjoyed ourselves. Sometimes family walks are the best.

Harp looooves her Daddy.

Bark goatee

Good face.

One of Harp's favorite games to play is "Where's Harper?" She puts her hands over her eyes and we say, "wheeeeere's Harper?" until she takes them off. Then we say, "there she is!!!" She loves it and does it all the time.

Same game

She's been super weird about naps lately and will often barely want to nap for most of the day, then want to take a REALLY long nap in the evening. It goes late enough that we have to wake her up so it doesn't affect her going to bed at night. One day she was so tired in the evening that even after a nap she just fell right back to sleep on Tom after he went and got her.

Playing on the shakey bridge with Daddy:

This video cracks me up. As background, we've found that she doesn't get as impatient when we're cooking if we prep it on the kitchen floor. Also, she thought the tomatoes were apples:

Eating breakfast with toothbrush firmly in hand. She's a bit attached to her toothbrush.

Decided to let her play in the tub one day. It was a bad idea. I didn't realize how wet she'd get even if there was no water in it.

Playing with the dolly at Alyse's house. I have a video of her playing with this doll at 6 months but I'm too lazy to find it and link to it:

Alyse pulled out the dress-up clothes and started dressing the babies. It was SO cute. Harp loved it and totally looked like a little lady.

Ezra wanted in on the fun too. To be fair, she tried to put a cape on him at the beginning but he didn't like it.

Swim lessons! You can see how much she hates it:

Playing at Alyse's (mom's house):

She gets super sad whenever we go check the mail and don't see our friend Jill, whose front door is right by the mail. It makes it kind of a challenge to get the mail sometimes!!

Going down the slide at City Creek:

One day Alyse and I took the babies to the Children's Museum. It was pretty great. I think Ezra especially loved it. Alyse brought her camera and took a bunch of pics of the kiddos too, which I loved. Isn't Harp just a cutie?? Can you picture her wearing little black glasses? I actually already have a picture of her with her new glasses, but that's for the February post:

Stink face, haha.

She started crying at one point and I wanted Alyse to get it on camera because her crying face is just so darn cute! I want to remember it!

Ezra and Harper playing house. They were so cute together. Sometimes Harp got a bit pushed around by Ezra since he's so much bigger and she's in a more timid phase at the moment. Other times he was giving her sweet kisses and they were just enjoying each other:

Harp always wants to be "up" with me when I'm doing stuff, which makes it really hard to get anything done. I've been wanting to work on projects a lot lately, so this can be a problem. One day, I pulled this chair up so she could still be up with me, but not get in the way:

Got a new umbrella-ish stroller since our old one got broken. Here's poor sick Harp trying it out for the first time. She actually loved rolling around the house in it and didn't want to get out.