Happy 19 months sweet Harper! We had the most fun ever this month combined with my light work schedule and our fantastic vacation!!
We took a week to go to Florida to visit Andy's high school friends, enjoy the warmer weather and make a quick stop at Disney!! Unfortunately Florida was unusually cool but it was still at least 60 most days. We made it to the beach a couple of days which Harper still loves. She immediately would make a mad dash to the water and we would spend the rest of our time trying to keep her from getting totally soaked :) She loved playing in the sand and eating it.... Of course she also loved feeding the birds! We brought our bikes down and took many, many bike rides through our friends' neighborhood which was great as they had quite a few little ponds with a ton of birds that kept Harper entertained.
Harper and I took a morning trip to the outlet mall while in Orlando and nearly lost bunny... who is probably Harper's most prized possession. Needless to say we made a lap back around the mall and 45 minutes later Bunny was successfully retrieved from the baby Gap.
One of Harper's most favorite things about our trip was our friends' dogs. OMG. Many people probably know how I feel about animals... aka, would not be sad to never even have a goldfish in my house. But I'd say eventually I will end up with a little dog after seeing how much Harper loved them! Every morning she would wake up and start calling for them and barking. She loved it when they licked her face and would return their licks with her own mouth wide open, tongue hanging out kisses. They especially loved hanging out with her during meal time as she is not the neatest eater around. Andy has asked me multiple times about getting one and so far I have decided that there are a lot of plusses and minuses... and all the plusses are for harper and the minuses are for me ;) We decided we will at least wait until we get baby number 2 in and settled before thinking about adding another body to our household.
Midway during the trip, we left our friends house in New Smyrna Beach and went to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for the night. That afternoon we had lunch at the T rex cafe in downtown disney which was super cool for Harper and then checked into our hotel for an afternoon of swimming. Harper loved the zero-entry pool even though the poor thing had blue lips and was shivering like crazy. After a while we talked her into sitting out and drinking some hot chocolate to warm up but then she was back at it! She loves, loves the water! that evening they had a marshmallow roast for the kids which was pretty cute. Our room was great- literally outside our balcony there were zebras, giraffes, etc. It was the first disney resort I had ever stayed at but was such a neat experience!
The following morning we were up bright and early for our breakfast at the Crystal Palace with Pooh Characters at the Magic Kingdom. Harper loved the characters and was not the least bit scared by any of them. She doesn't really watch any Pooh shows so didn't know them but still thought they were pretty neat when they came around to visit each table :) We then spent the day riding just about every single ride at the Magic Kingdom except the roller coasters. It was a chilly day but we were all comfortable with just fleeces on. Harper could not have been better although it definitely helped that the longest we had to wait for a ride was 15 minutes or so. We were at the park from 8AM - 930PM and somehow she survived until about 845 with only 1 thirty minute nap. It is just so amazing how captivating the rides/park are to little kids! She was too young to really be scared of anything and loved all the rides/characters she met. Her most favorite though was the 'neigh' which means carousel! ha. Fortunately the carousel is conveniently located centrally in the park so everytime we walked by we had to stop for a ride ;) Andy and I were exhausted after the day but we really had the best time!
Our other big news for Harper is that she got a new babysitter this month. She is the sweetest girl who really reminds me of Harper's first sitter and so far they have each adjusted really well I think :) Unfortunately, this will likely only be until my maternity leave so if anyone knows of someone who wants to keep some babies starting in August send them my way!! :)
Harper's current favorite things include coloring, chalk, window gel clings and running into rooms and shutting the door before her parents can come in (I hope this isn't a preview to her teenage years ;)). She is obsessed with going upstairs to the playroom to color at her table. It's nice that she likes playing up there so much! She does sneak up there quite often though so we have to keep a pretty close eye on what she's up to.
We had talked about trying some potty training after we returned from vacay so I got her a mini-toilet seat. We weren't going full force but basically would just ask her multiple times a day/after meals if she wanted to go sit on the potty. Wow.. you would've thought I beat her with that toilet seat. There is nothing she'd rather do less than sit on that thing! ha! Dad calls Harper 'my time' cause everything she does is on her own time... could not be further from the truth.
She picks up new words everyday it seems - her latest are blackberries, black beans, bubbles, color, crayon and tree. She learned how to give butterfly and eskimo kisses on our trip and it's just about the sweetest thing ever. She helped put together baby sister's crib yesterday and decided she just might like it for herself ;)
She keeps us laughing constantly. One of her favorite movies right now is Finding Nemo and at the end it goes to credits but then comes back with one quick scene. Everytime it goes to credits she says uh-oh but then when the movie comes back she throws her hands up and screams alright alright alright!! I am working today but Andy told me that as they were leaving church this morning she also excitedly yells alright alright alright! I know she didn't learn that one from me ;) The other funny thing we noticed her doing is trying to procrastinate from bedtime. The other day I asked her if she was ready for her bath (which always comes before bed) but she runs off to the kitchen, climbs in her chair and starts saying 'nana nana nana.' We figured maybe she was hungry and wanted a banana so after eating she went right upstairs for her bath. But then in subsequent days we realized she was conveniently only starving for a 'nana' when we suggest bath time... it's amazing how smart they can be!
She is a sweet girl and so quick to give out hugs and kisses. She definitely has a little temper though and will throw little tantrums when she's unhappy. Fortunately all it takes is about 1 minute of ignoring it to get her to stop and move on to her next activity. She keeps us busy but we couldn't think of anything we'd rather be doing :)
