20 Months

I am so behind on blogging these days!  I was on vacation last week when Harper actually turned 20 months and just didn't feel like getting the computer out if I could avoid it :)

Let's start back in February... we celebrated Grammy and Great Grandmom King's birthdays early in the month.  Harper had a blast hanging out with a bunch of cousins at great grandmom's party :)  She also enjoyed the birthday cake.. of course.

Our next exciting event was Valentine's day.  Harper and I made valentine's for all of our immediate families as well as some cookies for all the locals :)  Harper contributed by sticking the heart stickers haphazardly over the giant hearts and scribbling all over them with markers.  They were clearly made with love, though :)  Harper's class at school exchanged sweet little Valentine's as well - I ordered some labels off of Etsy saying 'I'm so glad we're in the same school' and attached them to little bags of goldfish.  I figured they probably all get plenty of candy and maybe this would spare some meltdowns when the candy gets cut off ;)  We spent Vday at home as a fam making homemade pizzas which was fun!  Harper is a pizza eating machine!  The following day Harper went to hang with her aunt and uncle across the street while Andy and I went out to eat to celebrate.

The following weekend we had some of Andy's friends over for a UK game and dinner.  Harper was initially shocked to see all these strangers when she woke up from her nap but soon became the center of the show.  Whenever the group would clap for a big play she would seriously just beam and clap for herself.  And then yell 'again, again' until everyone clapped for her again... ha.  What a mess!

She gets soo hyper whenever people come visit - she loves running laps around the kitchen, doing the celebration dance, etc. I've been doing a little workout video that she loves to do along with me... but basically she just runs around the tv room yelling ' I run I run I run'.

We still love, love Harper's new babysitter - and Harper does too! They are always doing fun little activities and we feel so lucky to have found another great sitter for her.  We will be so happy for her if she is able to find an ideal teaching job but so, so bummed to lose her.  Harper is really into asking where people are these days... mama, dada, whitney, etc.  We babysat a little neighbor baby the other day and Harper has been asking about him daily when she sees the pack and play he napped in.  Whenever we're up in the playroom she can see David's house and she always asks for 'Unc Da' and Claire... what this actually means is she wants to go over and play with Claire's toys but we pretend she is just so excited to see baby Claire ;)

Harper is really into coloring, reading books, riding in her wagon, watching mermaid and tangled, playing with her little house and getting the mail.  Her vocabulary expands daily and it's just amazing.  The CUTEST thing she has started saying is her own name.  It is adorable. I wish I had a video to post on here but she basically says it 'Hoppie'.  She loves saying mama, dada, hoppie over and over again.  She will even sit at the piano singing all of our names together.  We try to get her to include Emma Kate but it's hard to remember someone you've never met ;)  The other seriously cute thing she says is no and 'oh no'.  Fortunately it's not such a common word that it's become a bad thing yet but reading her Spot book cracks me up with all of her 'no's.

The most fun thing we did over the past month was spend a night at the Great Wolf Lodge.  I mentioned I was on vacation last week and while we really just stayed at home and caught up on cleaning, etc, we wanted to do one last really fun thing before baby arrives.  Andy was able to take a couple days off and we just spent a couple days playing at their indoor water park.  Harper looooves the water and was seriously fearless.  She was going off of big slides and absolutely loved it.  Since then she asks nonstop for the pool and 'schlides' lol.  We were in Etown soon after and she took a few test rides on their pool slide and I know she will adore it this summer.

At the end of vacation we thought we'd give potty training a try.  We lucked into a successful #1 and #2 on our first try.. and it was downhill from there! haha  We're now just asking her occasionally if she wants to sit on the potty or letting her sit whenever she asks but success has been few and far between.  I'm thinking maybe she'll be ready over maternity leave and I can be more hands on during the days?  We'll see!

We had another doctor's appt last week to make sure Harper is growing appropriately.  Her height measurement was the same at 12 and 18 months.  I felt like they had overmeasured at 12 months and undermeasured at 18 months and sure enough she had grown a little over an inch in the past 2 months supposedly.  They measured her around 32.5 this time around and 21 lbs I believe.

We're saving pictures differently now so I'm trying to figure out how to get them uploaded onto the blog... I'll try to update! :)

31 Weeks

We are getting so close to baby girl's due date - hard to believe! Just 2 months and 2 days.  I'm guessing we won't make it that long again but we will see :)  I have my last call scheduled for May 2nd so it would be ideal if we could just make it past then.

We have made lots of progress on her nursery, Andy finished up all the painting this week while I've been working nights and it looks pretty cute :)  I repainted a dresser I found at Homegoods so that's taken care of.  I've also ordered a wooden sign with her name for above the bed as well as coordinating big sis/little sis outfits for the hospital.  Speaking of the hospital, I've been thinking about putting together a little gift for Harper from her new baby sister so she will feel special also when she comes to meet miss Emma Kate.  I spent the wee hours of last night pinteresting and found the sweetest personalized book idea that I think I'm going to make her.  In addition I think I'll get her a movie and some other activities that may entertain her if she's willing to stay at the hospital for us for a bit :)

I took a bump picture tonight in the same outfit I wore all last pregnancy... whew... definitely a bigger bump this time around!! And I'm blaming the puffy looking face on night float exhaustion??  I hope Harper's size wasn't a fluke and this baby is the 10 pounder that I was worried about the first time around.

I watched one of our neighbor's 10 month old baby this week along with Harper.  Two kids is a game changer! haha... talk about making it difficult to also be productive around the house.  I figure I'll adapt but trying to coerce Harper to go wherever I need her to go with my hands full of another baby was no easy task.  We did get to take the double stroller out for a test ride and Harper was definitely a fan :)

Here's our little update! :)

31 weeks EK

31 weeks H

How far along: 31

Total Weight Gain: 22

Stretchmarks:  Nope

Sleep: a mess

Best Moment This Week: the 70 degree weather on Tuesday - picnic dinner and s'mores!

Movement: all the time - she is busy in there!

Gender: Baby girl!!

Labor Signs: lots of braxton hicks

Belly Button: shallow

What I Miss: nothing

 What I am Looking Forward to:  being finished with nights for a bit

Milestones: a little over 3 lbs! sleeping in 20-40 minute spurts throughout the day :)