October '12

 

Seems like fall is going to be over before we know it.  This year the HOT weather has stayed waaaaay too long.  Last week it finally cooled down and it was so nice to get out and walk and exercise in the afternoons.  Brendan was working extra at the Fresno Fair, so lucky for him it wasn't blazing.  This is always Brendan's chance to make a little extra for Christmas and since this year Harper will understand a little better the concept I think Harper may be a little spolied:)  About 2 weeks ago I was able to take Harper to a zoo event with Oliver and LaShawn and Harper had a great time.  Though he couldn't see all of the animals since it was night, he did see some of his favorite, inlcuding the giraffes and the new sea lion cove exhibit.  He was so upset when we had to leave one animal to move on to another;)  We ended up going back to the zoo the next weekend with my mom since he was then able to seee all the animals clearly in the daylight.  He loves animals and can say most of the animal noises to go along with them.  Some of the highlights were: the sea lion who seems to know he is on display and comes up and hams it up for the kids, the giraffes (Harper's favorite), epsecially the baby, and the kangaroos, one of them had her baby in the little pouch-too cute!  When Brendan asked if he went to the zoo he responded yes and when asked what did he see, he said "raffe".  Last Fri night my neighbor Julie convinced me to go the fair.  Since Brendan works there so much, he doesn't really want to go on his own time.  He was working that evening there and told us it was a pretty calm night and the animal exhibits were all open, so Julie and her son Baron (2 months younger than Harper) and Harper and I headed down there.  It was a nice night and the boys were captivated by all the lights in the rides section, all the music, the animals and the food.  There was an "international exhibit" with lots of animals from around the world, inlcuding kangaroos, parrots, tarantulas, scorpions, lizards, turtles, ect.  Across the way was the annual farm animal exhibit which is always big, especially with all the of the ag in the valley.  We saw chicks, bunnies, lambs, cows, sheep, birds.  The coolest was defnitely when we saw a sheep give birth, though it did remind very much of Gracy's litter being born in April!  At the end we each got a cinammon roll and shared with the boys, and man, they were definitely fans!  Harper kept asking for mas (more in Spanish, which seems to be his fav word in Spanish these days). 

The sssssnake

New sea lion exhibit

Oliver, LaShawn and god-children

Baron and Harper at the fair

His favorite-raffe!

This past weekend Brendan and I headed down to Bakersfield for Marcie and Jaison's wedding.  We stayed at a really cool bouique hotel there called The Padre.  Got to hang out with some old college friends including my old roomate Bobbi and her husband, so lots of fun was had:)  The couple looked great and the setting was so beautiful and the weather was perfect.  Thanks Nana and Grandpa for watching Harper and for having dinner ready for us when we got home-what a treat!  The happily married couple are currently enjoying their honeymoon in France and Italy-jealous!

Looking foward to the some Halloween parties coming up!

Cheese-Halloween pjs (you can also see the healing black eye from a fall last Fri eve)

Harper went in for his 18 month checkup:
27.2 lbs (has been this weight for a few months now)
32.5 in (getting taller)
85 percentile for weight and head and 50th for height
Dr. Evans shared that Harper is well above normal vocab for this age (average word vocab 20-30 words), he has new words all the time that I don't even know how he learned, and he can link 3 words together on a regular basis and can answer more complicated senetences than just yes or no, for example when the doctor came in: he asked "Whose that?" and pointed to her and then we said the doctor and he repeated "doctor."  When she was asking about foods, Brendan asked Harper, "what is your favorite food?" and he responded "yogurt".  He is pretty good with pronunication though my fav is that he calls his cousin Logan, "Ogan".  Sometimes when you ask Harper who he is he even says "Ogan", guess he loves Logan a lot;)  When he says Harper, it comes without the "r" so he sounds like he is from Boston;)

With the vocabulary thing we have to VERY careful of what we say.  Last week we celebrated Logan's birthday at Tahoe Joes.  Brendan had a long week of work with some overnight work on robberies, so needless to say he was looking foward to relaxing.  We were all chatting and waiting for food and Brendan was letting Harper drink from the straw and glass of water he had in his hand from across the table.  For one second Brendan let go and of course Harper grabbed it and dumped the freezing cold water and ice into his own lap and got soaked and began to cry.  After a quick change of clothes he did not want to sit in his high chair anymore so Nana held him on her lap for dinner.  After dinner was done and the water had all been cleaned up by the busboy, Brendan ordered a gin and tonic and it had just been placed in the table when my mom asked Brendan to hold Harper for him and of course right after Harper kicked out and spilled the drink all over the floor.  Brendan let the "f" word slip out and although not everyone at the table heard that they sure heard when Harper yelled it out right after!  It was soooo funny and we were all practically crying.  Brendan didn't think it was that funny since he doesn't normally say that but of course the one time he does Harper repeats it for the whole table.

Pumpkins from the garden

New lettuce being planted

This bbqing business is serious work

What-Gracy isn't a horse?

Giddy-up!

End of Summer '12

Hi all,
Wow, I feel llike I haven't written in forever and there is so much to share, but I am sure I will miss a few things.  The end of the summer came very fast for us.  We enjoyed our pool a whole lot this summer, especially now that Harper takes swimming lessons every week.  He goes to Nana and me classes at the local swim school.  He is also still very happy about the gym classes he attends at My Gym.  It is neat to see him interact with others and meet other parents (though it is a small world and lots of people I already know there).  School started back and things have finally started to settle down, there were a few classes with 46 kids!  Now we are down to about 40 in Spanish 1.  For the most part they seem to be a good batch:) 

One of the last vacations we took for summer was to Reno to visit the aunties:)  We had a great time and it was so nice to have a little mommy and daddy time while Casey, John, Pat and mom and dad watched Harper.  Brendan and I were able to celebrate our June anniversary in August at our usual-Harrah's steakhouse in Reno, and it is always worth it!  On the way home we had a brief visit with Jenny and her two boys Caleb and Landon.

At the end of summer Brendan's brother Matt and his family came to visit and the girls are always so loving with Harper, too cute.  We had a famly reunion with the Tweedy side and Harper was able to feed the horses along with the other cousins.

Labor day weekend we had won a silent auction for a sailboat ride on Huntington Lake, so we took my mom and dad and Katie, Brendan's cousin with us.  We headed up to the family cabin in Shaver Fri night and left Harper with Grampsy and Grandma (Brendan's parents) for the day Sat while we sailed.  It was a beautiful day and such a fun experience, we had lots of snacks, wine and goodies on board, lunch at a restaurant on the lake and learned the basics of sailing, would love to repeat next year.  We spent the rest of the weekend in Shaver and Brendan's family came up for a bbq on Sun.  Harper had a bit of a cold and also we soon realized was getting in a bunch of teeth and his molars, so he was not feeling well, but as long as he was allowed to play outside he was in heaven.

Harper updates:
17 months now (at his 15 month appt-stats: height-30.14 in, weight-27, in the 90 percentile for head a weight).  The dr had already recommended getting him off the bottle at 12 months, but we had been dragging our feet.  She says it leads to more infections.  Also she said he was drinking too much milk and that can cause anemia, so we had to cut down on the amount and we also went from full fat to 2%.  He already used sippy cups for water, but was NOT a fan of the milk in a sippy cup.  I transitioned him from 5 bottles a day to 2 bottles and 3 sippy cups, it was def a battle of wills at the beginning, but soon became apparent that he could manage and maybe was playing mom and dad since he didn't throw the fits with his Aunties Stacie and Kaila or with Nana!  Here is a funny video where is so mad about the sippy cup but after the video he ends up quietly lying down and drinking it.
***I couldn't get the 1st video of his mini-tantrum to load, but believe me it was a testament to his strong will, but he recovered quickly:)  This is the recovering video:)