Thursday, April 25, 2013

Harper's 2nd birthday

This year we celebrated Harper's birthday on Sunday with a breakfast, so we asked anyone who wanted to come dressed in their favorite pajamas.  Of course Harper loves his pajamas, I thought he would choose Batman, but he choose his Cars pair (though if we had Superman as a choice that would have def been the winner!).  We had quite the turn-out, mostly immediate family (which is big for us) and some close friends.  We served a great spread with help from others, so thanks to you who added additions, it was much appreciated!  As usual Harper loves a crowd and this year spent much of it playing with the other little ones in the living room or backyard.  When it came time to sing Happy Birthday he got a little nervous with all those people singing to him, but quickly realized how fun it was, especially after blowing out his candle on his cupcake.  He chowed down on his chocolate one of course!

 


Gotta have milk with chocolate cake
Happy boy!
Pretty much sums up his whole day
 
Chocolate chocolate!



 
Link to singing Harper happy birthday, he gets a little panicky then realizes it is all for him and recovers;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSXa-v61NZ4&feature=youtu.be



Harper's birthday was actually on Mon, so he was lucky enough to spend the day with his Nana while we were at work:)  He had a fun day platyng at the park and eating a special froggie cookie.  That evening we had dinner at home with my mom and dad and Harper had another cupcake of course!  We have been looking for a new car for awhile and finally found one!  My dad was nice enough to go and pick it up for us in the Bay Area and brought it back to us that night.  It is a Toyota Highlander hybrid.  It is such a nice ride, has the 3rd row we were looking for with a pass though in the second row and air vents in the ceiling for rear-facing car seats and it is AWD.  So excited to drive a car I picked out!  Harper digs mom's new ride, but was a little confused to see dad driving mom's old car (the 300 is really Brendan's, so now he has that back to drive).
 

Harper went for his 2 year checkup.  He is 30.4 lbs, 34 3/4 inches and in the 75th percentile for height and weight.  He is your average 2 year old boy she said, though his verbal skills are more advanced.  She gave us some pointers on behavior, especially when he hits (which can happen with other kids more timid or smaller than him, and oddly enough never at daycare, just with mom and dad-sigh).  He is really getting good at the checkups, which is nice and even remembers his doctors' names.  No shots this time and he doesn't have to be back until 3 years old, though we will see Dr. Evans in Aug when baby girl comes.  One of the cute things he does now is when someone sneezes, he says "Excuse me".

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Spring Break and Easter in LA

The first weekend of Spring Break was quite a busy one with Kaila's baby shower and then the boys' poker/diaper party that night followed by a bday brunch for my brother and me at our parents house in Kinsgburg Sun morning.  Kaila's shower was so nice and baby Hudson is sure spoiled!  We can't wait to meet him, he will be here in less than a month!  The nursery looks so good with gray walls and white chair rail that Jeff worked hard on:)  I ended up staying in Kingsburg Sun night while Brendan headed off for work.  We had fun going down to the river and Harper ended up pretty wet as he really wanted to swim (even though the water to me was freezing!)  Monday morning Grandpa, Nana, Harper and I headed to the zoo.  What fun we had, though it was pretty busy due to Spring Break.  We tried to take the train ride around the park, but the timing was off so we enjoyed the carousel instead.  That night we enjoyed a home cooked meal on the patio since the weather was sooo nice.

Riding the carousel

giraffes
 
Nana reading Harper a goodnight book
 
Brendan had a work conference in LA the week of Spring Break, so he headed down with a co-worker on Sun.  Harper had his first dentist appointment with Dr. Powell on Tues, so we waited until Wed to head down.  We went straight to Harper's godmother Katie's house and when Brendan was done with his conference on Thur he came over and joined us.  She had really re-vamped her guest room and it looks soooo cute and has a comfy bed now:)  Thur morning Harper and I went over to Katie's work at E! and toured her office and met some co-workers, Harper was his usual self showing off as Superman.  We went and saw the turtles outside in the pond and played a bit in the park.  It was interesting to see most of the kids there were accompanied by nannies and not their parents, def different than Fresno or Clovis parks.  We enjoyed lunch and then left her to work and went home for a nap.  Thur night Alle (Katie's sis and Brendan's cousin) came over and brought yummy lasagna and we made a salad to go with it.  We enjoyed the little firepit with some s'mores afterwards and it was perfect weather, not too hot and not too cold.  Fri we headed over to a fav breakfast spot Le Coversacion and then did a little shopping.  Harper fought his nap, but finally went down.  That evening Katie had her riding lesson, so Brendan, Harper and I went to the park by The Grove and walked all around it and played in the diff kids' parks.  We then walked through the Grove to the Farmer's Market and had some appretizers and bought some fresh produce and meat.  Saturday we relaxed around Katie's house and prepped for a bbq with Katie's parents.  The hamburgers turned out delicious thanks to Brendan's bbq skills:)  We had a nice time visiting and catching up with Aunt Jayne and Uncle Mike. 
Rare treat-sleeping next to mommy in bed

Cozy on Katie's bed with Charlie and friends
 
One of his fav outfits (he also sings the ba ba ba ba bam-Superman song with this)
 

We prepped for Easter that evening by stuffing eggs, making fruit salad and getting Harper's batman Easter basket ready.  We told Harper the Easter bunny would come that night and stuff his basket and hide it for him to find in the morning.  We left out carrots for the bunny on a napkin with the basket.  In the morning Harper was so excited to come downstairs and find out where his basket was.  He walked over to the carrots and ate what was left of them;)  Then he saw his basket which was stuffed with Superman and Buzz Lightyear shirts and some Superman headphones and also a rabbit which he named Peter (after having read Peter the Rabbit).  Then we went out to the garden for Harper to find his Batman and Spiderman stuffed eggs the Easter bunny had hidden.  Then we all got dressed to head over to Katie's friend Terri and her family's home for brunch.  Harper, of course, was devastated when I wanted him to wear his Easter outfit and not his superman shirt:(  After a few tears he got over it (though everyday it is a struggle, he is pretty opinionated with his outfits and wants to basically only wear superhero stuff, I try to remind myself that soon enough I will have a little girl to dress in cute clothes!).  Terri and her family were so gracious and put on quite a spread.  The food and company was great and Harper got a traditional egg hunt with lots of other little kids!
Evidence the Easter bunny left behind
 
Batman basket
 
Peter the Rabbit (from Auntie Katie)
 
Rockin' out with his new Superman headphones
 
Easter egg hunt at Terri's

 
 
That afternoon we went to Ikea for a few things (and lost my wallet-boo) and that evening Katie, Brendan and I got our TV fix on with the season finale of The Walking Dead and then the season premiere of Game of Thrones, such great shows
Sugar high you think?
Monday we headed home and back to reality for a week of work:(

Harper had a visit from his great aunt Cathryn, my mom and Cathryn picked Harper up and took him to the zoo.  He came home with some fun gifts, including Elle the elephant, a cute stuffed animal that he took to bed with him that evening.  We enjoyed another bbq on the patio with hamburgers made by Brendan and a salad made fresh from the lettuce from our garden:)

New Harpenese:
-Lifts his hands in the air and says "I come in peace." (from his Buzzlight Year toy)
-When asked what does Dr. Powell say? He answers   "Brush your teeth" or if you ask Who says to brush your teeth?" he answers "Dr. Powell"
-When you say "I love you", he answers "I love you too" or when I say in Spanish "Te quiero" he responds "Te quiero too"
-Does NOT have to get tubes in his ears!!!:)  He has had a quite a few ear infections and so the pediatrician referred him to the ENT, but the ENT thinks since summer is almost here he believes he won't suffer them and this will give his own ears time to grow:) So happy, especially with all of the swimming he will be doing we won't have to have earplugs in and most importantly he won't have to have surgery!