Here is an update on May...we took swim lessons again with Cusack Swim School with Harper's little friend Kaelyn. The first two lessons were tumultuous with tears until Coach Stephanie gave both girls a serious little pep talk about no more tears. Lo and behold, it did the trick, and the rest of the sessions went very well! It was cute to see them both "suck it up" for their coach. :) Harper still doesn't swim without an adult's ever-present assistance, but she has some good introductory skills under her belt and for sure a growing confidence and love of the water.
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Harper swimming with Coach Kelly. It was perfect having only Harper and Kaelyn in the class because they got lots of attention and practice.
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Doing the "airplane" on her back
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Froggy dives into the water
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| Harper and Kaelyn playing with toys that they would "dive" for. Harper didn't want to put her eyes in the water at first, but I was very proud of her for overcoming that eventually and going underwater to fetch her toys. |
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| Going under and blowing bubbles |
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| This was a picture I took of swim lesson number one or two...oh, the tears! :) |
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| But you can see how things turned around for these two, and the turtle kick board became lots of fun! |
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| Another thing we did in May was to visit Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch--a unique, educational facility that houses various wildlife. We had a Groupon there (surprise, surprise) so it was 1/2 price admission to get in and a fun way to spend a couple of hours in the morning. Brent and Harper rode on this barrel train that basically just went on a fun thrill ride, going around in loops and circles on the grounds. |
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| You never know what a child will latch onto, I guess, but Harper became so obsessed with this little monkey named Chim Chim. You can see them putting their hands up to each other through the glass. Harper stood there watching Chim Chim play for SO long. It was even hard for us to tear her away to go look at other animals. We had to keep going back and checking in on what Chim Chim was up to. :) |
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| The workers at Sharkarosa would bring out various animals and talk a little about them and let everyone pet them. We got to pet a snake, a baby kangaroo and this lemur tail. |
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They also took you out on this open air tram that lasted about an hour to visit all the larger animals. There was food in the red troughs so the animals knew to come right up to eat the food and you could pet them.
In May we also had two big transitions...Harper moving out of her crib into her big girl bed and potty training. Harper has never tried to climb out of her crib, and I didn't know what the bed transition might do to her nap. So we weren't in a super rush to make this change. But we wanted to give Harper several months to adjust to not only a new bed but also a new room with Owen soon taking over Harper's old nursery and crib.
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| One of the last pictures of sweet Harper sleeping in her crib with all her many sleeping friends |
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We turned the playroom into Harper's bedroom (nesting in high gear over here!). Here is Harper's new bed! We were all in IKEA one day and Brent and Harper both loved this particular bed with the fun canopy. We were able to find it on Craigslist so we said, why not?
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And she does love her bed! Luckily it didn't affect her nap either, and she will stay in bed playing with her animals until she falls asleep at nap time. She will also stay in bed in the morning and play until we go into her room. I do love and appreciate that about Harper because it has made that transition so easy on us, the parents.
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| All cozied up reading a bedtime story |
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| We also made big progress with potty training in the month of May. Well, we are still working on parts of it because it's definitely a process, but overall, I would say Harper is 85% there. It finally clicked initially because we would let her watch a TV show while sitting on her little potty, and she accidentally went a few times as she sat there watching. Once that connection finally clicked, it became so much easier. I no longer wanted to beat my head against a wall like I felt the first few days. :) Harper responded well to her sticker chart too. |
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| Having a dinner party with Daddy |
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Loving her chocolate cupcake at a birthday party!
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And finally in May we had a lovely baby shower for Owen. I was so touched with all the sweet, thoughtful touches. It was very special and so appreciated!
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The hostesses had done a travel theme and had little notes in the entryway to write well wishes for baby Owen. They will all be going in his little baby book. :)
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| How creative and cool are these little personalized printed tags? I loved them!! |
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| The food was delicious too! Our friends sure know how to put out a great spread! |
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So cute, once again, with the theme. Here was the beverage service with Dr. Pepper, Coke and water.
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And a picture of the gifts...so many cute little boy things now. I can't wait for him to be here. We are only about 5 weeks away now!
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| The Hostesses |
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| My mom and Kathy |
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| Three pregnant girls in a row--dear friends since college Kamara and Tami |
