Wow. Four months since my last blog post. I could spend a long paragraph lamenting my busyness and contemplating if I should even try to blog anymore, but I won't. Obviously since I am here again, I do want to keep blogging! And what I want to write about is our daughter at 4 1/2 years old!
It's hard to know where or how to begin describing someone…Harper is funny, joyful, smart and sweet. She has definite opinions about her fashion these days! I have never made an effort to have her clothes easily accessible (other than pajamas) because, quite frankly, I liked having control in the clothing department! But Harper now drags her little chair over to her closet and stands on it so she can reach the hung up clothes and carefully constructs what she wants to wear each day. Given a choice, she always picks leggings, a skirt, a short sleeved shirt and a headband. It's a little bittersweet that she is not my "doll" to dress up exactly as I please anymore, but I can also step back and admire how she is maturing bit by bit. I try not to let it make me crazy when things don't match! ;) Actually I still pick out outfits on Preschool and church days, and give her a choice between two the night before. On the other days, though, she has free reign, and she loves it! And on Preschool days, the first thing she does when she gets home is change into an outfit of her choosing! :)
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| Naturally, Harper also has thoughts about her nighttime attire! She likes gowns best with slippers (and a "night-night headband"). Yes, she chooses to sleep in a headband each night. I love that little quirk about her. She still loves to sleep with her pink puppy and red blanket. Harper also in the last six months since she turned four, stopped sucking her thumb all on her own. I am happy that we lucked out on this one and didn't have to "intervene" ever. Another little chapter of babyhood closed (tiny wistful sigh). |
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| Harper at her four year check up. She got a great report, survived all the shots, and is still 95% in height! |
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| Harper loves short sleeve shirts better than long, but her ultimate favorite are tank tops! I don't have any in her closet at the moment, but I know when summer hits, that is ALL she will be wearing (with skirts). |
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| Harper's friend Marin moved away but sent her this puppet making kit in the mail for her birthday. Harper loved it! I love that Harper still talks about Marin being one of her best friends and asks to FaceTime with her--so tech savvy, these kids. :) |
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| Harper on her bike -- her big gift for her 4th birthday. Unfortunately bike riding was put on hold for a time due to a little accident that occurred in October (more on that soon). |
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| First day of 4's Preschool -- We have been blessed by another great year at school with two caring teachers. Brent even worked with Harper's lead teacher back when Brent was teaching art and Mrs. Katie was teaching kindergarten. So it was nice to have that coincidental connection going in! |
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This social girl comes home talking about school friendships now. It is a highlight for her if she gets to walk into school with a friend or walk out to the car with a friend! She tries hard to make that happen as often as she can!
Well, actually, Harper is not a come-home-and-report-all-the-details-of-her-day kind of kid. She shares things here and there as they occur to her. I have learned not to badger her with too many questions on the car ride home. Sometimes she will say, "I'm tired, Mommy. Can we talk more later?" Okay. Harper and Brent have started a routine of sharing three things about their day with each other, and that little bit of structured conversation has helped us get some more of the "details" of her day. :) |
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| A quirky and fun personality! |
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| "Please tie scarves around me from head to toe." :) |
In September, we bought a Groupon for a ballet / tap class. It was an okay experience -- Harper liked the outfit the best. The class was a little too large, in my opinion, so there were frequent periods of waiting around. But she got to have a little taste, at least, and for now we are happy having our lives be "extracurricular" free -- plenty of time for busyness and complicated schedules later. She will take swim lessons again in May, though.
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| Sweet ballerina! |
Another present Harper got for her birthday was a butterfly kit from her Mimi and T-Pa. We sent off for the caterpillars and truly had a fascinating time watching them develop their cocoons and hatch. I must admit that I was obsessed and Harper was very engaged with the whole process as well! We had been preparing Harper for the big release for several days, but when the actual time came, it was very hard on our little girl! It was a sad thing to say goodbye, as we have thus far never had a pet of any kind.
But another trait of Harper's is that she usually bounces back pretty quickly. So after some very real and intense (see video at the end) sad emotions, Harper was able to be okay. For months whenever we would see a butterfly flying anywhere she would say, "I think that is one of my butterflies!" :)
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| Reluctantly opening up the lid to let the butterflies fly free |
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| A family friend has a son who turned five and Harper was invited to attend his karate party. So much fun to witness! I just loved seeing her among all the boys trying to follow along with the instructor. I think they were shouting here, "Focus my mind!" Hilarious. |
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| Harper loves when Brent gets home, and he plays with Owen and her! This is usually when I am trying to cook dinner. When the weather is nice, they will play outside. |
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| Balancing blocks on her head provided some amusement as well. |
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| We continued our October Hot Springs tradition and Mimi and T-Pa stayed back with both kids this year. Harper had the class "pet" Bella that weekend as well. They were good sports to take pictures of Harper and Bella around town (and also step in majorly and take care of Owen as he developed croup while we were away)!! Where would we be without having grandparents close by?!! |
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| One of my greatest joys is watching Harper and Owen play more and more as siblings as Owen gets older. Harper loves getting into Owen's crib when he wakes up from a nap and playing with him! |
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Sweet brother and sister -- I love that this little look between them was captured -- friends for life, I hope!! Well, I would not forfeit all the sweet times they shared together playing in the crib, but it did lead to an unfortunate accident one day in late October…
Harper got to the point where she could crawl into the crib on her own, and we would help her crawl out when they wanted out. This had happened SO many times! One Saturday I was away at a women's conference and Brent was home with the kids. I will say right off the bat that this could have JUST AS EASILY happened with me home because this was just a regular part of their routine.
Anyway, on my drive home, I was carpooling with a friend and her phone rang, and it was Brent. My phone was still on silent from the conference. Immediately I got a feeling of dread because I knew Brent wouldn't be calling my friend unless something had happened. I feared for what he would say. He came right to the point and said that Harper had fallen out of the crib and most likely her arm was broken. Instead of waiting for us to help her get out, she had chosen to climb out herself to get a quick toy she had forgotten and wanted.
Brent's words filled me with worry for our girl, but I also felt a measure of relief that it was a broken arm and could be fixed! Next I worried about holding it together and being strong for her because I have a very weak stomach and feel faint when it comes to blood and gross medical stuff. I prayed on the rest of the way home that I would react calmly if it looked scary and unnatural. Harper was a-mazing. She was calmly sitting on the couch when I came in (you could tell her arm was broken, but it didn't look too scary). She was bravely saying that she already felt better and thought she was okay. Oh my goodness. That was how she acted the rest of the eventful day at the children's hospital. She broke both bones in her forearm and her elbow. So she had a cast for eight long weeks!
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| Cast #1 was a pink one! The hardest part was not being able to play during recess at Preschool. And also having to wrap her arm up for bath time and not being able to play in the bath tub. She was a trooper, though, as she usually is! She just handled it and did her best to manage writing and coloring since it was her right arm. |
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| Another cast in the process! This was her final cast, which only covered her forearm and not her entire arm. It was a happy day when the cast was removed for good on December 23rd! |
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| Um…are you surprised that our daughter has already broken an arm?!! So the two of them are playing in Owen's room, and I walk in to find this scene. Harper wearing heavy duty sound muffs (why?), and she has made a bed for herself on top of Owen's changing table. Owen is happily hammering something down below. It's a good thing our furniture is attached to our walls! |
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| Harper has a LOVE for her cousin Addy. If she knows she is about to see Addy, she will be excited for days! She will say, "I'm so excited my stomach hurts!" Harper makes Addy cards all the time, and they have gotten into mailing each other cards and little surprises in the mail. It's so sweet! Harper will say, "I have a lot of work to do! I need to make Addy 100 cards. I better get busy!" |
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| Thanksgiving Feast in which Harper chose to be a Native American |
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| Hooray for cousin time and beautiful fall leaves! |
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| Harper loves her time with Nana! Once again, grandparents ROCK! |
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| Christmas musical -- Harper is on the back row -- love those crooked donkey ears! |
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| We were buying fabric to donate to church because talented individuals who can sew (not me) make dresses to give to girls in Honduras every year. My little helper in the back was almost completely hidden! :) |
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| On a warmish winter day, we went outside and experimented around with these expanding water beads I had on hand. It was a super fun, sensory activity! |
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| Growing bigger... |
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| We let our feet get in on the sensory fun as well! |
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| Harper loves museums and science in general. She says it is her favorite subject. |
Harper also loves to build…cities or fairy houses mostly.
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| Hands on fun at the museum |
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| Mesmerized by the dinosaur bones at the Perot Museum |
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| Doing a little science experimentation at home too! :) She got a science experiment kit from us for Christmas. All the components are great for experiments but also just good for all kinds of imaginative play--one can find many uses for test tubes, droppers, magnifying glass and funnels! |
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| Another thing Harper loves is family movie night. Well, Owen is not included in this tradition yet, which makes it a special, big girl activity. We make a pallet on the floor, she gets in her sleeping bag, and all three of us lie down and watch a kid movie and eat popcorn. |
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| Holding Daddy's hand during the movie -- pure sweetness |
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| We had a crazy ice storm over a four or five day period in December. |
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| The ice almost kept us away from a birthday party of a little girl in Harper's class. Harper was thrilled that we were able to brave the roads, and she got her nails painted for the first time at the party! |
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| Princess Ball 2014! Brent brought her a pink rose again, and they went out to dinner together before the dance. |
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| Rodeo Day at school -- this was an outfit we borrowed from friends from head to toe -- turned out great! |
And a few more things about our girl at this age…
--She loves doing bath time with Owen -- we call it "double bubble"
--We are still working with Harper on interacting and responding to adults when they talk to her. Harper gets a little shy a lot of the time and likes to just stay quiet.
--We have decided since she has a late August birthday that we are going to do a transitional kindergarten program next year and start kindergarten at age six. This was something we thought long and hard about and feel like it will be best for Harper.
--Harper has been a mostly dynamite eater her whole life, but she has gotten much pickier this year. There are still lots of healthy foods she will eat, but the scope has narrowed, and it changes from week to week. One day she will eat a banana, no problem, and the next day, she doesn't want it. She is not crazy about the dinners I cook a lot of the time! We joined this produce co-op this year so I have been cooking lots of greens of all types, plus other vegetables. It has stretched all of our palates, but especially Harper's!
--Harper likes to tell knock, knock jokes. They are nonsense ones at this point, but she laughs so hard at the silliness.
--Harper has gotten more fearful at night and has had some scary dreams, which is a new thing. She prays at night sometimes that she will have no dreams. :(
--Harper's favorite toys are: Duplo legos, drawing and stickers, Magformers, books and playing with My Little Ponies
--Harper likes to watch: Curious George, Strawberry Shortcake, Tinker Bell movies and Doc McStuffins
--Like most of the young population these days, Harper is obsessed with Frozen and wants to hear "Let It Go" all the time!
We love you, Harper! Thank you for being our precious firstborn!
"Super Sad" Butterfly Release from
Brent Hughes on
Vimeo.
