SUPER BABY!!!!

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's the cutest toddler in a cape ever!!!

As I've previously mentioned, Harper LOVES to walk around the house with a blanket over her head. It's become quite a problem because she will play with a bunch of toys (leaving them scattered all over the floor) and then pick up her blanket, cover her face, and begin walking. As you can imagine, she falls down a lot.

So, Ross tried a new approach and tied her blanket into a cape - and SUPER BABY was born. She ran from one side of the house to the other. She would often raise her hands when she started running  - making it look like she was taking off - which fit quite nicely into the SUPER BABY theme. She truly is SUPER CUTE!

Shopping Cart Princess

We gave Harper a shopping cart for Christmas this year. When she stood next to it, the cart looked HUGE. She was just beginning to walk while holding onto things and the cart handle was almost at eye level. Harper must have grown a lot in the past two months, because she now runs that shopping cart all around the house without a problem! Whenever she gets behind it, she runs and gets an enormous smile. It's hard to capture on film because she is moving so fast!

Finger Painting

We recently let Harper try finger painting. At first she wasn't sure what to think about the paint. She tried to eat it thinking it was "dipping sauce" but quickly caught on that it wasn't good. Once she figured it out, she was pretty good at smearing the paint and then quickly moved to folding and flipping the paper - which means that mom and dad have to be quick to intervene. We ended up with a beautiful piece of art from a beautiful little girl.

As a side note, we also learned that you have to be ready to clean up pint-sized artists as soon as they are done painting.....or they begin to decorate their face and hair. Lesson learned!

 

The coolest place in our house is....

According to Harper, the coolest and most fun place in our home is...... THE STAIRS!

Harper has been able to climb stairs for a long time. She went through a phase when all she wanted to do was climb up to the top and then be carried back to the bottom. And then repeat over and over.

However, her new favorite activity is to just sit on the stairs. Sometimes she will sit on the bottom stair with her toys - she'll play with her mini jukebox or blocks. Other times she wants to climb up about 6 steps to play. She won't bring any toys, but instead, will begin by kicking her feet and slamming them into the stair. Then she will practice screaming. And, finally, she will stand up and bounce. Of course, this is all done while Ross and I are located one step below her - we might let her act crazy, but we aren't nuts!

 

Linus?

Harper loves to play with her blankets. It started innocently enough - she would lie in her crib with her blanket over her face and kick and squeal. Eventually she started standing in her crib with the blanket over head. Then she began to jump and walk in the crib with her blanket over her face. And, well now, it's hard to stop her from covering her face with her blanket. She will walk around the house with the blanket clutched tightly in her hand, or in her mouth, or over her face. She trips on it. She falls because of it. She bumps into toys and furniture. However, no amount of stumbles or trips will stop her from carrying her trusted blanket.

Sledding

We were blessed to receive 10" of snow over the last 36 hours (instead of the 1"-3" that was predicted).It was warm enough to take Harper outside to play when the snow finally stopped. We bundled her up in snow pants, jacket, boots, mittens and hat before plopping her in the sled. Harper wasn't sure about sledding at first. However, after she saw Riley bounding through the snow next to her, she let out a giggle and smiled. We spent 30 minutes playing outside - all of that time was spent sledding. She loved to go around and around in the yard. At one point she got a little snow on her face but otherwise didn't want to actually touch the white stuff.

Our Funny Valentine

This year we celebrated Valentines Day with Harper. Harper and Mommy went shopping for a present and card for Daddy the week before. Harper picked out a Minnie Mouse card for her Dad and then insisted on holding it until we check out. In addition, she grabbed him a bag of M&Ms. A few days later Harper signed the card - she a great job writing on it! 

On Valentines Day, Harper enjoyed a tasty cupcake after daycare. Well, she enjoyed the frosting and put the cake off to the side of her tray - either way, she thought it was yummy. After dinner, she read her Sesame Street book from her Great-Grandparents and later listened to Ross read her a Disney story. She will often pick a book out for us to read to her and then a separate one for her to play with while she listens. She retired early - a busy day for such a little girl.