This little lady

Somehow managed to turn one. What?! I'm still not sure how that happened.

Here's ten things about Harper on her 1st birthday.

1. She is a menace. For instance, last week I was in the kitchen doing dishes when Elliot started yelling, "Harper's doing a no-no!" I came running to find her standing at the toilet, playing in the water while Elliot was peeing into it. Menace, I tell you.

2. She is loud. And talkative. All day long, we hear "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" And I love it.

3. She adores her brother. When he walks out of his "room" (if you've been to my apartment, you know why I put that in quotation marks) in the morning, she practically jumps out of my lap to greet him.

4. She's easy-going. Sure, she hates it when I take something from her she's desperate to put in her mouth (legos, anyone?), but once she's sure she's been heard on the issue, she drops it. And I love her for it.

5. She's a picky eater. A recent development, I'm afraid. Luckily, she doesn't know who she's up against. I am perfectly happy to put the same bite of mashed potatoes into her mouth ten times, if that's what it takes. (Clearly, I do not share her lovely, easy-going personality).

6. She spends 75% of her time in the stroller. Or at least it feels that way. Is it the same with babies and carseats in the suburbs?

7. Though she loves to be upright and cruise along furniture, she is not in the least interested in walking.

8. She has the most adorable, big, gap-toothed smile ever. Well, adorable on a one year old. One a 14 year old, we'd probably be talking headgear.

9. Her favorite playground pastime is climbing up slides. And she's pretty good at it. Today she made it all the way up a slide without a single push from me.

10. She flirts with men in our elevator. Usually they flirt right back. Occasionally they ignore her and I am offended for her.

This seems like years ago-

First Day of School

If anyone had told me a year ago that I'd send Elliot to full-day, five-days-a-week public pre-k, I'd have laughed.

Yet, here we are. And look how excited he was! I could hardly get him to hold still for a picture.



So even though my heart is breaking a bit to let my baby go (why don't I have $15k on hand for private, part-time school?), I think he's ready.

More Week in the Life

Here is Wednesday:

Elliot Says

After watching the Backyardigans Polka Party:

"Mom, I want a tuba for my birthday. A big tuba. I really love the tuba."

Week in the Life Project

At the end of July, I carried my camera around for entire week in attempt to document our day-to-day life. I've started putting it together and thought I'd post it here as I do. Here's Tuesday:

Politically, but Not Regliously, Astute

Sharing Time Teacher: "Who is our stake president right now?"

Elliot: "Obama."

Awesome.

Beach Day

Elliot couldn't get enough of the water and Harper couldn't get too little. Suprisingly little sand was consumed (wiser than her brother, perhaps?)

And I'm sure Chris would like me to note that Harper did have clothes on for most of the day.