Oh, And I Failed to Mention

Harper started walking this week. No, I don't have any documentation. Is she a second child or what?

Santaland

We took our annual trek to Santaland on Saturday. Eight adults. Eleven kids. We met at 7:40 a.m. (pat on the back for that one!), caught the subway down, waited in line for approximately 10 minutes, snapped a few photos of the kids with creepy Santa (Harper noticed the creepy factor), grabbed breakfast at ABP, went to a puppet show and were back by a 11.

It was a perfect morning.

Watching Rudolph

They may not look alike, but they are clearly related.

You must live in a 1.5 bedroom in NY

When your four-year-old prays that "Heavenly Father will make our house bigger."

Of course, yesterday he prayed that he wouldn't have to share his toys, so I can't take him too seriously.

Notes on Harper

Just a few thoughts about his little lady:


Her hair bears an unfortunate resemblance to Krusty the Clown (particularly when she does her own during-meal styling):


She is a menance. I've said it before. I'll say it again. And it will be true every time I do. She regularly eats dust bunnies. You know, clumps of dust and hair? Yeah. I gagged a little too. And that's not even the worst thing she's put in her mouth. I won't tell you the others because, believe me, you would no longer be her friend.

She does a better job folding her arms for prayer than Elliot. (Note to self: work with Elliot on folding his arms for prayer.)

She says hi, bye, and all done. And I swear she said "here you go" when giving me the remote the other day.

She loves Sesame Street, Elliot, reading Moo, Baa, La La La (over and over and over), and Vanilla Joe Joe's.

She does not like walking (or when we try to encourage her to walk), being sick (my patient patient is long gone. A cold now makes this girl CRABBY), diaper changes, and when we refuse to read Moo, Baa, La La La for the twenty-second time in a row.

She drives me crazy. She is an absolute joy.

You may or may not want to watch the following:

Trip to the Firestation

Elliot's class took a trip to the our local fire station this morning. It's only two block from our house (so close that I figure, hey kids, go ahead and play with those matches. We're covered!) It was fun to get to meet all of Elliot's friends. Plus, they all had to wear the most ridiculous (and therefore adorable) white hats with the name of their school on the front.

The firemen did a great job with their presentation. Elliot, however, was not the most attentive pupil.

I learned:

1) In an emergency, call 911.
2) Don't hide from scary firemen wearing their oxygen masks.
3) If you are on fire, stop, drop and roll.

Elliot learned:

1) A fireman's hat is really heavy.

Picnic in the Park

We celebrated Harper's birthday with a picnic in Central Park with friends. It was a beautiful day -- and Elise brought her camera and captured it all. (Thank you!)

Here are some thoughts on parties in New York:

Sometimes you have to share your space with some random people. Like professional ballroom dancers doing a photo shoot. And pot smokers. (To their credit, we were in Strawberry Fields).

You can scare away said random people if you give enough kids whistles and Chinese yo-yos.

Your stroller is almost better than a mini-van (Don't believe it? Check the photo at the bottom).

(Sorry for the weird formatting -- these are actually scrapbook pages).