visit to PA

we had a lovely visit with friends and family in PA. we are very thankful that we are able to fly to one place and see so many people. amy's dad, step-mom, brother, his wife, their twins, my best friend, her family, another friend that worked with and her 3 kids and amy's best friend. sounds like a lot doesn't it? it is. it can get a little hectic trying to find time to spend with everyone, but again, we are very lucky to have them so close together. it was great seeing everybody and being around all of the kiddos.
i miss the east coast. it was so green during our visit. amy's dads house is nestled in the woods and the trees were so tall and amazing. it got a little cold during our last part of the trip, getting into the 30's at night.
we were able to fit in our usual spots of victory brewing company (yummy beer, soft pretzel w/ mustard), capriotti's (turkey sandwich with cole slaw) and apple cider doughnuts.
grandfather and grammy kindly let us borrow their car and also drove us around everywhere we needed to be. they also babysat while we went out to dinner with amy's brother and wife. it was fun hanging out with them as always.
our flight to and from PA on the other hand didn't go so well. the past 4 flights have been great. is it the terrible two's? did we not entertain her enough? was she just bored? not really sure but WE were the people that you did not want to sit near. she was fussy and nothing was pleasing her. i don't really blame her, it was close to a 4 hour flight. we had snacks, new toys, stickers, ipad, iphone, headphones...everything we needed. well, we thought anyway. it took a total stranger to entertain our child. the lady sitting one row back and to our right asked harper if she liked cats. she had a neat app on her ipad that entertained her for the last 30 mins. the kind woman said she has a 4 and 2 year old boys and was thoughtful for helping out. sure enough, harper loved it. all of the people around us did too, i think. oh well. what can you do?

swim baby, swim!

we finally enrolled harper in swim class at the emler swim school right behind our house. super convenient for us to just have to walk over for her lessons on saturday mornings at 10:30. momeesh gets into the water with her and they splash around for 30 minutes. they sing songs, learn how to walk the wall and try to get them used to being on their backs. she spent most of the first lesson crying, but as the instructor said, it wasn't a freak out cry. more of a, "what is going on here?" cry. then next lesson, she was little more comfortable and only cried a little. i think she is getting used to the routine and songs they sing too. she probably notices that things are so bad, especially seeing other kids in her class enjoying it. at the end of every lesson, they put the kids on a floating square, spin them around and sing, "bye bye (insert name here), bye bye (insert name here), bye bye (insert name here, we're glad you came to swim." the kids wave goodbye to their friends and each one gets to be the center of attention. this has become harper's favorite part. if you ask her if she wants to go swim, she will start singing this song. it is super cute when she sings it, as she says her own name. she pronounces it without the first "r." sounds like, "ha-pa." last saturday she went completely under the water. we were very proud of her. she didn't seem to get scared or alarmed in any way. oddly enough, when it came time for her favorite part to sing goodbye to everyone, she cried. they placed her on the float and she started to cry! oh well. maybe next time. it is very chaotic in the 90 degree indoor pool, with multiple classes going on at the same time. overall i think she is enjoying it. or maybe she enjoys the part where we walk across the street for lunch after her lesson where she devours a thundercloud turkey and cheese sandwich?

i was never really (and still not) confident in the water. was it because i never completed swim lessons? or maybe it was because our mom didn't let us go to the public pool where we might get an infection. i really hope she learns to be an awesome swimmer and enjoys it. most importantly, i want her to be safe.

music in the air

fact. harper LOVES music. when she hears something she likes, she is either dancing, tapping her foot, tapping her leg or punching the air to the beat. two weeks ago, harper was able to take part in the craziness of sxsw. she was able to hear music on both sat and sunday. the biggest highlight of that weekend had nothing to do with the famous music festival. we took her to see yo gabba gabba at the bass concert hall. this is her ultimate favorite (and only) show that she watches. it is filled with dancing, music and overall usually has a good message to teach kids. it is a quirky show, but we all enjoy it. she loved every minute of it watching the stage the entire time. we spent most of the show standing up and dancing. it was cute to see her recognize the songs from the show and clap to them.

this past weekend, my cousins came to visit and it was our usual weekend filled with lots of food and music. she was able to hear her daddy play with the samba school friday night. we even let her stay up past her bedtime to be able to listen to all of the marching bands at the honk festival. the crazy characters in the bands kept her entertained. sunday morning we spent palm sunday at a gospel brunch at stubbs bbq. who would of thought harper would love gospel music too? we had a fun time eating some yummy food while listening to the group get down on a sunday morning. it was a little loud, but luckily harper wore her headphones. auntie jean bought them for her for protection. thanks auntie!

that girl has rhythm! it has been so much fun watch her enjoy so many different types of music here in austin. do we possibly have a future musician on our hands? we certainly hope so.

our official titles

harper has officially named us. i am mama. amy is momish (pronounced ma-meesh). it is totally adorable. for some reason she was having a hard time with saying mommy. one day she came up with it all on her own, like kids usually do. she clearly knows the difference and it makes me smile every time she says momish.

madonna! madonna!

every morning on our way to school, harper and i listen to her children's music cd's. we have been listening to the same ones for a very long time now. she enjoys it, often smiling and taping her leg to the beat. well, this morning i was trying to load a new cd that amo and mel got for her recently. while it was loading, papa don't preach by madonna came on the radio. i looked in the rear view mirror and harper immediately raised her right arm and started pumping her fist to the beat. i asked her if she liked this song and she smiled and nodded yes. we turned it up! sang and danced the rest of the way to school.

harper loves madonna! really, who doesn't?

18 months and counting

a common theme in my blog entries is that time is flying by. it truly is! everyday harper either says or does something new and it amazes us. she is enjoying some quality time with her lolo and lola (my parents) right now. they even watched her all day yesterday. they are so good with her, singing, dancing and laughing with her. mom will often call her a clown when she does something silly and laughs at herself. for some reason, she will not say lola. harper will say lolo over and over. it is hilarious. she knows the difference and who is who, but when we ask her to say lola, she says "lolo!" jean is very proud of the song harper has composed for her. it goes like this. "auntie, eh eh, auntie eh eh." very, very cute. not really sure why she started it, but auntie jean loves it. it's wonderful to see mom and dad enjoy their time with harper right now. i was worried in the beginning and almost gave up on them. but really, how can you resist that girl?

first time without harper

my cousin got married last week and we were invited to the celebration in norfolk, virginia. a few cousins were invited so jean and i made plans to join everyone. we had a fun time hanging out with family and celebrating such a joyous occasion. it was going to be a super quick weekend, so amy and baby decided to stay at home with the dogs. this was the first time i had been away from her since she was born. while i was a little excited to be able to sleep in, not carry around a diaper bag and eat dinner at a regular hour, i knew i would miss my girls. funny how i thought that flying was hectic pre-baby. i enjoyed reading my food and wine magazine while napping on the flight to and from norfolk. amy said she did really well while i was gone, sleeping in and taking long naps. she even went to the children's museum with daddy on saturday. there wasn't even any whining while i was gone. before i left she had previously been sick. it manifested into her wanting me and just me to hold her a lot. to the point of her following me around and crying until i did. i'm hoping a few days away has made her forget that she was starting to do that. she has been in a wonderful mood lately, which has been so fun. she is changing every minute of everyday.