i'm behind!

can't believe my last post was in june. so much has happened and i promised myself i would keep up with the blog so we could look back and remember some highlights. i have already forgotten when she first took a step or laughed for the first time. time is certainly flying.

- went to france in july with amy's mom and stepdad. had a wonderful and LONG trip. h did so well on the plane. traveling for 24 hours is tough on us, so proud of her for being a trooper. rose wine and chocolate croissants, how can you go wrong?
- h turned the big 2! had a yo gabba gabba party for her and the entire framily showed up. amy made an awesome brobee cake. she still talks about it.
- lolo and lola visted again. they babysat her for a few days and enjoyed every minute of it. it was a nice visit. they get a kick out of her, dancing and singing with her.
- had a fun labor day out at sibby and shelley's. hung out by the pool and relaxed.
- did a day of service and planted wildflowers on the lady bird townlake trail. her daddy joined us too.
- she moved to a new classroom at the start of the new school year. her new teacher is ms. peggy and she could not stop talking after her first day. h told everyone that she was going to the Big Playground. they get to enjoy new activities like the computer room and library.
- we have been going to deep eddy a lot to swim. daddy and papa with often join us.
- her sleep patterns have been thrown off since the france trip. she tells us to "sit there." meaning, she wants us to sit in the chair beside her crib when she lays down after we turn off the lights. for the past week, she has been sleeping til 7, which is very nice.
- h's hair is super long. not sure what to do with it these days. guess i need to learn how to put hair in a ponytail. by the time amy picks her up in the afternoon, her hair is a mess
- it is amazing how much she is talking. or at least trying to talk. she can sing her ABC's and count to 15 right now. harper is very observant. she likes to repeat words and seems like it she is soaking it all in.
- her teacher says that she loves to learn. apparently some of the kids in her class don't really pay attention.
- we have an upcoming trip to south carolina in nov to see lee's brother get married. uncle robert is getting hitched! we get to meet lots of family members on the clippard side and see/meet her cousins.
- the annual framily trip is in concan again in nov
- lolo and lola are coming to visit again in dec
- gran is coming in for an extended stay. dec thru jan? we are looking forward to hanging out with her and for her and h to get some quality time together.
- she started a dance class at school. they pull her out of class at 3pm every thursday. you should see the tiny ballet shoes
- auntie still can't go 24 hours without seeing her
- we really appreciate all of our babysitters. sometimes you just need a date night.
- h is just so aware of what is going on and has an unbelievable memory

we are just enjoying every minute of her.

gran was here!

harper had a fun visit with gran over the weekend. of course gran did not come empty handed. she got some new clothes, toys and books. h's new favorite toy is a puppy in a purse. she is carrying it around everywhere! she was able to come to harper's last swim lesson for the summer too. harper stayed home from daycare and they spent the day alone together. they had fun walking to the playground, going out to lunch and gran got her to take a record 3 hour nap! harper not only got to hang out with gran all weekend, but her daddy and papa too. we grilled out, went swimming and took them out for brunch on father/papa day sunday. it was a fun weekend.

we are looking forward to seeing gran again very soon.

her expressions are priceless

one of my favorite expressions harper has is when she comes home and walks thru the door after being at school all day long. it is a look of surprise and excitement. mouth open, eyebrows up, eyes wide open and her yelling out, "mama!" actually, my favorite is when i am in another room or she is playing with momeesh for a bit and she sees me (even if only after 15 mins or so), as if it were the first time for the day. my description does not do it justice. it is super cute and melts my heart. you will just have to trust me.

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.