Harper 18 months

Harper is 18 months. It is still bizarre to me that she is so close to 2 years old now. That means we will be starting the terrible 2’s all over again…………NOOOOO!! Didn’t we JUST get through them with one kid?


Here are some facts about you at 18 months:
You eat: Well pretty much everything but your favorites are grapes, bananas, strawberries…..ok all fruit. Any kind of noodles, if it has noodles, you will eat it. You love any kind of Chef Boyardee (yes I feed  my kids canned processed food,don’t judge me), hot dogs, chicken (usually in nugget form, but really any chicken is good to you). Surprisingly enough you and your brother both love tilapia, this makes me happy cause it is super easy to make and healthy. You would snack all day if I let you, I try to sneak into the kitchen if I need to throw something away because you think any time someone is in the kitchen then that means snack time!! You are a MESSY eater!! Holy moly you get food everywhere when you eat, it’s a disaster and sends my O.C.D. into over-drive when I see the mess.

Sleep: High five on this one girlfriend!! You are a sleeping rock star!! You go to sleep at 8 pm and sleep till 8 am, sometimes 9!!! Except this past weekend when we went to the lake, you flunked sleeping 101 in a bad way!! It was a horrible sleeping experience that involved a certain monkey who figured out how to get out of her pack n play (more on that later in my Milford post).  But when we are at home you sleep great. You also take a 2 hr. nap each day.

Talking: Still not a lot of words, the Doctor assures us there is nothing to worry about so I am trying not to stress about it. I just have to accept that each child is different and you will talk on your own time. Words that you do say: Dada, Mama (about freaking time!!), please, thank-you (my favorite), up, baby, puppy, Papa, teeth, shoe, and I am sure there are a few more I just can’t think of them. I wish you could say more because I feel like you get frustrated when you can’t communicate to us what you want. We keep working a lot with you and we definitely urge you to say words and urge you to try to say what you want. For example if you want to be picked up I make you say up (you can say up), if you want a drink I try to make you say drink or cup or milk (you can’t say these yet, but we keep making you try) I just don’t want you to get in the habit of grunting or whining or pointing when you want something. I know it will all happen in time, we will just keep working at it.

Binky: It’s gone!! We got rid of them (ok more like lost all of them when we went camping this weekend) so Sunday night was the first night without it. You did cry for about 30 minutes after we put you down (usually you go right to sleep) and then cried once during the middle of the night and then you were fine and slept till 8:30. Naptime wasn’t a problem either, you went right to sleep. Last night was night 2 and again you cried for about 10 minutes when I put you down, once more early this morning and then slept till 8. So you are officially no longer a baby, go ahead and grow up now, turn into a teenager and hate me, seriously I will be ok.

Here are your stats from your doctors appt. last week. Funny story from that appt: Dr. Perry was listening to Harpers heart and my running watch was in the diaper bag and the alarm started going off (it is the watch from hell that apparently has an alarm set on it and I have NO CLUE how to re-program it) anyway Pax is reading a magazine and says '’damn watch!” My eyes about bulged out of my head, I looked at the doctor and she didn’t hear him so I ignored the comment and figured I would deal with it later. A second later he repeats himself “DAMN WATCH!!” and she heard him that time!! I about died. I have never heard him say that word before, but of course the first time he says it WOULD be in front of our pediatrician!! Kids.
Weight: 23 lbs 40%
Height: 31"  55%
Head: 18 1/2 " 60%

Sometimes I look at her and think she still looks like a little baby and other times she looks so big to me. It makes me sad because I doubt we have any more kids. I thought maybe I would want 3, but the older the kids get the more I am enjoying their independence and being able to go and do more with them. Oh yeah and the sleep thing, that pretty much rocks and I dunno if I want to go down that slippery slope of new baby sleep patterns all over again (big groan there). So I am trying to enjoy these last fleeting moments of babyhood with Harper before she is all grown up. And turning into a teenager. And hating me. And dying her hair purple. And sneaking out. And hating me. And boys. And driving. And hating me. And college. And getting married. And finally loving me again. THEN (and only then missy poo) we can talk grandbabies.

This is a new habit that just started in the past couple days……walking into the kitchen and taking your clothes off. What the heck is this all about? Odd.

HOT MESS!!