I realize that as of late several of my blogs have been links to other blogs. I am certainly not a professional or terribly gifted writer so I think sharing the wisdom of others that you may otherwise not read is just fine. With that being said my very gifted and nearly professional (she's almost done with seminary!) cousin just posted on her blog and I couldn't help but share this beautiful post. If you've ever considered adoption, read this, she will talk you into it! ;-) Also, keep the kleenex handy...even stone cold me may have had a little moisture in my eye reading the words to her birth mom...
Happy Glad I Gotcha Day
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
19, 20, 21, 22, 23....
Wow how much has changed just since Harper's 18 month birthday. And by that I mean how much Harper has changed. I really didn't (and don't) intend on doing month by month blog posts about Harper after she turned 1, just every big milestone. But today she is 23 months old and I am blown away by her progress. I am also astutely aware of just how blessed we are that she continues to make progress and continues to grow and develop normally. I know that might sound weird "I'm glad my kid is normal" but the older she gets the harder and harder my job gets (much much more on that later but I still have a lot of praying and thinking to do before I post anything for the world wide web to read), the more empathy I have for parents with kids Harper's age or much much older that are not developing in a way that is typical. Anyway, below are a brief list of things that are new to Harper since her 18 month birthday. I have a feeling with all her birthday festivities I may not get a chance to do a '24' post until later!
- Harper is now talking in short phrases almost exclusively. Her MLU is probably around 2.5, for those of you keeping track of that sort of thing. Some of her longer phrases include "Chloe her home" (meaning her friend from school Chloe is at her house), "Nonnie/Grandmother make it" (referring to something, usually clothes from Nonnie and cards from Grandmother, that they made for her), "Toby up on bed!" (a demand to Toby), "Daddy, Iluh too" (Daddy I love you too). There are many, many others but this is just a sampling.
-Harper's play is now more elaborate. She will often set up a whole play scenario (usually centered around some 'babies', either dolls or stuffed animals) and will talk aloud about what she is playing. "Hahpuh cooking. Hot food. Too hot. Blow. Eat (insert name of food). Pour tea. Get cup. Stir it up." etc etc. She also as of late has becomeobsessed enthusiastic about birthdays. She sings the birthday song A LOT in the car, says "Happy Birthday Nonnie" 'it's not Nonnie's birthday' "Happy Birthday Daddy" 'it's not Daddy's birthday' "Happy Birthday Hahpuh!". She pretends birthday party a lot with her play food and sing the birthday song, blow out the candles (when prompted by me), cut the cake, and distribute to all 'guests'. I think a lot of kids in her class at daycare have been having their 2nd birthdays and she has gotten to participate.
-Speaking of daycare, Harper's social skills are really starting to develop. She is mostly outgoing but can be shy when she first enters an environment with a lot of people, especially if a lot of them try to talk with her. She says thank you and please now, still mostly with prompts, but sometimes spontaneously (especially please). She is also beginning to use yes/no ma'am/sir but this is still most prompted as well. She usually says 'no ma'am' spontaneously if I ask "did you poop?". She understands the emotions happy and sad and identifies them in pictures or says when she is happy. This is not something we have ever worked on with her. She is also starting to form attachments to friends. She still seems to like to play with everyone, but she has a special friend at daycare who she talks about a lot and has to hug before she leaves. She also has a good friend in Auburn who goes to our church and they get to hang out a lot. Harper talks about her a lot and even knows her last name! It is fun to see these friendships develop.
-Educational: Harper knows a few letters (A, B, T..for Toby!), can sing her ABC's A-H, L-P, T-V, can count to 2 (usually it goes 1, 2, 5, 8), can recognize red and purple pretty consistently, yellow is emerging, knows the shape circle (which came as a shock to me last weekend when she held up a circle block and declared "circle" then picked up another one and said "other circle"). Most of these things are things that she picked up on her own or they taught her at daycare. It still blows my mind that children can learn things without being explicitly taught. Which is also scary. That means that everything we do they are learning from. NO PRESSURE!
-Motor: Harper is getting better at coloring and holding crayons, though she stills holds them too hard and they break sometimes. She colors on the pictures now, but does not stay in the lines (and I don't expect her to!). She still loves to dance but now it mostly consists of jumping, which is a relatively new skill. She actually gets both feet off the ground! She doesn't walk like a baby anymore, her gait is adult like now (thanks Jason for this observation!). She does still run like a baby/toddler now.
-Feeding: Still a garbage disposal. Her new teachers at daycare are shocked by how much she eats. They report that she knows her limits and she doesn't have to be 'cut off' after 3 servings anymore! Harper eats everything we eat now, with the exception of things that are especially spicy. She loves salsa and spiced food, but not things that seem hot (spicy) to me. Her favorites are fruit (blueberries, watermelon, bananas, etc), pasta, anything with cheese, and brats. That child ate two brats plus two servings of veggies for dinner once! She also has a sweet tooth and asks for popsicles, cupcakes, and ice cream a lot but since we don't usually have that type of food in our house, she doesn't get any!
-One more thing...being the 'evil' parents that we are (if you don't get that then you've missed out on the campaign to keep kids rear facing as long as possible, which is safer and a good idea, we just didn't quite make it to 2) we turned Harper forward facing. Having to travel almost an hour each way every day she was getting very uncomfortable. Not that she is turned around, though, she and I are able to have some good 'conversations' in the car. About how her day was, what she did, etc. These usually consist of me asking lots of questions and her responding with yes or no or 1-2 word responses. Okay, two more things. Potty training. Harper can volitionally pee every time she sits on the potty now (wow she will hate this blog in another 6-8 years). She has stopped pooping in the potty but now almost always tells me before she poops in her diaper. I am not forcing the pooping in the potty. She is usually fairly dry when she wakes up from nap or in the morning. If I stayed home with her I'd probably have her potty trained by now but I doubt she'll tell her daycare teachers that she needs to go.
Sorry to be so lengthy. :-)
- Harper is now talking in short phrases almost exclusively. Her MLU is probably around 2.5, for those of you keeping track of that sort of thing. Some of her longer phrases include "Chloe her home" (meaning her friend from school Chloe is at her house), "Nonnie/Grandmother make it" (referring to something, usually clothes from Nonnie and cards from Grandmother, that they made for her), "Toby up on bed!" (a demand to Toby), "Daddy, Iluh too" (Daddy I love you too). There are many, many others but this is just a sampling.
-Harper's play is now more elaborate. She will often set up a whole play scenario (usually centered around some 'babies', either dolls or stuffed animals) and will talk aloud about what she is playing. "Hahpuh cooking. Hot food. Too hot. Blow. Eat (insert name of food). Pour tea. Get cup. Stir it up." etc etc. She also as of late has become
-Speaking of daycare, Harper's social skills are really starting to develop. She is mostly outgoing but can be shy when she first enters an environment with a lot of people, especially if a lot of them try to talk with her. She says thank you and please now, still mostly with prompts, but sometimes spontaneously (especially please). She is also beginning to use yes/no ma'am/sir but this is still most prompted as well. She usually says 'no ma'am' spontaneously if I ask "did you poop?". She understands the emotions happy and sad and identifies them in pictures or says when she is happy. This is not something we have ever worked on with her. She is also starting to form attachments to friends. She still seems to like to play with everyone, but she has a special friend at daycare who she talks about a lot and has to hug before she leaves. She also has a good friend in Auburn who goes to our church and they get to hang out a lot. Harper talks about her a lot and even knows her last name! It is fun to see these friendships develop.
-Educational: Harper knows a few letters (A, B, T..for Toby!), can sing her ABC's A-H, L-P, T-V, can count to 2 (usually it goes 1, 2, 5, 8), can recognize red and purple pretty consistently, yellow is emerging, knows the shape circle (which came as a shock to me last weekend when she held up a circle block and declared "circle" then picked up another one and said "other circle"). Most of these things are things that she picked up on her own or they taught her at daycare. It still blows my mind that children can learn things without being explicitly taught. Which is also scary. That means that everything we do they are learning from. NO PRESSURE!
-Motor: Harper is getting better at coloring and holding crayons, though she stills holds them too hard and they break sometimes. She colors on the pictures now, but does not stay in the lines (and I don't expect her to!). She still loves to dance but now it mostly consists of jumping, which is a relatively new skill. She actually gets both feet off the ground! She doesn't walk like a baby anymore, her gait is adult like now (thanks Jason for this observation!). She does still run like a baby/toddler now.
-Feeding: Still a garbage disposal. Her new teachers at daycare are shocked by how much she eats. They report that she knows her limits and she doesn't have to be 'cut off' after 3 servings anymore! Harper eats everything we eat now, with the exception of things that are especially spicy. She loves salsa and spiced food, but not things that seem hot (spicy) to me. Her favorites are fruit (blueberries, watermelon, bananas, etc), pasta, anything with cheese, and brats. That child ate two brats plus two servings of veggies for dinner once! She also has a sweet tooth and asks for popsicles, cupcakes, and ice cream a lot but since we don't usually have that type of food in our house, she doesn't get any!
-One more thing...being the 'evil' parents that we are (if you don't get that then you've missed out on the campaign to keep kids rear facing as long as possible, which is safer and a good idea, we just didn't quite make it to 2) we turned Harper forward facing. Having to travel almost an hour each way every day she was getting very uncomfortable. Not that she is turned around, though, she and I are able to have some good 'conversations' in the car. About how her day was, what she did, etc. These usually consist of me asking lots of questions and her responding with yes or no or 1-2 word responses. Okay, two more things. Potty training. Harper can volitionally pee every time she sits on the potty now (wow she will hate this blog in another 6-8 years). She has stopped pooping in the potty but now almost always tells me before she poops in her diaper. I am not forcing the pooping in the potty. She is usually fairly dry when she wakes up from nap or in the morning. If I stayed home with her I'd probably have her potty trained by now but I doubt she'll tell her daycare teachers that she needs to go.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Harperisms
Well, as we are sprinting towards 2 (AHHHHH!) I wanted to record for blog posterity some of the cute things Harper says because she is already 'outgrowing' some of them!
1) Doggle- probably our favorite of all time. And we still don't know what it means. And she only says it now if we ask.
2) "Iluh"- Pronounced as one word, but means "I love you"! She goes through the whole family, too "Daddy Iluh! Mommy Iluh! Toby Iluh". Sometimes she says "Iluh too".
3)Tobydog- this is one she has pretty much stopped saying. It's the WAY she says it that is so cute "ToBY dohhhhhg".
4) Dit- means sit. She is pretty bossy (though it is normal for a child her age to learn that she can control certain things in her world and desire to do so....) so she likes to tell us where to sit, "Dit Mommy" while she pats the spot where she wants me to sit.
5) Manu-manu- Watermelon. See video.
6) Mohk- /mok/ for those of you who read IPA. Milk. Often said in a really deep voice! Not sure why!
7) Hahpuh- she sounds so cute saying her own name!
8) 'Hola' and 'animales'- I love that her bilingual toys have taught her some words in Spanish! And she says the word 'animales' better than the word 'animals'.
9) Popbeers- popsicles.....
10) Then there are the standard kid cute ways of saying things, like wawa for water, duice for juice, etc.
When they say kids grown up fast, they sure aren't kidding! It is such a fun ride but you don't want to blink or you'll miss too much!
1) Doggle- probably our favorite of all time. And we still don't know what it means. And she only says it now if we ask.
2) "Iluh"- Pronounced as one word, but means "I love you"! She goes through the whole family, too "Daddy Iluh! Mommy Iluh! Toby Iluh". Sometimes she says "Iluh too".
3)Tobydog- this is one she has pretty much stopped saying. It's the WAY she says it that is so cute "ToBY dohhhhhg".
4) Dit- means sit. She is pretty bossy (though it is normal for a child her age to learn that she can control certain things in her world and desire to do so....) so she likes to tell us where to sit, "Dit Mommy" while she pats the spot where she wants me to sit.
5) Manu-manu- Watermelon. See video.
6) Mohk- /mok/ for those of you who read IPA. Milk. Often said in a really deep voice! Not sure why!
7) Hahpuh- she sounds so cute saying her own name!
8) 'Hola' and 'animales'- I love that her bilingual toys have taught her some words in Spanish! And she says the word 'animales' better than the word 'animals'.
9) Popbeers- popsicles.....
10) Then there are the standard kid cute ways of saying things, like wawa for water, duice for juice, etc.
When they say kids grown up fast, they sure aren't kidding! It is such a fun ride but you don't want to blink or you'll miss too much!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Heartbroken
Sorry about the quietness on the blog front. I've been working on spending more quality time with Harper and that leaves a lot of chores to do while she naps, which is normally when I blog. Anyway.
So, Jason will tell you. I HATE controversy. I shy away from it whenever possible. Wimp? Maybe. So for me to write ANY word about this whole crazy Chik-fil-A thing is shocking to even me. But I have been so heartbroken at the hurt and anger (out of hurt) that this has created. It breaks my heart to see people passive aggressively and just aggressively lash out on both sides of the 'argument'. When we go at each other out of fear or hate or blind rage it can not lead to anything good. I wish that people today, instead of eating at Chik-fil-A, had stayed home instead and fasted and thought about ways they could improve their own lives. Matthew 7:3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?". I can not put in to words what I feel about this, however, my sweet friend Andi (see her blog here) posted this awesome link to a blog by Perry Noble which pretty much sums up what is wrong with this whole situation. Look for the best line- "After looking at this list I would say we are all pretty much screwed unless Jesus intervenes."
Read me please!
If you read this and you are hurt or offended I really am sorry. I put this link up out of love.
Oh, and PS- I disagree strongly on one point he made. The 'Oatmeal Cookie Chunk' is NOT the best Ben and Jerry's flavor!
So, Jason will tell you. I HATE controversy. I shy away from it whenever possible. Wimp? Maybe. So for me to write ANY word about this whole crazy Chik-fil-A thing is shocking to even me. But I have been so heartbroken at the hurt and anger (out of hurt) that this has created. It breaks my heart to see people passive aggressively and just aggressively lash out on both sides of the 'argument'. When we go at each other out of fear or hate or blind rage it can not lead to anything good. I wish that people today, instead of eating at Chik-fil-A, had stayed home instead and fasted and thought about ways they could improve their own lives. Matthew 7:3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?". I can not put in to words what I feel about this, however, my sweet friend Andi (see her blog here) posted this awesome link to a blog by Perry Noble which pretty much sums up what is wrong with this whole situation. Look for the best line- "After looking at this list I would say we are all pretty much screwed unless Jesus intervenes."
Read me please!
If you read this and you are hurt or offended I really am sorry. I put this link up out of love.
Oh, and PS- I disagree strongly on one point he made. The 'Oatmeal Cookie Chunk' is NOT the best Ben and Jerry's flavor!
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