Harper on the Move... Nearly

I know I should look forward to Harper's milestones, but the truth is, I dread most of them. I wasn't excited to see her rolling over or sitting up, because I knew those two things would, eventually lead to crawling. Crawling is always followed close behind by walking and THAT is when things get really crazy. Yesterday, while Cooper and Em were napping, Harper and I had some down-time. It is so rare to see her playing by herself, uninterrupted. I had the camera out because 1) I love this face and 2) I love those pudgy rolls in those cloth diapers. I'm a sucker for a rolly-polly in nothing nut a diaper. Harper decided to show off since she had her mommy all to herself. And low and behold, she is nearly crawling. I've never seen her get so close to moving where she wanted to go, when she wanted to go there, but I'm praying she has forgotten all those skills already. I'm not ready for my baby to be so big. And I'm not ready to relegate my life back to the realm of kiddie gates again. Not yet.

Gotta love this face.

Wait, I'm coming too!

Mobility here I come!!!

Friday Giggles

I've been up against a deadline, two feverish children, a very hot few days, and general chaos... so, nothing out of the ordinary around here. But, these girls made me pause and laugh the other day. The faces my oldest can solicite from my youngest, who is a ham in her own right, crack me up!

Roarrrrr!!! I'm a lion!

(Words fail me... which is rare)

I love my sister! I love my sister!!!

These faces make my day :)

Filibuster Technique

I was at swimming classes today with all three kids. Yes. I take all three kids to swimming. And no, I'm not insane... just perhaps a bit daft. Anyways, a mom was there with her preschooler and toddler and nanny, and she was barely managing to get anything accomplished. She looked at me, with my system for getting myself and two wet kids in and out, all while Harp enjoys the lovely swimming pool scenery, like I had 5 heads. She commented that Harper must be 'an exceptionally well behaved baby.' My immediate thought was, "Not last night at 3am!" I had to let this poor lady in on the secret. Normally, I keep this secret under lock and key, but the desperation in her eyes was so pitiful, it was either tell her or die of laughter. She's a third. Harper, bless her heart, knows she's a third. She loves the overabundance of attention from her brother and sister who literally try to kill her with kindness and overlooks when her parents let her fall asleep in her walker. That said, Todd and I both relish the time from just after 7pm when the older kids go down until 9pmwhen she ends our day. She's so sweet- full of smiles and giggles, and lately, has been learning many new tricks to keep the parental units entertained. She's figured out how to kick both legs at the same time to move, on her back, in the direction of something she wants, feet first. It's not pretty, but it gets the job done. Or how she holds on to our hands to stand and her invisible dancing shoes appear so she can boogie like it is 1999. But the best is that she has learned how to stop both Todd and I dead in our tracks. She has this way of knowing that we want to get something done, and thus begins the filibuster campaign to stop us from accomplishing said task and rather, turn all our attention on her. She looks at Todd and starts babbling "dadda-dadda-dadda." And guess what? It works... EVERY TIME!

Too Many Things

I had heard from many that the jump from 2 kids to 3 is more dynamic than any of the pervious jumps. Having one child changes your life in ways you can't even begin to comprehend until you have that little one in your arms. With Thing 2, you know the change that's coming, but you're not sure how Thing 1 will handle it all. But with Thing 3... well, I think Dr. Seuss had it right to stop at 1 and 2. They outnumber you. When you go somewhere alone, there are more of them than you have hands to gather them up. But honestly, I hold that 3 is WAY easier than 1 ever was. Maybe its that my learning curve was a bit slow in the beginning and I'm just now hitting my stride. Maybe by 3, you're so sleep-deprived that you forget what it felt like to just have one. Who knows. All I knows is that I feel like I can do just about anything, fairly efficiently, with all Things in tow; except one.

I cannot manage to get a picture where all three kids are looking at the camera, at the same time, AND looking like I'm not pulling their toenails off.

Example #1

Em, besides the odd foot-holding pose, isn't really jazzed to be there and Harper looks like she's just seen chocolate cake and can't WAIT to eat it all up... once she figures out how to move. Cooper, my champ, is the only one paying attention to what Mommy has said, "sit and smile!"

Example #2

Someone should tell Coop that the scrunched-nose look was NEVER in... I wish they would have told me that as well for that matter. And once again, Em is more concerned with someone else than the camera... over here girl! And none of them are looking at the camera, they're all fascinated by something Daddy is doing over in the garden. *slap forehead here*

See, two is easy and when its only two, it lends itself to awesome pictures! Guess I've officially met my match :)

The Life Lesson from Soap

A couple of families have recently moved into the area, and they both swear by a Mexican laundry soap called Zoté. The stuff is truly amazing. I've managed to get stains out that Em put on her baby clothes nearly 3 years ago. Its made the clothes look new for little Harp. Yesterday, however, I think my amazing soap met its match in the form of a rugby-player-in-the-making toddler and a large pile of red clay. Cooper, like most boys, finds dirt. It's like he has a dirt-seeking missile attached to his bum... and shirt... and knees... and face. I guess it is a right of passage, being the mother of a son, to fight tooth and nail to keep his clothes looking nice. But sometimes, he's so stinking cute when he's getting them dirty, I forget to tell him to stop throwing handfuls of dirt into the air above him... or to just take off his clothes.

Yesterday was just such a time. Cooper and Em were playing outside together. Em was dirty, but nothing a garden hose couldn't take care of. This boy of mine, who is growing up so fast I feel like if I turn my back on him he's going to be taller than me, was a different matter.

He had it in his hair. In his ears. Up his nose... and the worst part? He LOVED every speck, right where it was! I remember going on mission trips and scrubbing and scrubbing to get dirt like this out, but the whole time, it bothered me. It felt like each shovel-full of dirt that I would take would send waves more dirt onto me, making me cringe all the more. Him? NOPE! Not a chance. He was going to KEEP that dirt right where it was if it was the last thing he did on this earth.

So I chased him. Around the yard. Behind the garden swing. Down the slide until he finally ended up on the trampoline. And I was completely prepared to get in there and catch him, hog-tie him, and drag him off to the shower, but I came upon this face. Which made me immediately laugh and go run for the camera.

So he jumped, and giggled, and made all sorts of mommy-I-love-you googly eyes at me, and I took in the moment of my filthy, disgusting boy covered head to toe in heaven knows what, enjoying just the way he was. Sometimes I forget that he'll outgrow this... or that he'll learn to do his own washing and it won't be my problem anymore. Sometimes I just think of all the problems and issues this boy of mine gets into. But on this particular day, I had the clarity of mind to remember that God made little boys. He made some to be dirty and some to be neat; some clingy and others seem born for climbing tall trees. But HE made them, and my job is to enjoy and guide, not get upset about the 20+ minutes it'll take me to scrub HIM clean, let alone those clothes. Thank the Lord for days when priorities are in order and I remember who gave me this handful of hard-headed, dirty boy. Maybe, just maybe if I'm really lucky, Cooper won't remember all the times I yell at him for getting everything so dirty and he'll remember a few days like today, when we played in the dirt together. Maybe I should spend more time in the dirt with him, just in case this one day wasn't enough to make the memory of this time spent together stick.

And for the fans, here's little Harper sitting on her blanket playing with toys until the whole chasing bit happened. Then, she was enthralled with Cooper and me and I couldn't help but take a picture of my girl trying to smile AND figure out what in the world her mother and brother were doing.

A Girl and Her Bottle

Harper won't take a pacifier/soother/dumbie. She won't take a bottle. In fact, anything that would help her self-sooth or let someone else soothe her, she refuses to even look at. Would have been nice with the first, but its slightly inconvenient when Cooper is toilet training. *sigh* Anyways, she does this thing with any object (her fist, a toy, her bother's foot) where she violently shakes her head back and forth while singing to said object. Tonight, Todd and I were laughing hysterically at turn of events when Harp found our water bottle.

Back to Normal

It seems that most of the month of September was a wash in our house. We were all sick at various times and to varying degrees, and so was our camera. It was rather inconvenient, but we're all healthy now, the house has been disinfected from top to bottom and the camera is alive and clicking again. So glad to be able to say that. Healthy. Happy. And back to life as we know it with three kids. Saturday afternoon, we all headed down to the pool for a bit of swimming and being lazy after so much work to get things back in order. The kids loved it, even if the water was 2 degrees (Centigrade or Fahrenheit, either way, it was COLD!).

Don't ask my why, but Cooper LOVES this get-up. T. I. Double-G. ER!!!

Em loves her new pink swim gear... and the dandelions. Its a toss up which she likes more.

And we can't forget the growing girl who is sitting on her own, eating food, and giggling (most of the time... especially when her brother and sister compete to see who she "loves" more.

My girls. *Sigh*