Harper is not much of a talker. Well, that's not entirely true. She pretty much spends most of her time talking, but I would say 97 percent of the time it's still not understandable English. But her lack of vocabulary doesn't keep her from having the music in her, that's for sure. And because the adorableness of Harper does not grace the presence of this blog frequently enough, a small video displaying the cute is long overdue.
(Sidenote: Harper is a born singer, I am not. Please try to ignore my part as much as possible. Thanks in advance!)
in one video...
Legos and trains
Constant interruptions from the dryer timer
Bad music (along with forgetting most of the words)
pants optional
baffled little sister
Yep, that pretty much covers it. Our summer in a nutshell.
I know videos are super annoying...but I love it too much not to share.
For those of you who may have been concerned that my lack of posting meant that having two kids has done me in, this one is for you. It's not a pretty post. But my mom has an innate ability to tell when Holden and I are about to be on enemy terms and whisks him away on some awesome grandma adventure (someone please tell me why I am trying to move out of here), so I am on borrowed time.
Despite the long and frustrating learning curve that comes with having to start sharing everything when you have pretty much never had to hear the word share in your whole life, Holden remains as cute as ever. His love for The Beatles still reigns on (although he is increasingly becoming a fan of the Foo Fighters as well). Here he is jamming out. Since this is not a pretty post, it hasn't been edited for content or to fit in the time allowed, but I still think it is worth your time to take a peek. Plus, you can hear Harper hiccuping in the background, and that is cute stuff, my friends.
Despite having an overzealous big brother with an affinity for trying to push in her soft spot, Harper continues to thrive and be pretty much an adorable angel baby. In typical second child fashion, she has far fewer pictures of her than Holden had at this age. The biggest reason for this is because I never want to put her down long enough to take her picture. She is super cuddly and I am too busy taking advantage of every second of that to bother with documenting it. I do manage to sneak in a camera phone picture here and there, and here is one to prove that she does exist.
So there you have it. Enjoy, because who knows when the next post is coming your way. Seriously, when I had a kid I had to learn how to do things one handed. Now that I have two, I am trying to learn how to do things no handed.....What do people with three kids do, try to grow an extra arm?
At least I completed something on my 30 by 30 list! (#3)
So, when I was in the 5th grade, we learned about states/state capitals/state nicknames/etc. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I learned the heck out of those states. I could give you all sorts of United States trivia in my sleep. What can I say, I just found it interesting...Some of it could be that I was terrified of my 5th grade teacher and didn't want to draw any negative attention to myself, but mostly I just really liked it.
I am proud to say that Holden is following in my footsteps. The kid found our old United States puzzle and was fascinated. Not exactly age appropriate, but as we know, if Holden is entertained by something, ANYTHING, I usually just go with it.
Now he is obsessed. He can identify all the states and where they go. He has no less than three United States puzzles and they all get played with daily. Multiple times. So many times that I got bored and decided to start teaching him state capitals while I was at it, and he now knows about 15 of those (mostly the "funny" ones. We think Little Rock is HILARIOUS around this house).
Like I said, couldn't be prouder. Too bad I never excelled at say...mathematical equations. That might get him a little further in life.
Anyway, this video is proof of the obsession.
Disclaimer: The video is one of those things that only a mother could truly love...Or even fully care about, so if you don't watch I won't be offended. Just go ahead and leave a comment praising his brilliance and I won't know the difference anyway.
The lighting is bad, the clapping for himself almost drowns him out, and he won't even glance at the camera, but after months of effort, his ABC's are officially documented. Enjoy.
Who wants to be the disciplinarian for my child? Anyone? Because I'll be honest, between the super cute pouting and the cheeseballing, I just don't have the heart. I left the mini tantrum that followed out of the video, because some of you don't have kids yet, and I'd like you to. But even that was kind of adorable, in it's own way.
P.S. Once again, sorry about the bad quality. Steven Spielberg I am not.
P.P.S. Don't be alarmed that Holden looks like he is scratching 10,000 bug bites. That is his attempt at the sign language word for please.
Except for when Holden graces me with his gut busting laugh. And since YouTube videos indicate that people LOVE to watch videos of babies laughing, here it is:
(You can hear me and Reo laughing louder than Holden at parts. Sorry about that.)
So, I've had a video camera since April and a kid since mid-October. It was inevitable that the two come together at some point. That point is today.
I've figured out that if I tickle Holden's chin, I can coax him in to smiling (who knew that actually tickling a baby's chin would get results?). Unfortunately for me and my manly image (insert laugh here), getting Holden to smile also requires me to talk in baby talk and a high pitch voice. I was going to drown it out with music, but due to being too lazy to investigate copyright rules on that sort of thing, I'm letting it go.
So for your enjoyment, here is about a minute and a half of Holden smiling while I spew goofy words at him. Please refrain from mocking my baby talk. Thanks.
