Harper Reese-16 Months Old + The Houston Zoo

Yesterday, Harper turned 16 months old. As she gets older, it's nearly impossible to get photos of her (especially if you ask, she will laugh and run away) so I'm sharing photos from our trip to the Houston Zoo today as part of her 16-month update.

This month Harper's language really exploded. I remember being a little worried at her 15-month checkup that she wasn't saying many words (to which my pediatrician replied "don't worry, my son didn't talk until he was 3, and now he works at Google). Thanks for the reassurance, doctor.

About a week or two after that check-up, it was like someone flipped a switch and this girl started to say new words practically daily. It's awesome. She even talks to herself in her crib in the morning. If she wakes up earlier than usual we just let her hang out for a bit chatting and flipping through books.

Favorite Moments, Memories & Milestones:

new words:

"wawa" for water

cheese

bubbles

open

purple

oh no!

uh-oh!

this

ba ba ba for sheep

up up!

staaarr (said drawn out, just like that)

hi

bye

baby

all done
"nay nay" for horse

She also started to say "I don't know" (but it sounds like one word)--- she shrugs her shoulders and puts her hands up by her sides. It slays me, it's so cute.

Loves the song "wheels on the bus." It is now part of our bathtime routine. To keep it fresh, I make up new lyrics to the song and sing about things that wouldn't actually be on the bus�like a cow. I also sing that "the star on the bus goes twinkle twinkle twinkle" and "the spider on the bus climbs up the water spout" because she loves those songs too. She looks at me all the time and does the "wheel turning" motion with her arms and says "buh buh buh" so I will sing the song. It's adorable.

At night when she is ready for bed, she goes to the gate at our stairs and turns around and waves and says bye to Lulu.

She knows her shapes. One week at daycare they learned aboout shapes and I try to reinforce what she learns there while we play. You can watch a video here and here.

She knows some of her colors and is getting great at puzzles and matching them correctly.

She cries hysterically if you take away an eating utensil. If this girl has a spoon, she uses it, even if it means most of her soup ends up in her bib pocket

One day she saw a mom holding her newborn baby on the blacony on the house across from ours and now whenever she goes to the window she points and says "baby baby" even if the baby isn't there. Sometimes, the baby will be there and she will alert me to it. I hope our neighbors don't think we're staring.

Harper had her first pigtails in her hair this month. Her hair was finally long enough!

She loves stickers--- she likes to put them on herself, windows, books, toys.

She loves to color- you can check out some of our favorite coloring tools here.

She likes to put laundry into the laundry basket and put things in the garbage�sometimes she tries to take things out of the garbage can and now we have clear packing tape on it so she doesn't try to dig in there. My husband is thrilled I taught her that.

She knows most of her body parts and will point to them when we ask on her own body, or ours. She likes to dig inside my bellybutton. Laughs really hard when she does it. It kind of hurts, but it's cute.

She is very playful and mischevious. Always testing boundaries and playing little games with us.

Likes to play a game where she offers us food and then is all "psych!" and pulls it away and laughs and laughs.

Has been a total daddy's girl for the last few weeks. It's always "dada dada dada."

She answers questions with yes or no all the time now.

She still loves to dance. We regularly "get down" to some tunes. She's got moves, y'all.

She often brings Lulu his octopus toy and laughs when she throws it to him. She loves watching him run around the house.

Harper's dress- baby gap  |  bow- happinessliveshere

I hope you had a great weekend! We had so much fun at the Houston Zoo, definitely check it out if you're ever in town. We bought a membership so we can go all year, especially when the weather gets cooler. We got there early enough to see the elephants get baths, including the baby elephants and it was adorable!

Harper Reese- 15 Months Old!

Harper's 15 month update is way late�but I love documenting her progress each month and sharing all of the new things she's up to.

The days of Harper crying when I leave her class are over. Now, she happily runs inside and is all "see ya, mom."She just loves her little class, her teachers and her friends. She's learning so much every day and I'm always surprised by new things she's doing. The other day I was singing "twinkle twinkle little star" to her like I often do, and suddenly she put her arms up in the air and started making little "twinkling" movements with her hands as I sang. Sure enough, the theme of the week in their curriculum (we get a curriculum emailed to us each week) was shapes, and they used that song when they were learning about stars. It was just so sweet and unexpected when she did it. Love those moments. The next day she used her arms to make a rolling motion for "wheels on the bus." Too. much. cute.

She's up to so much these days that I've started to keep a list on my iPhone so I can remember everything for these monthly posts.

Something I've struggled a lot with this month with feeling overwhelmed that some nights that I don't feel I get enough time with Harper. Traffic has been terrible and it's definitely gotten me down more than a few times. I've started having my husband pick up Harper from daycare most days because it helps to shorten my commute a bit when I don't have to stop. I really love picking her up and seeing her notice me when I walk into her class, but I think Kevin getting her brings us all a little more sanity.

I can barely get photos of this little lady anymore. Our upcoming family photos are sure to be a disaster with the way this girl won't stop for a moment! I've all but given up and I'm sharing some iPhone photos in thist post because they capture some sweet moments.

Height + Weight:
Harper had her 15 month appointment two weeks ago!  She weighs 25 lbs which puts her in the 92nd percentile for weight. She's in the 53rd percentile for height (31.5 inches) and the 61st percentile for head circumference (18.1 inches). She is still wearing size 4 diapers.

Favorite Moments, Memories & Milestones:

Can point/touch every area of her face and body when we ask "where is your head? where are your eyes? where is your belly button? touch your feet! etc)

Kisses pages of a book when she likes what is on the page

Can correctly identify/point to items on a page 90% of the time when asked (where is the pig? where is the ball? where is the duck?)

Love to share sips of my water from the big Starbucks cup

Imitates everything, gives high fives

Still loves books and being read to, loves pointing at the "wild things" in "where the wild things are"---she just wants to go to those pages. My little weirdo.

"Dances" with her doll (makes her doll dance by holding her arms and moving her around), still loves tea parties and giving all of her stuffed animals zips of tea

Loves dance parties--- I play music and pick her up and we dance like fools in the living room

Can sign "more," "milk," "eat," and "all done." Please note these are all food related. Go-figure

Tried peanut butter and shrimp for the first time this month

Learned to blow kisses and use her finger to make a funny sound with her lips (my mom taught her on FaceTime)

Loves FaceTiming with grandma---huge grin as soon as my mom pops up on the screen and she's totally engaged with her, it's so sweet!

When feeding herself with a spoon (working on it), throws a FIT if you try to help. She wants to do it by herself, folks. She actually hysterically cried as though I was hurting her when I tried to help. Oh boy!

Throws arms up for "hooray!" and "up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky"

Does the actions for "itsy bitsy spider," "wheels on the bus," "if you're happy and you know it" and "twinkle, twinkle." She will start doing the actions when she wants me to sing the song too!

Can say mama, dada, woof woof, quack quack, moooo, something that sounds like apple, up, NO, uh-oh!  more�and a few other things I can't understand. She also said bubble and purple recently. She says "wawa" for water, too.

Nods her head yes and shakes it no. She loves shaking her head yes lately. "Do you love mama?" (shakes head) ha.

Still HATES having her diaper changed most of the time. I try to tell her how it's better than sitting in your own poop, but I don't know that she's fully on board. My mom keeps telling me to buy a potty to "let her practice." In Slovakia, where my mom grew up (and where I was born), they potty tain babies very young so I guess it's a cultural thing. 

Harper is still absolutely frantic about food. She stands in front of the fridge and screams/cries regularly, even if she's just eaten. Doesn't want anyone else to eat if she's not eating. Tries to eat your food when she's done hers. Bottom line: girl likes to eat. Any other mamas with babies who are frantic about food? She has been this way since she was an infant when she was bottle fed her breastmilk. The moment she saw the bottle she would flip out until it was in her mouth and sometimes when she finished it she would scream, even though I knew she was satisfied (if I tried to feed her more, she would spit it all up). 

Harper + Olivia hugging�I seriously got teary. They were so sweet with eachother during our last playdate/mamadate.

Harper in her gifted Splendid for Stride Rite shoes. The collection is so cute! Check it out here.

Thanks for reading!

Harper Reese- 14 Months Old!

We are two weeks into Harper's transition to the toddler room at daycare and it could not be going any better. They are on such a fantastic schedule and they do so many activities. arts and crafts and have twice daily outdoor play.

They still have the cameras in her class and I was watching one morning while the teachers put on a full-on puppet show and I thought to myself "these people know what they're doing." I've had so much guilt about being a working mom, but seeing how much fun she has, how engaging the teachers are and how well she's doing is helping quell some of these feelings. The other day, she even cried when we left, which admittedly broke my heart, but then she cried pretty much the entire rest of the night, including with red-faced feet stomping, so it was just a bad night for her. She was lovely the next day�ahhh toddlers.

Speaking of tantrums, we've definitely noticed that she's testing her boundaries and being quite dramatic. It's hit or miss on what her mood will be any given day and throw teething into the mix and some days are just a disaster from the very start.

Epic tantrums aside, she has a very sweet side to her personality. She will rub your arm or leg or gently pat our heads, she hugs her baby doll and cares for her like a real baby (except for when she throws her headfirst onto the floor), still loves being silly, playing peek-a-boo and being chased. She loves being "surprised" when I pop out from behind the kitchen island when we play "hide and seek."

As you can see in the photos from this month's session, little miss was not in the mood. It was nearly impossible to get photos this time around, she was running all over the place like the busy little toddler she is. Oh well!

I'm changing the format of these updates to simply include favorite moments, memories and milestones. I really write these for myself to have as a reference and the more detailed updates were fun when she was an infant, but she does so many cute things each month I want to share some of my favorites.

Height + Weight:
Our next pediatrician appointment isn't until next month, so I think she's probably about 25 lbs now and a little taller too! She is still in size 4 diapers.

Favorite Moments, Memories & Milestones:
Harper has "tea parties" with her animal friends. She puts them into a group on the floor and pours them a cup of tea.

Harper can draw with markers and scribble on our chalkboard.

She wants to read constantly and brings us book after book. She can identify a book when asked, which surprised me. I can ask her to get "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" out of a pile of 10 books and she will find it and bring it to me.

She understands so much. Her receptive language grows by the day and she always surprises us with all she understands.

She dances like no body's business. Her jam right now is "chandelier" by Sia. It comes on and she smiles immediately and breaks into a dance that's all her own.

When I say "ring, ring, who's calling?" she picks up whatever is around and brings it to her ear, haha!

When she FaceTimes with her grandma Zuzi, she actually kisses the screen when my mom asks for a kiss

She tries to put on her own shoes, and tries to put them on our feet too

She babbles a lot and babbles "sentences." Still not a lot of words, but she's been working on so many other skills. We talk and read to her a ton and she understands so much so I know she will get it on her own time.

She can brush her own hair (and ours too!) and tries to put her own hair bows on

She likes to drink out of mama's big Starbucks cup (with supervision of course, that massive straw could seriously impale a toddler running around with it)

She likes all of the food. Seriously, this child is still absolutely frantic about food and loves to eat�and it better be on her plate tout de suite�or else!

She loves to twirl in circles and can walk backwards (I think she realized this when it was the "skill of the week" at Little Gym)

She currently hates bath time. She just cries as soon as she's in the tub. Sometimes she can be distracted if she plays with the running water. Most of the time, it's just crying.

She can kiss and most recently can blow kisses.

She can touch/point to body parts when asked "where is your nose/eyes/belly" etc.

She still takes awhile to warm up to new people and situations--- but sometimes she will surprise us and totally ham it up when we go out to eat---waving and smiling at everyone around us. Other times. she's stone cold until she's adjusted.

She still loves her paci. She's using it only at night for sleep and sometimes we will give it to her if she's inconsolable from teething. They've weaned her off of it at daycare for her naps there�but we haven't had any luck at home. She just screams in her crib and cries for it�and if I try to hold her and comfort her in other ways she just pushes off of me and gets even more worked up. Any tips mamas who've been there? I've read some online already about saying "bye bye" to paci and having a ceremony of sorts, but I don't think she's cognitively at the point of really understanding that.

Her smiles still melt my heart�her laughs even more so.