dirt, a fence and a big fall

amazing the fun you can have in your own front yard! harper certainly thinks so. we had our soil delivered today for our vegetable garden. as we pulled home from school, harper stared in awe at the large mound of fun placed in the middle of our driveway where it wasn't when we left for the day. so we stayed and played while she dipped her fingers in the fresh soil, stomped and flattened chunks on the driveway and tried to share her dirty wealth with maximus and me. this fun turned into running sprints up and down the driveway and opening and closing the gate. i love how she finds the joy in all the little things, things i never would have looked at twice before she came into our lives

needing a little breather, we both sat on the front porch steps. as i pulled out my phone, harper reached for and grabbed it, lost her balance and tumbled down 2 concrete steps, rolling over onto her face in the process and is now the proud owner of a lovely little purple goose egg on her noggin. she loved retelling me how she fell. tumbled and rolled and hit the head. poor little peanut. she quickly recovered and seems to be ok. thank the heavens.

mama

i love being a mommy. i love hearing harper call me by no other name but mama. i love knowing that she is the only one in the world who can call me that, for real. and yesterday, i got to soak up all the mommyhood glory.

i got to sleep in, a little bit. michael and harper were making breakfast, and i really don't think they meant to set off the smoke alarm. i stayed in bed anyways, even though i was awake. a few moments later, in walked our breakfast-in-bed tray with 2 plates- one for harper, and one for me. my favorite breakfast in the world is fruit crepes, and michael whipped up a batch with warm, brown-sugary-banana filling with strawberries on top. add to it a large cup of coffee with enough cream to make it the color of a starbucks frapuccino and i was in heaven. later on, a brunch with my family. a long nap for harper (and a short one for me), which gave me the time to repaint an antique desk for our family room. some landscaping work done by michael. a steak salad dinner, and a trip to the dairy store for some good, old-fashioned hard ice cream.

and to the moms in my life...

first, to harper... not a mom, but made me a mom. thank you for letting me love you. thank you for bringing smiles and sunshine to my life. thank you for opening up my soul and stretching my heart farther than i ever thought it could go. you are my everything, my harper bean.

to my nephews...i was a "mom" to you both first. thank you for teaching me how to raise good kids. and thank you for your unselfishness and love to harps.

to my mom...thank you for showing me gratitude, strength, perseverance, compassion. thank you for teaching me independence. thank you for showing me how fulfilling giving of ourselves can be. thank you for teaching me love, no matter what the circumstances or consequences. thank you for wrapping your heart around your children, children-in-law and grandchildren and promising to never let go.

to my sister...my other mother. thank you for being my second mom. thank you for taking care of me when i was little and colicky so mom didn't lose her mind. thank you for teaching me things i never thought i would need to know. thank you for carving a path and lighting the torches to make life a little easier. thank you for being my sounding board and the one i share everything with. thank you for loving harper as your own.

to my mother-in-law, diane...thank you for raising such a loving and amazing husband and father. thank you for loving me as your own daughter. thank you for the abundant love you share with harper.

a sweet ending to a scrumptious day. the sunlight streaks through her blond locks as she enjoys not one, but two, ice cream cones. back and forth, unable to decide which one she likes best, and then finally giving both of them up to dance with her daddy on the sidewalk.

cupcake

if mothers are the cupcakes of life, then children are the frosting on top. some are the light and fluffy whipped vanilla on vanilla variety. while others are the peanut butter frosting atop a dense chocolate cake. some are the rich carrot cake cupcakes with the ooey gooey cream cheese frosting. and some pile on the extra goodies- the candies, sprinkles, fruits, nuts, anything to make it more delectable and edible. whatever the cupcake of choice, i'm in. right down to the very last crumb and finger lick of that sweet frosting on top.

we spent the afternoon with grandma and grandpa, to celebrate mother's day a bit early. grandma had a project for harper, requesting her help to frost some bare mini cakes. her frosting was delicious- a whipped blend of dry pudding mix, cool whip, powdered sugar. yummy. harper thought so as well. she helped frost one, then licked all that hard work off. frosted another, licked that off as well. then decided she might as well skip the middle man and go right for licking the sugary delight right off the knife she had just dipped into the bowl of heaven.

and on the way home, michael and i took in the most beautiful sky. we had all of this amazingness surrounding us, reminding us to see the beauty in everything. but most especially in our own little cupcake, peacefully falling asleep in the back seat, visions of sugarplums dancing in her head.

wishing you sweetness in your days.

livin' life and lovin' it

it's friday, and it's the weekend and it's mother's day on sunday. and we started this glorious weekend out mostly happy.

of course, tonight it rained again. as it has so often recently. but i wasn't going to let that get us down. i cranked up the volume on a girlie tune, and harper and i boogied. the song ended, and she beckoned for more. so we did. and as we were dancing, we looked out the window and noticed that the skies really opened and the rain was pouring down. not sure what came over me, but i asked harper if she wanted to go play outside in the rain. no surprise, but she ran to grab her shoes. michael thought i was crazy. the neighbors probably thought i was crazy. but i didn't care. i wasn't going to allow our weekend to start off on a sour note. so we moved our dance party outside.



















and all was well and good until our little took a plunge face first into an even larger puddle down the sidewalk a ways. and she was drenched and waterworks were pouring. so we subjected ourselves to more things water-logged and took a cozy shower. we wrapped up in towels and cozy jammies, snuggled in for stories and songs, and she drifted off to sleep faster than you can say rain rain go away. come again another day. little harper wants to play. rain rain go away.

it's mother's day on sunday, and i'm so looking forward to spending the entire day with the 2 loves of my life. it's going to be a good one. and now i'm not mostly happy, i'm entirely happy.

rock star

yep, it's official. harper's our rock star. michael and i met with her daycare teachers tonight for parent-teacher conferences (yes, i was shocked, too, that an almost-two-year old has ptc!). and we pretty much could have stared at each other for our 20 minute allotted time if we only talked about any concerns that we had in her. but, instead we talked about the things she amazes us with. how well she's progressing. how she chit-chats all day long. how she loves to play independently, but will also call out her friends names repeatedly when she wants them to come play with her. how she greets every face that comes in the door. how she loves art and music and building and climbing and being outside. she's doing great, and i can't tell you how good that makes a mom and dad feel when they have a sense of peace about how their child is doing when not in their care. she seems to make others happy to. they told us as we were leaving that she is such a joy to have. she is one of a kind, that beautiful little of ours.

some things i am also loving right now about her...

the way she busts out into song at any moment, and while it may take a minute to figure out what song she's singing, a word or 2 will come out at just the right pitch, and you can't help but join in.

the way she says i'm sorry when we've hurt her, accidentally of course. when my ring has scratched her or we've pulled her shirt over her head too hard or the door has bumped her knee. she's giving us our cue that we are the ones who need to apologize.

the way she reminds herself out loud mantras that we repeat constantly. be careful. watch your fingers. watch your head. go slowly. it's almost as if i don't need to remind her of these things anymore, cause she knows what she's supposed to do and she tells me that she knows. but i still will, cause that's what mommies do.

the way a mommy hug can ease her cries and tiredness. the snuggles are so perfect right now, when she rests her head on my shoulder and folds her hands under her belly to get in extra tight. she even asked tonight to snuggle in mommy's bed before her bedtime. i obliged, much to michael's chagrin, and miraculously, she did not put up a fight when we told her it was time for her bed. i think i'm going to like our new bedtime routine.

on a photography side note- my iso was up way too high for these photos and i ended up with most of the shots being overexposed. at least i got a few good ones, but that's what happens when you don't reset your settings before you turn off the camera for the night. live and learn. it's all part of the process of learning to become a better photographer, even if just for snapping away at your family.

bedhead

i am loving her something crazy right now. all of her. this morning, i brought her into our room so i could finish getting ready for work. she crawled up to the headboard, turned around and posed. her hair was blowing from the ceiling fan's circulations, and she looked like a model waiting for the photographer to click.click.click away at her fabulousness. she was ready for her close up and i was ready with the camera. she makes me happy.

rains

when it rains, it pours. this weekend has been the rainy kind, in more ways than one. what was supposed to be a busy, fun-filled weekend with lots of things to do turned into a weekend of mostly being at home with a sickie little girl and parents who tried to get out of the house here and there just to avoid going mad from being cooped up.

we were set to head out to dinner with friends friday night, run errands to pick out items for our kitchen renovation saturday morning before picking her up from nana's overnight stay, head out to the green fair downtown saturday afternoon and head up to east lansing for the heart of a spartan 5k that we were running in with the jogging stroller sunday morning. but, things did not go as so. harper kicked out a 104 degree fever friday afternoon, that left me frantically calling the pediatrician, giving her medicine and snuggling her up on the couch. this is when parenting is tough and challenging. while i would do anything in the world for harper, michael and i looked forward to an evening out with adult conversation and the ability to sleep through the night and maybe even sleep in a little longer than usual. but that just wasn't to be. instead we lounged on the couch, ordered pizza (cause i hadn't planned a dinner) and crashed early in case it was going to be a long night.

we did manage to get to the green fair for a little while saturday late afternoon, despite the actual overcast and occasional rainy weather.

and of course, more walking in the sunday morning rains and stomping in puddles.

we were gifted an easel from my sister, who held onto it from when my nephews were little. i am so excited about it! we tried out some paints today.

and michael was able to complete the 5k while harper and i slept in. i actually brought her into bed with me when she awoke at 5:30 am for the first time. i've always wanted her to sleep with us, but i did not want to start a bad habit. there's just no room for the 3 of us. but it was a nice treat, except that she asked to go back there to take her nap and cried for a minute when i took her to her crib instead. in the end, it was better that we didn't go to the run. taking a feverish little so far from home and pushing her in a stroller for a 30 minute jog (ok, ok, 35 minutes) outside in the rain, even with a stroller cover, would most likely have proved miserable for all of us. it was just disappointing that our plans had to change. it's my nature to get all uncomfortable when things don't go the way they were planned. i'm not the go with the flow type of person.

but i am pretty proud of my husband.

thanks, jacque, for the photo! way to go michael, katie and chad!

harper appeared to be feeling better by this evening. her fever seems to be gone, for now. we managed to make it out for a family grocery outing and dinner at whole foods. i guess looking back, it turned out to be a good weekend, being able to snuggle up inside while listening to the rain pelting our windows. and i wouldn't trade additional qt with harper for the world.

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on a side note, harper is super proud of herself that she is now able to stack these cups by herself! and she's also learning to identify her alphabet letters and fits them into our floor puzzle. i'm amazed how fast she's learning and growing.