Harper - Final months as a One Year Old

Looking very "Edith Bouvier Beale/Grey Gardens"

It's amazing the way my little Squirrel is growing up!  She has really transformed over the last couple of months.  Since we own a baby book but I have yet to fill out one page, I guess my kids will have this blog as their baby book so I'm trying to make sure to document all of the little details.   Details about my almost (gulp!) two year old:

- Her vocabulary has really taken off.  She's saying mostly two and three word phrases and is a little parrot these days.  We have to watch what comes out of our mouths! 

- The Squirrel is still pretty timid when it comes to groups.  If we're with a group for over a few hours, it doesn't take her long to warm up but she stays pretty quiet and close to one of us otherwise.

- Harper loves to do "roll call" with anyone in her presence.  She likes to name off who's in the room, at the table, in a picture, well you get the idea.  She's also figured out that some people have more than one name so she occasionally refers to Mommy and Daddy as Brooke and Jared.  I think this is hilarious but Jared is appalled.

- Harps knows all of her basic colors, her letters - both upper and lower case, and her numbers 1-10.  She can count to ten but occasionally skips six and nine.  Ten is always said with A LOT of enthusiasm.  No, I am not one of those mother's that bought the "Teach Your Baby To Read" videos.  She's just really into letters and numbers and has pretty much taught them to herself.  Instead of coloring, she likes to have someone sit with her and randomly draw letters so that she can name them.  Her favorite letters are H, N and M.

- The Squirrel sings!  She's a big fan of the ABC song, Oh I Know (insert any name), Twinkle Twinkle and Happy Birthday.

- Harps is taking gymnastics and now likes to perform her gymnastics feats around the house.  These include lifting her leg, holding her arms out to her sides, doing donkey kicks and assisted forward rolls.  Unfortunately, I think my daughter has inherited her mother's grace and coordination (or lack there of) so I don't think the Olympics are in her future.  She's also started leaping off of anything - chairs, ottomans, boxes - so when you hear her saying "onnnneeee, ttwwwwwooooo, tttthhhrreeeee!" it means you better be ready to catch her. I'm not so thrilled about this new trick.

- She's gotten very affectionate.  Harper will request hugs and kisses throughout the day.  She's also figured out that if we're doing something that she's not super excited about (like putting on sunscreen), she'll throw her arms around my neck and say, "HUGS!" which temporarily stops the unwanted action.

- Whoa does this girl like to dress up!  You've seen the life jacket pictures but she loves an accessory - hats, bracelets, shoes, necklaces, headbands.  You name it.  Her current obsession is her swimming goggles which were worn all day yesterday, including music class.   

- Harps loves her stuffed animals and dolls.  She likes to move them from room to room....all of them!  But I am a little honored - her doll previously known as Baby is now Baby Brooke.  

- And the child is a product of her generation.  She is 100% proficient on the iPad.  I've created a page of apps just for her.  She knows that she can only use my iPad while I'm feeding her brother so anytime feeding Harris is brought up, the immediate response is "iPad!"  I did research on the best educational apps for kids and they must be paying off because she learned a lot of her ABC's and counting knowledge from the apps.