Harper recently graduated to the "big girl playground" at our neighborhood elementary school. Until now we have stuck to the kindergarten playground, but last week, in a moment of bravery, she marched right up to the big playground and did her thing! She now refers to it as "big slides" and wants to go as soon as she wakes up in the morning. Sometimes Portman caves and takes her at 7:30 am before school starts!

This fall Harper is sporting her first pair of tie shoes (pink Chucks) as well as her first pair of Shark Shoes (thanks, Mary Jo!):

"Baby Ro" is sporting a big smile, two dimples and newly-acquired head control!

We spent last weekend in Wintergreen with my family and had a blast getting all of the baby cousins together. Harper had so much fun with her cousin Charlie that she protested bed each night saying "more Charlie!" There were many funny moments over the weekend, but the highlight for me was watching Charlie try desperately to steal Harper's cookie, while Harper attempted to hide it from her:

Harper hiding the cookie behind her back:

Charlie is on to her tricks:

"Hmm maybe if I hide under this blanket she won't find me:"

Harper realizes she has won the great cookie battle and gloats at her toothless cousin:

There were lots of other photo-ops over the weekend, which are now up on Smugmug. Enjoy!

This week we celebrate Roman’s 2 month birthday, and we celebrated Harper’s 20 month (!) birthday just a few weeks ago. Roman had his 2-month checkup today and is still growing like crazy. He is just over 13 pounds and is 24 inches long, which puts him in the 85th percentile for both height and weight. He is on track developmentally, which at this age means he can sort of hold his head up and he is starting to smile. Our biggest concern for him is his sleep schedule, or lack thereof. He is still getting up about every 2 hours, sometimes less, at night, and has only slept longer than that once or twice. The doctor said there is absolutely nothing "medically wrong with him," but gave us a few things to try to get him to sleep longer. I am already supplementing his diet with formula, but we are going to try a special hypoallergenic formula to see if it calms his tummy a little more. We can also try adding cereal to his diet if the formula doesn’t help. At this point if they told me to feed him raw steak I would try it… I just need a little bit of sleep!!

Although it is hard to enjoy a baby who is awake all night, I have been having more fun with Roman the past few weeks. He is starting to interact with us a lot more, and he is getting really cute. He is a very sweet baby and loves to be held, and luckily he doesn’t mind his sister’s affection too much!

Harper doesn’t have her next checkup until 24 months, but I’m starting to realize that she is a little shrimp compared to a lot of the kids her age. I just bought a few fall clothes for her and the 18 month size is still pretty big on her! I’m sure there will be a growth spurt at some point this fall, but until then she will be sporting her 12-18 month clothes for a bit longer. Harper continues to amaze us with her verbal skills. She is starting to say sentences instead of one-word demands, such as: "more treat please!" She knows almost the entire alphabet with the exception of X and Q because I can’t think of good words to associate with them. She can also count to 14 and knows most of the ABC song. She says things like "no, FOUR bee-bees please!" when she goes to bed (bee-bee is a pacifier).

Other than being immensely sleep-deprived, I am handling the two of them well (I think!). I’ve started bathing them together, which is hysterical. Portman doesn’t get home from work until after Harper is asleep, so I’ve had to get creative with the dinner-bath-bed routine. They both love the water, so it is just easier to stick them both in the tub! Big surprise, Harper likes to help:

Today while I was making dinner I caught Harper sporting her latest fashion. Note that she is also wearing Portman’s socks. This is a recent phenomenon. Every morning when she gets dressed she insists on putting on a pair of his dress socks, and I don’t feel like arguing!

In the spirit of learning the alphabet (and spoiling her rotten?), we recently added this shirt to Harper’s wardrobe:

It’s official – Harper has become a linguistic sponge. On this morning’s episode of Sesame Street, Big Bird was conducting a children’s Mariachi band. Well, roll forward 4 hours to Harper’s nap. I put her down in her crib, turned on the monitor, and within 2 minutes she was standing up and throwing her arms in the air yelling "Viva! Viva!" except it came out more like "Bee-Bah! Bee-Bah!" I guess she’s using the official Castilian pronunciation!

Harper spends a lot of time “loving on” her baby brother. She constantly asks me if she can “hold RoRo!” and I can’t resist! I’m not sure how much he enjoys it though…

Harper showing RoRo the proper way to do “tummy time”:

A few shots of the big boy. As Harper would tell you, “he’s yookin’ at me!”:

And finally, I thought Ro was going to be my fair-skinned baby, until I saw him next to his future girlfriend, Baby Nicole (Rachael’s baby sister):

Harper continues to crack us up. Here are a few recent funny moments.

Lounging (literally) in her sandbox:

Today around lunchtime she dragged her booster seat (usually reserved for travel) onto the floor, sat in it, and very seriously declared “eat!”

After dinner I stripped her food-covered dress off, and she jazzed up the look with the Santa hat:

Harper has made it very clear where her sympathies lie this election season… apparently she will be voting for "Oh-mama!" I’m so flattered.