At this point I’m confident that I will never fill out the kids’ baby books, so I have to record these things here. Today we went to the Air & Space Museum with Dave, Jenn, Kiki and the twins. After several rounds of “Ring Around the Rosey” in the lobby of the museum and 3 or 4 rides up-and-down on the “escagator” (escalator), we finally got around to exploring the museum. Harper LOVES the Air & Space museum and pretty much anything involving airplanes. She had some great descriptions of the exhibits:

She saw an old camo Army flight helmet and exclaimed “Hey yook! A sea turtle! It have eyes!”

To an airplane displayed on the ground (not hung from the ceiling): “Dat one all done flying.”

To an airplane hung from the ceiling: “He have wheels! And arms! And he have flying!”

To moon rocks and a moon-explorer-module-thing: “Dat one sleeping.” (Me: “He’s sleeping? How do you know?”) Harper: “He no flying. He sleeping.”

To a mural of the first Moon landing: “Yook, picture yucky rock.”

We’ve reached several milestones over the past few weeks. First of all, we’ve started to really work on potty training Harper. We got off to a rocky start, but she has now both pooped and peed on the big potty and is very proud of herself! She’s not doing it on a regular basis, but we’re taking it slow and just making sure that she sits on the potty a few times a day. Last night she insisted on calling Daddy and YaYa to tell them “I pooped potty!”

I also decided to register Harper for preschool for next year. I’ve been going back-and-forth about whether or not to sign her up, but I think it will be fun for her to go a few times a week. Right now she is signed up for a Tuesday/Thursday program that is walking distance from our house. I’m excited for those crisp Fall days when Roman and I get to walk to pick up Harper from school!

The big news is that on Wednesday of this last week, the eve of Roman’s 7-month birthday, he finally started crawling! He has been up on his hands and knees rocking back-and-forth for more than a month now, so it was about time for him to take a “step!” He is a really funny crawler – he takes a few real crawling steps, then flops down on his tummy and commando-scoots the rest of the way to his destination. He is very fast though! He also likes to get up on his hands and feet and shake around, which is really funny to watch:

He managed to get stuck under the furthest part of the piano:

I have to include this photo of Harper – a few nights ago she ate her dinner wearing two pairs of my underwear (clean) around her waist. Dress ups, I guess?

Harper is obsessed with Duplos right now (the extra-large Legos) and builds fantastic creations out of them. We have a bench sort of thing in the playroom that really never gets used, so I bought two extra-large Duplo building plates and screwed them into the wood bench, making a little Duplo center for her. She spends literally hours working on it!

Back in the fall we had some “handprint art” done with the kids at a local toy store. About 5 seconds into the session I realized that I could totally do it myself. It turns out that handprint and footprint art is not an original idea, and there are books on it available at Barnes & Noble. I opted out of the books and instead opened up one of Harper’s animal picture books for inspiration. So far we have done a giraffe, an elephant, and we are working on a zebra. Here is the giraffe that we made for our Valentine’s card:

It’s a really fun activity to do with the kids. Harper has been asking me for several days to do a “yellow handprint,” so I guess I’m going to have to think of a yellow animal to paint! If any of my friends reading this would like a handprint animal for their kids, let me know – I’m happy to make them for whomever wants them! I’ve been scanning in the paintings and making note cards out of them and they are really cute.

My mom (and most of my family) keeps saying how much Harper looks like me as a toddler. I dug up some old photos, and yup, she’s a much-tanner version of me at that age!

Caitlin, circa 1982, and Harper, February 2009:

Roman, on the other hand, looks a whole lot like his Uncle Julian (Portman’s youngest brother). I’ll put up photos when I get a chance.

I spent the last two nap sessions uploading photos to Smugmug from January and February, so if you’re truly trying to waste some time (Cammie), check them out! Included are photos from our trips to Disney and Cincinnati, and a gloriously warm Sunday spent in Old Town with Uncle Ron and Uncle Jhoel. Here’s the highlight reel for those who don’t want to see all 400 of them:

It’s 60 degrees in February… what do you do? Go to Old Town to watch airplanes, of course! Oh, and also attempt to jump into the Potomac, or the "svimming pool" according to Harper.

Our trip to Cincinnati had many highlights – the Cincinnati Children’s Museum, Uncle Dave putting way too much soap in the bubble bath, and the billboard outside of White Castle (only in the mid-west) just to mention a few:

Finally, here are a few just at home – the kids playing really cute together, Harper playing a song on "trumpet pasta," and a visual of why you shouldn’t stand up in a shopping cart (she learned her lesson):

We have been in Cincinnati for the past few days visiting our friends who just had twins! Here are a few photos from our trip so far.

The twins, Megan and Abby, are teeny tiny – about 5 and a half pounds each. I didn’t know just how small this was until I saw Roman next to them! At 6 months, he just towers over them. His head alone must weigh more than they do!

The "big girls," Harper and Katelyn ("Kiki"), have been having so much fun together. Last night after their bath they had a very loud "naked party," which involved lots of gymnastics, dancing and playing Ring Around the Rosy. We have a great video of it which I will post when we get home. 

As a child I had my own "fabulous" sense of style, once going to pre-school wearing nothing but a frilly slip, so it is no surprise to me that Harper insists on wearing her own creative outfits. Today went went to Trader Joe’s, followed by dinner at Chipotle, wearing two tutu’s over her clothes (because one wasn’t enough) and Roman’s snow hat (yes, it fits her):

When we got home, I took the hat off her and she immediately screamed "I need a HAT!" and insisted that I put it back on. She danced around in it until I forced the outfit off at bath time!

When we got home I gave Roman a baby biscuit while I was making some baby food. He is doing a great job with crackers, tortillas and such. At one point he dropped it and I said "oh he dropped it!" really just saying it to myself. Harper overheard me from the next room and came sprinting in saying "I get it!" She plucked the nasty thing off the floor and handed it right back to him. So sweet!