Harper’s comments this morning deserve a post of their own:
Portman: “Okay Harper I’m going to work now.”
Harper: “No! Let’s just cuddle on Mommy and Daddy’s bed!”
Portman: “No, I really have to go to work now.”
Harper: “Well let’s just hold hands for a little bit!”
Portman made her a egg-and-cheese sandwich for breakfast.
Harper: “Oh thanks Daddy! Where did you get this? Starbucks?”
Harper had her suit and sunglasses on by 9:30 this morning and waited very patiently for Roman to take his morning nap. She has some fabulous new pool attire, courtesy of cousin Kali, and a new Dora backpack-towel (a brilliant invention, in my opinion).
We had our lunch at the pool and were exhausted by nap time. This weekend we converted Harper’s crib into a toddler bed, and she is doing great in it! I wasn’t sure that she would stay in it, but she treats it just like a crib and doesn’t get out until I come to get her. I’d like to keep it that way as long as possible. The first night we put her in it, she actually fell out. Luckily I had stacked some quilts at the end that doesn’t have a railing, and she rolled right onto them. Since then she has stayed put, but still sleeps like a baby moving all over the bed throughout the night. We put a pillow in there, but she rarely keeps her head on it.
Next step: day bed with a trundle. I’ve been looking for one for a while now and can’t find something that will work. They are all either too expensive or too flimsy-looking. I think the toddler bed will work for a while, but if anyone out there knows where to get nice sturdy wooden kids’ furniture, let me know!
It’s been an exciting few weeks for Harper, but now she is both potty trained and sleeping in a “big girl bed.” Pre-school, here we come!
Last weekend we had our annual Anderson Family Reunion at my uncle’s farm in Delaware (actually, middle-of-nowhere Maryland, but we’ll call it Delaware since it’s close). We drove out to the farm early Saturday morning in the pouring rain, toting two kids, two cribs, a potty and lots of changes of clothes. It rained on-and-off all day, but we got lucky and had quite a lot of sunshine.
Four of the 6 sets of aunts and uncles and all of their kids were in attendance and it made for a super fun day. My dad is the oldest of seven, so my brothers and sisters and I are much older than our cousins. One of my cousins, Kali, is only 5 and she scooped up Harper as soon as we arrived and the two of them were hand-in-hand for the rest of the day. Kali was so sweet to Harper, and Kali’s mom gave Harper some fantastic hand-me-downs, which Harper now insists on wearing exclusively. They had such a great time and I wish we could see them more than once a year!
Roman lived up to his reputation as a mama’s boy and wouldn’t let anyone near him if I was in sight. I spent a lot of the day hiding from him so that my aunts and uncles could hold him! Poor little guy.
I conveniently forgot my camera and had to borrow my stepmom’s. She keeps the time-stamp feature on, which I am confident is the most annoying feature ever invented. Seriously, who needs a time-stamp on their photos besides spies? It ruined some awesome shots.
My younger cousins LOVE Portman because he wrestles with them and makes a very good punching bag. He is also a very enthusiastic dodgeball player.
On Sunday we celebrated Father’s Day the way we usually celebrate Hallmark Holidays – by doing absolutely nothing. Strike that, I made breakfast. Although we don’t make a big deal about those kinds of holidays, I am supremely grateful for Portman as a husband and a father. He is amazingly patient and kind and is truly the best Daddy in the world. Everyone says that “marriage is hard work,” and well, I firmly believe that if it’s “hard work,” or any work at all, you’re married to the wrong person. I know I’m very lucky to have such an incredible relationship with my husband. So, Happy Father’s Day, Portman… we love you!
What a difference a week makes! Last Wednesday we were unpacking from our Europe trip, doing load after load of laundry, and waking up at 4:30 in the morning. Roman had been sleeping in our bed for basically two weeks straight and was waking up 2-3 times at night, and Harper still insisted on wearing diapers. Now Roman is sleeping through the night for 12-13 hour stretches (Hallelujah!), and Harper is pretty much potty trained during the day. I can honestly say that they are different kids than they were a week ago.
The turning point in potty training was definitely the sticker chart. A few of my friends told me that they used sticker charts when potty training their kids, and I through “well Harper would never go for that.” I honestly thought she wouldn’t care. I was wrong. As stupid as I think it is, she thinks the sticker chart is so much better than M&M’s. It is a big motivator for her when she is dancing around refusing to sit on the potty. All I have to say is “you can get another sticker on your chart!” and she sits right down and does her business. Who knew?
We’ve had a few good Harperisms this week:
At Logan’s birthday party on Sunday she found a ball with a ring attached to it (much like a Pogo Ball from my childhood) and said:
Hey, it’s Saturn!
We have a little chipmunk who lives on our back porch. We love to watch for him, especially after a messy outside meal – he usually comes to clean up after us:
Look Mommy, a chick-munk!
And finally, a good potty training quote:
The poop is hiding! Hiding in my tush!
Harper started potty training full time (no more diapers at all) last Thursday, and she’s doing a surprisingly good job. I’ve tried this a couple of times before, like I mentioned in my last post, and got too frustrated to stick with it. This time we are taking the naked approach and it’s really working. She wears dresses and t-shirts, but nothing on the bottom when we are at home or running errands. She wears pull-ups for nap and bedtime, but that’s it. She gets one M&M for pee and two for poop.
Harper is extremely stubborn and will hold it for hours and hours. On Saturday she held it for over seven hours before finally peeing, then we had a pee-fest all afternoon! We skipped nap on Saturday to focus on potty training and she definitely got the hang of it, but there’s no way I’m skipping naps anymore – she needs them!
Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the pool. Harper ran up to me after about 30 minutes of swimming and the following transpired:
Harper: "I want to go home!”
Me: “Do you need to pee?”
Harper: “Yeah.”
(I grab her and run for the bathroom, strip off her suit and stick her on the potty in two seconds flat.)
Harper: “Sorry Mommy.”
Me: “Sorry for what?”
Harper: “Sorry for pee on the pool.”
I guess we still have some work to do! Here is a cute shot of her enthusiastic potty-sitting (and flag-waving):
I’ve had trouble finding time to blog this week because I’ve been potty training Harper. On the plane ride home on Monday I promised Harper that I left all of the diapers in England, and true to my word we jettisoned the diapers as soon as we got home. When I tried this a few months ago, I put her in underwear and she thought it was perfectly fine to pee in them, so this time we are going naked. Buck naked. Apparently it’s no fun to pee on the floor (and yourself) when you’re naked, so she’s done pretty well making it to the potty. I think she is part camel because she will hold it for five or six HOURS before she explodes. I’m also a little confused about how to potty train someone who takes a 3 or 4 hour nap every day. I put her in pull-ups for nap time, and she’s starting to realize that she can just hold it until nap time. I think this is going to be a longer process than originally anticipated…
Anyway, on to Copenhagen! After spending a week in London we hopped on a plane and flew to Copenhagen, Denmark to meet up with Ya Ya, Pop Pop and Uncle Kevin. Pop Pop is teaching in Copenhagen this summer and has an adorable little apartment with enough, well not quite enough, room for all of us. Uncle Kevin was kind enough to sleep in the living room to make room for us. The first night we were there we attempted to all sleep in the same room (squeezing two pack n plays on either side of our bed). Harper proved to us again why we don’t do this by enthusiastically waking her brother up every time we tried to put her to sleep. After that she bunked with Ya Ya and Pop Pop and did just fine, although Pop Pop complained that she was “cutting in on his action.” Gross.
Copenhagen is a much bigger city than I imagined it to be and was shockingly different than both D.C. and London. The first day we were there it was warm and sunny, but the rest of the week was cold. Very cold. And windy. On top of that, the city is pretty dirty and apparently it’s perfectly okay to graffiti anything, including trains! The Danes love rules, such as only 4 people in a taxi at any time (and babies count as people) and absolutely no jaywalking even if there isn’t a car for miles. Perhaps the most shocking thing for us was how expensive the city was. The prices were unimaginable! We went out for pizza on our first night there and they were $30 each. For an individual pizza. Add in drinks and that’s almost a $200 pizza dinner for the 5 adults! I took a photo of a shoe stand selling Crocs (real ones) for $65 each. The place is seriously expensive people.
Despite the cold weather, funny rules and sticker shock, we came to enjoy Copenhagen during our week there. The “Old City” is beautiful and is what I pictured Scandinavia to look like. Nyhaven, this colorful little area on the water, is adorable and Harper spent about an hour eating a hot dog and watching boats. One of our favorite things were the hot dogs. I do NOT like hot dogs in general, but holy cow these things were good! They have hot dog stands all over the city that sell these huge hot dogs stuffed into pieces of French bread. They are amazing and I will never again say that hot dogs are yucky after eating those!
We spent one day at Tivoli Gardens, which is one of the oldest amusement parks in the world. Walt Disney apparently visited Tivoli 5 or 6 times before deciding to build Disneyland in California. When you walk through Tivoli you can see traces of Disney World/Disneyland everywhere. It’s obvious that Walt Disney used it as his inspiration. Despite the Danes’ love for rules, there are very few rules at Tivoli. So few, in fact, that Harper and Roman were able to ride almost everything. Harper loved the roller coasters and Roman was all smiles on the airplane rides. I still can’t believe they let us take him on those!
Other outings during the week included a trip to Roskilde to visit the Viking museum (featuring the original Viking ships found on the bottom of the sea), a visit to Rosenborg Castle, lots of sightseeing walks around the city, and a day trip to Malmo, Sweden. (Fam at Viking Museum):
We LOVED Malmo and got lucky that the day we were there was (1) Swedish high school graduation and (2) the beginning of a weekend international street festival. Apparently Swedish graduation is famous all over the world, but this was the first we had heard of it. Very literally heard, actually, because when we got off the train you could hear it for miles. The students all don sailors caps and march through the streets blowing whistles and fog horns while drinking champagne straight from the bottle. After about 4 hours of marching around like this, they all pile into huge trucks (like dump trucks) that they have decorated and pimped out with giant sound systems, and someone drives them all in a circle while they dance, drink more, and scream a lot. It was amazing and I’m so glad that we got to witness it! Harper thought it was a parade, of course. Here’s a shot of one of the trucks:
Harper got some new kicks in Sweden and tried to get some for her duck, too:
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After Copenhagen we had one more day at Windsor to relax before getting on the plane to come home. Our flight home was at 11 AM England time, so we didn’t expect them to sleep the entire flight. We got SO lucky and the stewardess moved the two guys next to us to Business Class, so we had a whopping 5 seats (in the bulkhead row) to ourselves. That move made me a British Airways customer for life! The kids each took a decent 3-hour nap in their car seats and were awake for the rest of the flight. They did pretty well considering how long the flight is, but we had to take a few walks up and down the aisles to burn off some energy.
Leaving was really hard for us because we had such an amazing time, but I will say it is so nice to be home and back in a normal routine. The kids are sleeping and napping great in their own beds and are back to having great attitudes!
Actually, more of a one-sided conversation. After some much-needed rest, Harper was very enthusiastic about my tomato-macaroni and cheese the other night:
Oh Mommy, this looks delicious! Thank you Mommy!
A few minutes later:
I love eating! Mommy, get some more! Don’t you want some more, Mommy?
And finally:
Here you go Roman, try some. It’s delicious!
It turns out I didn’t have lots of free time to blog on vacation… shocking! We made it home safe and sound on Monday and have spent this week readjusting to East Coast time. The kids have done surprisingly well with the time change. They woke up Tuesday and Wednesday between 4:30 and 6 AM, but other than that have been on a normal nap and sleep schedule. Today they both slept in until 6 (after going to bed around 6:30), so I think we’re pretty much over the jetlag. We had an amazing trip and I have so much to write about, so I’ll get to it.
The rest of our week in London featured outstanding weather – bright sunshine and temps in the mid-70’s, so we spent as much time in the parks as we could . We proudly visited every single major park in London proper and even had time for a boat trip to Greenwich, which turned out to be our favorite by far. Greenwich is famous for the Royal Observatory, home of GMT and the Prime Meridian, but it also features an adorable little town and the most gorgeous public park. Roman and Harper ran/crawled around for hours while Portman and I lounged in the grass, and we didn’t have to worry about them getting lost or hurt because we could see for miles! Harper and I practiced some yoga before we hopped back on the boat for London; also, a cute shot of them on the London Eye:
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We got lucky and happened upon a rehearsal for the Queen’s Birthday, which was the following week. Harper thought it was the best thing ever and for the rest of the trip asked to see the “shoulders” (soldiers) every time we passed Buckingham Palace.
Harper and I took a paddle boat ride in Hyde Park, which was the last time we saw her Paddington Bear. I hope some other kid is enjoying him as much as Harper did! We realized he was gone about a 10-minute walk away from the paddle boats, and Portman and I were discussing whether or not we should go back for him. Harper must have been paying close attention to our conversation because she looked at us and said “let’s just buy another one.” Ha!
Perhaps the most memorable part of our time in London was our stop at Portman Square. For my readers who don’t already know this, Portman is named after the hotel that he was conceived in… the Portman Hotel (now a Radisson) located in Portman Square in Westminster. He spent his first few years of life living in a flat in Portman Square before moving to the suburbs of London. We took lots of pictures to document our first family visit to this special place!
We just couldn’t get enough of the gorgeous parks and played in them until the last second. Here are some shots of the kids in Regents Park. When we got home from this park, Harper curled up on Portman’s lap and said “Daddy, can we move here?” Portman started crying.
We spent our last day in England in Windsor, the little town surrounding Windsor castle. We LOVE Windsor and spent a lot of time there the last time we were in London. Harper was thrilled that she got to feed the practically domesticated swans.
We didn’t pay to go in the castle since the kids wouldn’t really get it, but we walked around the outside and saw more “shoulders.”
Overall, our time in England was hugely successful. I think one of the reasons we had such a great time is that we didn’t attempt to do a lot of “adult” things that the kids wouldn’t be interested in. We didn’t go to any of the major attractions (Tower of London, etc) because the entrance fees are expensive and the kids would be bored. Harper loved seeing the parades and soldiers, they both loved the London Eye and all of the parks, and we found enough things to do for free that turned out to be very fun. We found London in general to be very kid-friendly. The taxis are big enough to wheel a stroller right into them, there are tons of kid-friendly restaurants, and there is just a lot to do with toddlers.
I’d like to end with a public apology to my husband. Before we left he insisted on buying a rain cover for our Phil & Ted stroller. I told him it was stupid and we wouldn’t need it, and boy was I wrong! We had one very rainy day in London and lots of cold, windy days in Denmark and would have been screwed without that thing. I was surprised to see that every single stroller in London has a plastic rain cover. Parents bring the rain covers everywhere just in case it rains. I’ve never seen someone in DC with one, but they were everywhere in London! I was also shocked by the strollers. I would guess that 75% of the families have Bugaboos, and the other 25% have Phil & Teds. I saw the occasional Maclaren umbrella stroller and literally not a single other brand. The number of Bugaboos was insane.
All of our photos are now on Smugmug. There are galleries for each of the major places we visited, so if you really want to look at them I hope you have some free time! I’ll talk about Scandinavia in my next post.
