Tonight after dinner Harper went on a little bike ride and Roman ate some dirt. Harper is getting better and better at riding her bike. She has finally figured out the whole steering thing and no longer runs into the sides of our neighbors’ cars. She can usually get started without a push, but this morning insisted that our 85 year-old neighbor, “Mr. George,” push her. I don’t think he has much else to do because he was more than happy to push her around the pavement in the blazing August sun!

Roman is all boy: he likes running, eating dirt, picking up sticks and throwing things. Tonight I caught him eating chunks of dirt from the flower beds, which ultimately ended up as drool-mud all over his shirt. Both of the kids love being outside and I am already dreading winter when we are stuck inside! A few pictures that I took on my phone:

The kids’ car seats are in the kitchen today because Daddy is using my car to move Uncle Julian to UVA, so after nap they decided to climb in and enjoy their frozen yogurt sticks. Harper insisted on being buckled, but Roman was happy to just sit there. Apparently car seats in the kitchen is a very exciting event, because they stayed in there for a good 20-25 minutes! And yes, neither of them is wearing pants. That’s how they roll on hot summer days.

Harper: “I want to leave my milk outside.”
Me: “If you leave it outside it will turn into cheese and it will taste yucky.”
Harper: “And dare will be a mouse inside da cheese and it will go ‘bump, bump, bump” like dis and it will wear Mommy’s backpack.”

Peter is one of Portman’s colleagues and we go over to his house occasionally when the boys are finished working. Recently Harper has been talking about Peter a lot:

Harper: “Where’s our house?”
Me: “Our house is in our neighborhood.”
Harper: “Do we live in our house?”
Me: “Yes, we live in our house.”
Harper: “Where does Ellie live?”
Me: “Ellie lives in her house.”
Harper: “Where does Daddy live?”
Me: “Daddy lives in our house.”
Harper: “No, Daddy lives at Peter’s house.”
Me: “No, silly, Daddy lives at our house! Sometimes he just works at Peter’s house.”
Harper: “No he just works AND he lives at Peter’s house.”

“I called to Peter and he was dare and I said ‘Peter? Are you dare?’ and he saw me and he showed me his puppy and da puppy was dare in da wiving woom.”

Harper: “Uh oh, I have a problem.”
Portman: “What’s the problem?”
Harper: “Hmm, let me find it.”
(thinks for a few seconds)
Harper: “Okay I found it. You need to turn the lights back on and read me more books.”

I think potty humor is extremely entertaining, and luckily so do my kids. Both of them break out in a fit of giggles when they toot, especially if they are sitting on someone’s lap. This line from Harper isn’t really “humor,” but I thought it was damn funny. She uses the potty independently, but we still help her wipe when she is finished. Yesterday morning she yelled to me:

“Mommy! I’m ready! First you wipe my tush, then you say ‘holy cow, Harper!’”

Here’s a quick video of Roman walking. As of a few days ago, he is a full-time walker. He’s so cute!!

Harper has two comfort items: her “Mimi",” which is a little blanket with a lamb head on it, and her “bee-bee,” which is an infant-sized pacifier. This afternoon before nap time I told her to go get them, and she came back like this:

Yes, Mimi is stuffed through the little hole in her pacifier! I don’t know how long she has been doing this, but I think it’s pretty well engineered.

Roman is also extremely attached to his blue Mimi and requires at least 2 of them for sleeping. We’ve talked about weaning Harper from her pacifier, but so far our pediatrician says it’s fine, and she is such a good sleeper that we don’t have the heart or the patience to do it. At this point we’ll just wait to bribe it away when she is closer to 4. I don’t think there’s any chance she will give it up on her own!

Harper has been very polite lately and uses “please, thank you and you’re welcome” very liberally. Some recent examples:

“Bye Daddy! Thank you for coming to my house!” (as Daddy went to work)
“Bye Mommy! Thank you for coming downstairs with us!” (as I went up to shower)

This morning she was playing with UVA Cheerleader Barbie and insisted that Portman undress her. She studied Barbie’s naked torso for a while, then lifted up her own shirt, put Barbie up to her chest and said “Hey look! Same time!” Umm, sorry Harper, not for a few years. Maybe never given our family’s genetics!

As I type this she is sitting next to me eating Puffins out of the box. She just asked me:

Hey mommy, you want some muffins in your hand?

Building a block tower (this is the most random train of thought ever):

Here’s the first one. You need to measure your arms up-and-down. La la la, I’m so proud of you, la la la I’m so proud of you. Which one is da most biggest? Oh, dis one. Umm, hmm. Dat one’s too small. Yup. Hmm. Put your computer down and close it down dare.

So I guess I have to “close it down dare!” Until next time…

We went to one of our neighborhood parks after lunch to try and burn off some energy before nap time. Harper is passed out, while Roman is running back and forth in his crib singing very loudly. I’ll take a 50% success rate any day! They sat on a giant turtle together (taken on my phone):