We normally shut Harper’s door at bedtime and secure it with a baby lock from the inside so that she can’t get out. Here’s why…

For the past few nights Harper has asked that we leave the door open. The deal is that we will leave the door open as long as she is quiet and stays in her bed. As soon as she violates either of those rules, we shut the door. Sometimes she will leave to use the potty, which is fine, but for the most part she stays in there. Well, tonight we were packing the car for our Thanksgiving trip and I thought I heard something upstairs. I crept up the stairs and found this scene, except the lights were off because she can’t reach them. She was standing in the middle of this mess completely naked, in total darkness, having just used the potty:

I started laughing so hard that I had to run downstairs to get Portman so that one of us could act angry! It’s safe to say that her bedroom door will remain shut for the next few nights!

We don’t know! We had our big sonogram this morning to make sure that the baby has all of its parts, and we decided not to find out the gender. Instead, we had the technician write it on a piece of paper and put it in a sealed envelope that we will open at Christmas. Portman and I have already decided not to exchange gifts this year, so this will be our Christmas surprise to each other!

We did get some awesome pictures of the baby. It’s amazing how much the technology has changed just over the course of 3 years/3 babies. We actually came home with a DVD video of the baby moving inside of me! The baby is 100% healthy and growing right on track. It has all of its parts and “just looks great” according to the doctor. He or she appears to be a finger-sucker like Roman, but we won’t know for sure until April As usual, the seeing it move around made us SO excited for his or her arrival!

This might be my new favorite website: http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/.

I just found Roman sitting in the drawer of the living room coffee table. I took him out and a few minutes later found him sitting ON the coffee table. I can’t decide which is worse!

This morning we went to Starbucks. Harper rode her bike the whole way, while Roman drove his beep beep car. It was a gorgeous day for a drive, and it got them nice and tired for a 3-hour nap!

Did you know that Harper can write the letter “H” now? Neither did we! She surprised us this weekend by picking up a marker and writing “H” over and over again. I’ve tried to teach her a few times, and I guess it finally stuck. Here’s a quick video that I took on my new Droid of Harper showing Aunt Cammie her new skills:

Need I say more? We’ve had two fun incidents over the last 24 hours that are gross, but worth cataloging for our kids’ future embarrassment:

1. Bath time… I’m sure you can guess where this is going. Last night I took Harper out of the tub first, put her on our bed and brushed her teeth, then went back to get Roman. I returned to the bathroom to find him holding a wad of poop. I quickly turned around to grab toilet paper to get it out of his hands, and by the time I turned back around he had broken it into several pieces and started throwing it at me. Yup, my son threw poop at me. Does it get any grosser than that?!
2. Today we took a family trip to the mall to get outfits for Uncle Brian’s wedding. Harper had to pee, so we ran into Gap Kids to use the private potty. I stuck her on the potty, and she somehow managed to pee straight out so that the pee hit the front of the potty and slid right into her pants! Lucky for her Gap was having a friends & family sale, so we found a nice new dress on the sale rack and got an additional 30% off. Tights and a dress for under $20? Yes, please!

In other news, while at the mall today we took Roman to get his very first haircut. Both Portman and I have been hesitant to cut it because he has these sweet blond curls in the back, but the baby mullet was getting to be a little bit much. We took him to Cartoon Cuts, which was ridiculously overpriced ($18 for a baby haircut?!), but worth it considering he sat there quietly in his own chair and watched Dora while some stranger cut his locks. Now that he knows the drill, we will be going to Super Cuts with Dora on Daddy’s iPod!

I was just uploading the rest of our October photos and came across these gems. After a few days of rain we went outside to play on the patio, and while I was sweeping up leaves Roman found the water table full of rain water. It didn’t take him long to figure out what to do with it!

As I’m sure you’ve already guessed, this little activity required a full wardrobe change. It took 3 days for his shoes to completely dry out!

The kids, especially Harper, like to sit right on my heels while I am cooking dinner, literally. They hang on my legs, whine at me and hang on the drawer pulls in the kitchen. Even more annoying, they like to drag the potty stools in so that they can climb up to counter level. They put the stools right where I am standing so that I have very limited mobility. It’s really lots of fun for me!

My latest solution to the dinner-time rush has been to let Harper help me cook. Roman can usually be occupied with a toy or DVD, but Harper likes to be right up in my business at all times. It turns out that she loves cooking and there is usually a step that she can help with. Even better, when she helps me make dinner, she is much more interested in eating it. Last night we made Sara Foster’s chicken with lemon, artichokes and capers. When Daddy got home, Harper immediately reported that she helped “smash dat chicken” and then “sprinkle da salt and pepper on it.” The best part was that she tried it and loved it!

Tonight we made parmesan-crusted cod, and Harper got to “paint it” (use a basting brush to put mustard on it) and then she handed it off to me to dip it in the breadcrumbs. Then she helped me scrub the sweet potatoes and “poke dem” with a fork. She ended up eating two strips of cod and two mini sweet potatoes!

Her newfound love of cooking is giving us lots of Christmas ideas. We are hoping that Santa will bring her very own cooking apron and maybe some other special things!