This year we headed up to Wintergreen to celebrate New Years and Harper’s THIRD birthday… can you believe it?! Our trip to Wintergreen meant Christmas Part Deux for the kiddos, and they enjoyed tearing through gifts from Ya Ya and Pop Pop. Harper got an art easel and Roman got a giant spring rocking horse, which was a big hit with all the kids. When he opened it Harper’s eyes snapped wide open and she said “Can I try it? I don’t wanna be like Swiper!” That comment just made me melt! Swiper is a fox on Dora the Explorer who “swipes” things. In the Christmas episode he swipes all of the other kids’ presents and then has to learn about sharing. I’m glad Harper is actually gleaning something from all of those hours in front of Dora!
Harper’s birthday wasn’t until January 2nd, but she got an early birthday present on New Years Day… going skiing with her Daddy! Harper has been asking us to take her skiing for about 3 months now. We don’t know where she got the idea, but she has been relentless about asking for it. Needless to say, she was very excited to go on Friday. We really were not sure how she would react to it, but she surprised us both and absolutely loved it. I did not ski, for obvious reasons, but Portman said she was shrieking with delight the entire time saying things like “this is so much fun!” and “I don’t wanna go slow, let’s go faster!” She skiied both by herself and between Portman’s legs holding onto his poles. She came home for a late-afternoon nap, then headed out again for night skiing. She had tears streaming down her cheeks when we made her come in around 9PM!
On Saturday we had a very low-key birthday celebration for her. I let her decorate her own cake, which she ate around 10:30 AM, and she opened her birthday gifts. She and Daddy went skiing again but didn’t stay out as long because it was SIX degrees outside… not fun for anyone! Everyone was tired from the holidays, so we took a nice long birthday nap. Her big birthday party with her friends is next weekend, so I don’t feel too bad about the lack of celebration!
Harper got some really great gifts for her birthday. I normally wouldn’t write about them, but they have been a huge source of entertainment over the past few days. She got almost all games or “projects,” all of which I would recommend buying for a three-year-old. The best ones were: Let’s Go Fishin, I Spy, Paper Plate Bugs, and Two by Two. We are having so much fun playing them with her, and it’s great that she is old enough to actually “get it!”
As far as three-year-old milestones, I don’t know what she “should” be doing at this age, but she sure does seem older to us! She talks and sings non-stop, to the point where I find myself constantly asking her to be quiet. Lately she has been saying a lot of things in Spanish that she has learned from watching Dora. Tonight as we were going upstairs for a bath she said “Mommy, say ‘sube’,” which means “climb” in Spanish…since we were climbing the stairs. She also regularly uses the words: arriba (up), abajo (down), hola (hello), amigos (friends), vamonos (let’s go), lo hicimos (we did it), and she can count to ten, although her pronunciation of the numbers is atrocious!
Harper is a ball of energy and is constantly trying to enlist her brother in various activities. Throughout the day I hear things like “come on buddy, the chase is on!” Then the two of them will tear off in a “chase” around the house. It’s really fun to watch their relationship develop now that Roman really plays with her. 99% of the time Harper is such a good big sister – she plays with him, shares, helps him when he can’t do something on his own, and translates his babble for me. She has her diva moments, but for the most part she is so good to him!
Harper has really taken an interest in reading and constantly asks us what something says. When we read a story to her, she calls us out on skipping parts, and she likes to point to the words as we go along. We hope that she will be reading soon, but who really knows!
The only bum thing about her growing up is that she is starting to drop her nap. I thought that this would be the end of my freedom, since I have been so lucky to have two great nappers, but it’s actually not that bad. On the days that she doesn’t nap she is usually asleep by 7 PM and will sleep for 13-14 hours overnight. Since Roman goes to sleep at 7 anyway, it’s actually pretty nice for me to have the whole evening to myself. I just have to get through the late-afternoon melt downs!