Harper at 2 1/2 years old

To my Princess Harper-Happy 2 year ½ birthday! Where should mommy begin? First and foremost you are our precious gift and you bless us all each and every day with your personality, your smile, your laugh, your talking/conversations, your memory, your wisdom, your insight and your love. I love to get you from your room every morning because you want to be held and snuggled but the first thing you do is ask for your sister or whoever (mommy or daddy) didn’t come and get you. You never cease to amaze me with your vocabulary. I used to keep track of all of the words you knew but that would be virtually impossible now because you will repeat everything you hear.

You in a nutshell:
-You love to clean, whether it be with baby wipes or a swiffer duster
-We tried to potty train you but you weren’t quite ready. You know that you get a prize when you use the potty and the other day, you went and got daddy a prize when he went potty…too cute for words because you cheered for him and everything.
-You love life and you get so excited. Your excitement becomes contagious because you eyes light up, your smile is a million miles wide and you cheer as loud as you can and say “YEA!”
-You have more energy than any other 2 year old I have ever seen. You just started gymnastics to defuse some of your energy in a positive way
-You are fearless…you always want to be like the “big” kids.
-You love Veggie Tales, Elmo, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Fancy Nancy and Sesame Street
-You are starting to want to pick out your own clothes, which may get interesting but so far so good.
-You love to dance with your daddy in the living room but unfortunately you got your moves from your mommy. You call music “mukick”
-You love to be on the go…it’s almost like when you wake up in the morning…you want to have an agenda and go, go, go
-You have never met a stranger-sometimes it may take you awhile to warm up to a new person but you eventually do and then you become a “ham”. You are our social butterfly. Grammy and I sometimes say that you would be happy if you could live in a house with all of your favorite people
-You always wear a bow and if I forget your bow, you remind me-it’s kind of become your trademark
-You love to sing. The other night you were singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and I started crying because you have one of the sweetest and most innocent voices that I have ever heard-you warmed my heart like no one else can do.
-You love to read books. Right now you are hooked on Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See?, Panda Bear, Panda Bear What do you See? Fancy Nancy, Fancy Nancy Halloween and Welcome to the World Baby-you can actually almost recite these 5 books verbatim.
-You love puzzles and you work them so quickly. You are also pretty hooked on Mr./Ms. Potato Head
-You love to go the park and climb, slide and swing. You are quite the climber.
-You have an amazing imagination. Daddy and I love to sit and listen to you play by yourself because of the conversations you have with all of your dolls and toys.
-You love to talk on the phone and you always want to talk to Grams and Paps
-You go to school 3 days a week and right now, I think you may be a bit of a handful for your teacher. You have been called defiant but I think it’s just that you express yourself better than most of your peers and you are very independent and strong willed. One of your favorite sayings right now is “I can do it by myself.” Apparently, that was one of my favorite phrases at your age so I wonder where you got it.
-You love and adore your sister. You love to play with her, love on her with hugs and kisses, sing to her, read to her and do just about anything I ask you to do to help out with her. Some days you do get a bit jealous but for the most part, you find ways to get your own attention
-You can count to 20 and you can count backwards from 10
-You know your ABC’s and you are starting to recognize letters
-You always want to know everyone’s name. You even know your full name and Adeline’s full name. You crack me up because you will ask me random people’s name in a store and then I feel obligated to ask them to appease you.
-You know the street we live on
-You are a pretty picky eater but lately you have branched out and we have discovered that you love fish
-You love Hornsby, the Drillers mascot and during the baseball season you always ask to go and see Daddy and Hornsby
-You say your favorite color is pink but you always tend to pick the orange stuff
-You notice the small things in life, which I often take for granted (like the leaves changing on trees, the cows that live by our house or the beautiful flowers blooming in a field) and you always notice when things change-you have the BEST memory!
-Last but not least, you say the most beautiful prayers and you love to say the end when mommy or daddy prays “in Jesus name, AMEN!” You tend to shout the last word, which I’m sure HE gets a big kick out of.

Sweet Harper you are such a precious gift. I’m sure there is more that I should tell you but that is all I can think of for now. I will be posting new pictures of you soon!