Older by the Second

First of all, the response to de-lurking week (see "Are You Out There") was horribly underwhelming. So, even though it's over, I encourage anyone reading this to leave a comment. A big thank you to Giselle, the only lonely person to leave a comment last week.

The reason I started writing this was to keep our friends and relatives up to date about what's happening here in Ohio and with Harper. It seems she has been growing and changing so fast, the last couple of weeks especially. She is walking more than crawling/scooting now. For a while it seemed like she would only walk if two people sat facing each other for her to walk between. She really liked the part where we clapped and cheered for her. She has finally come to enjoy being on her feet and this is now her preferred mode of transportation. I still find myself surprised to look up and see her standing in the middle of the room.

















She also surprises me with the things she knows or knows about. On Friday, Nana and Dziatku came over for dinner and to do some babysitting. We were all sitting in the living room, playing, when I said, "Harper it's time for bed." She put down the toy she was playing with, got up, and walked into her bedroom! Although she still wasn't thrilled with being changed into her pajamas and abandoned in her crib. . .

Her cute factor increases as she learns. Lately, when you ask her to hug her Elmo, or any other stuffed toy, she squeezes it and says, "Awww," in a perfect imitation of what we say when she gives a sweet little hug. We're also really enjoying her approximation of animal sounds. She is particularly attached to a farm animal book my friend Dotto gave her for her birthday. Harper has her own sound for the duck, lamb, cow, pig, goat, and rooster. Out of the context of the book, you'd have no idea what she's trying to say, but her attempts are truly precious.

As with most things she's not supposed to play with, Harper seems obsessed with the computer. We can no longer hope for her to play in the same room with her toys while one of us uses it. She will walk over to the keyboard and push anything she can reach. One day she was tapping on the computer chair and making very insistant noises, so I sat her in the chair to see what would happen. Here are the photos of a girl who is most certainly paying attention to what we do:

Grrrr! (That's me growling at the computer.) For some reason my pictures of Harper on the computer do not want to be included in this post. Stay tuned. . .