In Like a Lion

We're back!

Did you miss us?

As soon as I officially declared my hiatus, Harper seemed to be enticing me to blog by being downright hilarious. Not once in the last week would I have thought, "What am I going to write about?" Which figures.

For a two-year-old Harper self-entertains fairly well. And she never stops talking, which is good for me. I can occasionally go to work on the computer and, as long as I hear her talking (to her doll, animals, our dog, etc.), I know she's okay. If it gets quiet, or I hear the refrigerator open, I know I need to go see what's happening. We live in a ranch, so there's only so far she can go.

Last Thursday, as I was working away on my project, I hear, "Mommy, yook at me! I a baby!" And I glance into the living room to see this:


That would be the doll stroller she is sitting in. And yes, she also took her clothes off. It's thirty degrees outside, only sixty-eight or so in the house, and Harper wants to run around all day in her diaper. I wish I had a digital video camera, because not only was Harper sitting in her stroller, she was cruising around in it, Flintstone-style. I did make her get out though, I'm pretty sure it's not meant to convey actual toddlers.

Later that same day she walked into the bathroom, where I was occupied, and said, "Hey toots!"

*****

When he was home over the weekend, Matt was in charge of Harper so I could get things finished up. He decided he should teach her to play poker:




I pulled up solitaire on my computer the other day and Harper asked where the chips were. She calls it, "pokers." I told her I didn't know how to play, it's a game to play with Daddy. That's seemed to suit her just fine. Who knows? Maybe she'll fund our retirement on the Poker World Tour someday.

*****

Apparently Harper internalizes my end-of-the-quarter stress and it weakens her immune system because, for the third time, as soon as I start getting into serious work mode, she gets sick. She has had a terrible cold for about five days now; coughing, sneezing, low fever, not wanting to eat, and waking up every three seconds all night long. Saturday night we had such a hard time getting her to stay asleep that Matt took her into the living room and laid on the couch with her. She wandered into the family room (where I was on the computer) around 1:30 a.m. and pouted, "Daddy didn't make woom for me." Matt had rolled over and sort of edged her off the couch. She was a pathetic mess.

We went to the doctor yesterday and her ears are clear, lungs are clear, and she doesn't have strep. All good news, except that there's not a darn thing to do but ride it out. And this morning I woke up with all her lovely symptoms. Sigh. Too bad moms can't call in for sick days.

Harper was totally cool with getting a "ceck-up" at the doctor, until they did the swab for the strep test. I guess there's no better way to do it with a toddler, but the doctor sort of just jabbed the swabs down her throat, much to Harper's horror, and a little to mine. Fortunately she seems to have forgotten it already. No hard feelings I guess.

The best part about going to the doctor is the sticker at the end. When I wasn't looking, Harper relocated her sticker. I finally noticed it wasn't on her shirt anymore and asked where she put it. Her response? "It is on the window for yater." Behold:



Fortunately it came off without too much effort.

*****

So there's our little (or long) update. The comments have been very quiet, what have you been up to in the last week?