18 Months

Marking Harper's year-and-a-half milestone was a three-day saga. And I do mean saga. She is the next Drama Queen of the Universe.

We started out by having her pictures professionally taken on Tuesday. (You know, because I don't take nearly enough pictures with our home camera. . . ) Matt was a good sport about it, especially after I promised that, from this point forward, we'll only get her photo taken around her birthday (and maybe for the occasional special event). No more half-year shots! We've had some pretty good luck at the portrait studio, especially last time, when we had Harper's picture taken with live bunnies. I was feeling pretty optimistic about our session. Unfortunately when we arrived on Tuesday morning Harper had no interest whatsoever in having her picture taken. The photographer was patient, understanding, and all-around wonderful. Between her snapping upwards of thirty pictures, and some very clever cropping, we ended up with some beautiful photos. In all except one you can see at least a hint of the beat-up stuffed animals they use to get kids to smile. Allowing Harper to drag them around in front of the backdrop was the only way we could get her to be still for even a fraction of a second.




Wednesday marked Harper's actual 1/2 birthday and the sun actually came out! I was so thrilled with some nice weather that we went to the park twice in one day. The second time we took Nana with us, after a lovely girls' dinner. Harper added the word "stick" to her vocabulary. As in we spent half our time at the park walking around and picking up sticks. There was a part of my brain suggesting that a toddler walking around holding sticks might not have been the best idea. However, we were in a park full of large, old trees and it had been storming for a week. There were more sticks in that park than there are people in Manhattan. Sometimes you have to pick your battles. Incidentally, I did draw the line at holding the sticks while she went down the slide. I'm not completely irresponsible as a parent!

We rounded-out the three days of festivities by dutifully heading to the doctor for a check-up on Thursday. Oh the drama that ensued! Apparently Harper has some memories that office and getting shots. She was doing fine until the nurse came at her with the little forehead thermometer (which is less painful than a soft breeze, by the way) and all heck broke loose. Cut to me pinning down Harper's arms for every blessed thing that had to be done: temperature, head circumference, listening to her heart/chest, measuring her length, having ears and eyes looked into, and, finally, two shots. By the time she actually got the shots she was screaming so furiously that I'm pretty sure she didn't even notice she was being stuck. Sigh. It started thundering as we left, which sent Harper into another fit. She was so upset that I couldn't even get her to stop crying long enough to eat lunch. I finally just put her down for a nap and she proceeded to sleep for the next three and a half hours.

One nice thing about our appointment was the doctor telling me that most children Harper's age, "Aren't big fans of anything that isn't their idea." This made me feel better about Harper's often obstinate behavior.

Here is her most recent set of statistics. . .

Head circumference: 19 1/2 inches, +97%

Height: 33 1/4 inches, 90%

Weight: 23.9 lbs., 25-50% (up from 5% at one year!)

So she's somewhat tall and has a huge noggin. We're just happy she's healthy and (usually) happy.