I Left My Harp in San Francisco

Just kidding. I brought her home. Love to everyone. Moh later.

Homes & Hugs

It has been a busy few weeks. We bought a new house, sold our current home, suffered through two stomach viruses, one round of pink eye, an incredibly busy work schedule for both me and BP and Harper moving up to the toddler class at school... all while keeping an impeccably clean home (the joys of having a house on the market).

Luckily we're all well now, our house has a contract and Harper has taken to handing out the biggest, sweetest hugs ever known to man or woman. She's talking up a storm. Her favorite new words: Ball (Baw), Dog (Daawg) and More (Moah). She uses these words a lot. A whole lot and in rapid fire. Baw, Baw, Baw, Baw, Baw...you get the picture. Anyway, sorry we've been so incommunicado lately. We have no excuse.

The Many Faces of Harper

Happy Harper

Harper Appleseed
Pope Harper I

This Kid is the Best

So here are some shots of Harper doing what she does best: sit around and be lovely in almost every situation.

Here she is being lovely and having something to eat.


Here she is being lovely while I give her a Mohawk in the bath.


Here she is being lovely with my hat on.


And here she is being lovely and saving money by shopping wholesale.


That's all folks. See you next time on Being Lovely With Harper.

Belated Beach pics

Sorry it has taken us more than a week to get these posted. We have been busy doing things like running, falling and bumping our head in the same place so many times I'm quite sure we are going to be reported, eating cheese and learning to say new words like, "baby." From what I can tell a baby in Harper's mind can range from a 6-month-old to a cat, but she's getting the idea.

I hope you have as much fun looking at these pictures as we had making them. Oh, as for the terrible scab on her forehead, I assure you it looked a whole lot worse when it happened.

That's the biggest bathtub I have ever seen...

I think the beach is more fun inside...

Driving the boat with Nana...

Learning that sand is better uneaten...

For the love of...

For Pete's sake, post a new blog!

For no good reason: A mildly Japanese-themed blog

OK, let's get to it. Sunday evening's drawing to a close and we all need to be cramming some more relaxation into the weekend before they put the cap on it and Monday's here again.

If it's already Monday where you are, good morning. Welcome to the first day of the rest of your week.

Harper's one step ahead of us, already dozing like the baby she is. She was a perfect mitsukai (that's Japanese for "angel") tonight when we met our buddies for a sushi dinner. Though she didn't indulge herself in any baby sashimi, she did have some green tea ice cream. Oh and some cheese. Oh and a veggie burger. Oh and some fruit. Oh and some bread. Oh and some Cheerios. Oh and a flaky little Japanese cookie.

Harper's turning into a real Takeru Kobayashi. Speed, volume, this little vacuum cleaner has it all. Somehow in the wake of this newfound passion for grazing, she remains way below the average weight for her age group. Luckily she has her mother's metabolism.

In other news, she sure does fall on her face a lot. It's not that she's bukotsu (Japanese for "clumsy"), it's just that she hasn't quite gotten the hang of the quick step. Walking like a drunk E.T.--check. Moving at any speed faster than a waddle--not so much.

OK, I can't think of anything else and I'm out of Japanese refarensu (Japanese forn"references"), so let's move on to the picture portion of the night.

Hope everyone's well

Domo arigato.

--Harper's Folks

Some things you might like to know about Harper

Some things you might like to know about Harper.

1) She is seriously on the move. She learned to walk and never looked back. I swear she walks with the skill of an upright monkey, and I am not kidding. See action shot below.


2) She is extremely social. Just tonight we went to the grocery store and she had so much fun "talking" to the sushi chef at the deli counter I thought we were going to have to ask him over for dinner. It started with a rather frantic wave that once reciprocated became a very lengthy "conversation" that involved a lot of blowing kisses, smiles and questions like, "dubai, dubai, dada, mammmmaa, aamma, alo?"


3) She is going through a phase where she exclusively enjoys the book, Good Night Moon.
Let me explain how it goes down. Part of our evening ritual is reading a few books before bedtime. I stack up several of her past favorites like, The Pajama Book and My First Book of Sushi and she immediately pushes them out of the way and picks up Good Night Moon strongly (and sweetly) insisting that I read it three times instead of reading three books. It's no joke. The girl loves her Good Night Moon.

4) She's so much fun we can hardly make her go to bed.

Parrrttyy!

Harper's first birthday party was a smash! She was an absolute delight, greeting her hordes of grandparents, her great-grandmother, her various aunts, uncles, cousins and friends with smiles and pure sweetness.

She loved her first Happy Birthday song, she loved having a house full of loving and familiar faces, she loved balloons, she loved presents, and she loved her fabulous birthday outfit, but she wasn't so crazy about the much-anticipated first bite of cake. In fact, she hated it. Please see below.

Well, let me see, this has paper which is extraordinarily fun to eat...




Mom seems to like it pretty well...

OMG! I don't like it! I don't like it at all! I think I hate it!


Regardless, Harper had a beautiful day full of most the people she loves in the world. Thank you to everyone who traveled so far to be with us. Happy Birthday little Harper Mae. Cake will taste better when you're two.

Harper's First Birthday

There was the day we brought her home.
There was the day we played in the front yard.
There was the day let her play in the sand.
There was the day she started waving.
There was the day she started walking.

And somehow, in between those, there were three hundred and sixty other days that each seemed better than the last. 360! Every cliche is true; every old saying is wise. Harper's a year old (see below as she reads her first birthday card) and we can't believe it. Happy Birthday, little one!

Happiness is...

Have you ever seen someone swing the world by its tail? See below...

Things are Looking Up

And by things I mean Harper. She is also walking the walk and talking the talk, though she's doing neither with any real facility. The walking is either assisted or, if solo, is almost immediately punctuated by a falling forward. The things she says are absolutely meaningless in traditional English, but are some of the most hilarious sounds we've ever heard.

She also climbs and claps and answers the telephone (or anything electronic).

Look out monkeys of the world: Harper's giving you a run for your money.

Harper Looks Out The Screen Door, Plays With Nonnie, Plays With Mom and a little portrait I like to call Cheese Eye View

Swinging

We recently took Harper to the park to swing. This was her first swinging experience and we had talked it up a great deal. As you can tell from the picture below, at first she was not so impressed.

This is so not a big deal, Mom & Dad. This is barely more
entertaining than my over-played Excersaucer.

What the...

Oh good grief! That was terrific. Once I realized you two hadn't

completely lost your minds, I really enjoyed that! Again!

First Easter

Harper's first Easter brought all kinds of goodness. Pictured: a bonnet and hilariously cute Easter getup. Not pictured: Harper learning the wobbly art of balancing without holding on to anything. And if you set her up just right, she'll actually take a step before teetering headfirst into whomever is on hand to catch her.

I think we're going to need to get her a helmet.

Happy Easter!

I guess she will be walking soon

When I picked Harper up from school today this is what her daily report read:
Today, Harper held on to the science/rocks area and released her hands! She did this several times. I guess she will be walking soon. Janet.

I had to read it several times. I guess she will be walking soon. I guess she will be walking soon. Where did my little baby girl go? How could it be possible that Harper will be walking soon?
S-l-o-w down, please.

Love, Mom

Happy Monday

Hope everyone has a good week.

Harper's Newest Face

Many will find this cuter than what will come to be known as the Great BuckTooth Hoax of 07.

This is Harper's new face and it's fantastic. That bump on her head? That's from crawling--yes crawling--into the changing table at day care. Apparently she crawls pretty fast.

Harper's First Teeth!

Hooray!

Harper Eats Noodles at a Japanese Restaurant

WYSIWYG.
Also, not sure why the system wouldn't allow comments on that feast of memories below.
I think it will now.
Enjoy and happy Friday to all.