Sky's First Day of Preschool!!!

Sky burst into Harper's room this morning at a very early hour to yell something along the lines of, "Hi, Harp! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 

Then she closed the door and went back to her room. As she explained once I calmed Harper down and called her back into Harper's room, "I wanted to go back to my room to rest for a bit so I won't be too tired at preschool," but she was just so excited she had to tell someone.

Because today is her first day of preschool at Miss Libby's Pear Tree Preschool! 

She has been counting down the days and could not be more thrilled to be such a big girl. She is a little sad to leave Harper, though. She said, "It's too bad Harp can't come to preschool with me. When she's three she can go to Miss Libby's, too! Won't that be fun, Harp?"

Harper said, "Uh huh."

I had a few minutes to snap some pictures this morning before I left Sky at Miss Libby's! I may take a few more when I pick her up. ;)

This was just before we jumped in the car:

And these are at Miss Libby's!

Sky and Crew are so lucky to go to Miss Libby's together. I wish I could have gone to preschool with one of my cousins!!! (Crew was interrupted while playing with Mr. Potato Head.)

Sky had no reservations about me leaving her at preschool. She walked in, found the pear with her name on it, stuck it on the pear tree (roll call) and started coloring a butterfly picture.

I am so excited for Sky! She will have an excellent year at Miss Libby's. She will learn so much and have fun playing with kids her age three days a week!

It's a little weird for me to have just one kid at home right now. It's 11am and I'm writing up a blog post. Harper has the iPad all to herself and couldn't be happier about it, and I know Sky is having a BLAST! I think we can get used to this routine!

Caring for Eggs

Here is a terrible phone photo of Sky's nest.

Yes. It's a nest. A mermaid nest, and a very cozy one, I'm told! Here is the mermaid egg. 

Sky is keeping it cozy, because it's going to hatch "in like 10 minutes."

Update: It has a crack!

Update: The crack is getting bigger!

Update: It hatched!!! The baby mermaid is very cute and she is in a nice, cozy crib. And even better: there's a new mermaid in the egg. It will hatch in only two minutes. No, wait, there are 10 baby mermaids all in the same egg!

They've all hatched now. Sky is letting Harper hold some, "but DON'T put them in your mouth! Harp! FINE! I will just keep them all."

Happy 7th Anniversary, Us!!!

Today Mike and I have been married a whopping seven years! 

Look at us being so cute on our wedding day, only narrowly avoiding a bubble attack.

Aww, Mikey. Trying so hard to keep his hands in appropriate locations for the wedding day photo.

It is now seven years, 20lbs (on Mike; that's a good thing), three cities and two kids later. I wouldn't trade our life together for anything. Thanks for being so amazing, Mike! You are an incredible husband and father and the only person I want to spend forever with.

Enough of that schmoopiness. Mike and I are BEYOND thrilled to celebrate our anniversary Hawaiian style this year! Yes, we're returning to those lovely islands, but trying out Kauai this time. You know how we like to shake things up. Shake shake it.

You should know that we plan to have the best vacation we've ever had. Considering that we only have to beat one previous vacation to accomplish this feat--and with proper training and conviction--I'm confident we will succeed. 

I may or may not snorkel. Food will be involved. Mike's childhood dreams of learning to dance the hula will finally be realized, and a baby sea urchin will try its hand at stickball.

Stay tuned.

Imaginary Memories

Many people have imaginary friends as young children. During two different stages of my young life, I had two different sets of "imaginary friends."

The first set was compiled of what can only be described as an entire zoo. But it isn't accurate to say I had an imaginary zoo, as there were no walls or fences or ticket takers involved. I simply had an imaginary following of zoo animals, including but not limited to: multiple turtles; a large team of ducks, involving parents and ducklings alike; tigers; puppies; mice; cows; and zebras. No snakes. Keep in mind, I was quite young (two or three years old) and did not care to differentiate betwixt domestic and non-domestic animals, hence puppies and mice being among my zoo following. My parents will attest to the long minutes spent waiting for each and every creature to make its way into the car before we could go anywhere.

The ducks rode in the gas tank; they preferred floating over sitting. My parents would oblige by opening/closing the gas flap.

The second set of "imaginary friends" was more of a viewership situation than a group of friends. I'll be frank: I had an imaginary game show in my head. I was four years old.

I don't remember the purpose of the show and I don't remember the names of the two competing families, but I do remember that they did have names and that the show was an ongoing production that took place only during my frequent trips to the bathroom. The game show families showed up after the zoo friends were dismissed as too cumbersome; I couldn't be expected to care for so many of them and they were having babies right and left.

Here's what I do remember about the game show:

• The game show had a name and theme song
• The host was funny
• The show played out somewhat like Jeopardy
• The families had names
• It was always the same two families
• One family was very wealthy
• One family was very poor
• I rooted for the poor family
• I did not like the wealthy family
• Sometimes the poor family was winning and I was happy
• Sometimes the wealthy family was winning and I would cry, because the poor family needed money more and the wealthy family was just on the show because they wanted to be on TV

Unfortunately for my family, this game show situation showed up during our time in Lehi, Utah, where the ratio of people to bathrooms was 5:1. My unexplained long trips to the toilet have surely left my parents and older sister perplexed for the past quarter of a decade. 

It was an emotionally trying game show and sometimes it took me a while to get my wits about me and keep a strong face for the family. I used more than my fair share of minutes on the pot. I hope this clears things up.

18-Month Stats

I took Harper in for her 18-month checkup last Friday.

Here she is patiently and nakedly waiting for the doctor, catching up on the latest celebrity gossip. Poor kid had no idea four shots were in the works! I did not take a post-immunization photo, but I'm sure you can imagine how sad that little face looked.

She is a tough little cookie and cheered up after about 20 seconds of wailing, which I think was mostly directed at me for betraying her. She had that how could you look in her eyes. We bought Popsicles (Mighty Minis--they are slow melt and awesome!) at the grocery store on the way home and it was like nothing bad had ever happened!

Harper has had a big growth spurt since her last visit in January. She has grown 3.5" and gained 4lbs! Yay, Harper!

Stats:
Height: 31.5" - 42%
Weight: 21lb 9oz - 11%
Head: 18.11" - 32%

She has jumped big time in height. There is still hope for her to be taller than me! At her 12-month checkup she was in the seventeenth percentile for height and the fifth percentile for weight. She has dropped a little in head circumference percentile. I feel fine about that--she doesn't look like a pinhead. She is growing, yay!

I love this little munchkin. Gooooo Harp!

July Skyisms

I wish this post had more quotes! I did a terrible job of writing the Skyisms down in July. Or maybe Sky just wasn't very funny last month. Yeah, that's it. She was so boring.

7.4
Playing I Spy at the kitchen table during breakfast:
Me: "I Spy with my little eye something very tall and skinny."
Sky: "Um...is it Daddy?"
(It was a stem on an orchid plant, but who can blame the kid?)


7.4
Mike sang Sky a lullaby at bedtime. Sometimes she requests "Harp's Lullaby" (which is actually a Dixie Chicks song called Lullaby that I used to sing often to calm Harper down). Tonight he just sang her his own version of Hush Little Baby, but the following alludes to Lullaby.
Sky, whispering: "Dad, do you know how long I want to be loved?"
Mike: "Is forever enough?"
Sky (who didn't hear Mike's answer): "No, Daddy. Forever."

7.6
Sky: "I'm going to earn lots of quarters and then I can buy that bike!"
Me: "That's right! You're doing a great job saving your quarters!"
Sky: "And I am going to earn lots of money so I might have a couple more left to buy Harp a little bike...and one more left to buy her a piggy bank."

7.13
Sky: "I think we should get another baby."
Me: "...what do you mean?"
Sky: "I mean I think we should get a different baby. One that doesn't cry and scream so much."
Me: "You don't want to keep Harper any more?"
Sky: "Nope."
Me: "Sky. That is not a very nice thing to say!"
Sky: "Well, I still like her. I do like Harper. But I just wish she didn't cry and scream SO much."
Me: "All babies do that, Sky."
Sky: "...well...not all of them...sorry."

7.18
Sky was telling me that someday she'll be a mommy.
Me: "When you're a mom, I'll be a grammy!"
Sky: "Whoa! And you can bring Harp to visit me!"
Me: "When you're a mom, Harp will be big like you. She will be a mom too and she can visit all by herself."
Sky: "Oh."
Me: "Like me and Leisa. You are like Leisa, because you're the big sister, and Harp is like me because she's the little sister. When you are moms, I'll be a grammy and I'll play with your kids!"
Sky: "Yeah! You won't be a mean grammy, either."
Me: "Thanks! How many kids will you have when you're a mom?"
Sky: "I don't know. I'll find out when I'm a mom."

7.24
Sky, having the time of her life at Nick and Josh's Chuck E Cheese birthday party:
"Mom! I LOVE THIS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!"

7.30
Sky's word of the day (week) is "AMAZING!!!!"
Sky: "Whoa, Harper. Whoa! Mom, Harper put her shoe on! HARP, YOU ARE AMAZING!!!"

Taunting x2

This is how lunch went today. My babies are teaming up against me. I love them!

(FYI: you can only watch the video by visiting the blog! It won't embed in the email.)