A Little Dancing, A Little Harper

Last Tuesday was Hadley's last music class of the season, and I was able to take some videos of her in action. This class was so much fun, and even though I was a teacher in what seems like another life, after watching Hadley's teacher every Tuesday I have an appreciation for what teachers do to give children a chance to learn about something new.

Here are a few videos of Hadley in action. As I note in several of my entries, note how all the other children are sitting on their moms' laps, then note where Hadley is.

Here she is front a center:

This is my favorite one. At the end of class, the teacher sings a little lullaby while all the kids snuggle with their moms....with the exception of my child.

As for Hadley's younger sister, she is doing well getting used to the world. She's given us some big smiles here and there and Hadley continues to enjoy telling her about life. Here they are hanging out in the morning after they both woke up.

Showing Harper what's what

It is very important to Hadley that Harper learns about certain things early on. While her parents are concerned about getting Harper to sleep at night, and whether she'll take a bottle, Hadley wants Harper to know about Elmo and all the fun toys there are to play with. Yesterday when "Elmo's World" came on Sesame Street, Hadley quickly ran over to Harper and said, "Elmo's World is on, Harper!" Harper, who was lookng at herself in the mirror on her playmat, responded with a, "Waaa!" Jesse picked her up, and Harper wriggled herself towards Elmo's voice so she could see what her sister was talking about. Already they've formed a bond.

Hadley's favorite toy to play with before bed is her zoo. Last night before the girls went to sleep, Hadley lined all her animals up on the couch where Harper was watching her.

Yes, both the yak and the camel have band-aids on their butts.

Here's a video of Hadley counting her animals while placing them in front of Harper. There are days when Hadley can count to 20....last night was not one of those nights, but A for effort, right?

H Squared

Most of the readers of this blog know that we have an addition to our fine family (pun intended) but I thought that it was time to make it "blogficial" (that's a blogging term for official; I made it up just now). Harper Anne Feyen was born on Sunday November 9 at 10:52am. She weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces and was 21 inches long. Not the giant that her sister was at 9 pounds 10 ounces, but an impressive size all the same.

Here are the proud parents admiring our beauty after the whole ordeal. Harper decided to begin her journey into this world just as the Notre Dame game was ending and Jesse was getting ready for bed. This was right around midnight, and despite the inconvenient time I will note that driving on the Beltway while in labor in the middle of the night is MUCH less stressful then driving it in rush hour traffic. I thought that was quite considerate of Harper to keep that in mind.

I don't have many anecdotes to share about Harper quite yet, so I'll put up some more pictures. I will write that we've learned she hates having her diaper changed. She lets us know how much she hates it by screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs. This makes the process quite enjoyable for all involved.

Here's a shot of the Big Sister. Hadley is telling Harper about the importance of going to the right college as well as matching one's socks to one's sweatshirt. I think Harper took the talk quite seriously.

Here's a shot with Harper's eyes open. We can't tell if they will be brown or blue yet.

And here's a picture of Hadley's latest trick. She swings from side to side while hanging on the doorknobs of her bedroom. I was quite impressed with this latest accomplishment, and had to refrain myself from telling her that if she used her feet to push herself away from each wall she'd really get a good side to side motion going.