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It's been less then a month since I last updated, but so much has happened. First of all, Harper turned one! September 26th was Harper's first birthday, and Erica's 25th. Harper woke up at 7:30am that morning and just knew that it was a special day. I gave her a tiny Happy Birthday balloon which she carried around while I made her favorite breakfast, waffles and cheesey eggs*. Then we dropped Tom off at work and I went over to my parent's house where Harper opened her first birthday present:  After a nice nap (that Harper took, not me...although there are plenty of days that I wish I could nap) my mom, Harper and I picked Tom up from his office and went to Kelsey Creek Farm in Bellevue where Harper saw all sorts of chickens, some 3 month old pigs, some sheep, a goat, and her favorite, a very friendly horse:  Erica met up with us at Kelsey Creek, and the birthday girls bonded:  We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, then headed back to my parent's for special birthday cake (sorry, can't remember the bakery it came from, but apparently it's a super good one). Here's Erica and Harper stuffing their faces:  It was such a fun day! The next day I took Harper to JC Penny for some 12 month pictures. I had a coupon that was a little too good to pass up, and I figured if they turned out horrible I just wouldn't buy the prints and take her somewhere nicer. But to my delightful surpise they are adorable! And only $3.99 a sheet! Here are some examples:  This one is my favorite. She started walking up to the photographer very slowly, and I could tell she had her eye on the camera lens. She had this look on her face like, "Hmmm, that seems like a really fun toy..." I was, needless to say, very nervous about what she was going to do if she got any closer. I contemplated picking her up before she could do anything, but then the photographer quickly took a picture and this was the outcome!  Taking pictures of a one year old is hard. Really, really hard. Because she is old enough to walk around, but not old enough to reason with, I was constantly trying to get her to stay where the photographer told me to put her. This was the only good one we got of her standing up because she would just run after me (as seen in the picture below which isn't a very good picture, but hilarious nonetheless).   Here's a cute one of her doing one of her favorite things (of course this was also before she learned KABOOM from Elena). Harper and I surprised Heather and Elena for their birthdays early this month, which was a great adventure. It was Harper's first plane ride, and (obviously) my first with a child. Of course being in first class made it much easier, but now I can never go back to coach. Ever. Here are some cute pictures from our trip:  Ammon, Elena and Harper at the Game Piece Park in Philadelphia. As you can see, Elena is excited to be there and can't stand just sitting on her dad's lap while there are all these giant game pieces just waiting to be played on. Like, say, a giant domino:  After the giant game pieces we met Heather, who had just gotten off work, at Love Park:  The water was dyed "pink" in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but as you can see it looked more red then pink. Although with the fountain going and all the air bubbles I'm sure it would have looked pink, but it was turned off for a band playing on the other side of the fountain, which Elena was totally enthralled by:  There is a cute little park a few blocks from Heather and Ammon's home, so Harper and I walked there a couple times to play on the swings, which she really loved:  Their neighborhood is beautiful, with lots of lovely gardens, old stone and brick houses, and lots and LOTS of squirrels. Despite the sticky heat (95 in October!), I loved walking around the blocks and picking out which houses I loved the best. But Harper's favorite part by far was playing with Elena. Elena taught Harper some pretty awesome new tricks, including KABOOM, which is basically falling down on your butt and yelling "KABOOM!" Harper couldn't get enough of it and was constantly Kabooming onto all sorts of things (the couch, a pillow, the bottom stair, and since we've been home, Scout). About two months ago Harper also started "talking on the phone", which in and of itself is adorable and hilarious, but she also has this special voice that she uses only while she's on the phone. It's much deeper then her regular voice and she always starts out by sayin "Heddo, heddo," which I assume is "Hello, hello". It's also a very urgent voice, as if what she is telling the person on the other line is extremely important. While we were there Heather and Ammon got new phones (see pic and explanation from Heather's blurty), so their old one was available for play. Here is another cute picture of Harper and Elena walking around the house talking on their phones to eachother:  Here is Elena blowing out her birthday candles (her face has a bit of a glow from some play makeup that her and her cousin Eva were playing with. I believe this was after Heather tried to wipe some of it off - you can see that Eva still has a lot of it on her lips):  And here is Harper thoroughly enjoying her birthday cupcake:  I had such a great time visiting them, it was sad to leave. Luckily I will be back after Heather has baby #2 on February 13th (hehe), and Elena reminded me before I left to "make sure I bring Tom next time." Although it was sad to leave Philly, it was also great to be home. Tom had cleaned the entire house - really, it was spotless, I was quite impressed. It was really a lovely surprise. Harper was excited to be home so she could play with all her new toys that she got for her birthday, and to wear her new dress to church today:  After I put the bow in her hair I set her down and said, "Look how pretty!" Tom and I oooh-ed and ahh-ed over her, and she just knew how cute she looked. Later on when I was giving her a bath she kept putting her bathtub letters and numbers on her head and saying "Teee!" I think she was putting "bows" in her hair and saying "Pretty". So cute. *She still likes waffles, but no longer likes cheesey eggs, or any sort of eggs.
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