Harpers First!

I think this was the first handful of cake she grabbed to shove into her mouth. It was awesome.

All my pictures uploaded backwards... So, we'll just go with it. Above is Harper towards the end of the night. After shoveling fist fulls of cake into her mouth, she was definitely drunk on sugar. Here she is trying to rally, and she did...
Thanks to Pops, Harper had a real fireworks show at her party. Here are the brave waiting in the bitter cold to watch from outside. Everyone else, including the birthday girl was watching through the window. It was fantastic. Big, real fireworks... none of these pansy sparklers!!!
Harper's birthday banner.
This is one of the only smiles I captured, although she was mighty happy once she became the center of attention... I really need to look at mom's pictures as well as the ones Linda took to see if I can find some cute, smiley pictures of Harps.
First thing in the morning... (10:00am for us) getting ready to venture out in the snow (all 5 flakes of it) to Harper's first birthday breakfast!
I've just realized that I haven't posted about Christmas yet, so hopefully that will be soon... or maybe not, who knows...

Anyways, on her first birthday she has 8 teeth. 4 on top and 4 on bottom... (which all reared their ugly heads in a matter of about 5 weeks, MISERY)

*She has several words she uses regularly: good job, mama, dada, papa, all done, ball, yes, no, bye bye... (there may be several more, but it's early in the morning, people) And she can repeat almost anything you say, if she is in the mood.

* She is crawling, cruising and standing all the time. I think she will be walking in about a month... or maybe less.

*She is into everything, yesterday I set her down for one second to grab a cup out of the cabinet and hear the sound of splashing water... turn around and she is gone. She is in the bathroom playing in the toilet, which I am ashamed to say, had not been flushed.... luckily no poop though...

*She is sleeping better at night, and (knock on wood) for her nap also.

*I don't know how much she weighs yet, but at 11 mos she weighed just under 20 pounds.

*Climbing the stairs is her fav activity, and she would prefer to come down head first. It's more fun that way, right???

*Favorite foods: veggie burgers, yogurt, bread, and apparently sugar from her mad cake devouring skills (hmm, is she my child or what???)

*She has just started calling herself "Barper" and tends to answer simple yes or no questions appropriately

*We just got a video monitor for her room and 2 more baby gates because, like I said before, she is into EVERYTHING. I didn't realize what an easy young toddler Grace was until now. (physically speaking)

*She is a daredevil, and is more social than Grace was at this age.

*I think her favorite activity of the day is going in to wake Grace in the morning. She shivers with excitement as we approach her door. It is adorable.

She is hilarious and just so sweet. She has been such a blessing to us. I can't believe that this year has gone so fast. SLOW DOWN, life!