Last Day of School…

Hud’s last day of school was last week! They celebrated with a fun splash day (which is why he is in his swimsuit:)).  He had a great year at school. I am so proud of my big boy!!  He was blessed with wonderful teachers and made new friends in his class.  I loved hearing his stories when I picked him up. I especially loved how excited he got when I came to pick him up – he missed Harper and I as much as we missed him!!  As much as Hud loved school, he would still ask me weekly (sometimes every time), “Mommy always comes back, right?” (which melted my heart every single time).  I am so glad Hud had a wonderful year, but I am even more glad that it is summer and I get both of my kids around full time! :)

18 months…2 weeks….5 days….

18 months, 2 weeks and 5 days…that is how long I have waited for Harper to walk. I was honestly getting to the point where I didn’t think it would happen anytime soon. Knowing it wasn’t a physical issue was comforting, but at the same time frustrating because how do you make a stubborn child walk??  She has been walking holding one of my fingers for months now, but she would not.let.go. Truthfully, I was tired of the questions, tired of hearing (though well-intentioned, I know) it will happen when she is ready, tired of it all. We had tried pretty much everything under the sun and then to add to my frustration ECI turned out to be a dead end.  I was getting ready to make some calls to pursue private therapy this week.

Anyway, Tuesday night I had a meeting and I got a text from Trent saying Harper had walked from her crib to our bathroom by herself!!! That is a pretty big distance and I was shocked! When I got home I wanted all the details. He said he had slipped his finger out of her hands (which we have tried before and resulted in her flinging herself on the ground and dramatically crying) and she kept going.  He did it a couple of different times and she kept walking every time!

The next day I was excited to give it a try and praying this would be it.  However, she was having no part of it that morning.  I was disappointed and mad at myself for getting my hopes up.  We went to visit my aunt and uncle that afternoon…when she went on a mission to find her bubba, I tried it again. And it worked! She walked clear across their house!!! and didn’t stop! I was in shock!!!

I captured some pictures of her outside:

Sweet little walker!!!

However, in true Harper (stubborn) form there were a few hiccups. First, we went to the gym that afternoon. It sounds crazy that I was excited to tell the childcare workers there that she was walking, but they have been trying for weeks to get her to walk and they ask every time we are there. So, I was so excited to give them the news…and she refused to walk the whole hour she was in there! And the minute I came to get her, she stood up and walked out the door and walked all the way to the car. Stinker!!! I let her walk all through Aldi after that and she did great. But, right before bedtime (literally minutes) she tripped on the lip between our hardwoods and tile and face planted. It definitely scared her (and me). I was terrified it was going to scar her and cause her to regress.  So, I kept her up 45 minutes past her bedtime trying to make her walk again. FINALLY, I got her to take two steps.  The next morning she refused to walk again and was crawling everywhere and I was so discouraged. But, by afternoon she was walking everywhere and hasn’t stopped since. :) I am SO proud of our baby girl!!!!!

The day my boy came back…

 

Almost two weeks after the surgery, my sweet boy finally returned:

Harper was happy to see him as well:

Museum Day

I am so glad we renewed our museum passes after letting them lapse for a while.  The kids really enjoy it and have fun playing together:

Right now they have a risk exhibit. This is a bed of nails! And Hud wanted to do it twice! Crazy kid…

There is also a grossology exhibit (that totally lives up to the name. Yuck).  There was a slide in there that Harper really wanted to go down, but was a little scared…never fear big brother to the rescue:

A brief get-away…

We had optimistically planned to try to get out of town as a family a week after the surgery. Unfortunately, it became clear that wasn’t going to be possible. However, we still needed to get out of town so we decided to road trip to one of our family favorites…Waco. :)

We were going to go to the children’s museum, but decided to head to the Suspension Bridge instead.  No one in my family had been there! And I hadn’t been there since college. Also, I thought a photo shoot would be fun:

Hud got a kick out of talking to this guy…and he was sweet enough to answer Hud:

We headed to lunch at Ninfa’s (of course!):

Then it was off to see the Bears! I love my alma mater (in case it isn’t obvious). And I love that the minute I step on campus it feels like I have never left…

Harper sitting on a swinging bench like the one her daddy and I got engaged on:

LOVE this picture!

 

We always stop for yogurt at the Exxon on campus…well sometime in the past two months they took the yogurt place out! Hudson had been promised chocolate ice cream (and had hit his meltdown point for the day)…so we improvised:

Blue Bell! It is the best! And it should be noted he ate a total of probably ten bites…:)

A sign of a good trip is always this:

Hudson was very worried we would wake Harper up and kept telling Trent and I to be quiet because Harper was sleeping. Then he would gently pat her leg. :)

Ten minutes from home this happened:

Could he look less comfortable??

It was super fun family day.  How could I ask for more? :)

Sprinkler fun…

Friday afternoon was HOT. So, we headed outside for some water fun. I pulled out the sprinkler. I bought the kids a new water table and attempted to put it together. Since it required a drill – that was a massive fail (Trent has since gotten it put together).  But, nonetheless, Hud had fun in the sprinkler. Harper was another story.  She didn’t want anything to do with the sprinkler. I will admit – I had just had a very discouraging conversation with ECI regarding possible therapy for her (walking) and I was worried about what the summer would hold for her as far as playing since she wasn’t walking.  So, the fact she stood in the yard and cried instead of playing in the water added to that discouragement.

She was much happier on the patio with her juice:

  

And before bed snuggling helps everything: