Pretty Princess Tinkerbell Fairy

Some days it's hard being the littlest sister.  Last year, Harper watched longingly through a window every week as Emerson took her princess dance class, dressing up like Belle and Cinderella and dancing around to princess music in a class full of little pottytrained, 3-4 year old princesses.  It's really hard to be a two-year old on those days. 

Well.  After a couple of missed sessions, these past few weeks it was finally Harper's turn at the eagerly anticipated princess dance classes.  

With only three little girls in the class, it seemed the perfect introduction for miss Harper girl, who has been talking about princess dance class for approximately one year.  

And every week, she would get to prance around in a Tinkerbell costume. 

All sounds good in theory...

In reality?  She spent about 55 minutes a week wandering around a dance studio, picking at the paint on the walls, checking herself out in the mirror, and every now and then, busting out a pretty princess dance move.  

And then she would come home, dress up in dance clothes, and talk about how much she LOVED pretty-princess dance class, and showing us toe-taps and sashays and twirls.

Some point during week three I decided that her teacher was the most patient woman on earth.

We weren't able to make it to the much-anticipated dance recital this past Saturday (more on our weekend later), so we were treated to a little dress recital this past Wednesday during Harper's final turn as Tinkerbell.

Note to self:  Sure am glad I didn't kill a whole Saturday afternoon watching her do this.

Because the 'Hands Over Ears' move was not something they had rehearsed.

Neither was the 'Lift the Dress Up' move

Or the 'Eat the Foam Flower You're Supposed to be Standing On' move, which was my personal favorite.

Nonetheless, Harper LOVED her few short weeks as Beautiful Dancing Tinkerbell.  

We're just not telling her that she will have to wait a few more princesses before she may be ready for dance class again :)

Resume of a Three Year Old

Name:  Harper Sloan, aka "Harper-Lo" or "LoLo"

Age:  Three and a half
Current position:  Littlest sister, youngest daughter, Princess of destruction, Queen of all things messy
Position desired:  Full-time Hairdresser Extraoridnaire
Experience:  Brief internship in early 2011.  Extensive experience before turning pro in Summer 2012
Special skills:  Scaling countertops, baby gates, opening cabinets to reach forbidden scissors in total silence.  Not managing to poke eyes out with said scissors.  Also available for mural artwork, hot dog eating contests, and pedicures.
Specialty:  The soon-to-be trademarked "layered bob with super-short bangs".

An ear-length cut, suitable for summer, with chunks of hair cut to various lengths throughout.

Short on the sides, so Mommy (aka "hairdresser's assistant") has to cut the back to even it out.  Slightly longer on the right side, because holy moly, the left side is cut really short. Modern "boy style" cut to top of head (a perfect spot that CANNOT be hidden), where partial-ponytail used to be.

Achieve this unique effect by cutting ponytail just ABOVE rubber band.
Career goals:  "To have a mohawk like Aidan!"

Salary desired:  Negotiable.  Payments in ice cream and pop tarts are acceptable.
Benefits desired:  Unlimited access to Sharpie markers, scissors, nail polish, and pantry spices.
To contact:  Just follow the sound of my mother's weeping.

The Non-Synoptic

I have this little problem.

You see, I like to take cute pictures that have all four of my children in them.  I love it when all four children are all looking in the same direction and smiling.  I'm boring like that.

But you see, I have this problem.

Let's call her the non-synoptic.

She's not so great at the picture taking.

She marches to the beat of her own little drum.

If everyone else is sitting, she is standing.  Or dancing.

She's the non-synoptic.

Oh, how I love my little non-synoptic.  Even when I can't get a decent picture of all four littles because of her.

Girly Day

A couple of weekends ago, Dane and Aidan went up to see Grammy and GranDoug for a few days.

I have no idea what they did.  I think it involved the Grossology museum exhibit, and some Olympics.  But they had a great weekend, and are already asking if they get to go back again next year.

Brandon and I took advantage of parenting two little girls for the weekend, and planned a very special "Girly Day".

Emerson was quick to correct us in that it was in fact not a "Girly Day".  It was "Girly Day with Daddy.  Because Daddy is a boy.  But no boys, even though we still love the boys.  We just needed a break."

Well said, sweet girl.  May you never be in charge of writing headlines.

We started "Girly Day"* off with a trip to the nail salon for some abbreviated mani-pedi time.  My girls are not fans of sitting for an actual, hour-long mani-pedi, so we settled for just pretty nail polish.

There's a reason Harper's hair looks so bad.  You'll see why in a minute.

And yes, Emerson selected black, slightly sparkly nail polish.  It was surprisingly cute on her.

We continued on, nails freshly painted with a very cooperative Daddy in tow, to get haircuts for two sweet little girls.  Harper got a head-start on her haircut the day before, with a pair of scissors from the kitchen, unbeknownst to her babysitter.  She chopped off several inches of hair around her left ear, so off to the salon we went!

LoLo's favorite part was looking at her tummy in the mirror in front of her.  

After haircuts, we headed over to our little local movie theater that shows new movies for the bargain price of $2.50 for a matinee.  Perfect for our not-so-little family of 6, even more perfect when the four of us could see the new Ice Age movie for a TOTAL price of $10.  Plus the price of Brandon's giant tub of popcorn.

The fun was not over after the movie!  We took advantage of a couple of free kids meal coupons that we had to get some yummy lunch for the girls, then popped over for "Free Taste Friday" and sampled some seriously delicious cupcakes.

A friend from church (who just happens to be one of our former youth group girls, but is now a full-fledged grown up.  There's quite a few people who fall into that category now, one of the fun parts of being involved in youth ministry for 11-plus years at the same church.).  Anyway, Lisa is kicking off her new business, Flick of the Whisk, and invited all cupcake-lovers to a tasting party.  Um, yes please!  One of our favorites was this chocolate-peanut butter number that Emerson is posing with.  Locals, you're going to want to keep Lisa's number handy next time you need a sweet tooth fix.

The girls still had some energy left after the nail salon, haircuts, movies, lunch, and cupcakes, so we took them to the neighborhood pool for a quick swim.  Can't head to the pool before posing for a cell phone picture in our swimsuits and flashing gang signs with our freshly-manicured fingers, can we?

Thanks, Grammy and GranDoug for hanging out with Dane and Aidan so we could enjoy our two little girls and a very special "Girly Day with Daddy.  Because Daddy is a boy.  But no boys, even though we still love the boys.  We just needed a break."  

Another March 26

Dear Harper,

Happy (late) birthday to my sweet three year old! Last week we celebrated your 3rd birthday in style, with three of our favorite families, one Minnie Mouse cake, and lots of calzone. You have been so excited about your "Minnie Party" for the last month. And having just three families (11 kids total) instead of the 50-people madhouse we usually do at for birthday parties here was a welcome change of pace.

You and your friends entertained yourselves in the backyard, enjoying the perfect weather while it's so briefly here, and the adults stayed in the kitchen and debated the merits of the meatball/mushroom/olive/cheese calzone.

Your friends know you well, and you opened gifts of baby dolls, dress up clothes, a beautiful twirly dress, and a beauty parlor chair for her dolls. And from MoMo? You were so excited to get "makeup so beautiful". My mom got you a little cosmetic bag, filled with Minnie Mouse panties, a powder compact, and Disney princess chapstick.

You marched around in your new dress up clothes with your new baby doll and your makeup bag for the rest of the evening.

Your first week of being 3 has me wishing that the next 51 weeks are nothing like this one has been.

Later that night after your party, I woke up in the middle of the night (2:30 in the morning, to be exact) needing a bottle of water, and when I stepped outside of my bedroom, guess who I saw on the playroom couch? Wide awake and applying your brand new princess chapstick to your little three-year old lips? I have no idea how long you had been on the couch playing with the makeup that night, but you proudly said "I put my makeup on, Mommy!", at 2:30 in the morning, just as happy as could be.

A few days later, Daddy picked you and Emmy up from school and learned that you had exhibited effective leadership skills on the playground. You had pulled you jeans down, and ran around the playground in your new Minnie Mouse panties, followed closely by four other pant-less preschoolers. We're going to need to work on that.

We love you so, so much, Harper girl.

Just try to go easy on us this year, okay?

Love, Mommy

Prayer Time

I know, it's been a while since I have blogged. It's been so long since I blogged on a regular basis that I can't remember what stories I have shared and what I haven't. I can't even remember what has happened these last couple of months since I haven't been blogging them! Yikes! I'm not even going to attempt to recap the last 2 months (you're welcome), but I will share this little memory from a while back...


Every night we do prayer time with the kids, and for the last few months the girls each take a turn and pray. It typically goes something like this:

Harper's prayers: "Dear God, God made Emerson and Harper sooo special! God made me wonderful! I AM SO WONDERFUL! I AM SO BEAUTIFUL! The end."


(Harper with her "Potty Training Incentive" Barbie. If I haven't blogged about potty training her, it's because it's too painful to remember.

Emerson's prayers: "Dear God. Thank you for Harper and Emerson and Dane and Aidan and Mommy and Daddy. Thank you for my bed and my panda blanket and my pretty pillow and my pajamas with the princess on it. Thank you for my fan and for my shower and my pretty hair. Thank you for dance class and Miss Sarah and Miss Kylie and I am going to kindergarten next year." It's around this point that I try to cut in with a well timed, "In Jesus name we pray..." prompt. One night I got busted though. "MOMMY! I AM NOT DONE PRAYING." Having appropriately rebuked her mother, she went on several more minutes and finished her prayer, having thanked God for every single object in her bedroom. It reminded me of the times when I am talking on the phone with Brandon, and he starts saying, "Okay, I love you" repeatedly. That's his cue that he is done talking on the phone and ready to get off.

The girls, dressed in their "so beautiful" (Christmas) dresses to go out for Chinese New Year. We took them to eat, you guessed it, Chinese food.

I'm hoping that, despite my computer's persistent refusal to allow me to post photos, that I will get my bloggy groove back.

The Creative Daughter

I have this daughter. I love her very, very much.

I love her very, very much.

Sorry. Sometimes I have to repeat things.

Back to this daughter. I actually have two daughters, but this is the only one who is two right now.

Two is going to be the death of me. That, or it will send me running for the mental institution.

Why isn't mommy in any pictures when I was two?

It's because she checked herself into the mental institution and didn't come out until you were seven.

Harper's had her fair share of, um, creative days.

But last Saturday, I was guilty of letting Harper play quietly upstairs alone for about 10 minutes. In what I thought was her playroom, with what I assumed were dress-up clothes. Little did I know that either my Hot Husband or I had left the door to our bedroom open. Dane went up to check on her upstairs, and then I heard the words no mother of a creative 2 year old ever wants to hear:

"Mom! Harper got into the nail polish!"

No. The 30 bottles of nail polish in the zippered bag, in the drawer in the vanity in the master bathroom? Why would my precious, sweet girl bypass the room full of age appropriate toys, the dress up clothes and Duplo blocks and baby dolls, to dig around in her parents' bathroom and play with the NAIL POLISH??

No. Nonononononono.

I found her at the top of the stairs, proud as can be. I quickly picked her up, my arms straight out in front of me, carrying her to the shower.

Girlfriend had painted herself from her toes to her knees, her tulle dress-up skirt, her hands, and her face with (at least) four different colors of nail polish. Nail polish is all over the carpet in my master bathroom. The good news is, Harper is advanced in the area of fine motor skills. I can't even get those bottles open half of the time.

What. Am. I. Going. To. Do. With. This. Girl.

A couple other tidbits for the Harper Files?

Yesterday morning after I had gone to work, Brandon came downstairs at 7am to find that Harper had body-slammed her way through the baby gate to get into the kitchen, and was holding three half eaten hot dogs in her hands from the refrigerator. We have no idea how many she ate before Brandon found her. Three. Cold cheese hot dogs. At 7am

I wish cold hot dogs are the worst thing we have busted Harper eating from the fridge.

Yes, that is a stick of butter.

I love her very, very much. I love her very, very much. I love her very, very much.

I Just Hope Their Teachers Are Ready

Last week a couple of sisters started pre-school.

They woke up early, put on their first day of school clothes, and, with much anticipation, finally got to carry their backpacks and lunchboxes. In fact, a certain littlest sister has carried her backpack and lunchbox every day since then.

The two sisters went outside, in the 98% relative humidity, and posed for pictures before the fogged-over camera lens.

A certain outspoken four year old had the privledge of being the "line leader" on her first day of school.

I'm sure she hated that.

Being the first in line? Telling people where to go and showing them how to do it? That's not right up anyone's alley.

Maybe she will grow up and be a school teacher. Or a CEO. Anything but a tour guide.

Her little sister didn't have much to say about her first day of school other than "Harper go night night." I think she had a successful naptime.

I'm so grateful for the girls' little school, and I can't wait to see how much they are learning this year!

I Feel Like This Is Part 2 Of A Very Unfortunate Series...

...called Things Harper Does to Drive Her Mommy Crazy While Her Daddy is Out of Town.

Brandon has been gone for a week and so far she has:

-Dumped 500 q-tips in the toilet.

-Thrown an entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet. Still on the roll.

-Ripped her curtain rod completely out of the wall after being put to bed for the night.

-Woken up early and sampled some brownies for breakfast, before decorating herself with a pink marker I didn't know we had. Before church this morning.

Yes, she is wearing Emerson's panties over her diaper.

-Snuck out into the backyard with her sister (mommy was upstairs with the boys while the girls were watching a movie), stripped down to her birthday suit, and went skinny dipping in the plastic wading pool.

Definitely ready for Hot Brandon to come home tonight. I don't think I can face another naked, brownie-smeared, marker-colored Harper alone in the morning.