Little Miss Chatty

I wanted to record some of the things Harper is saying these days. If I don't, I know I'll forget them! In general, Harper has been talking a lot since we moved up to Oregon in August... we attribute much of her quick language development to her living with her 3-year-old cousin Claire for 5 months (Claire is little miss chatty #1)! But she has been talking up a STORM as of late... it feels like each week she takes leaps and bounds! I just want to highlight a few phrases and conversations from the past months...

One day Harper was eating her breakfast, when she indicated to me that she was afraid of the ceiling fan in the family room.

Harper: "I scared! I scared!"

(I tried to reassure her that it was ok and that I wouldn't turn the ceiling fan on.)

H: "I scared! I scared!" (whimpering then began...)

Me: "Harper, you don't need to be scared. Mama is here with you. Dada is here with you. And most important, Jesus is here with you."

H: "Where Jesus?!?"

Me: "Jesus is in our hearts." (I point to my heart and hers)

H: "I can't see him! Where Jesus?" (she sounds frustrated)

Me: "You're right, we can't see Him... but He is with us and in our hearts. Remember? We talk to Him when we pray..."

H: (she begins to sing) "Jesus love me this I know..."

I don't know if I can quite explain how my heart melted to see her try to understand and receive this concept... Now anytime she is scared, she points to her heart and says, "you can't see Him".

Our dear friends, the Rush family, came and had dinner with us a handful of weeks ago. As they are so thoughtful, they brought us a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Well, they made their way deep into the heart of our little lady - because she LOVES flowers... of ALL kinds! The flowers sat on our nook table and lasted days and days. Every time we sat down to eat, Harper would ask, "who pick out flowers?" Then the conversation would continue:

Me: "Remember? Cheyenne..."

H: (gasp) "Cheyenne!"

Me: "Avery..."

H: (gasp) "Avery!"

Me: "and Travis."

H: (gasp) "Travis!"

I think we had this exact conversation at least 20 times - kind of felt like ground hog's day ;)

(Video posted separately)

We are beginning to see that Harper is (sigh of acceptance) A LOT like me... Which is a great thing! She is vibrant, full of life and absolutely sparkles... when she's happy, that is. The only challenges that holds is that she comes with natural sensitivity and emotion too. We have found that she needs 3 things (just like her mama): to be fed, to be rested and have some quality time! With that in mind, we have had to coach her to not pout when she's disappointed. We say: "chin up Harper". My oh my! How she quickly learned to use this herself... She has said it to Jeremy and I at different times when she has perceived us as "pouting" and has moved on to tell Mimi and Bentley that pouting is not acceptable from them either... "chin up!" ;)
She remembers everything too... I told her she could have a "dum-dum" sucker she got from a birthday party after she woke up from her nap. A couple hours later, I walked into her room to get her out of bed and the first words out of her mouth were, "I eat sucker?" Jeremy and I are well aware now, that our word needs to be honored - no tricks... or she will remember and check us!
Other favorite or random phrases:

• "Hi buddy!" (when greeting Bentley)
• "I do it" or "I try it".
• "I thinking..." (as she taps her finger on her chin)
• Anytime Harper even detects that someone might be sad she says, "oh... I sad."
• "I eat snack"
• "I play... outside/at park/basketball,etc."
• "I go to castle! With Carter, Rhiannon and Adam!" (when remembering our trip to disneyland... it had more of an impression than we anticipated. This comes up almost daily)
• "I dance!" and "I bounce!" (2 of her favorite things to do: dance with us holding her or bouncing on our exercise ball)

Harper also loves to sing! Her favorites to date are:

• Jesus loves me
• We fall down (praise song)
• ABC's (She thinks her name is truly part of the ending... "now Harper knows her ABC's..." We sang it at a Library story-time and when we sang the original, she looked at me like she had been wronged!)
• Tomorrow (from Annie)
• many songs from Sesame Street including the La di da di da song, C is for cookie and 1,2,3,4 (by fiest).
• You are my Sunshine

Recently, Harper had a fun (or not so fun) visit to Urgent Care as she dislocated her elbow. (That's another story for a different entry.) Mimi was recently hanging out with us and she asked us to swing her in-between us as we walked. We told her we couldn't since she hurt her elbow... she pointed to her elbow and said, "I hurt my elmo-bow".

Harper LOVES to be held... still ;) She is independent like any 2 year old, but when it comes to being held... that's her favorite thing. Her coined phrase: "Hold you, hold you!"

I love you sweet girl and (almost) everything that comes out of your mouth these days ;)