Harper has been hitting the books pretty hard these days. She appreciates a good story almost as much as she enjoys soft, crinkley pages. Fuzzy Bee is the current favorite. She is reading about Fuzzy Bee's friends, Ladybug and Worm, in this photo. In addition to loving some quiet time with a book, she is also more and more vocal all the time. She likes talking to Mom and Dad all day long and you can really tell that she is expressing herself very clearly. Bored or sad talking is very different from happy "Good Morning" talking. She is always super happy, smily, and cute when she wakes up in the morning. She seems to really be happy just to see Mom and Dad's faces. Speaking of faces, Harper is also really into grabbing faces these days. She likes to reach for and grab onto lots of things, but seems especially happy to grab Mom's face or Dad's beard. If she is not playing with or reading a good book with her folks, Harper enjoys spending larger chunks of time in her new ExerSaucer (yet another hideous, giant, plastic piece of furniture that we tolerate because of the smiles on our girl's face when she plays in it).
Further proof of Harper's brilliance: according to the literature, babies should smile at their image in a mirror and respond to their name at four months, Harper has been enjoying her reflection for several weeks already and has recently started to respond to her own name too! Brilliant no doubt.

Can't tell if Harper or we are more proud.

Harper is powering through her first cold. It started after immunizations (made her susceptible) and has persisted for about 10 days now. We thought it was allergies at first (and it may well have been) because her eyes were red, her snot was clear, and she sneezed a lot. They're shaking the walnut trees and as any good Valley person knows, that wrecks a lot of people. But then she added fussiness to her symptoms. She just wasn't comfortable, and wasn't her usual cheery self. We got through those sorta sad days. Now her snot is thicker, but she is happier and back to talking and smiling all the time. I brought her in to see Nagatani yesterday. (He knows us pretty well already!) Since her snot was thickening and her chest sounded congested, I figured I'd better just go to the doctor to be sure... it's worth the $10 copay for peace of mind. I was pretty sure this was nothing serious, but I'd rather err on the safe side. He confirmed it is just a cold and told me to use a humidifier and to drop some saline in her nose before using the nasal aspirator. Harper hates that, but it does help to suck some snot out, especially in the mornings. Nagatani again remarked at her how alert and strong she is. "Just 2 1/2 months old... she seems to be listening to every word I say!" Harper squirmed around when he put the stethescope to her back to listen to her lungs and tried to shake her head away when he stuck the instrument in her ears to check them. "Only 2 1/2 months and already difficult to examine!"

I've been experiencing technical difficulties posting some pictures on shutterfly-- talked to customer service and I'm waiting for a call back. I should get the next album up today or tomorrow. It'll be called "Harper reaches milestone" because she has! She quite purposefully reached out, grabbed, and shook a rattle the other day and I caught it on camera. We played that way for about 20 minutes-- very fun. In a couple of the shots she's smiling really big (proud of herself) because I was positively reinforcing this behavior with loud squeals and high-pitched praise. It is so fun to watch her grow up!

I laughed at myself this morning because I too reached a milestone as a mom. I found myself using the sleeve of my sweatshirt to wipe Harper's snotty nose, as I've seen Carie do for one of her sick kids.

On another note, Harper has just about mastered the thumb sucking. She only gags herself about every 20th attempt now, and quickly removes her thumb before she pukes. She was worrying me there for a while-- the vomiting-on-mom was getting old and I was anxious for that coordination to kick in. It finally has! We think she may be teething because she loves that thumb and is drooling now too. Carie says the drool could mean teeth show up next week or two months from now... you never know.

Harper continues to be a great joy.

Harper's doctor visit went fine. She was weighed and measured. She weighs 12 lbs. 11 ounces (90th percentile), and is 24 1/4 " long (95th percentile) so we were right-- she's giant. Dr. Nagatani said, "She sure is social!"

The shots were tough. Two in each thigh. Big tears and loud loud cries. It was nice to have both parents there. She nursed for a while afterward and that seemed to comfort her into a nice nap. In the evening her temperature got up around 100, and she was fussy (obviously not feeling tip top) so we gave her a dose of infants' Tylenol. She seems fine today.

Harper is very talkative these days. She can sit and have a conversation for about 10 minutes. Of course, "talking" consists of coos and gurgles and squeals. Her eyes light up and you know she is really trying to connect with you. It's very fun. Sometimes her need to converse gets in the way of nursing-- she pulls away and just wants to engage for a while before resuming her feeding. Another effect of Harper's talking is that she cries less. Often she'll protest with upset-sounding coos (as well as upset-looking body language) for a while before launching into the full blown cries if her need wasn't met. This happens most often when she's locked in her carseat and wants out, or if Dad is changing her in the middle of the night and she would prefer to eat first!

We're convinced she's brilliant. Tomorrow she goes in for immunizations... wish us all luck!

Happy Birthday Harper! - Two months today - amazing.

I will work on living up to the blog's description, trying to at least provide sporadic updates. Be sure to check out the newest photos Harper's mom posted to shuttefly. There are some great shots of Harper sucking her thumb, her newest trick. She slept last night in a cute pink sleeper with a collar that made her look like a vampire: "Count pinkula". The outfit is a 3-6 month size and she is almost too long for it already.