Harper @ 22 Months

Harper has been keeping me on my toes lately. Literally and figuratively. He keeps me so busy some days that by the time Tony gets home from work, I am ready to collapse…and, that’s with an afternoon nap! I know part of it is because I’m 9 months pregnant, but another part is just trying to keep him happy and entertained.

I know I’ve written before about him becoming more and more independent and “2 year old-ish” but this week it’s been in full force. He’s really gone from easy going to demanding over night it seems. I still look at him and want to squeeze his little cute self to pieces but there have been a few times just recently that I’ve wondered who the little demon is. He can go from adorable to hell like in a matter of seconds. It’s crazy.

Here are a few Harper moments I want to remember, or perhaps forget. I don’t know.

• Yesterday he was lying across my lap on the floor, face down while I was tickling him and when I let him up he looked at me and said “Mama, I eat crap”. Haha! He had a little fuzz in his mouth and I guess he’s heard me talk about putting crap in his mouth a few times. I laugh every time I think about it. 
• When I get him up in the morning, usually no later than 7:30am, the first thing he wants to do is sit and play with my iPad. He recently learned how to access and use YouTube and that's become his most favorite thing to do. He usually watches video’s I’ve posted but I’ve also searched a bunch of Barney and Wiggles videos and left them in my history for him to watch. Sometimes he accidentally finds his way to the homepage and ends up watching tennis or some stupid kid doing something stupid, but most of the time he’s content to just sit and watch the one’s I’ve saved him.
• In the past couple of days he’s been having full blown tantrums. The screaming uncontrollably, roll on the floor, head spinning demon type. I’ve had to put him in time out, twice. Whenever he starts going crazy I just sit him in the chair in the living room and let him go at it. He usually cries for a bit and then gets up wanting me to love on him, and eventually calms down. I think two is going to be a tough year for us.
• We finally turned his car seat around this week. The doctor told us they recommend turning it around between 1 1/2 and 2 years old, but he still wants to cry and be a pain in the car so we thought turning the seat around would help. So far it has helped and he likes telling me all about what he sees outside. He tells me “Red light, stop. Green light, go. Yellow light, SLOW DOWN!”. He just learned that 2 days ago and he’s got it down pat.
• He likes to find certain letters that he knows. He knows: H, N, O, A, E, g, M, and W. Why those particular letters I’m not sure (other than H because he knows his name starts with H), but he consistently knows them. (I put g in lower case because that’s the one he knows, not G)
• He repeats everything we say, and I do mean everything. It’s been a good way for me to watch my mouth, but sometimes things still slip.
• He yells “Bless You” whenever he hears anyone cough or sneeze. Over and over and over again.
• He still won’t do anything on the potty chair, but loves to sit on it before his bath every night.
• We’ve been exploring a bit more with craft stuff and he loves to stamp, glue, play with play dough and color. He likes to make “trees” which is basically just green scribbles, but really good scribbles! :)
• He wants to be held ALL. THE. TIME. I’m not sure what that’s all about but it is tiring. I try to hold him as much as possible because I know when the baby gets here it will be tougher for me to do all that holding, and he is still such a little guy. The hardest is holding him while walking up and down the stairs, but I do try to do it most of the time. I know that as he becomes more independent he’ll do more of it himself, as he is fully capable, just unwilling.
• He says “Mama do it” when he wants me to do something. Most days he won’t let anyone get him in or out of his car seat, he just screams "Mama do it” until I acquiesce. I know I should probably just let whoever is trying to do it go ahead, but it just seems like one less battle to fight sometimes, so I do it myself. Being his person of choice is both rewarding and tiring all at the same time.

All in all, life with this little boy is great. He fits our family so perfectly and we all love him tremendously. He’s such a little smarty and watching him learn every day is truly amazing. And, his sticky hugs and kisses aren’t all that bad either.