Last week 4/26

The last week

biking with bebe

I'm excited for warmer weather.  I'm also excited to get out of the house with Harper and enjoy some green spaces.  We have a great trail system here that is beautiful and makes biking between Bloomington and Normal much safer with a child.  I've been looking at several different seats to mount on my bike and think I've found the one I like best. 

It's the Yepp Mini Front Child Seat.  

Do you have any experience with it?  I've looked at the iBert T-seat and the Kangaroo, but I like the adjustable feet rests of the Yepp, the easy installation, and the seat structure.   I think I've found my mother's day present!

Other names

Fun fact : Harper was almost named Zelda.  Names are so interesting.

Miss independent

 Dan and Harp out on a stroll.  It's 70 degrees!  What?! 

 

This one's for my mom.  Face smashing just like her mom!

Sunday

Harper doing her best Gray Gardens look.

 I have started watching the son of my friend.  He's 4 months old and just a gem.  This first week has been interesting, as Harper has had the full range of emotions concerning him.  She tries to help feed him, rock him, hug him, and then in the next breath, she's raging that, no, you can't sit on the baby.

Overall it is going well. 

Except this afternoon when I almost screamed at Dan, can you just take Harper outside for 5 minutes! 

He kindly took her out.  It was longer than 5 minutes.  At one moment when I looked out the window I saw this...

I just about melted.  Right?  They sat there for a good time talking and swinging. 

Cousins!

 Dan's cousin and her son were visiting from Austrailia!  It was such a treat to meet them, and Harper LOVED spending time with Alexander.

They were only in Chicago for a quick visit before continuing a long trek back and forth across the US for other family visits.  We were so glad they stopped through Chicago!

And also, more pics from the Easter weekend.

Go ZAGS!

Gonzaga was one of four NO.1 seats in this year's NCAA tournament.  Being from the Spokane area, we have to show our team support, even if we are in Illinois! 

My dad sent over some Gonzaga gear, and Harper is now ready to represent the bulldogs with pride.  Go Zags! 

Easter tradition continues

 There is an Easter tradition in the Swift House: you have to work for your basket!  Work in a fun way...


Harper is a still too little to live out the full tradition, but we had an abbreviated version this year.  It works like this:
A string is attached to the Easter basket.  The string is strung in an elaborate maze through the house, upstairs, down stairs, through awkward spaces and around just about everything in sight.  When the child wakes up, the other end of this string is at their bed, and they have to rewind the string, following it on it's path through the house.  At the end, their reward is the basket! 

When Dan first told me about this I LOVED it and hoped Dan would be up for continuing it (as it was Dan's Dad's responsibility to do the stringing).  We tried it this year, just in two rooms on the mail level, and it was...tricky.  Harper was more interested in running through the string that was zig zagging across everything, but there were laughs and it was fun to watch. 

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Harper was super tuckered after all this, along with a great visit with Gram and Grandpa, as well as some cousins.  She slept VERY well on the drive home.