Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Time for another update:

On the 4th of July we went to Poppa Matt's house. He lives on a mountain and everyone
comes together for picnics and get togethers. They all organize a parade around the
mountain and throw candy on the way :) Gracie had a blast, and later, at the pot-luck,
found friends from school to hang out with.

On July 8th there was a Rooftop Rodeo Parade in Estes. My mom (Trudy/Mima) and sister
(Morgan) came up to watch it with us. There was this little pony pulling a cart with two little
kids in it, it was so cute! I got him on video neighing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbFyP078RSE (hope that works)

On July 12th, Gracie went to her 1st birthday party for her friend Sage. They played with
water balloons and face paint, she had a blast!

On the 19th, Gran'ma Sheryl, Gran'pa Neil, Aunt Shanna, and her b/f Ed came up for a
"Bubble Party" (picnic with a bunch of bubbles!). We had so much fun! Olivia felt grass
for the first time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfbEftCRieY

On the 24th, Olivia and I joined Gracie and her cousins Tyra and Jade at the indoor public
pool. Gracie spent the night because her cousins were in town, they live 4 hrs from us.
Olivia got in the water with my Aunt Becky and yelled really loud with excitement :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQXFuY_S9hs (hope that works)

On the 26th, Gracie went to her 2nd birthday party for her friend Sierra. They had a little
jumping castle and a donkey, a mule, on old dog Jake (13 yr old Pitt Bull who's sweet as
can be... he kept wanting me to play tug-of-war), a black lab puppy with white paws named
Little Bear, two cats (outside cats, that are mountain tough, but very sweet), and 2 doves.
The kids went swimming in the river (but it is only about 6 or 7 ft across, and it's
slow by their house).

July 27th... Olivia is 5 months old today :)

Gracie isn't quite ready for summer to be over (Sept. 2nd), but she is ready for her birthday!
She's turning 6 and she can ride her bike down "the hill" (sidewalk by our apts. that the
neighbor kids call "the hill").

She loves popsicles on the hot days, playing with her best friend Olivia, riding her bike,
locking it up with her own bike lock, helping mommy cook dinner, having sleepovers at Mima's
and at her friend's houses, going to birthday parties, painting her fingernails (and toenails),
putting on makeup, and reading to her parents at bedtime - she's getting much better!

Olivia's eye stopped gooping up on the 20th, yey! She's trying to crawl, but she smooshes
her face down on the blanket to push herself up with her feet, but then lays on her stomach
to get her hands back up. It's a riot!

Gracie's birthday is coming up on Saturday, August 16th. We're having a party at the same
park we were at for the Bubble Party. We're having tacos and cake and ice cream for those
of you who can join us. Check the map.

close up of the park (map)
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=104853700928243498552.00045307c366e6a4e4a4e

satellite picture of the park
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Playground%20on%20Ivy%20St.%20in%20Estes%20Park%2C%20CO%20(ref.%20map)


Preston continues to do very well at Taco Bell! It is because of him that we are doing so well!
(And my support and help with the kids, and doing office work for my dad on the side)


All my pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.harmon13
http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.harmon13/RockiesGame

All my videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Peganpettal

(under the video on the right, under "playlists"
are all the videos of the girls... it's scrollable to he right)


Miss you all!

~ The Harmon Family

Harmon Girls' Update

Hey everyone:


Gracie is having a WONDERFUL summer. There are 9 kids in our little
neighborhood that she plays with everyday. Her best friend is Olivia
(not her sister), who lives a couple townhouses down. They have slumber parties and play all day.

Poppa Matt got her an early birthday present; a bike with training wheels and streamers. It's pink with ladybugs and a pouch with a zipper that attaches to the handlebars. She LOVES it! Now she rides with all the other kids.

We still take turns reading to Gracie every night, but now she reads to us. We check out "beginning readers" books from the library and we hardly have to help her, except those crazy words that don't follow the "rules" (the silent letters, like the "a" in "float"). We're VERY proud of her.

Olivia has discovered that talking with spit in the back of her throat
to make a gurgling sound is just the coolest! We can all feel her tooth,
but I can't quite see it yet. She's constantly sucking on her fingers and
drooling everywhere - that the part Gracie hates... in a loving, sisterly way :)

May 30th, she laughed for the 1st time, at Gracie being goofy. On June 1st we went swimming, but we only put Olivia's feet in :) On the 2nd, she
reached out with her left hand for her rattle, grabbed it, and shook it around for a couple seconds. On the 13th, she figured out how st suck her thumb, on the 14th, she rolled on her side, on the 18th she finally rolled over all the way. She's had a busy month.. and I didn't even tell you all I wrote down :)

Olivia rolls onto her stomach, always to the left, and back again. She is
learning to pull her arm out from under her when she rolls... but sometimes she's too tuckered out and mom helps her out. She does lift herself up enough to look around, and everyday she does it longer.

Both mommy and Olivia are learning to go through the day without me
holding her. I know, I know, EVERYONE (even strangers) said not to
hold her too much... but it's just so hard!!! So nap time has started to
become a hassle, and she tests me. She cries really hard for a few
seconds, then she's quiet, and when I don't respond, she cries real loud,
then waits. I go talk to her, let her hear my voice so she knows I didn't
abandon her, but I don't let her see me. I've only been at it for two days,
so we'll see how it works. The advice is great, but every child's different,
so you have to tweak it a little.


Talk to you all soon

The Harmon Family

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Hey guys;

Gracie is finished with school on May 30th. I can't believe the school year is over already. Preston and I are so proud of her! I just had a meeting with her teacher yesterday about the possibility of holding her back a year. She said she's confident Gracie will be alright if we had her continue to 1st grade, although holding her back wouldn't hurt anything either. Academically, Grace isn't at the same level as the other kids in her class, but she's not too far behind to be unable to catch up. 1st grade has more "structured learning" and less "play time" than Kindergarten, maybe that's what Gracie needs. She easily distracted, but this is also her first experience with making and keeping friends that she sees on a regular basis, so we half expected her to react to school the way she did... all play and no work. Preston and I think it will benefit her to hold her back. We don't want to fall too far behind if she's not ready for 1st grade. Not to end on a sour note, Gracie is doing great. She's improved a great deal compared to the levels testing she did at the beginning of the year, we're very proud!

Big news in the Harmon house... Olivia started teething! She started biting the hell out of Preston's fingers the week of April 13th, we just thought it was cute! I was letting her chew on my finger on Friday (May 16th) and felt something where her bottom front left tooth would be, but she wasn't showing any sign of teething yet besides the biting, so I thought nothing of it. Then Monday, at my mom's house, she was unusually fussy (she almost NEVER fusses). Preston looked in her mouth and saw it. We were so surprised, and happy. We gave her infant Tylenol and Baby Orajel, we quickly found out she HATES Orajel. Now she only whines a couple minutes when I give it to her.

She got her first set of shots on April 30th. Three shots and an oral immunization. She cried when they gave them to her, but once I picked her up, she stopped. I handled it better than I thought I would. Preston cried when Gracie got her shots when she was two :) Olivia doesn't have another appointment until July 1st for her second round of shots. She's getting so big. On 4/30, she weighed 10 lbs 2 oz and she was 22 1/2 inches long. The doctor said she's right smack in the middle of the line graphs of average weight, length and head circumference of a two month old. She's just a little cutie.

Talk to you all soon