Update on Harper

She continues to grow and develop - and amaze us with what she has learned.  Some highlights:

• Her teacher at daycare put up photos of the president, vice president and the Iowa governor. So now you can ask her questions on who these people are.  Who's our president? "Barack"  She likes to call him just Barack and not Barack Obama - like they are friends on a first-name basis.  Who's our vice president?  "Joe Biden"  She says this with much enthusiasm.  Noah is completely impressed with this as he wasn't even sure who our VP is. Who's our governor?  "Terry Branstad" 
• She is obsessed with people's birthdays.  Likes to ask the birthdays of all her family members.  She knows her b-day and mommy's b-day.  And we are working on everyone else's.
• She knows the months of the year and can say them in order.  She did this one night several weeks ago out of the blue - and Noah and I were totally surprised.  So I asked at daycare how she learned that....and there is a song that teaches them the months. She's now got it memorized.
• Went potty on her little girl potty Friday night - unprompted by us.  She earned a lollipop as a reward.  Has not done this since.  At daycare, she does not like the loud flush the toilet makes - kind of scares her.  We are not really looking forward to the potty training process...
• She's now really singing along to songs on CDs that we play in the car.  It's really cute to hear her trying to keep up and sing the right words.
• Loves playing outside since the weather is so nice.  Especially loves riding in the tractor with G'pa to feed the cows, and with G'pa on the gator.  If G'pa drives by our house on the gator and does not stop to pick her up, she gets very mad.
• Enjoys going for runs with mommy (and sometimes daddy) in her jog stroller.  Usually give her a lollipop to distract her through the run. Sometimes we sing songs as we run too.  Thank goodness our runs are out in the country with not many people around to hear us sing!
• Still a picky eater...but her teacher at daycare has been getting her to try new foods.  At home, she's not that willing. We use a lot of bribery....if you eat your chicken you can have 5 M&Ms.  If we put the M&Ms in front of her, it usually gets her to eat what we are requesting.  But sometimes she's just completely stubborn, especially with trying new foods, and she's just look at me and say "I'm all done."...even with the M&Ms in front of her.