18-Month Check-Up

Well it's hard to believe, but Piper was officially 18 months yesterday. She had her 18-month check-up today and got a clean bill of health.

Her stats are as follows:

Height: 31" (25th percentile)
Weight: 22lbs 3oz (20th percentile)
Head Circumference: 19 1/4" (She's now officially OFF THE CHARTS!!)

Oh...our little Tootsie Pop!

Thank God for small favors!

Over the last week the Little Miss has been waking up every morning around 5am, raring to go and ready to start her day. And our best attempts to get her to go back to sleep have been met with one word repeated over and over, "Up, up, up...". Needless to say, both Mommy and Daddy are a little tired and took turns taking naps on Sunday afternoon while Piper was non-stop all day!

Well this morning she was back to her usual 6:15am time, which we hope is a more than welcomed return to the ole schedule. We used to wish she'd sleep later in the morning, but after this last week, we're thinking 6:15am sounds pretty good to us for now!

The Rock Collector

Since we've moved, one of Piper's favorite activites is rock collecting. You may say she has become quite the connoisseur of rocks. And until our grass seed gets planted next week, all she has to do is walk right out the front door and she's in a virtual rock paradise! On the weekends, especially, we are met with requests on a constant basis all day to "go ous", as being outside is one of her favorite places.

Here's some pictures of the Saturday afternoon rock collecting adventures...

We had to head inside when it started to rain, but Daddy got a shot of the girls on our way in.

It's funny that we haven't yet gotten Piper to wear her raincoat outside when it's raining. However, in celebration of the rain, she wanted to wear her raincoat inside for the rest of the afternoon.

Sunday, we again spent time outside collecting rocks. However, apparently Piper felt limited in her ability to collect rocks the day before, because she went in the laundry room and found a bucket to bring with her. She seemed very pleased with the number of rocks she was able to collect with the bucket.

However things were a bit hampered when she loaded so many rocks in the bucket that it got too "evy". Not to worry, she improvised and used that as an opportunity to assess her stash,

and to practice dumping it out and reloading the bucket.

Night-Time Festivities

After dinner, Piper decided she needed to sit in a big chair and do some drawing. She calls this her "col-yers" and she enjoys writing on whatever is in her reach that seems it may need some decoration. Thus far crayons have proved as much an item to munch on as to color with, so the pen was a good new writing utensil to try, and proved to be not nearly as palitable and most suitable for drawing.

She also has added to her nightly ritual, the need to have her flower sunglasses in the tub with her, in case she needs to put them on. This usually extends into getting dressed and beyond, as a girl can never be without her sunglasses. She also enjoys rebrushing her hair after we "style" it at night. I was experimenting with new settings on my camera, and this one came out blurry, but still thought it was a classic.

Weekend Fun & Picking Blackberries-Part Two!

Ok, so better late than never...got a bit behind on posting, so here's some tidbits from last weekend...


Saturday morning, Piper decided after she was dressed that her outfit was completely unacceptable and that she needed to pick out her own outfit, and needed to change immediately! Her selection was made after carefully looking through all her choices in the dresser and the closet, back to the dresser and then finally deciding on an outfit towards the back of the closet. Here's a shot of her selection. I think she made quite a good choice!


Next Piper and I were off to a lunch and a playdate with two of our favorite people! We went to the FunZone, an indoor play place for kids. We spent most of our time in the toddler room and the firetruck was the big hit of the day! Both of the girls had a really good time together...but also managed to squeeze in a few bites and hits throughout the afternoon, especially the closer we got to nap time! Funny how that happens...


Daddy was at a tradeshow for work, so we met him at home later. Piper was worn out from all the playing and decided to rest up in the car on the way home, so she'd bed ready to play with Daddy when we got home.

Sunday afternoon we went out to pick more blackberries and got quite a haul! We tried a new blackberry crisp recipe, which was delicious! Here's a picture of the finished product...well minus the first scoops!

24-Week Appointment

My it's amazing how time is flying with this pregnancy. I had my 24-week appointment this morning. It was a quick visit, I think I was in and out of the office in about 15-20 minutes total, including time in the waiting room, a trip to the lab and a visit with my doctor. The little man's heartbeat was nice and strong sounding and was in the 140's today. So, another 4 weeks til my next appointment.

I was up 5 pounds since last month which my doctor thinks is partly fluid and said he wasn't concerned at all since my blood pressure has stayed so good (it was 106/60 today). I did find out I'm not drinking enough water each day, hard to get the water or fluids down with all this heartburn, and that the fluid retention I'm experiencing should get a little better if I increase the amount I'm taking in each day. So get ready, I have a nice set of sausages for fingers and I believe there are a set of kankles trying to make a permanent appearance! Oh joy!


On a side note, I have officially taken a temporary hiatus from wearing the ole wedding rings. I had them on yesterday and during church I thought we were going to have to make an emergency exit to get my finger amputated! It turned a nice light shade of purple during mass and I had to pry those rings off my sausage of a finger! So until further notice, they are in a safe place where they can't cut off any circulation anymore!


If anyone's interested: pregnancy + wedding rings on your finger + a hot church = DO NOT MIX!

First Playground Battle Wound

Piper got her first skinned knee on the playground at school this morning. What a monumental day in a little kid's life! I'm sure it is just the first of many, many more to come...

Little Lady

Piper is fascinated with purses and is perfecting her one arm hold of just about anything in the house she considers to be a purse.

She's such a little lady!

A Mid-Week Surprise!

Uncle Ray and Aunt FuFu stopped in to see us on their way from Maryland to Myrtle Beach. We were thrilled that they stopped and enjoyed catching up with them. Here's a shot of them riding off into the night, for a much cooler ride the rest of the way to the beach. Hope you guys had a great time!

Piper enjoyed getting to see them. It took her a little while to warm up to Uncle Ray, as she wasn't so sure of him in his helmut when they first pulled up. But once they got inside and she discovered he liked books too, they became fast friends! It was hugs all around from Piper for everyone when they left. And later when we put Piper to bed, she kept talking about "An FuFus".

Two Buddies

Pip and Tucker have been forging a tighter bond these days. This is mostly because Pip is taking more of an interest in playing with Tucker. Tuck's been so patient with her, especially since one of her favorite things to do to him right now is to head-butt him! He must hold a very special place in her heart because she has started sharing her coveted blankets (she has recently named them "motts") her Bube made for her, which is quite a big step in her world.

Here's a shot of her new favorite ways to carry her "motts" around the house.

Picking Blackberries

On Saturday, we picked our first batch of blackberries on our property. We put Piper in her backpack and headed out to do some picking. Piper was the official taste-tester for the family and she sampled about 1 out of every 3-4 that went in the bucket. Here's a picture of our first haul!

We made a homemade blackberry cobbler that night. Somehow I forgot to get a picture of that...seems we were more focused on cutting into it and enjoying! There were about as many unripe as there were ripe blackberries, so we're hoping we can pick them at least a few more times before they are all gone for the season.

Piper liked the backpack so much, that she ended up getting a few more rides throughout the weekend. We kept trying to put it away and she kept finding it and insisting that she get in it. Daddy took her for several more rides in the house.

First houseguests

Since the move, we've already had several houseguests. Our first was Grammi. She helped us with packing, the move and with Piper. One night at dinner Piper insisted that Grammi put on her sunglasses (or as she calls them "eyes") before feeding her applesauce. In fact, it was a requirement for being present during Piper's entire dinnertime meal.

Cousin Wendell (Piper called him "Wenell") and Kelly (and "Kel-yee") came to see us the following weekend. Wendell finished up the electrical work for us and he and Kelly both helped us with moving the last of our stuff from the rental house. Piper had a great time with both of them, and loved the extra folks around to entertain. She and Kelly spent the afternoon together one day, so Mommy could finish cleaning out the old house and Daddy and Wendell could unload the last of the U-Haul.

We had some surprise visitors over this past weekend. Uncle Tom (Piper is still working on saying this, right now she thinks we are saying tongue and she sticks hers out and points at it), Aunt Maria ("An Ria"), Osten ("Oshen") and Marci ("Marse") came to stay with us Saturday night. They were at a wedding in Charlotte and they passed by us on their way back home. We were so glad to have them come visit. All three kids had fun in the tub together Saturday night.

Piper and Osten enjoyed playing together and Marci loved watching them both.

Sad news on the homefront

Monday night Gunner was hit by a car and killed pretty much instantly. Gunner (a.k.a. Gun-Dog, Gunny, Gunny-Bunny, Gunny-Bun, KnuckleHead) had such an important and unique place in our family, he will be greatly missed. At least there is comfort in knowing that the last two weeks of his life were probably his happiest exploring/running/patroling his new property and chasing birds, squirrels, etc.


The saddest part so far is that both Piper and Tucker will periodically look for him, they both have no clue what happened and just are curious where he is. We've been keeping Tucker close by to us, as the laundry room just seems too big for just him and seems so lonely.

It's been much more difficult than we ever could have imagined to lose a pet, so our apologies if you are reading this for the first time here. We've not been that good in sharing this news with everyone, as to be honest, it's been difficult to talk about. We just got he and Tucker's new tags with our new phone number in the mail today. Ger, Piper and Tucker took Gunny's tag to where he's buried this afternoon and put it on his collar that Ger hung on a nearby tree.

Here's a couple shots of Gunny over the last two weeks. We'll miss you buddy...

Having Fun with the Old and the New

During the move, we have pulled out items that Piper has outgrown from the attic, and Piper has be "rediscovering" some old favorites and making sure to get them nice and broken in for her baby brother. She's been testing them for both "nap-ability"...

as well as "play-ability".

Looks like this one passed the test!

On the new side of things, she's been moving on to many big girl activities, like sitting in a big chair at the table with mommy and daddy...

eating with a spoon (this does provide quite a bit of entertainment for us)...

and brushing her teeth at the sink.

Well she can't quite reach the sink yet, even on a step stool, but she'll get there. She shares a love for showing off her little cheeks with her cousin.

We even tried out our new church on Sunday, and Piper was busy putting on her sunglasses and getting her keys ready while Daddy and Mommy finished getting ready.

She did great, even made it through the homily before she had to go outside to stretch her legs a bit. We made it through the whole mass, and then picked up a weekly bulletin on the way out and realized that our new church has a nursery! We kept wondering why there weren't any little kids in the mass...well I guess we know why now...Rookies! So, we'll be scoping that out next week.

First kicks for daddy!

Ger got to feel the Little Man kicking for the first time last night! He is moving/kicking pretty much around the clock these days, he just turns into a little houdini as soon as Ger puts his hand on my belly and goes completely still. But last night, I was tickling Piper and he seemed to really like the sound of her giggle, it made him go crazy.

Little Man and Big Sis at 21 weeks

So we can't officially kick off the family blog without including some pictures of our soon to be newest addition...aka, Little Man. Here are some shots of him at 21 weeks. At that appointment, they estimated that he weighed just under a pound. He was on the move the whole time! Very busy little guy.

Just for fun, below is a picture of Piper at 21 weeks.

Looks like there might be some family resemblance in there!

Independence Day 2008 & Birth of a Blog!!

What a fitting day to kick off a family blog. Yes, we enjoy the festivities that go along with celebrating our country's independence, but this year we are also celebrating our independence from building our home!!!! We signed our first official document confirming we were moving forward with building the weekend of MLK, Jr 2007. And the last year and a half has been filled with drawing plans, editing plans, meeting with subcontractors, picking out everything from siding to door stops, waiting on subcontractors, dealing with subcontractors that don't show, waiting for the weather to improve to move forward with work, and most of all watching the calendar as the months tick by and hoping that we will finish when we needed to. Being your own general contractor carries with it the wonderful ability to have complete control over the building process, but it also means you carry all the responsibility and liability, which is quite a heavy monkey on the ole back.


Well...with all that said, we did it! Only one month past our target date, we are done with the house. I should rephrase that, we spent our first night in our home on June 25, 2008 and have been staying ever since. There is still plenty of work to be done for the house to be considered fully liveable, and then finish work after that, but rest assured we are elated to be living in a home we own that has our own blood, sweat, and tears in it. We hope to post some pictures soon, just haven't gotten around to taking any yet.


Piper kicked off her Independence Day celebration on July 3rd by starting in a new classroom at school. She moved up to a new room, and they made special hats to commemorate July 4th. Here's a couple pictures I got of her in her hat. She first found the hat to be the most fun to wear...however this faded with time and it soon became quite the burden as she was too busy to be bothered with such childish head gear!




Our day for the 4th started out with a family breakfast. Then we played in the basement, Ger has taught Piper how to roll on the floor, and she thinks it's absolutely hilarious to do. She also practiced pushing her stroller around, as she is trying very hard to perfect turning it, which is not quite as easy as it sounds when you are 2 feet tall. Her stroller is now one of her favorite things to push, not ride in.






Piper went down for an early morning nap, so Ger and I started working on applying the first coat of tile and grout sealer in our bathrooms. We need a total of three coats, with about 12 hours drying time between each, so we still have a ways to go, but put a good dent in things during the little lady's nap. We cannot yet use the master bath, as the grout/tile hasn't been sealed and we do not have glass doors on the shower yet. The sealant will hopefully be done by the end of the weekend and the doors will hopefully get ordered this week. Once Piper got up from her nap, we headed out to do a little furniture shopping. Piper enjoyed herself emensely in the store, and made sure to greet all the fellow customers and salespeople with a "Hi" and a wave. She tested out a few kiddy-sized chairs and gave her stamp of approval by demanding that both Ger and I sit in them and give them a try (or as she says, "Nit!"). We went home for lunch, an afternoon nap and more tile/grout sealing.



Then headed out to our friends' house for a 4th of July cookout. Piper and her best bud played together, we had good food and good company. And there were plenty of people around willing to give the girls wagon rides.



Once we got home, we were able to watch fireworks right from the deck, as well as some amazing heat lightning that almost stole the show from the fireworks.


All in all, a good day!