This One Is Mine!

Tucker, ever the patient pooch, has decided he can take it no more, having to watch Pip play with all her toys that he can't chew on. Therefore, when I came home with a teddy bear that our insurance man gave me for Piper, he decided to lay claim to it immediately. He has announced far and wide this is his and he makes sure to keep a close eye out for his teddy, especially when he hears the pitter patter of little feet coming his way. He even takes his teddy bear to bed with him at night. He seems to alternate between chewing on it/tearing the stuffing out and snuggling with it. So it seems that the teddy bear is multi-functional.

Name Change??

So Piper's blankets up until this point have been "motts", a name she came up with on her own. But in the past week, it seems they are undergoing a name change, as they have now become "motie". Not sure if it'll stick or not, but sure seems like this name isn't going anywhere.

Some For Me, Some For You

This seems to be the new theme in the house. Whether it be applesauce with dinner...

Or feeding your baby doll her bottle.

And sometimes having your "eyes" on also helps with feedings.

Ain't Nothin' Sweet About You...

...Or that's what the lab at my doctor's office says. So, I passed the 3-hour glucose tolerance test with flying colors! And both arms at the bend are a nice shade of purple and greenish/yellow from all the needle sticks. But doing a 3-hour test did give me a chance to read an entire book, which was a nice mid-week break, so it wasn't all bad.

Weekend Fun...Slumber Party and New Friends

Over the weekend, Piper had her first slumber party of sorts, well I guess we all did, it was a family slumber party! The girls had a great time playing together and the adults got to enjoy some fun time after the girls went to bed. Sunglasses were the big hit of the night!

Piper patiently waited for her friend to wake up Sunday morning, but decided it was best to wait for her in her feeding seat. Nothing wrong with trying out someone else's stuff! Not a bad place to have a bit of milk in the morning!

And it didn't take the girls long to get the morning into full swing!!

Sunday afternoon we went to meet one of Piper's friends new little sister. Welcome to the world little one, you sure are a cutie! No pics to share, Mommy forgot her camera. But I think it was good practice for Piper, not to mention for Mommy and Daddy. It's amazing how quickly you forget how little a newborn is, it seems like so long ago that Piper was that little that we almost can't remember. Piper was very intrigued by the baby. We think she's going to be a great big sister and will be very willing to help with her new brother.

28-Week Appointment

Hard to believe another 4 weeks have already passed. The Little Man was doing great today. His heartbeat was 150 and he's head down. I had my 1-hour screening test for gestational diabetes and did not pass. The cutpoint was 140 and I was at 147 this morning. So I have to go Tuesday morning to do a the more definitive 3-hour glucose tolerance test. Let's hope for the best, as there are a lot of false positives with the screening test. I just hope I'm one of those.

I got to meet the first female doctor in the practice I go to, Dr. Riddenhour, this morning. She has officially broken up the "all boys club"...you go girl!!!! I really liked her and she has a son about the same age as Piper so we had a good time sharing stories.

She said she wasn't too concerned about my 1-hour glucose tolerance test results and that chances are the 3-hour test would come out fine. More on Tuesday...

Family Fun in Maryland

We spent a long weekend in Maryland and were able to take part in lots of fun activities.

Piper was willing to lend a hand with packing, although she ended up wearing more clothes than ended up in the suitcase!

We drove half way Friday after work and the whole family, including Tucker, stayed at a hotel together Friday night. We weren't sure how it would be putting Piper to bed in her pack-n-play with us there and Tucker milling around the room. But she did great, she stood up and watched us watch TV for awhile, sucking her thumb. Then Ger and I watched as she got sleepy, so she started to lean against the back of the pack-n-play and finally we watched her slowly slide down the back of it until she was out for the night. It was pretty entertaining to watch. Tucker was on patrol all night, so many new noises that he felt he needed to be up patroling to keep us safe.

We got an early start Saturday and arrived around lunchtime. Here's a couple shots of our backseat passengers.

Piper figured out how to loosen the straps on her carseat and get her arm out during the drive. We had to do a little adjusting to keep the curious one from completely letting herself out of the seat.

Tucker just sat beside her quietly and periodically would put his front paws up on the armrest, which would roll the window down and he'd take in all the smells.

Our first stop when we got there was Dale's to get some of his delicious chicken and ribs. Next it was off to the Charles County Fair Grounds. They were having a hunting and outdoor show. Here's a shot of Piper and Bube at the entrance, Piper's first time at the county fairgrounds.

Right when we got inside, there was a petting zoo and Piper was fascinated by the goats, sheep and ducks. She and Granddaddy ("Dan-Daddy") had fun checking them out and walking around together.

It was a beautiful afternoon and was nice to be outside. Here's a few other shots.

Next it was on to Piper's first trip to a Maryland crab house.

We had a great dinner and Uncle Timmy, Aunt Theresa and Kricket were able to join us too.

Sunday, we got up and went to church with Grandma Hitch and Aunt Rae. Then it was back to Bube and Granddaddy's house to have folks over for brunch. Grandma Hitch, Aunt Rae, the Klines (Jill, Roy, Kricket, Alyssa), and cousin Eric all joined us.

After an afternoon nap, it was off to little baby Ethan's baptism. Here's a shot of the guest of honor with his parents, Mindy and Rafael.

And a shot of the whole group.

Piper had a blast playing with all the kids at dinner afterward. And her cousins Caroline ("Car-O-Wine") and Thomas ("Nomas") took great care of her and she enjoyed spending time with them as well as Brooklyn and Parker.



After all that fun and playing, we took a tired little lady back to get some rest.

Piper also had a great time playing with Bube's doll, Sarah. She would try to change her diaper, put her shoes on, take them off and carry her around the house. And what better way to care for your baby then topless while wearing your favorite hat!

Monday morning we headed for home. Piper did great on the ride. She also enjoyed playing with the cheerios holder that Grandma Hitch gave her, it provided a good bit of entertainment, as well as nourishment, on the way home.

We also played her favorite CD of songs a lot on the drive (Mommy and Daddy can sing all the songs by heart now!). I got this video of her listening to the start of her favorite song on the CD, The Wheels on the Bus. Be patient, the good part is when she starts rocking out when the song starts, just takes a bit for it to get there. This is her new favorite dance move. The girl's got rhythm!

When we got home, Piper wanted to help with unpacking and then the suitcase became her favorite place to hang out for the night and it proved to be just her size.

Hey, what's going on out there?

This shot was from a couple nights ago, just two buddies checking out the scenery outside.

It's A Boy!!!

We found out some great news last week, Heather and Davis found out that they are having a little boy! So our little man's cousin, who will only be two months younger than him, will be a fellow lad. Just a guess, but I think those two are going to have lots of fun together and probably a lot of mischief too!


Congrats Heather and Davis, we can't wait to meet your little bundle of joy in January!!


Here's one of the shots from their most recent appointment (20 weeks).

Welcome to the family little guy.

More Work & Fun Cont'd

We did a lot more painting, spackling, sanding, caulking, etc., then moved onto putting in doorknobs and cleaning up the remainder of the "construction zone" around the inside/outside of the house. Grammi and FaFa came down last weekend to lend a hand, and we really appreciated the help!

FaFa put in all our doorknobs for us, which proved to be an all-day task.

Grammi helped Mommy with painting the priming/porch columns and cleaning up. We managed to squeeze in some fun time too, here's a couple favorite shots from the weekend.

Here's a shot of Piper testing out her new bench on the front porch. I think it passed the test!

We're off to Maryland this weekend, so I'm sure there will be more pics to come after visiting with everyone.

Work & Fun & Our Deadlines Are Done!!!!!!

These past two weeks were busy ones. We were staring down our final deadline for the house and were trying to get as much done as we possibly could before they came to do our final appraisal. The person doing our final loan told us to focus on all the things that would improve the picture-ability of the house, so we tried to focus on those aesthetic things to hopefully made the biggest impact, knowing that we can do the rest down the road.

The appraisal was done Tuesday and that was, I believe, our official last deadline for the house!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!! Ger and I have treated ourselves to two early nights in bed this week, and lots of relaxation time, which has been just wonderful. We're starting to feel like we will be getting some of our life back, and it feels great. We can now officially join the ranks along with the rest of the homeowners out there and just know that we'll have a constant list of "projects" probably forever, but that we can do at our leisure, not on someone else's time table.

Needless to say I've gotten behind on the blogs, so I'll try to catch everyone up on some of what's been going on. Here goes...

Ger and I are slowing learning the creative art of entertaining Piper while getting work done. As any parent knows, getting things done becomes more of a challenge when you have a little one running around. But, Piper was willing to help whereever she could and was very interested in the work being done.

We got the bathroom fixtures up and Piper was right there to lend a hand.



This picture below cracks me up, becuase this is what Ger's "working area" looked like after he was done in Piper's bathoom! Ha!





Next we focused on getting the front porch finished. Here's a "before" shot of the porch.




And the "after" shot.

All we have left to do on the front porch is stain the porch and paint the front door. So, almost done!



Next we moved on to painting interior walls. Piper had a blast with the painter's tape and she spent a long time trying to tape anything she felt needed it, mostly things like the walls to be painted and the windows.



See if you can tell which piece of tape is her masterpiece?


There were a few tricky spots that had to be painted that took some ingenuity to get the ladder where it needed to be. There were a few trickier than those below, but couldn't manage a camera shot while holding the ladder with Ger up there trying to paint while swaying about and the ladder creaking and sliding! Glad that part's over!

All walls in the upstairs of the house are officially painted now!!!! So just the trim left to go.

I also learned a very valuable lesson...when the switch plate covers are off the light switches, NEVER, EVER touch the little screws on the sides of the switches...cause they are live and they will shock you! So I had a little jolt Saturday afternoon while trying to put tape over the light switches. Little Man was relatively quite before that, but it seemed to really put a little pep in his step and he was moving like crazy the rest of the afternoon!!

Mommy and Piper squeezed in a trip to the park down the road from us to give Daddy some time to finish. Piper spotted the climbing wall right away when we got there and decided to give it a try. Here she is making her plan of attack...

And off she goes!

They also had a really neat doubleslide, the we could ride down side-by-side together. Couldn't quite manage to get a picture of that, but it was a favorite and I think we'll be spending a lot of time at that park in the future.

Piper has discovered the "kid carts" at various stores around town. She has become an expert at spotting them when we are pulling in the parking lot. If she doesn't spot one outside, she is on "high alert" when we walk in the store and if she spots one starts pointing at it and yelling "Dis, dis, dis!!!".