3!

Piper celebrated her 3rd birthday the end of January. The shots above are the morning of her birthday. She was so excited, the days and weeks leading up to her birthday she could hardly stand her excitement. She brought cupcakes to school to celebrate at snack time and then had a "Tinkerbell bounce around party". She enjoyed herself thoroughly. Aunt Ria got some good shots here and here from the party. It was extra special because we had lots of family in town as well, so she got to celebrate with family and friends.

Here's a shot of her on the way home. I don't even think we'd left the parking lot yet when I got this one.

Singing happy birthday to her at her party almost brought a tear to my eye. She was so excited and it was obvious she felt so special, it was priceless.

It's been 4 weeks, but who's counting

4 weeks since the last blog post, give or take a day or two.

4 weeks since my hip surgery to the day.

4 weeks on crutches and not being able to bend at the waist more than 90 degrees. I never realized the multiple ways this would effect basically everything I do or couldn't do as a result, and my family as well, given my temporary gimp status. Sure gave me a renewed perspective on life and how to appreciate everything, even the littlest of things everyday.

It's been quite an adventure, to say the least. But thankfully, we had lots of help along the way. We've so lucky to have great family and friends who call to check on us, come help us, cook for us, offer to brave an epic snowstorm to get to us, and suffer through a nasty stomach bug contracted while at our house helping us. I am on the mend, and hopefully have thwarted a total hip replacement down the road and will be able to return to exercising without pain in just a few more months.

I'm back at work for the first day today. It feels good. And as I think back on the last 4 weeks, there are a few morsels that are worth a blog post. So here goes.

• Piper refers to my crutches as "crushes" and has repeatedly asked me over the last several weeks where I'm going to "park them" or, in some cases, has shared her ideas for where I can park them when not in use.
• One of Boone's first words will forever be, "cushes". I guess he heard it enough that he decided to give it a try himself.
• The first two weeks I was home, Piper would ask me daily to check my boo-boo and it's progress. Incedentially, she also started putting a bandaid on her same hip each day and informed me she'd let me know when "it felt mush better".
• In the early days following my surgery, when laying flat was easist, she many times joined me in bed to keep me company. She would haul her blanket ('multi'), her little Dora doll (that she calls Diego) and her favorite zebra stuffed animal (she calls "horsey-zebra") into bed and me, her and her favorite stuffed friends would all lay there and talk, laugh, snuggle and read books. It's one of my favorite parts of recovery.
• Things were a little tougher for Boone, as one of his favorite things is to be picked up and snuggled and walked all through the house. Since I could neither bend down to pick him up or walk around with him, he laid in wait for his time to come. And patient that sweet little fella was. Two days ago I walked him around the house for the first time and he laughed and clapped his hands. It was awesome.
• While Piper and Ger were outside over the weekend, she informed him that she's going to marry him, nearly brough a tear to his eye. This morning before school, she decided today was the day. There were no formalities to the ceremony, just a declaration of marriage to make it official. Now that's what I call efficient.
• My husband has been referring to me as, "Grandma Hip...I mean Hitch" for a about 3 1/2 weeks now, and every time he says it, it's still just as funny to him as the first time it came out of his mouth.
• And finally, it truly sometimes is just MUCH easier to pee in the shower! I mean it.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get us all caught back up on the ole blog soon. I've missed doing it and I think my camera is about to burst if I don't get some of the photos off the memory card soon!

Weekend Musings

Well it appears that I've expanded my list of potential titles as of late.


Not only am I a wife and mother, but I now can add to my list of abilites, commentator. Piper is relishing her role as big sister and loves nothing more than to show Boone how to do something. Lately, whenever she wants to show him how to do something, whether it's how to sit down in the tub, how to color, how to get started peddling on her bike, etc, it goes something like this:


"I'm going to show Boone how to ... (fill in the blank with whatever it is). Mommy, talk to him, splain to him what I'm doing."


Her preference is play-by-play commentating as she demonstrates.



The kids officially had their first wrestling match over the weekend. They were playing with an alphabet puzzle. It started out with some intermittent grumblings by both sides as they played with the puzzle, each of them jockeying for the side they wanted. I inserted a few comments along the about sharing, etc. From there it moved on to a lot of commotion/chaos, as everything focused on one piece, the "J", as they were pulling back and forth trying to each get the piece in their hands only. At that point I decided to remove myself from the equation and let the chips fall where they may, so long as there was no gnashing of teeth or other such activity. They ended up in a heap on the floor, with limbs flailing everywhere. However, the chaos ended pretty abruptly, as Boone, while rolling on the ground with his sister, was distracted by a book laying on the floor nearby. He gave up on the puzzle piece and moved onto other things. However, for the rest of yesterday, as well as this morning, he somehow managed to find that "J" puzzle piece and it pretty much stays in one of his hands at all times. Not sure if it's a real attachment to the piece or a sign of victory?


Boone continues to practice walking, but still prefers crawling if he's in a hurry to get somewhere. And if he's really in a hurry, he tucks his head, so he can pick up extra speed from being so aerodynamic.

Just because...

A couple of recent random shots.

Moving on up.

Both kids have made the transition to their new classes. Piper ran in her new room the first day, and hasn't looked back. She has much more freedom and resposibility in her new room and it seems to suit her well. She grows everyday in her independance and it's a joy to see what satisfaction and confidence it brings to her to figure out how to do new things.


Boone took about a week to transition, as it was a bit rough going from several naps a day down to one. But he's also adjusting well and seems to really like his new room and all the new things to explore and do.


And his new classroom does a lot of art projects. And here is his first masterpiece from school. Much like his sister when she made her first masterpiece, it's hard to believe he's already getting so big.

Family Photos

Christmas 2009-Part IV

We spent Christmas at Aunt Heather and Uncle Davis's house this year. Right near their house is one of the Good Morning America's "Best Decorated Houses", so we made a trip over to see it and it was unbelieveable.

Santa there too, and Piper spent a long time watching him from afar and waving and wishing him Merry Christmas. She even wanted to go talk to him. She told him about the bike she wanted and got a candy cane, but this was a close as she wanted to get. And she sent me up ahead of her to check him out and to sit on his lap to make sure everything was ok.

Christmas Eve, we all went to mass together. We all joked that Piper was channeling DanDaddy that night, as she sang every song and hymn, loud and full of joy, whether she knew the words or not. And mass ended with Silent Night, another vivid remembrance of DanDaddy.

Later that night, Piper decorated cookies for Santa. They were frosted, sprinkled masterpieces.

Bube read Twas the Night Before Christmas and after she was done, we heard the sound of jingle bells on the TV, Piper thought it was Santa up on the roof and she yelled, "We have to go to bed now!" She practically kicked us out of her room, so she could get to sleep so Santa would come.

When she woke up Christmas morning, she was so excited to see if Santa had come. But paused for a moment to confirm that he wouldn't be in the living room when she ventured out there. She was so excited she busied herself the rest of the morning, opening presents, passing out presents, trying out new presents, etc and had a great time.

Boone and Jackson, still rookies, took some time out for snacks and such.

Piper, the gift-passer-outer on a mission!

Piper also received a very special gift that DanDaddy had picked out for her much earlier in the year. She got a camera, which she thoroughly loved and she has been busy taking pictures. It has a feature to download the pictures off of it, so hopefully I can post some of her shots too, the world through her lens.

We also went to the nearby acquarium and I'm not sure who had more fun at the touch pools, Uncle Davis, Ger or Piper?

Piper also made some special sugar cookies for Daddy's birthday. She made good use of her new apron and loved every minute of it.

All good things must come to an end, we had to load up and head home. Christmas 2009, it was a blur leading up to you, but we thoroughly enjoyed you and can't wait for next year.