Friday Fun!

Fridays are water day at school for Piper. She was a little apprehensive when water day first started, but her teacher Miss Pat says each week she has more and more fun playing in the sprinkler with her friends. This morning, before we left for school, she was having fun running around and playing with Tucker in her swimsuit.


Piper also had her first school function today, a family picnic. Daddy and I joined her for lunch at school and we spent time outside with her friends and their parents. It's so funny to me that she is already having school functions. I think this is yet another first of which there will be many more to come.


Here's just a random shot taken earlier this week that's a favorite...just two buddies hanging out.

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!