Piper (1 and 3/4)

Oh my little lady. You are Miss Personality....maybe my memory is fading but I do not remember Presley ever having this much personality at this age. You are a spitfire, you know exactly what you want, you love to copy everything your sister does, you talk with so many facial expressions and hand gestures!

Piper:
- is about 24/25 lbs, wearing 2T stuff, just went to size 5 diapers and size 6 shoes
- is actually starting to talk! Usually two words together and probably only things that we can understand......Presley, Piper, mama, daddy, please, more, Pa, Bossy, doggy, ti-ta (big truck) ta-tu (thank you), water, cup, I poop, I potty, cookie, blueberry, shoe, paci, watch, minnie/mickey, wi-mini(windmill). She still does a good job using her sign language too, which I love!
- she says 'eewwwww' when she sees a bug....even the ladybug earring in P's ear! LOL!
- cries when I leave her at grandmas or Generation, but it's always short lived at both places
- loves naps, loves long naps (most of the time). We are about 50/50 getting her to sleep the first time during bedtime though.
- loves her pacifer more than she loves her naps!
- does a pretty good job eating, she definitely eats more foods than Presley does!
- currently loves running and jumping everywhere she goes!
- she is SO much more outgoing than Presley ever was (and is). Rarely is she afraid of people, but she does get afraid of things like the merry go round, putting her feet in the lake and mascots.

Although we complain that you are pain in the butt and everything is difficult to do with you around, you bring so many smiles and happiness and laughs into this family! Oh Pipes, you bring a whole new set of challenges to this parenting thing and we love you for it! We love you Miss Piper!

Weekend Update

Saturday morning we got up and headed to Lake Panorama for the day. It was a Goodrich reunion and so good to see everyone! Presley and Ava played SO good together, it is nice to have someone to keep her occupied during these family gatherings....they will have a blast at the family reunion next week together!

They tried swimming...it was cold and neither one was that fond of actually GETTING in the water!

Miss Piper hung out, she'd walk around and just check out what everyone was doing. She took a great nap there (4 hours!) and we enjoyed some time just sitting, drinking and talking!

The weather held off for the most part....until of course, they decided to take the boat out. They got stuck in the middle of a down pour! We all stood under the covered patio and just watched! LOL!

They have a great lake house, near the water, near the playground, we played bags (while fighting the cicadas off of us! GROSS!)

We got home about 10, which was late for the girls but they slept until about 8:30 so it worked out.

Sunday we did nothing, we were all tired and it was dreary in the morning. We hung out, cleaned, Presley had a terrible attitude about everything (more ridiculous stories that I can't even type).

Trying to get Piper away from her pacifer all day is proving to be a challenge! Since she has been sick, we just give it to her...now she wants it all the time. I don't normally care, unless we are in public but she is addicted. So she spent a lot of the day running to her bedroom door or the diaper bag, crying 'Paci! Paci!'. Fun times!

The girls did play good together, Piper MUST do everything that Presley does....whether she can or not, she sure tries!

Love these two crazy chickens (and their attitudes)!

Dinner out

So Friday Steve decided to have a date night with Presley, but before they left they were nice enough to invite us to a quick dinner at Applebees. A quick dinner is about an hour, that is about the maximum amount of time we have to occupy the kids, feed them and NOT have the neighboring customers complain about it. The people in the booth behind us had 3 kids, about the ages of 4, 2, and 6 months. They were good, they sat still, they ate and we never heard a peep from them.....our hour consisted of running once thru the restaurant after Piper, two bathrooms trips with Presley, occupying Piper with crayons, then goldfish crackers.....then her trying to eat goldfish with a fork (which does NOT work, but kept her busy for a good 5 minutes). We brought out the cell phone to watch Baby McDonald on Youtube, we gave her the pacifer, she stood up reaching for the food at the table behind us (sorry parents of the good kids, my baby wants to distract your perfectly behaved kids, please give her a piece of that chicken strip so we can keep her from screaming!) we only had one high-pitched scream which captured the attention of everyone around us and we only had to chug our drinks and shovel in our food to get out in a managable amount of time

This is typical, this is not relaxing, this is hardly worth the yummy food.....but I really like food so we'll keep torturing ourselves in hopes that eventually this will get easier and more fun!

Monday

Piper was up alot of last night, we knew we couldn't take her to Generation. UGH. Steve had a busy day at work, mom and dad had a day planned with the older grandkids, so I had no option but to stay home with Miss Piper. We got up and took Presley to swim lessons, she is getting more comfortable but is still hesitant....but she did blow bubbles! We dropped P off at grandmas for their fun-filled day at the strawberry patch, lunch and a movie! Aren't they the best grandparents? Presley, Mary and Boston had a good time!

I couldn't get Piper into a walk-in clinic within a tolerable amount of time, so I made an appt with our normal doctor for later that afternoon. We went home, had some lunch and then she went down for a 4 hour nap! Thank you baby girl!

Blowing her nose on a dryer sheet? She thought it was a kleenex! HA!

She doesn't look sick, does she?

I got some stuff done during her nap.....I didn't nap like I wanted to but oh well! We went to the doctor, ear infection. This poor girl is always sick.....I'm blaming the other germ infested kids at Generation! :) The doctor made the comment that she didn't act sick and that she was 'such a good kid!' :)

We met Steve and Presley at Applebees for a quick dinner and then headed home. I'm hoping for a good night sleep, though I'm not counting on it considering she hated the taste of the medicine so much she gagged multiple times until she threw up.

Poor baby!

Presley was jealous of the pictures I was taking of Piper, so she did some cheerleading poses for me and man, this girl is just photogenic (even if I do say so myself!) :)

Weekend Update

Friday I got off work early to head to Creston for the Relay for Life walk. Steve's step-sister Emily found out she had skin cancer about 6 years ago and is finally cancer free. Super ironic that I got a call from my dermatologist that afternoon about a mole that came back abnormal. UGH. I've been thru this twice before but really it sucks. So I'll go back for them to remove a larger area in hopes to get all the abnormal cells removed. Hopefully that will be the end of it......in Emily's case, that was not the end of it, but I'm trying to NOT think that way. I was very happy we went to the walk, lots of people, a good set up, got to see the family and the girls were good. We got the hint that Piper was NOT feeling good b/c she didn't do any running off and just wanted to be held, we got home and she had a fever. Boo.

 

This weekend was Johnston Green Days, so Saturday morning we got up and ready and headed to the parade. The parade is perfect! Not busy, no fighting crowds or fighting other kids for candy. It was only an hour long and we got a TON of candy!

Another sign Piper was not feeling the best. So sad, sat in her stroller for parts of the parade and we found out this girl is SCARED of mascots!

We promised Presley that we would swing by the carnival before we headed home. She loves these rides, thank goodness there aren't a TON of them or we would've been there all day and spent too much money! I rode the tilt-a-whirl with her...I love this ride, however, my 35 year old body does not! I was SO ready for this ride to be over, Presley laughed the entire time and loved it!

So Steve was the lucky winner of riding the next 3 rides with her. The spinning apples (I couldn't even watch them, barf) then this rocking boat, where she wasn't scared at all and didn't even hang on!

And the ever popular merry-go-round.

It was hot, Piper was not happy so we headed home, ate some lunch and then Piper went down for a nap!

 

 We had a babysitter for the night! Carlyn from Generation came over about 5 to watch the girls so we could go out for the night with our friends Brock and Jackie. We met them for dinner at Dos Rios downtown and got a seat on the patio....the weather was perfect and the food was great! Then we headed to the Iowa Cubs game, after the game we went to the High Life for another drink. It was a lot of fun and so good to get out for a 'date night'! The girls were perfect for Carlyn but then Piper woke up in the middle of the night HOT! 102 degree fever. Tylenol, a cold wash cloth and sleeping in bed with daddy would help right? Steve and Piper slept until 10 am! Presley came and woke me up on the couch about 8:45 so we cuddled in the quiet.

 

Today we did nothing. It was rainy, Steve and I were tired. We had been busy the last 3 days so we were happy to just hang out at home. Of course, Presley thought today was 'boring'....she thinks most things are 'boring' right now....she is like a snotty 13 year old girl. We did have my parents over for dinner, Steve made shrimp tacos which were super good! We chatted and watched the entertainment from Piper and Presley for a while and then we worked on getting them to bed early! Presley did, Piper is still awake.....I just don't think she is feeling the best yet which is not cool with our busy week ahead. So hoping for good sleep and a healthy girl tomorrow!

Random

- In one of my fights tonight with Presley, she told me I broke all the bones in her head. And no, I hadn't even touched her....I took away her cell phone, that was obviously too much for her head to handle.
- Last night she said something about how my hair is always up. So I took out my pony, shook my head and let the hair down....scary. I asked if my hair looked big and she nodded and said 'but you still look beautiful!...heart melts!
- Swim lessons went good, we have another 4 days next week so maybe we can get her to blow bubbles!
- If I had twins I would name them Scarlett and Violet, if triplets I would add Hazel.
- There were 4 people laid off in my department yesterday. Sucks. We are doing great, hitting goals, getting bonuses and even working some overtime....but obviously it's not enough for the department as a whole and it sucks.
- Piper does talk now...mostly gibberish but she says Presley perfectly and over and over again. Yesterday on our way home she just kept saying 'mama, mama, mama'......'What Piper?'.....gibberish...'mama, mama, mama!'....over and over and over again, the ENTIRE way home.

UGH

It has just been one of those nights.....we had planned on seeing the Nadas play at Jasper Winery, as we do every year. Rain was on the way, then looked like it might miss us, so we went. In the 20 minutes we were there, I spent half the time in the bathroom with P while she pooped, we chugged one beer and chased Piper back and forth over and over again, then it started sprinkling so we decided to NOT risk it and just head to get dinner. We ended up at Zombie Burger, but it was a 1/2 hour wait so we went to the fast order side......which was not fast. We had brought food for the girls, they didn't want it. Piper wanted to run thru the restaurant and not sit still, shocker.
Pouring rain, busy restaurant, food the kids won't eat......again, we chugged a beer, shoveled our food in our mouths and headed home.....well I did. Steve went to go meet his coworkers out at the Cubs game, b/c the rain conveniently stopped for that!

We got home a little before 7, neither had eaten dinner, so it was cereal night. Piper did good, ate fast. Presley ate one bowl, wanted another but then didn't like the milk (we used our 2% milk we bought from Zombie Burger). So I got her ANOTHER bowl with our normal skim milk, then she was full. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Then it was just battle after battle after battle and finally got them both to bed. I hate having those nights where you are just glad they are over. I don't want to feel that way, but when I want to strangle them and yell at them....it's just not good for any of us!