Baby Piper

Sweet Baby Piper sprouted her first tooth this past week (bottom left).  She is still working on the bottom right... I have a feeling it is very close.  She was a little extra fussy, but overall, we hardly noticed.  Sweet baby.

She has been sitting up by herself quite a bit lately and seems insulted if we try to put her on her back.  {"Mooooom.  I can't see what is going on when you put me on my back.  I want to watch Emberly and laugh at all the crazy things she does."}

She is super smiley and happy and loveable... and is starting to let other people hold her and make her smile and laugh too.  It's all kinds of awesome.

She got her 6 month shots this last Monday and handled them like a pro.  Quick tears and then back to herself.  She took a long nap following the drama and was up the rest of the day... and then up quite a bit at night with a temp of 101.  Poor babe.  A little motrin settled her right down and she was back to herself the next day. 

I keep telling myself that she sleeps through the night (and really has since she's been about 2 months old, minus her month of illness)... but in reality, that means I still need to go stick the pacifier in her mouth one or twice at night.  We were going to fight the pacifier... but one little suck and she just falls asleep.  Like magic.  Who could hate that?? Plus I don't know that I really even wake up for the plug-in... so it hardly counts.  (Unless you are talking to Jordan... then be sure to let him know it is a major hardship and should allow me lots of awesome mom points and sleep-in days and spa trips and such...)  *wink wink*  And of course there is a night probably once a week or so that she thinks she's starving in the middle of the night.  But she goes right back to sleep.

She's been an awesome napper - so very different than her big sister.  But I think that is because we have a pretty rigid schedule in our house centered on Emberly's sleep routine that Piper just fell into the routine so much faster.  She always sleeps in her crib and just knows the routine so well.  Benefit of a second child I guess.  BUT... she does wake up a whole lot earlier than her big sister ever did too (E was always a 9 or 10am girl... Piper shoots for the 7:30-8am range.  Very consistently.)  I hear that I shouldn't complain about that after a full night of sleep though...  :)

She's a mover and a shaker.  Rolling over and trying to reach for things and super insulted if you take something away from her that she thinks is rightfully hers.  Crawling is not far off.  Oh my.

And this picture pretty much sums up my life. 

 



Yup.  True Love.

 

Adventures of E & P

Piper is teething. She hasn't gotten any teeth yet, but I can see the bottom two coming in. She has the saddest little whine/whimper/cry thing going on. But when you pick her up she just wipes her little nose on you and smiles and blabs away. She is still nursing exclusively, on her command, with none of that imitation bottle stuff going on. Her request. She gets a little banana or avocado or rice cereal in the evenings, but it surely isn't a meal replacement. She is sitting up by herself... kinda sorta. If you count sitting up as bending over in half or tipping off to the side sitting up, that is. And she is comfortably wearing size 6 months clothes. She laughs and smiles at Emberly and her daddy all the time, and we are pretty in love with her.

Emberly is 2.5 going on 16. She uses all parts of speech correctly, referring to herself as "I" and all that jazz. And she is busy. Often saying "want to play with me?" or "will you come sit by me?" And is seriously the most polite two year old you will ever meet. Everyone comments on it. She says please and thank you and no thank you and "just don't care for that" when someone is bothering her. It is adorable. And awesome. And not by our doing, I'm sure. She rocks the bedtime bologna and now is using potty training in her rendition of "let's do everything I can possibly think of to get out of going to bed." She's had several successes on the potty, but we haven't actually tried to fully potty train her yet. I know I keep saying this, but that's next. I'm terrified. Not gonna lie.

E and I just started a homeschool preschool curriculum last week, and I am loving it so far. More about that later. So far we are learning the Creation Story and the letter X. Our week has been filled with treasure hunts where X marks the spot, and talking about how ultimately God's word is a treasure! :) love. love. love.

And... I think that is all! P gets six month shots on Monday. Who is excited? Uh... Not me. But I'll survive.

Now to balance out all these words, here are a million pixies...

Spazz-Mom

Dear Life,

Last night I was reading through old blog posts about my sweet Emberly at 6-months to compare what was going on in her little world to what Piper is doing these days.  I'm not sure why, but it is so interesting to me to remember what was important in our world and how different yet similar my sweet girls are. 

Anywho - as I was reading, I was just chuckling to myself at what a spazzy-mama I was with Emberly.  I was reading about how I was just starting to let Emberly cry it out at nap time and attempting to convince her to nap in her own crib all through the day.  And it just made me think... was Emberly really that terrible of a napper?  Or was I that spazzy of a parent?  I'm totally going with choice number two.  I held Em through naps just because the sweet sleeping baby thing was awesome.  She didn't have to learn to sleep on her own until I hit a place of desperation that I couldn't do that anymore.  And then once that happened, I freaked out that she would make even a bit of a cry when I tried to lay her down.  Piper hasn't had that luxury.  She's slept in her crib by herself from day one, naps and all.  And it is awesome to not need to transition now.  And when she fusses at night, unless she is really wailing, I let her fuss.  And she goes back to sleep on her own.  I think if Em made even a tiny little squeak at night I fed her.  Without fail.  Until she was probably 8 or 9 months old.  What was I thinking??? I was totally missing out on awesome sleep.  And not teaching her how to self-soothe and get back to sleep on her own.

I don't feel the need to analyze every night of sleep anymore.  Piper has rough nights and needs me some times more than others.  But so does Emberly.  And I won't ever know what it is that makes them need that more sometimes than others.  Teeth?  Bad dream?  Tummy ache?  Stuffy nose?  Too much stimulation?  Held too much?  Held too little?  Who KNOWS! 

And right now?  I'm listening to Piper, who just woke up, babble away in her room, happy as can be.  I think I would have instantly stopped what I was doing and dashed in there when E woke up.
Oh I'm funny.  And oh-so-glad I only have to be a first time mom once. 

We made it...

Dear Life,

I think the illness is done.  Praise. The. Lord.

Now we can concentrate on more important things.  Like playing with toys... learning the ABCs... rolling over... sharing... all that jazz.

Em has been super into building toys lately... like legos, blocks, a tool set, play-doh, etc.  She also loves all things crafty like coloring and painting.  Every other sentence out of her mouth is "wanna sit by me?" and she bounces back and forth between wanting to do everything "all. my. self." and wanting me to do it all for her.  The things she can do successfully by herself she wants me to do, and the things that she still can't do very well she wants to do "all. my. self."  Sigh.  Patience mama, patience. 

She has also been going through a phase of not wanting to leave the house. At all.  She says "just want to stay hoooooooome!"  She has been crying when we leave her at River City Kids (Sunday school) or clinging to my leg when we go places she thinks she might be staying alone.  It is super abnormal for her... my miss social.  I have no idea where it started or why... but I'm hoping it won't last.  It is painful for me.  Thankfully other than church and Exhale, there aren't many times that I would need to leave her anywhere.  The love of being a stay-at-home mama. 

Piper has been rolling around quite a bit.  She wants to see all the action (aka whatever Emberly is doing), so she cranes her head all over and often rolls over accidentally.  She laughs and smiles and has turned into such a chill little sweetheart.  She is cuddly and sweet and I just truly can't remember what life was like before two.  She babbles constantly and I hear lots of "da-da-da" and "ba-ba-ba" and other consonants.  And she sleeps like a champ.  Oh does she sleep like a champ.  3 naps a day and one big long sleep through the night.  Go little P!

Life is never dull.  I am often tired, but it's the kind of tired where you crawl into bed and fall asleep smiling about the little interactions of the day.  Well... not always.  But lots of the time.  Sometimes I fall asleep out of pure exhaustion.  And let's be honest, there are days that I just want to take a 3 week tropical vacation.  By myself.  But overall, I feel like I can see through the haze and know that this won't last.  And every single minute is so important.

Like this moment, where, tired as I am, I needed to document a moment of our lives so that I could remember later. 


 

Sickness

Dear Life,

The time between Thanksgiving and New Years was marked with a ridiculous amount of sickness in our family. All four of us got the stomach flu early in the morning the Sunday after Thanksgiving before our family had all even left. and it lasted. and lasted. and lasted for the girls. And finally, after several trips to the doctor, many episodes of puking, and over a month of diarrhea for Piper, it ended. Three days ago.

And now, just moments ago, as I was crawling into bed and Jordan was walking out the door to work, Emberly started puking again. Literally hours after our family left again. And I'm maybe panicking a little, and praying this is not starting all over again. Cuz I'm just not sure I can do it again.

Now I'm rocking an upset bambino, hoping she isn't sick too. And praying that this is some kind of fluke. Praying that sleep will still come tonight. And praying any hint of sickness will leave us alone.

Sigh.