Piper's summer update

This summer has been so fun with Piper. She loves going swimming or playing in the splash parks. This girl is not afraid of water. She is climbing on everything and trying to jump. She understands the concept, but can’t seem to get both feet off the ground at once. We are breaking the attachment to the pacifier. When she gets up from sleeping she throws the paci and her lovey into her crib and is ready to play again. Piper is very into books, pretend talking on the phone, pushing buttons on the remote, playing with balls, being outside, and blowing bubbles. She’s taken to carrying around her teddy bear like a baby doll and pulling her toy cart everywhere. She likes to dance and her favorite tv show is Yo Gabba Gabba. She is trying to climb the stairs up and down like adults which is very nerve racking for us.

Her daily routine is – wake up around 7:30, get a cup of milk and play in bed with mama and daddy. Then she has her breakfast on the kitchen floor while mama makes coffee and cooks breakfast for everyone else. She plays and is a happy baby, no toddler, going with the flow until naptime. We are working down to one nap which is usually from 11-1. The afternoon is full of more fun playtime usually with brother, until dinner which is immediately followed by bath and bedtime at 7:30. She is now climbing out of the bath tub. Piper got 4 teeth during our construction in June which was no fun, but she is loving eating meat now, especially if she gets to dip the bites in ketchup. She eats pretty much everything we give her, especially frozen treats. She is getting very good with a fork and spoon, and she actually eats more because she is motivated to use these items. She now knows how to take her bib off when she’s finished eating.

Words she can say now are – “daddy”, “no”, “please, sounds like peas”, “ball”, “food” which is sometimes “fo”, “hot” which is said in a whisper, “more/mo and does the sign”, “bubble” then she blows, for dog she “pants” and then says “woof”, “up”, “thank you – with the sign and gibberish”, “hi” (also she’s good at waving, giving leg hugs, and kisses/blowing kisses). She still uses her sign language a lot. She can identify herself in pictures and we’re working on the rest of the family. She likes to pretend clean – wiping up messes, throwing trash away, washing hands, picking up things and putting them away, and blowing her nose. She will dig in my purse looking for her paci, lovey, or milk cup. She can even upzip it to get inside. She can point to her nose, teeth, hair, ears, and belly button. The body part we started with first was feet, but she can’t seem to get that one.

She’s been testing the limits with throwing things and hitting. She gets crushed when we tell her “no” or “stop”. She’s been throwing temper tantrums which makes Chris very nervous about the terrible twos and we have even started trying time out. She loves seeing kids, especially older kids and thinks everyone wants to play with her, by that she expects them to give her whatever toy and let her play with it by her rules. She’s learning to throw the ball with people and even kick, but it sure is hard for her when she can’t do whatever she wants to with the ball. At her 15 month check-up in July she weighed 21.6 lbs. and was 31 ½ inches tall. She has been really healthy her whole first year with only one virus and fevers when she was teething. We pray it stays that way this next year. She has a little eczema in her elbows though. This summer has been so fun with her, I wish I could stay home all the time and enjoy this little girl.

Piper we love you so much and are so grateful for the opportunity to be your parents. We hope and pray that you will quickly come to knowledge of the Lord as your personal savior, seeing his grace and love for you. You bring so much joy to our family, you are LOVED – your parents

Pics - being silly in her chair, watching Yo Gabba Gabba, and a random aquarium pic

At the zoo with Tilly and Ellie

Teaching brother to use a pacifier

Resting in mama's bed when she was running a fever getting new teeth

Family breakfast in bed to watch an early World Cup soccer game

Wearing her backpack to her last day of daycare at the beginning of the summer, we're gearing up to go back again next week.

Eating blueberry breakfast

Want some?

Getting squirted with the hose by big brother

She liked it

Blowing bubbles

Sporting pigtails

Shaking the maracas at her great grandparents birthday party

Floating in the pool

Swimming with mama

Happy 4th of July

Enjoying the zero entry baby pool in NC






Bash's summer update soon to follow :)

Summer Trip

We started our summer trip in Atlanta with a visit to the Georgia Aquarium. It was awesome!!! My parents joined us and we all had an excellent time. We also got to see our good friends, Matt and Amy Tuggle, while we were there and it was great to catch up.

Then we headed to Charlotte to my parents house. We don't have pictures of the all the fun we had, but it was a great time - swimming, golfing, playing cornhole, going on bike rides, acclimating Piper to the dog Colby, going to the Children's museum, hanging out with my brother Craig - we were sure sad to leave. Below are pictures of the kids at the children's discovery museum - which was awesome.

We ended our road trip with a stop in Mississippi to see Chris' best friend, Nathan and his wife Beth. We had a great time at their house and it was a nice reprieve from the road. The kids did great on the trip, especially in the car, but Piper sure was glad to see our house and be home again.

Housework

So the housework is finally finished. We have new floors throughout the dining room, entry, living room, and hall all thanks to Ylati. We chose to put tile in the half bath. And there is now slate around the fireplace with major thanks to our dear friend Cindy. Chris added new trim molding to the fireplace and got a saw to complete the job. I guess it's a late father's day gift, but either way we are so thankful not to be living in a construction zone anymore.

Also does anyone notice anything different about the kitchen? - That's right I finally finished taking down "the border from ____" and have given the room a fresh coat of red paint.

Still Waiting

At this point we are still waiting to get our floor replaced. Meanwhile, we've decided that since we're getting a new floor we might as well take the opportunity to replace the fireplace tile with slate so, with that said, we've purchased slate to replace the dull, white, ceramic tile framing our fireplace. We'll see how this goes; pictures to come soon!!!

Water Damage

There are no words to describe this so here's a video!!

Summer Looms

We're now 11 days from summer vacation for students and I think we are all feeling it at our campus. Everyone seems to be a little run down but we're all still pushing through. Taylor became a college grad again over the weekend graduating from the University of Lamar with her Master's Degree in Educational Leadership and I couldn't be a more proud husband. It's been tough getting through it but she did and I'll be graduating in August and we'll both be a little less stressed. Well, we are anxiously anticipating Sebashtian's summer visit and we can't wait to see him. He'll be playing basketball this summer so we're really excited about that and I haven't told him yet but I might be his coach - that would be fun!!! Anyway, Piper can now say, "ball" and we have the whole thing on video:

Other words she's working on are "banana" "peek-a-boo" and "bottle." She understands so much language too. She follows simple commands as evidenced in this next video. Good thing Taylor and Piper aren't sick.

D.I. and the Bluebonnets

This weekend Bash was in town for the State Destination Imagination competition. His team from Lubbock qualified in February and we were so glad the state competition was here in Dallas. His team did a great job even though they didn't place. It was great to see Bash perform. He also had a fun time at the team mixer trading pins with teams from the rest of the state.

Last week we also took Piper to a pretty bluebonnets spot for pictures in her dress from Mimi. Piper felt more sure of the grass in our yard than being by all the bluebonnets, but oh well.

She wouldn't let me put her down so Chris had to do his best to capture pictures without me in them.

Also we had Piper's 1 year old doctor visist. She is 19 lbs. 10 oz., 29 inches tall, and keeping right on her growth track. We are starting to experience some tantrums, that don't last long but we are afraid it may mean staying home for awhile because in public she wants freedom and doesn't understand safety. Even with the tantrums, she is still the sweetest little girl and we love her so much. She has brought so much joy to our lives and continually makes us smile with her energy, explorations, and noises.