Here is the update on Little Miss Piper.
Piper is now a little girl not a baby. She has started to sleep on the twin bed in her room instead of the crib. We are hoping to move the queen size bed into her room in the next month or so.
Piper is definitely opinionated about what she is wearing. While she can't totally dress herself she definitely tries. This includes pants, socks, shoes, and coats. We have started to put her hair up in a side pony tail or pigtails. She looks like such a big girl with her hair up.
When it comes to gross motor skills Piper is desperately trying to keep up with her brother. She is trying really hard to learn how to ride her tricycle and runs really fast when she thinks her brother is going to tackle her. I mention in an earlier posting that she can now climb up a slide which is something I have never seen Pennington do. She is definitely a little monkey.
Piper is super artist at school. She paints at least 3 big paintings every day at school. Denise mentioned that she is very busy at school working on her work whereas Pennington is focusing more on being social.
Piper is talking a lot. This evening I realized she is starting to string 3 to 4 words together. She talks about people and objects that she knows the names of. The first thing she talks about when she wakes up is where Pennington is. She is always wondering where Pennington is.
Piper is a fabulous eater. She eats everything. It is amazing she is only 22 pounds with how much she eats. Her milk intake has increased a lot since I stopped breastfeeding. She is doing really well since I stopped breastfeeding her. It is amazing how you think some things will totally traumatize a child but they get over it in less than a few days. She is starting to sleep better and we don't have to give her any bottles during the middle of the night. If she does wake up she just wants you to lay with her until she falls back asleep.
Overall, Piper is starting to be more independent.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Pennington 2 1/2
It has been a while since I did an update on Pennington so here it is.
Pennington is a talking machine now. He honestly speaks in full sentences all the time, sometimes as many as 10 words in one sentence. He doesn't necessarily respond very well when I ask him what he did at school but he will go on and on about things he sees when we are driving and how he wants us to play sports with him.
Pennington is definitely not the world’s best eater. He does eat but we are sort of stuck with him only wanting to eat his favorite foods which include all fruits, yogurt, bread, fries, chicken nuggets, sticky rice, cheese, Z-bars, soymilk, ect. I know he eats more things at school but that is pretty much all he will eat for us at home. I guess really he isn't a bad eater it is just that his sister excels in this area since she will honestly eat anything.
Pennington can totally dress himself pretty much 95% of the time. He honestly never wants us to help him. He also wants to pick out his clothes which almost always consist of a sports shirt of some sort.
Pennington can now ride a bike with training wheels. In fact this last week he took off riding to the park down the street from our house and was about half way there before I realized how far away he was, scary yet exciting at the same time. Not sure I know very many other 2 1/2 year olds that can ride their bikes as well as he can.
Pennington is starting to be interested in reading. I can get him to read most of the pages in the book "Blue Hat, Green Hat" to Piper. When I say read I mean he can look at the pictures and tell the story. He talks a lot about numbers and letters. He can pretty much count to 10 by himself. Sometimes when he counts it goes like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 8, 9, 10. For some reason he always forgets 7. I think he knows some letters but probably less than 5. Johnny and I have talked about how we need to get his name up on the wall in his room so he can start learning the 10 letters in his first name.
We are still working on the potty training. I think if Johnny or I have 5 solid days to focus on this we can probably get him trained. He goes at home at least once a day and sometimes up to 3 or 4 times a day. He is totally potty trained at school except for a few poop accidents. Basically he has the idea of how to do it we just haven't taken the diapers away completely so he can't go in them if he needs to.
His new favorite books and videos are of the Berenstain Bears. I just love the fact he likes the Berenstain Bears since they are exactly like our family of four (Mama, Papa, Sister and Brother Bear).
Besides the food and potty training challenges we have with Pennington we are still working on getting him to give up the pacifier. Overall, Pennington is a wonderful little 2 1/2 year old full of energy and willingness to learn.
Pennington is a talking machine now. He honestly speaks in full sentences all the time, sometimes as many as 10 words in one sentence. He doesn't necessarily respond very well when I ask him what he did at school but he will go on and on about things he sees when we are driving and how he wants us to play sports with him.
Pennington is definitely not the world’s best eater. He does eat but we are sort of stuck with him only wanting to eat his favorite foods which include all fruits, yogurt, bread, fries, chicken nuggets, sticky rice, cheese, Z-bars, soymilk, ect. I know he eats more things at school but that is pretty much all he will eat for us at home. I guess really he isn't a bad eater it is just that his sister excels in this area since she will honestly eat anything.
Pennington can totally dress himself pretty much 95% of the time. He honestly never wants us to help him. He also wants to pick out his clothes which almost always consist of a sports shirt of some sort.
Pennington can now ride a bike with training wheels. In fact this last week he took off riding to the park down the street from our house and was about half way there before I realized how far away he was, scary yet exciting at the same time. Not sure I know very many other 2 1/2 year olds that can ride their bikes as well as he can.
Pennington is starting to be interested in reading. I can get him to read most of the pages in the book "Blue Hat, Green Hat" to Piper. When I say read I mean he can look at the pictures and tell the story. He talks a lot about numbers and letters. He can pretty much count to 10 by himself. Sometimes when he counts it goes like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 8, 9, 10. For some reason he always forgets 7. I think he knows some letters but probably less than 5. Johnny and I have talked about how we need to get his name up on the wall in his room so he can start learning the 10 letters in his first name.
We are still working on the potty training. I think if Johnny or I have 5 solid days to focus on this we can probably get him trained. He goes at home at least once a day and sometimes up to 3 or 4 times a day. He is totally potty trained at school except for a few poop accidents. Basically he has the idea of how to do it we just haven't taken the diapers away completely so he can't go in them if he needs to.
His new favorite books and videos are of the Berenstain Bears. I just love the fact he likes the Berenstain Bears since they are exactly like our family of four (Mama, Papa, Sister and Brother Bear).
Besides the food and potty training challenges we have with Pennington we are still working on getting him to give up the pacifier. Overall, Pennington is a wonderful little 2 1/2 year old full of energy and willingness to learn.
Abraham
At K'tanim on Monday the kids talked about Abraham and Sara (the bible characters). Nonni had Pennington play Abraham and told him that Abraham had baby lambs. That day when I got home Pennington told me all about how he had a baby lamb. Below is a picture of Abraham.
Kids Fair 2012
I heard about Kids Fair from another friend of mine and decided to brave the crowds and take the kids by myself. To be honest Kids Fair is just a way for organizations that provide activities and products for children to get in front of children and parents to try and sell you stuff. There were probably 75 booths set up with people trying to sell you something.
Wings (a gymnastics place in town) had some blow up balance beams which the kids enjoyed walking on. There was a petting zoo and lots of animals to look at. There were also children dancing. The kids really like watching the other children dance, especially the tap dancers. There was also a spin art area set up where you could do spin art on a freebee. The kids enjoyed that as well. All in all it was pretty fun. Not 100% sure we will do it again but it definitely wasn't a total waste of money. Below are a few pictures of the kids at Kids Fair 2012.
Wings (a gymnastics place in town) had some blow up balance beams which the kids enjoyed walking on. There was a petting zoo and lots of animals to look at. There were also children dancing. The kids really like watching the other children dance, especially the tap dancers. There was also a spin art area set up where you could do spin art on a freebee. The kids enjoyed that as well. All in all it was pretty fun. Not 100% sure we will do it again but it definitely wasn't a total waste of money. Below are a few pictures of the kids at Kids Fair 2012.
Emma's Birthday
One of Pennington and Piper friend's from K'tanim Miss Emma celebrated her 2nd birthday last weekend. The theme was Emma's Street (Sesame Street) and her mom made the cutest Sesame Street cupcakes ever. See pictures below. Both Pennington and Piper were so excited about the party the insisted on helping Emma open all of her presents. Other highlights from the party included playing the baby piano and trumpet. Happy Birthday Emma. Thanks for inviting us. See pictures of the party below.
Are You My Mother?
The Morrison Center is starting a new family series. The idea behind it is to bring families to the Morrison Center for affordable family friendly shows. A good friend of our family Michal got tickets for the kids, myself and Nonni to go see "Are You My Mother?". "Are You My Mother?" is a children’s story by P.D. Eastman. We have read other stories by this author including my personal favorite "Go Dog Go" but I hadn't read "Are You My Mother?" to the kids. The play was about 45 minutes long and is about a baby bid looking for her mother. The kids did okay considering they are 1 and 2. Michal brought them some snacks to help distract them. Piper wasn't able to pay attention very long but Pennington was. In fact, Pennington understood enough about what was going on that he starting crying towards the end because the baby bird couldn't find her mother. It was super sweet but also a bit distracting to everyone in the audience to have him crying during the middle of the show. This isn't the first time he has cried at something like this. We watched a bit of The Lion King once and he started crying when Mufasa (Samba’s Dad) died. Overall, the play was great. I can't wait to take the kids again next year. Thank you Michal for taking us!!!!
Westside
My old stomping grounds (Brueggers Bagels - a job I had in High School) is now Westside Drive-in. Westside is a 50s burger and shakes restaurant. They had a Groupon a few weeks ago and I pick up 3 of them. This last Wednesday Johnny and I took the kids to eat at Westside. The kids loved the toys they got with their meals, a lion and a monkey wind-up toy that walks. The whole meal their toys were racing each other across the table. Below is a picture of Piper and me at dinner.
Golfing
Today Johnny and I took the kids to go hit a bucket of balls at Warm Springs Golf Course. It should be no surprise that Pennington loved it. He keeps asking when he can go again. I'm happy to say that I think Pennington's real golf clubs will actually get some use out of them. I think he hit a few of the balls about 15 yards which is pretty good for a 2 year old. Piper attempted to hit the golf balls as well but I think she is still a little too young. Below are some pictures of Pennington golfing.
Bowling
A few weeks ago Johnny and I took the kids bowling at Wahoos. Did you know that Wahoos has bowling? Wahoos is the old Boondocks (video arcade, miniature golf, bumper cars, ect). It is actually really nice and super kid friendly. They have food and a full bar for Mom and Dad to enjoy. I also found out that they have these nifty metal things that the kids can put their bowling balls on so that the ball gets to the pins faster. I think bowling is going to be a new thing that our family will enjoy doing together. Below are some pictures of the kids bowling.
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Sunday, March 11, 2012
Piper 18 Month Checkup
Piper had her 18 month checkup on Thursday. Dr. Booth said she looks like she is doing great. She did have to get one more shoot but I guess now she doesn't have to have any more until she turns 4. That was awesome news to hear. Of course the only concern we have is that she is 18 months old and still wakes up several times a night. Dr. Booth told me what he has been telling me for the last 15 months that I need to stop feeding her to fall asleep and feeding her in the middle of the night.
Now a week has past since her checkup and I have decided to stop breastfeeding her all together. It appears as though she is starting to sleep better. Last night she asked to sleep on the twin bed in her room instead of her crib. We will have to see if this turns into a permanent thing or not. I sort of hope so since our garage has a nice queen size bed waiting for her.
Below are the stats:
Now a week has past since her checkup and I have decided to stop breastfeeding her all together. It appears as though she is starting to sleep better. Last night she asked to sleep on the twin bed in her room instead of her crib. We will have to see if this turns into a permanent thing or not. I sort of hope so since our garage has a nice queen size bed waiting for her.
Below are the stats:
Weight: 21 pounds 10 ounces - 13th percentile
Height: 31.25 inches - 32nd percentile
Head Circumference 47cm - 60th percentile
Once again I was pretty surprised by her weight. I can't believe she isn't even 22 pounds yet. She is definitely a skinny mini.
Climbing Up the Slide
I mentioned a few weeks ago that Piper is really starting to learn how to climb. Well on Friday I watched her climb up a slide at a playground. She was sitting at the bottom of the slide, turned around and starting climbing from the bottom of the slide to the top. The first time I had to help her a bit and now she can totally do it by herself. I guess this weekend she did it for Nonni and Poppy as well. These are not small slides either. I would say the slides were 10 to 12 feet long and about 6 feet high. It is crazy what my 22 pound monkey can do.
Sports Fields
About two weeks ago I was sitting down with the kids coloring. Pennington asked me to draw something sports related for him and I decided to draw the different sports fields. To my surprise I found out that Pennington already knows his sports fields. I can honestly draw a soccer field, basketball court, football field, baseball field, hockey court, tennis court, ect. and he knows exactly which one is which. The crazy thing is that it wasn't like I drew them and told him which one was which field giving him the opportunity to memorize them. He honestly already knew them. My little athlete is always amazing me. He now gets pillows off the couches and uses them as a pitcher’s mound. Right now baseball seems to be his favorite sport. Good thing it is right around the corner. Looks like we will be going to watch some Little League games as well as the Boise Hawks in the new few months.
The Last Feeding
This weekend I got to spend time some much needed time away from the kids. One of my oldest and dearest friends, Leah, is getting married next month and all of our friends celebrated her Bachelorette Party up at my parent’s cabin this weekend.
I didn't know on Friday afternoon that it would be the last time I feed Piper. I took my pump with me thinking that I would just pump if I felt really uncomfortable. Well I tried to pump and it didn't work. This didn't overly surprise me since I really don't feed Piper all that often anymore and I haven't pumped since September.
It was really hard for me to give Breastfeeding up but I realized that now was the best time since I was going to be away from Piper for 48 hours which pretty much never happens. I just keep thinking that if I didn't do it now I probably wouldn't have another easy opportunity to stop until June. Johnny and I are hoping to go out of town for our 5th Year Anniversary in June so that would be the next time I would be away from Piper for a few days in a row.
So as I write this post it has been about 55 hours since I last feed her. At this point my milk is pretty much gone for good. I am a total wreck writing this post as I can barely see the screen from crying. Feeding Piper was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Even though it was really hard at times and I never got any sleep, I loved it. It was a very special experience that I shared with my little girl that I will never forget.
I hung onto Breastfeeding for so long for a few reasons: 1. I was so devastated that it didn't work with Pennington that I was determined to make it work with Piper. 2. Piper loved it and I loved the fact that she loved it. It made me feel good to know that she really needed me. 3. For selfish reasons I loved it because I could truly eat and drink pretty much anything and still lose weight and not have to work out.
The last feeding for me also marks the true end of the baby phase for me. I am definitely now in the wonderful world of raising two toddlers. Now my next biggest challenge is going to be getting Piper off the bottle and Pennington to give up his pacifier. Of course when the time is right it will happen.
I didn't know on Friday afternoon that it would be the last time I feed Piper. I took my pump with me thinking that I would just pump if I felt really uncomfortable. Well I tried to pump and it didn't work. This didn't overly surprise me since I really don't feed Piper all that often anymore and I haven't pumped since September.
It was really hard for me to give Breastfeeding up but I realized that now was the best time since I was going to be away from Piper for 48 hours which pretty much never happens. I just keep thinking that if I didn't do it now I probably wouldn't have another easy opportunity to stop until June. Johnny and I are hoping to go out of town for our 5th Year Anniversary in June so that would be the next time I would be away from Piper for a few days in a row.
So as I write this post it has been about 55 hours since I last feed her. At this point my milk is pretty much gone for good. I am a total wreck writing this post as I can barely see the screen from crying. Feeding Piper was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Even though it was really hard at times and I never got any sleep, I loved it. It was a very special experience that I shared with my little girl that I will never forget.
I hung onto Breastfeeding for so long for a few reasons: 1. I was so devastated that it didn't work with Pennington that I was determined to make it work with Piper. 2. Piper loved it and I loved the fact that she loved it. It made me feel good to know that she really needed me. 3. For selfish reasons I loved it because I could truly eat and drink pretty much anything and still lose weight and not have to work out.
The last feeding for me also marks the true end of the baby phase for me. I am definitely now in the wonderful world of raising two toddlers. Now my next biggest challenge is going to be getting Piper off the bottle and Pennington to give up his pacifier. Of course when the time is right it will happen.
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